Chapter 75: Chapter 70 – An unexpected opponent

“‘Flamethrower’’”, a swirl of burning red fire engulfed me in an instant upon the start of the match.

My surrounding increased in temperature, my body was barely affected due to the skill ‘Magic Resistance’, however my armor was being churned like fine cloth.

‘Not holding back now are you?!’, I conjured the spell ‘Corruption’, causing the fire surrounding me to change in color.

I moved my flow of mana to move the flames back to my opponent, and to my surprise, it took them head on.

‘A suicide charge?’, the small frame of a person got easily engulfed within the pitch black flames.

And came out, unscathed.

“‘Fire Ball’, ‘Fire Ball’, ‘Fire Ball’!”, without chanting, several circular fiery balls were blasted to me as target.

“‘Barrier’”, I casted a thick and imperfect barrier, it soon broke down like thin glass, hence leading some to collide against me.

“‘Mana Shot’”, white balls of light shot outwards towards the non-stop moving shadow, however it evaded them effortlessly, as if it had expected the foreseen event.

My opponent unsheathed it’s blade, red flames covered the blade from head to toe.

There was no chanting, and I couldn’t sense any mana being used in a complex way like spells, so it was likely a magic sword.

I took out one of my swords and..

Kling

Parried my blade against it, the black red mixture of mana gave off a ominous air about it.

My body trembled upon impact, despite its small structure a huge strength was hidden behind the petite frame.

The small fractures on my sword spread even further, thus putting me concerned. ‘I really should refrain using my swords.’

Our blades still locked onto each other, I took out my second one aiming for its neck from the side, though I did not wish for its death.

In these matches someone getting hurt was bound to happen, albeit I’d much rather resolve things peacefully, it would be against the rules to cooperate considering the type of competition.

As I thought I would catch it off guard, it suddenly took out a second sword from its back and clashed it against mine.

I couldn’t feel any mana or any sort of magic behind it, what caught me off as strange was probably the material used for the crafting.

‘Either this person’s ‘Intuition’ level is really high or it somehow knows me.’, I wondered why my enemy easily predicted my movements, maybe I was just that predictable which would make me sort of sad.

The Masked Swordsman suddenly increased its input on strength, clashed its swords against mine again.

I could feel the brittleness of my swords by the sensation spread by mana, it felt similar to feeling a weird spot on your body that is somehow misshapen.

I created some space between us by erecting a ice wall, it leaped back as a reaction to my move.

I retrieved my swords, thinking about their well-being, and took out my customized staff.

Staffs are mostly used for increasing the control on your mana, but it could also be used to increase the effectiveness of your magic attribute depending on what materials were used.

“‘Barrier’”. I casted another barrier, like before. But this time I could feel the consumption of mana being reduced and the barrier grown more durable.

For me to create a normal barrier like the previous one, it would require of me 400 mana from my status, but now it was halved to 200.

Soon, from a above the frost wall, a shadow came leaping sprinting towards me whilst chanting a spell.

“‘Flame—‘!”, the remaining name of the spell got blurred out due to the sudden spring of fire surrounding its body.

Enveloped in bright burning fire, it leaped towards me with far more speed than before.

I immediately realized the barrier wouldn’t last, I held my staff towards the moving swirl of fire.

“‘Flamethrower’!”, I pretended to use my enemies spell, and a torrent of dark black flames devoured the small dim light equivalent to a candle.

However, the small dim fire suddenly spread everywhere, thus releasing the prisoned person within.

Quickly, I utilized my staff to create a sword made out of water, and frosted it to create a ice sword. I used a little bit more mana then before so that it could solidify.

The ice sword wasn’t well made from a artisans point of view, it’s barely sharp and would probably deal no damage, but what’s important at the moment was to block my opponents attack.

“KHH!”, to my surprise, the force brought by the swirling fire surrounding the Masked Swordsman was tremendous.

I could feel my body being pushed back by the pressure brought by the fire. I could also feel a hard sensation coming from the other end of my sword, it was likely to be my opponents blade pressing against mine as the flames scorched my ice sword.

The Masked Swordsman kept clashing its blade against mine, the fire sailing its body would not just make it hard to parry, it also protected it from exterior attacks.

Soon my ice sword broke down into fragments of ice, I rapidly casted a barrier to buy a small amount of time to create another sword.

‘No, this won’t work, I’m almost about to fall of the arena.’, had I made another sword, I’d simply be pushed back until I’m out of the arena.

“Could you give me a brake please, this is getting really hard.”, I casted multiple barriers to block its charge.

I gathered mana around me, held my staff with both hands, the gemstones on the staff began to glow in a magical manner.

Then next instant I hit my staff on the ground, together with a freezing wind, a trail of spikes made from ice made their way towards the flame enveloped person.

It instantly understood that it could not proceed to attack me, so it jumped back to evade the incoming spikes.

“To think my fight would be this hard right after I just recovered.”, I muttered to my self with a sullen voice.

Although I had recovered considerably, my spirit was still damaged and there was my mental health too.

My soul if it gets damaged my status will drop including my mana, strength, agility, intelligence, durability and vitality.

The reason these lower is due to me using my soul, which represents my whole being. If I lose my arm, a chunk of my strength and agility will lower and maybe some other attributes as well.

I found this out after my fight against the ‘Berserker’, but my status soon came back to normal, almost like how mana recovers overtime.

