Chapter 58: Lance(s) vs Shield
The entire group of us, consisting of the kings and queens, Lances, Virion, me and an entourage of servants and guards made our way to the same training field I had battled the Royal guard. I was at the head of the line with Virion just behind me with Alduin and Merial, Blaine and Priscilla were on my right.
"2 visits to the castle and both resulted in you 'sparring'. If I didn't know you I would say you do these sort of things on purpose." Blaine looks toward as we walk.
"Seeing is believing as they say, but it is quite troublesome sometimes." Was my response and I hear chuckling from behind me so I look over my shoulder to see that it was Virion.
"You have quite the confidence for someone about to take on the 6 strongest mages in the continent. I must say you intrigue me, Rez." I merely nod before facing forward again.
"I don't know, something tells me there are some hidden gems waiting to show their full potential." I could feel the small gaze at the back of my head from Virion, I'm sure Arthur was his first thought when I said that. We arrived to the training field before he could respond.
"I'll take you on first, I wouldn't want you to claim you lost because you were tired from a previous battle." Bairon stepped forward, but a couple others jumped in.
"Wait! No fair, I wanted to fight him first! As a sound mage as well, I feel it's my duty to test him." Aya Grephin approached Bairon.
"Calm down everyone. I planned on fighting you all at the same time anyways, to get this over with faster. Why do you think I said 'test the teamwork of the Lances'?" Everyone's jaw drops as they stare at me and I just see Bairon fuming.
"You underestimate us!" He growls out as he channels a bolt of lightning and shoots it at me. Everyone's jaw drop once again as I catch and then disperse the lightning bolt.
"No. I just know your limits. A competent White core mage is worth more than a few silver cores." I walk to one side of the field and summon out my staff that I had gotten from the Royal treasury during my first visit.
"Alright, lets get this spar started. Unless you all need to warm up of course?" I gaze at them while whirling the staff around my body in fanciful flourishes before bringing it to rest horizontally across my back with my arms draped over it. They looked between each other and I noticed Alea step off beside Virion. Feeling my gaze she gave a slight smile before speaking.
"I know when I'm outmatched, I think I'll watch this from a safe spot." I chuckled and looked at the other 5 Lances.
"Well? Are you 5 ready?" I question them as I watch them line up in front of me. Bairon in the center, with Aya to his left and Olfred to his right, Varay on the far left and Mica on the far right. Mana fueled their bodies, only Bairon was an augmenter, the rest would most likely fight from a distance. Though Mica does have that hammer she likes to use.
"Virion, if you could do the honors." He nods and raises his hand into the air.
"Fight!" He yells as he brings his hand down. Seems he's not one to delay something. I immediately felt the sound magic Aya sent my way. She was an illusion expert with her magic which is something that I haven't really dabbled in yet, let me learn from this as well. I blocked the effects with my one sound magic, but I focused on how her mana flowed and I picked up on a few things.
Rather than attacking the ears, she seems to try and coerce them into interpreting things the way she wants them too. Her sound magic also has intent placed into it, and that intent is for me to remove my mask. So being the good sport I am, I begin to reach my hand up to my mask and I can see her smirk. Only until the mana string I had sent underground wrapped around her ankle and surges some lightning mana through it.
A pain filled grimace spreads across her faces as she tries to jump away from the pain. Luckily for her, Varay was there and sliced the string from her foot with an ice sword.
"You're the first who has been able to see my mana strings. Interesting." All of them tensed again and this time it wasn't just a person attack, but they all began forming attacks. I could feel gravity begin increase, and the next moment a lightning clad Bairon was in front of me. A fierce look on his face as he swung down with sword coated in lightning as well.
I met my staff with his sword and reversed the charge on the lightning, causing it to disperse. The look of shock on his face caused me to laugh inwardly but he didn't pull back. He increased the pressure of his sword and the gravity increase with it, a pillar of ice and a pillar of rock shot out from opposing sides. Ahhh, they are going slightly slower than the they could to Telegraph their attacks to their teammates. However for someone like me, it basically like they are telling me they are going to attack without saying it.
