Praybird

  Ep 30. I Tend To Pick Favorites. (6)

  A series of relieved sighs and surprised gasps coursed throughout the spectating crowd. A few instructors that were present grimaced at the sight of the headmaster emerging from the pool of shadows, while students only marvelled at the archmage’s escape.

  “Hey…ell was that just now?”

  “…Noe.”

  A 7th circle spell that temporarily transformed the user into a mass of shadows, rendering them impervious to most attacks for a short period of time.

  At the same time, it ell that saw most of its use in war – in a situation that would threaten one’s life.

  However, the archmage was her angered, nor ashamed that he had to use such a spell. It was he who had insisted that his challetack him to their heart’s tent; morals ahio longer had a p this duel after the assurance Gio had given about keeping himself safe.

  But now, it was being all too clear that he shouldn’t have given such ridiculous assurance.

  When the headmaster emerged from the shadows, not even the slightest hint of fidence remained in his expression. His sweat betrayed the faint smile he was struggling to hold, as did his trembling e in hand.

  The archmage slowly raised his eyes to meet the dragonlord’s. His challenger was still standing in pce, arms crossed behind their back, watg him with their disappointed gaze.

  Serenis threw a soft remark, just barely loud enough for the archmage to hear across the stage.

  “Rest. I will wait until you recover your focus.”

  “…”

  Arguably, the correct course of a would’ve been to take the io knew better than anyone in the institute that having a level head was one of the most important qualities of a mage; an upset mind teo cause mistakes, and mistakes teo lead to even worse outes when using magic.

  Unfortunately, his pride as an archmage was shadowing even that simple rule.

  “…No need.”

  The headmaster raised his e, pointing its tip towards the student up ahead. In mere seds, it exploded in a torrent of water, ung straight towards the dragonlord.

  In response, a pilr of fire bsted forth from Serenis’ side to ahe oning deluge. The two spells crashed into each other as an explosive sizzling sound filled the stage, filling it with heaps of steam.

  ‘…This shouldn’t be happening.’

  The archmage’s sweating worsened, both from unnerve and the heat of the g spells. His e began to shudder, struggling to maintaiorrent holding the fmes at bay.

  Water puts out fire; it was a natural rule that even toddlers knew. Water spells had uionable advantage when testing against fire spells. A somehow, this junior student’s fire was on par with the archmage’s water – and little by little, Gio’s torrent was losing ground. Struggle as he might, the archmage couldn’t bring his spell to overwhelm the opposing fmes as it normally should.

  He had every opportunity to escape if he’d wanted, but once again, the archmage’s pride didn’t let him drop this test of strength. Avoiding the onsught of fire – admitti to a mere junior student’s spell where he even held elemental advantage – was not an option to him. The water tio give away, but Gio still refused to budge.

  Soon, an alieion ed around both his ankles, interrupting the headmaster’s focus. His spell prematurely terminated as Gio looked to his feet.

  A pair of tree roots had sprouted from the ground, binding both his ahey then jerked the mage backwards, making Gio fall face-first onto the arena.

  Immediately after, the pilr of fire harmlessly bsted past the archmage on the floor.

  In his daze, the headmaster raised his eyes once again. Serenis hadn’t moved a siep. She didn’t seem to find it odd that her fire had overwhelmed an archmage’s water spell, nor did she seem surprised by the pair of tree roots that had suddenly tripped Gio into forcibly dodging her spell.

  ‘Did that student just…?’

  The headmaster shifted his gaze back towards his ahe coiling roots had released him from their binding, retreating bato the ground before disappearing altogether.

  Gio gripped his hands into a fist. Waves of humiliatio his mind into a frenzy of anger as the mage slowly raised himself again.

  In the beginning, the archmage could bme his arrogance for not properly dising his oppo’s aptitude. But after that st exge, he no longer could – he’d lost in a test of pure strength, and nothing else. His oppo had even gohe length to save him from his own stupidity in trying to test a losing fight.

  The archmage’s mind was cluttering further and further. His focus was o be found.

  Against other students, Gio had opted to weave in sedary spells to block his own attacks, just in case they would ect too harshly against the students. Everything had been ated for, and the duels had been fully under his trol.

  But just now, he’d been on the receiving end of that treatment; as soon as he was about to fall victim to the dragonlord’s spell, Serenis had protected him from her own firestorm.

  This challenger was far, far surpassing the headmaster’s expectations. Their spells were unorthodox, ued, and most of all, lethal. If it tinued like this, he just might be the first archmage ever to lose in a test of magic against a fifteen-year-old.

