...His form expanded violently, like a tree bursting out of the ground in fast motion.
By the ti he reached the Lion Heart formation—
He had transford into a massive spreading wooden structure, branches and spikes erupting in every direction.
It was an attack ant to break formations apart.
Soren’s eyes widened.
"Not bad..." he muttered under his breath.
But the Lion Heart Party didn’t panic. Bambi stepped forward.
Her voice rang sharply across the battlefield.
"Golden Fang!"
She lunged forward.
Her fist pulled back.
Soul energy erupted around her arm like a blazing cot.
"BREAK THE PREY!"
Her punch shot forward with a screaming burst of power.
BOOM!
Her fist slamd directly into the expanding wooden mass.
The shockwave exploded outward.
The entire tree-like body shattered apart mid-air, splintering into hundreds of broken wooden fragnts that rained down across the battlefield.
The transford cadet crashed to the ground unconscious.
But the battle had already escalated.
Aegon moved.
And he was fast.
Far faster than most people expected.
Even Soren’s eyes narrowed slightly in surprise.
Despite his obvious rage...
Aegon fought with sharp tactical awareness.
As the Mohawk mbers clashed with the Lion Heart formation—
Aegon slipped through gaps in the battlefield like a ghost.
His eyes flashed.
Purple Soul energy surged.
Wherever his gaze landed—
Stone crept across the legs of Lion Heart mbers.
One.
Two.
Three.
Cadets suddenly found their legs petrifying, locking them in place mid-movent.
It created openings.
Tiny fractures in the Lion Heart formation.
And Aegon exploited every single one.
He bypassed the frontline entirely.
Dashing through the battlefield.
Dodging strikes.
Sliding past frozen opponents.
Until finally—
He broke through the formation.
And appeared directly in front of Li.
Li stood there calmly.
Hands in his pockets.
Golden hair swaying lightly.
His expression carried nothing but a quiet arrogance as he looked down at Aegon.
As if the entire battle unfolding around them...
Was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
Li looked down at Aegon, his golden eyes narrowing slightly.
"You really have a bad habit," he said lazily, "of getting on my nerves."
Aegon’s lips curled.
"This ti will be different," he said, voice tight with determination. "This ti... I’ll crush you."
He raised one hand.
Almost imdiately, a Mohawk Party mber behind him reached into the tall crest of hair on his head.
From within it, he pulled out a weapon.
A pair of nunchucks.
The cadet spun once and hurled them forward.
The weapon cut through the air.
Aegon caught it cleanly.
Without even looking.
The mont the nunchucks landed in his grip, he began spinning them around his body in a series of sharp, flashy movents.
Whack! Whack! Whack!
The weapon cracked through the air as he swung it behind his back, over his shoulders, around his waist.
Each movent punctuated with short, sharp breaths.
"Ha!"
"Hah!"
"Haa!"
The display was flashy.
Almost theatrical.
But as the nunchucks spun—
The purple soul energy around Aegon’s body began glowing brighter.
More focused.
More condensed.
Li’s eyes sharpened slightly.
"Oh?"
He tilted his head.
"A personal weapon." He nodded faintly. "Not bad. You actually improved."
Aegon smirked. "I’ve been dreaming of a day like this," he said, spinning the weapon faster.
"A day where I finally crush you."
His eyes burned with obsession. "And when I destroy the Lion Heart Party..."
He pointed one end of the nunchucks directly at Li.
"...I’ll make sure you beco my new stool boy."
Li stared at him for a mont.
Then he sighed. "A lion usually doesn’t care," Li said calmly, "when an ant climbs onto its body and bites its skin to prove it’s stronger."
His eyes turned cold.
"But..."
He slowly raised a finger and pointed directly at Aegon’s face.
"...there are consequences for such actions."
His voice beca sharp.
"This ti..."
"I’ll take your eyes."
The words dropped into the battlefield like a stone into still water.
Even the distant sounds of fighting seed to dull for a mont.
Nearby, Kiva leaned forward from her tree branch.
Her yellow eyes sharpened.
Buttermint paused mid-bite on his sandwich.
Both of them looked carefully at Li now.
Because everyone here knew sothing important.
Aegon’s ability relied heavily on his eyes.
They worked like antennas—extensions of his power that projected his petrification ability outward into the world.
