Ray's palm was about to land, but with a quick movement the man guarded against it with the staff in his hand.What he didn't account for was the mist covering Ray's palm starting to vibrate and change into searing heat before exploding. Ray was sent flying while the old man hit the skeleton behind him, raising a dust cloud.
"Feisty one, I like it!!" the man said, stepping from the dust. This time, his material soul activated, with seven rings floating around and his arms bulking, his robe now revealing an old man's façade.
"Okay, last chance of becoming my student, boy?" he said with an easy-going tone. "If you choose to do so, I will make sure you get your revenge. How about it?"
"Let's leave accepting or not out," Ray answered in place. "What gives the impression of revenge?"
"That?" The man pointed at the metallic leg. "And the fact I saw you in one of the stocking bases? And this being the fourth attack you did on storage units?"
Ray felt a headache before he frowned, now realizing where the familiarity came from. Still, he was surprised there was someone doing the same as him.
On the other side, the man, thinking that the only reason to push a weak boy to act like that was revenge, linked it to the last attacks on different branches and tried to play on Ray's mind.
Realizing his thought line, Ray burst into laughter.
"Oh, I see," Ray nodded. "I know the evil masters were stupid, but this is another level."
"I take it you refuse," the man said. "Well, you can die now. Be honored—you will be the nourishment of this elder, Yu Zi."
An eerily dark staff appeared in his hand, slamming the ground. But nothing happened, so he looked at the staff and slammed it again, but still nothing happened.
"Try again from a different angle? Probably a technical problem," Ray said, cleaning his ear. "Or maybe it expired?"
Despite the not-bothered air Ray gave, his influence was clear in his smug tone. Yu Zi glared at him with peak bloodlust, knowing this kid was playing him all along.
"What did you do?" he asked after a long silence.
"Oh, the right question is what YOU DIDN'T DO," Ray said sarcastically. "You really thought this mist was only to hide me?"
The man raised an eyebrow. With the sense amplification he had in his material soul possession, it sharpened his spiritual perception. Soon he sensed an element flowing through the whole place, eerily similar to the energy of the boy in front of him.
What's more, it started to seep into the things around, blocking the flow of their energy. Even his body now began to get affected.
"So you noticed. I guess no need for this anymore," Ray said, and with it the mist returned to its normal property, falling heavily to the ground with its reflective shine—except this time it shimmered with bright purple spots.
"I understand now," the old man said, sizing Ray up. "With this ability, you made it as if it were just normal mountain mist, and with it folding the whole place, you could stroll around without even a sensor detecting your presence."
"Cool, right? And with the energy-blocking property added, it peaks," Ray said, and the mist started to swirl around him, losing its last tint of purple. Now that the man had discovered it, he might not be able to clean the remaining energy in his body easily, but Ray could block more from entering.
"Now, care to explain what you were going to do with all the people out here?" Ray demanded sharply.
"Why would I do that?" the old man said, and his first and second rings lit up, his gorilla-like arms growing larger and bigger with diamond-like cover around them.
With one step he was upon Ray in a slamming motion. Ray just looked up and raised his index finger, pointing at him, and the swirling mist formed a shield in front.
The shield didn't hold and broke right after, but the hit didn't land on Ray as he vanished from the spot.
"Well, I never really expected you to answer," Ray's voice came from the side. The man looked and found him tightening metallic gauntlets around his arms while talking.
"But well, this tends to be the norm with low-lives like you," Ray said, before taking off the moth mask and replacing it with a new one from storage.
'Let's try this baby,' he thought. Ray's first and second rings lit up, and some of the mask's compound wires, along with the gauntlets, extended over his arms to the side of his neck, connecting to his mask.
Seconds later, his palms lit up with crimson flames and heated.
Not understanding what happened and not wanting to give Ray the chance to finish what he was doing, Yu Zi's gorilla attack came again.
This time, the moment he got close, Ray pointed his palm right at the man's face, and from the center of his open palm successive fire bullets rained upon the gorilla-like man.
With the close distance and the speed they came at him, Yu Zi could only raise his defense. Sadly, he was sent flying back and slammed into the wall behind him.
"Okay, that's quite the output if I say so myself," Ray said, flexing his fingers and searching for any abnormality. "Well, as a certain weapon user would say…" Ray murmured, looking at the gear in his palm. "It will kill."
Ray started to control the mist to prepare his next move. At the same time, flames sparked from his palms.
And right on time, an explosion came from the place Yu Zi had slammed into, reappearing from the dust—tattered, but not too wounded.
"Nice toy," he said, taking off his burned shirt, "but you need more than that to take me down."
"Good," Ray said, taking a fighting stance, "because that was just the test run."
With that, flame came from under his shoe and artificial leg, floating him a couple of meters from the ground. With a boost from his palm he vanished, appearing at Yu Zi's side, nailing a straight punch to his face. Reacting in time, Yu Zi blocked the punch, ready to land his own.
But Ray smirked before the knuckles of the gauntlets opened, sending an explosion right into the man's face through the opening between his fingers. The result: Ray was sent flying back a couple of meters before regaining his balance, while the man was sent to the wall again—with a missing eye and a burning face this time.
"You said something about 'more than that?'" Ray said sarcastically, but didn't lower his guard.
Which proved right, as the next second a dark ink-colored aura came from the dust area and Ray found himself at point-blank range of a gigantic energy punch, with almost no time to react.