The air pressure suddenly felt like it became heavy. Owen’s breathing rate increased in order to compensate. His thoughts were confused about the two figures in front of him. Neither of them had given him a look. They only continued to stare at one another in a stalemate. The once fat Water Bull man had water dancing around him, nearly covering his body, at times Owen could see glimpses of white through the intense blue Essence. There was at least 20 individual streams wrapped around him. The water sparkled beautiful as it reflected the light off the sun. In fact for the skinny man it was even more stunning. Not because it was simply beautiful but instead that the danger radiating off of the water caused his body to shiver in ecstasy. He hugged himself tightly rubbed his arms basking in the feeling of having a cold shiver.

The Water Bull gaze was full of detest towards this man but even still it was a job that he had to complete and reluctant or not, he would do what was required of him. He stretched is now skinny belly out and jumped straight towards the skinny man. In return the skinny man stopped holding himself. He held his hands outwards with his palms facing the ground. As he did this, the black gas started to rushed and wiggle on his palms looking to rise into the air. It looked like a the skinny man was holding a snake down as it tried to slighter to freedom. But before the snake could escape the Water Bull arrived first.

The WAter Bull rose swung his fist out, but awkwardly enough his fist wasn’t close enough to the skinny man, instead the water itself formed into a giant fist and struck out! The skinny man retaliated with a slight twitch of his palm. The trapped snaked immediately wiggled free towards the oncoming water fist. As it came free it turned into a giant black gaseous snaked! Owen watched on as these two intense colours collided into one another.

Boom!

The Essence scattered into particles that were solidified in the air. Even though Owen inwardly wanted to praise how beautiful the combination of blue and black particles that filled his vision, it was simply too destructive. The particles blew past Owen and flung his body outwards. It was only a single exchange of blows and Owen who was at least a dozen meters away was swept off his knees and flung around! As the particles blew past him some struck into him as well shredding his skin off. He inwardly groaned as some pain was leaked through his voice. After a few moments Owen landed on his back, throwing up all the air deep within his lungs. He wasn’t able to properly stabilize himself in the air as he was mentally and physically exhausted.

But even though he was tired, the fight in front of him didn’t stop. Their first exchange was slow but in the next moment the Water Bull wa retaliating with strikes hitting air left and right. Soon after, his actions was followed by the movements of the streams turning into blades, fists or even a shield to block the black gas. Likewise the skinny man was only slightly turning his palms to allow the snake to roam free. If needed it turned into a 3 headed python or even a giant coiled cobra waiting to strike.

All of these strikes caused the air to shudder. Below their feet the earth was running away as they dug deeper and deeper. During this Owen stared in awe towards their strength.

“Even though it’s right in front of me I can’t believe how powerful it is.”

Although Owen was far enough to not be flung back any farther, bits of black and blue particles that solidified after clashing still flew past him. As they slashed into his skin Owen remained still, he was simply too surprised to be worried about a weak wound would like that. Even his broken arm didn’t mean anything to him at the moment.

“You’re pretty good! It looks like I can stretch out a bit more don’t you think Fallen?”

The Water Bull rubbed his belly slightly as he gave a faint smile. The Skinny black man didn’t speak, he was already sweating, but even still he welcomed the increase in intensity. For them to increase in power fighting like this was definitely a great benefit. As the skinny man responded by facing his palms towards themselves. The two black gases excitedly intertwined with one another. With nothing to stop it’s escape after intertwining it rose into the air expanding at a frightening rate. It then turned into a giant 9 headed Hydra! Though it was only the heads of a hydra as the body was still the source of the black gas that came from skinny man’s palms. When the last bit of gas was leaving his palms the skinny man slammed his palms together like praying as he controlled the Hydra to attack the Water Bull!

Even seeing this ferocious and deadly gas Hydra in front of him the Water Bull smiled even stronger than before. He was filled with a satisfaction to destroy the opponent's attack right in front of him. As for the Water Bull he enjoyed nothing more than destroying his opponent’s strongest attacks. Now because he wished to belittle his opponent, but instead because he wish to test this limits of his strength. This was why even if he complained, he would put all his effort into a fight. It didn’t matter if he was reluctant towards the job. He would utilize all of his strength to accomplish his task. The only thing was he had a hard time fighting at full strength from the beginning. After all if he did the fight would end to early. Although it sounded contradictory these things came in steps for the Water Bull. It was his respect towards his opponent to give them time to fight a bit before he demolished them. Especially that he loved to yell out his moves.

“Tetra Flowing Current!”

As the Water Bull roared he smacked his skinny belly with both of his hands. His actions were pointless but to him it was more a signature move. He wasn’t required to do it but it made it seem cooler. Just like shouting out the skill name made him sound cooler. At least that’s what he thought. After he did these redundant actions the 20 or so small streams started to flow into one another. As they danced in the air, all connected at a single point. This single point was directly in front of the Water Bull’s stomach. As the streams turned into a giant ball of water on the outside flowed 4 more streams. But these streams were not calm like the previously ones. They were filled with a strong white rapid that spun infinitely fast within itself. These four streams crawled out of the water ball slowly at fast but when it felt a sudden danger from the 9 headed Hydra that was already striking towards the Water Bull, they immediately responded by meeting them.

