Bilistam squinted his eyes, the nandao tightly held in his grip, the soul energy permeating his body began moving, reinforcing him, just like typical physical augmentation, but naturally, doing so with naught but soul energy had somewhat different effects to the one with mana that was most encountered throughout one's existence in the main world.
As the name implied, soul energy related to the soul and was thus typically, most present in it, most sapient creatures however, had their soul follow the shape of their bodies, the same was true for the people of this realm, the great amounts of this energy present in this realm meant that their bodies were already uniquely suited to circulate it, making the special effects of soul energy even more noticeable.
Right now, Bilistam should be especially capable of resisting physical damage and the likes, on top of naturally being able of striking his enemy's soul with his attacks.
He expected his opponent to similarly begin to circulate energy, but the unknown aggressor just kept moving forward, poise most composed, as though heading to flick a bot of dust off a counter.
"Underestimating your opponent will get you killed!" he spat, stomping his foot down and rushing down the enemy, Bilistam was far from pleased from having been struck by that surprise attack, especially since it seemed like his opponent's blade had an ability to rapidly worsen the wounds it inflicted.
Feinted a rapid slash, Bilistam instead went for a thrust aiming for the neck, like an elegant dancer, his attacker stepped to the side, and did a strangely slow spin in place, which swiftly devolved into a forcefully quick knee-strike, also managing to get out of the way before his intestines experienced concussive force, eyeing the purple-eyed man suspiciously.
'Something's not right…'
"I would remember if we had someone with your looks amidst our ranks… Where did you come from? To nearly catch me off guard without using your soul energy or blade, you must be an ancient, like Alistel…" the youthful looking man had shared into soul essence himself quite a few times and had extended, his life, alongside his youth, plenty of times, age meant nothing to him anymore, at the level of strength he sat, getting access to soul essence was easy, especially when he had made sure to get close to the strongest of their people.
But he could not call himself ancient, that sort of appellation was only reserved to the few who had been alive since times immemorial.
"...Well perhaps ancient is an exaggeration, but you must have been around for a while, right?" those who consumed soul essence would not only be rejuvenated, but also earn greater power, not directly, but as a consequence of their prolonged lifespan, as they, the people of this realm, got stronger as time went on.
To almost land a hit on Bilistam without reinforcing oneself with soul energy, when he himself was doing so, one would at least need to be twice as old as he was, or so he roughly guessed.
Ignoring the sound of the newbies getting torn apart by the snake and hounds, they were all spreading apart from one another in an attempt to flee certain death at the ends of a restless that was way outside of their current, individual, capabilities.
'Little fools, you just stuck together instead of panicking… That serpent isn't something you have no way of defeating…' he shook his head, holding out the nandao in front of himself, point aimed straight at the sky, Bilistam's opponent appearing split in his vision.
The blade seemed to be peeled away at, like skin subjected to a lengthy time under water that it began falling off, little portions by little portions, each thumb-long and pinky-wide piece that feel off began hovering around Bilistam, until only the hilt and guard of his nandao was left in his hand.
"Lingchi" he muttered under his breath, swinging the bladeless weapon horizontally, causing the floating blades to explode forth toward the enemy, his target quickly began running in an arc, demonstrating impressive speed, but with another swing, Bilistam caused the blades to change their directions in an moment, intent on cutting the purple-eyed stranger off in his track.
In a mere instant however, the treacherous one sped up, his jian's blade nearing Bilistam's throat.
Before blue blood could spurt everywhere, he disappeared from where he stood, using the same method he had demonstrated earlier against the restless to move at an incredible speed.
The old warrior was surprised for a moment, after all, who wouldn't be with such a sudden burst of speed coming from an enemy, but most impressively, the purple-eyed adversary had know how to perfectly conceal the flaring up of his soul energy as he began circulating it, that wasn't unheard of, but having such a person aim for his life was a first for Bilistam.
'Seriously… Who the hell is he? And why does he want me dead?' thoughts did not influence his actions, swinging again to direct the flying blades toward his opponent, who had not lost sight of him despite the movement speed, but that was to be expected, someone with such fine energy control wouldn't lose the trace of an opponent's signature just because they accelerated.
Bilistam wished to end this fight swiftly, before his opponent could do the same as him and unleash his soul's power.
Naturally, clearly, the unknown man was either an object manifestator or binder, were of the beast variety, he would have already called forth his creature, and were he a depth manifestator, well, Bilistam doubted that his opponent would be fighting him with a sword in that case.
In both possibilities, an individual of this calibre would be capable of channeling the true power of his soul through the object he wielded, that was their ace in the hole, it was costly in soul energy, but the power it granted should always be worth the price.
With his enhanced speed and dreadful control over his own body and momentum, the mysterious man had an easy time evading the swarm of blades, so Bilistam recalled them back to him, keeping them close in an attempt to keep the enemy on his toes, stopping him from wanting to approach.
But he did anyway, kicking off the ground, raising up dust, and rushing Bilistam down straight-on.
With a downward slash, Bilistam sent the blades flying at the oncoming figure, the purple-eyed man leaning back and sliding down in the sand-like grey dust, uncaring for the shallow cuts that formed upon his chest and face, contorting his body to launch a thrust attack toward the manifestator's spleen.
Steel clanged against steel.