Second Battle

Tao Xue was ready to face the man, who looked a bit unusual from random people's perspectives, but according to Tao Xue, he was "cool". The man just silently stood there, which was the opposite of what the first opponent did, as he charged straight at Tao Xue. This kind of suspicious behavior was something that Tao Xue didn't like, as he also decided to stay put at his place, and focus on defending for the moment. He lathered himself in energy, and turned it into thick armor, and stood there.

He looked at his enemy, who was just standing there, not moving an inch. He looked at Tao Xue for the whole time, and he was as still as a statue. He looked like he was mocking Tao Xue, as if he weren't worth his time.

Tao Xue thought that if the enemy could be stubborn, so could he, as he stood there, modifying his armor, as he was now covered in armor with spikes coming out of it from every direction. Other than that, the areas surrounding his hands and feet became bigger, and thicker, which gave them more weight and attack power. His hands were like a pair of spiked maces, which could be used for instant annihilation.

He still didn't attack, just as his opponent. Both of them were standing at the places where they originally were, and they never even had the slightest thought of attacking the other one. Tao Xue thought that focusing on defense would be better, and as for the enemy, he was just standing where he was, not even focusing on defense. It was as if he was mentally asleep.

Tao Xue kept patiently waiting for some time, and he was starting to think if he could attack the enemy, and he wouldn't even defend or dodge. It was just as if he was totally dead, but just able to stand. He didn't even move an inch.

Tao Xue soon got fed up, and thought that he should stop being stubborn like the enemy, and to strike first, but he again changed his mind, while thinking about this, as he found out that the enemy certainly had some kind of a trick hidden up his sleeve.

According to him, it had to be something related to getting Tao Xue to become impulsive, and when he recklessly attacks, the enemy could wittily strike. Tao Xue still didn't budge, as he stood there, still as if he had been frozen in a layer of thick ice.

They both stood there as if they were stuck to the ground by a third person and they were incapable of fighting anymore. If anyone saw the "fight" that was going on in the arena, they'd probably think that Tao Xue and the other guy was mad.

It was okay to stall for time, but it wasn't a good thing to just ignorantly stand there, and not do anything. They were going to stand there the whole day, if this kept on going on. Tao Xue was extremely patient, as in this world, he was practically immortal, as time wouldn't pass, and he wouldn't get killed. There was no problem in his waiting for the whole day, or at least till a few more hours.

Just as he had predicted, Tao Xue had to wait for a few more hours, until he had finally lost his cool. He thought that it would be better to test the abilities of such a mysterious enemy, beforehand, so that he can be more advantageous in the real battle, when it all came to direct fighting. Well, Tao Xue thought that it would be good to start with indirect attacks, as he swung his hand towards the ground, a huge and deep crack spreading through the surface of the arena, and heading towards the enemy.

Just as it was about to hit the enemy, he jumped up, and landed on the ground, just as if his body was effortlessly controlling itself, as he still looked as if his mind was asleep. The expressions on his face were as if he were asleep.

Tao Xue, this time, hammered the ground down with a single punch of his, and hauled a huge chunk of the ground right and the enemy's face. Just as it was about to hit him, the enemy bent downwards, and dodged the attack, which was what Tao Xue had predicted, from the very beginning.

He had understood that his opponent was someone who would prefer dodging attacks, rather than blocking them, or fighting back. He was a kind of laid back opponent, which Tao Xue had a good sense of how to deal with.

He knew that ranged attacks would only be more difficult to land a hit on the enemy, and he should stop with them as soon as possible. If he threw a ranged attack that covered the enemy from all the sides, then it would be extremely useful.

In this kind of a situation, Tao Xue knew exactly what to do, as he thought about how to trap his opponent from all sides, which would make it necessary for him to leave that annoying dodging habit of his.

