Favian and Dunkel were brought to a room inside the colosseum which was blocked off from the crowd. This room served as the place where fighters would prepare for their ensuing battle. Dunkel was currently sat meditating to one side of the room, whilst Favian was just stood in the centre of the room. To an outsider it would look like Favian was just staring into thin air, however, he was currently conversing with his game system. After finally deliberating what to name the system, Favian gave it the name "Elon", named after one of Earth"s most influential people whilst Favian was still alive. "Elon bring up my stats" Favian commanded his newly named system.
(Ding! Const.i.tution: 1.6, Strength: 1.8, Intelligence: 4.0, Agility: 1.5, Arcana:5. Mana pool 500. Total Experience 3000) Elon replied faithfully.
"So, my strength has made a pretty big leap because of all the 4 am training I"ve been doing with Professor St-Pierre." Favian thought. The constant exercise was grueling, but it clearly was making him become stronger. On the other hand, his intelligence and arcana hadn"t made a single leap. Favian had decided that it was more important for him to complete his second arcane core, so he let all the energy his system would instead have pa.s.sively poured into his already present magic core pour into the infantile second core. This meant that he was progressing through his second core creation at almost more than double the speed.
Dunkel quickly got up from as a gong was sounded in the room. His eyes were calmer than their usual energetic self, and he seemed a lot more composed. The atmosphere around him was terrifying, like a cold-blooded killer waiting to pounce on his prey. "Guess it"s time for us to go." Dunkel said, his voice calm like a lion before pouncing on its prey.
Favian nodded in response and left through the door to the main area of the colosseum. The main stage was a simple lawn of gra.s.s, with only the 4 students about to faceoff standing on it. The overseer sat in a highchair above the lawn, able to see everything clearly.
"The aggressors of this match are from the party led by Garu. Therefore, Favian Umbra and Dunkel Jaeger, you may decide the setting this battle will be held in. You have the choices of desert, tundra, jungle, and plains." the overseer"s voice boomed loudly for all in the colosseum to hear.
The decision had already been agreed between Favian and Dunkel back in the waiting area, and they had even planned out a strategy. Of course, this strategy was limited as they had no idea what type of magic they would be up against.
"We choose the jungle." Favian shouted, making sure that his opponents, who were stood about 100 meters away, could hear him clearly.
The overseer nodded, stretched out his arms, and released a large amount of energy towards the battlefield. Green and brown wisps of energy fell onto it like torrential rain, and molded the area into a thick jungle, with tall trees stood crawling out of the soil until they covered the ground from light. Only patches of the area were made visible by the sun overhead, and the dense foliage made for a battlefield more suited to guerrilla warfare. From the outside, huge screens displayed the faces of the four compet.i.tors and their surroundings.
Favian and Dunkel slowly made their way through the foliage, making sure that they moved as silently as possible. Dusk found a pretty ingenious way to use his skill bend light. It currently allowed him to refract the light around himself and Dunkel, and all other objects within a 5-meter radius of himself, which acted as a sort of camouflage. This, of course, wasn"t perfect, as the closer an enemy got to Favian, the easier it would be to discern this technique. However, from further distances away, and in a densely packed jungle such as this, it was impossible to make out their approach.
The pair made their way towards a stream near the centre of the jungle. The flowing water could be heard from a distance away. Sat by the edge of the stream about 20 metres away were the two elves, highly alert, and constantly checking their surroundings for any changes.
Favian nodded at Dunkel, signalling for the start of their plan. Dunkel suddenly started to whisper a silent incantation, which was followed by wisps of black energy surrounding him. A large longbow was formed in his hands, made out of what seemed like raven feathers. He then proceeded to notch an arrow made out of pure dark energy and fired directly at the two elves. The arrow grew the further it flew, before it crashed into the elves, leaving behind a huge crater where the stream had once been. Water was sprayed in the air, and soil was flung high.
…
"WOAH." "COOL." "AMAZING."
The crowd watching the fight were pleasantly surprised by the display of power. They were getting hyped up by the match. Some people were on the edges of their seats, antic.i.p.ating the next moves.
On the screen focused on the elf who was already a level 1 mage, the crowd noticed that Favian was lying on the floor, in a puddle of blood.
"What just happened?" asked a youthful girl. Everything had happened so quickly that n.o.body was able to notice how the battle was already nearing its end.
…
Back at the scene of the battle, in the thick of the jungle.
Moments after Dunkel had fired off his arrow, the whole fight was flung into chaos. Favian and Dunkel thought that they had been the ambushers, their concealment perfect. What they only realised now was that even without using level 1 magic, a level 1 mage had much higher base stats than they did. The unnamed elf was able to discern the two before their sneak attack, rendering it completely useless. The elf had already pre-emptively cast a teleportation spell the moment he noticed Favian and Dunkel within the foliage, and once the arrow left Dunkel"s quiver, he repositioned himself and Garu behind the attacking pair.
With a shout, Garu rushed forward towards Dunkel slashing at him with his hands which were transformed into flaming swords. Dunkel was forced to duck and weave away from the swords, and maneuvered himself backward with a backflip. His short-range combat ability wasn"t the best, else he would have been able to wipe the floor with Garu by now. Somebody who was weaker could always make up for that in combat style, as shown with Garu being able to put the pressure onto Dunkel in close combat, despite them being a lower stage initiate and an upper stage initiate.
Favian was being bombarded with bolts of lightning from the moment the enemies teleported behind him. The system had given him a heads up, however, it wasn"t enough time to give him an advantage. Yet he was able to cast his protective barrier around himself, negating some of the damage caused by the barrage of lightning. His hair was now completely frizzed and pointing upwards as if he were a mad scientist.
"d.a.m.nit, our whole plan has gone wrong." Favian thought to himself as he ran in zigzags trying to closer to the elf. He had once heard on Earth that by running in such a way, without a set pattern of direction, you"d be more likely to escape from gunfire.
The elf was still throwing lightning bolt upon lightning bolt, not being tired out at all by the constant usage of this low-level magic. He saw Favian run-up towards him, however, he didn"t try and increase the distance between the two. His pride as a Level 1 Magician made sure that he met Favian head-on.
As Favian got within 5 metres of his opponent, he chanted the incantation for Time stop as quickly as he possibly could. As he was chanting, the world slowly started to slow down. He could see the lightning bolts arcing from the palms of the elf in front of him, the bolts a dark blue hue now that Favian could see them more clearly. As time was slowing down, Favian instead opted to dodge the bolts, ducking whenever a bolt got too close or jumping when it was about to hit his feet. After finally finishing his chant, time stopped completely. The surroundings turned purple, and wisps of purple energy were frozen in time for only him to see.
Favian wasted no time, and sprinted towards the elf, simultaneously casting net of shadows in one hand and rending claw in another. Both of these spells were long-range; however, he knew that his opponent still held the advantage in long-range as he was casting spells almost unlimitedly. Favian only had a much smaller number of spells he could cast in succession, due to his 500-mana pool.
Dark energy undulations sprung forth from his both of his hands as a tar-like net flew towards the elf, covering him completely. Favian had figured out that he could cast a spell and let it detonate only after his time stop ended, thus he cast a barrage of claws of dark energy at his opponent, aiming for his arms. "Can"t cast magic if your arms are broken can you now?" he thought to himself, as he noticed the elf in front of him was using his arms as a conduit for the electricity.