Russell's loud words entered the ears of all those in the arena.
"What? John has an Innate Variant Body as well?"
"How is this possible? How come we haven't heard of this yet"
"Innate Variant Body and Lightning Attribute Body? What type of dogshit luck is this? How can one person be so lucky?"
"I know. How the hell are we supposed to compete against someone like that?"
Heated discussions broke out, as all eyes remained glued to the arena grounds below.
John and Russell traded several quick blows of punches and kicks, testing each other's power out. Loud bangs echoed out every time, revealing the power of the blows, and the sturdiness of both their bodies.
Both John and Russell relished in the feeling of fighting with their bodies. They had never gone against another cultivator with a strong body, and so this was the first time they had been able to do something like this.
After trading probing blows for several minutes, the two of them separated and stared at each other. Other than panting slightly, neither was injured, and only slight scratches and cuts could be seen on their bodies.
"This is fun, but how about we kick it up a notch?" John suddenly said.
"Haha, agreed. Let's go all out with our bodies!" Russell agreed. He wanted to experience more of this, and so did John.
The arena suddenly descended into silence as a serious expression appeared on both John and Russell's face. After a moment of silence, two aura's suddenly exploded out and began to violently grow in power.
Both John's and Russell's robes began to flutter, as if a wind was picking them up, while John's hair began to dance about as well.
John was powering up his Supreme Battle Art, while Russell was powering up his own body cultivation battle art.
Russell's eyebrows once more raised in surprise as he stared at John with slight envy. However, his surprise soon became elated laughter.
"Hahaha, I don't know how you could possibly know the Supreme Battle Art, but this changes things."
Both of them quickly reached their peak state, and they once more dashed towards each other. Their speed amplified several fold compared to before, and they reached each other in the blink of an eye.
Bang!
An incredibly loud sound echoed out as fists collided once more, and both John and Russell were knocked back several yards. Their arms began to tremble from the power of the collision, and both dashed forward again once they regained their balance. Both their knuckles were slightly bloodied from the exchange.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Continuous loud bangs rang out as their powerful bodies collided over and over again. The air rippled from the force of each blow. Using his honed battle instincts and immense martial prowess, John managed to land several blows to Russell unguarded, causing Russell to take some damage.
During the furious barrage of blows, John ducked under one of Russell's punches, and sent his own uppercut towards Russell's chin. He quickly followed up by sending a powerful kick into Russell's ribs while he was dazed.
Bang!
The sound of bone on bone rang out, and Russell was sent flying backwards dozens of yards, tumbling head over heels in the process. He eventually collided with the wall of the far end of the arena and fell to the ground. The entire arena grimaced at the sight, as they knew their heads would most likely have exploded if they had taken such a blow directly.
"HAHAHA!
Laughter echoed out as Russell quickly hopped back on his feet. He wiped the blood leaking from his lips away, and shook his head back and forth several times to regain his senses.
"This is what fighting is all about!" Russell shouted as he dashed back towards John.
Each of his steps filled the arena with loud echoes from the force of his strides.
Russell quickly reached John and sent out a punch from the side. John moved to block it, but was taken by surprise as Russell used it as a feint, and quickly attacked with his other arm. John had become used to Russell's incredibly straightforward manner of fighting, and had not expected such a thing from him.
Boom!
Russell's fist collided with John's rib cage, and John flew back rapidly from the force of the unblocked blow.
Boom!
John's body violently collided with the arena walls, and he bounced off it with great force. The entire crowd grimaced once more at the brutal fighting.
"If I took a blow like that to my body, I would be dead." A youth commented.
"Right? He has to be injured, right?" another replied. However, the youths eyes opened wide as John quickly bounced back to his feet, as if nothing happened.
"Haha, not bad. I didn't expect you to change up your fighting pattern like that," John commented as he wiped some blood from the corner of his lips. Russell's power truly was terrifying, and that blow had caused some damage to his body. His ribs still ached with pain. However, it was nothing serious that hampered his fighting potential.
"I hate to admit it, but your fighting instincts are even more impressive than my own, so I had to throw some trickery in there," Russell replied with a slightly sour tone.
