Chapter 25: Chapter 25
As soon as the opponents rushed toward us, Tessia, Clive, and Lucas split apart. Tess took the left flank, taking Curtis, Clive decided to confront Claire, and Arthur, of course, didn't miss his chance, and was already moving toward Lucas, who was waiting for him calmly and with a haughty chuckle.
As far as I was concerned, our opponents had the advantage, and Arthur alone was worth it. I wish I could have fought him. But there was no time to worry about that now.
- Looks like it's just us, Ethan. - I concentrated, staring at my opponent, who stood tense, clutching two daggers in his hands.
- It would be an honor to fight you, Aaron. - He zigzagged at me.
- Let's see what Henry taught you..." I surrounded us with a barrier to keep us out of the way, and finally finished feeding the mana to the surrounding ground. - You shouldn't have given me any more time.
Earth pillars began shooting at Ethan from beneath the ground, trying to knock him out of his stride. A wind immediately rose up around Black, shielding him from some of the damage, and increasing his speed and maneuverability.
- How interesting..." I grinned, watching how easily Ethan dodged each pole. - Are you really using a spell that increases perception?
"Then, let's see how you stand up to it."
I stretched out my hand, and in front of my palm, a ball of fire formed. Getting bigger and bigger, it reached a radius of five meters, and then, I shot it straight at Ethan.
- Ahem... - distracted by the flames, the black-haired man lost sight of the pole that popped right out from under him, hitting him in the stomach. Black bent painfully, and the next second, floated away, disappearing. - Illusion!?
- From the left.
I looked sharply to my left, hearing Ethan's voice, but I caught a sudden fluctuation of mana to my right.
BOOM!
A powerful blast threw me back several meters, but I quickly got up, concentrating on my perception. Ethan was coming right at me, but it was only an illusion, the real one was right... behind me!
Turning sharply, I gravitationally pushed Ethan away, who was already ready to attack me again.
- Sound. So you're a sound deviant.
- Yeah." Instead of giving me time for another big spell, he lunged toward me with even more speed than before.
"He's dodging every pole... Is he using echolocation?" - I smirked, seeing that Ethan was already a meter away. With a wave of his hand, the ground beside me shot out at him, but before he got halfway there, he scattered a handful of dust, from the swing of his dagger, from which an unseen wave shot out.
"Vibrations!" - I recoiled, pushing Ethan away from me. "You can't let me get in range of the spell, or it'll be bad..."
- Then we'll have to mess up the landscape a little bit. - I slammed my hand into the floor, sending a lot of mana into the ground. The field shuddered, and big spikes started sprouting out of the ground at breakneck speed.
Ethan had not only good speed, but also agility, which, combined with his sensory ability, gave him enough mobility to keep shortening the distance between us without breaking the pace.
- Since you're so eager to get into close combat," the fire mana enveloped me, creating a flaming veil. - I'll do you that favor.
I lunged toward Ethan, shooting spikes and pillars from the ground in parallel, only less intensely. A tanto appeared in my hand, and dodging the vibration wave, we crossed blades.
Dodging the vertical swing of the daggers, I tried to stab him in the shoulder. Black ducked just in time to let my tanto pass over him, but he couldn't get away from the kick to the jaw. Ethan's daggers collected particles of sound mana, foreshadowing the impact with a vibrational wave, causing me to create a gravity barrier around myself that took the full impact.
Much to Ethan's dismay, his illusions were clearly visible to me because of the sound particles they contained. So, too, his illusion-based cheating fighting style wasn't working against me, and he was starting to give up on my pressure.
- Looks like your mana's almost depleted. - I said, blocking his daggers with my tanto. - What are you going to do now?
His expression was still stoic, but there was excitement in his eyes.
I pushed him away with gravity and prepared for the final blow when I felt a sudden surge of mana. Though it was unprecedented folly to be distracted during combat, I relied on my perception and looked toward the surge of mana as I saw the Elfess lose consciousness.
"Curtis can't see her, and has already cast a rather powerful fire spell," Professor Glori noticed it too, and rushed to Tessia with all her might, but she couldn't get there in time. "Things are bad..."
Electricity ran through my nerves even more intensely, maximizing perception. The flames of fire flew slowly toward the Elfess, and I was too far away to have time to help. Still, I had to try.
I began to connect all the earth's mana particles into the atmosphere, fitting the path from myself and to Thessia to increase the speed of the spell's creation. My head began to buzz, the electricity seemed to start hurting my body, but I couldn't stop.
The flames were already halfway there when I used the particles to make an optimal path to the Elf, and all those particles soaked into the ground.
[...Accelerated Thinking skill gained]
Immediately after that, it got easier and my thinking speed increased. Taking all the mana from my reserve, I released it, converting it into a spell.
The whole field trembled violently, some students nearly falling over as a wall burst out of the ground with tremendous speed, starting from me, and gradually getting thicker and higher, it appeared right in front of Thessia.
BOOM!
As the fire collided with my wall of earth, I felt pain all over my body, which made me unable to reflect Ethan's vibrational wave. I fell to the ground, my head was humming, my whole body seemed to go numb. It was especially painful in the mana core area. I tried to feel my core with panic in my eyes.
"Ugh... it's fine, it just went to the next stage, going solid yellow, and it's already halfway to the light yellow stage..." - My relief, replaced by a frown as I saw the micro-cracks in my mana veins. - "I unleashed too much mana at once, just a little more..."
Ethan, who appeared above me anxiously shouted something, but because of the ringing in my ears I could not hear him. Abandoning my attempts, I looked back in the direction of the Elf, seeing her lying whole on the ground, and above her...Arthur.
"Where from! I could sense that he was far away from her, after all. How was he able to shorten the distance so quickly?" - I decided, to ask him about it later. - "Damn, my body's too weak...I can't even lift my head so I don't have to rest against this hard floor! Somebody lift me up already!"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone