Berthold was standing with glowing, white eyes, and a thick, white aura around him, broken pieces of the black chains were around him on the ground.

Tai guessed that this was his empowered state with ki, and like his own, it not only amplified Berthold's strength, but also his emotions.

Looking at his opponent in front of him, he channeled the darkness in the area, and since it was currently night time, there was darkness everywhere. Along with his darkness, he also channeled his ki. Tai wasn't planning on going easy on Berthold, he was planning to obliterate him.

The darkness around Tai became so thick that Berthold had a hard time seeing, but to Tai, it was just like being at home. He welcomed the abyss, and it welcomed him back, helping him see in the darkness that he had created.

Absolute Darkness has leveled up

+1 status point

Absolute Darkness has leveled up

+1 status point

Berthold was lost in the sea of darkness and was blind. His sense of vision was useless, but he wasn't completely blind. Detecting ki in his surroundings, he could roughly find out where Tai was, but since Tai was infusing his darkness with ki, it was harder, like trying to listen to your friend while you are surrounded by people talking, or in a loud party.

Tai considered only blinding his eyes, but knowing that Berthold was a practitioner of ki, he could most likely detect his ki, so he instead opted to cover an entire area with his skill. He also made sure to channel his ki inside the darkness to confuse Berthold's senses in case he tried to detect his ki.

Tai stared at him in the darkness. He didn't even need to go into his empowered state to deal with him. Slowly, he approached him with his naginata.

As Tai got closer to him, Berthold could feel his ki much better, but he knew that he was too far away.

'NOW!' Berthold yelled in his mind as he swung his katana behind him, confident that Tai was standing behind him, but his katana only met the air.

"WHERE ARE YOU!?" Berthold yelled in the darkness. "ARE YOU THAT SCARED OF ME TO HIDE?! FIGHT ME LIKE A REAL MAN!"

The light of Berthold's glowing white aura was dampened by the darkness, meaning that there was no hope of seeing with his eyes since it needed light to see anything.

Under Berthold, Tai made sharp tendrils of darkness and used them to continuously stab him. Berthold's arms, chest, stomach, and legs were bleeding from the sharp tendrils, but they weren't enough to kill him right away, Tai made sure that they weren't.

Berthold tried to dodge the tendrils, but the tendrils had a mind of their own, moving around like an octopus' tentacles and targeting him. To make matters worse, Tai had 'upgraded' the tendril's design, and added sharp barbs along the body of the tendrils, making each attack hurt even more. In fact, the pain had actually made Berthold's pain resistance to level up a few times, but not enough to turn around the battle.

Tai was in control, and he was planning to keep it that way.

As Berthold was busy trying to dodge the tendrils that would come from under him at a steady pace, Tai snuck up behind him, and since Berthold was too busy trying to dodge the tendrils, he couldn't detect the fluctuation of ki behind him.

Extending his hand in front of him, behind Berthold's neck, Tai grabbed him by the neck and slammed him into the ground, making sure that his arm was augmented with ki. He repeatedly slammed Berthold's face into the ground, a loud shockwave and an impact crater appearing where his face met the ground.

Berthold channeled his own ki to his face to create a kind of ki barrier, but it was useless. The barrier grew weaker and weaker with each impact to the ground until it disappeared and there was nothing protecting his face. With each impact, he was slowly losing consciousness and losing quite a bit of blood. His body tried to stop the blood loss, but the impacts reopened the wounds.

His face was a bleeding mess and was lucky that it wasn't disfigured. "...S S-Stop..."

Tai chuckled, hearing him tell him to stop. He stopped and brought his ear close to his mouth, still grabbing him by the back of his neck and uttered a simple reply, "No."

Looking at Berthold, Tai saw that he was losing consciousness. Channeling his ki, he applied it onto his wounds, making sure that he was properly healed to receive another beating.

Berthold's wounds started healing. The wounds healed until they were no longer with only his blood to show as evidence of the attack.

Ki Healing has leveled up

+1 status point

Ki Healing has leveled up

+1 status point

Ki Healing has leveled up

+1 status point

Now healed, Berthold regained consciousness and knew what was about to happen. Some might say that it was better to be back in his beaten state as he would've eventually died and escaped this torture.

"...Please ...I can give you money ...Benefits," Berthold begged Tai, his proud expression long gone from his face.

"That's funny," Tai said, laughing before going back to bashing his head into the ground.

This went on for a total of 4 times where Tai would see that Berthold was losing consciousness, and he would heal him over and over for a total of 4 times.

Deciding that he was done, Tai grabbed his naginata and stabbed Berthold in the heart, killing him.