Dazzling Duel

“Good luck son.” Mother’s gentle voice gave me some peace.

Focus, I just have to focus on the opponent in front of me.

“Here I come,” Ryn shouted and rushed at me. 

I don’t know how strong he is, but let’s just-

My thoughts were interrupted by the blazing heat. What the hell? I didn’t even see him cast a magic. A large slash of fire passed right by my ears. That was hot. He can use fire magic!? 

I barely dodged it when I saw another one coming. I couldn’t dodge the second one.

It is so hot. My clothes are burning. I have to do something.

I remembered the time when I healed Arthur in the forest. That time it was purely coincidental. I raised the sword and slashed in the air. The green particles fell on me. The pain was going away slowly. Everyone in the audience started cheering. Even Saintess Emma was surprised.

This is dangerous. Ryn was surprised but his eyes were glued on me like a predator.

“So you can use healing magic. I guess I just have to attack you before you can heal back.”

He rushed at me. I was hoping for another fire slash but he just hit me normally. His heavy sword clashed to mine. If I had any normal sword, it would have been broken by just clashing with that huge metal junk. 

I was barely holding up. 

We are at the same age, how is he so strong? 

He was pushing me back. The heat from the sword was making me sweat like crazy. This guy is bad news. He was like a bull. 

My sword started turning redder from the heat of his blaze.

“Focus, Vance” I heard Mother’s voice.

Yes, focus. I need to calm down.

He was strong but unlike Arthur, he wasn’t making multiple attacks. He was just strongly pushing me back. His only strength was his ridiculous firepower. He was truly favored by the Fate.

I can get out of this. I stopped my feet from getting pushed back. The sand helped me get some solid footing. 

Think. Think. He has a fire sword. He is stronger in strength. Even stronger than Arthur in terms of sheer magic power. What can you do?

I think I can do many things.

I closed my eyes and imagined a thorny plant growing from the ground. I did same when I protected Mary. I could do it again. 

I wasn’t sure if it would even work on the sand. Nonetheless that was my only hope.

I imagined a plant to grow between me and him. It was hard to stay focused with his heat sword right on my face, still I took a deep breath.

Suddenly long branches grew from the ground. It was exactly as I had imagined. They made a plant wall between us. The plants had long thorns. I felt a bit light headed. 

Ryn Jumped back to avoid the wall. I finally got some distance between us.

“You can even do magic?” he was getting annoyed. I couldn't see his face but his voice was getting murky. 

“I mean you can do it too. Why, you thought you were the only special one?” I knew how to agitate that type of people.

“You!” He yelled at me and started making fire slashes to burn the vines. Those plants were sturdy. 

In his frustration he even started hitting the ground and the sand. It made the sand fly around. It was all dusty which made him hard to see what was happening. The sand and smoke covered the arena. 

“Stop hiding and come out!” He shouted from the other side.

I took advantage of all the sand and smoke to sneak up on him.

“Coward!” He was shouting while trying to find me.

“Peek-a-boo!” I said while I was behind him.

“When did you-” I knew he would turn around and slash. Arthur had already taught me that. His swing was very big, his sword was bigger. 

You can’t exactly swing that thing around freely. The sword will follow the swing once you have started it. His biggest mistake was attacking without thinking. 

I ducked the slash and punched him in the stomach as hard as I could.

This is game over.

“This is not enough to beat me.” He was certainly in pain but still raised his sword and aimed directly at me. Are you an idiot?

“Take this.” He loved shouting his attacks. I rolled away but the slash was massive. It made a deep wound in the sand. The hit was very long and around 2 feet deep. 

His sword got stuck in the wet sand. 

“Are you sure you aren’t a farmer by any chance?” I managed to gain some distance again. 

“Stop running away.” He managed to get his sword out from the sand, and slashed towards me. What another fire slash?

There was no fire slash. Everyone was confused. Even Ryn was startled. His magic was not working. 

“Well dear Ryn, it seems you have wet yourself.” I pointed at the sword. Because he attacked that deep around the beach, the sea water came out. It ended up drenching his sword completely. It was emitting steam. 

I knew it, his sword worked as a conductor just like my sword. You can’t create fire if the iron is cold.

My plan had worked.

“You! Damn You!” He shouted. This kid is loud as hell. His sword started to get orange and red again. Crap, I didn’t think about that. He can just fuse more magic power to his sword until all the water has been vaporized. 

I have to end this. I imagined a slash just like his in my mind. Just like Mother uses her power. I can replicate it too. 

Imagine as if the magic is flowing from the tip of my sword. I gathered all my magic to the edge of my sword. 

I slashed at him while rushing towards him. I knew it would work. The slash was green, filled with magic. That felt tiring. 

Lucky for me his sword was still wet.

The green slash from my sword hit him. He tried to block it however the water from his sword reacted with my nature magic. Leaves started growing, covering his hand and his sword. Binding his hands to the handle tightly. It seemed water amplified my attack. 

This is unexpected but I’ll take it. I jumped at him. He was panicking, maybe this was his first time losing this way. He managed to remove the leaves, except it was too late.

“And I win.” I hit him with the hilt of my sword.

Ryn fell to the ground. He dropped his sword. By the rules stated before, it made him unable to fight. Marlian waited a bit and came forward. Everyone was still in shock and awe.

“The winner is Vance Alison.” I saw Anne and Mary cheering. 

Phew. Saintess Emma went inside the tent. 

Well, sorry for not needing your healing. Maybe she was worried about me? Maybe. 

“I- I don’t accept this.” Ryn was getting up from the sand. His face was dirty because of the sand and water.

“You! I’ll show you who you are fighting with.”

His sword started getting hot. It burned away all the plants.

“Sir Ryn, the duel is ended.” Marlian tried to calm him down.

“I don’t care. He dared humiliate me.” Ryn was getting more furious. He was wiping the mud from his face.

Um, what should I do?

“Hey, Is this your new skin-care?” God! Me and my big mouth. Don’t make him angrier.

“I’m Ryn Silverbank, one and only blessed with Efirit. I’ll show you the result of disrespecting me.” Woah, who? I don't even know who.

I kept walking backward. Mother was ready to intervene but I told her to stay put in my mind. We don’t want unwanted attention to her. We were out of the device’s bounds. Meaning the Kings can't see anything anymore. 

Marlian wanted to interfere but his hesitation made me think he was afraid of the redhead. Worst case scenario I’ll just run away.

“You are just angry because you lost.” Anne was standing between me and Ryn. 

“What are you doing here? When did you even get here?” I was worried about her.

This girl is unbelievable. She would even ask the death why it wants to take me away.This is dangerous for her.

“You are mocking me?” Ryn raised his sword, it was a different color than before. It was blazing like an afternoon sun, getting more and more whiter with each passing moment.

“Ryn! You can’t use Mythical Class spell on a human.” Emma was running towards us. 

She won’t be able make it. This guy is a lost cause. I have to do something. 

“Run! Anne, get away from there.” Anne just stood there with her arms wide open as if protecting me. 

“Stupid girl!” I ran towards her.

I witnessed a blinding flash of light. Ryn had dropped his attack at us.