Somewhere above the grassy plains of the Never Ending Battlefield a section of space visibly shook as a brown young man with white hair and formidable looking eyes appeared out of seemingly no where with a strange object floating beside him.
Nick used Absolute Pull and Absolute Push to lower himself as well as his miniature mountain range to the ground amidst the ruined terrain. Nick then used both his hand to gently rub the sides of his head, trying to soothe the headache that he was experiencing.
(I must have been meditating for weeks considering how much this headache hurts.)
Since his last battle and encounter with lieutenant Andrew Wiles, about four weeks had passed and Nick had been meditating while reviewing the methods that he had displayed during his last battles as well as his opponents' methods. Nick sat cross legged on the ground and summoned a meal of roasted chicken and brown rice from his space band which he began eating ravenously. He thought about what he had discovered during his meditation while eating:
(For some reason, the figure of light within my mindscape seems to be transforming to look more and more like me and another symbol drawn in Nickel has appeared on its forehead that reads: dominate. When I fought that sword path Magician, inspiration for new laws appeared within my mind that helped me improve my spell, Big Sever, basically creating a new spell which aided me to win.)
Nick couldn't help but to pause his eating when he thought about his new spell, Dominating Splice.
(This is a rule path spell that is based on the concept, 'dominate', which can be easily understood from the laws that I used to create it. My sudden inspiration and the change within my mindscape involving the figure of light clearly have a connection but I'm unsure of what that connection is exactly; there is also what happened with that woman who used qi magic - she froze when I last appeared near her. I didn't think much of it at the time but that pause in her actions was definitely unnatural, as if I had somehow cause it.)
Nick thought about it and realized another instance that something similar happened:
(At that time, I was attending one of Varrow's combat classes and I reacted to a wooden sword thrown at me. My response made many of the students stunned and Varrow told me to put away a 'nasty aura'. I thought he was just talking shit but there might be more to it. Slade, what do you think?)
Slade answered indifferently:
[I know what you are referring to and I have my suspicions as to the causes of the circumstances that are puzzling you but I won't tell you anything more other than that the occurrence of those bizarre happenings is a good thing. You'll have to figure out why they occurred for yourself so don't ask me anything more about them.]
Nick frowned, this was the first time that Slade was being so tight lipped when he asked for his input but since Slade was unwilling to give him answers, Nick could only discover the answers for himself.
(Back to the topic of the laws that I gained from my fight, 'dominate' seems to refer to overcoming obstacles to achieve a certain result. If I say that dominate is a rule, the way I incorporate that rule in my spells give them their overall effect. By incorporating that rule into Big Sever, I created an effect that severs or passes through magical oppositions such as the sword path Magician's sword aura or even his sword.)
Despite his affinity for it, Nick's rule path attainment was only ordinary so his conclusions were not necessarily entirely correct but he knew that they were close to the truth.
(I just need to experiment with the new laws and that is where my spell creation skills come in handy. There is no better way to understand magical laws than to use them to create effective spells. Dominating Splice was a great success but I still don't really understand how exactly it achieves its effects so I have much work to do.)
Nick did not waste any time, after he was done eating, he maintained his sitting position and started working on the laws for improved spells within his mindscape.
(Being a Magician is much like being a scientist. As you grow more in knowledge and experience, you will constantly try to improve the methods at your disposal and in my case, improving my methods will make me a much stronger Magician.)
The results of Nick's frequent meditations were now being revealed as his mind produced thousands of thoughts per second; his relatively high attainment in space and soul path made his efforts go more smoothly. He reviewed the laws of all his most useful spells, soon deciding which ones needed to be improved and how; he also tried to determine the ones that he could incorporate his 'dominate' rule into but he quickly realized that success at that would have to come from trial and error.
(Sigh, at least rule path has the advantage that it does not seem to conflict too greatly with other paths.)
Nick sat in the same position for three days while working on his spells and only turned his attention away from his thoughts when he felt a drop of water fall on his.