It was pretty obvious, that if someone leans towards dodging attacks, the most useful way to defeat that kind of a person is to surround, and then, trap him. If somebody is getting trapped, and surrounded from all the sides, he couldn't be able to dodge the attacks, and he would have to start fighting for real, or rather, get trapped, and become incapacitated, and rendering oneself unable to fight the fight. That was what Tao Xue was going to aim for. He was sure that he could somehow come up with an attack that can surround his enemy.

He thought about it for a while, and then came up with something that was partly a solution. He wasn't sure if the attack he had in mind would actually work, but he thought that it would be no harm to try it out on his opponent.

He jumped up in the air, and withdrew almost all of his armor. He closed in on his enemy, and made some of the armor appear on his front side, which was open to attack, and he then made long tube like structures, to come out of the side of his armor, which was trapping the enemy.

It took a little while for the enemy to realize that he was actually getting trapped, but by then, it was still a bit too late. He would be trapped inside, as quite a lot of the rods had stuck themselves into the ground.

He analyzed the situation, where there were none of the falling tube like rods, by now, and he barely managed to get out, but he ended up falling. Tao Xue was able to understand that his enemy was trying to escape, and even if he did, he had still fallen, leaving him wide open for attacks.

Tao Xue landed on the ground, while the opponent was still trying to stand up. He had the advantage. His opponent hadn't stood up yet, so it would be better to attack without any further delay.

He immediately extended his arms, and simultaneously threw them towards the enemy. Currently, Tao Xue had inflicted no damage to the enemy, but he had made him lose his stamina and peace of mind, as he was barely able to dodge, by wildly jumping again.

Tao Xue kept on throwing his attacks at the enemy, and he was again and again making the opponent seriously stress himself out.

The opponent had started to lose some of his health points, as a reason of throwing himself at the ground again and again in a totally reckless manner. He had no other choice but to inflict himself some damage in order to live, and not die at the hands of Tao Xue.

During this time, Tao Xue had encased himself in a layer of thin armor as well, just to protect himself, and he was now thinking that it was useless for him to be using the armor, as the enemy had no chance of hitting him, as he was barely able to keep up himself.

Tao Xue was now ready, as the layer of armor around him vanished, and the arms of the energy, which were made attached to his very own hands had increased in length. The previous times, he threw off the enemy by a little bit, and didn't damage him by his own attacks, rather, the opponent was only hurt because he was hurting himself, which could also be counted as a suicidal forfeit.

Tao Xue wanted to win this fight really badly, and that too, on his own, with his own power, and that too by damaging the enemy on his own. He had now decided to launch a single attack, and finish the enemy off in one single strike, and end this ever lasting battle once and for all.

As he prepared his final attack, he swung his hands in the direction of the enemy, and hit him with his energy extensions of his arm. First, he made both of them go to the place behind the enemy, both one above the other one, as so he couldn't move, or at least, he couldn't move without harming himself.

After that, he yanked both of them, just before which, he had formed blades on the tips of them. As he pulled them towards himself, each of the blades had sliced through the flesh of Tao Xue's opponent, and had left two big cut marks in the middle of his body.

The opponent had fallen down, plummeting to the ground, in a sorry state, which wasn't any the kind of sight for your eyes, if you wanted something peaceful. The bar of health above him had become completely empty, which was what had guaranteed Tao Xue's win in that match.

After fighting such a troublesome enemy, he was surely entitled to some rest, as he was really tired. In both of these previous battles, he hadn't faced any damage, but he had become significantly tired, and had lost quite a bit of his stamina.

He was sure that the rewards were going to be even better than those that he had acquired in the first battle. He was getting excited for the upcoming rewards, as he sat down, and decided that resting a bit was the first priority for him, currently.

He sat down, and relaxed himself, as he thought in his mind, "Maybe, the rewards I get this time would have some kind of a technique that increases my Cultivation speed in the ability of mine. About normal Cultivation, I can ask other people also, but my main problem is training my ability, for which I can only sought help from master. If there's something related to my ability, then that would be simply great! Well, let's see what's going to be in the rewards for this battle!"