But the large Beastperson already stood up and prepared for defense and offense at the same time as he swung his hand enveloped with flames forward, expecting the force of the explosion that was about to happen to damage Brody enough to at least cause an opening to appear. But instead of the two fists impacting as Polar had expected, Brody slowed his body down mid-air by thrusting his open palm forward and as such messed up Polar's timing.
As this was the case, Polar's flames shot forward before the impact and the Bear-Person couldn't absorb the shock from Brody's punch with his own body, so the shock wave that was now freely in the air overpowered the flames and caused them to shoot back onto their wielder.
Of course, this didn't do much damage to Polar, since they were his flames, but it was enough to cause the opening that the Fiery Berserker had hoped to appear in Brody to affect in his own body, which his opponent used the moment that he saw it.
After slowing his body down to a halt with his Yin energy that Brody used to increase the strength of his feet's impact with the ground, he used precisely that increased impact to move the counter-shock that traveled through his body into one leg with the use of Yang Energy, and then shot it outward down into the ground with Yin energy, as such shooting one of his legs upward in a copy of Polar's move.
And once Brody's leg hit the bare shoulder of his opponent, the Demon-Orc used a trick that he figured out not too long ago. He transferred the Yang Energy from inside his body into Polar's with Yin Energy as a conductor, allowing immediate internal damage that completely ignored Polar's defense.
As the giant Berserker stumbled, trying to regain proper footing, Brody stopped for a second as well so that he could use this chance to breathe and think as he started to execute part of his strategy that he thought up with Eisen. "Heh, really? Is this all you can do, big guy?" Brody asked with a grin as he looked at Polar, who ground his teeth and prepared to activate some of his skills.
The first thing that happened was that he began to transform, with his skin turning ice-like while a thin layer of flames covered him all over. "Shut it, runt," Polar muttered as his body bulged up after activation of his racial skill that made his body more bear-like. Causing fur to sprout all over his body while also making him a lot taller and broader in general, while he also activated his 'Berserk Skill,' causing his eyes to turn completely red as he stepped forward and immediately sped up.
It wasn't like Brody wasn't expecting this, and as such activated the second of his Occupation Skills, Weapon Strengthening, which for a short period enveloped any weapon one was using at the moment in an aura that directly strengthened, and even slightly physically changed it.
In this case, it did so with the gloves he was wearing and as such supported the enchantments that Eisen put on them. And the form-change that happened was a peculiar one.
It seemed to merge with Brody's skin and flesh directly and caused the enchantments to slightly 'crawl' up the skin on his arms. Not being able to stop smiling, Brody jumped forward toward Polar, right before impact manipulated his energy to channel it through his hand and causing a strong force to twist his body around his towering opponent.
Despite his opponent gaining a massive boost to his stats, he wasn't able to keep up with Brody's speed, and before he knew it, he was being played with for a good while. Brody concentrated on evading with the help of his body and the strong impulses caused by his energy together with the gloves he was wearing, for a simple reason.
He wanted to tire Polar out. Brody wasn't cocky enough to think that he was able to completely overpower a strength-focused opponent with a much larger build than his own and incredible stamina. Of course, maybe he would be able to throw Polar to the ground, but due to the Beastperson's extremely high endurance stat, that would probably not be enough actually to do much. And since Brody could only win by making Polar unable to continue fighting or making him give up, he had to find a way to make sure that he couldn't fight back anymore, which couldn't be done by conventional means.
What Brody was hoping for during this evasion-based period was to make Polar's skills run out, since they couldn't possibly have an infinite duration, while also making him drain his mana as much as possible.
And it definitely seemed to work, since soon, Polar was definitely slowing down as his skills one after another stopped working, and the large combatant used up a large amount of his stamina due to to the Berserk skill's properties that made every action cost double times of what it usually would while only increasing the physical abilities by 50%.
Of course that was an immense increase, but Brody knew what he was dealing with, and as such he acted accordingly. And now, Brody did something that would hopefully finish Polar off, a move that was hard to set yourself up for but was incredibly effective against large and sturdy opponents.
While continuing to run around Polar to confuse him, the Bear-Beastman hit his limit for his transformation as he used too much mana, as such needing to de-activate it before he passed out. But even then, it still made him somewhat dizzy, and now that he didn't have a literal flaming aura around him and was easier to grab on to, Brody began the setup for his finishing-move.
When he stood behind Polar, Brody jumped into the air, something he avoided doing up until now precisely so that Polar wouldn't expect it, and tried to make sure he would land directly on Polar's shoulders. Of course, Brody's opponent didn't just let him sit there and began to tightly grip his legs and tried to get rid of him, but at this point, Brody already slung his legs around Polar's neck and wouldn't let go.
