There was no time to waste. As soon as they decided to start, the first thing Night made sure to do was to use Hermes Exploration, flying wouldn't do him any good, Nate's elemental orbs were quick and deadly. That left him with only one reasonable move, which was to get up close. The weakness of every typical mage was close combat. He wasn't in a position to test the waters or play around for the sake of excitement. His opponent was a carrier of a Primordial's Bloodline, a chosen one, most of all, Nate, was someone he knew very well.

Noel was spot on. He saw through Night's style in a single day, he could see the endless potential and raw power Night held, but that wasn't enough. Night heavily relied on his instincts, and in case of danger, he simply used his overwhelming speed and reflexes to dodge. While that was alright, there's going to come a time when nothing can save him, he would be left with no choice but to take the hit directly. Which was exactly what happened. Nate predicted his friend's movements and prepared to use Three Moons Dispersion, once Night was close enough, there was no way he could escape the spell.

"Disciple of the Goddess of Magic: 1st Stage: Three Moons Dispersion!" Nate screamed.

[Hecate's torches activated]

*Woooosh*

The beam hit Night exactly in the center, while the attack doesn't deal any damage it still lets the players feel that feeling of numbness. The only reason Nate even bothered to use this skill was to block out Night's Hermes Exploration. Speed boosts and Flying were something that could prove to be deadly if not eliminated early.

"Fck, you got me ahahah you bastard," Night grumbled as he hopped back.

"Weirdly enough, yeah," Nate said as he summoned his elemental orbs again, however this time he made sure not to summon anything from the fire element. While Night couldn't necessarily control every single shadow in the arena, he could definitely control the ones around him. Using an element that would create more "darkness" was an unnecessary risk which would be a waste of Nate's Three Moon Dispersion.

Without his speed buff, it was going to be quite difficult to avoid the elemental orbs, the only other skill Night had was Umbrakinesis, he would have no choice but to attack his opponent with his basic attacks.

'Wait for the 5 minutes to get over....' Night thought as he equipped Dawn's bow, 'long range should be the safest option, at least until I get the hang of dodging his orbs,'

Unfortunately, Night wasn't aware of the conditional passive skill, "Hecate's Torches", it was a skill that had a 5% chance of triggering. When triggered it instantly reduces the cooldown of the last skill used or the skill that caused it to trigger.

'Fck...I can actually win, he thinks he's going to stall somehow for 5 minutes huh...little does he know,' Nate couldn't hide his childish giggle.

The real issue with going up close and attacking was the constant flow of elemental orbs. They were almost always revolving around Nate, while dodging one of them is not out of the question, dodging eight or maybe even more at once was definitely going to be life-threatening.

"Haha, looks like he's finally in trouble, serves him right for doing that to Ajax," Aurora pouted as she looked at Night's expression on the large screen. Ajax on the other hand remained quiet and stared right into the screen.

"Hmm, to think his match would be his friend? besides, since I've personally fought Nate, I can tell you, he is dangerous. Especially when you take his skills or him for granted. Night is more or less in the same position that I was in, both of us were forced to stick to long-range," Layla sighed while massaging her temples.

"I'm not sure, It feels weird, I don't see the same confidence and vigor in him. When we met him, it seemed like every move of his was calculated, however, right now it looks like he's cornered. While Nate, is constantly pushing forward, and by the looks of it, he's gaining momentum with every second that passes." Noxx agreed while nodding, his brother Leo shared the same opinion.

"I-i'm not sure about that," Valerian said causing all the heads to turn to him.

"Don't get me wrong, I agree with everything you guys just said," Valerian waved his hands in front of him, while quickly trying to think of a reason.

"Then what did you mean by that?" Aurora questioned.

"It's just that...." Valerian paused for a second to think about what he was going to say, "I'm just keeping an open mind here hahaha nothing else, after all, he is called The Anomaly for a reason,"

"Yes...and Nate's called The Prodigy. And no offense to Night but only one of them is living up to their name right now.." Noxx said with a hand behind his head.

"....." Valerian was too deep in thought to even answer, fortunately, the others noticed this and decided to leave him alone.

'Night is losing? I doubt that will continue for too long. The look in Nate's eyes when he told me, he meant it. He meant every word that came out of his mouth. I'm guessing, it's only a few minutes before Night figures out something? He broke the human barrier huh? I can't really disagree. The skill he's displayed so far is out of this world, and for Nate to say he was somewhat holding back...I'm looking forward to seeing you at your maximum potential'

"Hohoho, this is funny," Jace laughed, "To think it was his best friend that actually rivaled him, this is indeed amusing."

"....I agree..it's surprising, that kid, he's exactly like I'd imagine him to be. The very first time I laid my eyes on him, I knew for a fact that he wasn't someone who could pursue martial arts. It seems that using spells was his calling, truly fascinating." K agreed while he pressed his biceps.

"More than that, it looks like that kid of yours is losing. He's cornered and can't find a way to attack Nate directly. Unlike his previous fight, the kid is fighting someone who can counter him at any given second, even if he was able to deal damage, he would probably have to lose a lot of health in return." Jace teased.

"You're wrong. I know him well. This is nothing, he's just being a little careful, I'd assume it is because of those orb-thingies floating around Nate. However, he's probably waiting so he could use his skills again, but that leaves the question, isn't this the best time for Nate to charge? for him to take advantage of Night's dire situation, if so why is he standing far and playing around?"

K was right, there was something that made Nate hesitate. What was left? All Night could do right now was shoot his dark arrows and even those are just from Umbrakinesis, meaning the darkness used isn't pure darkness. Of course, the answer was something obvious. Night's control over darkness was a level above Nate's control over the elements. Not only on paper but even in terms of experience.

However, that just meant charging in blindly was stupid, Night could very well use Nate's shadow once he was in range. However, once they were close enough the damage taken by Night would be greater.

'What are you thinking man...actually scratch that. What on earth am I thinking? I've wasted an entire minute simply throwing orbs and dodging arrows, it's stupid, especially that shield he's hiding behind...my orbs literally pass through it. I should rush him and finish it off, but there's something that stops me, I-i...I don't know what it is...' Every now and then Nate would try and throw an extra orb from an element, just to see if it would catch Night off guard.

"Almost...come on..." Night thought as he moved his head slightly to avoid an orb that passed through the screen of darkness he put up. "Hopefully he doesn't catch up with what's happening... besides, I can't believe this doesn't take any mana ahahah,"

"Gosh...I should've practiced this more...this takes me back haha, to think the first time I did this was outside Vraun. What was the first called...uh Kriol, yeah! man, I sure do miss Shade and Noctis..."

"Oh right. That was where I met Noctis for the first time, now that I think about it. What was Noctis even doing there? Nyx told me he was a present of some kind but...he was there even before I ascended, that's weird....wait I can't think about this right now. I'm finally done!"

While Night constantly shot flimsy arrows at Nate, he was busy covering his entire body in darkness. It was the same thing as using his weapon aura to cover his body. Except this time he covered himself in darkness. However, there was something Night didn't realize. The vision or image that Nate saw of Luke where he was fully covered in dark clouds and had claws for hands and a deadly abyss for a mouth, it was exactly how Night currently looked after covering himself in darkness.