For a moment, his doppelgänger was exposed.
For a single instance, there was an opening.
Again and again, they popped up and taunted him.
Esau would have to be blind not to see the openings that appeared during his doppelgängers long chain of combinations. During a ferocious exchange between their two different styles of fighting, his doppelgänger would showcase just a split-second opening that in some instances if he had been better positioned he could have capitalised upon. Even when he was in a better position, the difference in their physical abilities meant his advantage rarely lasted.
However, things were different this time.
Backpedalling to avoid the vicious swiping claws that cut through the air where he had once been, Esau stopped and came in close, blocking a claw swipe before it could build up momentum. He then slammed an elbow into the underside of his doppelgänger's chin and unleashed a plethora of blows in close range upon the exposed torso.
There was one thing that had become abundantly clear to Esau during their many exchanges and that was the fact that for all his skill and power, there was a core element of his doppelgängers style that was missing. It was not incomplete, but instead missing some vitally important that would bring it to its highest level.
Esau did not have that issue.
His style while continuing to grow and evolve, was not incomplete nor lacking in anything. It was instead himself that lacked experience which prevented him from utilising every weapon he had at his disposal to the utmost level. However, that was the same for many heroes, including the likes of Batman and Deathstroke. No one had truly achieved absolute mastery, that was something Deathstroke had drilled into him constantly and it was a lesson Esau had taken to heart.
As his doppelgänger took a step back, Esau chased recognising the glaring opening he was seeing. It was in moments like these that said openings were even more apparent and frequent. He did not know what the missing piece was to explain why, but Esau had long since realised that his doppelgänger had no more tricks up its sleeves.
During their many exchanges Esau had continued to grow and evolve, forcing his doppelgänger to reveal more and more of its tricks until eventually, it had nothing left. Everything he had faced was all it had to give and yet, Esau continued to press forward and get better. These constant openings may be because of something missing, but there was nothing his doppelgänger could do in which to prevent this from happening.
Whereas before Esau had been hesitant, believing these openings to be traps.
For fighters of their calibre openings of this magnitude often were.
No one of their level would ever be forced into a situation where they exposed themselves to this degree unless they were trying to lure in their opponent. Yet, his doppelgänger was not purposefully exposing themselves like this they simply did not have the usual means in which to defend themselves.
Esau couldn't explain why that was the case, but he didn't need to.
Stepping in close, Esau threw a punch with all his might and then some.
He grit his teeth feeling the bones in his right hand breaking upon impact with the liver of his doppelgänger. Esau could feel every single one of them shatter, muscles tearing, ligaments and tendons snapping. The pain he felt was by no means light and Esau grit his teeth, glaring out at his doppelgänger whose eyes widened suddenly.
Then the force came.
It was greater than anything Esau had unleashed before.
His doppelgänger gasped out in pain, its body lifted up into the air, completely suspended and vulnerable as it took the full impact of his strike. the very same strike it had been using upon him constantly throughout the latter part of their fights was now being used against it. Esau had listened to Barbara, watched and learned from his doppelgänger and used the very same skill to his advantage.
Yet he was far from done.
This alone would not be enough to turn the tide of this fight.
With his left hand, Esau shot up and grabbed ahold of one of his doppelgängers, twisting his body and swinging it around. A shout of effort slipped from his lips as Esau swung the doppelgänger with all of his force down into the ground head first.
In any other situation, this would not have been enough.
His doppelgänger would have been able to catch itself with the other hand and had done so when Esau used this very same throwing technique.
Yet things were different.
The powerful blow Esau had unleashed upon him had struck with such force upon the liver that it left the doppelgänger completely helpless to respond. Its head rushed to meet the floor, smashing into it with such force that it was buried within the ground itself, a crack echoing throughout the mindscape as Esau fell to his knees.
His breathing was heavy as he relaxed his body and allowed his guard to lower.
"I won." Esau panted out, watching as the body of his doppelgänger seemingly melted away into wisps of red smoke that floated toward his body. He did not flinch away from it, the smoke seemingly being absorbed into his body and reinvigorating him as Esau looked upon the nine Kitsunes sitting outside of the ring.
Each of them remained still, watching the proceedings with a strange mixture of sadness but also pride.
Rising to his feet, Esau felt the power within him and reached out for it. This time it did not resist his pull or demands and it flooded every fibre of his being like a tidal wave. Eyes widening in shock, Esau felt the power within him erupt outward as his senses instantly intensified tenfold almost making him stumble backward as the power within him grew.
Even at as his utmost limit prior to this, Esau had never felt power like this.
