Chapter 185 - Guest Teacher (1/2)

Chapter 185: Guest Teacher

“Switch!” Alanis called out just as my wind-infused fist was about to connect with Camus’ chest.

I muttered a string of curses, stopping my strike. How is it that over these past few days, the matches always seem to stop at such inconvenient times? She has to be doing this on purpose.

As if to answer my accusation, my trainer clarified by saying, “Exactly twenty minutes have passed. Elder Camus will be switched for Elder Hester. General Arthur, please restrict your water magic.”

I wiped the sweat pouring down my face, trying to get a breather until my next opponent arrived. Having my water magic banned meant that I couldn’t use ice as well. How frustratingly convenient for Hester, who would’ve been at a disadvantage against those two elements.

Taking a peek at the audience, I could tell everyone had been paying close attention to my last fight against Camus, my sister particularly engrossed.

The elder approached me until we were just about a dozen feet apart. Tying her long grey hair back into a bun, she readied into a dueling stance. Being a silver core mage meant that, while her strength was conjuring, she could easily augment her body. The fact that she wore tight-fitting clothes and chose to use a conjuring ring rather than the traditional staff or wand meant that she wanted the flexibility of both long range and close range combat.

“Begin,” Alanis stated, her voice amplified by the artifact she was speaking into.

Hester immediately snapped her finger, a spark igniting between her middle finger and her thumb.

The blue ember was just a distraction though.

Since I wasn’t using Realmheart, my eyes couldn’t see the fluctuations in mana, but I could feel it. My body, enhanced through assimilation with Sylvia’s dragon will, seemed to instinctively sense that I was in danger.

I quickly propelled myself back, just in time to see a burst of fire detonate where I had been standing.

The explosion caused a cloud of smoke, obstructing my view of Hester.

She didn’t expect to hit me with that. She wants me to lose sight of her.

I swung my arms, manipulating the cloud of dust between us to shoot forward. The rock and sand in the air froze still for a second before erupting forward into a shockwave of debris.

Like I had predicted, Hester’s form came into view. She managed to shield herself with a panel of fire. It was my turn to strike back.

Augmenting mana into my legs, I flashed forward, gathering blue fire into my fists.

I striked at the panel of fire, expecting my flame to overpower hers. Her spell disintegrated, but to my surprise, Hester was no longer behind the panel of fire she had conjured.

That’s when I felt it again, the primal instinct that told me I was in danger. This time, it came from below my feet.

Blue fire swirled beneath me before erupting into a pillar of flames. For a moment, my vision turned blue as an intense heat washed over me.

My aura blocked the attack long enough for me to manipulate the fire from harming me. If I accrued too much damage, the defensive artifact in my armor would activate, making it my loss.

Just when the heat was becoming unbearable, I was able to dispel Hester’s attack and break the pillar of fire… only to find myself surrounded by a dozen or so fiery spheres, each the height of an adult.

Judging by the fact that I couldn’t see or sense Hester, and that each globe of fire would be able to fit a grown woman inside, I knew she was in one of the globes.

If she was trying to annoy me with all of these distractions, it was working.

I stomped the ground, conjuring earthen spikes. Only half of the spikes hit its mark.

Note to self. Practice aiming with earth magic.

The spikes that did hit bore straight through the spheres of fire, causing them to disperse. But it didn’t take long for new spheres of flames to manifest and take their place.

Before I could strike them down again, the flaming globes brightened before launching their attacks.

Each globe seemed to have a mind of its own, as the attacks fired by them were different from each other. One globe shot a barrage of small fire bullets, while another began spinning and releasing burning crescents.

I was forced onto the defensive by the barrage of attacks coming from all directions. I erected a stone wall from the ground to block the flame bullets and launched a blade of wind at the burning crescent, detonating the fiery spell prematurely.

My mind raced, trying to think of my next move. I couldn’t keep staying on the defensive, but I had no idea which flaming sphere she was hiding inside of.

The temptation to just release Realmheart grew, but I knew that was just a shortcut into solving my inadequacy by blowing off most of my mana.

Think, Arthur. How would I try to fight me if I was Hester?

The only strategy I could think of was to get on my nerves until I let my guard down. That was the answer.

I let out a roar of frustration, wildly launching shockwaves of wind and blasts of fire at the globes. Of course, the ones I hit were replaced by new ones, but I continued my seemingly agitated assault.

Coalescing tendrils of lightning around my arms and legs, I flashed forward, striking down the spheres of fire up close.

For each globe I struck down, another two took its place until over thirty spheres hovered around me.

Her mana pool is impressive.

The spheres began undulating this time while they glowed brighter. I thought they were all going to explode, but instead each of the flaming globes shot a condensed stream of fire at me.

Is this the final attack? I thought, noticing that the spheres grew smaller as they released their flaming beam.

I put on my best expression of surprise and horror and waited until all of the beams were just about to hit me before I acted.

Siphoning a large amount of mana for my core, I engulfed my entire body in a suit of fire. Absolute control was necessary to keep the fire from harming me, but timing it with Hester’s last attack would make it seem like I was hit.

Even with several extra layers of pure mana and fire mana protecting me from Hester’s barrage, I felt the fire singeing the hair on my extremities. I feared for a second that I might actually come out of this bald, but my aura kept me—and the majority of my hair—safe.

I heard Ellie call out to me in horror over the roar of the flames, but I kept my focus on the opponent. I knew Hester wouldn’t let her guard down even from this.

This next part was the hard part.

One aspect to consider for a multi-elemental mage was his strength to not just know when to utilize each of his elements, but how to utilize multiple elements in conjunction to one another.

Keeping the flaming barrier around my body, I split off a part of my focus so I could manipulate the ground underneath me.

I felt my flames tremble—a sign that my concentration was wavering.

Almost. Enduring the growing heat around me as I manipulated a hole into the ground for me to fit inside, I waited until I finally saw Hester’s silhouette through the layer of fire between us.

Now!