Nick was not sure what was happening. He did not sense an attack come his way, although he new that Seth had released a fair amount of magic energy just now. Nick wiped as much of the blood from his mouth as he could with his sleeves and pressed forward towards Seth.
(He's doing something but since I don't know what it is exactly, I have to go on the offensive.)
Nick ran for two meters and swung his sword in a horizontal line.
(Sever.)
Seth seem to have noticed the formless power that radiated from Nick's swing and before Sever's formless cutting power could affect him, he raised his hand in front of himself and opened his hand fully while keeping his fingers straight and locked together; he guided his hand downwards with a vertical motion at which point an intensely glowing orange-red vertical line was left where his hand had traced. When the power of Sever came into contact with this orange-red line, a violent clash occurred that sent ripples of magic energy and almost blinding light in every direction and when the light dispersed, Seth remained in his position unharmed and pointed above him once again with his index finger, releasing quite a bit of magic energy.
Nick was now closer to Seth, about seven meters away; as Seth pointed towards the sky, the sun shone with an unusual brightness and Nick's movements slowed as his body's temperature rose gradually, causing him to sweat profusely and become light headed.
(Is this heat stroke?)
Nick shook his head and gritted his teeth and continued running forward, trying to get to Seth to bring the fight right at him. Once Nick was within six meters of Seth, his eyes became completely pitch black as he cast:
(Soul Pulse.)
Nick's soul radiated an imposing, formless force outwards towards Seth who sensed the attack and snapped his fingers, after which, the sun shone dazzlingly once again and pellets of glowing orange light began to rain down all around Seth from seemingly out of nowhere. As Soul Pulse washed over Seth's position, the pellets of orange light glowed intensely and the imposing force from Nick's attack was dispersed and the brightly glowing pellets were destroyed.
Seth remained standing in his position but visibly shook as blood oozed from his mouth, nose and ears.
Nick saw this and was internally elated:
(He somehow dispelled Soul Pulse's physical force but his soul still suffered from the attack by a fair degree. Now, I at least know that my soul's development is superior to his.)
Nick had not used his other soul path methods yet because he was unaware of the strength of his opponent's soul and Nick wanted to first get a feel for what Seth was capable of. Nick got within five meters of Seth and swung his sword horizontally.
(Sever.)
Seth somehow sensed the attack and countered by once again tracing his straightened hand down in a vertical motion which left a brightly glowing orange-red line in place. The impact between Sever and the glowing line caused magic energy and light to radiate into the surroundings and amidst all of the commotion, Nick cast:
(Soul Attraction.)
Seth felt an irresistible force begin to pull him towards Nick but he did not try to resist. The next moment, Seth radiated a large amount of magic energy and became a glowing man, radiating an intense orange-red light as he moved towards Nick. The closer Seth came to Nick, the more Nick felt the temperature in the surroundings increase, soon becoming as hot as a sauna.
Nick acted quickly, dispelling Soul Attraction and pointed his right index and middle finger at the brightly glowing Seth who landed on the ground three meters in front of him.
(Rumbling Pillar.)
The space around Seth began to warp, twist and shake and feeling the change, Seth tried to cast his own spell but Nick had already cast his:
(Spirit Quake.)
Seth felt his soul shake and his mind was disrupted as he coughed out a mouthful of blood, but Seth did not fail in casting his spell. A cylindrical pillar of light appeared around Seth which rose eight meters into the air, and then turned horizontally, making its way five meters to the left of Seth's original position before falling to the ground vertically. The light immediately faded and Seth appeared at the new position half kneeling, clearly suffering from some of the effects of Rumbling Pillar which dispersed after it lost its target; the temperature in the surroundings went back to normal as Seth dispelled the bright glow emerging from his body. Before Seth could collect himself, however, Nick decided to move quickly to press his current advantage:
(Blink.)
Nick momentarily disappeared from Seth's vision and then reappeared a few inches in front of Seth, swinging his sword down ferociously. Seth got up from his half kneeling position quickly and straightened his hand, drawing with it a bright orange-red horizontal line in the path of Nick's sword but Nick was ready to counter:
(Five Blades.)
