Dodge, dodge, dodge!

"It's actually cold!"

Andrew exclaimed in shock, it was obvious from their reactions that Melissa and even Catharina were caught by surprise.

They, along with Nickyle, who had a dark aura surrounding him, and the two instructors, stood atop the peak of a snowy mountain, looking down on the icy field that Anon and Seth faced off atop of.

Along with adopting a pair of gauntlets, Anon had taken off his boots, adorning that specific footwear.

His toenails, now longer, sharper, metallic even, also helped his footing and stability in this weather, especially on this icy field.

Neither Anon nor Seth spoke.

They had already spoken to each other enough times.

Seth casually rested a staff on his shoulder.

Now, this wasn't a weapon that Rolan had recommended, but whether he liked it or not, Seth still chose it.

Anon rushed in.

His figure transformed into a blur that traversed atop the icy field like a bullet train, approaching Seth some distance away. 

The latter saw this and smiled.

Internally, he mused to himself whilst glancing at the staff, 'The question isn't how am I going to defeat you, oh Anon,'

'Just, I wonder, how much do I expose?'

'The three principles, only one can be used, exposed.'

'The second world, it's power, I will not expose either.'

'My mastery over the staff can be explained, but if I show something beyond mastery, that is a no-go either.'

'Okay then, let me unlock your potential, and show you, the instructors, and those other children, the concept of a paradoxical genius.'

All these thoughts occurred within the moments that made up a single second.

Anon had yet to arrive, and Seth, he extended his staff.

Outstretched, he lowered the staff and tapped the front tip onto the ground twice.

'Sounds dull, and pathetic.' He mused inwardly, 'Most things in this world are like this, pathetically weak.'

Anon appeared within Seth's striking distance.

But it was not Anon's, and he knew this.

For him to strike, he needed to go even closer.

When Seth's staff arched through the air, it rushed towards the center of Anon's chest.

Dodging to the side, Anon pushed off the ground leaving behind a small crater and attempted to close the gap.

Bang!

Without realizing how, Anon's head buzzed as the blunt pole lashed across his chest and sent him hurling.

A mouthful of blood came from his throat, but he swallowed it back down whilst skidding across the icy field.

Seth didn't move an inch as he twirled the pole playfully whilst observing it.

"Anon, do you think that a staff wielder can only utilize the tip of the staff to attack?"

Hearing this, Anon understood.

When he dodged the staff, he thought Seth would need to retract before stabbing out once more, but really, why would it be so?

That was simply too ineffective.

Even if it was outstretched, there was no reason for him to not attack with the body of his weapon.

In the first place, the staff wasn't a spear, so there was no head, no pointed edge.

It was a blunt weapon, more than piercing skin, it shattered bones.

Seth grinned, darting towards Anon.

Anon was a dozen or so meters away, but such a distance was devoured instantly, and from two meters away, Seth struck out.

His staff darted towards Anon, but the latter had already reacted yet, Seth had expected this much.

Mid-attack, his staff abruptly changed trajectories and whizzed to the left where Anon had evaded to.

To this, Anon could not react, instead, he instinctively dodged via the Man Like Beast movements, ducking under the staff, he used all four limbs like an animal to push himself closer to Seth.

As expected, Seth was caught off guard, but it didn't mean he was defenseless, instead sending a kick towards Anon.

But it was still something manageable, allowing him to evade to the side and rise from his quadrupedal movement, jumping into the air as he hovered over Seth for a period, in which, he grabbed at the back of the latter's head with both hands.

Pulling Seth's head towards him, Anon's right knee charged forward.

Bang!

Seth's pole blocked Anon's knee, before striking out. But Anon move quickly, creating some distance between himself and Seth.

"Heh, that was close!"

Seth laughed as Anon's retreating figure was assaulted by tens of strikes.

Indeed, it was tens.

Seth extended his staff and retracted it, completing these two actions in one fluid motion.

When he extended it again, it surged towards Anon at an even faster rate, retracting faster than it did before, as Seth then did it again.

In Anon's gaze, it appeared as if there were over a dozen staff wielders striking out simultaneously.

Using Man Like Beast, he evaded many strikes and yet…

'A space!'

Anon saw this opening but he did not move to it, instead, parrying Seth's rod.

If he had moved to that space, his whole set of movements would've been thrown off, creating a gap in his defense and allowing Seth to have a field day. 

This was the downside of a technique that one had mastered only to muscle memory.

Yet, what could he do.

Mastering techniques wasn't something simple, it needed time.

Maybe a day to get the basics down, or it could be seven days.

To master it fully, true mastery might take a week or a month, maybe three or six months even with the technology and guidance from said technology that was available currently.

He twisted, ducked, evaded, and parried, he couldn't and didn't get any chances to enter close quarters from Seth.

He didn't have overwhelming speed like Nickyle, and even if he did, remember when Seth reacted to Nickyle at that time?

Thinking about this, wasn't Seth way too strong.

'Is this even the first world?'

He had previously believed that Seth was still in the first world like himself. Maybe there were some doubts when perceiving Seth's state after exiting the gravity room, but...

Even if he had used magic rituals, it wasn't really feasible to use magic rituals consecutively, so he thought that Seth hadn't even fully absorbed it's strength.

But what if he did? 

Finally, Anon's defenses crumbled, and an attack landed on Anon's gut. 

When one landed, it opened the path for more to follow.

Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!

His lower abdomen, upper abdomen, thorax, heart, right chest, forearms, and thighs all endured a relentless barrage.

Seth was utilizing the blood principle, so Anon didn't want to, he tried his best to resist, but right now, he couldn't hold it any longer.

Several mouthfuls of blood rushed up his throat, but he swallowed back most of it, and yet, blood still seeped out of his lips.

When another pole landed on his abdomen, he grunted in pain and blood spilled into the outer world.

As he coughed up the blood, Seth's staff appeared almost illusory, circling the crimson liquid. It seemed to levitate in the air like a blob of goo held within invisible hands.

Chi! Chi! Chi! Chi!

Seth's staff moved in a dreamy manner.

Retracting, he stabbed into the floating blob of blood.

When the pole exited the other side, it rushed towards Anon's figure.

But faster than Seth's rod was a droplet of blood the size of a plum.

'Dodge, dodge, dodge!'

Anon's bloodshot eyes were widened to the max.

A stellar fighter was sensitive to the passage of time, and within a second its moments.

Currently, with stakes as high as this, from Anon's point of view, these moments stretched out longer than usual.

He could see as the droplet of blood rushed towards him.

It drew closer, closer, and closer.

At first, his body refused to move; his mind was racing too quickly.

When he finally managed to budge, he couldn't truly evade... his instinctive movements were to follow the Man Like Beast art.

But this…

No matter what happened, if he followed the art, he would end up suffering, unable to evade Seth's attack.

There was an opening, yet his body refused to move, unwilling to go there.

Refusal…

Refusal…?

Refusal…!

A crazed expression etched itself onto Anon's face.

Seth was already a world beyond him, and now his own body refused to listen to his command?!

No, unacceptable!

Unacceptable!