Kaden bounced up onto his feet after realizing who had just saved him. However, the fact that he did save him had Kaden slightly confused about what his intentions truly were.
"Calm down kid, why ya so tense up for?" The masked man asked.
"It's cause I know you." Kaden replied.
"Is that so? Well then, what's my name?"
"What?"
"Ya say ya know me, so then what's my name?"
"..."
"See, ya don't know me. Why're ya lyin'?" The masked man asked while stepping away from the kite like object he planted into the ground. "How could ya know me without even knowin' my name? Huh, Kaden Adams?"
Hearing his own name just made Kaden even more confused and on edge.
"How do you know me?" Kaden questioned.
"Apologies, I'm bored of questions now. Let's get into what I came here for, shall we."
Without saying anything further, Newt, the masked man, assumed a fighting stance about ten feet away from Kaden.
"You want to fight me?" Kaden questioned without defending himself.
Newt swiftly shifted stances and struck his palms in Kaden's direction, blasting an intense gust of wind at him. The wind was so strong and precise that it nearly sent Kaden off the edge of the column without disturbing a single peach hanging from the trees around them. Newt then took a few gather steps before performing a running front flip, but once his body was at the right angle, he used the wind to launch himself higher off the ground. By the time Kaden recovered and had looked up, Newt was directly above him and crashing down with a heavy axe kick. Kaden dove out of the way at the last second, and at the same time, Newt cushioned his own landing with a quick burst of wind.
"This guy, it feels like he's toying with me." Kaden thought to himself.
The moment Kaden looked over his shoulder, his eyes focused on Newt's fingers, which were pointed at him in the form of a gun. Kaden dropped to the floor at the same time Newt shot a compressed air bullet at him. The bullet grazed his hair and ripped a hole straight through a falling leaf.
"This guy's toying with me, but he's still so fast. And his precision is scary."
With a quick turn, Kaden violently swung his arm upwards, creating a large upburst of wind, which then created a bit of distance between the two. Newt evaded backward but then quickly closed the distance once more with another sudden burst of wind from behind him. Kaden attempted to time his approach with a right hook of his own, but it was dodged and countered by Newt. Kaden then took a kick to the back of his knee after Newt placed him in a standing wrist lock.
"Agh!" Kaden groaned as the grip was tightened.
"This is boring, man. You've been in this world for how long now, and you have absolutely zero fighting skills."
"The hell were you expecting from me!?"
"I expected this jīng shí to be more, I don't know, exciting."
"This what?" Kaden asked with growing frustration.
"You've only used wind essence too." Newt stated as he tightened his grip once again. "C'mon lost soul show me something different."
Tension began to grow within Kaden as he became more and more conflicted with what he was supposed to do. On one side, he hated how Newt was only seeing him as some form of entertainment and the way he was looking down on him. On the other side, Kaden knew that he was up against a skilled martial artist, and if he were to fight back aimlessly, he would be destroyed in seconds.
"I have to break this hold and run away." Kaden thought. "Was the gate at the top of that mountain? How am I supposed to get back up there? If only Mai and the others were here. No Kaden, you can't worry about that now. Right now, you need to get away from this..."
His thoughts were interrupted by an eerie apparition suddenly appearing before him. Behind one of the peach trees, peeking out and glancing at him, was a familiar blue-eyed shadow. A strange feeling came over Kaden as it felt like time had completely stopped around him, yet he was still aware of everything around him.
"This feels familiar. It feels just like that time when I first awakened my water essence, except nothing froze then. At least, I don't think so."
The unknown creature kept strong eye contact with Kaden as it slowly emerged from behind the tree and floated closer to him.
"Hmmhmmm, mmmhmm."
As the shifting shadow approached, Kaden heard a lady humming from what felt like the inside of his own head.
"Why is this... so relaxing?" Kaden thought as the humming continued.