Although he didn't want to admit it, he was outclassed in this fight when it came to battle instincts and martial prowess. John was a true fighting master, as he had studied martial theory intensively before he began to cultivate, and had fought many life and death battles, which honed his battle instincts to a terrifying level.
John shook his head at himself for making such a stupid mistake, before he rapidly dashed forward once more.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Continuous blows were traded, with both Russell and John coming out on top at times. John used his superior martial prowess to land several unblocked blows, while Russell used his larger frame and longer reach to do the same.
John sent a punch towards Russell's face, but it was only a feint. Russell went to guard it with his arms crossed, and was surprised to find himself falling to the ground as John sent a sweeping leg kick towards Russell's legs.
Bang!
John kicked the falling Russel with full force again, and his kick colliding with Russell's ribs sent him flying back violently. Russell collided with the arena wall again. Dirt and blood was sent flying outwards.
Russell quickly regained his senses, and dashed back towards John. They continued to trade blows, and Russell managed to catch one of John's punches in his hand. Before John could pull back, Russell swung John by his arm, violently slamming him into the ground. The ground shattered below John's body from the force of the attack.
Russell picked up John and attempted to slam him down again, but John managed to twist his body in a flexible manner and land a kick on Russell's lower leg, knocking him off balance and breaking free from his grip.
The crowd watched in curious horror at the sight of the brutal battle. Blood flew everywhere as the brutal collisions continued to take place. Before long, both of them were covered in blood, from both their own and their opponents. However, neither backed down, and both seemed to be enjoying the brutal battle.
The violent barrage continued to for some time before the two of them separated. Both were breathing heavy, having fought in their peak body state for quite some time. John probed his spatial area, and found that he still had a large supply of beast blood essence, allowing him to fight like this for a long time.
Since he had been using Qi from his body dantian this whole time, his Essence Qi reserve was virtually untouched.
However, Russell did not have the same luxury, and everything he did in battle used up his Essence Qi.
Although he was unsure of why, as his cultivation was higher and his Qi reserves should be larger, Russell could tell that John had more left in the tank than him. Not only that, but much to his surprise, Russell was shocked to find out that John's body was of an even higher grade than his own. He was slowly starting to lose out in his trades, as both John's body, as well as body battle art were more profound.
He decided that it was time to stop playing and start the real fight.
"Haha, this has been incredibly fun, but I think it's about time we both go all out!" Russell suddenly said.
"What? They haven't gone all out?" A youth chimed up.
"The power they displayed so far is enough to kill any of us, and they still have more? How is that possible?"
"I guess it makes sense. They've both only been fighting with their bodies, despite being essence cultivators," another chimed up, reminding all those nearby of this fact.
The fight had been so brutal and powerful, that most had forgotten that both Russell and John were essence cultivators, and their battle so far had been all body.
"Sure! Let's end this!" John replied to Russell. He was loving the fight, but he could tell that Russel was going to reach the end of his Qi supply before long. His advantages of having two dantians only became more and more clear on how powerful it was to have as he progressed in his cultivation.
Suddenly, an incredibly strong earth-power filled the arena as Russell began to power up to his peak state.
"While we are in the Heavenly Lightning Sect, I have not been able to learn any of the powerful lightning based battle arts yet. However, have a taste of my Ruinous Earth Sect's strongest battle art."
John narrowed his eyes as Russell unleashed his full power. Russell had come from the Ruinous Earth Sect before he joined the Heavenly Lightning Sect, and had managed to train in their ultimate battle art. The Ruinous Earth Sect was a First Tier sect, and its battle arts were incredibly powerful. His power continued to climb, and John started to feel the very earth beneath their feet begin to shift towards Russell.
Russell's essence power reached an incredibly high level, and John could even feel some of Russell's Core Formation comprehensions in his Qi, showing that he truly was at the Half-Step Core Formation Realm.
Cracks began to form in the sturdy arena, and soon large chunks of earth were upheaved. The large boulders of earth began to revolve around Russell, and he looked towards John in a state of full power.
"Prepare yourself, I don't want to crush you to death!"