Heated

Shortly after that exchange of words with his father King began enveloping his entire body in dark purple flames that began to slightly and slowly corrode his surroundings, this is something unique to Phoenixes who were known as the sovereign of flames among the Four Divine Beasts and all other beasts as well.

They possessed the innate ability to manipulate and produce flames at will while also being able to manifest an additional element of their choice that they had an affinity to or were proficient in to enhance their flames as well, providing additional properties and often time creating additional flexibility.

'Maybe I had underestimated him even more than I initially thought the face that he's able to manifest and superimpose an element on his flames after only becoming familiar with those two elements so recently is quite impress especially considering the rarity and difficulty that can come with manipulating the darkness element, perhaps it would be more advantageous to look over the entirety of his training myself before allowing him to venture into Dierose Forest.' Vanessa inwardly thought

The aura around King had changed dramatically he was emanating a pressure similar to a beast at the top of the food chain it was both feral and refined simultaneously providing quite the contrast.

Most noticeably however was the dense killing intent King was emanating it seemed as if he would no longer be holding back his blows and treating this as if it was a life and death duel.

"That's more like it give it everything you've got I'd be a disgrace of a father if you had to hold back in fear of hurting me wouldn't I." His father said with a smug grin.

King reached his father and immediately aimed for the throat with a sharp swing of his right arm, which was parried by his father with his left arm augmented heavily with the light element to combat the corrosive effect from the darkness flames.

So King followed up with a spinning backhand with his right fist which was parried just as easily, however this time his father countered with an elbow thrown towards his midsection which he blocked by lifting his knee him to intercept the blow.

Still King was slightly pushed back by the blow which he used to create more distance unable to hide his shock with the ease his father was still parrying and countering his blows, only to realize he was only aiming for vital spots and no matter how fast he was with the gap in realms, with good reflexes and anticipation it was simply inevitable for that to happen unless he changes his pattern of attack.

Even after realizing that King instead deciding to continue dashing in and exchanging several attacks with both his feet and fists creating the illusion that he'd continue trying the same thing while expecting different results.

Right before another 5 minute threshold was reached King quickly back dashed and began to condense the flames enveloping him into several large dark purple fire balls he threw at his father from several directions and stopped exuding his powerful killing intent, all while preparing to use his dark element to blend in with his surroundings and at worse be confused with his attack.

As King began to seemingly vanish from his father's perception range that he could exhibit while his soul cultivation was off limits, his father tried heightening his senses to the maximum he could, and as soon as he did this he felt a sense of impending doom that he'd only felt few times in his entire life.

'If I don't increase my bodily cultivation to at least the middle 4th rank this will likely cause fatal damage, so do I take the moral high ground and jump two stages and break my own rules to say your life is often more important, or do I take the blow head on at the early 4th rank and counter attack secure victory while salvaging my pride as a father' Dante inwardly thought

Just as the decisive moment was about to take place a loud voice was heard.

"ENOUGH." His mother shouted shortly after the voice had reached the voice had reached their ears they'd already been separated.

"I believe a draw is in order, knowing the two of you neither one of you knows when to stop so I doubt either would accept defeat and the look in both of your eyes reeked of recklessness.

Although I admire both your courage and would like to admonish you for your bravado that may lead to unnecessary conflicts In the future I'd rather not see the two men I love so much actually inflicting fatal injuries on one another even if it's simple to heal, injuries may heal but pain is eternal" His mother said.

"Hmph very well for your mother's sake I'll accept that as a draw, however don't you think that was enough to best your old man, I am just being the bigger person here is all." His father said while posing as if he was the embodiment of self righteousness.

'I will admit I did underestimate my father some this is a body I'm not wholly familiar with quite yet but at my best I was stronger than my father as a cultivator however maybe I got complacent as I got stronger I simply could overwhelm most of my opponents losing a bit of my edge, this was quite an eye opening experience' King inwardly thought

"I don't know dad that looked quite perilous maybe mom called it a draw simply not to have you lose any face, and normally one who is the bigger person doesn't need to distinguish that to be the case." King said while smugly grinning

"Well why don't we go again to see who really is right then, oh dear son of mine." His father said

His mother began shaking her head in disbelief of this father and son duo quarreling back and forth.

"Thank you for further proving my point in breaking this up and declaring it a draw neither of you have any actual point to prove here other than comparing who's pride and ego are larger.

If your father used his actual prowess it'd be no contest, but are you content with having to increase your advantage in body cultivation to beat your teenage son how shameless especially in a spar you came up with the rules, don't get mad if you hadn't expected our son to have improved so much since when you came up with those rules.

Also you young man stop egging your father on you know how competitive he is this would never end and although you performed quite impressively the element of surprise in more ways than one was a large influence on that fight, I'm sure in the future your father won't take you so lightly anymore." His mother said

"Touche, it's my fault I hadn't realized how much our son has improved hell it felt like he was improving during our fight, it's to be expected as talented as I am it was simply an inevitability for that to be the case." His father said

"How shameless to call him our son and declare it's solely due to your talent all in one breath dear husband of mine quite the choice of words there don't you think." His mother said with furrowed brows giving him a scowl that could pierce the heavens or at least he felt so.

"Cough cough I meant to say as expected of our son, he even has your dark element how could I ever imagine excluding you in his exceptional talent, dare I say it's more so do to you than myself I simply misspoke dear." His father said quickly trying to correct the errors of his way

"Of course it's due to the both of you Mother I wouldn't even be here without you delivering me so at best dad can only get half credit by default, you did all the heavy lifting after all." King said quickly piggybacking his father's sentiment on hope of saving his father from the ire of his mother.

"Yeah yeah it sounds good, at least my son understands my plight at the very least, however I will say your hand to hand combat was quite impressive I know we had limited you to the outskirts of Dierose Forest and sparring with the guards but maybe you've been already breaking the forest rule with how well you performed.

Just amassing that level of killing intent alone what have you been doing in the forest over the past few years I understand wanting to do as much as you can to alleviate your situation but the battles and hardships you've already gone through may have been much greater than I initially expected.

Perhaps you'll pass my conditions sooner than I thought which is probably why you accepted them so easily what a sly sly boy you are." His mother said

'I suppose she's not entirely wrong even though the majority of that killing intent came from my soul in my past life the previous incarnation of this body did spend a fair bit of time tempering himself in the forest aside from his studies, he really wanted to make his parents proud, the least I could do is do so in his stead' King inwardly thought.

"Yeah that was quite the surprise altogether, I really regret not paying more attention to all of those daily spars, but I'm also quite interested in what you've done in the forest to get such a dense killing intent." His father said.