Once the shadow was directly in front of him, it presented Kaden with a sphere of water that seemingly came from out of nowhere. The feeling of calmness and relaxation grew without Kaden even knowing why. He did know, however, that if he had the ability to move his mouth at that moment, he would have told the apparition, "Thank you."
"Givin' up already?" Newt questioned. "Damn, I guess Guren was right. This was just a waste of time."
Using his free hand, Kaden turned the sphere into a high-speed torrent of water that zipped over his shoulder and was a fraction of a second away from making contact with Newt's head. Newt was stunned, but his body instinctually ducked out of the way before he released Kaden and jumped back to create distance.
"Where'd he get that from?" Newt thought to himself.
"Now, let's see how fast you really are." Kaden stated smugly.
The stream of water blasted toward Newt, who wasted no time in turning and diving off of the column. Kaden ran over to the edge to continue pursuing Newt with his water stream, but the luminent was now moving at full speed. Kaden traced him around the entire column as he flew at over one hundred kilometers per hour, weaving and cleanly threading himself through different rock formations around the larger columns. However, Kaden was able to display the product of his training with Mai and Via as he closely followed behind Newt's every move.
"He's been on the water continent all this time, so it's no surprise that he's best with water essence." Newt thought. "Close-range combat is his biggest weakness right now, but before I can engage with that, I'll have to do somethin' about this here water missile."
Newt began to ascend quickly, and in a short amount of time, he blasted over the surface of the column directly in front of where Kaden was stood. The air user then suddenly changed directions again, and this time, he was hurdling straight towards Kaden. While trying to maintain focus, Kaden dove and rolled out of the way at the last second, and while he did retain his focus quickly, the brief disruption caused his stream of water to lose a bit of speed. Newt swung his hands and feet forward to quickly lesson his momentum using his air essence before landing and then sliding right next to his kite like device he had planted in the ground earlier. He pulled it out of the ground and immediately began to twirl it in the direction of the oncoming stream. A violent horizontal vortex soon formed around the stream, which made it difficult for Kaden to maintain its form and trajectory. He held on just enough for it to reach Newt, but the skilled luminent dodged it and focused on trying to disperse the stream of water. This left him wide open to a straight on attack from Kaden, and he was not about to let this opportunity pass. Kaden rushed at him and attempted an overhand punch with every ounce of strength left in Kaden's body placed behind it. Unfortunately for him, Newt was expecting that and fluently countered the strike and placed Kaden in yet another submission after slamming him into the ground.
"I left that option open intentionally, but I didn't think you'd actually close the distance yourself." Newt stated.
"Ahhh! What's your deal!?" Kaden questioned while writhing in pain.
"Huh?"
"You're not trying to kill me or capture me, so why are you pushing me to fight you!?"
"Oh, I was bored is all. HAHAHAHA!"
Kaden couldn't believe what he was hearing from this seemingly overly reckless person.
"You're wasting my time and harassing me because you were bored!?" Kaden questioned now feeling irate. "The hell is wrong with you!? ALL OF YOU! Was it like that for Mai's parents too!?
"Mai?"
"Aira! Fourteen years ago, you killed two members of the Aira family! Did you kill them because you were bored too!? You assholes have NOTHING better to do with your WORTHLESS lives, so you just run around making things harder for everyone else. Do you even remember who I'm talking about!?"
"HAHAHA! All this talk about life when ya already lost yours." Newt responded as he leaned closer to Kaden's ear. "Why are you even here?"
That statement struck a nerve inside of Kaden that had yet to be touched since he arrived in this world.
"I'm here to get rid of trash like you." Kaden replied with a burning conviction. "Trust me on that."
"Heh, if ya say so kid."
"That's enough, Newt." Said another male voice from behind them. "Why are you trying to antagonize him?"
"I was doing no such thing." Newt replied as he got off of Kaden.