  “…It seems I shouldn’t be holding back after all.”

  Anh escaped the dragonlord. In her eyes, the archmage was ing to a realization he should’ve had ten seds into their duel. Though, she couldn’t solely bme the headmaster; being an archmage was an uiole among men, so it was uandable that he’d think lower of a mere junior student.

  Gio gripped his e with both hands. Massive amounts of mana focused into his instrument, shining in a brilliant blue light.

  An equally brilliant blue gleam began to shine high above his head. The light transformed into a spell circle, instantly expanding into a massive ring of blue. With bursts of water and noises of crashing waves, a gigantic blue ship appeared from within the ring of magic, signalling its sail with a deafening horn.

  Enormous sails. A majestic bow, adorned with a deity’s sculpt. Its massive hull and frame that were nothing short of its description in legends.

  Patrick’s eyes widened as he beheld the headmaster’s magic. It was one of the most plex water spells to ever be devised, and ohat the enforcer had never mao execute properly despite his training.

  ‘9th circle…Sail Atntis!’

  The headmaster’s secretary was just as shocked at the sight, if not more.

  A genius student unleashihal attacks against the archmage was certainly a rare sight, but not impossible if the headmaster was allowing it to happen. That’s genuinely what he thought had happehus far.

  But the reverse? An archmage unleashing a 9th circle cept spell against a first-year student? If someone had told him that such things would happen before today, he would’ve wondered what sort of highs they were experieng. Ahere he was, watg it happen live in the highest definition avaible that were his own eyes: an archmage unleashing one of his most powerful spells against a mere fifteen-year-old.

  Oher hand, Gio himself was no longer perceiving ‘Zion’ as a mere student. It was a dreadful oppo he had to defeat in order to save his name.

  ‘This spell will cover the ey of this arena. Even you will be hard-pressed to defend yourself-‘

  Sszt.

  A faint sizzling noise whisked past the archmage’s ears, cutting his thoughts midway. A tiny bolt of mana had darted past him – barely the size of a pen – burying itself right into his ship moments before it could set forth.

  ‘…What was that?’

  Gio’s curiosity would soon be answered beginning with a thunderous tearing he densed mass of lightning-aspected mana proceeded to explode outwards from ihe archmage’s spell, engulfing the entire ship that began to bubble a away. Streaks of electricity ed the cept of Atntis with violent crag sounds.

  Soon, the g elements viciously shredded the spell, tearing it apart into useless bits of water.

  “…”

  The crowd her screamed nor cheered. No one spoke. Gio likewise found himself involuntarily standing still, paralyzed from sheer shock.

  ‘How?’

  It wasn’t like his spell had been teracted by another powerful spell. It was just a tiny speck of lightning. It should’ve been impossible to answer a 9th circle spell in such a simple manner.

  In faothing Serenis had done in this duel made seo him. Beginning with her forced fusion of five different elements, her unorthodox use of using illusions and teleport, physical reinfort that only hunters and adventurers used, spells that did not seem to have any casting time whatsoever – none of it made seo the headmaster, or anyone in the spectating crowd.

  And stly, if that bolt of lightning had been aimed at him directly instead of his spell, it would’ve killed him without question.

  Gio audibly gulped in instinctive fear. He stared into the student across the stage. Their soft, rexed gaze met the archmage’s strained, hopeless eyes.

  ‘…Am I not a threat to this student?’

  Serenis was a stark refle of Gio himself mere minutes ago. That was how the headmaster had looked to the other students that had challenged him: an unbreakable, t wall that one could never overe. Someohat had the ability to defeat their oppo at a moment’s notice, but was instead allowing them to challenge and struggle.

  He couldn’t even remember the st time he’d felt helpless before someone else’s magic.

  The headmaster slowly raised his e once more, sharply gazing into the t presence before him. The student was no lohe challenger – he was.

  An ominous mass of bed light began to swirl around the headmaster, expanding in space to cover the entire arena. Sparkling shadows flooded the arena tiles. Violet orbs crystallized around the dragonlord, dimly glowing in what little light there was in their darkened enviro.

  The world would fall into serene sileno magic would interrupt this serenity.

  10th circle. Ataraxia.

  A synthesis spell that prised of five different elements; a field spell desigo subdue all magic within its parameters other than its user’s. The pinnacle of Archmage Gio Dugrin’s magical aptitude.