I shift my staff's point of contact with Bairon's sword so that the ends of the staff hit the pillars coming towards me. Channeling sound magic to vibrate the staff, causes Bairon to jump back while the pillars where turned to dust. Aya tried another thing of sound magic carried on a wind made by her wind mana, but I just formed a wind barrier around myself.
"Aya, your magic is useless against me. Sorry, but you should go to… sleep." Having coated my voice with another bit of sound mana, that utilized how she did illusions, she fell asleep on the battlefield. Everyone looked at her and then back to me with slight shock.
"I'm a terrible match up for her, and now that I know how to use sound to create illusions, she doesn't need to be in this spar anymore." Conjuring some wind around her body I move her off the battlefield next to Alea. This time Mica and Bairon attacked at the same time, she was lessening the gravity in the both of them and their weapons while increasing mine. Might as well repay the favor.
I continued to twirl the staff to parry and block their rapid strikes and when they both swung at the same time from opposing sides, I slammed them to ground by increasing the air pressure of the sphere I had created. Having been fight with such low gravity had been detrimental as they were not prepared for the sudden shift.
"Sorry, I don't broadcast my attacks like all of you seem to do." I increased the pressure as they gritted their teeth at me, only for an ice wall to form in between us and then spikes shooting out towards me. Sorry to do this to you Varay, but ice magic just won't do you any good against me. I reach out a finger with a small, but bright blue flame bordering on white, and touch an ice spike that was coming for me.
It resulted in an explosion of steam and a mist quickly swirled and then evaporated around me as Bairon and Mica where sent flying back, getting caught by Olfred's constructs.
"Sorry Varay, but like Aya you don't have a chance against me." Her eyes grew sharp and she began forming hundreds of ices spears, and while they were flying towards me she began freezing the ground from her to me.
"We'll see about that." She says with an intense and focused face, but I just tap the staff to the ground and a blanket of flames spreads from it and beats back her ice floor. Mana strings wrap around the ice spears and I send them flying back at all the Lances, even Bairon who was trying to sneak up on me. They all dodged or were able to deflect the spears, but while they were doing that I used a trick I picked up from Cynthia.
I disappeared in a swirl of wind and sound magic and reformed behind Varay, with only the feeling of a new gust of wind to be her cue she formed an ice spike to shoot out at me from behind her. However she didn't get to see what happened next as I whipped out my staff to the back of her neck and knocked her out. I had to quickly throw her out of the way as both Mica and Bairon were charging at me.
I saw Alea catch Varay, and I met both Mica's hammer and Bairon's sword on my staff. This time they hadn't been fighting with decreased gravity, so I decided to do something different as well. Rather than increase the air pressure of the sphere I was forming, I made it become a vacuum that sucked all of the oxygen out of it. Both their eyes immediately widened and they could feel the oxygen rapidly leaving their lungs, as they frantically looked for an exit. Little did they know that I could move the sphere freely, I didn't have to be at the epicenter of it.
Only a few moments before they realized escape the normal way was futile and renewed their effort to attack me. They were off balance and stumbling towards me in their mad dash, so I just sidestepped their strikes. Desperation continued to grow as they were approaching unconsciousness, and that's when I dropped the vacuum. They immediately both gulped greedily for air and that's when I knocked them both out with quick strikes to the head. Leaving just me and Olfred.
Vines dragged off Mica and Bairon as I looked at Olfred. He was honestly the most interesting person to me out of all the Lances with his golems that he can create.
"And then there was one. I had hoped to see more of your magic, it's not everyday I get to observe someone who can use lava or create golems out of rock like you did at the tournament." Staff resting in one hand I stare at Olfred and he stares back unmoving.
"The battle is not over yet, though I don't see myself winning this." I chuckle at his word and with a flick of my wrist I spin the staff in my hand and for only the second time in the fight I approached someone first. The ground cracked under my feet from the force and the air provided no resistance as I swung my staff down like a bat, which Olfred grabbed with a hardened magma gauntlet he had formed.