Owen once again was in awe. The fight was simply too incredible. As someone who could actually see the Essence forming as these attacks were formed he was able to see at the very least a glimpse of their pure power. Even though he could only comprehend a tiny fraction of this power, that alone was enough to tell how powerful these figures in front of him were. It was also a reminder that he had a long way to go on his Path. He was just at the starting point. And to truly gain his vision he had to keep walking. His thoughts ranged from underestimating the Tyrant Devourer, to all the things his master had taught him. They all converged into a single point that would later help him in the future. This was experience. Something he lacked much of, but luckily he was learning slowly.

During this fraction of a second Owen had already thought many things. But this fraction of a second was enough to watch the collision of these two forces. Through the Blind Motion technique, Owen watched the black 9 headed Hydra attack the 4 blue streams. But unlike the previous encounters the collision didn’t disperse, instead the 4 blue streams pierced through the 9 headed Hydra! They then bore their way through and went straight to the next target, the skinny man!

“Fuck!”

The Skinny man roared with unhappiness. Although previously he was excited, it all disappeared in the face of death. He clearly knew if he stayed here any longer he would die. But as the attack was too fast he couldn’t help dodge. Although reluctant he would watch his how his own life would disperse into nothingness. He wasn’t a coward, as no one who reached their level was. He didn’t want to die but he wasn’t afraid of it. As the Water Bull saw that the skinny man made no more attempts to block the strike he release his control of the Tetra Flowing Current. As he did the Essence was sucked back and the currents turned into harmless water slamming straight into the skinny man with incredible force. But even though this force was strong, it wasn’t something that could harm him. The skinny man looked back towards the Water Bull in confusion. As he did the Water bull snickered as he knew what he was thinking.

“If I kill everyone I beat, I’ll have no opponents in the future to get revenge. But that is that. And now you’re going to tell me the true reason you’re here!”

The Water Bull grabbed onto the skinny man not letting him go in the slightest. During this time Owen was catching his breath as the tension in the air dispersed. But as he was getting up, he saw a similar figure he had seen many times already. It was the impure Essence figure that had been following him since he entered the Boundary. It was actually walking towards the two experts.

“What is that person doing?”

Owen’s couldn’t understand what it was doing, but as he watched more carefully he realized that the figure wasn’t walking towards the two experts but instead towards the Cinder! Although water had flung everywhere an drenched the earth, only this spot was completely dry. It hadn’t been affected by the scatter of Essence in the least. Owen looked at the figure and back towards the two figures. He could clearly see this figure, but why weren’t the two experts reacting?

‘Do they just not care?’

But as he thought that he shook his head.

‘No, that isn’t possible. Is he hiding somehow? Why can I see him then?’

Just then as Owen was trying to figure out the mystery the figure picked up the Cinder and immediately left in the same direction it came! Although Owen was curious as to how the figure went unnoticed, as it stole the Cinder, that without a doubt didn’t escape his attention. Even though his body was exhausted he dragged it after the figure who stole the Cinder.

“Tell me Fallen. What are you doing here?”

The Water Bull asked with his deep voice. The water that was wrapped around him, was currently entering through his pores once again. His body became fatter at a visible rate and returned to its glorious appearance. He smacked his belly as it shook his entire body. His double chin had a smug look of victory to it. Still though his eyes glared towards the skinny man as he spoke. The skinny man didn’t meet the Water Bull’s gaze as he turned his head towards a different direction. And as he did this, he noticed a problem. The Cinder was gone! He immediately changed the subject as he looked towards the Water Bull and spoke.

“Hey you buffoon! The Cinder is gone!”

The Water Bull titled his head and replied without thinking.

“Huh? Who cares… wait did you actually think I would be fooled by that?”

The Skinny man rolled his eyes.

‘Do I need to lie to you?’

Instead he only answered simply.

“Want to make a bet?”

The Water Bull rose his eyebrows at this.

“Sure I bet it’s still there if I win you tell me what you’re doing here. If I lose I’ll let you go.”

The skinny man nodded happily as he pointed to the location where the Cinder once was. Following the direction the finger, the Water Bull immediately realized he had been too eager to finish this job. Had he just thought about it, if he carefully sensed the Cinder he could tell it was no longer there. He rubbed his temple as he let go the skinny man who ran away immediately after without looking back. On the other hand the Water Bull sighed as he happily patted his belly in comfort.

“I fucked up.”

-----------------------------

As for the Skinny man the moment he left the area he heaved a sigh of relief. At that same moment a voice echoed throughout the forest, but yet the sound was only heard by the skinny man. It was neither deep nor high pitched as it was slow paced.

“You who has failed. Shall become a Fallen who never rises again.”

“No wait! I can’t be blamed that it was the Water Bull! If it was anyone else I could hav…”

Before the skinny man could finish his entire body was wrapped in a silver dust. The dust came from nowhere but at the same time came from somewhere. As the dust dispersed there was no sign of the skinny man, and there was no sign of the silver dust. As if it had never existed in the first place.