Chapter 272: Rematch

Moby looked at Mason with wide-open eyes— he was not expecting to hear what he just heard and it caught him completely off guard. 

He took some time to ponder and considered there to be no downsides to accepting; it was only practice after all. Plus, it allowed him to compare his current martial arts prowess and family-style up against another master, and arguably one of the strongest people in the entire country so he would have been a fool to decline. 

But, even still, he was confident in his own victory. 

"I'll accept this match, it will be good practice! But don't expect me to go easy on you!"

*Clap*

"I'm glad to hear! I won't be holding back either!"

The match had been decided, and no one seems surprised but Jayden who in her heart knew the outcome but simply couldn't get herself to speak, her two hands tightly clasped against one another… 

"Same rules as before?"

Moby asked, stretching his body before the fight. 

"Of course! Same rules as before! Now, if I used my ability that I had been honing my entire life it wouldn't be really fair would it?"

Mason replied, cracking his neck.

"No, I suppose not,"

They both chuckled before taking a fighting stance 50 metres apart, waiting for the butler's signal to start.

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"Begin!"

As soon as those words were heard, the two men immediately dashed out, meeting each other in the center.

They both clashed against each other, trading blow for blow seemingly evenly matched, both of them having a smile on their face, impressed with what their opponent was capable of, moving all around the battlefield like complete blurs.

They both backed off from each other and nodded, they seemed to both have gotten a good grasp of each other's techniques and fighting styles as they dashed against each other once more.

As they both met, the first to punch was Moby who took the offensive, going for his seemingly defenceless opponent. 

With a smile on his face, he stopped his attack mid-way through and lifted his right leg in the air in a near 90-degree angle, feeling it clash with what he could only describe as a clenched fist. 

"You think you can get me with a simple after image? Who do you think I am?"

"Hmh, impressive… But how about this?!"

Mason shifted his hands and grabbed Moby's leg, bringing him closer to him as he kicked straight at his face which was something Moby had never seen in his entire life.

'What the hell?! Is that even the same style as before!?' 

Instinctively, he reacted by counterattacking his attack using an attack of his own, punching at Mason's face with an uppercut using everything he had right before he was kicked away to one of the walls. 

As the dust settled, it was clear to everyone who came out on top of the exchange, Moby was clearly more injured than Mason, even if his demon body was superior in every shape or form. 

Moby had never been on the losing end of a full-on battle of martial arts. Even as a child, the only people he ever lost to were his parents. Even ability users who did not know how to hold back fell to his technique.

He lifted his head with a deadly glint in his eyes and spat some blood on the ground before directing his gaze back at his smiling opponent. 

It was finally time he went serious and began using what he was taught… 

< Demon Flash >

As if his speed increased out of nowhere, Moby dashed at Mason, infusing invisible, regular, impure demon energy into his entire body which he did not see as cheating since he had it prior to becoming a demon and it was all part of his family martial arts. 

This took Mason completely off guard as he fell straight into an attack before he could react to his opponent's sudden jump in power. 

He fell into a deadly combo of moves, chained masterfully into one another almost like he was a wave slowly moving in the water ready for the final crash; a punch in the stomach into a knee to the face, a kick attacking and weakening the lower body that went into a liver punch, chaining on and on and on giving his opponent seemingly no wiggle room to escape. 

Yet, what bothered Moby the most was that even despite all of that, the smile on Mason's non-bloody face had yet to disappear, even after stunning him with a punch to his gut and prepared his final attack to end it... The wave is about to crash… no, more like a tsunami. 

However, before he was able to deliver that devastating punch to the face, his attack was immediately blocked, using movements he had never even dreamed of, and held tightly in a fist, putting everything he did to a halt.

"WHA!?"

He kept holding Moby's hands as he stood up from his previous position that was on one knee and dusted himself off casually. 

"And this is where it all ends,"

Mason smiled as he punched a flabbergasted Moby in the stomach with more force than he ever thought possible before simply lightly pushing him to the ground as he dusted himself off even more. 

