In the arena, Hendrix and Ahmir were looking at each other with a sharp gaze. There was tension in the air.

Both of them were waiting for each other to make the first move.

Ahmir was angry because of the previous conflict and also wanted to have revenge. So, he was the first one to attack.

"Flame Blossom"

He gathered Qi in his hands and flames started blooming around it. He shot these flames continuously towards Hendrix. historical

"Dark Hands"

Both of Hendrix's hands turned black and he used it to deflect those flames while trying to come near Ahmir. He not only deflected those flames but even managed to dodge them by using his quick footwork. In this way, he was closing the distance with Ahmir.

"Looks like you have improved since last time. But what can you do, if you can't come near me?" Ahmir fired such flames faster than ever while backing away.

The battle went for a few minutes and the intensity of this attack was getting much higher for Hendrix to handle. Some parts of his body were already burnt.

Seeing this Ahmir laughed, "How much longer can you handle this? When I lost against you last time, I trained much harder. Now I can generate a lot of these flames in a single second."

While he was laughing, he didn't notice that a dark smoke that looked like a shadow was spiraling towards him from the ground.

"Hendrix, you are getting closer towards me. But I can still back away. Haha.." But his laughter suddenly stopped. When he tried to back away, he could feel that he couldn't move. Tentacles made from dark Qi were binding his foot.

In the stands, Gideon was grinning seeing how Hendrix was injured and couldn't close the distance with Ahmir. But the sudden change made him angered. "Damn, that kid got too carried away and got caught."

"Thaddeus, you taught him a second spell? Shadow bind?"

"I don't even know when he managed to learn that. I never saw him use this skill." Thaddeus was quite surprised seeing this.

"It looks like Hendrix has a good comprehension ability," he thought.

"If he can win this round this way, then we might have hope." Thaddeus's complexion was looking much better.

***

Ahmir panicked when he got caught. He stopped firing those flames and tried to use his flame to burn off these tentacles. In a few seconds, he managed to burn them easily.

"Haha, you still haven't mastered this.." when he was about to complete his words, he saw that Hendrix was already near him.

A large black hand was coming towards him. It looked like Hendrix had used most of his Qi in this attack.

"Damn, he is too fast. I can only do this now." Ahmir immediately took out the orb that he had received from the elder. He poured his Qi into it and threw it towards the black hand.

The black hand was already near him, so he couldn't throw it far away.

"Eh!, what is this?" Hendrix didn't know what the orb was. He didn't care about it and pushed his hands towards the face of Ahmir.

When the orb touched his hands, a huge explosion took place covering them both.

Seeing this Thaddeus couldn't control his anger and he caught the neck of Gideon with his right hand before he could react.

"Thaddeus, what are you doing?" Gideon used his Qi and tried to force out the hand but Thaddeus was looking really serious and his grip was firm.

"Stop this Thaddeus, this explosive-orb is a spiritual artifact whose damage is below the Golden Core State. So, it is allowed." Edgar and the other elders tried to persuade him.

"Humph." Thaddeus finally took back his hand and jumped into the arena.

Seeing him leave, everyone could finally take a breath. Especially Gideon who had sweat on his forehead. There was still a mark of the right hand on his neck.

"Damn, he is stronger than me. But before I think about that, I should also go to the arena. That kid took too long to throw that orb. Now, it looks like he is also heavily injured." He also jumped from the stands.

After the dust settled, the disciples could finally see inside the arena. Both Ahmir and Hendrix were lying naked on the ground. They had lost consciousness. All their robes were burnt. They had charred wounds everywhere in their body and blood was spilling everywhere. If no treatment was given, then they would surely die here.

Davion, Isla, Arian and Abby, all rushed inside the arena with worry. The barrier was already settled down after the battle ended.

But before they could reach them, Thaddeus and Gideon had already reached there. They took out some pills and fed them to Hendrix and Ahmir.

Gideon carried Ahmir with his right hand and left the arena. But before leaving, he came to Arian and said, "Make sure you win. Don't disappoint me."

Arian bowed and replied, "You do not need to worry about it. That girl from the Bone and Devil sect is only in the middle stage of the Qi refining state. As for that kid, he might be a new disciple who just joined recently. So, he might not be even taking part in the competition."

Gideon smiled, "I believe in you. You are stronger than Ahmir anyways."

He then left with Ahmir in his hands.