Soul Battle

Noah's figure blurred as he dashed forward with Dragon Steps. He had found out that everything he could use even in his past life could be used here within the Soul world as long as his body had form. Because of this, this skill was brought to its former glory.

Unlike the times when he used the skill, instead of reinforcing his legs with blood essence, a strange energy wrapped around him and brought him forward with tremendous speed reaching 200 meters per second! This was more than half the speed of sound!

On Earth, Martial arts training could be divided into two stages; Internal Force and External Force. The former dealt with the strengthening of one's body and internal organs while the latter could materialize one's life force to attack.

These two stages were very hard to set foot in. More than half of Martial arts practitioners failed to get into the Internal Force stage and half of that number couldn't get into the External Force stage.

But Noah did.

Dragon Fist Cannon!

Unlike the poor gimmick that his past assailant performed, the air cannon launched from this attack displayed its powerful might as it pushed the huge Evan away.

Alyssa swooped in at that point to launch her attack. Dark Angel's Radiance! Her attack created a densely packed beam of Dark Essence. The dark beam tore a wound at the body of Evan and Noah noticed as his body dimmed ever so slightly to heal that wound.

"Die insects!" Evan roared as a devastating aura was unleashed from his body. His flames left his body to create flaming skulls that blasted at the two.

Naturally, Noah and Alyssa weren't idiots. The flames from the sun on the outside could already damage them so badly even with their souls seated safely within their bodies, now that they were in here with their vulnerable soul forms, the damage would be devastating. They quickly used their respective movement techniques to dodge the attack.

Alyssa had also realized that as long as she could remember the execution of her Battle Art, even if her body couldn't perform it, she could in here.

Noah executed Flicker to appear before Evan, safely keeping a distance from the soul damaging flames and attacked with his Vertical Cleave. Unlike before, an illusionary dragon shaped claw appeared around the sword, swiping at Evan's body.

Five claw marks appeared on the Devilsoul master's body but soon began to heal but Noah wasn't done yet.

Claw Frenzy! Violent Storm Sword: Gale Blade!

His movements created afterimages as he attacked Evan's body in succession. The latter sneered as a shield of flames appeared before him to block.

But shockingly, the shield couldn't last long against Noah's attack. Only managing to block about 70% of the power, allowing the rest to meet Evan's body.

The Devilsoul master couldn't be blamed. If his flames were geared towards defense, such an attack wouldn't even leave a nick, but it wasn't. So he could only bag the damage and watch his body dim more in frustration.

Suddenly a dark radiance flashed as Alyssa appeared behind him. This was an advanced skill in her movement technique, Shadow Step. It allowed her achieve something close to teleportation, albeit slower than Noah's near instant Flicker. This was something she knew couldn't be used until the peak of the Adept Stage because of its energy consumption. But in this place where their energy came from their soul form, she could perform it.

"Dark Angel Crucifix." She swung her sword, sending out a cross shaped energy slash that bit at Evan's skin.

"Dammit!" The Devilsoul master cursed and released a wave of flames that spread at every direction. The duo immediately jumped backwards to dodge the flames, with Alyssa fully transforming into a dark feathered Phoenix to escape, but the speed she flew out was not fast enough to outrun the spreading flames. Unlike Noah's Flicker, she needed time to prepare her Shadow Step, disallowing her from fully escaping.

Seeing the flames about to swallow her, Noah sucked in air and executed another attack.

Dragon Roar! At his shout, a dragon head appeared above him to release a loud roar that produced a massive shockwave that made Evan's soul form waver. That waver was enough for the flames to loose form and disperse.

Noah would, of course, not let this opportunity slip. His energy twisted like a whirlwind showing the execution of his Drill Thrust.

At this point Evan could already see that, even if his opponents couldn't directly kill him, they could slowly exhaust his strength. Because, unlike the two, he couldn't use his former techniques as his soul was still badly damaged and could only use his Intent. But as his Intent was geared towards offensive or defensive power, he couldn't do much against them unless they were dumb enough to let his flames touch them.

Seeing this attack, Evan risked his soul crumbling further to use one of his movement techniques from his memories. Flame Flash. His body dissolved into fire as he reappeared a few meters away from the attack.

But Noah seemed to have expected this as his attack easily dispersed, hinting at a feint attack. He then Flickered to appear before Evan with his sword slashing downwards. Dragon Tail Whip! Gravity Force 500kg!

Evan groaned as his body was slammed towards the ground. His flames materialized as a whip that hit at Noah, sending the latter flying. His Flame Flash was about to be executed when Alyssa appeared.

Dark Angel's Meteor Shower! Her figure blurred as multiple dark beams pierced through Evan's body making him dim once more.

In the sky, Noah appeared once more. His sword was covered by what seemed to be a massive whirlwind that spanned in the shape of a lance, revealing the true form of Drill Thrust. He couldn't perform it because Battlesoul masters couldn't release Essence until the Adept Stage. In the Intermediate Stage, he could only coat his sword with a small whirlwind.

An explosion rang out as Evan was pushed a few hundred meters away with a grin expression. His body was now half as dim as he was in the beginning of this fight.

Looking at the duo, he noticed that Alyssa was now more than half as dim as she was too while Noah's soul form was almost fully translucent with bits of his soul form spreading out as trickles. This was the sign that he was close to exhausting his entire soul power.

Yet Evan was not happy, because there were two people. And with one of them keeping him occupied, the other could just take some time to heal. Because he was now at less than half of his powerful state as he was in the beginning, this was possible even if it was Alyssa battling him.

This was a battle of attrition. And he was on the losing side.