Moby threw up another mouth full of blood as he struggled to even stand in his hurting and disoriented state, trying his best only for him to fall over and over again in front of Mason who did not react at all until the match was finally decided with him being unable to properly move as a result of nothing more than his own efforts. 

"The Match is over! And the winner is Mason Griffith!"

"Wow! That was really, really impressive…  I wasn't even half that good when I was your age! But this is where I have to bring it all to an end… Your technique and style are exceptional but you still have a lot to learn… I was still holding back, to be honest, but that was just to gauge some things about you. Once you thought you caught me you lost yourself and kept on going and you didn't notice that none of your attacks made actual contact to hurt me… And not just that, something strikes me about that style you're using as incomplete… I feel like it's on par or even better than most of the secret military styles if it's completed."

Moby was still on the ground, staring at the ceiling in defeat, the first defeat of his entire martial arts career… He was in complete disbelief, he thought in such a fight he was completely untouchable by anyone other than his parents but those thoughts were now crushed to dust…

"How… How are you so strong?"

Moby mumbled, still in disbelief. 

"Well… I mastered almost every single secret military style there was to offer… Martial arts is something I dedicated my life to and something I pride myself on; people don't call me the shadow of death for nothing! Many people disregard the importance of martial arts and simply opt for power training only and that is the wrong way to go about things… A balance of both is important. Luckily the military and government shifted their training more in that direction too in recent years,"

Moby smiled at Mason's words, fully accepting everything and finding truth in what he said.

"Yeah… My family dojo never had any disciples really, maybe just the odd one or two people… People valued power over everything and never really cared about how to actually fight... Maybe if my parents were still alive and if the dojo was still open, it would flourish unlike ever before…" 

Mason chuckled at Moby's words before continuing what he had to say. 

"I wish I knew about this dojo of yours and how good it was, seems like a hidden gem of martial arts to me! Giving away such power to the public is almost too good to be true! I would have definitely brought Jayden there to train every day and make some new friends,"

Moby found the energy in himself to slightly nod at Mason's words. 

"Yeah… That would have been great…" 

He took a small pause before continuing. 

"And yes… You're right… My style is still incomplete, I haven't learned everything there is to learn just yet. Even for a prodigy like me, the style and moves were extremely hard to learn even after training day and night. I'm not sure how my parents managed to do it but I'm sure I'll get there someday…"

"You know kid… I'm now quite interested in this style of yours. Do you mind selling me a copy of everything so I could learn it too? It was a public dojo before after all! I promise to pay you handsomely for it!"

Moby's still blurry eyes grew wide hearing that proposal that now that he thought about it, should have expected seeing how infatuated Mason was with martial arts. 

But, he knew the answer before he even finished asking. There was no way he was about to reveal the existence of demon energy to someone so high ranking.

"No one was actually able to master anything from the style so I'm really the only one… I'm keeping this style for myself as a memory of my parents to me. I'm sorry, I can't sell it to you, it's priceless in my eyes. I hope you can understand."

"I see, then it can't be helped…"

Mason nodded. He couldn't really hide the disappointment on his face despite the fact that deep down he knew what he would answer. 

"Ryan, can you please call healer maid Debra? She should be on standby at the gate of the arena,"

Mason ordered, making the butler disappear like a flash only to come back a split second later with a short, purple-haired girl that exuded formality and elegance, slowly moving towards Moby's field of vision as she crouched down and began healing him with a green light coming out of her hand making Moby feel life re-enter his body as he delved deep into his own thoughts.

'This is a big reality check… I still can't believe it… How did I even lose? I guess his technique was superior, but we should have been at the same power level. I even enhanced myself with demon energy which should have put me above him… so how?'

Moby was simply asking those questions to himself in his own mind and did not actually expect a response, only for a voice to enter his ears that he did not expect to hear at such a time…

'That was because he was using angel energy…'