Chapter 743 - Solid Flames
Eisen himself was quite shocked when he saw what had just happened. This Koblin had truly been trained to an incredible degree. Unlike the others that had gone so far, this simple guard had no sort of special abilities that he could show off, and instead trained the basics to this level. Eisen couldn"t help himself but grin broadly.
The opponent for the Koblin was also perfect. He was the kind of musclehead that underestimated others for their appearance, and since the Koblin looked like nothing but a common, low-rank monster, he clearly thought this would be more than just easy. The fact that he didn"t even wear any particular armor showed that he was incredibly confident, if not overconfident, in his physical abilities as well.
Slowly, the old man turned his head toward the man sitting next to him, "You see that? That"s what a common guard can do in my kingdom. Do you have anything else to say to that?" Eisen asked, but the Grandour"s complexion showed that he wasn"t going to answer. He was pale, as if he had just seen a ghost. As if he witnessed something impossible. Not that it mattered much, even if he had said something.
"Well anyway, let"s just move on to the next fight already, huh?" Eisen said, as he watched the Koblin walk up the steps, approaching the old man. He kneeled down in front of Eisen and lowered his head.
"Your Majesty. It was an honor to be able to fight under your name in this event. I thank you for this chance." He said, but Eisen couldn"t help himself but laugh out loud, "Of course, of course! You were the perfect guy to do it! Also, you better thank Kiron instead of me, he"s the one that recommended you!" The old man pointed out, and the Koblin immediately nodded, kneeling down in front of the Half-Dragon afterward, "I thank you as well, Lord Kiron."
"No need to thank me. I chose you due to the abilties you have displayed to me." Kiron said, as he turned his head toward Eisen, "But Grandfather, for now... Which of us five should go next?" The half-dragon asked, and Eisen thought about it for a moment. While he trusted in Rudia and Selena, they were an Archer and a Mage respectively. They didn"t fare too well in close-quarter combat, and paired up against a bad opponent, things weren"t going to end up as clear-cut as the old man was hoping.
"Don"t worry, Grandfather." Kiron said, looking up at Eisen, "We can handle everything that comes our way. Trust us."
Eisen smiled as he looked at his grandchild, and slowly nodded his head, "Alright. Selena, you go first. Show them some of your magic."
Immediately, the silver half-dragon nodded her head. She was clearly nervous about this, being the most held-back and shy of the dragon knights, but Eisen knew that she was going to be able to do just fine. After all, she was still a half-dragon, and if Kiron told him that they could do it, then he trusted in those words.
Selena stepped into the arena, and slowly drank the potion. Her face grimaced because of the potion"s taste, but she quickly adjusted to her new size, and held the special-made staff tightly in her hands. It wasn"t her normal staff, since that one wasn"t able to grow to this extent in accordance with gigantification-based abilities, but it should still do the trick. It wasn"t like the process really changed, after all.
Either way, soon, Selena"s opponent stepped into the arena. She was a quite young warrior, wielding a chain sickle. The chain was currently wrapped around her arm, covering it like some sort of armor. Clearly, this was an even worse matchup than Eisen had feared. If things didn"t go well, then this warrior would be able to attack Selena before she was even able to cast her first spell.
Soon, the round begun, and thinking the same thing as Eisen, the warrior attacked Selena immediately, throwing her arm forward. The chain loosened up unnaturally, as if it was being directly controlled by the warrior"s will, and shot forward at Selena. But before the sickle was able to reach her, Selena pressed her staff into the ground. Immediately, a wall of flames appeared in front of the half-dragon mage. Usually, you would think that something like this wouldn"t be able to hold back a physical attack, but as if it hit a wall of metal, the sickle simply repelled back. From the spot that the sickle hit the wall of flames, rippling waves moved outward, and Eisen could swear he saw a slight silver tint in the color of the flames.
For the most part, Selena usually acted as a support, hence why Eisen was even more worried about this particular fight, but it seemed like there was no need to worry. Selena was seemingly quite capable of her own.
However, as the sickle was shooting forward, the warrior that wielded it didn"t just stand there, but instead sprinted forward at the same time. The moment that the sickle was repelled, the warrior pulled it back and swung it around her arm, shooting it over the wall of flames in an arch. The moment that it was above the wall of flames, the sickle shot at Selena in an unnatural way, the arch turning into a straight line in an instant.
Eisen raised his brows, curious about how selena would get out of this now. But it seemed like once more, there was no need for Eisen to worry. Selena swung her staff around as if she was using its tip to cut through the air, and in that exact path, more flames appeared. The sickle hit those flames, and was once more repelled, as if the magical flames that Selena was summoning, supported through her staff, were solid.
Selena was moving her staff around as if it was a spear instead of a magical tool, cutting through the air and defending against the incoming attacks through the sickle.
However, the giant warrior didn"t simply stand behind the wall of flames and do nothing. While Selena was busy with the sickle, she managed to rush and sneak around the wall, since Selena was blocking her own view with the magic that she casted.
The warrior soon stood beside Selena, and using a punch to her side, she tried to attack her and open her up to further attacks through the sickle. However, there was one other part that even Eisen hadn"t really thought about. Whenever he fought monsters, things like this were never an issue, although it wasn"t like he actually fought against creatures like this too often. But when he was on the island of dragons, he did notice that his blade got stuck quite often, since it wasn"t able to easily cut through the scales.
And then, compared to that, a true dragon"s scales? Even if it was just a half-dragon, they were of course much stronger than those of a creature simply imitating the existence of dragons. And there was one more aspect to it on top of that. The chromatic dragons" scales were more akin to chitin or bone, while the metallic dragons" scales were just as their name suggested... they were metallic in nature. To the extent that Eisen would probably be able to melt them down if he tried, not that he was given much of a chance to do so thus far.
Either way, due to all of these things combined... despite the attack of the giant warrior, the attack didn"t do much. Selena was a mage, her defensive abilities were minuscule compared to others", but considering her nature and const.i.tuion, she was just at another level in terms of defense. At the very least in areas like her back and sides, where her scales were most prominent. Had the warrior attacked her stomach or limbs, then maybe it would have been different, but right now, Selena was practically unaffected.
With the warrior now being in close range, Selena pushed the tip of her staff into the ground. From around her, waves of flames shot outward, pus.h.i.+ng away the warrior while damaging her. Despite being solid like that, the flames were clearly still as hot as normal flames were. Of course, since she was a fire giant, the warrior was naturally resistant to heat, so it didn"t do as much damage to her as it would to others, but that didn"t change the fact that it did do some damage, especially combined with the blunt impact of these solid flames with a silver hue.
While the warrior was trying to find her bearings, Selena held her staff into the air, and waved it around. She was creating spears of flames with her magic. The moment that one had been created, it was shot at the warrior at high speed. She was doing her best to dodge and deflect, of course, but it was quite a tough thing to do considering the speed and frequency at which all these flame pillars were being shot at her.
All the whilst Selena was shooting all these spears, she was preparing flames for another spell attack as well, something that she wanted to use to end this fight in an instant. She was gathering a lot of her infused mana above her head in a sphere, trying to press it together as much as possible as if she was compressing it.
And then, slowly moving it as far into the center of the arena as possible, she made the sphere simply shatter apart and blow up outward, swallowing the whole arena in a sea of solid silver flames.