"Huh? Is this rain?"
Within the next few seconds, as if responding to Nick's question, a heavy downpour of rain spread all over this once grassy area. Nick was about to cast Space in order to block out the rain and get back to improving his spells but he suddenly sensed a surge in magic power somewhere in his surroundings.
Nick quickly turned his body in all directions, trying to find the source of the magic power but soon, his intuition kicked and he was alerted to a possibility so he looked towards the sky and amidst the falling rain, he noticed that the magic energy over twenty meters above him in the northern direction had a strange flow. If that wasn't enough to make him wary, a few seconds later, he heard words spoken with a voice that was clearly female:
"...and the lord sent thunder!"
The hairs on the back of Nick's head stood up and he reacted by casting Space in combination with Half A Kilometer and Still Space. When Nick's special space enveloped a two meter radius area around him, a flash of blinding, blue light descended from the sky, striking at him with its might.
When the blue light came into contact with his special space, the attack raged on despite the effects of Half A Kilometer and Still Space. Nick had closed his eyes in order to block out the bright light but using the sensory capabilities of the special space he was able to determine the nature of the attack.
(Electricity? This is a lightning path method.)
Nick knew that he was in trouble since the five hundred meter distance created by his defensive space path spell would soon be crossed by lightning therefore he acted quickly by casting another spell, doing his best to multitask:
(Blink.)
Nick and his miniature mountain range disappeared from their position and reappeared a little over fifteen meters away from where the lightning had struck. Without the interference of his special space, the lightning was able to move unhindered and struck the ground, echoing a loud booming sound.
The bright light resulting from the lightning path method dissipated after it hit the ground and Nick once again opened his eyes, unsheathing Pressure Piece, holding it firmly in his right hand and shouting:
"That was a very strong spell, I doubt that you can cast it twice in a row so just come out and meet with me before I lose my patience!"
Soon, a flash of blue light descended from the sky onto the ground, revealing a woman the looked to be in her late twenties that stood nearly fifteen meters away from Nick, clearly drenched by the rain. Nick had never seen the woman before so he asked:
"What's your name, stranger?"
The woman snorted and replied:
"Does that matter to you?"
Nick shrugged his shoulders and replied with a flippant tone:
"No, is doesn't. I was just trying to be polite. Are you some kind of beast in disguise, the least you could do is answer my question properly?"
The woman's right eyelid twitched at hearing Nick's remark but she did not let his words get to her. She calmly asked:
"Where is the inheritance?"
Realization came to Nick's mind when he heard that.
(Oh. I had been meditating and working on my magic so much that I almost forgot about my scheme. I suppose that this is a good opportunity then.)
Nick willed and his floating miniature mountain range encased in its unique space moved to his front and floated around before returning to a position near his left shoulder. He spoke with unconcealed provocation:
"If you want it, little miss, you'll have to take it from me by force."
The woman almost cursed in response to being called 'little miss' by someone clearly younger than her but she kept her cool composure and replied with a shout:
"Nick Capitol, you are asking for a beating! Report to your senior properly!"
Nick raised his right eyebrow in confusion.
"My senior?"
The woman then loudly declared:
"The entire Never Ending Battlefield is aware of the rumors of your wrong doings and your rebelliousness! You have put our academy to shame and so I, Victoria Nelson of the third year, will discipline you!"
Nick internally snorted:
(Another hypocrite. If that was really her goal, then why did she mention the inheritance? She just wants to seem righteous while trying to commit a robbery. Hmmm...Victoria Nelson of the third year. Are the third years within the Never Ending Battlefield also on the move? With the rumors that that Andrew Wiles guy probably spread, I suppose that is not surprising.)
Nick spoke shamelessly before making his move:
"Discipline these nuts!"
He immediately expanded his special space and within an instant, Victoria was enveloped by it. She quickly sensed a change in the magic energy around her but she was too slow to interrupt Nick's momentum. He swung Pressure Piece horizontally and cast:
(Big Cleave.)