The flames enveloping the Masked Swordsman suddenly directed themselves to the sword, thus enveloping it instead.

It was breathing heavily, like it had used a lot of mana thus increasing the fatigue on its body.

However, despite its fatigue, it aimed the tip of its sword towards me, the flames centered on the tip creating a sphere of condensed fire.

The small sphere shot towards me splattered and exploded, thus creating a ginormous shockwave that spread throughout the arena.

The whole field was covered in dust clouds, the masked swordsman almost fell to its knees because of the shockwave pulling it back.

It used its two same length swords to support itself back up.

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“What happened?! I can’t see anything?!”, the commenter filled with disbelief by the sudden course of events spoke.

‘Phew, almost couldn’t make it.’, I thought, relieved by my survival.

Before the overly powerful flaming ball hit me, I put up three layers of protection on me. I used the spell barrier, created a wall made of ice, and enveloped myself in fire.

However, I didn’t come out completely fine, the first two barriers got easily broken down, while I concentrated the highest amount of mana on the fire protecting me.

Weirdly, things made out of my mana don’t really affect me, unless I target myself with a spear of ice or fire.

Making ice and fire out of mana is really convenient, though it may sound like really far fetched how the skill works, it’s really just how it sounds, it allows me to ‘Manipulate’ with mana.

‘Anyway, the mist covering the arena is really convenient now.’, I sneaked out from the remains of the wall of ice, which was now just fragments of ice slowly evaporating into gas due to the high temperature left behind.

I made use of the spell ‘Sense’, and located one signature. ‘That’s it probably.’

Out of nowhere, the number of signatures increased by two.

‘Did someone enter the field or is it the spectators? No, then who is it?’, being baffled by the sudden increase in number, the numbers increased even further.

‘What is happening?’, both my curiosity and confusion increased as well as the number of signatures.

I approached one of them, what appeared was a masked person with a cloak covering their body, so to say my opponent.

However there was something strange about it, it seemed to be transparent, almost invisible.

I moved one step closer, and it noticed my appearance and charged towards me.

I created another sword out of ice, to replace my swords, and tried blocking its strike—

But the moment it’s sword made impact upon mine, it disappeared like dust.

I couldn’t feel any pressure from it, as if it wasn’t even real to begin with like a façade.

The signatures began sprinting to my location, like an alarm had gone off.

From inside the smoke, three shadows leaped out towards me, however as soon as they reached me they disappeared like the other ones.

They kept on coming like bullets shot from a gun, however none of them dealt actual damage, but rather confusion.

Amongst them, appeared one with a solid appearance, I targeted my attention towards that one and successfully clashed against it.

“…how…?”, a small voice came from behind the mask, it was soft and calming, but I couldn’t recognize it due to the mask muffling it’s voice.

The impact of our swords cleared the clouds of smoke and dust around us.

I clashed my sword over and over, I dodged and parried with my ice sword. Ask the moment it would brake, I would create another one.

However, that was no longer becoming a option.

‘I’m about to run out of mana.’, I could feel my movements becoming sluggish, and my thought processing decaying due to the exhaustion and pressure being put on my brain.

I had to both hold onto my staff, and sword to be able to parry its attacks. If I let go of my staff, the consumption of mana will increase, thus leading me to be unable to create swords out of ice.

That is why, my last option would be to go all out mage!

Kling!

Pushing my opponent back, I threw my ice sword to it, like a dagger. My opponent easily cut it in half with its sword, that much was already in my expectations.

“‘Barrier’, ‘Barrier’, ‘Barrier’, ‘Barrier’, ‘Barrier’.”, by casting multiple barriers, I began gathering mana.

The Masked Swordsman casted multiple fire balls and strikes his swords against it as well.

To its surprise, they didn’t go down unlike the other ones.

I continued gathering even more mana, spheres of light began infusing themselves with me.

The gems on my staff began glowing as well, receiving tons of mana in huge proportions the light increased even further.

A small forcefield surrounded my body, and continuously expanded inward condensing itself.

‘Alright, please work the way I think you would!’, the glowing spheres were absorbed by me, and targeted towards the staff.

The gemstones began cracking like shards of glass.

“Here I go!”, I shouted word of encouragement to myself and hit the staff on the ground.

A huge explosion happened in the middle of the arena, everything including the smoke and dust got blown away in an instant.

The Masked Swordsman got blown away by the pressure emitting from the explosion.

“I was expecting something else, but this will do.”, I muttered in a manner of fact tone.

I was planning on manipulating the mana around me at random, and consuming it at the same time to be able to recover.

However, the I wasn’t expecting that mana could cause such a reaction.

Mana isn’t visible or physical, yet it exists and came be used. Mana is normally converged into spells or used by skills that require the assistance of mana.

This meant that when mana is gathered in huge amounts, it can trigger an explosion if not brought under control.

“That was sort of a valuable experience, this was well worth it.”, or so I thought, looking at my staff who’s gems were broken, and smoke coming out of them.

“So, was it caused by the amount of mana gathered in one place or was it the staff that wasn’t able to sustain it?”, I spoke to myself, hiding my clear disappoint.

The sounds of something crunching in the distance could be heard, I sent a glance towards the wandering shadow.

The coat half torn away, the hood covering its head was gone revealing silky silver hair. It’s mask breaking down into fragments unveiling the feminine features of her face.

“…”

The person before me, someone I had known for not too long, yet not too short of a while.

The person behind the mask was revealed to be Athena.