1-1 with the Yokai race.

After his encounter with the yokai that'd handily bested and spared him, he lay in that cave, alone, for some time. Eventually, however, he has to crawl to his feet.

That was hours ago.

The boy's able to knit his wounds back shut with reversed time, gradually, but rather than actually, immediately recovering, it's still a lengthier process than he'd like, mostly because it takes a while for his legs to be good again. Eventually, however, he's good, able to move and run and all of that as he should.

When another yokai promptly shows up only a few days later.

He'd remained in the cave to train- that was why he had initially came, afterall, and why he had hit the wall. But when the yokai approaches, he is immediately on guard, as he would be with any yokai he happened upon so abruptly. There were some more docile members of their race...But to assume they weren't hostile was a bad decision more often than not.

Raising his fist, coated with electricity, Arsenic locks eyes with the larger creature, who stands nowhere near the mass of the yokai who'd been able to best him, staring expectantly.

Did it want something?

_______

Grey eyes flick to Aules and, with a single, intense gaze, intend to stop him dead in his tracks.

"I'll handle this. Stay back."

Arsenic, outside of his bloodied clothing, has almost entirely recovered from his earlier thrashing at the hands of a giant. A breeze sweeps through the cave, choosing this time to ruffle his hair and jacket, the boy stone-faced, and full of resolution. Without fear, without worry, he looks up at the yokai, Tarok...

And then promptly dashes forward.

He unsheathes his sword in a flash, body augmented by several techniques. Mana emanates from his form, electricity crackling, spiraling, the kid moving with such raw speed and planning to throw strikes so vicious their every collision would cause blinding flashes of light that would illuminate the cave for several meters.

And then he'd dip and dive back into the darkness, making it clear that he was not in the least afraid of this place. He was not, like most children his age, scared of the dark.

He lived in the dark.

_______

Arsenic, from the dark, speaks to Tarok.

"Whatever you say."

He, rather suddenly, appears infront of Tarok in the cavern, sword drawn. The boy'd stare, unafraid, into the eyes of the giant yokai- because this is far from his first experience with one. Given the storm he has weathered in the face of yokai leagues more significant and endlessly more powerful, this conflict...This conflict, he has the utmost face in himself to come out on top.

Magic vastly augments his body, he slows his perception of time, and he wields the giant slab of steel he calls a 'sword' with the precision and skill of a fighter several times his age.

With a running start, he jumps at the yokai with phenomenal speed...and swings.

Showtime.

_______

Arsenic comes at the yokai viciously, striking with reckless abandon at no regard for himself.

Despite the conflict being four-on-one, he parries, counters, ripostes, and even squeezes in casts as if it were all-too-easy. At the end of their brief, but intense, scuffle, he stands, sword still drawn, staring down the large yokai as if to say..

-Are you still so confident?-

He uses two hands this time, infusing his body with more mana, then, than the previous round. His intent is simple, measureable simply by the way he moves.

This was simply humiliation by this point.

He now knows that this yokai is so vastly beneath him in terms of power that he is intent on crushing him in a way that is fast, brutal, and effective, aiming to sweep the giant's legs from underneath him and send him hurtling across the cave with a devastating kick.

The boy was disgustingly physically strong despite his meager size, and his agility?

Peerless.

_______

Arsenic takes a lot more wounds in that fight.

To his credit, the yokai adapts to the boy's fighting style rather skillfully, deftly managing to wound him on several occasions, heavy hits that, when they rarely land, send him hurtling.

It was too bad it wouldn't be enough.

After a point in the conflict in which he has cut down every member of his opponent's yokai guard, it's apparent he has been toying, essentially this entire time. Not showing the extent of his capabilities, just testing himself, seeing how strong he was by comparison and how handily he could defeat Tarok while remaining at this level.

There're injuries, a gash on his chest, his arm, his leg- there's a noteable bruise on his back, and he's sure he'd be feeling that in the morning, but, all in all, he puts on a front of being utterly unfazed by the assaults, something in him, something to him that just says this'd been one big joke from the start.

"Maybe when I was ten..." The small boy taunts. "You'dve stood a chance."

He turns to Aules, then, dismissing the large beast as if he were little more than an insect. The thing didn't even exist in his world now.

"Give my friend his fight, and then get out of my cave."