Hard fought victory

For a brief moment, there was absolute silence. Everyone who was watching the match was shocked beyond words, some even shot up from their seats.

Haytham who was in the evolved realm knew exactly what was going on. He knew exactly how hard it was to improve one's proficiency with a skill.

One must be able to master the activation process of the skill at its current level through countless usages. When the skill has been completely mastered, the user would have to find a way to safely increase the amount of elemental energy fed into the skill.

The user would then be considered to have successfully attained the next proficiency level when the substantial increase in the elemental energy input produces a landmark upgrade in the skill's effects.

He noticed that this was the intermediate proficiency level for the rock body skill. A teenager who had reached the intermediate proficient level for the rock body skill while still in the mutant realm, this boy was an absolute genius. The Storm Cradle sect must have him.

"Ha ha ha! You did it, Kane. Well done. You are now qualified to be taken seriously by those guys in the waiting room. Finish this fight, it has become quite boring" said Abel with a voice filled with glee.

Kane who had been feeling euphoric about his improvement noticed the drawback of the new rock body skill.

It needed a lot of elemental energy to make the skill cover half of his body. He spent one-fifth of his elemental energy on the first cast already and each cast would last a minute before another stream of his elemental energy would be consumed to maintain the skill.

Azzah who was stunned by the sudden turn of events quickly regained her clarity. She drew her whip back before swinging it at the part of Kane's body that was not protected by the rock body skill, his leg.

Kane noticed the attack a little bit too late and quickly deactivated the skill before using the skill to protect only the leg that was the target of Azzah's whip. He had to be more economical with elemental energy or would quickly run out of it before the match ended.

The whip firmly coiled around his ankle and could not do any damage.

Azzah tugged at the whip with all her strength and Kane fell off balance. He fell on his back before being thrown into the air and smashed heavily on the floor. He could not resist the strength of someone who was two tiers above him at all.

She swung her whip again and Kane was sent flying once more.

Although it looked like Kane was taking a serious beating, that was not the case at all. His adamantine body was more than enough to mitigate the damage taken from the slams.

Azzah swung her whip again. This time, it was backward and Kane was sent tumbling in the air in her direction.

She stretched out her palm and grabbed Kane's neck. She squeezed but was disappointed when Kane's head and neck turned dirt brown and became incomparably hard.

With her hand holding the whip, she lifted her veil and spat the pinkish air at Kane's face.

The poisoned air seemed to have a life of its own and burrowed into Kane's nose and mouth when he was gasping for air.

His view turned red almost immediately as the poison contained in the air was in a much higher concentration compared to the one on her whip.

He felt Azzah's grip on his neck loosen as she wanted him to breathe properly and take in all the poison.

He used that window of opportunity to disable the rock body on his head and activated the skill on his right hand.

He channeled all of his strength in that hand and threw a punch at Azzah's face.

The punch connected but was not enough to send her flying as she was physically stronger than him. It was enough though, to make her see a flash of red light.

Her grip on Kane's neck loosened even more and Kane was able to slap her hand away. He took the opportunity and started punching her face with his rock-body-augmented hand.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

He was punching away at her face and he could see the damage he was inflicting on her. Her face became bloodied and disfigured as her facial bones cracked and her teeth fell.

After the fifth punch, Kane noticed Azzah's shoulder muscles tighten and his face fell immediately.

Azzah threw a fierce punch at his stomach which sent Kane flying.

"How dare you!!! I will rip you to shreds" shouted Azzah at the top of her lungs as she stood up.

Kane also stood without any difficulty. When Kane saw her shoulder muscles tighten, he could guess that she was about to attack him.

After predicting the trajectory of the punch, he quickly switched the rock body skill from his hand and onto his stomach.

He could guess that his enhanced observation mutation had taken a minor leap.

He could now roughly predict his opponent's movements from the minute changes in their muscles.

His enhanced cognition helped him make the right split-second decisions. He was very confident about winning this match.

Azzah put her whip back into her waist pack before screaming and dashing toward Kane.

Kane's view had almost returned to normal by this point. He also dashed towards his opponent to meet her in combat.

They soon arrived before each other and Azzah threw a punch at his face with her right hand. Azzah's speed was a little bit too much for Kane to handle. He could see the punch but he could not dodge it in time.

He threw his punch with his left fist at her face and immediately activated the rock body skill on his face.

When the punch landed on his head, he quickly deactivated the skill and reactivated it on his left first which was still on its way to Azzah's face.

BAM!

The punch landed squarely on her nose and her veil was torn away from the impact.

Kane was shocked by what he saw. Her face which was bloodied, bruised, and disfigured beyond recognition from his previous pummel was somewhat healed.

Heck, he could even see her wounds already closing up. "Shit. She can spit poison and regenerate at the same time? Okay, be calm. Regeneration at a low level like hers consumes a lot of elemental energy. Keep dishing out the damage and she will soon run out of elemental energy" said Abel from within Kane's Plain.

"Ha ha ha, afraid by what you see? I will make you regret today" screamed Azzah hysterically.

She lunged at Kane and threw another punch at Kane.

Just like before, Kane defended the attack with his rock body skill before immediately transferring it onto the part of his body he was going to attack with.

Sounds of intense collisions kept reverberating within the stage.

Everyone had their attention glued to the fight. Be it the referee, the audience sitting in the stands, or the other participants watching in the waiting room. They were all slack-jawed from the display of pure endurance and savagery before them.

Azzah threw punches with reckless abandon while hoping to land a few hits on Kane's unprotected parts but Kane did not allow that.

He accurately predicted where the attacks would hit and protected the spot with his rock body skill while his counterattack which he had already sent even before Azzah's attacks could strike him would always connect with her body.

He could notice that her attacks were gradually getting sloppier and she would break soon.

He was also not in the best position. His constant activation of the rock body skill was draining his elemental energy at a frightening pace. He now had roughly two-fifths of his elemental energy remaining.

The punches kept coming. Before long, Azzah discovered to her dismay that she had finally depleted her elemental energy in her crazed hunt for Kane's head.

When Kane's latest punch connected with her face, a wave of pain racked her body and she felt fear for the first time in her match with him.

'How could this happen. I am your mistress. You are supposed to be on your knees groveling beneath my heels as you beg for punishment. How was I defeated by someone who is two tiers below me?' lamented Azzah in her mind.

She turned around and was about to run away to increase the distance between them. She was too late though, as Kane who had already guessed her next move, threw a punch that connected with the back of her head when she turned around.

Apart from the nerve-racking pain, Azzah felt an indescribable bout of dizziness overtake her.

She could not maintain her balance and fell face-first to the floor. Kane stepped over her body and was about to punch her again when he suddenly felt a strong force grab his hand.

It was the referee who soon ended the match and declared Kane the winner.

Kane sat on the floor with an exhausted look on his face.

He had won!