A three meter high wave of sharp magic power emerged from Pressure Piece's blade and using his special space, Nick teleported the wave to Victoria's front instantly. The woman was slightly shocked by Nick's skill and the power of his seemingly simple attack but then her shock turned into understanding.
(So this is the power of the man that has been giving the military trouble. Not bad.)
Victoria's stern expression softened as she lightly licked her lips.
(Doing missions within Shelter Town's Main Tower is so boring. Even if this man is just bluffing about the inheritance, a good battle is worth me coming all the way out here.)
Victoria felt the strands of the hair on her skin and head being cut away as Nick's attack quickly approached her so she countered with her own spell:
(Thunder and Peace)
Victoria clapped her hands together and a bright blue light flashed outwards from her followed by the the deafening crackle of thunder after which silence seemed to reign over the area; the sound of the rain ceased to be heard and even the mundane movements that Nick made became soundless. He was a little unnerved:
(Huh?)
Along with the flash of blue light, electricity burst out and collided with Nick's wave of blade magic. The two powers competed ferociously and within moments, they both dissipated, having cancelled each other out. Nick opened his eyes wide at seeing that, thinking:
(This woman is a student?)
Victoria quickly pointed her right index finger at Nick and cast another spell:
(Shock Ray)
A beam of bluish electricity shot out towards Nick; it moved so fast that he couldn't see its movement clearly but with his special space, he was able to sense it. Nick instantly used his special space to teleport behind Victoria, narrowly dodging the attack and remembering his training of the menacing crane sword technique, he held Pressure Piece with both hands and swung it in a half moon curve at her right shoulder.
Victoria had her own scouting abilities and Nick's actions were not unknown to her even with her back turned to him. She quickly cancelled Shock Ray and slapped her own chest, at which point magic power erupted from her body in all directions.
(Stun Grenade)
Nick felt electricity spread throughout his arms but gritted his teeth and instantly saturated his entire body with his magic energy in order to partly resist the effects of the electricity. He grit his teeth and continued with his attack all the while the electricity moving though his flesh caused him to feel great pain.
Victoria leaned forward a little in an attempt to dodge the strike but she was too slow and Nick's blade created a five inch long gash on her upper back, near her shoulder blade. She endured the pain while her entire body sparked intensely with blue electricity and she seemingly took a step forward.
(Shocking Movements)
She instantly disappeared from Nick's front and within moments, circled around him in order to move to his left side and pointed her right index finger at him again, casting her Shock Ray at him.
Nick immediately felt troubled since he sensed all of Victoria's actions with his special space. He did not dare to counter her attack directly with his semi-steel sword so he once again teleported to her back, about a meter away, this time casting Soul Pressure to restrict her movements. Victoria frowned as she felt a pressure bear down on her, keeping her in place for the moment; her Shock Ray missed its target and soon dissipated. Nick then threw Pressure Piece slightly above him and used his special space to keep it at that position while it spun horizontally.
He then punched out with his right fist, casting Rumble towards Victoria's back and then a loud crackle could be heard followed by the violent shaking of the space immediately in front of Nick's fist. A blast of intense linear pressure pressed on towards Victoria at incredible speed but Victoria's movements were faster this time and with blue sparks jumping off her body she quickly turned around and clapped both her hands together.
(Thunder and Peace)
Blue light flashed in all directions followed by a thunderous boom. The blast of pressure created by Nick's spell was drowned in electric currents that negated its force, rendering Nick's attack ineffective. An eerie quiet followed the event and Nick looked at the woman in front of him that sported a stern expression and whose black hair had strands 'standing up' due to all the electricity, from the top of her head and going down her pony tail.
Nick spoke with some excitement in his tone:
"Not bad."
Victoria replied with squinted eyes:
"You seem to like attacking me from behind. Have you by any chance been to prison before."