Four other sword blades that looked identical to Nick's appeared seemingly out of nowhere and moved quickly, aiming for Seth's sides and legs. Nick's sword passed through the orange red line like it was not a solid object and something illusory; in the next moment, Nick's body made a strange movement with Nick's sword suddenly taking the place of the blade going towards Seth's right side. Seth's body began to gradually glow with a bright orange-red light once again but Nick ignored the increase in temperature and cast:
(Soul Pressure.)
All of Seth's movements momentarily froze like gravity was keeping him locked in place and Nick continued the swing of his sword with a practised viciousness. Nick's sword bit into Seth's glowing body and despite Nick feeling some resistance, his sword's blade ultimately created a gash in Seth's side and bright red blood spilled onto the ground; after the sword went in by an inch, Nick felt like he had hit a steel wall and was forced to retract the sword's blade. Seth coughed out a mouthful of blood, some of it landing on Nick's face.
(Blink.)
Nick used Blink to appear three meters away in front of Seth in order to get away from the high temperatures that came with the young man's strange glow. Seth dispelled his glow and rubbed his wounded right side with his left hand, taking a few moments to look at the blood that appeared on his hand as a result. He licked his bloody lips and spoke to Nick with a sickening grin:
"You've got some spunk. The real fight begins now."
The light from the sun above their heads became dazzling and Seth's right side radiated a bright orange light. Nick looked on in half distress as he witnessed that as the orange light faded, Seth's side appeared to be completely healed of his open wound.
Seth continued to grin and clasped his hands at which point hundreds of thin brightly rippling, glowing orange-red lines appeared all around him and Nick's surroundings in midair; all of these strange lines were situated within an meter radius beginning between Nick and Seth.
(Gift From The Sun: Many Bright Lines)
Nick was stupefied internally at seeing all of the brightly glowing lines around him whose rippling gave him an ironic chill.
(Fuck!)
In the next moment, the ten glowing lines nearest to him each shone a ray of orange-red light onto his body, some around his chest and abdomen and and the rest onto his thighs and legs.
Nick felt his body heat up all over and slightly spasm; he coughed up two mouthfuls of blood as the lights on his body receded back into the floating lines. Nick's legs buckled from whatever damage those rays of light did to him. Nick's mind was spinning fast:
(This guy has some strange spells, even having one that allows him to heal damage done to himself. This...is a tough fight. Whatever he did to my upper and lower body has me in a lot of pain; it feels like parts of my body were roasted by his attack.)
Slade sighed and spoke at this time:
[Kid, you're in a tough spot. That fellow is using the sun path against you and not only is he more experienced than your classmates but I think that he still hasn't shown you all that he can do judging by that smirk on his face.]
(Sun path?)
Nick vaguely remembers reading a book that mentioned it.
[Sun path is an obscure branch of fire path, not many in my world practised it but those that did had the advantage of swift and relatively stealthy attacks. This type of magic is also fairly good at healing although it is related to fire path.]
(Hmph, it doesn't matter if he's using some peculiar kind of magic, I still have an advantage that he definitely cannot keep up with.)
Slade had to agree with Nick. The biggest disadvantage that rank 1 and 2 Magicians faced was their low magic energy storing capacity, however, with Nick's special mindscape, he did not have that disadvantage.
(Seth has used very powerful spells multiple times so he should be more than half empty in terms of magic energy and should be pacing himself from now on. That's why he hasn't continued to attack despite my fall. He's trying to recover his magic energy.)
Nick's expression became cold, displaying his firm resolve to defeat Seth and his still pitch black eyes became extremely sharp. He took a moment to calm his breathing and looked at Seth with absolute menace.
Unbeknownst to Nick, an intimidating and dark aura radiated from his body and flowed into the nearby surroundings. Seth, Glenn and Carla frowned. Carla thought:
(This aura is incredibly sickening; I think its the same one he radiated at my family's estate and its gotten worse.)
Seth just looked at Nick in return and shook his head, saying simply:
"Just give up, £30,000 a piece for each scroll is good enough already..."
While Seth was speaking, Nick gradually raised himself off of the ground and swung his sword horizontally once again. A look of annoyance dominated Seth's face.
"Not this shit again."
