As was so often the case with him, it was Akash that ended up making the first move. 

Thick vines made out of tree roots erupted from the edge of the craggy clifftop and launched themselves across the open air straight toward Vadton. 

Whether he was trying to scout out Vadton's power levels or actually go for a one-shot killing blow I didn't know, but the vines lanced outward with incredible speed, breaking through some of the floating islands and ripping them apart as they went. 

Either way, Vadton was ready. He parried one of the vines with his lance, spearing the appendage and breaking the end off with a twist of his wrist. The other he simply caught in his hand and squeezed, until the wood broke under his fingers with a satisfying crunch. 

After dispatching Akash's first assault, Vadton decided to go on the offensive himself. With a mighty heft, he launched his dark spear up into the air, high above the battlefield and then teleported to it in an instant. 

With a spin, dark energy began to build at the tip of the spear, flickering like a flame. My hunch was proven correct in mere moments as a runic circle appeared just in front of the spear, and then gouts of black flame poured outward. The mystic fire bathed the entire forest that Akash had taken refuge in. 

Vadton had made the entirely logical leap that, being a creature that relied on wood, a fire would likely be the perfect counter to him. 

<I wouldn't count Akash out just yet,> BB said, an almost smug note in his voice. <You should know by now that the last of the Eldrani has some pretty impressive tricks up his sleeve.>

Just when I thought Akash was done for, I was proven wrong. A mighty wind roared through the forest, swatting the dark flames away before they could truly do any damage to the forest. Akash was standing taller than I had ever seen him before, and on the back of his battle form, there were four strange cannon devices. 

They were the source of the wind. I'd had no idea that he could manipulate his body in more ways than just the standard shift into his battle form, and I felt almost disappointed that he hadn't pushed further against me in the conflicts that we'd had so far.

With a subtle shift, the cannons changed. All four had become launcher tubes for some kind of projectile weapon. He anchored himself into the ground with three thick vines and launched four manna powered missiles, all heading straight toward where Vadton was now falling in the air. 

Clearly, Akash had thought that Vadton would be vulnerable while in the sky. Unfortunately, that was far from the case. 

The armoured alien launched his lance toward the ground, teleporting to it half way to swing it into one of the manna powered missiles that Akash had fired. The lance passed through it effortlessly, and with a glow of energy seemingly absorbed the manna that was powering it. 

With another swing another missile was absorbed, the final two spinning off harmlessly into the distance. 

"I had no idea that there were skills out there that could absorb manna that weren't related to Null Space Invaders," I said, awestruck. 

"Neither did I, I must admit," Yr'Arl chimed in, equally in awe. 

With another throw, Vadton hit the ground so hard he left a crater in his wake. 

Vadton began to sprint forward toward the trees, clearly, he was done playing around with long-range attacks and was willing to take the fight to Akash's own turf. His frontal assault didn't surprise me in the slightest, he didn't carry himself to be the sort of person to fight at range. 

Nevertheless, the forest was a densely packed area that lent itself to Akash's fighting style. I'd tried fighting him in a forest myself, and it hadn't gone well for me until I'd managed to clear out some of the area. Not only that, the densely packed trees would make it near impossible for Vadton to swing his lance around. 

I couldn't help but think he was being cocky due to dealing with all of Akash's attacks so handily thus far. 

I turned my attention back to Akash once more and was even more surprised by what was happening. Pieces of wood were falling away from the alien until eventually, his battle form had come apart completely. But the wood disintegrating didn't stop there. For a brief moment, I was worried that my friend had been caught up in Vadton's previous energy attack, but that didn't seem to be the case either. 

It was a new form, lithe and dangerous. 

Akash had transformed from his big and bulky state to a much thinner and more streamlined appearance. He looked more like a championship sprinter, complete even with a domed head that had a pointed end just like a cyclists helmet. Everything about this form was built for speed. 

Akash took off so fast that a sonic boom ripped apart the ground that he had been standing on, even going so far as to rip up the tree in his wake. Within moments he had cleared the distance to Vadton, and was launching another slew of attacks. 

As he reached Vadton, the other alien tried to dodge, but Akash's vines whipped out and wrapped themselves around the alien so fast that I had barely even seen them move. 

He was faster than anything I'd ever seen before, faster than even me with my propulsion turned up to the max and my gravity fields enabled. 

Akash drove Vadton into the ground, hard. While he was now faster, and his form slimmer and lither, it was clear that he was still incredibly strong. Dragging Vadton behind him, dug into the ground, Akash sprinted off again at what looked like far beyond the speed of sound. 

He threw Vadton as hard as he could out off the edge of the cliff so that he collided into the floating islands that were out far beyond. Vadton smashed through island after island until he reached the edge of the holographic field itself and smashed into the wall so hard that he made a crater in the manna-resistant material. 

Vadton wasn't moving.

"Akash is the victor, after that incredible display of body morphing and speed, Vadton just couldn't keep up!" Belana bellowed over the speakers. 

The white light took them away from the battlefield and back to the medical bay once again. 

This time Akash stayed there, allowing the medical bot to run its scans over him. With a staticky scraping sound and a flash of blue laser light, the medical bot had constructed a large wooden log. Akash reached out a tendril and wrapped it around the log, absorbing it into himself so he could once again return his base form. 

I was realising there was a lot I didn't know about either of my friends fighting styles, they were both a lot more dangerous than I gave them credit for.