Chapter 78

The bright clashes of mana and spells ensued throughout the arena. None of the guests could blink as they didn't dare miss any action.

'Should I just resign?' Thought Naell.

From the very moment Lesjon summoned his scythe, it was as if a switch inside him had been flicked.

Wasting no time, his attacks became more aggressive yet still methodical and therefore difficult to deal with.

Each wave of his thunderous mana was shot from a distance, and was no weaker than the previous. Just by being near it, Naell felt the surge of electricity coursing through his body.

'Getting hit would more or less penetrate my mana shield… '

Lesjon's advantage upon taking his weapon was inevitable. Facing an opponent with control of various distances truly is fearsome to most conventional mages.

As a result, Naell had no choice but to profusely use more mana to defend or evade with all his might.

"His scythe’s design is in sync with his thunder magic." Observed Andrew as it was his first time seeing Lesjon's weapon.

All of his friends nodded. They truly were amazed at the weapon that could withstand the thunder element.

"Carved in the deepest forest of the elves, forged by the mighty dwarves--- I heard mithril and other rarities were the materials…"

'Insane quality.'

When Note said that, the rest of them couldn't help but bitterly smile. Afterall, wielding a weapon of that caliber was still a pipe dream for them.

Even Namiku and Rinca who would both have their fathers’ backing, would be unable to negotiate with the seclusive elves, and even more so for the prideful dwarves.

They could only nod and accept the reason for Lesjon's weapon; Roetem Star, a man so respected that he was recognized by both the dwarven king and queen of elves.

Note then added on further teasing his friends,

"That’s why the lineage of Star was filled with weapons of mass destruction."

"..."

As the tide of battle leaned on Lesjon's favor, the audience was roaring his name.

Still that didn't stop others from cheering for Naell. Especially Anna and the Grandfather who was keenly watching the fight.

"You can do it big brother!!!"

Even Casper and the rest who knew him well enough couldn't help but feel a sense of support growing for Naell. A part of them always did feel that the young master was still hiding a lot from them, and so in that moment, they had faith he might just have something up his sleeve.

By then Naell had relatively increased his distance, while Lesjon continued to fight with the intricacies of a magic knight.

‘Wahhh… No fair…’ Naell thought to himself with a look of frustration.

Immediately, he was bombarded with attacks both large and small from his relentless cousin. The fight to him was slowly becoming nothing short of tedious.

‘A time-out would be nice.’

Just earlier Naell was still able to dodge the attacks with no care. He had even been countering with spells that took a fair amount of time to cast.

Yet in an instant he suddenly realized one crucial mistake he had been making; the more time he allowed Lesjon to use, the more powerful he unknowingly made him.

[ Hey…are you seeing the sparks in the air? ]

Some of the onlookers were beginning to catch on; the battle was certainly about to take a turn for Naell’s worst.

As if on cue, Naell felt static on the outer fabric of his clothes. He even noticed the unusual amount of water that had slowly been filling the air.

“Water…” Naell blurted out unintentionally. He had completely forgotten that just moments ago his cousin had shown him thunder; an element that can be conjured by high level mages wielding both Fire and Water.

Lesjon heard what he uttered and due to this smiled wryly.

‘DId my own cousin seriously forget my affinity…?”

He then said aloud,

“...Naell, although your mana’s certainly to die for, it seems you’re still fairly inexperienced…and forgetful.”

“...”

The water lingering in the air were droplets of subtle magic that Lesjon had casted to support his thunder. With every second passing by, the arena was slowly and discreetly being finely tuned for his thunder to scatter freely.

Realizing this, Naell felt himself grow more wary.

He was at fault for paying no mind to it when he first detected the minor droplets. Further, it was far too risky to lose sight of his opponent’s aggressive long range thunder attacks, and so his focus was elsewhere.

“Naell…” Muttered Viola who also realized Lesjon's plan.

Light had hit the droplets in the air and caused Viola to see the trail it led to Naell’s side of the field. It was safe to say, in a few moments, Naell would have nowhere to run.

For a while, the flurry of thunderous mana directed at Naell continued. Its sound reverberated through the air, crackling every time it was thrown. Some of the onlookers disliked the fearsome noise and covered their ears while watching.

Finally, Lesjon came to a halt in the middle of the arena. Naell saw a brief window and decided to try to aim at his cousin, yet the other was faster and shot a quicker spell aimed at the white haired boy’s location.

In response, Naell abandoned his offensive spell and instead conjured a thick wall of ice to prevent the attack from hitting him.

Unfortunately, he had also put himself into a corner, with only two ways out to the left and right of his large wall.

