Chapter 120 - Duel For Leadership [II]

Chapter 120: 120 - Duel For Leadership [II]

The first collision sent a sharp CLANG! across the road.

Marcus’s heavier blade drove Kael half a step backward, but Kael turned his wrist and let the force slide away rather than trying to meet it directly.

Marcus attacked again immediately.

CLANG! CLANG!

Two more blows followed, each one heavier than the last. Kael blocked the first and slipped outside the second, his single-edged sword cutting across Marcus’s shoulder before the Knight could fully recover. The strike opened fabric and skin, but barely slowed him.

Adrien watched without blinking. Absolute Mana Sense showed the difference between them clearly. Marcus was pouring mana through his body, reinforcing muscle, bone and movement until every swing carried far more force than his frame alone should have produced.

Kael fought differently. He gave ground when necessary, changed angles constantly and refused to let Marcus turn the duel into a contest of strength. Then his free hand opened, and a compact sphere of orange fire formed above his palm.

[New Spell Observed: Fireball | 2 Stars]

[Affinity: Pyro]

[Aspect: Flame]

[Absolute Comprehension active]

[Comprehension: 100%]

The structure unfolded inside Adrien’s mind almost at once. Pyro mana gathered, compressed into a stable shell and ignited through its Flame Aspect before being launched. Simple compared to the higher-ranked spells he had studied, but far more destructive than most of his current Two-Star options.

A familiar pressure settled behind his eyes as the final part clicked into place.

[Spell Learned]

[Fireball | 2 Stars | Novice 0%]

’Another one.’ Adrien barely had time to process the notification before Kael released the spell.

The Fireball crossed the short distance between them and exploded against Marcus’s raised sword, flame rolling around the Knight’s guard and forcing him to turn his face away.

Kael stepped through the heat and slashed toward his ribs.

Marcus reacted on instinct, bringing his sword down with another violent CLANG! as Kael caught it at an angle, though the impact still drove him to one knee.

Marcus kicked him squarely in the chest. Kael flew backward and hit the dirt hard enough to tear a line through it before stopping, making several Bloodfang Wolves shift around the circle even though nobody crossed the boundary.

"Magic doesn’t make you stronger than me."

Kael pushed himself up, breathing harder now.

"I never said such a thing."

Marcus rushed him before he finished standing. Kael barely avoided the first cut, then took the second across the upper arm, blood darkening his sleeve immediately.

Adrien could see why Marcus had stayed leader for so long. He wasn’t elegant, but he understood pressure.

Every successful hit became another attack, and his Knight Path let him maintain a pace most opponents would struggle to survive.

Kael understood that too. Instead of retreating farther, he stepped inside Marcus’s next swing.

Their shoulders collided, Kael’s sword scraped across Marcus’s breastplate, and another Fireball appeared almost against the Knight’s chest.

Marcus twisted away before it fully connected.

BOOM!

Fire burst across the road, and Marcus emerged from it with part of his coat burning and a fresh mark across one side of his face, but his sword was already moving.

Kael blocked once, then twice.

The third strike broke through as Marcus’s blade drove toward Kael’s side, and several mercenaries sucked in a breath when steel appeared to pass straight through him.

Kael froze. His sword dipped toward the ground, and his body folded around Marcus’s weapon. From where most of the circle stood, the broad blade looked buried through his torso beneath his arm.

Marcus stopped with his face only a short distance away. For the first time since the duel began, satisfaction returned to his expression.

"You weren’t ready."

Adrien’s eyes narrowed because Absolute Mana Sense told him something was wrong.

Kael’s mana hadn’t collapsed, and more importantly, Marcus’s sword had never entered his body.

At the final instant, Kael had twisted just enough to trap the blade between his side and upper arm, clamping down around the flat of the weapon and using the angle to hide what he’d done. ’Sneaky bastard.’

Mana suddenly surged through Kael, not into his sword but into his free hand. Adrien’s attention snapped toward it as an unfamiliar spell structure began assembling, denser than Fireball and considerably less contained.

[New Spell Observed: Flamethrower | 3 Stars]

[Affinity: Pyro]

[Aspect: Flame]

[Absolute Comprehension active]

[Comprehension: 31%]

Pressure struck behind Adrien’s eyes immediately. Kael was already forming the spell, giving Absolute Comprehension only seconds to follow it, so Adrien focused harder and tracked how the mana was drawn forward, ignited and maintained as a continuous stream.

[Comprehension: 58%]

The ache sharpened, not enough to make him stop but far heavier than Fireball had been.

[Comprehension: 82%]

Kael raised his hand directly toward Marcus’s chest. Marcus finally noticed what was happening, but by then the last pieces had already settled into place inside Adrien’s mind.

[Comprehension: 100%]

[Spell Learned]

[Flamethrower | 3 Stars | Novice 0%]

A continuous torrent of fire erupted from Kael’s palm. At that distance there was nowhere for Marcus to go, and flames swallowed his chest, neck and face in an instant.

Marcus tore his sword free and staggered backward with a roar, mana surging through his reinforced body as he tried to escape the stream. Kael kept the spell on him, the flames extending barely two meters but becoming brutal within that range.

Fire poured over Marcus without giving him the moment needed to recover, burning through cloth and heating the metal around his body until even his Knight reinforcement couldn’t ignore it. Then Kael stopped casting, leaving Marcus badly burned but somehow still standing.

Marcus’s sword rose again. Kael was already in front of him, and their blades met with one final CLANG!, but Marcus no longer had the strength behind his guard that he’d shown earlier.

Kael knocked the weapon aside, stepped inside its reach and drove his single-edged sword forward.

The blade entered beneath Marcus’s ribs and punched through his back, stopping the older mercenary completely.

Kael held him there for a second before pulling the sword free. Marcus dropped to his knees, his manifested weapon dissolving beside him as the mana maintaining it disappeared.

No one around the circle spoke while Marcus tried to rise once more. His body failed him, and he fell forward onto the road as Adrien felt the Four-Star Mana Core inside him begin to fade.

The duel was over.