Whilst they are idling around, and just as Zero predicted, Marcus indeed attacked them. This time by hurling constructs at them.

The two of them were quick to dodge, but Marcus hurled more and more at them.

"This is annoying…!" Zero mumbled and shot forward a blast of Null Bolt towards Marcus. However, it was dispersed in the air because of the barrier that's surrounding him.

"Tsk… Annoying piece of shit."

In contrary to Zero who's retreating away, Ugong instead rushed forward.

He quickly leapt, not giving Marcus any moment to react and smashed the barrier which sent him flying away when it was cracked open.

Ugong followed through this and dug up tens of boulders using magic then hurled them all together.

Boom—!

The barrier wasn't yet strong enough to withstand such amount of force and hence, it was destroyed.

Shatter—!

He quickly dashed forward and began assaulting the recovering Marcus with a barrage of strikes with his staff!

As he continued landing hits on Marcus, Zero appeared beside him and threw a punch.

Tzzzt—!

He dodged it as it then landed on Marcus' face, blasting him away with its force and speed, crashing towards a tree and destroying its trunk.

Ugong laughed, "That wasn't for me, was it?"

"I've been wanting to punch that asshole for some time now, so no."

The two of them then exchanged hits! Zero was primarily a brawler, and despite Andres saying he'll teach him, they haven't really officially started yet, although he did gave him a bit of lessons about the basics of Kali.

Zero tried to put up a decent fight but Ugong's staff art is just too good since it was part of his Bloodline Powers; being born a master of it.

Zero's punches and attempts at kicking were futile as Ugong easily countered most of them. 'Most' that is…

With his fists imbued with Null Bolt, Zero managed to land a hit on Ugong's side, disintegrating it and turning into dust.

"Dammit… That thing again…!" Ugong exclaimed and he hurriedly healed himself.

However, Zero don't want him to catch a breather, despite Ugong still being significantly faster than him, he tried overwhelming Ugong with a barrage of attacks that are imbued by Zeus' lightning.

Paralysis do not work on Ugong due to how absurd his mana reinforcements and healing are, and his manipulation of metallic objects don't work on Astras due to them being crafted from very special materials. The only thing in his arsenal that he could use against this opponent is Null Bolt, since even shocking him with lightning have very little effect.

"I just needed to land some hits…!"

The two continued their brawl around the forest but then stopped as a massive force from above tried to turn them into a bloody paste.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Damn! One Vision!"

Ugong snapped his fingers, halting time as the wave of mana bursts in all directions. It neutralized Marcus' powers and froze Zero in time.

Using the very short time, he quickly landed more than a dozen strikes on Zero and then kicked him away as soon as the time resumed.

He quickly dashed towards Marcus and erected multiple earthen spikes all over him to pierce him but the barrier was already at its peak, crumbling those spikes instead.

"Tsk!"

He tried closing the distance while Marcus was moving away and hurling constructs at him, but he swatted them away like nothing, making them crash towards the nearby trees and tumbling them down rather easily.

Marcus deemed Ugong the most biggest threat at the moment due to how much mana he had and began uprooting even more trees and picking up the felled trees as well. In conjunction with his constructs, he began hurling them around then picking them up if they didn't hit and continuing this process. Although Ugong's speed helped him on not being caught by these as well as by the telekinesis.

By now, half of this massive forest had already been turned into a wasteland of a bigger scale than when Marcus fought Zero.

"This is annoying…" Ugong groaned.

Perhaps also recognizing the destruction entering an unprecedented level, Zero had also joined in. Blasting Marcus repeatedly from a distance with Null Bolt and diverting the attention to himself.

With him being free to finally move, Ugong advanced once again. He neared his distance with Zero as the latter talked to him.

"Let's take care of this bastard first! Or else this entire forest will be a wreck!"

"I know, right?"

As Zero continuously took on Marcus' aggression by repeatedly blasting him from a distance with Null bolt, Ugong sneaked past the flying objects and arrived near him after he leapt.

Marcus immediately tried to smash Ugong down towards the ground beneath, however, Ugong smashed his arm that he was trying to use with the staff, breaking its bones and dislocating the elbow.

"One Vision." He uttered sternly.

Snap—!

The time stopped again, neutralizing the barrier around Marcus.

"We have to deal with this guy…!"

Ugong unleashed a barrage of strikes with the maximum output of his mana reinforcement and used the staff's power to the fullest.

Before the time resumed, Ugong reeled back and once it did, he strikes Marcus downward with such force that sent him crashing forcefully.

Boom—!!

The cloud of dust filled the area around Marcus as Ugong descended.

"Did that kill him?!" Zero asked from the distance with a sarcastic tone.

"I hope not!"

"Damn…"

However, before they were able to see beyond the smoke, a sudden wave of extremely heavy force hit their entire body.

"Gah—!" Zero immediately spat blood while feeling as if every bone in his body was broken and he was flung very far away.

Ugong however, managed to stab his staff onto the ground but was still moved back tens of meters away from his initial position and skid across the earth.

"What the…?" Feeling as if his most of his bones were broken, he dropped on one knee whilst blood began to flow from every orifice on his head. He knew how much of a mess his entire body is right now. He never fell down because he was holding onto his staff, but he felt that a lot of muscles in his body were torn apart.

"It hurts…!" He mumbled as he began healing himself.

After a few seconds, he was finally able to stand up properly and looked towards Marcus' direction. "Here we go again…" Despite what happened to him, he's still lively and was smiling even.

The dust cloud quickly dispersed and he saw Marcus hovering a few inches from the ground and towards him.

"Dammit, just come already!" He smiled widely and assumed a stance with his staff.

Whiish—!

Andres arrived behind Marcus and before the latter was able to fling him away, the former managed to subdue him and slammed him back onto the ground.

"Stop, Marcus, let me handle this." He spoke softly and the latter immediately fell asleep despite his struggles.

"The heck?!" Ugong exclaimed. He saw Andres saying something there but he wasn't able to hear it and thus asked. "What did you tell him for him to stop?!"

Andres chucked at that question. "Ah, that? Just something only I can do."

"Eh… Fine, fine, I won't push you to tell me."

"So? Are you satisfied? Will you join us now?"

After a few seconds of thinking, Ugong replied while caressing his chin. "Hm… Nope!" He then pointed his staff towards towards Andres and challenged him. "You haven't showed me everything that you have, have you?"

Andres smirked, "You're stubborn. It's been almost two times… are you serious…?" He replied while cracking his neck.

"Dead serious!" Ugong then once again went back onto the stance he previously assumed.