As he was about to trace another glowing orange-red line to counter Nick's attack, suddenly, a sword that seemingly came out of nowhere sliced into his neck and severed it from the middle. Seth felt his head falling down to the ground as he observed the rest of his body still standing with the stump of his neck spraying out blood like a fountain. Seth's eyes opened wide in disbelief.
(What the fuck? This was supposed to be a 'friendly' match!)
After that thought, however, Seth snapped back to reality where he was standing among a space filled with many bright, glowing orange-red lines with his neck intact. Seth touched his neck and wondered:
(An illusion? Illusion path...no, that felt too visceral for a rank two illusion path spell. That was definitely a wisdom path method.)
Seth had been trying to get his eyes on Nick the moment that his senses had normalized but could not find him. Feeling a sense of imminent danger, Seth cast a spell while holding up his right arm.
(Solar Flare)
A ball of orange light was quickly ejected from Seth's hand and went up eight meters into the air and then flashed with an intense, all-encompassing light.
Nick who had used his spell, Clear Space, to hide his presence from Seth's vision was revealed to have creeped up less than a meter behind of Seth. Seth who had slightly turned his head in order to check his surroundings was alarmed that Nick had gotten so close to him.
(Nick clearly has blade path methods, I cannot let him get close to me. Although he probably won't strike a fatal blow considering the circumstances, I don't want to risk losing a limb over one business deal. I have to finish this quickly.)
Seth's expression became stern and he cast his Many Bright Lines spell once again while turning around but during the activation, his soul shook and his mind was disrupted, however, he gritted his teeth and the spell still took effect. Ten bright, orange rays of light landed on Nick's body simultaneously as half of Seth's magic energy was consumed in order to maintain his spell.
Nick was already paying special attention to the glowing lines around him, ready for their next attack as he had assumed that since they were still present, Seth could somehow keep this spell perpetually in effect. Nick cast Blink and appeared right in front of Seth, dodging most of his attack and stared squarely into Seth's eyes while his own radiated a pitch black luster.
(Ghost Eyes.)
Seth's face showed a weird expression as he and Nick's souls competed in terms of strength. A few moments later, the results were obvious when Seth began to bleed heavily from his eyes and nose. Nick cast Blink again and appeared behind Seth, swinging down his sword ruthlessly but before his sword made contact, Seth acted.
(Gift From The Sun: Sunshine)
Nick was immediately blinded by an intense light and his vision became filled with nothing but orange-red light. Nick stopped his sword's descent and closed his eyes while feeling an intense sense of danger; Nick used Blink again to immediately move six meters away from Seth, his magic energy reserves decreasing by a large amount.
When Nick opened his eyes again, Seth stood valiantly, facing Nick with flames seeming to dance all over his body and intense sunlight shining down on him and radiating into the surroundings. This, in addition to the blood that covered his face made Seth seem like some kind of battling god; he spoke imposingly:
"Let's finish this."
Slade spoke at this time:
[This fellow must be using a great amount of magic energy to maintain his two spells so he won't last long. All you have to do to win is withstand the next few exchanges.]
Nick pointed at Seth and activated his spell:
(Reverse Space.)
The space around Seth suddenly warped which resulted in him facing the direction opposite from Nick. Nick swung his sword horizontally and cast:
(Sever.)
The moment he cast Sever, however, ten of the nearest glowing orange lines floating around him radiated intense rays of light that each shone on his torso. Blood flowed heavily from Nick's mouth and burn marks appeared all over his torso and muscles.
Six meters away, Seth grit his teeth as the power of Nick's Sever was able to bypass Sunshine's relatively meager defense and create a gaping wound in his upper back. He quickly turned around and breathed in deeply, stepping forward and with a flurry of flames dancing around him, he ran forward at the speed of car, getting to Nick's position in a matter of moments, radiating an intense and scorching light that burned the grass everywhere that he went.
Nick had already dropped his sword after he was hit by Many Bright Lines and seeing events unfold this way, he sighed knowing that he was about to lose.
(My body is actually so heavily damaged and my magic energy is running low but this guy only made a few successful attacks. I've made many more successful attacks in comparison but this guy is not only still standing despite the injuries, his magic energy hasn't bottomed out yet; he's definitely been quietly using a healing method on himself and I suspect that he has some method to increase his rate of magic recovery. The difference between us is clear but that doesn't mean I'll just give up.)
