022 Fight For First Place

Owen wasted no time in activating some technique. Two shadow clones appeared on each of his sides, half merged with him. The two clones copied every move and followed Owen's movements.

"I remember, he used that technique in the last fight too." Peter said. "The shadow clones have the same strength as him, and it is pretty impossible to dodge if he gets close to you. It's like fighting three people at once, without them having the disadvantage of not enough space."

Owen Rushed towards Kyle with the amazing speed of a cultivator in the fifth human realm. Even with that speed, it would take him a few moments to reach Kyle, because of the sheer size of the arena.

Kyle knew what would happen if Owen got close to him, so he did not stand idle. He throughout two punches with both of his hands, a fireball coming out of his hands and shooting forward towards Owen. Right after, he stomped his foot on the ground, sending a thin but fast-moving wave of lava.

Owen ducked under the fireballs and jumped over the wave of scorching hot lava. It seemed like nothing Kyle could do, was going to stop him from getting close to him.

Kyle face remained calm and he was planning his next attack. He through an uppercut which formed a vertical arched blade that traveled towards Owen, but he did not stop there and he through two more on each of the sides.

Owen just weaved through in between the massive slashes and he was right in Kyles's face.

"How is he moving so fast. When he weaves in between and how he dodges his attacks. I understand why he's first in the outer court." Liam was heavily admiring both of the fighters. Not having any fights to observe growing up and now looking at such high class of fighting. Liam was getting really inspired to get even stronger.

Just as everyone thought Owen was going to land a critical hit. One Kyle could not avoid. Kyle formed bots of molten lava on his feet and by melting the ground he was imitating how one could ice skate. His movement speed and mobility increased beyond what a normal fifth human realm cultivator was capable of.

Owen seemed to understand this instantly as he changed his tactic. He dissipated and deactivated the two shadow clones, instead a shadow expanded from his feet into a circle on the ground, surrounding him.

Everyone was surprised, this was a technique he hadn't used before and no one was quite sure what it did.

"It seems that Owen is planning something we have never seen before. What is this dark menacing circle?" The commentator said, as he was constantly sharing his thoughts and provoking the crowd to be more engaged with the fight.

"What is that." Liam asked.

"We don't know. He has never used a technique like this before." Even Peter, who seemed to be an expert in Owen's fighting style was clueless.

"I think I have seen this somewhere before. If I'm not mistaken, it deactivates all of the elemental abilities of cultivators inside of it, but it's downside, the user is not able to move while performing this technique. And it takes a toll on one's qi reserves." Ralph said.

"But the circle is so small, there isn't enough space for two people fighting." Liam pondered what Owens's plan was.

Kyle was having a similar conundrum. He had absolutely no idea what the dark circle was and what was Owen's plan. This is why knowing your opponent's element and move set was so valuable before a fight.

"I can't risk it." Kyle thought to himself as he throughout a fireball towards Owen, to test what the dark circle would do.

As soon as Liam saw the fireball fly towards Owen, he knew what was his plan. "He is planning on using the dark circle as defense. With Kyle's fast movement, he can just circle around Owen and Fire attacks at him until he is too exhausted to dodge and gets hit." Liam commented.

The fireball flew through the air and as soon as it touched the perimeter of the dark circle, the fireball vanished.

Kyle now had a guess of what the circle did, but he still was not sure. So, he throughout a few more attacks from all sides but they all showed the same result.

"It's visible that it is not a physical shield. With the speed I possess and how still he is sitting for me, I can completely destroy him with one kick if I move at max speed." Kyle formed his new plan and he took it into action immediately. He started speeding up and heading towards Owen.

He was moving at an incredible speed; Kyle raised his leg that was aiming to break all of Owens ribs. As the fiery leg entered the dark circle, all of the lava and fire disappeared, but the sheer power behind that kick was still deadly.

"This is what I have been waiting for." Owen said as he jumped backwards and grabbed Kyles's foot towards the end of his kick, when it had the least amount of power.

Because of the speed at which Kyle was moving and not making contact with his planed target, Kyle was thrown completely off balance.

"It seems like Owen has complete control over Kyle. Is this the end for their rematch. Will the underdog that rose through the ranks and became the champion retain his title as the strongest cultivator in the outer court of the Mystical Turtle Sanctuary?" The commentator kept shouting.

"I feel bad for that guy." Aria said and every one there agreed with her.

"I knew the shadow child had something planed." Peter was very excited and Liam shared his enthusiasm.

"He had all of that planed since the beginning! He predicted that Kyle was going to attempt to get close to him. Just how good of a fighter is this guy?" Liam was very excited seeing a fight between professionals.

"Liam, are you also a fan of the shadow child?" Peter asked Liam.

"No, I just like fighting." Liam said, without even turning his head, his whole attention on the fight in front of him.

"What's with that name anyway, shadow child?" Ralph asked.

"It is a nickname given to Owen by his fans." Peter explained and he was very apparently a part of that fan group.

When Owen caught Kyle, he spun him around for half a second, before he smashed him into the ground. Then Owen instantly activated his shadow clones, each holding down one of Kyles hands.

With Kyle immobilized on the ground, Owen did not waste this chance as he started pounding at him from the top.

Kyle was trying to move away but he was unable to. Even the elder on standby thought the match might be over here and he prepared to stop the two at any moment necessary.

Kyle screamed and a stream of lava erupted from his right hand, like a mini volcano it completely

burnt the shadow clone and forced Owen to run, unless he wanted to be burnt too.

Kyles's face was all bloody and he was enraged. He summoned two whips of molten lava and fire, one per hand. Then he began to whip at Owen like a maniac.

The whips were incredibly fast and could get shorter and longer, thicker and thinner as Kyle needed. Owen did not have any way to dodge the whips and he did not want to get hit by one of those.

In the end Owen summoned his dark circle again, but that was only a temporary solution. Kyle without much thought kept hitting the whips at Owen, even though they made no sort of damage to him.

Owen was panicking, a normal person would stop wasting energy when they saw that their attack was not working, but Kyle just kept hitting the dark circle around him.

The strain on his face was visible. With each hit of the whip, he was getting more and more exhausted and strained to keep the technique going.

In the end Owen lowered his dark shadow circle and he spoke.

"I surrender."

But acting as if he did not hear him, Kyle did not stop his whips and they were still aiming to hit Owen.

Just before the first whip made contact with Owens's neck, the elder came in to stop it.

"Disciple Kyle, contain yourself!" The elder Shouted at him.

"I hereby pronounce this match over; the winner is Kyle Burn by surrender. And for not stopping his attack when disciple Owen surrendered, he will be punished. We shall discuss what his punishment will be with the other elders. For now, everyone is dismissed." The elder said as he sent everybody away.

"That was amazing!" Liam thought as he was still processing all that he saw. The fighting techniques that the used and the unexpected result. Liam had a lot to think about and he was very excited to get to his training.