But above all else, he did not feel like he was about to lose control.
He felt like himself despite this power.
"Now this is more like it." Esau murmured with a smirk, clenching his fists before rapidly flexing his fingers as claws burst out. "So, this is what it feels like to be in control?"
"That is only a fraction of it." The Nine-Tailed Kitsune told him as Esau allowed his powers to subside, reverting to normal. "A fraction of the power we wield. Not even a single tail of power is at your disposal. It is nowhere near enough for you to be able to rise to the top."
"I know." Esau was not arrogant enough to believe that.
"Then surely, having experienced what that power you wield is like, you should be able to grasp just how much more powerful we are? How much more powerful you would be if you allowed us to take control?" The Kitsune questioned.
Despite those words, Esau shook his head. "The answer's still no." He smiled. "But I won't lie, you've allowed me to learn many things about myself from fighting against you. Pushed me to grow even higher than ever before. I trained endlessly with Black Canary to learn her throwing technique. Fought against the likes of Kaldur and Connor to learn how to adapt to fighting physically superior foes. If I had done that alone, I would have never seen the success I had. What I needed was someone just outside of my reach. Someone where the gap was just wide enough but not too far out of reach. Thanks to you, all the pieces came together perfectly."
His biggest flaw as Black Hood was that Esau had never given himself time to fight foes just outside of his limit.
They were always too far below or far too outside of it.
This meant he either learnt nothing or was never given the opportunity to put his lessons to the test.
However, that had changed when Deathstroke gave him the physical enhancement serum. Due to that much-needed boost to his physical abilities, Esau had been able to bridge the gap between himself and his foes with greater athleticism and put those lessons to the test properly. Then when training under Deathstroke, Slade had always limited himself in order to constantly stand just out of reach.
There had never been a moment in which Esau felt like he was Slade's equal.
Slade had been a target constantly out of reach.
A hairsbreadth away.
His time on the team had been short, but similar problems would have appeared soon enough if it had not been for his doppelgänger. By far, Esau was the most skilled fighter on the team with only Barbara and Dick being close to him, yet even then there was a clear difference. Though they had grown more skilled and continued to do so by the day, Esau was still able to fight the two at the same time possessing a fifty-fifty chance of emerging victorious though it required him to give his all.
Neither stood as his equal and instead it was their teamwork that allowed them to match him.
Artemis was skilled with the bow and by no means a slouch in hand-to-hand combat yet even she could not hold a candle to Dick or Barbara, let alone him. The same could be said for M'Gann and Wally though in a different sense. Neither possessed much skill in hand-to-hand combat but their powers were indeed great. However, M'Gann possessed clear exploitable weaknesses both physiological and psychological that allowed others to routinely outperform her and beat her when they would have otherwise been helpless.
Wally though was purely held back by his own mentality.
Kaldur and Connor were the only two on the team besides Barbara and Dick that Esau routinely fought against.
Yet while neither was as skilled as him, their physical capabilities meant that it was almost impossible to bridge that gap. As their own skills increased as well, that gap only grew wider and wider, not even Black Canary could defeat either hero without the use of her powers anymore.
No, Esau would have quickly hit a wall in the team if it had not been for his doppelgänger. "Thank you." Esau was actually grateful for his Kitsune, something that was strange for him to acknowledge. "But I'm far from finished." Pointing toward the single-tailed Kitsune, Esau smirked challengingly. "Guess you're up next."
"You would challenge a more powerful version of us so soon after achieving victory?" The Kitsune wondered and Esau's smile did not dip.
"I'm feeling like I'm hitting my stride." Esau began bouncing on the ball of his feet. "Why would I stop now?"
"You do not understand." The Kitsune warned. "The risks you face should you continue to challenge us will not be the same from this point onward. In fact, the danger to yourself and those around you will only grow the more powerful a challenge you face."
Esau did not hesitate for a second. "My whole life has been one huge gamble. Never knowing if I would see to live to the next day. Yet I'm still here because every day I get out of bed and roll the dice with my life on the line. There's no need for me to change that now." Letting the power within him rise to the surface, Esau lowered into a fighting stance, preparing for his next fight. "Besides, this is my choice to make. Not yours. So, come fight me if you want my body so badly."
-X-
Monday 6th September, 00:30.
Bialya,
Bialyan Desert.
Deep within the Bialyan Desert, the unconscious body of Esau partially covered in the sand began to shift. The grains of sand once moving in the wind began to violently shake upon his body as a single clawed hand grasped the ground tightly, pushing against it. Then out in the darkness of the desert, two blood-red eyes gazed out upon the world.