Noah watched from a distance with bated breath as a middle-aged man with unremarkable features halted in front of the procession of four sect elders, awfully poised and expressionless for a man who was essentially being blackmailed.

A short conversation ensued between the parties, but due to the distance he couldn’t quite make out what they were saying; He did have an idea though, they were calling him out to a display of strength if he was truly the hidden Sect Leader, a clever justification to challenge him to combat without taking things too far.

The middle-aged man first seemed slightly offended, then… amused. Noah could almost hear the man’s laughter as he beckoned his opponents to attack, and surprisingly the four had incredibly grave expressions on their faces.

Five radiant auras erupted at the same time, transforming the battlefield from a duel between men to a war between monsters.

Azmahak had transformed into a familiar silhouette, a bladed lizardman, but the difference between his transformation and Samain’s was too drastic. Serpentine white scales enveloped his entire eight-meter-tall body, the exoskeleton of a human matched with the clawed limbs of a hawk and a protruding head that resembled the skull of a giant anaconda- two translucent blades in place of arms that glimmered under the sunlight, looking far more graceful than Samain’s Blades. It was a creature of pure white, barring the yellow pupils that continuously darted around the surroundings as if facing a predator of far greater rank than itself. Lean, wiry muscle that layered its exoskeleton indicated that much like its lesser counterpart, this was a creature, or rather a primordial spirit built for speed and lethality.

Sinai, curiously, had not completely transformed; Two majestic brown, feathered wings had materialized on his back, and a majestic spear that was taller than even himself was held in his right hand. His skin had taken on a metallic hue, as if he were a man fashioned out of iron instead of flesh and blood: He darted into the sky even before the fight properly began, flapping his wings with a mighty gust of air. Once Noah looked closer, he realized that those feathers too, had the same metallic sheen coating them. It was curious why he’d decided to partially transform, but Noah didn’t have enough experience in Primordial Spirit warfare to critique him.

Halaui loudly grunted, and his eyes once again took a silver hue. He pulled an elegant looking rapier out of a small pouch with his right arm, and his left transformed into a mass of silver fur with five terrifyingly sharp claws attached to his ‘paws’ that were each easily longer than a rapier- making him look like an unholy chimera born out of human experimentation. Noah figured that his transformation was more of a feint than anything else, as he knew his true powers lay in the field of mental manipulation.

The fourth man, about whom Noah only knew the name, Washun, and nothing else roared loudly and abruptly started growing in size; skyrocketing to a height of 10 meters in an instant. A gigantic ape stood in his place, with two curving tusks, and blood red eyes that screamed bloodlust, slamming its gigantic arms into the ground to make sure its presence was known. The ape different from regular anatomy in a few key places, its fur was a dull shade of grey instead of black, its arms were twice the size of what would be found in a regular ape when scaled to the same size, making them look like two hulking sacks of muscle the ape was forced to carry around, and its teeth were far too sharp for a creature that was generally an herbivore; long, thin and elongated, interlocking together to give a gruesome smile, much like those belonging to a shark or similar carnivorous species.

Noah had a side view of the battle, so it looked almost comical to him when four monsters stared down a single, puny man. Initially, it would seem as if the middle-aged man was still the same as before, except for a very subtle difference that was hard to detect from the distance- the man appeared to have been crystalized, as in a thin layer of crystal-like material enveloped the visible part of his body, including the face. Another thing Noah noticed was that the ground was sagging beneath the man, a phenomenon that not even the hulking ape could cause, which further increased his curiosity.

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The ape couldn’t hold back anymore, and was the first to charge. Even from a distance, Noah felt a tremendous amount of force and weight behind the mighty blow directed towards the puny human, instilling fear into him. This was a true clash of monsters, and he was pretty sure even in his Titan Form he couldn’t output more strength than that furious ape.

A loud wail of agony echoed out, and the middle-aged man uprooted the soil behind him as he went sliding back for ten meters. Noah realized the source of the agony was the ape itself, its right arm was a mangled mess, bleeding from ten different cuts over its massive digits.

“A valiant effort,” The middle-aged man said in a shrill voice that sounded highly unpleasant to his ears, but it was loud enough to be heard over the distance.

Noah realized that the hawk-man was nowhere to be found, glancing upwards only to find a glimpse of his silhouette, like a small bird, just a blip in the horizon.

The Bladed Lizardman was standing twenty meters away from the man, but it covered that distance in a flurry of motion. Noah only caught glimpses in the form of sparks against the man’s crystal skin, the two blades slicing, stabbing and probing with such ferocity that it left trails of motion behind.

“Do you not understand?” The middle-aged man scoffed, and lashed out with a kick. The Lizardman was repulsed away by a force so tremendous it appeared as if one moment he was standing next to the man and the next he was sent flying at least a hundred meters away.

“I am immutable,” The man stated, and Noah was inclined to accept that statement as fact rather than empty boast.

Filling in the gap left by Azmahak’s absence, Hulaui, who had snuck up behind the man, erupted in a unique set of footwork. His rapier was a flurry of motion, interjected by swipes of his natural claws that grated against the crystal with a loud screeching sound. The middle-aged man turned to look at Hulaui, and the moment they locked eyes he activated the same move he had used on the drugged clansman; A silver aura concentrated around his eyes, and for an instant it appeared as if it had worked.

“Mental manipulation? How banal,” The middle-aged man scoffed at Hulaui, swatting him aside with an errant swipe of his hand, causing him to tumble away for a few dozen meters.

Three sonic booms sounded out from above, and Noah realized he had forgotten to track Sinai’s movements. He was fast, faster than Azmahak, or the middle-aged man- descending towards the ground like a blazing meteor. From the slight twitch in his expression, Noah could tell that this was an impressive attack even by his standards, but he was still calm. Sinai plummeted downwards with gravity itself lending a hand to his breakneck pace, but at the last moment he slightly altered his trajectory and that of his spear to catch the middle-aged man in his abdomen.

The clash happened, and a loud crack echoed out- Sinai’s spear snapped in half, but the momentum behind the fall was too much to be denied, and the man went flying back a dozen meters.

Noah’s eyes widened as he noticed the ape had moved precisely in the correct position to receive the middle-aged man’s flying silhouette, and then realized he was staring right at him.

The ape had both sets of its digits interlocked, forming a closed fist that was no less lethal than a hammer, and with a mighty, defiant roar it smashed the flying man like swinging for a homerun right in Noah’s direction.

The sound of bones crunching and shattering echoed out, and Noah cringed at the sight of the mangled mess the Ape’s arms had been reduced to. All the more reason he couldn’t mess this up.

Noah was sure the man still had a calm, placid expression on his face- After all, why not? Nothing in the physical realm could pierce his defenses, in fact his opponents suffered either damage to themselves or their weapon each time they decided to point a sword at him. This was nothing but a show of strength to him, a game- Normally, Noah had no chance of defeating this kind of opponent, but when his foe himself had such a blind spot in his defenses, the job was easy.

Noah had already grasped, from the Ape’s body language, his intentions, so needless to say he was prepared for the moment. The Primordial Spirit he was utilizing seemed to retard the momentum behind each blow directed towards him- or maybe the material he was encased in just carried that much mass. Either way, the target had already touched the ground by the time he was reaching him, and still faced the other direction as he skidded towards mortal danger.