William Fenix took his stance. Josec and Buern responded by assuming their battle stances as well.
"It looks like the two of us will be fighting as a duo this time" Buern said with a laugh.
"The last time the two of us fought as a duo was up on the mountains in Avalon though back then, you were training me" Josec said.
"Before we begin, let me lay down the conditions of this battle" William Fenix said.
"Conditions?" Buern wondered.
"There would have to be conditions to test whether or not you are currently capable of utilizing Light's Wound. You are allowed to utilize any manner of tools or techniques in your arsenal. I will not impose a time limit upon you. You lose the moment you give up" William Fenix said.
"And when do we win?" Josec asked.
"You win if Buern manages to get in an effective hit. In other words, if Buern manages to hit me even once, you win" William Fenix said.
Ken and all the other Students watched from a distance.
"This arena will be our battleground. That is all" William Fenix said.
Josec and Buern watched cautiously.
"Ready?!" William Fenix called as he pulled out two vials from within his clothes.
Josec and Buern immediately raised their hands in defense.
"Begin!" William Fenix called and threw the vials to the ground.
Smoke enveloped the area around him concealing him. In the next instant, Josec and Buern found themselves launched into the air.
"UNNGH! We just got hit!" Josec called out.
A moment later, an invisible blow from above sent them flying to the ground.
"Where is he?!" Buern called worriedly.
Josec suddenly raised a dome around himself and Buern. A moment later, the shield shattered but Josec raised it up almost immediately as Buern arose from the ground and stood back to back with him.
"We should cover our blind spots. This is just like the Masters' battle against Apollo" Buern said.
"Yeah, William is a Fenix as well so he should be a master at utilizing the Killer Ghost" Josec reasoned.
"He must be concealing his presence with high speed motion…just like Apollo did" Buern informed Josec.
"I see. In that case…" Josec called as he raised up a dome around the entire area.
"With the Labyrinth Of The Defender, I will hinder his speed by complicating his motion" Josec called.
Buern and Josec observed invisible blows shattering walls within the Labyrinth.
"When he makes contact with the walls of the Labyrinth, we should be able to determine his location" Buern reasoned.
Josec and Buern watched as the blows tore through the Labyrinth and approached.
"Buern, I'm taking him head on. If I utilize my Killer Ghost Oscillation (also known as the Killer Ghost Frenzy), I should be able to match his perception of time. In other words, he will become visible to me" Josec said.
In an instant, clones of Josec appeared at numerous locations within the Labyrinth. One of the Josecs remained in a protective dome with Buern. Moments later, the sound of amplified blows announced the exchange of blows between Josec's clones and William Fenix.
"Impressive, cloning through tremendous oscillation" William Fenix said as a clone of Josec guarded against a hit and grabbed William Fenix by the arm.
"Concealment through extreme motion, you are pretty impressive yourself Master William" Josec said and hurled William Fenix towards Buern.
"However, you are still a bit naïve Josec…you seem to have forgotten that we are moving at almost the same speed…which means…" William Fenix said as he somersaulted and flew towards Buern.
"Oh no! He can see the oscillations in my dome!" Josec realized.
"Exactly. If you are cloning yourself through tremendous oscillation, then you're really not at two places at the same time which implies that you need to fluctuate your domes to maintain your clones within the Labyrinth" William Fenix said.
"Buern! Watch out! He's headed our way" the Josec in the dome warned Buern.
Buern prepared herself. All of the cloned Josecs disappeared leaving Josec with Buern. William Fenix made contact with the dome, shattering it.
"He's here!" Josec called as Buern who had concealed multiple particles of sharp ice in the air around them suddenly launched them.
In an instant, William Fenix disappeared again.
"He can see the oscillations in the Labyrinth Of The Defender because his speed almost matches mine" Josec informed Buern.
"And my reaction time is infinitely slower than his. He can evade before I launch any of my attacks and I can't rely on you informing me of his location because of his tremendous speed" Buern noted.
"I am the only one that can make contact with him but that doesn't matter. If Buern can't make contact with him, we cannot win" Josec realized.
"And he's completely invisible to me because of his high speed motion. It's almost as though…" Buern recalled the elders explain the downside to the Light's Wound Technique.
"So you're basically saying Buern has the power but lacks the vision to damage Souryu and Josec has the vision but lacks the power to damage Souryu?" Josec and Buern recalled Harry's question.
"He's mimicking the conditions required to utilize the Light's Wound Technique in our battle against Souryu. I can't see him Josec. You can, but it doesn't matter if you can hit him. If I can't deal any damage, we'll eventually lose this battle. Damn! We got so used to how convenient Master Colette's synchronization abilities were. It's only now that she's absent that I realize how difficult this battle is without them!" Buern growled as the sounds of more walls shattering within the Labyrinth echoed in their ears.
"If he can see the oscillations in my dome, I'll leave Buern completely defenseless if I phase out of my dome in an attempt to attack him. The only defense Buern would have is one of my clones" Josec realized.
"Buern…if I phase out of the dome, the dome's defense will be useless however, we'll not make any progress if we don't attack" Josec said seriously.
"What are you planning Josec?" Buern asked.
In an instant, an army of Josecs materialized around Buern and more of them appeared within the Labyrinth.
"He's decided to protect Buern with oscillations instead of relying purely on the Labyrinth" William Fenix realized.
