Jacob and Aurelius tensed as they looked to the 5m tall giant statue with enough faces to cover all angles, the crowd of silhouettes also turned quiet as the three combatants stared at each other. Sharing in the stiff atmosphere, the three burst into abrupt motion without any starting signal. Jacob held Flowing Water with both hands ready to slash out at the giant marble statue, Aurelius this time had red essence circulating around both of his hands it seems he was ready to bring his full power to bear this time. While the giant marble statue slowly kept its wings back as it ran headlong into the duo.

The crowd too burst into deafening cheers once again as the combatants went into motion, this time without the accompanying fanfare.

Only shouts could be heard as the three combatants rushed to meet in the middle even the vibrations caused by the giant marble statue heavy steps were drowned out by the crowd of shouting silhouettes, Jacob kept the essence circulating within his body to a minimum this might be a long battle and he did not know if Flowing Water would prove as effective even if he pushed the maximum amount of essence. Aurelius shouted out to Jacob as they neared the middle.

“Michael let me take the lead in the fight! You can look for the opportune moments, right now focus on dodging!” Jacob saw no flaws in that suggestion, even now with their current speed Aurelius was gonna clash with the giant marble statue first so Jacob slowed down his steps further so he could observe the fight without the pressure of dodging those 4 giant and definitely deadly weapons.

The giant marble statue slashed out with the poleaxe on its upper right arm aiming to bisect Aurelius the angelic face turned into a snarl as it swung, while Aurelius still having no weapon on him but now he was using red essence covering both his hands. With a look of utmost concentration he met the giant poleaxe coming at him from his left with a red essence infused side chop, the poleaxe clashed with the hand causing shockwaves to ripple out from the impact.

Aurelius seemingly unaffected by the initial hit immediately threw out his left in an attempt to break the giant marble poleaxe, however two similarly gigantic weapons were already heading towards him from his right. One warhammer and one claymore came in threatening to squish Aurelius into a pancake, Aurelius withdrew his left hand and pushed himself back to avoid the giant weapons.

Due to the absence of Aurelius, three marble weapons clashed with each other resulted in an earth shaking clash rocking Jacob even while he was quite a distance away. Jacob visibly gulped as he imagined freshly squeezed Jacob juice colouring the nice stadium floor red, he would have barely been able to match the poleaxe. The two sideswipping weapons might have wiped him clean off this world, however the giant marble statue did not stop in its attack.

The three arms opened up to reveal the final giant weapon, a marble spear shot forth from the opening as the giant marble statue moved its right leg forward to lengthen the thrust of the spear. Aurelius who looked like he had already anticipated that attack, had already stepped into the giant marble statue towards his right.

Avoiding the spear and putting the giant marble statue into his attack range, as the spear was still withdrawing rather speedily to Jacob. Aurelius already thrust his right hand upwards to the shaft of the spear, causing the spear to collide with the hanging poleaxe and thus unbalancing the giant marble statue as the collision caused one of its leg to hang in the air. A comical sight ensued as the giant marble statue flapped its two right hands hysterically to regain its balance, with two wild slashes of its two left arms to counter balance and a rapidly unfurling of its wings.

Jacob having seen enough decided to follow right behind Aurelius, even if he was not as good at anticipating as Aurelius if he was able to keep up with Aurelius movement he would be able to start dealing some damage. Jacob had long given up on trying to run towards the giant marble statue back, the other two faces also changed along with the middle one from what Jacob could see.

So if the first one granted vision the other two would too, he would get run over by any of the weapon as easily as a fleeing wild boar in a hunt. So while the giant marble statue was still reeling from the collision of its two right weapon, wildly slashing out with it two left hand to avoid a follow up attack from Aurelius. Jacob called out to Aurelius.

“Aurelius! Let me follow behind you I’ll copy your movements the best I can that will give me better opportunities than finding one in between your fight.” Aurelius did not reply as the giant marble statue recovered its stance, once again looking as magnificent as it did before the ridiculous sight from before was nowhere to be seen.

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Jacob arrived behind Aurelius and this time they ran forward together at the same speed, Aurelius seemingly slowed himself to match Jacobs’ speed. The initial clash was definitely the lost of the giant marble statue, as if it knew all three angelic faces had fierce looks with all the intents to cut Aurelius down.

This time the giant marble statue kept its wings unfurled and met the duo with an opening spear thrust aimed straight at Aurelius chest, Aurelius once again stepped to his right and pushed the spear away. Jacob followed the movement as the giant marble statue was more prepared this time and the resulting push from Aurelius was brought under control and the spear came at the two of them this time in a sweep.

Aurelius and Jacob dodged under the sweep by ducking low as they moved closer to the giant marble statue only to met with three descending weapons each with enough force to part the air. Jacob saw Aurelius dodging to his right again this time much further than a simple sidestep, so he infused more essence into his legs and followed along.

