"Shield!"With this word, a tiny ice barrier surrounded Lyse. Her hand pointed at her opponent and a magic power started to gather in front of her.
"Icicles!"
Five icicles manifested from the magic in the air and shot over to the short man.
"Heh, do you think that little trick will work on me?" The man sneered and started spinning the chain in his left hand faster, positioning it in front of him like a shield. The icicles collided with the chain one by one and were totally crushed under the impact.
Lyse smiled when she saw that.
"Storm!"
Her voice was low, but the crushed pieces from the icicles started to accelerate again. This time the chain wasn"t able to block them all.
"HUMPH!"
A red aura burst from the short man, totally engulfing everything within a three meters radius around him. The crushed pieces melted in a moment and vaporized instantly. The place where the man was standing was now fully engulfed in a vapor.
"Icicles!"
Lyse repeated the same magic, aiming at the short man. Five more icicles shot in the vapor.
"Using the same little trick again? Guess I"ll have an easy time restraining you." A voice came from the front. A chain shot through the vapor in Lyse"s direction. She tried to dodge, but the chain followed her movement.
"Diing!"
The chain hit the barrier around Lyse and returned back to the vapor. The barrier was still intact, only trembling a bit from the hit. Still, Lyse frowned and once again pointed her hand forward.
"Snowstorm!"
Snowflakes started to spread from her hand. The temperature in the room decreased rapidly. Visibility went down even more, but she didn"t care about that. She was ready to freeze her opponent to death.
"N-Not enough, freezing domain!"
The ice around got even thicker now. The whole room was like a gla.s.s room with snowflakes fluttering everywhere. Only in the front, there was a red glow, engulfing her enemy in a sphere of fiery energy. But even that aura was on the brink of collapsing.
The man looked at the surroundings and back to Lyse. She truly had a lot of magic power. He was barely able to defend himself from that ice world. If that continued, he would be the one losing in the end. He took a big breath and started spinning his chains again. The probing was over, now was the time for the real battle.
***
Seth was about to pierce Erin"s neck when he felt a small ripple, his dagger was. .h.i.t by a strong force and missed its target. Erin reacted almost at the same time, merging back to the shadows and escaping her predicament. She felt the pain in her shoulder even though she was a shadow now. It was almost unbearable.
"I knew that there was someone else here. I can slightly feel your presence. Why don"t you show up as well? I don"t mind fighting against both of you." Seth looked for the culprit behind the attack, but there was no one around. "Scared?" He asked, a smirk on his face, but what greeted him was still silence.
"I"ve heard from the others that there was a man walking around with those girls. It should be you, right? Are you a bodyguard? Or a lover? Never mind, you are too scared to show yourself. I"ll play with this girl first and see if you come out in the end." His words were really provoking. Still, there was no reaction.
"Richard? Did he help me?" Erin felt grateful for the help. He saved her life once again! Even though she knew he was nearby and this battle was just training, she was still happy that Richard helped her at this moment.
"Concentrate. Remember what I taught you. You can defeat him." Richard"s voice came next to her ear. Although now she was in the shadows, it was clear that Richard had a better understanding of her and could reach her. She looked around but was unable to find him. Finally, her gaze returned to Seth, who was once again staying in the middle of the garden, with that smile on his face and that lazy posture.
Erin took a deep breath and started watching her opponent even more closely than before. She wasn"t in a hurry to attack. She ignored the pain from her shoulder and looked for some weak point from where she could attack.
"What, now both of you are hiding from me? What cowards!" Even though he said that Seth was quite frustrated. He wanted to enjoy playing with the girl, exhausting her little by little. Now he had to look for one more enemy, but that wasn"t such a big problem. Even if there were two of them, he was sure he could handle them both. Only the fact he couldn"t see them annoyed him a little.
Erin started circling around Seth, thinking of her next move. She remembered Richard"s teachings. The battle techniques he showed to her were really practical. Next, she started remembering the scenes from the beginning of the battle. Both her attacks had failed. It was like Seth had eyes on his back. His reflexes were insane. That would be hard to beat. Obviously, he was a man who was proud of his speed. She started contemplating what she could do against an opponent like him.
Richard was on the roof on the mansion. He watched the scene from above. A slight smile emerged on his face when he saw Erin"s concentration. It looked as she focused on the battle again, which was good. That was what she needed- more battle experience.
His gaze moved to Seth, and his eyes narrowed. This last sentence Seth said to Erin before trying to kill her was definitely for him to hear, not for her. Seth tried to kill Erin so fast only because he was sure there was someone else. "Hehe, do you want me to show myself? You are lucky to be still alive. I would prefer to just shred you to pieces if Erin wasn"t in need of an opponent." His smile became twisted. "Now, Erin. Show me what you"ve learned so far." His eyes moved back to Erin"s direction and he relaxed once more, his expression returning to normal.