True disbelief painted Thadeus's face.
'How is this possible? He's a damn Awakened. Where did all this power come from? Why aren't his reserves running out?'
The reality that Glenn, his opponent—a demon he had never even heard of—was now putting up a genuine fight in this battle sent a wave of nervousness through him.
'If my calculations are correct, he must be at the limit of his internal energy. All that's left is to keep pressing, and he'll collapse without energy.'
But shattering his idea of energy depletion, Glenn, his opponent, once again covered his body with electricity. And this time, it was even more intense than before.
"I hope you're enjoying yourself. You've caused me a lot of trouble this week!" Glenn said as he channeled electricity with mana, reversing the energies. His prana reserves had reached a dangerous level.
His greatest fear was whether people would notice that his magic was being fueled by mana. But Master Elian had managed to find a way to camouflage the effect. Essentially, the lightning covering his body shouldn't surpass the gravity field powered by prana.
This way, all people would feel was the outermost magic, fueled by prana. If even the master couldn't detect it, then he was safe on that front. The only difference was that, in this state, his electricity could only be used to accelerate his body, not to attack directly. Otherwise, all the experts present would notice that he could also manipulate mana.
"Now I'm going at maximum speed!" Glenn shouted before his body vanished at an absurd speed.
If he couldn't attack with electricity, all that was left was to accelerate as much as possible and use gravity pushes and pulls.
And the burning question? Why now and not during the rain of fire arrows?
Well, the answer was simple. Now he had a completely destroyed arena to hurl rocks at his opponent without limits.
'Thank you, Hera, for the inspiration!'
His body moved at its maximum speed. Thadeus, caught off guard, tried to channel a large fire shield, expecting an electric attack. But as Glenn got close, his hands moved in a pushing motion, launching a barrage of rocks.
The rocks ignored the fire barrier and struck Thadeus's body.
"AGH...." A cry of pain and the sound of breaking bones echoed through the arena. Thadeus was thrown several meters back.
Without giving him a break, Glenn continued circling around Thadeus, much like Lesley had done to him.
At times, he hurled rocks in Thadeus's direction, which Thadeus quickly began to destroy, exploding fireballs at point-blank range. At other times, Glenn increased the gravity around Thadeus, disrupting his rhythm.
**
I feinted, a small barrage of rocks hiding a large one that fell from above. It didn't work.
Thadeus went into a frenzied mode and began burning his prana like a madman.
From his orb, a waterfall of fire began to spill, forming a tsunami that grew and crashed toward me.
Accelerating as fast as I could backward, I tried to escape. But the same arrow attack began exploding beside me.
'He's going for a last desperate attack.'
The veins in his neck bulged, his eyes bloodshot, his breathing ragged—all signs that he would soon suffer an energy collapse.
But there was another problem: Would I last until he finally passed out?
A river of fire chased me at full speed, its expanse increasing every second, reducing the places I could run to.
Hundreds of guided fire arrows pursued me, further shrinking my perimeter. Soon, the situation became unsustainable. More parts of my clothing were destroyed, and more burns affected me.
The bigger issue was that now my legs were being affected. My joints ached as if filled with thorns, my skin smelled of burning, and the explosions from the arrows shook my internal organs.
Thadeus's all-out offensive was costing him dearly, but it was working.
'Damn, I'm going to turn to charcoal before this guy passes out.'
A thought crossed my mind. I let out a small smile and made my decision.
"Screw it, let's go all out."
Stopping my retreat, I made my way toward Thadeus. The gravity field intensified, and I accelerated as fast as I could with magic.
Residual images were left behind as I entered the sea of fire. The gravity protected me for a brief moment; soon, my body began to burn from the intense heat.
Gritting my teeth, clenching my fists, I pressed on. Those microseconds felt like years. I was sure my lungs were completely burned inside.
But finally, I emerged on the other side. Just over twenty meters away, Thadeus looked at me with a haunted expression at the feat I had accomplished.
My eyes were channeling an attack that was my signature.
In less than the blink of an eye, the twenty meters vanished.
**
Eye to eye. Glenn and Thadeus, green eyes staring into golden ones that now exploded with energy.
And then, Glenn let it out. His last reserves of prana erupted into two colossal beams from his eyes.
"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM"
Everything within a fifty-meter radius was destroyed. The beams were so intense that they crossed the entire kilometer-long arena and struck the mountains surrounding the queen's castle.
In the stands, everyone rose in disbelief.
Talon, Thadeus's father, was no different. In his mind, the thought that if that had hit his son, Thadeus would undoubtedly be dead.
A commotion broke out among the Ferrox Umbra family, who had come to watch their young master in a duel but were now unsure if he had survived.
Impatiently, Cassian, one of the council elders, raised his hand in a sweeping motion, and with a slight wave, all the smoke in the arena was pushed away.
And in the middle of it, a scene that could only be described as unimaginable.
Glenn stood, breathing heavily. In front of him was Elian, who had stepped in front of Thadeus.
Thadeus was kneeling on the ground, blood leaking from his eyes, ears, and mouth. On his right shoulder was Elian's arm, which had apparently appeared at the last moment and forced him to kneel to avoid being hit by Glenn's attack.
As soon as Elian removed his hand from Thadeus's shoulder, he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
With the utmost naturalness, and facing a stunned audience, Elian concluded the dramatic event of the day.
"Victory goes to Glenn. The most talented mage of this generation."
An apathetic silence fell over the arena. Only a few smiles could be seen on specific faces.
One of them was Isolde, one of the elders of Selene's council, who wore an intrigued smile at today's events. Others, logically, were Dália and Hera, who had watched the entire fight from a secluded spot.
Lesley and Rose also wore smiles of satisfaction at Glenn's achievement. And most impressively, a beautiful, radiant smile adorned Selene's face.
"Okay! That's rare!" Valerius exclaimed, shocked by the smile on his queen's face.
"Thus, I consider this mage duel concluded. As customary, with the challenger's loss, they or their family must send a reward to the challenged. The Ferrox Umbra family has seven days to fulfill the duel's vows," Elian finished, walking toward the castle with Glenn by his side.
**
"Can't you help me even a little?" I asked hoarsely, forcing myself to stay awake and not collapse right there.
"No! Walk firmly to the castle. Impressions are everything, boy!"
'One, two... one, two...'
My vision began to darken, the castle gates just a few steps away. I kept my walk straight and steady, and then everything went black. I don't know if I managed to fulfill Master Elian's last order.