"Ha, well that escalated quickly" Barak thought with a calm smile as he tried to get his heavy breathing under control.
Seconds ago, Barak had successfully initiated his deadliest technique and with relish the man had got to see it do its work.
Though he felt a little bad for the kid who must have experienced hell as he was staining in the middle of the small but numerous bombardments, Barak's eyes couldn't help but go to the material that made up the room he was in, the man being in awe of its strength considering that there hadn't even been the slightest tremble in the room from the blast and most importantly he found it hard to believe that just because he killed the kid in front of him he was now free.
Barak looked left and right, up and down and even squinted at the objects and other still bound prisoners in the distance trying to make sense of where he was and at the same time trying to find an answer to a small nagging thought at the back of his mind.
"I feel I should know who that kid is, or at least something about him."
While Barak tried to find a solution to his problem, the existence of an object in a place that should have been filled with nothing but a young man's splattered flesh came into his sight.
The object was a blue and black dome that stood at half Barak's height and had a circumference that was just enough to hold a body Tion's size.
"That bastard" Barak muttered under his breath, his calm expression turning to snarl, but while it seemed like Barak had become furious, the truth was that internally the man was still very much calm and in control of himself and then rather than march towards the dome before him he began retreating backwards.
Considering the stillness and calmness of the dome, one would think Barak's action weird considering he should have instead used that time to attack Tion's weakened barrier, but then seconds later, the dome instantly exploded outwards in a shower of lightning.
Bolts of short instant lightning were released for meters around and though Barak was able to escape these destructive charges, he couldn't escape the charged atmosphere around him and the bolt of lightning that shot out from Tion the second he became visible.
With a defiant snort, Barak, moved his right leg to the back to strengthen his stance and then pumping his mana into the sword in his hand, he smashed the blazing red weapon against the screaming bolt of lightning.
Almost instantly, an explosion resulted from the collision and Barak was thrown backwards, the man smashing into the ground and skidding away, but seconds later with a flip he sent himself standing, and ignoring the blood which was running down his face he swung his sword and blocked the cackling katana that was eager to take his head off his body.
Gathering his strength, Brack wanted to push Tion back and then go on the offensive, but before he could, Tion disengaged him, circled him with a single step and then sent another slash towards his back.
"This brat," Brack thought internally as he swung his sword backwards and deflected Tion's attack, but then before the man could use this opportunity to strike at Tion, a kick came out of nowhere and landed on his face, sending him stumbling backwards and by the time he regained his footing he, found himself hurriedly having to parry a jab from a lightening covered blade.
"I'm being put on the back foot" Barak said to himself in shock, a bit of fear for Tion being born in him.
"It's not that his strength has increased, but rather he has gotten more agile, his reaction time has drastically increased and while his swings have experienced some decline in strength the problem now is that the lightening, he has enshrouded his blade in, keeps it a very dangerous threat.
Damn it, how does he have so much mana to throw around."
While Barak began desperately observing Tion and trying to find a way to end him, the boy in question who had a cold expression was looking to quickly end his opponent and also the screeching pain rampaging through his body.
After spending several days stuck trying to squeeze out a useful memory from the lightning avatar spirit, the black gourd had finally made some success and one of those successes was the lightening dome.
At first, Tion had been confused about the purpose of the red lights which Brak had released and though he had figured out its purpose in time to save himself from death by multiple explosions he hadn't been able to able to complete escape the first explosion which had been the light that had first gotten behind him.
The consequence of Tion's sloppiness to realize his enemy's motives was a heavily danged and bleeding back.
The lightning dome was a very powerful defensive technique, especially when put in the hands of Tion whose mana control was so good that he could actually quieten the lightning, making usual dangerous arcs be absent and instead be focused on defence.
Unfortunately, such a nearly perfect and effective technique came with a cost and the cost was its heavy mana consumption.
By the time Barak's multiple explosions subsided, Tion had already expended every ounce of mana within him and then the boy was struggling to not panic as he thought of how he was going to battle Barak when the dome fell.
With the stinging pain coming from his bleeding back, Tion found his thoughts more scattered than ever, but in the end, the boy's desire and will to survive pulled through and with force he calmed down his mind and began looking for a solution on how to survive.
Gripping his katana tightly, Tion began calculating whether it was feasible for him to use just his physical strength to close whatever distance would exist between him and Barak so he could attack the man, or whether he should swallow his pride, accept defeat and immediately try to flee for the exit of the holy room.
Tion was all for an adrenaline-filled fight, one that pushed his abilities to the very limits, but that didn't mean that he was foolish to not understand that there were some battles where one could be totally outclassed and their best action was to flee.
"But is this the right mindset, if I adopt such a tactic, then wouldn't I begin to create exit strategies for myself whenever I battle, won't I become a coward."
Within his current crisis, such a profound question popped up within Tion's mind, but the boy knowing his priorities was quick to push it away, but before he could refocus on the issue at hand and began finding a solution, his avatar spirit made its thought known.
"What!! You can use the lightning avatar spirit to replenish my mana."