Lesjon smirked seeing Naell at a disadvantage. With the last corner of the field covered in floating droplets, he then decided to proceed with his plan.

‘There’s now enough water in the air.’

With full stability, Lesjon planted his feet against the sand. He then began to summon a mass of his blaring red mana far bigger than his previous attacks.

The thunderous mana circled above him, before rushing to the tip of his scythe’s blade, and finally coating his entire weapon.

With both hands, Lesjon raised the scythe up above his head and began to twirl the weapon with full speed.

Sparks began to erupt as it spun. All of those who watched were at the edge of their seats.

“Wha— He could do that?” Even Septh stood up and expressed his genuine shock while seeing the sparks turn into bigger crackles of thunder.

Although he didn’t want to say it, Naell was indeed in a tough spot. They then began to spread out.

[ Thunderous Cross ]

The sparks of light emitting from the mana coated weapon chaotically shot out in all directions. They traveled from one area into another, causing what appeared to be a continuous ripple of thunder that never ceased throughout the arena.

Most of it seemed almost lifelike and bloodthirsty as they each rushed to Naell’s direction.

“Will Naell be okay?!” Namiku said in concern, before glancing at the unimpressed owl.

Upon impact with the wall, the mana exploded and emitted a blinding light of pure red. Seeing this, Owly replied,

• I’ll go on a diet before Naell loses to that, HOOT. •

“You’ll … go on a diet?”

• ... I mean that he won’t lose because I refuse to do such a thing, HOOT! •

Sand seemed to have scattered and covered where Naell was supposed to be. A lot of the onlookers were truly eager to see him okay.

Yet what greeted them was the image of the ice wall, filled with cracks and punctured with a massive hole.

Dead center was Naell, fully unscathed and causing gasps of surprise from the audience. By the time the surprise passed, cheers were joyously thrown at him.

“He’s completely fine!” Exclaimed Note before squinting at Naell’s broken ice wall.

Even from that distance he could see the three colors stacked against each other forming Naell's wall. The colors of ice, snow, and a thick layer of sand compacted by wind magic.

• Smart, HOOT. •

Lesjon looked at his cousin in brief bewilderment, realizing he had cleverly avoided the thunderous attacks.

“Quite the wit you’ve got there, cousin.”

In response Naell then said,

“It still hurts…”

He then tried brushing the sand off of his robe before ultimately giving up and letting a burst of wind magic remove it for him.

To all who watched, Naell truly looked impressive, yet underneath his cool demeanor in that moment was pure relief. He then teared up as he thought to himself,

'The shield blocked out the whole attack but the static would've traveled to me without the sand.'

He then shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts, before gripping his staff once more.

In an instant his mana began to blare, making most of the audience lean towards the edge of their seats.

A translucent growing sphere of snow and ice was slowly forming around him.

"Interesting.”

In response to that, Lesjon tried to interrupt his casting as he brought forth thunder and forced it into Naell's direction once more.

Yet before it could even get close, three large crystalline shields of snow managed to withstand it.

Most gasped at the beauty of the spell, as remnants and bits of pure mana floated around it.

[ It’s a snow crystal! ]

[ Just like the rumored one. ]

[ A bunch of those saved our village from the avalanche! ]

[ I thought that was the frosted ghostman’s? ]

Murmurs and questions began permeating the arena. Some had already recognized the spell as it was used by Naell some time ago.

He had once returned to the town where the Yetis were sighted to gather more of its herbs.

Coincidentally, he had arrived at a time in which the snow atop a nearby hill loosened and caused an avalanche. As he was without Owly’s company, Naell had to stop it all by himself.

His usual snow fortress had a chance of simply crumbling and further enlarging the approaching snow; thus he decided to use the snow crystal that guided the snow elsewhere while leveling the snowy terrain.

The villagers who witnessed what happened promised Naell to keep quiet about his deed, yet leakage of the event actually still did occur.

Going back, Lesjon was momentarily frozen upon seeing the snow crystal. Yet after a while he smiled, immediately using his wave to speed up and close their distance.

In return, Naell welcomed his cousin as he began to use one of his trump cards.

The already 3 beautiful snow crystals glowed a blinding white, before growing thicker and forming into 5 separate ones.

With haste, Naell directed each of them; as one would defend and move to wherever the attacks would come, the other four would release a flurry of [ ice javelins ] towards Lesjon, all the while constantly in motion.

Because of that, the young master of Star greatly minded his positioning as he would not dare let the spells of pure mana hit him in its full force.

The same could be said towards Naell who was trying his best to not get hit directly by the thunder, and in general be within the range of Lesjon's scythe.

Yet even with the restriction of their movements, the battle of the red-eyed cousins had already stolen every battle’s spotlight that day.