The battle entered another phase. Ben could not find a quick solution and so he began to dodge Malcen's attack. But Malcen was not going to allow that. He increased his speed suddenly. Since he had been in Knight level for a long time, his nerves were reinforced much more and he could abuse the use of electricity through aura and increase his speed. Each of his motion was generating sonic booms, affecting his balance due to sound and the shock waves. Malcen peppered Ben with swift jabs.
The humming shirt was already activated and that was mitigating Malcen's attacks to a certain extent. Ben then thought of a plan. It was not an original plan, neither was it complicated. Malcen would most likely see through it.
Suddenly the vibration of the aura around Ben increased. He activated the ethereal lupis form. He activated his aether leap and started to chase Malcen. Malcen sneered at the attempt. ' You might have the tattoo of a great beast. But if you think you can catch up to me using that, you are sorely mistaken.'
Immediately Malcen's speed also increased by several times. He dodged Ben's attacks, and showered Ben with electric aura empowered jabs. He was fighting a war of attrition. Malcen bet on his superior enhancement, speed and stamina.
Briefly it looked like the battle was in stalemate and it was stacked against Ben. Suddenly, Ben stopped. The ethereal lupis was still activated. It looked like he was out of breath and he was panting. Malcen saw this and he prepared to take down Ben quickly. But in his mind, he was hoping Ben could defeat him and he could participate in the mission. He was a bit disappointed. But he could not show favouritism here. He rushed at Ben with a full blast of his aura. It was like a lighting deity was attacking. All his aura was concentrated on attacking.
"AWOOOOO...…..."
A sudden howl echoed through the arena. Ben was not simply running around. He was trying to look for the geographical location where the sound will produce maximum effect through resonance and reflection from walls.
It worked and Malcen caught off guard. He veered of the course and crashed into the wall. He did suffer some amount of injury. Suddenly he sensed some thing. But before he could respond an impact crashed into his solar plexus.
Ben had used impact pulse. He did not stop there and he used rush n' ram and crushed Malcen against the wall, further aggravating his injuries.
But Malcen was not going to take these attacks passively. As soon as Ben's last attack connected, Malcen activated his aura and blasted Ben with his lightning power. A large blast took place and smoke was rising.
As the smoke disappeared, Ben and Malcen were separated and both were panting and they had withdrawn their auras. They both eyed each other:
Malcen: " You are really not bad.
Ben: You too."
They did not speak much after that. They gathered their power for a few seconds and then the fight resumed again. It started with hand to hand combat. Malcen was somewhat dominant in that. This was because he was more experienced in combat as well his body was enhanced by aura more. But soon both of them resumed using aura. The battle had not gone to a grappling or a wrestling one, because both of them were more of strikers.
Ben activated his claws and Malcen activated his lightning aura. Ben also activated the humming shirt. This mitigated some of the attacks but did not solve the problem. It became more of a problem when Malcen started using his speed against Ben and peppered him with attacks. Now Malcen was wary of Ben's howl and he was covering himself with aura to guard against it. He was also preventing Ben from moving towards that part of the combat field were sound was maximized.
Ben was now at a difficult situation. He could not use the howl attack. This was because he needed to inhale more to execute it. But he was not able to do that. This was because along with vitals, Malcen was also trying to strike the diaphragm, preventing him from breathing like that.
Suddenly Ben's aura flared and the ethereal lupis came around Ben. He activated the humming shirt and the entire aura vibrated at an unprecedented rate and Malcen's strike reflected off the defensive aura and he went backwards a bit.
Suddenly Ben jumped and shot down at an extreme speed. Malcen understood what he was trying to do. But he could not stop him directly. Ben crashed to the ground and his legs were planted knee deep into the ground. The vibrations permeated the ground and it became unstable. Malcen's footing was lost but he also jumped and landed balanced.
Now the entire ground around Ben was destroyed. This eliminated Malcen's possibility of striking him at close range as he would lose his footing at such speeds. Ben looked at Malcen and then he shot towards the 'Noise position' he found. Malcen tried to stop him. But Ben used his ethereal lupis form along with humming shirt and struck the ground. Malcen of course came to a quick stop. But before he could regain his footing, he was struck with several impact pulses.
Ben used 'Jamdagni Bhavana' and 'Vasishta Vachanam'. This enhanced his cognitive capabilities and he was able to predict Malcen's movements to a certain extent. Malcen tried to dodge. But Ben accurately struck Malcen at several vital points. Malcen quickly activated his electric aura and his speed changed and now Ben could not strike him. But Malcen did a fatal mistake. He only moved in a predictable zig-zag path, which Ben had seen many times during this fight.
With his enhanced cognition, Ben was able to predict the path. He concentrated on the path and he used rush n' ram. Malcen was fast, but he was tired and this was Ben's last ditch effort using his entire remaining aura reserve.
The ethereal lupis crashed onto Malcen on his retreating path. Malcen could not dodge it. But he was not going to go down like this. Just as Ben struck him, Malcen also unleashed his entire electric aura.
A blinding light was produced in the middle of the field. In a few seconds, two smoking bodies flew towards opposite walls of the field. Both of them had smokes coming out of them and were injured. The camera feed was cut off.
Both of them had lost consciousness for a few seconds. But they refused help from the staff.
The match was a draw.
Malcen had a vehicle waiting for him. Both of them got in.
Malcen looked at Ben and said: " Welcome to the mission"