Ben meanwhile looked at some matches. All matches would begin as free as the pot. He had subscribed to some media. Ben saw all sorts of abilities. Weapons, beasts, elements, additional limbs, transformation etc.
Now he truly understood the reason why Marthyas could make a place for themselves. Even though Naturas & Metallas have innate meridians, the sheer variety that Marthyas have off sets that advantage. They had to come up with other ways to contend with. Ben also looked at his own weaknesses. He still needed to cover some aspects of combat he had not considered.
As he was looking for an opponent, he found a beast master. He had a streak of 10 Y defeats. Ben decided to send him a challenge. So he sent the message & waited. He did not see any of his matches, so that he did not get any advantage over his opponent. Ben meditated as he waited. His mind was clean. His focus at its peak. His body was healed.
After another 30 minutes, the challenge was accepted. His match was going to start within the next 15 minutes. So he walked towards the arena. This was a first time that Ben reached the arena first.
After a few minutes, his opponent set foot on the arena. The person was moderately built. He also was wearing a mask. Ben assumed it was a mask based on how it was walking.
On his shoulders was a strigil. It was a nocturnal bird, that was extremely stealthy. In the wild, its success rate for hunting was almost 100%. That made it one of the most dangerous predators for small animals at night. It was normally brown/gray or white with black spots here & there. This strigil was a mix of black & grey. It was not much different from its regular variations. This bird was really focused. It was looking at the surroundings. It was turning its head 360 degree around. But when the beast master stopped and stood in front of Ben, it stopped and suddenly its head re-winded and came back to the normal position. It was an eerie sight to watch. After that it was not looking around or being distracted. Its attention was on Ben. It marked Ben as its enemy & was looking at him intently.
Ben appreciated its discipline. At the same time he raised his vigilance to the peak. He could not let his guard down at any cost. He was also a bit apprehensive about that 360 degree turn of its head.
Both of them sized each other up & did a martial salute. They did not talk anything. It was clear that both of them were no-nonsense guys and were really ready to spar.
The mechanical sound was now replaced by a person. "Ok both of you. Seeing that you are dead serious, let us rumble!!!"
When he said this, a series of red, blue & green lights went on & off. Both of them were taken aback. But it was just for a few seconds. They regained their bearing & Ben used the Aether Leap.
The person was a bit stunned, but the strigil was not. It moved. At a speed Ben could not see. But he sensed incoming danger. Ben quickly stopped & leaped back, but not before something struck him on his torso. It did not go really deep. But that was enough. He could feel a numbness spreading from the impact point. But Ben quickly removed the feather & gained some distance. His healing script was working over time, as it gradually expelled the poison. Healing Script had some capability to handle poison.
Ben cautiously looked at his opponent, no—opponents. Ben made sure to acknowledge to himself that he was fighting two people instead of one. The beast master had his hands with black nails on them. It was elongated by 2-3 cm and a bit sharp. The strigil had an eye similar to some insects with multiple lenses. Ben deduced that it was this eye that helped the strigil to quickly respond to his movements. He understood that both of them were dangerous.
Now, Ben decided to use Impact Pulse. Claw after claw flew towards the master & the beast. Both of them dodged the attack & moved towards Ben at high speeds from different angles. Now Ben was a bit flustered. But deciding in a split second he moved toward the beast. The beast master ran behind him to stop him.
The beast was seeing everything in slow motion. Its eye captured the breathing, slight movement of eyes, twitching of muscles & many other things to anticipate what Ben would do. But Ben could deduce one thing. In most creatures, the brain was an organ that demanded high amounts of energy. The sensory signals were being processed by the brain & if it used too much energy this strigil would be tired. Ben deduced that it was still not used to this & the neural pathways & the meridian pathways may not be fully optimized. Ben wanted to make use of this weakness. Another disadvantage that Ben missed was the size of this bird compared to many insects. That size difference meant that, it took more time for the signals to reach the brain. All these factors were putting strain on the creature.
Ben attacked it using Impact Pulse which it easily dodged. Ben quickly increased his speed as he sensed the beast master closing in on him. Ben, without looking back & solely based on his sensory powers, fired claw attacks at the beast master. But he easily dodged them. As Ben gained distance, he turned around & fired a barrage of Impact Pulse attacks in the form of claws.
As Ben closely observed, he saw that the strigil & its master were easily dodging his attacks & that too effectively. Ben could see the energy output from them slightly decreasing. But the beast master had already experienced this strategy from multiple people. His first loss was from the person who utilized this strategy first effectively. That made him painfully aware of his one weakness. So effectively created counter strategies against it and he defeated that person later. Anyone who tried to use that strategy against him were also destroyed by him ceremoniously. But Ben had prevented himself from seeing his match. Thus, he did not know how he dismantled his opponents.
Suddenly the strigil's eye reverted to its normal form. The energy distribution also became more even and high. Ben was stunned by this. It was not expected. Then there was a change in the beast master as well. An eerie energy wrapped the beast master. Ben was feeling some kind of apprehension, so fear of the unknown. Ben's stance faltered. But by instinct, Ben activated both "Jamadagni Bhavana" & "Vasishta Vachanam". His focus returned, his senses sharpened, his power concentrated.
The beast master narrowed his eye. He & his companion beast had used their aura to spread a hallucinogen without detection. That was countered effectively by Ben. They could also not sense much energy fluctuation as well, due to the effective use of script mask. That was one trick down for him. Well, it was—but it was not his only way out. He had other ways as well.