Armad stood facing Uznu. Every eye on them.

"Why not kill me now? You can foresee my moves as you said." Armad's words dripped with sarcasm.

Uznu was infuriated. The boy dared taunt him. His sword emitted a cloud of black smoke. The smoke took the shape of a sword and emitted dark light before attacking Armad.

This was the Black Flame of the Ururu. The flame was said to be too hot that it burned too fast for the human eye to see. And that the black light and smoke associated with it were only after-effects. This was the first time Armad ever witnessed it. A technique that could burn the very soul and destroy a person as if they had never even existed before.

Armad had three options: one, to use photon jump and dodge the attack; two, to use the Locust to parry; three, to wait and see what would happen as the attack collided with his lightning body.

He took the last decision and waited. Dodging and parrying would probably not work against someone who could see the future. Besides, his lightning form was indestructible. He would use this opportunity to gauge its limit.

There was a spark as the sword cut Armad's chest in half. But then lightning poured from the upper half of the body to the lower, sewing the cut up.

"Is that all you've got?" He asked Uznu sarcastically.

Uznu smiled, looking unfazed.

"Smile..." Armad choked on his words before he could finish. His world suddenly became hazy. His core caught fire and burned with black flame.

Uznu raised his hand smugly and said, "Having the Sikai won't save you now. The black flame feeds on the soul and core, not the body."

Four parts of the human body that intertwined with each other were the soul, the body, the mind, and the pol.

And the four parts of techniques related to one another were: attack, defense, agility, and pol sense. These four made up the world of combat. The more your expertise was on them, the more your combat capabilities would be raised.

Every Bender tried to defend their body, pol, soul, and mind. And tried to learn combat techniques that would work on these four aspects by improving their attack power, speed, defense, and pol sense.

Any Bender could learn how to defend the four aspects of their body through the proper training. But only a few tribes had the attacks that could work on the soul, pol, and mind.

Salsa was initiated as a result of this. Each of the three people that made up salsa would be a master on one of the four aspects. It was then made complete by making the group leader master the last aspect.

The tribe of Wilberforce was the master on attacks related to pol, but the masters of soul and mind attacks were widely unknown.

Unbeknownst to most, the attacks by the Ururu mostly focused on the soul. They were masters in that aspect.

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As this realization dawned on Armad, Uznu turned to the woman by his side and said, "Is he the one, Yarsaira."

(Her real name wasn't Yarsaira. It meant 'my dear' in Aldurish.)

The woman nodded and replied, "He isn't the one. You should tell the prince I won't understand it until I meet Triple Factor. Although this boy has only half of his soul and so his strength is halved, I would suggest you cut his limbs off before his remaining soul returns."

Uznu laughed and said, "His soul is currently imprisoned in the Black Stone. The Stone has stopped the likes of Amraikugyu and the vow travelers. Even a combined effort of the whole tribes can not rescue him."

"Ah, you're right. Maybe it will be possible if Eyrion reincarnates," she said thoughtfully.

Armad listened to what they were saying but was too weak to respond. He was almost overcome with dizziness twice and fell on his knees, but he withstood it.

A certain voice had said, "Beware of Ururu." The voice had warned him of Ururu when he first met with Barbara and was leaving home to find a cure for his mother. Armad still didn't know who the speaker was, and Babara didn't even know about it. But he still remembered it.

Was Uznu the one he should be careful of?

Armad stirred his pol and used his sword to support himself, stopping his knees from reaching to the ground.

Looking at the ring on his finger reminded him of his mother and wife. They were both sleeping peacefully inside the ring dimension. He could lose them forever if he ever fell.

A roar escaped from his throat. At that, lightning and thunder adorned the sky.

The green-tinted lightning of his body changed to a scary red.

The ten statues around him transformed into ten gigantic pillars of lightning, reaching the sky.

They surrounded Armad, giving him cover.

Armad roared again and the red lightning reached into his core and attacked the black flame that was burning his core, burning the dark flame to ashes.

A soldier of the jinzidal army sneaked behind Armad and struck him with his blade, but the man and his armor dissolved to ashes before his sword could even get close.

"You are wasting your time, cousin. Why not make it easy for Yarsairi?" It was the Wilberforce woman that spoke.

(Yarsairi means male lover/husband in Aldurish)

"My husband is immortal. Even without the Black-eyed secret, the blessing of the Lord King is with him. But there is little you can do without your complete soul."

Enraged, Armad hit the ground with his feet. Lightning slithered underground and entombed the woman.

A few seconds later...

Uznu saw the attack before it happened but just ignore it. He didn't think it was worth mentioning. The woman glared at the lightning 'snake', causing it to retreat.

"I am just here to observe." She chuckled. "Besides, the Wilberforce tribe is organized into a hierarchy. The young cannot use their years of pol on their elder. You are too young to face me. The creator won't allow it."

On the other hand, it had never occurred to Uznu that Armad could extinguish the black flame. He didn't even know that Sikai could evolve.

No matter. He only used the first level of his power. And there were seven levels to it, each level more lethal than the previous one.

Even as the two analyzed him, Armad went on the offensive, attacking Uznu with both flying swords and lightning arm. Uznu would wait until the attack was just an inch away from him and then dodge it. It was so trivial for him that after the fifth attack, it became clear he was just fooling around and giving Armad false hope. It went on like that for a while before Uznu struck again. It seemed simple but Armad couldn't dodge it no matter how fast he reacted. The black flame always found a way to hit its target.