The man's eyes narrowed in anger as he seriously began fighting. He swung his sword, sending out light attacks as he did so.
The attacks landed on Ning, who did his best to block it.
Light Essence made the attacks faster than normal, but it also was generally weaker, after all, it followed the properties of light itself.
Ning blocked it as well as he could. While the attacks stung, they didn't hurt him. He protected his body while looking through his Essence Sense.
He could see from his entire body if he wanted to, but then… what fun was that?
Suddenly, the Essence he was sensing changed its aura. From Light, it changed to a more powerful Crystal Essence.
Ning quickly moved his arms away, looking at the crystal attacks that were flying toward him.
Crystals were generally harder, sharper, and less crumbly compared to rocks, so the shards that were flying toward Ning were far more dangerous.
Ning's sword moved, flickering in the sunlight as it cut through each of the flying shards of crystal as if he was cutting through the water. His sword sunk into the crystals with ease, carving in one in two as he accurately moved in between the attacks and destroyed all the crystals.
The man was surprised. The crystals he was chucking away were supposed to be quite strong, especially with the Essence he was putting into them. He couldn't understand how Ning was possibly cutting through them with so much ease.
"Too few, huh? I'll give you more to deal with," the man said as a white arm extended from his real arm, growing as it came out.
The young man was using his Essence soul now to fight against Ning.
Ning saw the giant white Essence Soul come out and frowned. This was going to be problematic.
The giant Essence Soul was nearly 5 meters tall, with 2 legs and 4 arms. Two of its hands were normal hands made out of crystals, while the other two looked like sharp, amputated crystal limbs.
The soul had a head with no face. The front of the head was completely blank, while crystal spikes grew out of the back of its head.
It wasn't just the head either. The entirety of its back was the same, ridden with spikes that had grown on it as if it were a porcupine.
The Essence Soul turned around after it appeared, pointing its back with the million spikes toward Ning.
Ning's eyes went wide in surprise as he quickly poured his Essence into his sword, creating a massive pillar of rock in front of him. He created multiple layers of Earth barrier with his sword, while also attacking back at the same time.
The two clashed at the center at the most for two seconds when his opponent sprayed dozens if not hundreds of small Crystal essence shards in his direction.
The pillar that Ning had made had been torn to shred while some shards had made it into the inner walls as well.
The young man grinned when he saw that. "You lose now," he shouted and sprayed another set of crystals at Ning, all of which were meant to destroy the last remaining earth barriers.
The referee was ready to move to protect Ning, but at the last moment his eyes widened and his target changed.
The young man sensed it as well. He had been ready for it after all.
His teachers had told him what was most likely going to happen at the most crucial moment in battle. His opponent was going to use his Space technique and arrived behind him.
The moment he sensed the Space Essence, he turned around with a wide grin on his face.
"I knew you would come for my back just like you did with—" his words stuck in his mouth when he saw a spray of crystals come in his direction.
They were simply so fast that he couldn't use any defensive skills in time. All he could do was put a hand in front of him to protect himself.
His Essence Soul's large palms fell in front of him as they took the brunt of the damage that he himself had sent out.
The arms had turned solid, but they were still torn by the barrage of crystals that landed on it.
He used the opportunity to create a wall of crystal pillars to protect himself from the rest of the crystals.
His Essence Soul was hurt. He had made it solid to protect himself, and in doing so it had taken damage.
Just as he was wondering, he sensed Space Essence being used behind him and turned around just in time to see Ning arrive next to him.
Ning swung his sword even as he went through the portal and slashed it down on the man in front of him.
The young man put up his hands out of instinct and even his Essence Soul put its broken hand in front.
However, Ning's sword easily sliced through the four solid arms, before stopping right in front of the man's skin.
The Referee had already arrived and used his water Essence Soul to try and stop, but even his soul's hand had been halfway cut into with Ning's sword.
If Ning had not stopped on his own, the young man would've died.
The young man's feet buckled in fear as he fell to the ground, terrified of what could have happened.
Ning moved back and looked at the surprised look of the referee that couldn't believe what had happened either. "If you are involved, then I have won, right?" he asked.
The referee nodded. He came out of his stupor and checked Ning's opponent to make sure he wasn't hurt.
After making sure that he was fine, he announced Ning as the victor.
The crowd from around the arena cheered loudly as something unbelievable had happened in their presence. Not once, but twice had a contestant that was only in the Essence Manifestation realm defeated an opponent in the Essence Soul realm.