Nick immediately understood what her flippant remark suggested and his right eyelid twitched in annoyance. He willed for Pressure Piece to stop spinning above his head and teleported it into his right hand. He then quickly swung the sword horizontally, while casting:
(Big Sever.)
A wide arc of almost formless magic power was created where Nick swung which then shot out towards Victoria. Victoria immediately felt stifled. The attack moved quickly and the her and Nick's close proximity made it difficult for her to react by dodging but she did not know if she should counter this unknown method with her more commonly used spells.
She was wary of the fact that Nick was using a sword to cast his spell since she knew that sword and blade path were extremely lethal so she did not dare to react lightly or she felt that she might die the next moment. Victoria expended 4,000 magical units within her mindscape in an instant in order to cast a spell:
(Lightning Fanatic)
Sparks of blue electricity were heavily generated on Victoria's clothes and skin and then her magic power, in the form of blue light, shot up into the sky, filling the rain clouds with electricity and displacing them, ending the downpour over the area.
Victoria waved her right hand at Nick's attack with a speed that the naked eye could not keep up with and his offending magic power was instantly blasted apart amidst blue light and electric sparks; the sparks of electricity did not stop there and rushed towards Nick in the form of five beams of sparking light.
Victoria's counter was violent and quick and the moisture within the atmosphere and environment even amplified its effectiveness. Nick was unable to react in time by countering with an attack or casting Blink. The beams of electricity crashed right into him; electricity spread throughout his body, forcing him to cough out a mouthful of blood as his heart palpitated. One thought emerged in his mind during this time:
(Shit!)
****************************************
A young man with silver hair and bright blue eyes looked up at the now clear skies and wondered:
(Why did the heavy rain suddenly stop? I am also feeling a strong surge in magic power in the distance. Someone must be fighting.)
Uriah would never mistake what the intensity of such magic power represented. He whistled and then spoke aloud while casting his Freezing White Aura, spreading frigid cold and a thin white mist throughout the nearby surroundings, malice inhabiting his tone:
"Whoever it is that is trailing me, reveal yourself and you might get to leave this place alive."
Uriah had sensed someone in close proximity a while ago but never bothered to deal with them but since his prize was apparently just over the horizon, he decided that it was time to get rid of his tag along.
Suddenly, ten meters way from Uriah, a man wearing an open black leather jacket, a white t-shirt and a pair of light-blue jeans slowly appeared out of nowhere, shaking his head and saying:
"I wasn't really following you. You just happened to be going towards the same destination as myself while I was taking a stroll."
Uriah wasn't interested in the man's explanation and remained silent for a while. With his hand in his pants pockets, the man soon voiced a complaint at the silent person in front of him:
"Could you cancel your spell? The temperature is now at freezing and it's making me uncomfortable."
Uriah snorted.
(Something about this man feels wrong, but what is it?)
While he was pondering that, Uriah also noticed that despite the fact that his Freezing White Aura was active, not one speck of frost appeared on the man's clothes or body.
(That's not right. My spell would usually have frozen most other people to death by now if they were this close to me.)
While Uriah was observing him, William was also observing Uriah.
(This guy has a strange aura about him. I followed him because I thought that his magic power might be a little interesting and I was not mistaken. This cold is far from what a rank 2 ice path Magician should be able to casually release.)
William looked towards the horizon and thought:
(I was correct to slow my advance towards Nick Capitol. It looks that he is locked in a dangerous battle right now. Good. That will make him easier to deal with later if he doesn't die first.)
William then turned his attention to Uriah again and spoke:
"My name is William Rollins and..."
Uriah interrupted him curtly:
"I don't care."
(Influence of Absolute Zero)
Uriah's body radiated with magic power and a gust of bluish cold wind spread out into the surroundings, soon colliding squarely with William, covering his entire body in a thick layer of blue frost; for the moment, William remained still and quiet in response to the attack, like a statue.
Uriah shook his head, thinking:
(I've never forgotten the objective of this exam. I don't plan on shooting the breeze out here.)