I sent vibrations through the staff but before it could completely crumble the rock, he turned it back to magma though it was his eyes that widened in surprise.
"How did you staff not burn?" He questioned, but I pressed on as I answered.
"It's made of a special wood that is now extinct, ironwood, that has been specially forged into the staff with various magics. Harder than most minerals and lighter than a feather." All I got in response was a grunt as he caught my next strike with his magma armor that coated his right side. Spinning around, I come back with another bat like swing towards his other side and walls of rock begin to form. Smirking to myself I increase the power of my swing.
The swing easily parts the rock and continues toward Olfred and he finally jumps back using earth magic to give him a boost. And what I had been waiting for finally happened, he created 5 golems of magma that he sent to attack me. Only they all moved in such a predictable manner, seems his control isn't as good as it will become as a white core mage. That doesn't matter though, as all I really wanted was to see how the golems were formed and now I have.
"Thank you Olfred, I've learned what I wanted. Now I can end the spar." He looked at me quizzically only for a second as shock crossed his face again. I tapped my staff on the magma golems that had rushed towards. It was another magic I had been working on, stealing the heat of other materials.
With his concentration briefly broken, he was no longer supplying mana to keep them molten and even if he was I was able to steal the heat too quickly for him keep up. With each one I touched it lost its glow and then crumbled shortly after.
"How? Fire mages have never been able to counter my magma before?" I chuckle at him as I continue forward.
"Haha, you also haven't met someone like me before now either. Do you surrender? Or do you wish to keep fighting?" He only stares at me a few moments before closing his eyes and sighing and raising his hands up.
"I surrender, you've proven just how capable you are. And it seems you weren't even fighting at your full potential to lessen the injuries of us." I nod my head and turn back to the spectators that have grown since the spar began.
"Now, your majesties. I believe we can get back to the meeting, I'm sure we won't have anymore of these little scuffles after today." It was silent for a second until Virion began laughing and everyone looked at him strangely.
"What! Rez just defeated 5 of the strongest people in continent and he doesn't even seem to be breathing hard. If none of you can see the absurdity, then I don't know what to say. He may very well be the strongest mage in the entire history of Dicathen." Well i don't know about that, but I suppose it's definitely possible considering I'm half Asura. The group talked amongst themselves before finally Blaine stepped forward.
"Alright, alright. Everyone has had their fun and a reprieve from the mundaneness of meetings. But now lets return and finish going over everything for tomorrow. This is a huge announcement that will effect not only Sapin, but all of Dicathen." Everyone nodded solemnly and we took up a steady pace back to the room with the round table.
——————————————————————————Author's Note
Ugh, I need to stop writing these 'MC vs Multiple foes' it feels so weird to write and I can never tell if they are flowing nicely or even make sense. Or if people are attacking when they should be etc etc. I'll just hope for the best, that it was at least decent.
Also I'm sure comic only readers will be wondering why he's able to defeat them so easily when they are supposed to be super strong. Well that's mostly due to his half Asuran side. Even young Asuras were beating Arthur up when he was training with them, though that was without using magic just using mana to enhance their bodies. And another thing that I haven't really hinted too well at, but I'll probably have explained at least a little bit of it in the next chapter.
I tried to add some new bits of magic with the vacuum sucking out the oxygen, sucking out the heat of the magma, and then copying Director Good sky's ability to disappear and reappear with wind mana. I'm not exactly sure how that's done, as even the elf guards when Arthur and Tess arrive seem to do it, but surely they don't all have sound deviance? So I'm just gonna go with no explanation to how it works lol. It just does… cuz magic
Next chapter should skim over the announcement after Jaron receives the shield, and hopefully we'll be starting the true academy arc by at least the end of the chapter. I may do another scene from Arthur's POV for the student introduction thing, but probably not. Most likely will be told completely form Jaron's POV.
Thanks for reading.
-SocioPhobia
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