The moment the danger pricked at the edge of his senses, he didn't hesitate. The shockwave was cataclysmic.
Vastarael's kick collided with his shield again and even though the Divine Form of Eldrigan's Shield Barrier Formation Elastic Absorption sucked in most of the impact like a sponge, the sheer raw force flung Eldrigan backward like a ragdoll. He rolled on the hot white sand several times, his body dragging a long, uneven trail across the beach. The ground rippled with the kick's energy. Air compressed violently, forming a sharp sound like a sonic boom.
Eldrigan clicked his jaw and snapped his fingers.
His body burst into divine light. His Divine Form of Shield Barrier Formation, Elastic Absorption was fully activated and merged with his Ascender Form, his Essentia Form Barrier Shaping, and Dismemberment all at once. His skin glowed with an crimson hue as a red membrane clung around him, invisible to the normal eye but clear to any combatant with a Divine sense. His body became a kinetic trap, ready to absorb all incoming damage like an elastic surface, storing the power within.
He didn't even blink. Vastarael vanished. He felt the air ripple behind him. He turned to lift his shield but it was too late. A clean punch hit his chest.
His barriers absorbed the impact, 90% of it at least but that 10% still hurt. His ribs vibrated violently. His breath caught in his throat. Eldrigan gritted his teeth and threw a punch and blindly missed. He punched, earning another dodge from Vastarael. Eldrigan snarled, red flickering in his eyes.
"You're moving too damn fast."
Vastarael didn't reply. He only moved.
Again he got another hit, this time across the jaw. His barrier absorbed it but even with 90% mitigation, it felt like a sledgehammer had kissed his face. Then Eldrigan saw the opening. In a fraction of a second, Vastarael's shoulder was turned. He slammed his fist forward. Every ounce of damage stored in his Elastic Absorption burst out in one punch.
A shockwave thundered out across the entire beach, sand flying into the air in a blinding halo around them. The palm trees on the edges of the shore bent from the force. Peroncerea braced herself with a delighted laugh, her wings spreading for balance.
But then, a retaliating kick smashed into Eldrigan's side. He felt his world collapse. The barrier screamed as it broke apart.
He was launched sideways like a ragdoll hurled by a tornado. The force sent him tumbling across the beach like a meteor impact, gouging a trench through the sand, his shield breaking apart in crimson shards that dissolved in the wind. Half his ribs were gone. He wasn't sure which ones. He coughed but blood didn't come out. It sprayed like a fountain. Vastarael walked up to him slowly, and healed him.
"You've gotten better. But still, not enough."
Peroncerea flew over, her arms folded.
"He did pretty well, considering you just treated him like a warm-up."
Eldrigan groaned and flipped onto his back, gasping.
"This… is you holding back?"
"You asked me to train you, not pamper you."
He reached down again and healed him completely, as if fixing broken ribs was as mundane as brushing dirt off a sleeve. Eldrigan coughed one last time, then sat up.
"Alright... round four you bastard."
Vastarael smirked.
"Good."
------
It had been three hours since the spar between Vastarael Richinaria and Eldrigan Hanabas began. Three full hours of relentless beat downs, thunderous shockwaves and a display of combat that would have made even the gods of war sit up in their thrones and whistle. The beach was a mess. Craters dotted the sand like meteors. The shoreline was violently lapping with foamy waters from all the seismic activity, and a few unlucky avians had probably changed migration patterns from the amount of air displacement happening in one single location.
Eldrigan was still fighting somehow. His body was a walking medical anomaly by this point. He was bruised, cut, and bloodied in ways no standard healer would have been able to recover from and yet, here he was. Vastarael wasn't holding back and it showed.
Every single punch and kick, came with the full weight of a Second Enlightenment Divine who had mastered his body, soul and a terrifyingly casual sense of brutality. If any other member of Sentina Erideae apart from Narisva had taken even ten of Vastarael's strikes, they would bave been reduced to bone dust and flesh soup.
Eldrigan was still standing.
The difference was clear. Vastarael wasn't just strong. His technique was inhumane. His flexibility was absurd. His whole style was fast, methodical but above all, unreadable. Eldrigan couldn't predict anything because Vastarael never gave anything away. It was like fighting a shadow that could move like water and hit like a freight train with heavy gravity. And then there was the Soul Energy. Each hit didn't just rattle his ribs. It burned deep. It was gnawing at his very soul. It was the kind of pain that made his soul feel like it was flaking into powder.
If Vastarael hadn't been healing him every time his vitals dipped past "existential threat," Eldrigan would have been having dinner with his ancestors two hours ago. And still, the man wasn't done. Another hit came but it was too fast.
Eldrigan didn't even blink. The moment he saw Vastarael in front of him, he was already behind him.
A fist slammed into his back. His Divine Form soaked 90% of the blow, but the remaining 10% felt like a god had smacked him with a planet. His body lurched forward, his knees crashing into the sand. He spat blood again... was it his fortieth time now? He'd lost count. But instead of flinching, he grinned.
"Vastarael... I figured it out."
Vastarael tilted his head casually as he walked toward him.
"Hm?"
"You're slowing down time. When you stop holding back, you're using Time Divinity. You're not just fast. You're cheating reality."
"Alright. You caught that. Yeah. I slow time just enough to position myself. I can move normally in slowed time. My punches and kicks displace the air around me to build momentum and then I punch you while returning time to normal. All that compressed inertia slams into you in one shot."
And then he moved again.
The punch this time didn't just rattle Eldrigan. The breath left his lungs like it had been ejected through another dimension. His feet left the ground as if he weighed nothing. And then came the spin-kick.
Vastarael pivoted so fast that the air visibly curved around his leg.
Eldrigan's body shot off like a missile. He slammed into the ocean, a massive eruption of water following like a bomb had gone off underwater. The waves rippled for hundreds of meters.
Peroncerea, who had been hovering nearby with growing concern, immediately screamed. Vastarael blinked, turned to her slowly, and raised a hand.
"My bad. I may have accidentally killed your boyfriend."
"You what?!"
She darted into the water, diving in faster than lightning, already prepping to yank Eldrigan from his underwater crater.
Vastarael scratched the back of his head, sighing.
"He's such a good punching bag. He can tank all my serious hits."
He sat down on a smooth rock beside the battlefield-turned-warzone of a beach, cracking his neck as the ocean hissed with aftershock tremors. Moments later, Peroncerea surfaced, dragging Eldrigan's limp yet alive body with her. He was coughing and sputtering like someone who had just been reborn through divine resuscitation, bruised to hell and back but grinning through a busted lip.
"That all you got, Vastarael?"
"Don't tempt me. I've got enough Soul Energy left to tattoo your intestines from the inside."
"Wha—"
Peroncerea slapped Eldrigan's chest, making him yelp.
"Stop provoking him! I'm already planning your funeral in my head again!"
Vastarael leaned back on the rock, exhaling.
"Not bad, though. You're definitely improving. Three hours ago, my first kick had you rolling like a broken wheel. Now? You only flew fifty meters. You're growing."
Eldrigan coughed more water, gave a shaky thumbs-up, and wheezed.
"Progress... hurts."
"Tell me about it. going to be ten times worse with the Seventh Hydrangea. We will be doing this once every week by the way. Even though I healed you, your soul hasn't recovered and your body is still too weak. Every week we will be doing this. Understood?"
"Yes..."