Thanks for the reviews! I rushed this one too, but I think its good enough. I hope you guys like it!

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Chapter 5: A Spar To Remember

Tao Ren jumped over the monster and landed behind it. The monster was too late when it tried to turn around because Ren had just slashed it in half crosswise. The monster moved another inch before its thousand year old bandages fell to the ground along with its dusty rotted body. It broke into up into tiny lights after falling on the cold hard concrete sidewalk.

"Too easy…" Ren waited and watched the white lights disappear. A stone did not reveal itself to the Chinese shaman, so he placed his family's sword back in his sheath and went the opposite direction hoping to find a monster with a stone in it. "I have already defeated at least ten monsters and still no sign of the stone!"

Ren continued walking, showing no signs of tiredness. He fought the ten monsters without Bason's help because he said that the monsters were weak and that he needed to conserve his energy. The monster he just fought recently was a thousand year old Egyptian mummy, no different from the other monsters he fought before him. "Bason, what time is it?"

Bason floated upwards and looked around for a street clock. He found one and it read 8:00 pm, he returned to Ren and reported afterwards. "We have to hurry up Master Ren, we only have four hours left."

"You don't have to tell me to hurry up because I do not need the extra pressure!" Ren silently walked down the streets, alert and ready for any monster attack. "Where's my horse? It would save us time if it were here. Find my horse and bring him to me!"

"What about you Master Ren?" Bason asked. "What if some monsters attack and I…"

"Oh please…these monsters are no match for me, I can beat them without using oversoul" Ren said. "What are you waiting for? Bring my horse to me, he's in the house ten streets away from the onsen; the man there was kind enough to let my horse share a stable with his other horses."

"As you wish Master Ren…" Bason floated up into the sky and away from Ren in search for his horse.

"Hmph! What a worrywart, thinks I can't handle an enemy with out his supervision…" Ren watched Bason fly away before he continued walking. A very gigantic black widow spider suddenly jumped of the roof in an attempt to attack Ren; but before it could even land on the ground, Ren jumped up to meet it and slashed it in half. It landed on the ground and shattered into white lights. To Ren's disappointment, its body contained no stone.

"Incompetent monsters…" Ren looked back and saw another shadow lurking somewhere near. "You can either show your self or run away."

"Impressive" the shadow revealed itself to Ren. The monster had the body of a black horse and the upper body resembling that of a man replaced its head. The man's head was covered by a helmet and the rest of its upper body was covered in black and silver armor. In its right hand was a javelin which was as long as Ren's Kwan do.

"So you can talk" Ren pulled out his sword. "It's a surprising characteristic especially for a monster. So are you ready to die?"

The monster chuckled a bit; it seemed erudite with its posture and laugh. "I really don't think you should under estimate us monsters. You have been killing my fellow monsters and I just can't allow you to get away with that."

"So what are you going to do about it?" Ren raised his sword. "You're destroying the city so you need to be destroyed! When I destroy you, you'd better have one of those stones in your body!"

"Foolish human!" the centaur took out his javelin. "Your arrogance will be your downfall!"

"We'll see about that!" Ren raised his hand and commanded Bason to go into Spirit Ball mode, but he forgot that he sent Bason away to fetch his horse. "I can beat you all by myself!"

"What are you talking about?" the centaur asked. "You are all alone, there is no one to help you, and that means you'll have a harder time fighting me, am I not right?"

"Nonsense, I have beaten more than ten monsters without Bason, what would make you any different from the rest?"

"Oh I assure you foolish shaman, I would be more than a match for you!"

Hao watched Horohoro wave goodbye to Akimaru after receiving some food. The glutton gobbled down the food and took a little rest before going back up to kick some monster butt.

"Nothing interesting happening yet…" Hao then turned his attention to the source of the reverberating sound of steel clashing with each other. "The Tao is fighting with centaur, one of my favorite monsters." Ren tried to lock his eye on the centaur while it circled and galloped around him. The centaur was so fast at it produced multiple images of itself. It jumped from behind Ren and kicked him to the wall.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, that shaman should listen to centaur's advice, because that monster doesn't joke around."

Bason suddenly stopped and looked back. Sensing that something must be terribly wrong he decided to turn back. "No…" he stopped himself. "I must obey master Ren's orders." He hurried to his destination without looking back.

Bason arrived at his destination. He hover around the house looking for a stable, he finally spotted Ren's giant horse. Bason called the attention of the Shaman horse. It jumped over the stable gate and into the garden.

