Ugong quickly leapt towards Marcus in an attempt to overwhelm him with speed and then grab him, but suddenly, he was smashed back towards the ground with a sudden, invisible force.

Boom—!

"What the?!" A cloud of dust was kicked up when he crashed down. He gritted his teeth and tried fighting off the telekinesis that was forcing him down.

"It's like a giant hand is crushing me! Why's his power suddenly stronger?!"

While Ugong was struggling to get up, Marcus started monologuing nonchalantly. "You know, I see why this staff is treasured. This is only a replica, how much more the original would be? I'm sure uncle Wukong would be willing to wage war for his staff."

"I see...! You're using its power, aren't ya?!" Ugong still replied with a smile despite being overwhelmed by Marcus' amped telekinesis.

"That's right… Density, huh? It sure does pair well with my psychic powers."

"Damn you psychics! I'm happy you guys are contained in a single family! You damn anomalies!"

But despite Ugong's protests who was using all his might just to try to escape, Marcus continued rambling on as if hearing nothing.

Pointing on his temple, he continued. "Psychic power is the physical manifestation of the energy that the mind generates while in use, something which we all do all the time... It's just that, only my family are capable of wielding that because of how our brains work thanks to our founder."

He the raised and pointed the staff towards Ugong, making the already powerful force even stronger.

"This guy…!"

"The mind and the body works together. By extension, my telekinesis works as if I'm in physical contact with anything I touch through it. And since this staff's power increases mine and its own's density, then it applies to my abilities too. Although it was neat that it doesn't increase my weight when I add density to myself… though that added density was felt by others through contact, huh?"

"You talk too much! Have you always been like this?!"

"Not really… Just exhilarated."

"Tsk!" Ugong gathered vast amounts of mana into his hand and quickly snapped, although since Marcus was far away, it never affected him.

"As I thought, my powers don't work in those areas…" Marcus mumbled.

Without restrictions, Ugong quickly dashed forward to the retreating opponent. The area spanned 50-meters in radius, so he had a bit of leeway where Marcus couldn't stop his advances.

While retreating, Marcus tried timing Ugong's advance, where he will immediately hit him with another restraining force after he exited that area. However, Ugong snapped once again, creating a new area after the previous one dissipated.

"This crazy...!"

With a diabolical smile, Ugong continued his dash, managing to catch up to Marcus and quickly grabbed his face and then slamming him onto the ground.

Boom—!

Ugong smiled as he looked down, however, Marcus had indifferent expression.

"What...?" He discovered he wasn't actually touching Marcus' face, but rather, a thin force field that Marcus coated his body with.

"Damn you!" Ugong tried to quickly snatch the staff from Marcus' hand, but with a swipe of the latter's other hand, he was smashed downwards to the side.

Ugong quickly recovered and threw a wild hook which Marcus was effortlessly able to block with his barrier coated hand. Using the same hand, Marcus swiped downwards and his telekinesis hammered down on Ugong.

Crack—!

The earth slowly crumbled with Ugong above it from the sheer force exerted but he still managed to let out an angered tone.

"This is so annoying!" A large boulder suddenly appeared from above, surprising Marcus.

"I need to dodge!"

Boom—!

He dodged away, momentarily halting his power, allowing Ugong to move within the cloud of dust as the former was distracted.

Ugong caught Marcus off-guard when he came out of it and smiled. "Gotcha!"

Ugong was supposed to stop time once again, but before he was able to do so, Marcus stopped his hand with his power and snapped his fingers.

Crack—!

"That hurts!" Ugong tried hopping backwards to create abit of distance and heal a little, but Marcus pulled him in.

Using the staff, Marcus quickly hit him multiple times skillfully with Ugong being only barely able to block the barrage of strikes from his own staff. Despite Marcus not being able to exert that much force, the staff's power makes up perfectly for it.

"I'm trained by monks, remember? Did you seriously thought I'm that shit in close quarters?"

"Then why are you not bald?!" Ugong replied immediately in anger.

While he was being continuously beaten by his own weapon, he ramped up his healing to the max while it continually breaks his bones even after they just got healed. All the while blocking and looking for an opportunity to grab Marcus.

While he continued striking Ugong, Marcus mumbled to himself. "This guy… just how much mana does he have?"

The one-sided beat down raged on and Ugong was still unable to find a gap. Frustrated, he goes for another snap in a hurry.

Using an Oath, he imposed a condition on himself: A contract with oneself. The Tower and its mana to grant him the ability to cast it stealthily, which is by not allowing his opponents to be able to read the waves of his mana that's travelling towards his fingertips. In exchange, he will have to use double of the usual mana expenditure it will cost him. This ability, when done the ordinary way uses a lot of mana enough to drain the three of his opponents most of their mana and could even be fatal for them to perform even if they pool their mana reserves together.

But for Ugong—who was born with such vast amounts of mana that when visualized, was enough to drown an entire country if every last drop of it was to be converted to water—was able to perform it safely whenever. Although he can only perform a maximum of more or less twenty within the same day before he was completely drained, needing to recuperate for less than a week if he wants to get back the maximum of his mana reserves back.

The time stop finally struck Marcus! While frozen in time, Ugong placed his hand onto his staff, and as soon as the time went back on, he pulled it back and kicked Marcus away forcefully.

Boom—!

Marcus managed to minimize the damage by being barely able to erect a weak barrier which was broken rather easily, but he still sustained some pretty bad damage as he caught himself and began to levitate.

He looked towards Ugong who was panting heavily and are now getting sluggish.

He looked at him in shock while caressing his side since his liver hurts. "There's no way… You're… bottoming out?"

"Me? Running out of mana?" Ugong managed to put up a smile despite losing strength.

A crimson headband then materialized on top of his head, reminiscent of the Monkey King's Golden Headband.

"Hell nah!" As soon as that thing appeared, a sudden surge of mana wave was sent out to every direction around him as the entirety of Ugong's mana reserve was unleashed.

Even Marcus felt the intense pressure that was released. "You damn monster…!" He exclaimed with a nervous smile before also letting his powers run wild and losing control of himself.