Gril attacked Nathan head on, without any tactics or anything like that, he simply ran at him and threw a punch.
Nathan dodged the punch by dodging to the side and then tried to slash him, however he had to back away when a dagger almost embedded itself in his chest.
"Tch"
Fighting someone melee while someone was attacking him from a distance was tricky, plus Nathan didn't have his katana, so his skills were limited. Adding all that up, Nathan's chances of winning were slim, but not zero.
"HAHAHA Why are you backing down?!"
Nathan ignored Gril's taunts and continued to dodge his blows with no chance to back up.
Second after second Nathan was being pushed back without giving him a chance to move forward.
Then, in a moment where Nathan made a small mistake because it was simply impossible for him to dodge all of their combined attacks, Tana caught his left arm with the rope wrapping it around it several times, then Gril grabbed his other arm tightly and grinned macabrely.
"Got you!"
It was then that both of Gril's hands suddenly began to burn, and a large red flame appeared on them.
"Aghhhhh!"
Nathan felt his forearm being burned by Gril's hands, then in a desperate attempt to free himself from their grip, he powered his arms to the top of essence and pulled back.
The dagger uncurled from his arm leaving him with a row of deep cuts, and his other arm was badly burned, leaving his skin red-hot.
Both his arms hurt horribly, and it hadn't even been a couple of minutes since the fight had started.
His breathing was quite labored as he did his best to ignore the pain. Even with his arms like this, he held his knife tightly.
Nathan knew that he could not win if he stayed on the defensive, so he had no choice but to use all his cards... regardless of whether he died or not.
A faint chuckle escaped his lips, causing Gril to frown in annoyance.
"What are you laughing at?"
Nathan touched his mouth over his mask as if he'd laughed by accident.
"Oh... no, nothing at all"
Without a second thought, Nathan powered his legs with as much essence as possible, and a moment later he appeared in front of Gril.
The young man didn't expect Nathan to attack him so explosively, so he only pulled back at the last second. A thin streak of blood appeared on his cheek, but he didn't have time to think when Nathan attacked him again.
His hands began to burn with powerful flames as he tried to strike him, at the same time as a dagger came dangerously close to Nathan's neck.
Nathan took a deep breath as he focused all his concentration on being able to flow all the essence into his legs while leaving his neck completely unprotected.
He had realized that Tana's dagger was something special... although he didn't know what. That was why he was going to find out by dying, but for that he had to be sure that the young woman's attack would kill him, which was why he left his neck without essence.
Nathan looked at the dagger that was about to pierce him, then something happened. A sharp wound appeared in his neck, but the dagger had not yet reached him.
Nathan frowned even though he was moments away from death.
'How did it hit me?'
A moment later Nathan was back in front of Gril, then he stepped back again but this time as the dagger neared his neck, he didn't let it get close enough.
He turned his torso backwards, dodging the dagger, and then Gril's fist came close to his face. Nathan flowed essence into his arm and let Gril's fist hit his mask.
The mask that Boreas had given him was a relic, and a powerful one. Nathan had tried to flow his essence over it, but in less than a couple of seconds the mask swallowed all of it.
That gave him two conclusions. The first was that the mask must have effects that he did not know about and that could one day be of great use to him. The second is that he knew the mask would not break from the blow of a first rank third category.
It was going to hurt like hell, though.
Gril's blow hit his mask and Nathan felt the impact on his face, and the heat force him to close his eyes almost completely. However, Gril was right where Nathan wanted him to be.
As before he had flowed essence into his arms, Nathan grabbed Gril's arm with enough force to make it difficult for him to pull away. Then Nathan moved his head slightly out of the way of Gril's fist and hit him in the nose with the forehead of his mask.
The young man grunted in pain as his septum was destroyed and then Nathan saw that the dagger was coming dangerously close to him.
He moved Gril's body slightly to cover himself from Tana's attack, who had no choice but to withdraw her dagger in order not to hurt Gril.
But the young man was only stunned by the blow for a couple of seconds, then he hit Nathan again in the arm, which was already burned, while Nathan hit him in the stomach.
It was an exchange of blows that sent them both reeling backwards.
Nathan grabbed the arm that Gril had just hit and grimaced as he felt the burn that had been left on it.
Gril was not much different. In the last exchange he was definitely the one who had lost out. His nose was twisted at an odd angle, and he was catching his breath from the blow Nathan had delivered to his stomach.
"You don't have much essence left..." Amelia whispered trying to warn him that he couldn't continue at the rate he was going.
Nathan was surprised that Amelia could tell how much essence he had, but quickly denied slightly.
'It doesn't matter... I've done enough'
Gril looked at him with a hateful expression.
"Damn you!"
Nathan smirked behind his mask.
"Didn't you say you were going to kill me? It's two against one but apparently, it's no challenge at all"
As much as Nathan said that he really was tired and knew he had little chance of winning.
Gril looked at him with hatred and used essence in his hands, where large and powerful flames lit up the place. A second later, however, the flames disappeared.
Nathan smiled and sighed with relief at this.
In the three attacks he had made on Gril, Nathan had struck fear into Gril's mind with his technique. He had not really had many opportunities to do this before, but in a fight with a human his technique probably shone the most.
However, he knew that the two young men were trained to overcome their fear and to fight under unfavorable conditions against all kinds of calamities. Therefore, Nathan forced himself to evolve his own technique.
So far, he had used it to make his enemies afraid of him... but now he made Gril feel afraid of the fire of his own technique.
It was something Nathan had no idea if it would work or not, but he really didn't have much choice but to try it. Fortunately, everything had gone well, but the fight was by no means over.
Nathan had to take advantage of Gril's confused state.
"What's the matter, you don't want to fight anymore? No... that's not it"
Nathan snorted and sneered.
"I know... You're scared"