While his cloud was moving to overtake the arena, Xavier noticed a strange distortion in the air just beyond the center pedestal; emanating from the sheltered confines of the arena opposite him where a man now stood. There was a brief twinge of movement from Xavier’s right cheek and his red, glowing eyes widened slightly as he saw this; it seemed he wasn't going to be left wet and waiting this time around and it was all he could do to contain his excitement for the coming battle. It was a futile effort though, for once he finally deciphered who it was that stood across from him, with his blue hair and  surrounded by a floating guard of monstrous crystalline weapons, a smirk stretched onto his face. When last he saw this man, they were sitting across from one another discussing this very tournament over a couple beers. Xavier was elated at the possibility of getting to tear apart someone even remotely close to him; his insatiable thirst for bloody battle usually left his social circle rather empty. 

In direct response to this new found excitement, the cloud of Dread Energy could be seen picking up it’s pace in an attempt to swarm their new target; but it would seem that he had come prepared.  Just as the Dread Particles passed over the strange creature in the center of the arena, a veritable explosion of golden light bathed the surrounding area in its warm embrace and Xavier could feel his energy cloud slam home against a wall of unnatural creation; wrapping around it in an attempt to force its way through this spherical abnormality.  No doubt created by his opponent, the sphere encompassed the greater majority of the North Eastern corner and despite their fevered search, the particles could find no weakness through which to force themselves.

The smirk on Xavier’s face blinked out of existence as his brow furrowed into a tight glare; it was time to get serious and he quickly began sending mental commands to the rolling cloud of Dread Energy; focusing his attention on the particles that were closest to the strange wall. Those first few layers turned cannibalistic as hee made them absorb their brethren; increasing first their density and then their size in the blink of an eye. It was an almost unseen change in the composition of the cloud, but it would give the perimeter a much more physical presence Incase this strange energy started pressing forward. Not that Xavier was simply going to stand around and wait for that to happen.

Half a blink later, Xavier’s pectorals would be littered with a dozen tiny, red metallic lines only 1/16 of an inch wide and 3 inches long, all positioned vertically upon his skin. These were miniscule deposits of Dread Metal, a liquid form of Dread Energy infused with earthen elemental energies that allows Xavier to shift it to a metallic substance on a whim. While it may not look like much to some, Dread Metal is twice as strong as steel and needs only half the materials in order to replicate this strength. As an example, a 2 inch plate of Dread Metal has the same amount of material as 4 inch plate of steel and is twice as strong as said sheet steel. This is due largely to the fact that Xavier has total control over this material, from general movement down to changing the density of individual pieces.

These metallic lines had only just appeared upon Xavier’s chest when they suddenly vanished; flung from Xavier’s skin and given an incredible spin that caused them to stretch out to ¼ in thick circular discs that had 3 inch diameters and 15 hooked and pointed teeth on their edge. The air was briefly filled with a symphony of high pitched whistles as the they were fired forward; with no physical effort on Xavier’s part these weapons accelerated to bullet speed they were all headed towards Dias's upper body and face, set synchronized impact I’m just under 200 milliseconds. All in all, it would have been only 2 seconds between his energy being deflected and the release of his tiny saw blades. The main purpose of this attack was a poke at the shield that kept his energy back, as Xavier wanted to see whether it was only effective on his energy or if it was going to stretch to a physical deflection as well.  

It is worth mentioning that since Dread Metal is comprised of Dread Energy, it retains the ability to reject any outside manipulation seeking to influence it’s composition or direction of flight; beyond that of a physical force slapping them out of the air or something similar.