Ren, Kai, and Mark stared at each other, each waiting to see who would make the first move. After a couple of seconds, Ren decided he would be the one to act.
He tried to whip Mark, but somehow Mark predicted the strike and managed to dodge it. Kai moved the moment Ren made his move and tried to strike, but Mark blocked it. Ren whipped him again, this time hitting him on the shoulder. Mark made a painful face and held back a grown of pain.
Kai tried to take advantage of the situation, but the moment he lifted his sword, Mark punched him in the face so hard it sent him flying. That groan of pain was on purpose—it was a fake opening, created so Mark could make a real one for himself.
Then he looked at Ren.
Ren used his whip again, but Mark launched toward it, grabbing the shade mid-momentum. Because of that, it didn't hurt his hand that much. He tried to pull the shade so Ren would come toward him, but Ren quickly dissolved the shade the instant Mark grabbed it. That made Mark pause in surprise.
Then Ren quickly grabbed a random brush next to him and threw it hard at Mark, striking him directly in the chest and hurting him badly. This time, Mark was genuinely surprised. The earlier surprise—when the shade dissolved—had been fake. Ren knew it immediately after seeing it. After all, he had watched Mark fight in the arena. There was no way Mark wouldn't have predicted that Ren could dissolve his shade. That fake reaction had been meant to lure Ren into charging at him or whipping again.
Instead, Ren threw the brush.
As Mark staggered, Ren took a step back and struck him in the chest again with the shade.
"You fucking bastard," Mark finally spoke for the first time since they met. He glared at the two of them. "I have no idea why the fuck you two are here. But now you made me mad. I was planning on beating you up and giving you to Vice Leader. Now I'm just gonna cripple you."
With that, he lunged at Ren.
Mark sidestepped the whip—but that was a mistake. If he tried to move immediately after that sidestep, he would trip. Ren took advantage of it. Using his other hand, he grabbed a chair with his shade and threw it straight at Mark.
The chair smashed as it slammed into Mark's body. Mark gritted his teeth and still charged forward. Ren stayed calm and charged at him as well, which Mark didn't expect. Mark quickly brought his guard up, preparing to punch, protect himself, and maybe counterattack—but he didn't get punched, and he didn't get the chance to punch.
Instead, Ren moved fast. He grabbed the broken leg of the chair with his shade and struck Mark on the chin with it.
Ren immediately grabbed the other leg and started fighting Mark using the chair legs like batons. Even though he had never used them before, it was still better. They gave him better reach, and even though blocking was more difficult since he didn't know how to use them properly, it was still slightly better overall. His hands didn't hurt when blocking, which meant he could focus more on the fight itself.
They clashed for a couple of seconds. The exchange was short, but extremely intense. They kept striking and blocking nonstop—
"GAAA—"
Mark groaned as Kai struck him hard from the side.
Mark quickly grabbed Ren by the sleeve of his hoodie and used it to throw him in Kai's direction. Kai managed to sidestep, but Ren stumbled hard, losing the right sleeve of his hoodie entirely and leaving his arm exposed.
Kai turned back to Mark. It would have probably been a good idea to just throw the staff away and rely on his martial arts, considering he was more skilled in that—but that wouldn't really work here. From what Kai had seen and experienced, Mark was a much better martial artist than him. and Unlike Kai, Mark had actually fought a lot of people using martial arts and had far more real experience. In terms of fighting alone, it was completely useless to compare them.
So the only real advantage Kai had was reach.
Mark threw a punch, but Kai struck his fist with the wooden sword, hurting his hand, then immediately struck Mark's shoulder. Mark realized that fighting Kai with his usual fighting style wouldn't work, so he changed it. He started using palm attacks instead. Striking his hand when throwing attacks wouldn't be as effective considering his Open palm won't take as much damage compared to his fist.
Kai frowned.
From the side, Ren was watching everything. His eyes dropped to his exposed arm. This might be a problem. They had planned on disguising their abilities, but with his sleeve completely gone, he didn't have shadow cover to hide his power. His arm was fully exposed. That meant he had half his ability available—and even if he only fought using his left side, that alone would look suspicious.
But he had to get back to the fight quickly.
Ren looked at Kai, who was struggling against Mark. Shit.
What the hell… why is my ability just limited to shadows?
Then something sparked in his mind.
Ren got up and threw an attack at Mark. Mark noticed Ren moving and was expecting an attack—but this time, he didn't manage to dodge it, block it, or react at all. The strike hit him directly on the shoulder, and it hurt extremely badly.
This time, the whip was much faster. Much stronger.
And this time, the shade came out of Ren's right arm—the exposed one— in his wrist area.
Ren froze for a split second.
He had managed to summon a shade from his body.
It worked.
It actually worked.
This whole time, Ren had unconsciously kept Kai's words in the back of his mind, because he felt they were extremely important.
The first step to becoming stronger with your power is to figure out how your power manifests.
He felt stupid now. How hadn't he realized this before?
His power allows him to summoning shades from shadows—but what are shadows, really?
Some powers, like his, made the concept of shadows confusing considering they can materialise shadows. And the same went for a lot of other abilities for a lot of other concepts. Because of that, he had ignored one very important fact about shadows.
Shadows are not an element.
They aren't even something in science.
Shadows are simply the absence of light.
Which meant he could summon a shade from anywhere light doesn't reach.
Including inside his own body.
Ren had summoned a shade from inside himself and somehow pulled it out through his arm. Even though the shade existed inside his arm, it felt natural. It didn't interfere with his body's function at all—even though it was actually there and affecting his body.
It was an extremely confusing sensation.
"REN!"
Kai's shout snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Oh shit—"
Kai was still fighting.
Ren moved immediately and rejoined the fight.