Uriah was about to move to finish the man when the man's body flashed with a white light and all the frost that had been attached to his person melted away. He then spoke with a frown on his face and displeasure in his tone:
"Remember that it was you who caused your death."
William raised his right hand to his right eye and used his fingers to form an 'O'. Looking through the opening of the 'O', he locked on to a position near Uriah's left flank and cast his spell:
(Instant Light)
A white beam of light shot out from his right hand and quickly approached Uriah's left flank, faster than Uriah could react. When the end of the beam reached its intended destination, William himself disappeared in a flash of white light and reappeared in an instant at Uriah's left side; all this happened in milliseconds.
William's lower right leg then glowed with an intense white light and he kicked out at Uriah's left arm at incredible speed.
(Martial Light)
Uriah could not follow William's movements with his eyes and only had a vague sense of the threat because of the magic power that William was radiating.
(This man is fast and he is clearly using light path methods. I can't keep up.)
With that thought, Uriah received William's kick and was sent flying over a dozen meters away before he fell to the ground and rolled for a few feet before he stopped; the light emanating from William's leg dissipated soon thereafter. Uriah slowly picked himself up with his right arm and glared at his opponent in defiance.
William did not care about Uriah's glare. He was more interested in the change that had taken place involving Uriah's left arm that he kicked.
(Martial Light allows me to move my limbs at a speed tens of times greater than normal, allowing me to generate steel piercing force with my body. Normally, a kick like the one I just performed should have tore that man's left arm clean off but look at it now.)
Uriah's left arm had transformed into solid ice with many cracks having developed on it but that were now currently mending. A few seconds later, the cracks had all been filled with ice and Uriah's arm turned to flesh and blood one again or so it seemed.
A thought came to William's mind and he uttered his guesswork aloud:
"Is that the 'ice flesh' talent? It must be, right? With how fast my kick was, there is no way that you could have cast a defensive spell that powerful in time which means that your arm was protected by a passive ability. I read about the ice flesh talent while researching Grand Earth's most powerful recorded Magicians, a few of them also had the talent and it was well documented."
Uriah was becoming annoyed at having his magic power assessed by a stranger and replied:
"Instead of asking me stupid questions, you might want to take care of your injury first."
William frowned in confusion.
"My injury?"
He then suddenly felt a harsh discomfort on his lower right leg and quickly looked at it. To William's shock, a thick layer of ice had spread over his leg and the spread was not superficial either, it was also affecting the blood at that area, freezing it along with the surrounding flesh and bone.
"This..."
Uriah snorted and cast a spell:
(Embodiment Of Cold)
Uriah's entire body transformed into bluish cold wind which flew towards William. William reacted quickly and formed an 'O' with his right hand, pointing it above his current position and looking through it. Within the next moment, a white beam of light shot up twelve meters above the ground and William disappeared and reappeared at the end of the beam before it faded.
He gritted his teeth, enduring the pain of the apparently severe injury to his leg and pointed his arms at the cold wind below him with his palms facing forward and his ten fingers evenly spread out. All ten fingers glowed with an tense white light before a beam of intensely hot white light shot out from each simultaneously and bombarded the area below William.
(Scorching Lasers)
The beams of light passed through sections of the cold wind at which point, a thick cloud of vapor was given off but the cold wind did not falter in its advance and shot up into the sky to meet with William.
William was about to use his Instant Light to flee but quickly realized that the ice spreading through his leg had infiltrated even deeper, going directly to his bones and he was really at risk of losing his leg if he did not act to heal it quickly. He did not have time to counter with two spells so he summoned a glass bottle containing a black liquid from his space band and broke it with his bare left hand while casting his next spell:
(Healing Grace)
His entire right leg glowed with a soft white light and the ice that had invaded it was rapidly destroyed and his flesh and bones begun to recover from the damage done. That light was in a clear contrast to the black fog that was generated when the black liquid that was contained in the glass bottle that William broke came in contact with the atmosphere. The pitch black fog spread out in all directions, impeding Uriah's cold wind from advancing towards Williams position.