  “…Without magic…even you…even you would…”

  The archmage was muttering into the darkness like a madman. With his field spell fully deployed, whatever spells the student threw at him would now be rendered iive. The obvious solution would be to step outside the spell’s parameters, which would result in an instantaneous loss.

  ‘What will he do? Will he cast a field spell of his own? Will he resort to physical bat again? Mana overload? Some sort of removal?’

  The archmage madly began to run through dozens of sarios in his head. Unfortunately, none of them correctly predicted the dragonlord’s a.

  After a meager gnce around her darkened surroundings, Serenis began to sloroach her oppo, step by step. In the darkness of the spell surrounding the dragonlord, it was almost as if she was taking a leisurely walk through a starry night.

  “…What’s he doing?”

  “Uh…walking?”

  “I see that! Why?”

  “Hell if I know!”

  In this moment, Gio wanted nothing more than to parrot the spectating students’ questions.

  A mage must always look ten steps ahead. In other words, if a mage could not correctly predict their oppo, then they were failing as a mage – and there was simply no way to predi oppo one could not uand.

  The headmaster watched the approag dragonlord in fear. His mind rapidly calcuted dozens of spell formus, preparing to ter whatever magic the student was about to unleash.

  Despite the field spell that would normally guarantee his oppo’s silence, a cloud of doubt shadowed the archmage’s certainty; if it was this student, there just might be such a spell, ohat would pletely circumvent his expectations.

  Any moment now. Any moment, he’d tell himself. But despite the passing seds, the dragonlord only tinued walking towards him.

  ‘What’s he pnning? What is he-’

  In that moment, Gio could feel something odd.

  An overwhelmiion flooded his mana sensory, as if several natural disasters were suddenly afoot at once – but all of them were resonating from the same trepiece, closing the distance from directly up ahead.

  ‘…What is this?’

  What is that?

  The headmaster’s trembling body refused to respond to the approag threat. No spells were cast, and his body refused to even turn and run. Nothing in the myriad of strategies he’d devised seemed to carry meaning.

  For the first time, Gio roperly reading his oppo’s mana.

  A brilliant flood of light filled his perception, glowing from all ers of the star. If the archmage could but close his physical eyes, this student would fill the entire world he perceived.

  A colossal monstrosity roag him. With ead every step, their presence flooded his world more and more.

  ‘…This ot be. This is…’

  There was no way Gio wouldn’t have noticed a presence se for so long. The only possible clusion was that his oppo had kept themselves hidden all along up until this point.

  Then, the reason why they’d choose to reveal themselves now, was…

  ‘…An invitation.’

  Even Serenis had no means of directly tering an intricate field spell specifically desigo ter magic. She could, but not without destroying a lot more than what it would warrant.

  So instead, she’d given the archmage a silent invitation. With her eyes gleaming in ominous lights, her every step shaking the atmosphere’s air, the dragonlord ressuring Gio directly with her mere presence.

  It erhaps the harshest way to show ane the differehat separated them. Or perhaps it was kindness, to give the archmage a reason to stop struggling in vain.

  ‘…Futile, was it not?’

  An ordinary man abided by the ws of nature. A genius could strain those ws at will.

  But in the rarest of occasions, individuals will be born with the power to rewrite those ws.

  What meaning did his field spell have? What meaning did his archmage title hold? This individual could likely level the ey with no more effort than stepping on a wet sandcastle. The only reason his oppo wasn’t doing so, robably because it’d be a hassle to protect everyone in the viity while demolishing his spell.

  structs only held meaning against beings of retively equal footing.

  When Serenis finally came to a stop when she was barely any distance away from the frozen headmaster, he let out ay ughter. His tension loosened, and Gio could practically feel the energy leaving his body.

  Slowly, the archmage used his free hand to undo the pendant around his neck. He then gripped the stone as tight as he could, g it in his palm.

  When he unfolded his hand, its broken fragments fell like dust unto the darkened arena floor. His field spell likewise shattered apart, breaking into violet lights that would soon fade into the air.

  No words were exged. None o be. The dragonlord had spoken with her as, and the headmaster had replied in kind. As both of them withdrew their mana, this challenge would reach its clusion.

  ‘…It would be awfully rude to dee such a kind invitation.’

  The archmage bowed in respect of the entity he could only hope to reach.

  “I cede. gratutions on your victory, Zion.”

  ...An amused smile curved the lips of a peculiar spectator watg the duel’s clusion. Having seen its end, the figure rose to her feet and quietly disappeared into a soundless spell, returning to their usual duty.

  Praybird