Plum-sized droplets of blood arced through the air, trailing crimson particles behind them.
They traversed the world with such mind-numbing speeds, that it was a wonder how, when lunging at Anon, they did not pierce his skin and obliterate his heart.
But for Anon, it wasn't a wonder.
He saw.
He was seeing.
Places that he could not perceive before, he perceived.
Spaces that he could not enter before, he entered.
Maneuvers he could not do before, he did.
This was true mastery.
It felt like a wave of drowsiness once clouded his mind, prompting him to guzzle an entire can of energy drink.
He could see, and he was sensitive to what he saw.
Freedom that he did not have before, he now had.
Actions he didn't do before, he now did... and even then, his movements remained in sync with Man Like Beast battle art.
One day.
It took him a single day to master the Man Like Beast battle art.
Technically speaking, it wasn't even a full day yet.
"Good, good, good!" Seth exclaimed, his broad smile illuminating his face.
"With such a low-level technique, if you could not even do this much, I'd be disappointed, truly disappointed."
Seth cackled madly with the rod in his grasp trembling violently, as he darted towards Anon.
Stabbing out, his staff arched through the air, lunging towards the amber eyed boy.
Yet Anon could see beyond the veil, twisting his body in ghastly, serpentine movements.
Like some kind of snake, he seemingly slithered his way past Seth's defense.
Finally, he had breached Seth's guard.
His right arm retracted, poised to slash down with the claws of his gauntlet, and yet, it was an intentional act of deception.
In one fluid motion, it was his left hand that clenched tightly and punched out, sinking into Seth's flesh, unexpectedly.
When Seth stumbled back, Anon stooped as he sent a sweep kick. His right foot hooked behind Seth's ankle causing him to fall off balance.
Anon grinned as Seth fell backward to the ground.
However, Seth used his pole to halt his descent, propelling himself into the air and flipping backward while simultaneously swinging his rod upward, crashing it into Anon's jaw.
Anon felt at least two teeth shatter, others crack, and his gums burst, blood spilling from his mouth.
Simultaneously, his head jerked back sharply from the force of the pole, causing him to stumble backward as well.
The sudden impact on his chin sent shockwaves through his brain, and he lost balance, collapsing onto his buttocks atop the icy ground in a daze.
Though he stared forward, his pupils were contracted, and his mouth was open agape like an idiot.
Seth landed on the icy ground with a broad grin, casually resting his pole across his shoulders.
His crimson eyes stared at the seed sized droplets of blood that were stuck in a perpetual state of levitation mid-air.
These droplets drifted towards him and came to an abrupt halt just before his face, circling around him like small yet sentient and curious objects of some sort.
"Anon," Seth casually called out.
Sitting in a daze, Anon snapped back to reality at Seth's voice. He ruthlessly slapped the side of his head and shook it before rising to his feet with an annoyed expression.
In the moment after rising to his feet, a silence hung in the air.
The battle had come to a halt as the two stood unmoving, staring at each other.
Anon remained silent, but Seth didn't mind. He continued, "Catharina has her trump card, and so does Nickyle. Naturally, I have one as well. Once you can extract a certain amount of power from one's principles, they all have one. So, my question to you is, where's yours?"
'Trump card?'
He didn't have one.
The thing is…
Seth's question revealed something to Anon that pleased him. It was good to see this person, who seemed to know so much, misunderstand something—or simply lack knowledge.
"We've never once gone full out against each other, as in, reveal all of our cards." Anon uttered.
Although he was subtly implying that he did have a trump card, which was a blatant lie, these words also held its own truths.
In a battle, one did not overly exert themselves from the beginning.
Even if at that time, when the duo first met, they had fought with 'everything' they had. Since then, Anon had grown much more powerful, capable of completing four simple tasks simultaneously.
Since then, he had not truly extracted all that he could from his principle in any single sitting. Simply put, the basin he used to extract principle power, 'ocean water', was always half full.
When thinking about it, if he truly extracted all his power, the law of inevitability would descend much stronger and he'd have long breached Seth's defenses even without attaining true mastery over the Man Like Beast art.
Seth grinned, replying, "Indeed, so why not go all out now?"
Clearly, he implied the use of his trump card, and Anon knew this, he just did not know what it would be.
It could not be his move against Nickyle.
While Nickyle had supreme speed, he didn't have anywhere near as high defense as Anon did, so those needles wouldn't even pierce his skin.
Right after, pin-drop silence descended.
The basin of stellar cosmic energies, manipulated by his principle, overflowed with power.
Right now, this basin was overflowing, the power, he could not fully control it.
The air surrounding his body became even more chaotic and contorted.
The icy ground under Anon's feet shattered.
Seth took a deep breath in.
Seeing the chaos in Anon's near vicinity, his eyes shone with luster.
There was a reason why he desired for Anon to utilize his principle's trump card.
Certain secrets he knew, and certain secrets he did not know, he desired to know of one of these previously hidden secrets.
Against Anon's father, who has this exact principle, observing Anon from the beginning would expose every shred of the humanity leader's powers.
Well, not everything.
But that was a ploy for another time.
The droplets of blood circling him were drawn into his slightly open mouth, swallowed in one swift motion.
Under Anon's feet, the ground exploded.
His figure was shrouded in an illusory aura as he appeared before Seth faster than the blink of an eye.
And yet, Seth reacted, placing his staff between him and Anon…
Bang!
Seth stumbled back as his forearms trembled, the rod in his hand had been sent flying.
Grinning, Seth retreated whilst facing Anon, but the latter was much faster, appearing to Seth's side.
Though he attempted to parry Anon's attack, that fist covered by the metallic gauntlet was too hard, too powerful.
Blasting its way through Seth's guard, Anon's fist crashed into the former's sternum causing a crunching sound traversed the environment around them.
Under such brute force, Seth felt his sternum shatter, causing him to cough up blood.
But Anon was just too agile at that moment. Much less the blood, before Seth's body could be sent hurling away from the force of Anon's punch, Anon circled around him, leaping into the air and lashing out once more.
Bang!
Seth was struck from above, crashing into the icy ground and creating a crater from the impact.
In a way, this was Anon's trump card.
Drawing out every bit of power, the law of inevitability amplified to such a degree, that his opponent was in for a complete beat down.
And yet, there were still ways to go around this, as Anon would come to understand.
The best way to evade the inevitability law wasn't to face it head on, and just in case this nonexistent trump card truly amplified this law, Seth had long prepared contingencies, of which, his own trump card was the main one.
When his feet landed on the ground, Anon stared at Seth's pathetic state.
'No, he probably isn't in the second world yet.'
Firstly, it was improbable for even a genius in the first world to defeat someone from the second world.
The first world simply lacked many means compared to the second. Even if it were feasible, it would apply only to exceptional geniuses.
While Anon was indeed a genius, Seth was just as much of a genius, canceling out any advantages Anon might possess.
A genius like Seth, standing in the second world, would be invincible against anyone from the first world, even if they were a super genius.
Knowing this, it was hard for Anon to believe that Seth was currently in the second world.
Yet Anon didn't have time to ponder this further.
He took a single step toward Seth but couldn't take a second. In fact, he was frozen in that first step, mid-stride, unable to budge.
Seth, lying on the floor in a pathetic manner, rose abruptly. Still seated on the icy ground, he turned to Anon with his glowing blood-red eyes.
"How do you like it? My trump card?"