The three weapons met the ground and cut into the ground, three ground breaking shakes occurred one after the other followed by gasps from the silhouette crowd. Temporarily stopping Jacob in his track while Aurelius unaffected was already moving along the barely avoided weapons and finally reached the legs of the giant marble statue. While Jacob was still recovering his sense of balance, the giant spear was already sweeping back as the three weapons embedded in the ground were lifted up stone and gravel falling from them as they made way for the sweep. Jacob threw himself forward and down onto the ground as the air wooshed above him narrowly avoiding being thrown across the stadium ground.

Meanwhile, Aurelius still too closer for the giant marble statue had angry dark red essence constantly sparking around his two hands. He punched out both hands towards the unblemished white left knee, marble met flesh. Surprisingly, flesh won and the results were two deep craters on the left knee marring the perfect marble angel statue. The giant marble statue in retaliation kicked out with its right leg while still drawing back three weapons. Aurelius did not anticipate the kick and was not able to block the ensuring kick, received the full force of it and was sent flying.

Aurelius hit the ground with a heavy crash, the cracking of bones could be heard amongst the heavy crash. The air left Aurelius and caused him to gasp for air, instead of finding air he coughed up blood instead. Jacob saw the entire sequence as he was standing up, immediately rushed towards the left knee of the giant marble statue. Pushing a copious amount of essence into Flowing Water causing it to churn rapidly and furiously. Before the right leg returned fully to its position, Jacob closed the distance and brought Flowing Water towards the injured left knee in a large swing.

Although no explosion happened this time Flowing Water bit into the deformed knee hard stopping just shy of the other side of the left knee. Jacob knowing that he had no way to pull out his sword in time, channeled even more essence into Flowing Water and pulled it in the direction of the remaining knee. As the giant marble statue right leg was kicking out once again towards an assailant near its left leg

Just as the kick was connecting with Jacobs entire body, Jacob with a tug, a pull and a yank. With the roaring of the crowd and Flowing Water, Jacob wrenched Flowing Water right through the left knee. Causing the kick to veer away from his body and the giant marble statue to kick itself off balance, down the statue went falling onto its back along with a crash loud enough to silence the crowd of silhouettes and heavy enough to unbalance Jacob.

Aurelius was already running back to the giant marble statue, his arms already sparking red and black ready for a second round with the marble surface. Jacob receiving the brunt of the shockwave was still wobbling as he heard a shout from Aurelius to pass his weapon to him. Jacob took a look to identify the running Aurelius and put Flowing Water in the best place for Aurelius to receive it.

Aurelius ran past Jacob taking Flowing Water as he did, the red and black sparking essence sent Flowing Water into an overdrive as if it could break its form at any moment. Aurelius did a high jump towards the chest of the giant marble statue, however it did not lay there for Aurelius to finish it off. It had 4 working hands and 2 pair of wings, the giant marble statue dropped the two weapon it was holding on its left hands and while Aurelius was in mid air. The two hands sped towards Aurelius snatching him mid air and immediately the hand that caught Aurelius started crushing him.

Jacob stood there mouth gaped as he looked on helplessly, Aurelius did not give up and instead of screaming from the immense pressure threatening to break his entire torso into pieces. He bought Flowing Water down on the wrist of the stone hands, a massive explosion of white stone broke out from the point of contact. Pieces flying everywhere and through the crowd of silhouettes causing them to ripple, however the raucous cheering continued unabated.

Aurelius sent by the explosion happening in close proximity crashed fiercely into the chest of the giant marble statue who was still reeling from the explosion of its now missing hand the only visible face could be seen contorted from pain. Aurelius not missing the chance quickly got himself up his face already covered by marble dust and distorted by pain gritted his teeth and brought the still rapidly churning Flowing Water covered in red and black essence into the chest of the giant marble statue.

Jacob tried to jump on top of the giant marble statue to help Aurelius, however as he saw a flash of gold followed by his sword he quickly dove to the ground knowing what would come next once the sword disappeared into the giant marble statue. He caught a mouthful of stone and dust as his body met the ground.

As Flowing Water met the marble chest of the giant statue smoothly sliding in and as a result it caused yet another explosion this time even Aurelius was sent flying back an unabated scream escaped from Aurelius as he had enough airtime while sailing through the air to make a full court dunk, screaming all the while as he did. Jacob kept his body on the ground, hands covering his head as much as he could.

Luckily for him none of the flying chunks went through his head ending his tutorial and his life. However he kept that position until only Aurelius ragged breathing and the silence of the crowd could be heard.

Afterwards, he shot his head up as soon as possible. No more moving giant killing marble statue, no more deafening cheers and definitely no more flying chunks of rocks. Jacob took a breath, he left Flowing Water where it was still in the middle of what remains of the giant marble statue. The crowd of silhouettes were still there but eerily silent. Jacob suddenly remembered and shouted to the still gasping Aurelius.

“Did you receive your trail of essence yet?!” Aurelius replied in between gasps

“No!” As Jacob received the reply he heard the sound of marble affixing to marble *thud* *thud* *thud*