"I thought you would be stronger than that…" sighed Oli. "I guess you really aren't in the advanced cla.s.s. If you were, this would be much harder."

"You!" Furious, the lynx gathered even more essence and concentrated more around his claws. "You're just some stupid gorilla that got lucky in the tournament! You have no right to talk to me like that!"

The lynx chared at Oli, no longer holding anything back. Even though he mocked Oli, he already knew that Oli would actually beat him if he didn't go all out.

"Then come on already!"

Oli met the lynx head-on, not wavering in the slightest. He was glad to have a chance to face an adept. It would be a great opportunity for him to test his growth without much worry about hurting his opponent, like when he sparred with Yeter.

The hammer and claw stuck each other again and again. There wasn't too much difference in strength between the attacks, but there was a key difference.

Like that, Oli would last longer since he had better control of his essence and his body wasn't taking any damage. It was his hammer that was constantly making contact, and its design was made to pierce through anything.

The lynx, on the other hand, was. .h.i.tting that powerful hammer with his claw, and the hammer always managed to barely break through his essence. After a few clashes, his paws were starting to feel a bit numb and achy. At that rate, he wouldn't be able to defend himself much longer.

"Come on, is that the best you've got?" joked Oli. "Like this, you wouldn't last a minute against Karos."

"Shut up!"

In a rage, the Lynx released everything he had into his attacks, letting his strikes start to overpower Oli's.

But he now left his body undefended, like Oli was to conserve essence.

Seeing that, Oli smiled wryly. Like usual, he swung his ma.s.sive hammer to meet the lynx's attack. As they made contact, suddenly, the lynx's cold smile morphed into a face riddled with pain.

One of Oli's hands had let go of his hammer, which weakened his strike against the lynx's claw and damaged his hammer. But that free hand formed a second hammer a little smaller than the first and made a direct hit against the lynx's side.

Thrown back, the lynx whined in pain as he tumbled across the hard ground. As he came to a stop, he realized that some of his ribs were already broken and that he was a fool for dropping his essence defenses.

In anger, the lynx whispered to the frog, "Together."

Then, the lynx charged back, again covered in essence like before. He traded a few strikes with Oli as they again started to reach a stalemate.

"Oli, watch out!"

Yeter's warning, allowed Oli to see a ball of water coming straight at him but it wasn't soon enough to dodge. Instead, he covered himself in essence to put up a partial defense.

With both the frog's and the lynx's attacks coming at him, Oli was pushed back and panting heavily. Finally, they had gotten the advantage against him.

The lynx laughed in anger, "See, you're nothing to us!"

"Is that so?"

That calm and clear voice sent s.h.i.+vers down the spines of the adepts, even more so for the frog.

Turning around, the frog frowned and tried his best to put up a defense but he was too late. Netra's surprise attack tore into the frog's unguarded shoulder, rendering it useless. The look in her eyes caused the frog to be terrified. He never would have guessed that the girl they a.s.sumed was just lucky could do something like that.

"If you want to fight, then I'll be your opponent. Don't team up against someone two levels lower than you and then call him useless," stated Netra coldly.

The lynx trembled when he realized that his companion had a worse injury than him. But he couldn't do anything to help because he was busy with Oli.

"Since you want to fight dirty, I won't be too merciful…"

When the lynx heard Oli's relaxed statement, he was startled. After taking those attacks, he was still able to keep going that easily?

In reality, Oli was definitely injured but it wasn't enough to keep his iron will and his iron-like body from stopping. Instead, it drove him to try harder.

Oli released all the earth essence possible and formed a new hammer. It was an all-or-nothing attack, something that would either devastate his opponents or would leave him completely vulnerable afterward. It was something that Oli had tested in practice but had yet to use it against someone other than Vloz or Ania.

Now, he could really test it.

Seeing the ma.s.sive hammer in Oli's hands, the lynx frowned. He already knew that Oli was at least as strong as him in terms of battle strength with his other hammer, so that one would be terrifying to face, but he had no choice now.

"Come at me, you silly kitty!" yelled Oli, stealing a line from his uncle's a.r.s.enal of taunts.

"You!" With no choice, the lynx put it all into a single attack and tried his best to overwhelm Oli's hammer strike.

As the two attacks. .h.i.t, one attack continued moving as it tore through the other like paper. A pained cry sounded out as bones were broken. The lynx was thrown into the ground and was being looked down on by Oli.

"This is why we're going straight to the advanced cla.s.s after we break through to the adept plane. You can't compare, not in terms of cultivation or in terms of honor," mocked Oli. "Just go, and don't bother us again!"

Limping, the lynx balanced on his three good legs and slowly left with his frog friend, who did the same.

Oli looked at Netra and chuckled as he shook his head. "You really have pa.s.sed me. With your stealth, I wouldn't last a single strike."

"True, but only if you weren't defending. If you managed to strike back, you'd overwhelm me with power alone," laughed Netra.

Yeter laughed and disregarded them ignoring him. He was just happy to see those bullies get what they deserved after all the times they had pushed him around and attacked him in the past.