The hammer came down like a living thunderbolt, and Sam barely got up his own weapon in time to block. The attack had been imbued with a conceptual level of power, and its Dao enhanced nature rendered it so that it was nigh on impossible to fully escape. If Sam had tried to run, it would have caught him anyway. Instead, he had to stand his ground and struggle to assert his own will over the situation.

His bones cracked under the strain, and it felt as if he was holding up the weight of the world with his hands. Sakarth grinned, and started to channel his Dao, which felt like something to do with the concept of dominance or some similar ideal, and Sam started to lose out in the conflict.

He gritted his teeth, and brought his own Dao fully to bear, refracting his Dao Mote of Resolve through his armor. There was a loud chime, and his Dao clashed with the Dao of Sakarth in the air between them, and mainly in the point of contact between their weapons. Sam was starting to push back however, and he smiled as Sakarth seemed to realize that he had underestimated Sam’s strength of will and the force of his Dao. Sakarth had chosen to initiate the sort of contest that Sam was uniquely predisposed to win.

Sam roared, and channeled all of his pent up anger and rage into his body, fuelling the raging bonfire of his Dao within him. His body seemed to explode with red light as he channeled his power into his aura, and red flames licked at his hammer. Slowly but surely, the encroaching effects of Sakarth’s Dao were pushed back, and soon Sam had the upper hand.

With one final titanic push, Sam shot Sakarth backwards through his sheer Dao prowess. There was a blast of red and blue light as his Daos mingled, and Sakarth was sent skidding over the battlefield, ramming into his compatriots.

The nearby fighters were all slowly withdrawing from the zone of Sam’s fight with Sakarth, and he couldn't help but feel a little bit of satisfaction at how far he had come.

Sam bounded forwards, not wasting a second of his advantage, and reached Sakarth in moments, already bringing his hammer down on top of the man. Sakarth got his own weapon up and blocked the strike, diverting it into the ground.

Sam tore his weapon free from its inertia, and swung again, this time managing to land a hit on his opponent. It didn't do that much, as it was only a glancing blow, but it still landed nonetheless.

Sam was forced backwards by a sudden burst of light from Sakarth, and he stumbled backwards, momentarily blinded. The other man rose up from the ground on pinions of white light, borne aloft by angelic wings of radiance.

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He shot up into the sky, hundreds of feet into the air. Sam looked up at the man in shock, and then dove out of the way as one of the feathers of light shot down at him. It drilled into the ground next to him, before exploding in a corona of light. Sakarth was bringing out all the big guns now, it seemed.

Sam smiled in the face of this adversity, as he knew that this was exactly what he needed. Mentor or not, he would be coming out of this fight a stronger individual than before.

Sam closed his eyes, and channeled the purest incarnation of his Dao that he could muster into his left hand, mingling it with his mana and elemental energy. Focusing on the idea of his Anger’s Reach skill, Sam empowered it beyond its normal level, drawing upon all of the various enhancement abilities that he had going at the same time. What came into being a fraction of a second later was not the same attack that he had used before in his battles.

An ancient looking lance of dark yellow light and what looked to be conceptual rage slid out of a tear in reality, turning into stone as it fully appeared. The technique was covered in veins of red light, and it was warm to the touch. It was not the same beam of energy as before, but it felt even more powerful to Sam. As Sakarth hovered there, Sam roared out the name of his new attack, throwing it as he did so.

“Sky Piercing Wrath!” He screamed, trying to make the name of his new skill match its purpose.

With a boom, the spear shot out of his hand, far faster than it should have. With a grin, he realized that he had achieved his goal. Without having to even check, he knew that he now possessed another Mythical skill in his arsenal. He had possessed the Anger’s Reach skill for long enough to have gathered enough insights to upgrade it, and he was quite happy with the results.

The air seemed to scream as the lance shot through the air. Streams of red light blossomed out of the base of the lance, propelling it even faster than before. Sakarth flitted away, his wings carrying him at high speeds, but the lance changed its direction. Just like wrath, this attack could not be avoided.

The lance hit home a moment later, and the sky erupted into light as a beam of pure power shot through Sakarth’s back and into the patchy clouds above. For the briefest of moments, the blast whited out the sky, and Sam could see all of the aliens within the nearest few miles look up in shock. It was far flashier than any of his other skills, and it might have even been more powerful than his Justice is Best Served Cold skill, seeing as he had added all three of his various power sources into the strike, that of his Dao, of his mana and of his elemental energy.

Sam took a step forwards, and suddenly fell to his knees, blood leaking out of the corners of his mouth. He had certainly achieved this goal in creating a powerful attack, but it seemed to have a toll on his body. He forced himself to his feet and looked up and the broken form of Sakarth plummeting down like a fallen angel, the wings of white light dissipating into nothingness as he fell. However, the man was not dead yet, and he righted himself midair. There was a six inch wide hold running through his stomach, and veins of fiery red ran across his form, burning his flesh.