Soren's eyes settled on the Tiger who stood up with a broken majesty, but it was not defeated. The Tiger turned his face toward the horizon, where the sun started its last descent journey, staining the sky with the color of the open wound. The Tiger talked with a tone drowned in wisdom, as if his words come out from an ancient shrine, and in that moment he activated his orange aura that started to disturb around him.
"Do you know oh Philosopher what the humans really fear?" the Tiger asked with a voice full of sorrow.
Soren raised his white aura that started to sting the air with a sharp coldness, and answered briefly: "Death."
The Tiger kept staring at the sunset, as if the sun is bleeding pure blood behind the horizon, then he returned his sight to Soren saying with deadly calm:
"Death? Is this what you think they fear? Humans don't fear death.. death for them is just a clear end, a dark road but it is understood. What really scares them is that they walk toward it while they think they understand the road, while they in truth know nothing about it."
He approached a step, and the stability of his voice was terrifying despite the touch of sadness that wrapped his tone: "The real fear is not that you die, but that you enter that battle while you think you chose your fate, while the ignorance is who chose you from the beginning. To see your full strength in your mind, while it is in reality worth nothing before the truth that you never realized. Humans run from death, but they in truth run from the idea that they were not ready for it from the beginning.. they hate to admit that their ignorance is what led them, not their courage."
He raised his look to the sun that was melting in the red sky, then he completed: "That is why death does not scare me.. but it scares me to walk toward it while I think it is another road."
In a sudden way, this wisdom calm broke by an explosion in movement. The Tiger launched with the speed of lightning, not toward Soren, but in the direction of Farouk lying beside the tree. Soren's instinct moved before his mind, he dashed with his body to protect his exhausted comrade from the Tiger's cunning, so he collided with him in the middle of the road and knocked him far from Farouk, to become face to face again.
Soren growled with feelings of killing and hate he never knew before: "You cunning.. fight me like a man and don't follow the ways of cowards."
The Tiger looked at him with a provocative smirk: "I think you didn't understand my words yet.. you ignorant."
The Tiger surprised him with a quick punch on his face made Soren retreat backward while he takes the defense position. The Tiger screamed mocking: "What's wrong with you? Are you afraid?" and he started to rain on Soren a volley of fast punches charged with his aura. Soren was retreating under the pressure of the successive hits, approaching more to the place of Farouk leaned to the tree.
And in that critical moment, Soren restricted the Tiger's wrist with his fist, and looked in his eyes with sharpness: "You are the one who chose his fate now you ignorant!" Soren raised his foot and delivered a violent kick toward the Tiger's face, but the latter's body was solid because of his innate ability that turned him to an invulnerable mass.
In the middle of this clash, Soren screamed with his highest voice:
Echo spectrum: The Sacred Library!
The Tiger tried to escape but the magic threads were faster, as they started in forming a huge dome that contained the whole arena. The world inside the dome turned to a terrifying and unfamiliar scene; giant libraries flying in the air, and open books swimming in a bleak yellow sky, and the land they stand on was a huge book.
Soren said with an icy tone: "You are now oh Tiger in the count of the dead."
Soren launched with his white aura that small fire sparks were scattering from it, and punched the Tiger strongly on his shoulder in a hit that shook his balance and made him scream: "You bastard!" Soren used the moment and retreated to activate his skill:
The Spirit Level One: Giant of Records!
Behind him manifested a majestic spirit entity; a giant body formed from thousands of overlapping books that slide over each other as if it is flesh from paper and ink, and its head was distorted because of the stacked books over it. Soren screamed: The Forbidden Pact
The entity launched a loud scream, and two huge books formed from it floating in the sky. The Tiger did not give up, but dashed to punch Soren so they clashed again and fell together on the ground. Soren laughed with a strange tone: "You want to attack me with your abilities in your dreams."
Soren screamed with a voice that shook the library corners ordering to seal all abilities. And immediately, the floating books made of Soren's entity spirit moved and entered his body and the Tiger's body. In that moment, the Tiger's orange aura turned off completely, and Soren's white aura faded. The Tiger was shocked while he feels the emptiness of his energy: "What did you do to me?"
Soren answered coldly: "I sealed all skills and abilities.. you can't do anything, even me my abilities were sealed. Now we will fight as humans without an aether thread," then he delivered a strong kick to the Tiger's body and completed: Fight me.
The Tiger became fumed with anger, and dashed running fast toward Soren and so did Soren who ran toward him with all his human strength. They met in the middle of the huge book, and the bare fists started to collide with the flesh, the fight inside the Echo spectrum turned to a primitive human slaughter, where the seal stripped both Soren and the Tiger from their supernatural powers, to leave them before the only truth: the fighting is normal without abilities and with every hit, the yellow sky was raining pure white papers, started to accumulate around their feet like a shroud weaving itself slowly.
The Tiger dashed with a huge physical strength, delivering a straight punch targeted Soren's face, but the latter slid under the fist with a masterly artistic move, and replied with an upward hit with his palm targeted the Tiger's chin, which made the latter's head bounce backward violently. The Tiger did not retreat; but he dug his fingers in Soren's shoulder, and with a quick move, he turned his body to pull him strongly and slam him on the paper ground.
Soren's body collided with hardness, but he did not give up. He used the power of his bounce to wrap his legs around the Tiger's neck in an attempt to tighten a suffocating grip, but the Tiger, with his pure human strength, raised Soren's whole body from the ground and slammed with him again to collide on the ground. The papers scattered around them like a white storm, and with every collision, the blood drops were coloring the white paper with a dark crimson color.
Soren stood up while he staggers, and the blood flowing from his shattered nose, for the Tiger to surprise him with a low circular kick targeted his knee, which made his balance disturb. The Tiger used the chance and pounced with a series of short and intense punches that targeted Soren's ribs. The sound of breaking bones was heard in the middle of the rustling of falling papers. Soren retreated while he gasps bitterly, trying to keep a safe distance, but the papers that rose to cover his ankles made his movement slow and exhausting.
The brutality reached its peak when they collided in a close struggle; the Tiger caught Soren's head with both hands, and slammed with his head in a violent headbutt that hit Soren's forehead, making the vision fog before his eyes. Soren staggered, so the Tiger surprised him with a left hook punch settled in his jaw, then followed it with a front kick in the middle of his chest sent him flying for several meters, to roll in the middle of the paper hills that became covering the arena completely.
Soren tried to stand up on his knees, his body was shaking, and his right eye has closed completely because of the swelling. The Tiger stood over him, gasping like a wounded beast, and his body covered with scratches and blood, but he was still having the advantage. The Tiger leaned and caught Soren's collar, and raised him to face his shattered features, then started to rain on his face with successive and harsh punches, every hit was moving the papers from around them to return and cover them again.
The Tiger was the winner clearly; his strength and his endurance. And while the Tiger was preparing to direct another punch, and while Soren was drowning in the sea of papers that reached now to their knees, Soren gathered what remained from his soul and his burnt breaths.
Soren looked toward the place where "Farouk" was lying in, and with all his given strength, he screamed a scream that shook the corners of the Echo spectrum the sacred library, a scream that pierced the gray fog and the stillness of the falling papers:
FAROUK, START NOW!