Blow after blow was now being exchanged by Timothy and Kai and as one would expect, they were both on equal footing. Timothy during the war he was involved in for several decades used a sword as a weapon and never had the time to learn a lot of hand to hand combat techniques since demons had thick skin and the only way to finish the job was by using a sharp weapon. Kai on the other hand lacked proper training when it came to cultivating and mainly only used the white tiger's abilities to grow stronger.
There was no telling who would win the match, and the spectators had begun to cheer louder and louder as both Timothy and Kai had silently decided to not hold back. Both opponents were picking up their speed and strength and were both becoming more and more frustrated since they had felt there was no opening that the other was giving them. And so several more minutes had passed until Kai used what seemed to be his second ability, using the wind element in an offensive fashion!
Every demonic beast had an element associated with it. While some were extremely special and rare, majority were one of the basic five elements such as fire, water, earth, thunder, and wind. In the case of the white tiger, it was a demonic beast of the wind element and one of its abilities, was that it could cover its body with wind in order to make its attacks stronger while also adding an additional layer of protection against an opponent's attacks. Now with his battle qi surging and with the help of this technique, Kai was finally able to push Timothy back, causing Timothy to momentarily lose his footing as he flipped in the air four times before finally landing safely still on the stage.
Although, he had technically lost the exchange, Timothy was actually smiling to himself because it looked like he had thought of something on the spot. Pouring his battle qi once more into his legs, Timothy leaped towards Kai's position once more but this time, he was circulating his mana too. This caught Kai off guard, but without wanting to allow Timothy to do whatever he was planning to do, Kai leaped towards Timothy so their momentum concerning their movement techniques would be as equal as it could be.
"The control you have over your battle qi and mana can be considered to be above average. But to think that you were able to come up with using your flames like this on the spot, shows that your potential can be considered most likely in the top twenty percent of this world!" The artifact was very impressed with Timothy as it watched Timothy and Kai for possibly the hundredth time, exchange blows. However, the difference this time, was that like Kai, Timothy was able to coat himself in the fire element this time and unfortunately for Kai, Timothy was given a clear advantage again.
Having abilities at one's disposal such as Kai did that did not allow one to train as a mage but to be able to use techniques in which a mage would be able to use was a very good bonus for a warrior such as himself. The only issue, was that because he was not a mage, if he were to use the same ability against a mage who had mana, it was clear that he would automatically be at a disadvantage compared to if Kai would use it against a cultivator like himself who was only a warrior. Since Timothy had both battle qi and mana to power up his attacks, it was not unexpected that he would be able to push Kai back as he did.
Feeling a new sense of danger and even more pressure, Kai let out another loud roar before heading back to Timothy's location to exchange attacks once more. Because of the wind pulling him forward, Kai still had the advantage when it came to speed and so all he could do was hope that it would be enough for him to somehow take the win since it was no longer clear concerning who the winner of the match would be. Not just that, but Kai was feeling his battle qi running out and once it evaporated completely, he would have no choice but to surrender!
If he wanted to, Timothy now that everyone knew including Kai that he was a fire element mage, could have used some of his fire type techniques in order to keep Kai at a distance until he simply could no longer remain in the fight. This would be considered a very common battle style in which dual experts would be able to use since having two separate energy types and two separate arsenals of techniques allowed them to fight as someone with much higher endurance in a battle. However, Timothy felt that it would be a cheap way of winning and that he wanted to test out this new technique he created against the same opponent that gave him such an unexpected opportunity.
Both teens continued to exchange blows, but it was clear that Timothy was now going a bit easy on Kai and matching the same amount of mana and battle qi in order to not clinch the victory right away. Some of the spectators had begun to boo him since it was clear that Timothy was now using Kai as a practice dummy instead of treating him like an equal opponent. Hearing the crowd do this after thirty seconds, Timothy decided that it would be best just to end it immediately. And so without delaying another second, Timothy unleashed every last ounce of strength he had reserved and landed a direct hit onto Kai's torso.
Kai was able to shield himself from the blow by pouring every last ounce of strength that he had to block it, but because of this, he had no strength in his legs in order to keep him from flying backwards. Luckily for him, the group of spectators who were in his corner acted immediately and caught him once he reached the end of the stage. The referee quickly announced that Timothy who went by the name of the Masked Fighter had won the match and would proceed to the final round.