Destroying them wouldn’t just injure him.
It would cripple him.
Completely.
Li was essentially threatening to end Aegon’s future as a Soulbound warrior.
Normally, such a thing would be frowned upon.
Even in Gauntlet battles, crippling the opponent purposefully was not allowed.
But this was the Hunting grounds. Hunting here was not simply restricted to the Eldritch creatures.
Aegon’s spinning nunchucks slowed slightly.
For just a mont—
A tiny flicker of hesitation appeared in his eyes.
Li’s threat had actually touched him.
Li saw also it.
And he smiled faintly.
"If you stop this foolishness now," Li added calmly, "pay tribute and leave like a good... dog..."
"I might consider forgiving you."
The battlefield fell quiet around them.
Aegon’s fingers tightened around the nunchucks.
Then he laughed.
"You..."
His voice trembled with fury.
"...should be begging for forgiveness."
He lowered his head slightly.
Then muttered under his breath.
"Second form..."
The purple energy around his body surged violently.
"...Dance of a Rockstar."
The mont Aegon uttered those words—
Li’s expression shifted slightly. It was subtle.
But he had beco more alert. Because Aegon’s soul energy had changed.
The purple energy around his body flowed into the nunchucks, coating the weapon like a living fla.
Then Aegon began moving again. But this ti—
There was a rhythm.
Soren couldn’t quite explain it.
Yet he could feel it. Every swing. Every step.
Every twist of Aegon’s body.
They followed a strange pattern, almost like a song only Aegon could hear.
The nunchucks whistled through the air in perfect tempo.
Then—Aegon moved.
The weapon slashed outward in a wide arc. Li turned sharply to the right. From the perspective of the onlookers, he had barely dodged it.
Just in ti.
Because the mont the nunchucks finished their arc—
The entire space they had passed through turned to stone.
Grass.
Branches.
Airborne dust.
Everything within that path hardened instantly.
Aegon smiled.
Then the nunchucks spun again.
WHACK—
Another arc.
Li leaped back.
WHACK—
Another swing.
Li twisted away.
Each ti the weapon moved, the world behind it petrified.
Stone scars spread across the battlefield like frozen lightning.
anwhile—
Aegon kept advancing.
Fast.
Very fast.
Soren quickly realized sothing terrifying.
Aegon had beco both a long-range fighter and a close-range fighter at the sa ti.
The nunchucks themselves were deadly up close.
But the soul energy trailing them created wide arcs of petrification.
So when Li dodged the physical strike—
He was often dodging straight into the stone wave behind it.
It was a trap.
A deadly one.
And Aegon controlled the battlefield like a conductor guiding an orchestra.
Then—
For the first ti—
Li mistid a movent.
A small part of his golden hair brushed the edge of one of the arcs.
So did the tip of his dangling earring.
Instantly—
They turned to stone.
Aegon grinned wider.
His montum didn’t slow.
He pressed forward harder.
Soren watched with wide eyes.
He had spent practically years practicing the Clap Hand to hand combat technique that had beco foundational and strengthened his fighting style.
But even he could see the difference.
If he had faced Aegon right now—
Even at full health—
He would be in serious trouble.
The speed.
The precision.
The way Aegon forced his opponent to dodge exactly where he wanted.
It was frightening. Every attack wasn’t just an attack. It was a trap leading to another trap.
Soren slowly shook his head.
A realization settled heavily in his chest.
He wasn’t weak. But against Aegon like this—
He probably wouldn’t last ten moves.
Just then—
A calm voice spoke beside him.
"Intriguing, isn’t it?"
Soren’s head snapped to the side.
"The way a second form gives direction... and purpose in a fight."
Soren turned.
And froze.
Because sitting just a few steps away—
At a neatly prepared table—
Was Buttermint.
The boy was still casually eating his sandwich.
As if a massive battle wasn’t happening twenty ters away.
Soren instantly stepped back.
Bloodshine and Cynthia moved with him, their bodies tensing.
But Buttermint simply chewed calmly.
He didn’t seem offended by their reaction.
Instead, he swallowed his bite and spoke again.
"You know..."
He took another piece of his sandwich.
"I could offer you a second form technique far better than that one."
His eyes flicked briefly toward Soren.
"If you join my party."
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