However, upon coming in contact with the cold wind, sections of the black fog condensed, then froze, quickly turning into black hail and falling towards the ground. Like this, ten seconds passed and by the time a large enough portion of the black fog blocking the cold wind had been frozen and removed from the atmosphere for Uriah to advance, William had completely healed his leg and went on the attack again.
(Glorious Javelin)
William's entire body lit up with an intense white light, giving off a brilliant halo and he then moved at incredible speed in a straight line towards the concentration of cold wind, leaving a trail of light wherever he passed. The white light shot through the cold wind and hit the ground with a loud thud.
When the light dispersed, William could be seen stooping on the ground while holding Uriah by the throat with his right hand, pinning him in place with his back against the dirt.
William quickly bowed his left arm and clenched his left fist in order to finish the battle.
(Martial Light)
His left arm glowed intensely with white light, then struck out as William's fist went straight for Uriah's head. With blood flowing from his lips, Uriah looked towards the approaching fist defiantly even though it moved so fast that he could not see it clearly.
He had already prepared a spell just in case things got desperate which he assumed that they would when he realized how fast and strong William was, definitely faster than him and stronger in terms of combat skills.
(I don't just have the ice flesh talent, I also have the 'cold influence' talent that increases the effectiveness of ice and other related types of magic the closer my targets are to me and even significantly decreases the cast time of my spells. In other words, you're fucked!)
(Absolute Freeze, Persistent Influence)
Starting at William's right hand that was now holding Uriah's throat, solid ice quickly formed on and spread over William's skin, covering half his body within an instant and so he was forced to cancel his Martial Light and retract his fist. While doing this, William noticed that his movements had slowed drastically because the surrounding temperature had plummeted to an all time low.
The situation was so bad the he could no longer retract his right hand from Uriah's throat and ice was starting to form on his left side as well, starting at his left fist; his internal organs even started to go numb as a thick layer of ice began spreading over them and even spreading out on the ground with Uriah and William at the center of the spread.
Uriah spoke while the blood on his lips froze and shattered into ice particles:
"You feel it don't you, death creeping in close?"
William's expression became stern when he heard that and he inwardly snorted, thinking:
(Since when was ice magic so troublesome?)
Ice continued to spread over William's body but before he could deal with it, something unexpected happened that even cause Uriah to openly sigh.
The clear sky suddenly flashed with an intense blue light and an indifferent voice echoed within the surroundings:
"Absolute Push!"
Both Uriah and William felt an irresistible force wash over them and they were suddenly forced apart in different directions; heavy amounts of grass and dirt also flew in every direction, turning the area into a six meter deep crater in about twenty seconds.
A body soon fell from the sky and landed pathetically onto the ground in the middle of the crater. The body which turned out to be that of a woman's who had sparks of blue electricity jumping off her got up with difficulty. She pushed her now messy, black, undone hair out of her face and looked towards the sky at the white haired youth that had thrown her like a toy, declaring:
"I'm going to kill you!"
*******************************************
Ten minutes earlier...
When the attack ended and the electricity flowing through his body dissipated, Nick half knelt onto the ground and stuck Pressure Piece into the ground in order to maintain his balance.
The blue light emanating from Victoria's body dissipated but sparks still remained visibly moving along her athletic body. She squinted her eyes as she observed Nick's condition with suspicion.
(Even if most of the power of my attack was spent countering his magic power, it still should have fried him to death. Why is he still alive and what is that miasma coming off his body?)
Nick breathed roughly and looked at Victoria with an uncharacteristic smile; a translucent miasma now emanated from all over his body that radiated with magic power and Nick was never so proud of being a soul path Magician than at this moment.
(Using Reinforced With Soul on my own body, I narrowly escaped being cooked. It just so happens that I know that soul path and lightning path greatly contradict each other so infusing my cells with soul miasma made for a pretty good defense. Time to put on the pressure.)