The moment Newt stood up, Kaden attempted to sweep his legs to trip him down. However, Newt expected just as much and reacted without hesitation. He performed an aerial over Kaden's legs, and on his landing, he impaled the pole end of his kite into the ground, centimeters away from Kaden's head.
"Keep tryin'."
Newt removed his kite and walked over to Mateo, the voice that had questioned him just before. Kaden never saw Mateo when he attacked Mai and Kenzo back during his first attempt at the gate of pride. However, through reports from Mai, Kenzo, and Elder Treya, Kaden was easily able to recognize the water essence swordsman that attacked them during that first encounter.
"You're one of them." Kaden stated as he got up onto one knee. "You were one of the two. Why? What's your purpose? Is it really just to look for a fight!?"
Mateo didn't respond. All he did was stare at Kaden intensely without moving in the slightest. After a while, even Newt glanced over to him as if he were also waiting on Mateo's response. Kaden was confused by the unexpected silence but continued to press the masked man out of anger.
"Answer me! Is it because I'm a lost soul!?"
SCAAAWWW!!!
Kaden and Newt gazed up once they heard the falcon's call. Taibai was circling overhead.
"That's my cue." Newt stated as he walked over to the edge of the column. "Don't get caught up, I won't be able to protect you."
Without Mateo acknowledging him, Newt dove off of the column and flew away in the direction of the mainland. Kaden tried to rise onto his feet quickly, but he was slowly reaching his limit.
"Relax." Mateo finally said to him.
"... You were waiting for him to leave." Kaden realized.
"Good on you for figuring that out. I just want to dispel any misunderstandings you may have about us. We're not just going around picking fights for the fun of it."
"Then why!?"
"Control your temper."
"..."
"I apologize for Newt's behavior earlier." Mateo stated sincerely. "He and one other of us are rather young, and they have a weird sense of 'entertainment', but they do not represent the Luminents as a collective."
"Then what about the members of the Aira family you killed? And from what I hear, their blood aren't the only ones that your hands are stained with."
"... Just remember, Kaden, that there are two sides to every story. I'd tell you mine but not here, not now. Some other time."
"That's the other thing. Why me? First, the incident at the gate, and then today. It feels like you're following me."
"It's because you're special." Mateo responded firmly. "You're only the second lost soul to come around in my lifetime, and the other one disappeared long ago. Everybody who knows about you is going to want to use you. You should decide for yourself where you're going to lend your abilities."
"I definitely won't lend them to you if that's what you're interested in." Kaden replied.
"Don't judge us without knowing full context of what we do. There are battles in this world that normal people will never be able to fight, and that's where we intervene."
"What kind of battles?"
"Again, some other time." Mateo responded as he turned to walk towards the edge. "Time is such a precious thing. If only we all had more of it... You're progressing well. Keep it up, and look out for those around you, will you."
After that, Mateo dove off the edge of the column and disappeared. At the same time, Via and Aaron, who was also carrying Mai on his back, appeared from the clouds above. Taibai guided them safely through the wind tunnels and then down to the column where Kaden was waiting for them. It didn't take them long to fly down to the ground.
"Not gonna lie, Kade. I was worried for a while there." Aaron said as he landed. "How'd you get down here?"
"Well, it wasn't the most graceful landing." Kaden joked. "Where's Jayson?"
"He should be right behind us."
As he said that, they all gazed up to find Jayson free falling towards them without slowing down.
"Can he... land?" Kaden questioned with growing concern amongst the four of them.
Jayson was only waiting to get nearer to the ground before he sparked a flame and created a large and quick blast that stopped his momentum altogether. He then disbursed the flames and landed safely next to the others.
"We have a slight issue." Jayson said upon arrival.
"You mean the gate being at the top of the tallest mountain?" Via asked while pointing up.
"Not just that. I flew back up to the peak to investigate the gate, but when I got up there, it was closed."
"The gate closed!?" Mai exclaimed.
"Yeah. So we're stuck here until it's opened again, and the trial is completed."