"Who are you?" A little girl about the age of six walked out of the house and looked at Bason. "Are you a monster?"

"No I'm not a monster" he answered back politely to the young shaman girl. "I'm just here to fetch Hakuoh because Master Ren needs him."

"Okay, if big brother Ren needs him, then he can go" the little girl ran to the gate and opened it for Hakuoh to pass through.

"Thank you Mimi" Bason said as he guided the horse towards the exit.

"Okay, say 'hi' to Ren for me!" Mimi waved goodbye as she watched Hakuoh and Bason go rapidly the opposite direction.

Ren opened his eyes and looked down. He was hanging from a building's flag pole by his shirt. "Nobody hangs me on a flag pole and gets away with it!" he managed to remove his shirt from the pole and land safely on the ground.

"You seem to be having trouble you fool, I can sense it" the centaur swung its sword across Ren, but he jumped up and used one of his hands to grab on to the pole that he was hung on awhile ago.

"Nobody mocks me and lives the next day!" Ren let go and pulled out his sword. He couldn't do any techniques because Bason was not around, so he can only do the basic non-elemental ones.

The centaur parried the attack, so both Ren and it pushed against each other. "It looks like we are evenly matched."

"Evenly matched?" Ren laughed. "I am more powerful than you, there is no way you can defeat me."

"We'll see" the centaur successfully pushed Ren and kicked him aside. "I am no ordinary monster Ren. Master Hao gave me a unique ability to talk and to absorb the strength of the monsters that were slain."

"What?" Ren slowly got up and switched to his Kwan Do.

"I was destined to fight you Ren Tao, I was summoned by Master Hao." The centaur said in a hateful voice. "I was once a human, but your family has played with my corpse and attached me to the body of a dead horse as if I were a toy! Look what they did to me! When I was slain by one of your so called friends, I was sent to the forbidden realm with all the other creatures you humans proclaim as monsters, demons, a menace to the world! But now we are taking our revenge with the help of Master Hao!"

"You are stupid; Hao will betray you sooner or later if you are insignificant to him!" Ren said. "What I can see right now is that he is using you as a puppet to achieve his goal. He will abandon you whenever he feels like it!"

"Be quiet!" The centaur attacked while Ren blocked each one of its blows. "Master Hao warned me about you. He said that your words can pollute my mind if I am not careful. Your lies will not work on me!"

"Looks like Hao was able to corrupt your mind before I could then…" Ren attacked its body, and it managed to damage its armor.

Bason and Hakuoh were running towards Ren and they just arrived in a nick of time. "Don't worry Master Ren, I'm coming!"

The two opponents clashed weapons again and used their strength to push each other back. "It looks like your handicaps have arrived. I thought you can defeat me all by your self Ren, but I see that I'm wrong."

Ren looked back and saw Bason and Hakuoh stand by, awaiting for further instructions. He looked back at the centaur's bronze eyes filled with hatred. "What do you say Ren? Can you defeat me all alone, or are you as weak as to depend on others to fight beside you?"

"Master Ren!" Bason couldn't wait any longer, he was not floating to the Kwan Do, ready to oversoul.

The centaur and Ren pushed away from each other. "Stop Bason!" the spirit halted as his Master raised his hand at him. "I will handle this by myself, do not interfere!"

"…but Master Ren?" Bason argued. "Your battles are also my battles. I am your main spirit!"

"I said do not interfere Bason! My battles are not always your battles!" Ren said. "Stay back, I will finish this monster in a while! I do not want you to interrupt me, understand?" Bason hesitantly nodded and had no choice but to trust his master's decision.

The centaur smiled under it's cold iron cain and resumed his fight with Ren.

"I was right. That monster was the perfect one to go up against Ren. I was correct to pour all the dead monster's strength in to its body" Hao smiled as he watched Ren get beaten because of his emotions. "Both of them are very foolish if I say so myself. The more imprudent one will fall, do you not agree Spirit of Fire?"

"Aarrrghh!" Ren got kicked in to a wall, for the twentieth time this day by a centaur.

"Master Ren, please, this is no time to be stubborn! Order me to go in to spirit ball mode!" Bason shouted at the sidelines as he watched his Master get beaten up.

"BASON! LEAVE ME ALONE!" Ren got up and did a non elemental quadruple cross slash. All it did was scratch the centaur's rough armor and slash its legs. The monster winced but it continued fighting.