(Soul Pressure.)
Victoria felt a harsh weight bear down on her again and she gritted her teeth, preparing to dodge whatever came next; her attack was strong and her movements were fast but she was evidently lacking in terms of magical defense.
Nick spread his special space out in all directions, covering about a one hundred meter radius and then teleported his miniature mountain range to his side; he had kept it in one place since the start of the battle and Victoria ignored it since she was wary of the magic power that she sensed surrounding it.
Nick quickly mobilized his magic energy and formed the laws for his next spell within his mindscape. Nick's magic power surged and the unique space around his miniature mountain range rippled. His spell was cast successfully:
(Heavy As a Mountain.)
The phantom image of a mountain descended from the sky and rapidly moved towards Nick with a pressure that even made Victoria who was standing several meters away feel stifled; she thought:
(What the hell is he doing? Suicide? I better move from here...)
She was too late, however, not to mention that she was still being held in place by the effects of Soul Pressure which required much effort to overcome. Nick rose up from his kneeling position and pointed Pressure Piece right at Victoria. He then cast Exchange Space with her as the target.
Victoria was shocked as she now appeared directly at the center of the area of effect of Nick's fear inducing spell. Nick appeared in her former position along with his miniature mountain range floating near his shoulder but he then used his special space to teleport over one hundred meters away from that position along with his miniature mountain range.
Victoria inwardly cursed Nick for being shameless, the only good thing being that the earlier pressure that had restricted her movements was now gone but she knew that she could not dodge the attack that was now coming towards her at rapid speed.
The blue electric sparks spread over her body multiplied manifold within moments and many soft crackling sounds could be heard emanating from Victoria. She calmed her breathing and formed the laws for one of her advanced grade spells within her mindscape, an advantage of lightning path spells being that even advanced grade spells could be cast relatively quickly if the Magician was skilled enough, even more so than sword path spells but slower than light path spells.
When the phantom mountain was about to crash into her and the pressure was at its most hair raising, Victoria softly whispered:
"Lightning King"
BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
The a strange sound echoed in the surroundings and a intense blue light flashed with Victoria at the center, soon enveloping the phantom mountain. Over one hundred meters away, Nick who was observing the scene and waiting expectantly for the aftermath noticed that the hair on his arms and head were standing up on their own.
(No...this is the effect of static electricity.)
Victoria focused her efforts and soon enough, she manipulated her spell to force hundreds of thousands of volts of electricity to bombard each magical unit that made up Nick's phantom mountain, so much so that the phantom image glowed blue for a short time. The copious amounts of electricity quickly destabilized the phantom mountain and it mostly exploded while the remaining portion collided with Victoria directly; she gritted her teeth and used the electricity around her to quickly disrupt most of the force that was coming directly at her while her immediate surroundings received the full brunt instead.
In that moment, the deafening sound of thunder spread over the region, blocking out all other sounds and soon after, the intense blue light from Victoria's counter faded.
Nick frowned, he had a clear sense of the battlefield using his special space but although there was now a pit where Victoria had stood, he could not sense her body anywhere.
"She is definitely not dead. The feint electricity flowing within the atmosphere is the best proof of this."
Nick quickly cast both Absolute Push and Absolute Pull simultaneously and floated upwards over twenty meters into the air. When he was about to spread out his special space even further to look for Victoria, a flash of blue light appeared to his right flank, soon dissipating and revealing Victoria and before he could react, he heard the clap of Victoria's two hands near his face.
(Thunder And Peace)
Nick's eyes opened wide and his body spasmed as he was blasted with electricity and a flash of light enveloped the area around him. A strange silence developed as his body was pushed through the air dozens of meters north of where he had been attacked.
Blue sparks covered the entirety of Victoria's body as she gave chase to Nick.
(Now that I think about it, that weird object that supposedly housed the inheritance was left behind. Should I go back and retrieve it?)
She quickly shook her head in refusal.
(I have to kill this man first or who knows how I might die later on.)
