It wasn't that Leyk was stronger now, it was simply that the active had been working like this, that foreign energy, it had always been aura, that was why he couldn't completely understand it, but it was why he was able to heal himself using it, and now, it was simply working much more efficiently, using his own man-
Another punch, much les effective and powerful though, both of these things because of things that had happened during this battle, the second one, though, only happening after the aura-breakthrough that had allowed him to use it to heal himself, and being the main siphoning of his mana.
If Leyk hadn't always had an unnaturally great amount of mana he wouldn't have been able to do many things, he would've been killed back on ehetria,. he would've lost to the flying demon of the skies when it came to the fire that had simply been enhanced by his innate amount and firepower, he would've struggled even greater deals and dangers within the forsaken realm, it would've been hell, as such this speed of usage was quite great, but still not as insanely high as back when he had fought that vampire, it was simply higher than he had expected.
But, again, not because of the aura.
It was Cades, he had arrived, and he was using the mana to defend the body and prolong the fight, just as both of them wanted, even if only to understand more things and grow stronger using the technique of this so-called lord Vexxen, a man that undoubtably wielded countless tricks and skills, all of which ones he longed to know and understand, perhaps something that Vexxen was also trying to understand from his side, uncaring though about whether or not Leyk understood anything because he believed him to be destined to simply die after this, ironic, nut true in some ways.
Either way, Cades was using the mana to create barriers wherever Vexxen's punches landed, whether it be the face, the stomach, the shoulder, the sides, the air in some cases even, he was the biggest bane to Vexxen right now when it came to his opponent's defence, it was unironically very annoying to him, that, Leyk was certa-
That one had been especially powerful, or perhaps Cades had just failed to catch that one and dampen it using the shields that seemed to break just as easily as they were created, basically turning into splinters as soon as they touched the violet light, being destroyed by aura, simply because they hadn't yet understood how to make barriers out of aura, a technique that seemed both close and far away, just a few steps, that was cert-
Godfuckingdammit!!!!
Couldn't the bastard stop for just a moment!!!
This time Leyk had enough, even though the barrage of attacks had given him more that it had taken, though that had still been quite a lot, he was now quite intent on taking care of this, turning the situation in this battle around once more, at least in some way, whether that be positive or negative for his own health and life.
Finally, giving up his job as a punching bag, Leyk punched back, hitting the throat of the surprised Vexxen who had seemingly not even thought that he would return the attacks at this point, having gotten lost in the annoyance that Leyk would not die no matter how much he was being punched, or perhaps that was just what he wanted Leyk to think, either way, Leyk got the throat-
The throat felt weird, it was soft yet hard, and he could almost feel how Vexxen felt as he punched it, not pleasant, that was for certain, and he could feel it even more so as the man flew a few feet away, stumbling and surprised as he held his hand onto his throat, gasping for air, understandable, but not like Leyk would ever let go of such a chance, not after having been attacked by the man so many times in a short succession.
At first he simply wanted to attack once more, but that didn't turn out to be possible as he soon, slightly appalled, realized.
The attacks had been getting healed, but for the most part only the vitals, his limbs were mutilated, bleeding everywhere, many bones were broken, one of his ears felt loose, hanging on by a thread from what he could tell, and he did not think that he had a good sense of balance right now as he almost fell down when he even imagined taking a step, even more so since one of his legs hurt tremendously, not broken, but not fine.
Instead of him, it was Cades that took the next turn.
Aura seemed to be based on what the intent was, on what one thought to be possible in Leyk's and Cades's case, and as such, it seemed like, right now, he was almost incapable of attacking using aura, instead only using it to prolong his life and the fight into what seemed like an endless expanse to him right now whose bones and fleshy wounds were healing at a great pace while Vexxen was already prepared to attack anew, but then there was the fact that Cades was going to do something, that, Leyk felt that.
Not killing him, both of them thought that to be impossible, for there was no doubt Vexxen would be capable of healing himself like this as well, but there was still a movement of mana aimed at the man, that being magical missiles, torrents of circulating, hard mana that Cades had learned in his infant days, as most ehetrians did.
After all, while ehetrians were a relatively weak species in the grand scheme, especially when it came to growth and the respective ranks of the species' members, they were still greatly talented in magic and had figured out many more things than Cades had ever been able to get his hands on, so much so that such magic was basic knowledge for everyone, being learnt at the age of seven or six years old, four in Cades case.
Though it still didn't change much, they were still destined to die in the end.