The centaur smiled and gave Ren another blow. "You're probably the weakest member of the Shaman King's group of friends." The mocking only added to Ren's temper and hair growth rate.

The centaur used its hind legs and kicked Ren once again. Ren was going to hit the sharp branch of a tree, so Bason ordered Hakuoh to jump up and catch Ren on his back. Ren landed on the saddle and Hakuoh landed on the ground.

"BASON!" Ren was very angry now. "You dare disobey my orders?"

Bason looked down and said "Yes I dare. Look at yourself Master, your arrogance is taking over you! You think you have to do everything alone."

The centaur ran towards Ren, Hakuoh did his best to dodge all of the centaur's charging attacks.

"This is my battle Bason!"

"I am your main spirit Master and I am part of your weapon for battle. Don't let the centaur mock and tempt you. You know you are not weak; being weak doesn't mean you need the help of others to fight battles. You're my master, we fight together as a team, don't let your smugness get in the way."

"Are you just going to talk all day or are you going to fight?" the centaur cornered Hakuoh and tripped him, making Ren fall on the ground.

"Master Ren…" Bason could see the bangs of Ren covering his eyes; his spirit couldn't tell what he was feeling right now. "Master?"

"I'll show you what I can really do!" Ren looked up, jumped on his horse, and Bason followed. "Bason! Spirit Ball Mode, in to the Kwan Do!"

"Interesting" the centaur raised its javelin and pointed it towards Ren. "Are you ready to lose another round?"

"I'm ready for another round, but you're the one who's going to be defeated" Ren answered back as he held out a small tombstone with his free hand. "Kokutoh! In to Hakuoh!" He interrogated Bason's horse with his own horse.

"Still arrogant I see…" the centaur got ready to charge. "Let's see how well you'll do against me!"

The centaur charged forward with his javelin's tip pointing towards Ren. Ren commanded his own horse to charge towards the centaur with equal speed.

When he was close enough, he blocked the centaur's javelin and slashed his armor. Ren turned back at the same time with that of the centaur. "Golden Lightning!"

Hundreds of kinds of weapons sprouted robustly sprouted from the ground to hit the centaur. The attack broke the centaur's body armor, revealing a black muscular body. The centaur looked back and saw his armor fall and break on the ground, escaping with a few cuts and slashes from its upper body, but it's lower half was severly injured. "You said you'd defeat me your self? What happened to your pride as a Tao?"

"Looks like you're the fool now!" Ren got off Hakuoh and looked at the centaur. "You can't always let your pride get the better of you. One can do amazing things on his own, but one can do greater things if he works with others. I had to learn that lesson twice in my lifetime, so I'm going to make sure that's the last time I commit that mistake."

"Without your friends, you wouldn't even be able to defeat me! It only proves that you were weak!"

"I would prefer to call it limitations. It is sometimes good to accept your limitations; you are weak once you let your limitations stop you from improving yourself further. I find it hard to understand really, because one's own capability can be both limited and unlimited; and it looks like you've almost reached your limit centaur.

"I won't let you defeat me!" the centaur boldly charged towards Ren.

"Now your making your anger take over you. For a monster who claims to be literate, you're now acting very untamed. Hakuoh! Iron Fissure!" Hakuoh jumped up to the air and landed back on the ground and caused the cement to splash up in the air, taking the centaur along with it.

"Your time is now over. Rapid Temple!" Ren jumped on to Hakuoh and to the air. He swiftly stabbed the centaur more than a thousand times with his Kwan Do.

Ren landed on the ground and the centaur shattered in to white lights before it could even fall back down on the ground. Ren noticed an object floating amidst the white lights. He jumped up and grabbed it, it was a bronze stone. On it was written, "Pride", it glowed and changed from bronze to gold and the word was changed to, "Humility."

Ren grabbed a brown talisman and tossed it in the air. It turned yellow and returned to the Taoist priest. "Finally. Come Bason, we have more work to do." He hoped on to Hakuoh and rode down the streets, but he stopped a little later to defeat another monster.

"…one's own capability can be both limited and unlimited." Hao looked down at Ren who quickly defeated another monster. "It applies to all living things; all except me. I will be all powerful at the stroke of midnight and I'll have all the unlimited capabilities I need.

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We've just finished Ren's chapter, so I wonder who's next? Let's have a recap, so Tamao, Manta, Horohoro, and Ren each received a stone, so that means there are nine more characters left. Guess who's next, guess who's next.

Please review guys and I would really appreciate it if you guys would review each chapter.