Thinking of Nick's performance so far and his last attack, Victoria would be lying if she said that Nick did not scare her.
(Since when did our academy have such a scary junior? He might only be a level less terrifying than bright light William Rollins or wisdom freak Patrice Suez.)
Victoria quickly caught up to Nick and by that time she had passively recovered quite a bit of her magic energy so she did not hesitate in taking advantage of Nick's weakened stated in order to pull herself closer to victory. She pointed her right index finger at Nick and tried to cast her spell:
(Shock R...)
(Spirit Quake.)
Victoria immediately felt her soul tremble and her mind momentarily became chaotic, resulting in her failure to successfully form all the laws of her spell correctly.
"Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Blood poured from Victoria's mouth and she looked at Nick, who had stopped himself from going any further, with unconcealed malice. His hair was a mess and his breathing was heavy but the look in his eye proudly declared that he had not given up.
"You said that your name was Victoria Nelson, right? I'll remember it."
Nick threw Pressure Piece above his head, leaving it to spin horizontally while he folded both his hands into each other, casting his spell:
(Malevolent Shrine.)
A thick, dark miasma spread out into the surroundings and seemingly covered both students' entire world but they somehow still remained able to see clearly. Thousands of bones appeared out of nowhere and littered the space while a decrepit temple appeared behind Nick that radiated an ominous power.
Victoria's heart skipped a beat when she saw the scene change but her heart truly sank when she felt the power that Nick was currently radiating; beads of sweat dripped off her face, making it seem like she had just taken a shower.
(Sword magic? No...this is definitely blade magic that I'm feeling. I have to...)
"Too late for regrets Victoria."
Victoria frowned, unconsciously muttering:
"Huh?"
Blood suddenly spurted out from her as she was cut at three places on her torso simultaneously. They were three deep vertical cuts that left bloody wounds on her curvy yet fit body. Nick then quickly cancelled Malevolent Shrine in consideration of his low magic energy reserves.
(Two more seconds and I could have probably cut her into three pieces but but because of the lightning path magic coursing through her body, the expenditure for that would be too high; just giving her those three wounds cost me 12,000 magical units and I don't feel like falling to my death because I ran out of magic energy.)
When the dark miasma lifted, Victoria slowly lowered her altitude but she was still conscious and held on to her injuries. The sparks at the area of her wounds glowed intensely and a vapor suddenly emerged from them; she was apparently attempting to heal her injuries. Nick was alarmed.
(Why does she still have magic energy to spare?)
Rank 2 Magicians usually had a magic energy storage capacity of 10,000 to 12,000 magical units so logically, Victoria should have ran out of magic energy a while ago considering how intense she battled with Nick but that was clearly not the case.
(Blink.)
Nick appeared at Victoria's right side and ignoring the intense magic power that he was feeling from below their position he hurriedly cast one of his spells at full force.
"Absolute Push!"
***************************************************
Victoria pressed against her torso wounds with her right arm, trying to apply pressure while healing herself but things did not look good for her. Nick slowly descended from the sky with Pressure Piece in hand but he looked so ragged at this time that he didn't seem as imposing as he should have been. He spoke with some tiredness in his tone:
"Now to finish you off. Hmmm...why is it so cold here?"
As soon as he said that, however, a beam of white light shot out from the cloud of dirt that floated in the surroundings as a result of Nick's earlier use of Absolute Push. The beam came to his left side and a person appeared with a flash of soft white light; the person's right leg glowed with intense white light and he kicked out at Nick without mercy.
(Martial Light)
Nick quickly parried the unexpected kick with Pressure Piece using his spell, Instinctive Blade, because for some reason he could not keep up with the person's movements. He then cast Absolute Push on his unknown attacker and the man was sent flying to a position near Victoria's where he landed calmly with both his feet planted firmly on the ground.
Victoria was a little surprised when she realized who the man was that had interrupted her battle. She said his name absentmindedly:
"William Rollins?"