Hio's elation made him turn around and run in the battlefield. Seeing his brothers advancing and is currently less than the half of the mountain from his spot and getting closer to the altar made him rush down too.
Rico, as the loyal servant of the princes, followed Hio to the battle field and started initiating his own spiritual manifestation.
But reality itself is harder than the fantasy imagined. Both Leo and Kio's skills showing in the current fight are the results of their hard-earned trainings and battles as they improve their cultivation. While Hio on the other hand is still a newbie with combats using magic.
The two have yet to run that far but two santelmo's already interfered in their way. Hio once again controlled his own essence and took only a very little portion from it. He started to create an energy ball again, but it got disrupted when a santelmo plunged him trying to grab his head with its burning hands.
He warded the incoming attack by ducking his body and rolling sideways. The santelmo continued to attack him attempting to punch, grab or trip him. But to the santelmo's surprise, Hio may only be a newbie with combat combined with magic, but he's already trained with martial arts like Muay Tai, Taekwondo, arnis and judo, so parrying the enemy's attack is easy given that the santelmo is only throwing random attacks.
But the hard part for him is producing magic while parrying the enemy's attacks. Unlike the first time, it only took him 2 minutes to create an energy ball, now it's already 5 minutes and his energy ball creation is always being disrupted. Whenever the santelmo attacks him, his concentration and focus gets disoriented thinking how will he avoid the incoming attack.
Realizing he cannot create an energy ball, Hio just focused on warding off the attack of the santelmo while redirecting himself to Rico's side.
While doing so, he looked around him and searched for butler Elie. Finding him at the exact spot where he landed a while ago. Just standing there looking at him and Rico fighting the two santelmos. Regret enveloped the young man seeing the butler not initiating even a single step to help them.
"Ugh! Fck this sht! I really don't trust my sudden burst of emotions!" Hio stated when he got closer to Rico.
"How's the situation young master?" Rico asked holding a shield made of essence in his left arm and a sword on his right.
"Not good. I can't cast ang energy ball. The santelmo's attack is interrupting my concentration." Hio said and he started avoiding the attacks again.
Both Hio and Rico are at the late intermediate stage. Rico is just more adept with using his own essence because he's been training for six years using his powers in combat but Hio's essence is far greater than his. They both may be on the same level of cultivation, but Hio's control with his own essence is a bit inferior than Rico's while Rico's essence is inferior than Hio's.
"I'll try to hold them both while you cast an energy ball young master." Rico presented himself as the vanguard while Hio creates an energy ball.
"Oh no. not a good idea." Hio instantly turned down the suggestion. "It might be a stupid answer but I can't depend on anyone. That'll hinder my growth!" He added as he picked up a rock and threw it to the santelmo.
Due to him being a majin at the late-intermediate stage level, his physical strength and speed is stronger than that of a human athlete.
The rock hit the santelmo's body and with Hio's force, The santelmo was thrown away fifteen meters from them.
Using the time of the santelmo being thrown away, Hio started to create another energy ball from his core essence. But unlike his last tries, He created the energy ball he once did on his first try.
Being familiar with its concept and the amount of essence it needed, Hio easily created the silhouette of his energy ball. He then hastily filled it with his essence.
While doing so, the santelmo that got thrown away began to regain its momentum and rushed back to Hio. With its current distance, it'll only take a sentelmo 3 seconds to get back to Hio. But with Hio's current casting speed, its already enough for him to fill the energy ball with enough essence.
When the santelmo is only a meter away from him, Hio abruptly threw the energy ball without even stabilizing the essence inside it.
The energy ball then hit the santelmo right on its head and an expected explosion erupted like a bomb!
"Kuya Rico, brace for impact!!" Hio shouted as he glided with the explosion's shockwave.
Learning from their past experience, the two mimicked Butler Elie's movement and drifted with the air current.
The two used their momentum as an advantage to strike the other santelmo. Rico put his shield over his chest and Hio stepped on it leaping in the air as he created a small energy ball in his right hand from the remaining essence left on his energy ball creation and strike the other santelmo's head.
The energy ball was only at the size of a stress ball but when Hio smacked it on the santelmo's head, the fire burning the santelmo created a firework-like explosion with small lanterns of fire rushing everywhere and another shockwave threw the two of them again.
The core of the two santelmo has been destroyed, and the two landed on a battle stance mode ready for another attack.
"How did you do that?" Rico asked in surprise seeing his master creating two consecutive energy balls.
"Adrenaline." Hio said shrugging his shoulder. "And self-trust." He added and ran down the mountain.
What Hio said was slightly true, while creating the energy ball, he analyzed the concept of the ball. The first thing that is created before proceeding with essence filling is the halo-like ball shape barrier that acts as its outer layer. Thinking of it like a balloon, Hio's own essence will stand as air blowing the balloon. When he already had a rough view of how he did his energy ball, and with the butler's suggestion, Hio came up with an idea of having a fist-sized energy ball with less essence usage and faster casting.
Hio and Rico then rushed down the battlefield and fought the santelmos running from Leo and Kio's back supporting the two from the rare.
Hio's casting speed with his energy ball is now faster with his new found technique. But the small energy balls he created has a delay before it explodes. After hitting the enemy, it'll take a second delay before it explodes.
Like a balloon that is not inflated enough, the small energy ball also needs enough force before exploding. Some santelmos being hit manages to parry the energy ball before it explodes.
Noticing the delay of his small energy ball explosion, Hio tried to create a slightly larger one that is as big as a baseball, and analyzed the delay of its explosion.
Creating the stressball-sized energy ball only took Hio 5 seconds to do so, while creating a larger one that is as big as a softball took him 7 seconds because the size of the energy ball is doubled compared to the smaller one. But the explosion is greater and the delay is only 0.5 second before explosion, so the santelmo may still parry the energy ball after being hit, but the explosion will still envelop them.
After some time of fighting the santelmos, Hio can now create two baseball-sized energy ball in his both hands while parrying the attack from the sentries that got closer to him. And his casting speed is now only five seconds at most given the continuous creation and attack from the incoming sentries.
Rico, fighting alongside Hio, noticed the hasty improvement of his young master. Hio have yet to maximize his energy ball creation speed, which can be considered as basic use of essence, but his moves warding the enemy's assault while attacking back made him look like a skilled martial artist.