“Step Formation 1! Full offense! Let’s Kill that bastard!” Mathias shouted as he dashed forward. Klaws following him.
“On it!” Luminus said as Kaki and Moon got into position.
“Bring it on, kids!” The last fighter taunted.
As Mathias and Klaws dashed forward in unison, Luminus squeezed every ounce of psychic power he had. He pushed Klaws and Mathias forward, boosting them. The two boys suddenly got faster and clashed with the last fighter who was a little confused when he was hit in the face and chest and sent tumbling a few meters back.
“Wha…!?” The man tried to say before something else hit him. Moon weaved a spell that created a blindfold around the man’s eyes. It was something really easy for him to dispel but Kaki only needed a moment to throw his spear straight into one of the man’s eyes. If not for his currently buffed stats he would have a spear inside his skull.
As soon as the spear just stopped slightly above the man’s eyebrows Moon was already close enough to try and stab the man in the eye. The last fighter tried to send a punch in Moon’s direction but Mathias and Klaws, still boosted by Luminus, attacked his arm and changed the trajectory of his punch. This also made Moon miss but he was not hit either.
Getting stronger was something the boys now found somewhat funny. Almost everyone agrees that true cultivation is the best path to power that there is, even if it is the hardest one, with personal talent not taken into account. Most of the most powerful people in history, now and before, were true cultivators, not that there weren’t people following a single other path but they weren’t the norm. Still, the boys reached a strange conclusion in the middle of their training. Most true cultivators do not reach the peak of their potential.
Controllers and Emitters need only to slowly train and, for lack of better terms, become one with the world around them, as they only deal with mana. The more mana they can work with, the stronger they are, there isn’t really something they can train. As for the cultivators, the basic cultivator can train their personal aspect of that cultivation. A body cultivator can train his body so even if his cultivation can’t multiply his power that much, it will multiply more as he has more to multiply. The same applied to soul and mind cultivators.
As for true cultivators, most if not all, never worked in their basic aspects as much as the ones following a single cultivation path because as they advanced, they would exponentially get stronger and their body would be naturally ready to use that power. With all that in mind, a question came up when they talked. What would happen if a true cultivator actually trained? Their answer was a monster. Not necessarily Mia but it was what they had in their head.
Mathias, Luminus and Kaki’s training were pushing their bodies to the limit and Mathias could feel that, at least physically, he was getting very strong. If he could manage to continue that training, even at higher levels of cultivation, he would become way more powerful. Kaki and Luminus soon after began to convert into true cultivators. They knew it was possible to get stronger without becoming one but they didn’t feel like they had the time to wait. True cultivation was harder but provided a stronger boost to them. They would still focus on their original paths, Kaki training his body more while Luminus trained his mind more, but they would still continue to try to get a stronger base.
As for why they found the idea of getting stronger funny, it is that they found out that until you cultivated enough to not really need your body, no matter how powerful you were, people always had the same weak points, the eyes. Strengthening your eyes was a fool’s errand, not even Mia could do it without getting blind soon after. No matter how powerful an opponent was, the boys knew that they had at least two places they could attack.
Once Moon hit the ground, Klaws and Mathias moved to attack, each going after one eye. The last fighter quickly put his guard up, still confused as to what the boys were trying to do. The boosted attack was enough to make the man stumble backwards again.
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As soon as the man opened his guard just a little, Kaki appeared above him, trying to impale one of his eyes from above. The man grabbed the spear and tried to send Kaki flying by weaving it around. He was only stopped when Moon once again hit the man’s face with a spell that removed his vision for a moment. The man instinctively tried to protect his face, only for Klaws and Mathias to lift him off the ground for a moment, making him fall on his back.
As soon as the last fighter felt his back on the ground, he sent a pulse of his mana out of his body, sending the boys flying as he tried to get back up. It took less than 3 seconds for him to get back up but the boys were waiting. The man was angry and he was going to finish the fight, he didn’t care about what might happen to the boys.
With a powerful dash, the last fighter went towards Luminus, who seemed to be the one supporting everyone, one way or another. Before the man was even half the way, Mathias appeared in front of him and attacked with his stone covered sword. The man instinctively attacked the sword with as much power as he could, sending it flying off Mathias’ hands. He then moved to punch Mathias with his other hand and to his surprise Mathias intercept his punch with a punch of his own. Once they touched, the man could feel that Mathias didn't break anything but it was clear that the boy was in extreme pain.
“Boy, I will show you what death is like!” The last fighter said in anger. He could process how people so much weaker than him were able to fight him.
“Took the words right out of my mouth.” Mathias said back, more seriously than it had any right to be.
Mathias dashed forward with Luminus’ help. He swung his fist, throwing a punch in the man’s direction. Klaws followed suit, attacking the man’s other side. The last fighter intercepted both attacks with two small punches and kicked Klaws back.
“You wanted to teach us what death feels like? Let me see if you really know it! Finish him!” Mathias shouted and he managed to slip towards the man’s back.
Mathias hugged the man from behind and poured all his mana into two spells. One to reinforce his body to the maximum and another to ground both him and the man on the ground with stones.
The last fighter began to panic as he couldn’t really move away from where he was stuck no matter how much force he applied to his movements. He began to panic more as the four remaining boys got close and began to do something.
Kaki readied his spear, Moon coated it in darkness, using all his remaining mana, Luminus then coated the spear in psychic energy and began to rotate it like a drill. It took less than five seconds for Kaki’s spear to be overcharged like never before. The last fighter was panicking, thrashing around as much as he could. He punched and elbowed Mathias but the boy held on, planting both of them on the ground.
“It wasn’t for this to be personal, but if all of you want it so badly, we will give it to you. I looked death in the face once and I can say that I never want to have to do it again. It is not worth it. Let’s see if you can survive a glimpse of it.” Mathias said, almost smiling. The last fighter could feel something from Mathias that he could only describe as madness.
Once the spear was fully charged, Klaws poured all his power into his body and dashed forward, punching the spear from Kaki’s hand straight into the man’s face. The audience couldn’t really feel it as the attack was not directed to them but the last fighter could feel every bit of bloodlust the boys had coming into that attack. All the things they perceived as wrong in this entire thing was being put into that attack. The man couldn’t move, it was too overwhelming, he couldn’t process how those kids could have such bloodlust.
The spear pierced the man’s eyes and not a moment later the man vanished, eliminated.
The area stood in silence, nobody truly believing what had happened. The four boys walked towards Mathias who was a bloody mess from all the attacks they received to hold the last fighter in place. They all supported Mathias up and held their hand up as they shouted, announcing their win. The announcer, the audience, even some fighters that came out to see the fight, commemorated along with them.
The boys were guided to a private waiting room where Mathias was slowly being healed by someone.
“It wasn’t enough…” Mathias said as he was slowly being put together by a member of the Healers guild.
“What do you mean? We won triple what we would, not taking into account the bet.” Kaki said.
“Even together we barely managed to beat someone of that level. I don’t feel that I am getting stronger fast enough…”
“Without the blonde one we would be paste on the ground. I need to train more, this is far from enough. That man wasn’t even half as strong as the guy from the trip and he almost killed all of us.” Klaws added.
All the boys couldn’t help but agree. They had the mindset and some experience but in the end power triumphs all. On the good side, they were rich now.