The blackened out man didn't move, his mask reflecting the scared Leyk, after all, even though he had accepted the fact that he was prone to dying in this battle, he hadn't lost his fear of death, simply opting to ignore it, though it grew as they once more began to circle around, neither of them knowing exactly what to do, both being about sixty feet apart, both being able to cross that distance instantly, both being able to, for example, easily destroy multiple dozen tanks with a single attack if they timed it correctly, perhaps even causing the stone itself to crack into pieces and split dozens of feet wide, both able to face an army of thousands of normal people if they so wished, the numbers mattering as little as the numbers of ants fighting against an ant-exterminator's tools.
It was ironic, both of them were more powerful than an entire kingdom's military on ehetria had been, something he hadn't even realized yet, at least not enough to truly wrap his head around, and perhaps there had been hidden forces in the end, something that he found to be quite likely seeing as to how fast his ascend had been, most likely thanks to the weird engravings he had gained on that accursed tree in that beautiful place he had once cared but now missed dearly.
Yet, both of them were fighting atop an endlessly big stone pillar, followed by intricate markings in the stone, an endlessly extending circle that seemed to grow the further out their battle extended, being watched by beings that could probably be something similar to jailed people watching two ants fight for dominion over the nest, it was humiliating, yet exhilarating, and it was ridiculously funny for Leyk who had already accepted death, and while still panicked and thinking for a non-existent way out of here, was watching the opponent in front of him that had most likely already realized that comparison from what he could tell, which was nothing, he was simply imposing himself and his own thoughts onto an opponent he couldn't understand, different from the previous ones who had shown things, emotions, fears, he could understand, whereas this one had nothing to be used, nothing to be predicted, this one was unpredictable, random, the worst opponent to fight, and far too skilled for him at that.
Just as he was thinking that, he once again felt blood trickle down a part of his body, quickly absorbed by the cloth around him whose colour he had forgotten but now realized to be dark greyish, though with the blood, dust, trash, dirt, it now seemed to have gained the colour of clothes made as a disguise in this place, something that made him smile under his mask as he thought about how he had been hit, calm, surprisingly knowledgeable about this specific feat of his opponent, still walking, his opponent simply gauging a reaction he couldn't afford to show, especially since he felt something quite interesting, something that had most likely to do with Cades, his subconsciousness, an active he had always felt to be quite idiotic and irregular, surprisingly forgettable and weird, activating, that being the healing active slowly spreading out, a voice packed behind it, a voice telling him to wait for it, a voice that belonged to Cades.
The light of dominion, the thing that Cade shad told him would take some time to be active, to awake, was beginning to take hold, and he was inclined to make his opponent wait as he analysed everything, trying to exchange simple attacks, not show his own weakness for now, if that was even still possible, perhaps trusting on the remote possibility, however unlikely, that his light of dominion would be able to turn the tables and beat this master of strategy, and a wielder of another light of dominion, that blue bismuth-like aura.
Yet it wasn't the light of dominion that had just made a thin, already healing, hole within his left shoulder, further compromising that side of his body, but not acting upon that opening that was now so glaring as if an ape was trying to show his child where the child's torso was, a fitting but weird metaphor that just sprung into Leyk's head, it was magic, and to be even more precise, it was the act of manipulating and condensing mana into a hard material that could be controlled, just as he had done within his domain by expulsing all of his mana, or at least great parts of it.
But Vexxen hadn't thrown any of his mana away, he had simply aimed, his body not even moving, his mind carrying it all using calculations and precise planning, then shooting a needle-like projectile that should've been able to kill him almost instantly had it been shot towards the brain, something unnerving, terrifying, something that he refused to believe, something that he was already tumbling about finding a counteraction against, that being found quite quickly and being him expulsing his mana to weaken the opponent's attacks that seemed to be armed with a much lesser concentration of the energy than was normal, as if that was his new opponent's weakness, a low mana pool, the total opposite of him, but not enough to turn the tables.
Yes, he should be able to block that attack using mana in the air, or even reinforcing his body beyond the norm, but why would the man not care about him knowing that...
Vexxen thought quite similarly to how he fought when normally fighting against weaker, less skilled people, and if it was Cades, or Leyk, that was doing this, he would want his opponent to come up with a countermeasure so he could later figure out a countermeasure to that countermeasure, if there was a countermeasure to the countermeasure, or even a countermeasure to the measure, at all, that he was certain about, that answer having sprung straight into his mind as it was accelerating beyond what he was normally capable of, almost slowing down time to make it possible for him to think about his current situation.
But what choice did he have?
He would have to use his mana expulsion to turn the territory favourable to him, teaching his opponent that technique so he may come up with a countermeasure and defeat him quicker the next time, unless he found a measure against that possible measure, just to prolong his own life, that he was certain about.
And one more time Leyk realized that he was bound to lose this battle, including perhaps his head.