That had to be the first step. Somehow, Nolan was impressed despite his perilous situation. Uncle Grey was very formidable within this world, since it was rife with potent energies even in its sealed state. To be able to avoid an attack from somebody like him showed that the ancient cultivator was incredibly talented, especially when relying on a body with such a low cultivation level. Watching the rain of conjured weapons, Nolan's worry was renewed in full as the man that had possessed his body suddenly appeared on the other side of the glade and then immediately disappeared into the surrounding forests.

Why're you letting him get away? Do something! His teacher couldn't hear him, of course, since Nolan was still sealed within the golden cage that seemed to have a secondary function of muffling sound.

The old ghost wasn't just standing around, however, and was in the midst of drawing out two separate arrayment diagrams with simultaneous use of his hands. At the time that his opponent disappeared from sight, Uncle Grey was only seconds away from finishing the first of his diagrams. He activated them one after the other, the first causing a flash of golden light that shot over to Nolan's imprisoned spirit and caused the cage of energy to dissipate like an object that had been dropped in potent acid.

The second arrayment had a much more impressive effect, seemingly rewinding time and summoning Nolan's stolen body back to the last place that it had been within site. As soon as the culprit appeared, he was trapped in a golden cage that was similar to the one that had just been destroyed. The entrapment was so fast that Nolan hadn’t even seen his teacher draw out or activate the arrayment diagram that had created it. Surprisingly, the ancient Neoman vanished from within the cage and appeared elsewhere in the glade, where he immediately traced out an arrayment that caused a massive windstorm to erupt in the area. The gales were so vicious that dozens of the closer trees were ripped from their roots and thrown around like grocery bags caught up in a passing breeze.

What stunned Nolan and heightened his fear by a few degrees was that he was swept up in the windstorm and suddenly assailed by a strange, burning pain. This pain vanished almost immediately, when a globe of blue energy appeared around him and shielded him from the elemental onslaught.

He gave Uncle Grey a thankful nod as he stared at the deadly wind with serious eyes. He wasn't a physical being at the moment, so that wind shouldn't have been able to exert any influence over him. And yet, both he and his teacher were momentarily affected, though the latter had moved quickly to protect them.

Hovering about a hundred metres above the ground, Uncle Grey didn't hesitate to activate another diagram that came to life in the form of an undulating blanket of energy that quickly dispelled the storm upon contact.

"Nolan!"

Nyla and Ian appeared on the fringes of the foreign glade, both looking about with worry as soon as they saw the bizarre scene taking place. Nyla was the first to notice that the person that Uncle Grey was battling wasn't him, both of his friends quick to spot the bubble of blue energy that was currently protecting his spirit.

"Go back!" commanded Uncle Grey, the authority in his voice something that they were unfamiliar with.

They were both encased in similar spheres of energy as Nolan's spirit was, though theirs seemed to have a different energy composition to compensate for their physicality.

"What the hell is going on?" yelled Ian, as he and a distraught Nyla were hurled back to the original glade.

Uncle Grey didn't spare them a glance as he shielded himself from a rain of golden arrows by waving his sleeve and conjuring a sheet of shimmering energy. With a vibrant explosion, the energy consolidated into the same type of basic barrier arrayment that he had taught Nolan all those months ago, though on a much larger scale. This one, however, absorbed the incoming attack and fired it back at a much greater strength, causing the unsuspecting enemy to blink in and out of vision all throughout the glade as he masterfully avoided each attack by the skin of his teeth.

From within the globe of protective energy, Nolan drank in the battle with anxious and awed eyes. This was the first time that he'd witnessed a fight between true arrayment practitioners–no, Arrayment Masters. Whether it was Uncle Grey or the spirit that had possessed Nolan's body, their hands were constantly a blur of motion, their bodies always in motion as they continuously anticipated and counteracted one another’s attacks. They continued to attack and counterattack one another in an endless stream of devastating spiritual arrayments, neither of them bothering to look at the diagrams that they continued to trace out, neither’s eyes leaving the other. Arrows, spears, swords, axes; all sorts of weapons made of light had materialized in the short amount of time since the fight had begun. Not only that, but artificial waves of liquid energy, small bombardments of sun-like globes, living ropes of colourful vines that seemed to hone in on their targets; Nolan had never seen anything like it.

Faced with a return volley of ashen arrows, Uncle Grey erected a dome-like barrier, though it immediately burst apart. A second one appeared behind it just in time to stop the ruthless barrage, though only barely. All of them were slightly embedded into the translucent barrier like darts in a dartboard. Seeing his projectiles frozen in place, the Neoman clenched his right hand into an exaggerated fist, causing them all to abruptly shine with a collective light and then detonate within the same breath.

Uncle Grey contained the explosion by conjuring a transparent cube of menacing red energy around the man and his missiles—the transparent box instantaneously growing so large that it filled half the field—which quickly shrunk down to the size of a small shed. Both Nolan's body and the resultant blast were confined within the three-dimensional space, which fragmented on all sides when a muffled thud followed the momentary flash of light that signified the missiles’ detonation.

"Y—you didn't just kill my body, did you?"

Something about the energy composition of Uncle Grey’s most recent arrayment made Nolan a bit wary, but then again, so too did all of the attacks that the two were unleashing.

Nolan's mind was numb as he stared down at the quieted field in shock. He almost cheered when a smoky shadow smashed through a fractured wall and then tried to flee into the forest for a second time, though this momentary relief quickly soured.

"Uncle Grey, he's getting away!"

"Do you think I'm blind?"

The man disappeared by relying on the same step of his movement skill that he had used earlier, the only one that he seemed capable of using at the moment.

Anticipating the man's move, Uncle Grey finished drawing out an arrayment diagram that he had used many times throughout the fight. Upon activation, the man was returned to his former spot just like before. This time, however, he was prepared and immediately used his movement skill to blink out of sight as soon as he appeared. Branches broke and leaves were scattered and torn as longswords of silver energy suddenly ripped their way free of a random patch of tree cover. Weaving his way through the air like a flash of dull smoke, Uncle Grey finished drawing out another diagram, which appeared to be an altered version of the first. He did this even as he began to draw a third one with the hand that he'd just freed up.

As the man appeared in the same spot yet again, the third and final arrayment suddenly increased the flow of gravity and sent Nolan’s body crashing down onto the ground below. Lying spread eagle on the grass, the defeated cultivator stared up at Uncle Grey with a venomous expression, one that had never found its way onto that face before.

"If I had been in my prime—"

"Yeah, probably," said Uncle Grey, who began drawing out another diagram that appeared to have many layers to it. "But unfortunately, you're not. Besides, I can say the same thing, can't I?"

The man's eyes widened as he recognized the arrayment diagram that was moments away from completion. "Stop! If you forcibly remove me from this body, then the boy will—"

Uncle Grey sealed his mouth with a detachment of raw spiritual energy in the same moment that he activated the arrayment, though this seemed a pointless act as the man's eyes soon rolled into the back of Nolan's head, body slumping over. Slowly, the grey visage of the unknown spirit began to leak out of Nolan's torso like syrup from a tapped maple. Not long after came a shrill scream of pain, this time in the man’s original voice.