A while after the blast, Jake found himself buried within the ice-covered floor he made.

Standing up, he stretched his bones. He could see the candidate was doing the same.

'Her combat ability is disturbing,' sighed Jake.

Jake had hardly met anyone on the same level of combat deftness as him. The first person he met was the trio and the last was Cheyenne.

He was sure there were others but he couldn't exactly search for them and wasn't interested in doing so.

'That skill she used…...what a sad life?' sighed Jake again.

He prided himself in being innate with his trick techniques. Even in the competition, he showed his insane mastery over some of those delicate techniques.

Yet, today he had to be on the receiving end of a similar technique.

'Impact absorption.... is it?….,' smiled Jake.

There was no name for techniques like that, but he liked to name them for his own sake.

The time when the candidate's dagger flipped over his sword. It was definitely an abnormal technique, but Jake could also do it.

The way she deflected his energy attack. It was something he had tried to implement, but couldn't do. He could deflect a physical attack, but not an energy one.

There were also other moments where she showed a high level of combat mastery, outshining him in some aspects. It was obvious that this candidate was someone that was still unbeatable with a mere physical body. 

However, when she introduced energy into her body, she became unrivaled!

'Someone special….huh,' sighed Jake.

In his mind, he constructed multiple scenarios for him to take her on. After deciding on only one, he calmly refilled his energy reserve and went back into battle!

He froze up his wound with his ice element and dashed at the candidate.

He was finally going to show all the abilities of his [Akashic Eye].

Taking another deep breath as he ran, he encountered ten daggers that flew his way, almost rivaling his speed.

Jake easily dodged all of them. 

A blast came out of the mouth of the female candidate which shot at him at an insane speed.

Jake's right eye had seen it coming though. He flipped over it and pierced the constant blast with the tip of the sword.

At first, he became slow due to his action. However, he began picking speed to the point where he disappeared from his position.

The next time he reappeared, it was above the candidate which a sword cased with lightning slashing down at her.

The candidate calmly received the attack by shooting a disk of dark silver energy out of her hand.

She tried to disrupt Jake, but Jake's attack ultimately still fell!

'[Limitless Slash]'

The attack beamed in the eyes of the candidate like a gift from the sky.

*Swoosh!*

The mere pressure of it broke apart the glacial floor and chopped everything in its path.

After Jake's bust of adrenaline had gone, he looked to see if he did the job.

He wasn't surprised to see the candidate beside him. Her finger trembled as blood came out of it.

Meanwhile, Jake's sword was lodged into the ground. It created an astonishingly long vertical dent that was long enough, long enough to reach the forest nearby.

Jake used his last bit of energy to jump away from the candidate.

'I thought as much,' sighed Jake.

'She has fought a lot of battles against people that can manipulate energy. It could be said that she is more proficient at blocking energy attacks than physical attacks.....interesting.'

Using his special eye, he watched her every move...her every breath….every twitch of her muscle, predicting the attack she would take.

He had always known that she possessed the ability to fight with him until he was drained. Jake was never one for a long battle, his healing factor was slow and his body tolerance was quite weak.

He could only afford to force the candidate into a grounded fight.

'She has little energy,' analyzed Jake.

This was also another thing that he noticed. It could be said that the candidate could only become this skillful due to not having the required amount of energy to be wasteful with her attacks.

'She has also entered a similar [Weapon Synchronization State] with her daggers. The good thing is that still uses [Elemtal Spirit Essence]. However, her element seems to be unheard of,' reasoned Jake.

The candidate was still withing logic.

She cruelly bent her finger bone back to shape as she pointed at Jake with her other hand.

Making a hand-sign with it, Jake's mind descended into a limbo.

He could feel something happening from the foreign energy lingering on his back.

He started to feel nauseated and he found himself slipping out of his thoughts. His entire body reacted strangely to this foreign energy.

Jake couldn't put a tag on the effects of it, but he could tell that it was affecting him. It was a feeling he couldn't describe. Yet, it upset his entire body in a …...negative way!

He was now like a drunk man, except this time he was actually sober.

His choppy sight went on and off. Each time, it went back on, the figure of the female candidate was more closer to him.

He could only focus when he felt a hand grasping his chin.

He saw the face of the candidate emotionlessly staring at him.

She said, for the first time, in a strange accent, "Your eye is a problem. Even by my standards. You hold potential, quite an interesting mortal. Hmmm."

She cocked her head as she took a whiff of his scent, "So, it is mixed with something else. As expected, you are a threat! I will first relieve you of your eye!"

Her words shocked Jake enough for him to temporarily shook off the candidate's hold on him.

Jake picked up his sword and went for an upward slash.

The candidate responded by raising her finger. However, there was nothing to raise at!

She soon found herself surrounded by a storm of slashes, each equally as threatening as the other.

She became overwhelmed by the sheer amount of slashes and succumbed to it.

*Whoosh!*

Multiple deep cuts appeared on her body, with one final one hoping to seal the deal. However, before Jake could finalize it, his body jittered and familiar nausea kicked in, accompanied by the rest of the strange effects.

Jake's sword dropped from his hand as he fell to his knee. Beside him was the candidate covered in horrendous slashes.

With sheer will, she stood up from her position and pounced on Jake.

The latter also didn't wait for her and jumped at her.

He quickly got punched all over his body, but eventually, he took the upper hand. His movements were like a snake, dishing a bunch of random jabs whenever he was opportune.

"I see….by predicting the time when your body becomes normal, you execute the swiftest attacks. As expected from someone from that place," analyzed the candidate.

Despite being kicked by Jake, she didn't show any negative emotion except for a serene face.

In an outstanding turn of events, she ended the fight by snaking her finger around Jake's defenses and subtly pressing it on his chest.

*Plop!*

There was a weak sound that came from it. 

It seemed to be ceremonial until Jake's heart suddenly started beating rapidly. Following that was an influx of all the worse possible mental ailments he could receive.

It caused him to fall to his knees as the female candidate dragged her broken body to pluck out Jake's eye.

"Your people shouldn't need this to top it off," whispered the candidate.

When her hand touched Jake's flesh, he reacted quickly and brought out the card that Rhys had given him. He didn't even think about the implications of his action.

Instantly, a sea blue light spread out from the card and encased the two of them!