Josec's clones and William Fenix began to exchange blows within the Labyrinth.
"I've never been pushed this hard by anyone. You'd better not regret this Master William" Josec said as the entire Labyrinth disappeared.
"You've let down the Labyrinth? You've left yourself wide open now!" William Fenix roared as he threw a punch.
Josec matched his movements and sidestepped. William Fenix suddenly disappeared but then the loud sound of blows began to echo about the area.
"What is this?" William Fenix wondered.
He looked around but Buern was nowhere in sight.
"She's disappeared!" William Fenix realized.
"Buern…if I phase out of the dome, the dome's defense will be useless however, we'll not make any progress if we do not attack" Josec recalled his words.
"What are you planning Josec?" Josec recalled Buern's question.
"The flaw in our defense is that William can match my speed implying that he can match my perception of time and thus see the oscillation of my domes and probably even that of my clones. To defeat him, first…we need to take away his ability to perceive my domes and thus see through the oscillations…" Josec recalled his words.
"You intend to use it don't you? The variation of the domes you employed in battle against Aeros. The Invisible Dome!" he recalled Buern's exclamation of shock.
"Not the Invisible Dome…the Invisible Labyrinth!" Josec recalled his words.
Josec had utilized the Dome composed of the highly reflective material that reflected most light rays and refracted the rest to create the illusion of invisibility.
"What is this? The Labyrinth…he did not dispel it! He turned it invisible! That means…Buern is still in the area!" William Fenix realized.
Josec took in a deep breath and began to discharge his joki all about him.
"Next…" Josec recalled his words as William Fenix suddenly let out an expression of pain.
William Fenix suddenly disappeared.
"He's ionizing the air within the Labyrinth to utilize it as a means to stun his opponents. Luna Fenix's ability!" William Fenix realized.
"Next, I will raise up my mom's Zone Of Absolute Defense to drive William Fenix into long range combat" Buern who was concealed nearby with the army of Josecs…hidden within a Zone Of Invisibility generated by the domes recalled Josec's words.
Since the domes were forged from Josec's will, he could sense William Fenix's location whenever William Fenix made contact with the walls of the Labyrinth.
"Buern, I want you to switch to a lightning improv and sync your wavelength to mine" Buern recalled Josec's instructions.
"I see" Buern began to catch sight of Josec's plan.
Buern watched the battle.
"The only way for William Fenix to evade the ability of Josec's Zone to stun him is to switch his wavelength to Josec's however if he does that…" Buern watched as William Fenix switched his joki to the lightning affinity and altered his wavelength to that of the Zone.
He attempted to attack Josec with bolts of lightning.
The waves of lightning he shot at Josec warped unnaturally and flew past Josec.
"He really has mastered Luna's Zone Of Absolute Defense" William Fenix realized as Josec waved his arms gracefully about the Labyrinth.
"By creating waves of lightning in the surrounding air, matching them to his own wavelength and transforming them into paths, Josec can redirect all of William Fenix's long range attacks. It's about time I commenced my offensive as well" Buern said and shut her eyes.
"Elemental Neutralization works around the principle that if one's body temperature were exactly the same as that of a flame, the flame couldn't burn you. One feels warm if the surrounding temperature is higher than one's body temperature and cold when the surrounding temperature is lower than one's body temperature. By syncing wavelengths to an element in like manner, one can completely neutralize the element's potential for harm" Buern thought.
William Fenix advanced towards Josec and the two began to battle. Now that William Fenix's wavelength matched Josec's, the ability of the Zone to stun him was neutralized but so was his ability to harm Josec via elements since if he altered his wavelength, the ability of the Zone to stun would immediately take effect.
"I can't believe these kids have already mastered Terrain Alteration Techniques!" William Fenix exclaimed in shock.
Josec smirked and suddenly disappeared.
William Fenix was suddenly stunned by the surrounding air.
"He's switched his wavelength and altered the wavelength of the surrounding air!" William Fenix exclaimed.
Suddenly, the Labyrinth disappeared and Buern became visible. Beside her stood Josec and both of them had equipped lightning improvs of the same wavelength.
"You lose Master William" Buern said with a laugh.
William Fenix activated his Eyes Of The Phoenix and saw Buern's lightning joki mixed in with Josec's.
"I see. She utilized the ability of elements of the same wavelength to bond as a means to channel her own joki through Josec's Zone Of Absolute Defense. She matched her wavelength to Josec's and was waiting, concealed by his Zone Of Invisibility" William Fenix noted.
"Turns out I don't need to see you to deal damage. When I altered my wavelength to that of Josec's Zone, I became able to sense all activity within the Zone. All I needed to do was sense the break in the Zone and cross reference the break within the Zone with my knowledge of your mass. Josec only needed to tell me when he was altering his wavelength and the wavelength to which he was attuning his joki. You did not see it because of the Zone Of Invisibility but just before the final attack, Josec isolated the space surrounding you and created a path for me to flow my joki into that isolated space" Buern said.
William Fenix noticed Josec's Eyes and Wings and he noticed Buern's joki flowing from her hands and extending in the form of talons. He stared in shock.
"The Talons Of The Phoenix?! I see! If Josec forms the Phoenix's Eyes and Wings…Buern must be the source of its strength!" William Fenix realized in shock.