The dark and imposing aura flowing from Nick became even more intense causing everyone to frown at sensing it.
(It's either I win or I'll die trying.)
As the missile of flames and light called Seth Teller was about to hit him with a disastrous attack, Nick folded his slightly burned hands into each other and the space within a thirty meter radius became thickly covered with a black miasma except at the spot where the flaming Seth was about to crash into Nick and many piles of bones littered the ground as a decrepit temple stood behind Nick.
(Malevolent Shrine.)
Malevolent Shrine was actually activated within an instant of real time and an incredibly sharp and domineering aura went ahead to confront Seth amidst an ever increasing torrent of flames and light that had by then transformed into a miniature sun; at this moment, however, both Nick and Seth heard a plain but feminine voice say:
"Alright, that's enough. You two aren't supposed to be trying to kill each other."
Carla who was quite a distance away from the battle waved her right index finger at the two and it shone with a dark light.
(Mighty Shadow)
Immediately, a mass of black material covered the entirety of Nick and Seth's battle area and everything went quiet. Nick felt himself lose control of Malevolent Shrine and Seth felt all of his spells being nullified and canceled; they were also both frozen in place and covered in an impenetrable darkness that was far more imposing and solid that the darkness created using Malevolent Shrine.
Nick wondered out loud:
"So this is the power of a rank 4 Apprentice Magician."
After two seconds, the darkness faded and Nick and Seth found themselves lying on the ground next to each other, battered, cut, burned and/or bruised; they both just looked at the sky, trying to catch their breath. Carla and Glenn walked over and looked at both young men who were in sorry states. Seth was bleeding profusely from a large wound in his back and had a vacant stare which suggested heavy damage to his soul and Nick was covered in superficial burns and blood was still flowing from his mouth.
Carla sighed and spent the next twenty minutes healing the two young men with her shadow magic; she healed Nick, then Seth. Nick had not known Carla's specialty before but never would have guessed that it was darkness or shadow magic, he couldn't tell which because the two presented similarly. After the two young men were healed, Carla said to the both of them:
"You two are lucky that healing spells work so well on rank 2 Magicians. Alright, since we don't have a winner or a loser in this match let's just say that the Soul Healing scrolls will continue to be sold at £50,000 a piece for now."
Nick was going to say something but under Carla's stare that implied: "Nick, don't press the issue.", he remained quiet.
Seth did not seem to have much interest in the scrolls anymore and just stood at the side with an unsatisfied expression. Glenn clapped his hands and said:
"In light of Nick's valiant performance, I will not press the issue of a discount. Carla has already provided me with your email address so our purchasing department will send my employer's order directly to you within the coming days."
Glenn motioned to Seth that they were going to leave but before Seth walked away, he said to Nick:
"We will finish our match another time."
Seth left with Glenn in a quick haste. Nick looked at Seth's receding figure and thought:
(That guy was the better Magician in this match without doubt. He paced the use of his magic power better, coordinated his spells better and had spells that covered aspects that mine didn't. The only reason I kept up with him was because I could launch more attacks because of my large magic energy reserves and I had the benefit of using spells from multiple paths which no doubt confused him a bit.)
Rarely did Magicians use spells of purely different paths during combat because becoming specialized on one path was already difficult, becoming proficient at more than one path was a hurdle that most Magicians would not attempt to undertake because of the improbable rewards. Nick was special in that he had a relatively huge store of magic energy for his rank and guidance in the form of Slade Terrence as well as a few good inheritances.
Slade chimed in:
[You're right, he was the better Magician this time around but you better make sure that this is the last time.]
(Understood.)
Nick looked at the sky and breathed in deeply, his scary black-red irises rippling as the aura that he was unknowingly releasing dissipated.
"Hey Carla, did you know? Today was the first time that I lost out since coming to this academy."
Carla looked at Nick and raised both of her eyebrows in surprise; she was expecting him to be muddle headed or dispirited after the fight:
(This young man's pace of growth in terms of his mindset is astounding and even outpaces his magical growth. He really does have a lot of potential.)
Carla patted Nick on the shoulder, ignoring his obvious discomfort and replied:
"Let's go get something to eat."