Gran is using a extremely straightforward method to merge two elements. And all that needs is an extreme control of energy. When Sam saw this, he felt like his level of control might even be less than her own.

It is that critical and delicate.

But it is simple to explain. Unlike Sam who channels both energies at the same time by taking advantage of his beast like meridians, Gran channels one energy after another. She channels, shadow energy and space energy one after another in extreme speeds that there would be an overlap between both energies which gave her the opening to use both energies combined.

If one has a great command and control over their own energy with a perfect timing, they can merge any two energies.

Gran smiled at Sam as she reached a proper state to move, but just as she was about to make that move, Sam also returned her smile and used his own version of shadow and space elemental merge.

The shock of Gran is more than what Sam felt when he saw her use that.

Most of his surprise is due to the fact that he forgot that she has spatial element as she mostly used shadow element throughout the race. But her shock is due to the fact that she felt it is extremely unfair for Sam to possess spatial element too which she thought as an edge over him.

This made her more determined to win this race and she blinked and disappeared into the nearest shadow and in the next moment, she remerged on another shadow on the surface of the mountain.

Sam looked at her coming through that shadow and felt surprised once again and he looked at the setting sun on the side.

She is using the sun set to her advantage as it caused the rocky protrusions on the surface of the mountain, even the small protrusions to cast large shadows and she is using those shadows to her own advantage and created a technique similar to shadow transverse.

Generally, spatial blink takes a lot of energy, because the spatial enery used for transporting a person or an object is a lot and in addition to locating the next point the person wants to move to is also an extra energy expense.

Now she is eliminating all of this, she is reducing her body mass by directly entering the shadow nearby merging into it and then using the shadow energy to locate the shadows nearby and pinpointed the farthest shadow she could get access to and then using the spatial energy to blink her low mass body to that point.

That makes it easier for her move and use blink more often. Almost like a normal move.

Sam never felt this stupid in his life.

As he looked at her way of moving and felt like an idiot thinking on how he missed this kind of technique which uses the most basic principles of the respective energy usage.

Sometimes, it is really hard to notice the simplest of the things.

Sam decided to use the same technique and merged in the nearest shadow and reappeared in the farthest shadow he could access to.

When he did it for the first time, he is not as fast as Gran is nor did he cross the same distance as she did. But he didn't feel disappointed. Once he understood the principle it is only a matter of number of trails and he would be proficient in any thing. He is proud of his learning ability and there is not much to learn in this thing.

So, he started moving forward without much hesitation.

Gran, who is also moving upwards halted in her tracks as she hung with the support of a protrusion and looked at Sam who is using the same technique as her.

It didn't take long for her to figure it out that he is using her own technique in a race against her. She really wanted to curse Sam and his eighteen generations of ancestors out loud in the open.

But she controlled the urge and threw a knife downwards after observing a few moves of Sam.

Her knife hit a protrusion as soon as Sam disappeared into a shadow.

Sam who is in the middle of the motion, felt suffocated and stuck. He felt like he was being crushed by a compact space and he channeled his energy rapidly which made him reappear in the middle of the path.

As he was about to fall down, he slammed his palm into the mountain surface and held onto the small groove he made tightly.

He looked around to notice that the shadow he marked to transfer to was gone and that is reason why he was stopped midway. If not for his control, he would have suffered some severe backlash.

He is sweating profusely while panting heavily as he looked at Gran who looked at him with a cold victorious smile.

By now the cloak covering her face is long gone.

She got hit so many times because of Sam that it was destroyed and Sam finally saw the clear difference between Sia and Gran. The natural instinct and nature of an apex predator. Gran is a hunter and predator through and through.

She has the cunningness, patience and strength all that needed for that and she has that coldheartedness in face of competition and enmity. He never saw these qualities in Sia, but he is willing to bet that she doesn't have them. Even if she did, she is inferior to Gran in those qualities.

Sam gritted his teeth and moved forward. He is not skilled enough to attack her from the below while using this technique, so he could only think of ways to dodge and not slow himself down even more.

So, he stopped picking the farthest shadow he could access and picked at random and soon he realized that he has an advantage over Gran even in this new technique and that is because of the bloodlines he has.

Since his affinity with elements is high because of the beast bloodlines, he can use the technique faster and his energy consumption is lower than hers.

Particularly, with the similarities between this technique and the shadow mouse's bloodline technique, it was even easier. So, except for the lack of experience in using this technique, there is no disadvantage.

But that was enough for Gran to take perfect advantage of and maintain that lead. The attacks became more and more precise as he tried all kinds of random things.

Soon, he couldn't keep up the pace as he is feeling suffocated with the constant stuck feeling he is getting because of the interruptions from Gran in his motion.

Because of this, Gran soon got a lead that couldn't be covered with this technique no matter how hard Sam tried.

The chances of him winning are reducing every second.

As he thought of the situation, he couldn't think of what would happen if he lost. Would he be able to recruit the sisters? That question didn't even pop up in his mind. The only thing is that his mind kept on repeating is that he doesn't like to lose.

He thought of all the ways to reach the top in the fastest way possible. There are at least a few hundred meters to reach the peak and he has to cross them as fast as he can.

He went through all the elemental energies that he could use and thoughts of ways to use them to get to the peak. But no scenario worked out in his mind and then he thought of any new ideas that he could use any new thing that he learned recently even in this very journey and by the time he come to this thought, his mind ran at a new speed.

He immediately closed his eyes while handing on the mountain side and channeled different energies in his body.

He removed the shadow enery and started channeling the light elemental energy in place of it.

He never really focused on merging different energies to create new combinations, the reason he combined the spatial energy and the shadow energy is because of the usage of the shadow sword and the attacking power of a spatial tear to the shadow realm.

And there are a million other things for him to think about and he was never really on the weaker side of the battle among their peers. He even had too many tricks in his arsenal that he couldn't use them all in a normal battle.

But now it seems like it is about time he explored something new.

As he tried to merge the light and spatial energy, he felt a bit of resistance. This would be gone if he practiced it a bit, but he has no time to practice.

He channeled the energy rapidly and directly used the technique.

Gran who is almost at the peak with just a few meter away looked down at Sam and frowned. She immediately removed her shadow fusion and only used the full spatial fusion to blink directly with all her remaining energy.

At this exact moment, Sam turned into a beam of light and moved upwards. As light was shot upwards, it disappeared in the middle and the beam reappeared as it cross the peak of the mountain.

Just before Sam landed, though the fusion ended and he felt the full backlash of the energy and started coughing blood which made him lose his footing and fall backwards.

Just before he felt like he would be tumbling down the peak, he felt someone grabbing him by his coat and when he looked up, he saw Gran who already reached the peak.