And now, Brody focused his energy in his palms and at the same time swung both of them against Polar's ears while once more doing what he did before, pouring his Yang Energy into Polar's body with Yin Energy as a conductor to ignore the majority of his defense. This immense force was enough for Brody to finish this fight, as Polar was slowly staggering back and forth after Brody jumped off of his shoulders before Polar finally slammed down onto the ground face downward.
First, there was some silence amongst the onlookers as they tried to grasp what just happened, while the Priest that was supervising this duel held his hand forward. "This Duel has ended! Polar is unable to continue fighting. Under the Authority of Gonor, I announce Brody, the winner!" He yelled out so that everyone could hear. As Eisen helped Brody out of the pit and looked over to the other side, where the Lord was staring at them in surprise and confusion, while the Adviser simply stood behind him with a calm, almost bored, expression as if he really just did not care about any of what was going on in the slightest.
"Good job, Brody. I knew you could do it." Eisen said with a smile before the Demon-Orc Halfling laughed. "Of course, don't think I'm gonna lose to some simple-minded guy like him. He may be strong, but technique-wise, he was pretty easy to see through." Brody explained before Eisen hit his back with a grin.
"Well, either way, I owe you one for this." He told this young man next to him before making his way over to the Lord with a light smile. "Now then, Zaran. I think you owe me one. How about you and I go somewhere and privately settle this matter?" Eisen suggested, trying to cause a setup where he and Zaran would be alone to talk to each other about everything.
Slowly, Zaran nodded before they made their way somewhere a little bit away until Eisen looked at the Guards and the Adviser that Eisen brought. "Could you please leave? I prefer to talk to Zaran alone." Eisen, in his Demonic form, asked with a slight smile before Zaran nodded at his guards and they stepped away. As Caria and Melissa stayed together with the other Originals, so now it was only Zaran, his Adviser, and Eisen, as well as Kirisho who was currently in her amulet to listen in, in case something was about to happen and possibly defend Eisen, since she was quite powerful.
Only after Zaran spoke to his Adviser for a bit did the Adviser end up leaving as well, while Zaran had a bitter look on his face. "Alright Eisen, you can stop and get rid of that transformation now. And don't think I didn't notice that Spirit you have with you." Zaran immediately said before Eisen nodded lightly and looked at the amulet in his hand.
"Kirisho, could you please come out? Oh, and please create something that obstructs the sight of outside people, if possible." Eisen asked with a smile before Mist poured out of the gem in the amulet and first formed a simple sphere around the two of them, that not only obstructed the sight but also any sound from traveling through it, as Kirisho appeared next to Eisen with a smile on her face.
"Of course. It's a pleasure to meet you, Lord Zaran. My name is Kirisho, one of Eisen's comrades." She explained so that there would be no confusion before Zaran frowned deeply. "A Comrade?"
"Yes, a comrade," Eisen clearly answered as he disabled his transformation to show his true self to the Lord in front of him. "Either way, it seems you inspected us with your 'Truth-Seeing-Eyes,' considering that you know my name now."
"Yes, I did. Now, hurry up and tell me what you want. Want to be the Lord of this town? Want me to keep funding the church?" Zaran asked before Eisen shook his head with a smile.
"Quite on the contrary. You can keep being a Lord, and I would like your assistance with something else related to the church. Anyway, first, I would like to know why you have an Adviser with such wicked mana that he even scares away spirits."
Surprised, Zaran seemed to calm down a bit after hearing that answer, before slowly nodding. "You know my brother, don't you? How much do you know about him?"
"Not too much, just that he's a merchant that deals with seemingly anything. For example, the experience of the five that peaked." Eisen said before Zaran ripped his eyes open widely before instinctively looking around to see if anyone heard what Eisen said.
"How do you know about that?" He exclaimed, hoping that the mist around them honestly stopped the sound from their conversation before Eisen stared at the man in front of him.
"Your brother told me about it," Eisen answered, letting Zaran look back at him confused before he continued. "Just believe me with this. Fact is that I know about it. I know that your brother is part of the faction of dragons following Kotam, while you're part of the faction following Trygan. And I managed to guess that your Adviser is someone that your brother Antonio, or someone connected to him in some way, sent here to keep an eye on you, and probably has something to keep you under control." Eisen summed up, before Zaran simply nodded, not able to deny anything at this point anymore.
"Yes, that's quite accurate. I'll tell you about what's going on."