“What the hell is that?”
“What’s happening?”
Those who witnessed the massive fireballs bursting like rubber balloons stood with their mouths agape.
“Lord Hayden canceled his magic… No, that’s not it…”
“Why are they exploding when they were flying just fine?”
“Something really small was flying from over there.”
“Was that magic?”
Those with poor eyesight among the servants from both families sitting in the back rows couldn’t even properly notice that Cain had summoned extremely thin and sharp Fire Needles.
“Crazy. Did that bastard Cain really pierce through all of those? With Fire Needles?”
“Is that possible?”
“I saw him pierce through everything during the last sparring match.”
The 2nd and 3rd floor disciples looked at Cain with expressions of disbelief.
Meanwhile,
“He didn’t pierce through them. He made them self-destruct.”
The 4th and 5th floor disciples saw through the essence of what had just occurred.
“It looks like he used expansion techniques to apply pressure, but when you increase the numbers to that extent, instability is inevitable.”
In reality, considering the amount of mana contained in Hayden’s magic, it wouldn’t be easy to dig all the way to the core in the center, no matter how precisely one attacked.
So instead of targeting the fireball’s core, Cain used Fire Needles to poke at the parts where mana was most unstably raging, like pressing pressure points.
As a result, the already unstable mana flow inside the fireballs became rapidly entangled, and instead of cleanly dispersing like when the core is pierced, they exploded noisily.
“If you have good eyes for seeing mana, you can spot the unstable parts… But to think of hitting each one with Fire Needles to make them explode.”
“What guts.”
“Heh. I like it. Right, Neville?”
“Well, not bad.”
“That’s high praise. Cain would be pleased to hear that.”
However, no emotional change could be found in the eyes of Cain, who had performed that gutsy action.
‘Noisy.’
Well, it was true that he had done well.
He was capable of pre-calculating coordinates to hit all the heads of moving yetis, so hitting the unstable parts of such sluggish fireballs was an easy task.
Strictly speaking, he hadn’t pierced through them entirely with his own power, and all the Fire Needles he had summoned in the process had been destroyed as well.
But Cain didn’t particularly care.
Just as Hayden’s purpose was to show a clear victory, Cain’s purpose was also to show a clear victory.
‘It would be entirely possible to subdue him quickly and finish in one go. But if I end it that way, there’s a high chance the opponent won’t accept it gracefully.’
There were more than ten ways to exploit the simple-minded Hayden’s openings that came to mind immediately.
But if he achieved victory that way, they would obviously complain that it was just a lucky coincidence.
‘They said they’d accept the outcome cleanly, but the opponent is Bederman.’
The fact that they dragged a funding dispute they had already lost into a one-on-one duel was disgraceful to begin with.
Could one guarantee they wouldn’t do more disgraceful things in the future?
That’s why Cain needed to achieve a victory that was clearly not coincidence or luck—a solid and weighty victory that anyone could see.
“Damn…! Since you don’t have the firepower, you’re trying to win with tricks!”
Hayden began firing magic spells in a rage.
“Fire Arrow! Flame Spear!”
“Fire Arrow. Flame Spear.”
But from this point on, it was actually simpler.
For magic that wasn’t stupidly enlarged like the Fire Balls, he just needed to respond precisely with the same type of magic.
Swoosh.
Cain’s magic precisely split the arrowhead of the Fire Arrow and deflected the Flame Spear’s body from the side.
“Flame Spear, acceleration.”
Rather, the one being pushed back when they used higher-level magic together was Hayden.
Eventually, Cain went on the offensive, even mixing acceleration techniques into his Flame Spears.
“Damn it, Fire Wall!”
Whoosh!
Though Fire Wall lacked physical force, it should have no problem blocking magic spells.
Especially if one had sufficient mana like Hayden, it would never be pierced no matter how many shots came.
Pop pop pop.
In an instant, three large flame spears—Flame Spears—flew over and embedded themselves in the Fire Wall one after another, but they couldn’t pierce through.
“Heh. Yeah, no matter how you try to block it, you can’t break through in the end.”
Hayden’s lips curved upward.
After all, if the other side couldn’t break through, it was a fight that Hayden, who had superior mana capacity, was bound to win.
But
Whoosh!
“…!”
At that moment, another Flame Spear flew in and embedded itself in the Fire Wall.
This time too, it couldn’t completely pierce through.
“What the…”
But its spear tip was blazing brightly, having poked its head through to the other side of the Fire Wall, right in front of Hayden’s eyes.
And then.
Screech!
Before he could figure out what was happening, the last Flame Spear pierced through the Fire Wall in one go and flew toward Hayden’s head.
“Ahhh!”
Hayden fell backward in surprise, landing on his bottom.
The Flame Spear, having slowed down from colliding with the Fire Wall, barely grazed over Hayden’s head.
“What is this…!”
Hayden struggled to keep the Fire Wall from being completely dispelled while catching his breath.
“How did you…”
As Hayden showed great confusion, the arena buzzed with commotion.
Then Cristian Sears, who had been watching the duel quietly with his arms crossed, spoke up.
“Better than I thought. Brother.”
Finally receiving Cristian’s acknowledgment, Blake Sears grinned and replied.
“Right? Honestly, I was surprised too. He just achieved 3rd Circle, but he already perfectly understands the characteristics of Fire Wall and persistently exploited its weakness.”
The fundamental difference between Fire Wall and defensive magic of other attributes.
That was.
“It must continuously ‘burn.'”
While earth and ice barriers only need to maintain their form well once created, Fire Wall must continuously circulate mana within a certain range while generating upward-burning force from bottom to top.
Cain used this characteristic of Fire Wall to embed Flame Spears in a straight line from bottom to top and maintain them there, interfering with the upward flow of mana.
As a result, the higher up they went, the deeper the Flame Spears could dig into the Fire Wall.
The fifth Flame Spear was able to completely pierce through the Fire Wall.
“Indeed, Ed and Fon’s eyes we-weren’t wrong.”
Wayne Shears, who had been watching anxiously from the side, also brightened up.
Cristian turned his head away with a “tch,” seemingly regretting his earlier words.
“Flame Spear, acceleration.”
Cain immediately created a new Flame Spear for the next attack.
‘I’ve neutralized all attack magic and pierced through defensive magic. This should be enough to prove my skills. Time to wrap this up.’
If the opponent were a skilled mage with keen senses, they might immediately grasp the situation and block by twisting the direction of mana circulation within the Fire Wall—its grain.
But Hayden seemed to have neither the composure nor the skill for that.
“Ha, hahaha.”
Even now, wasn’t he laughing as if he’d lost his mind?
“Hahahaha, Cain. This bastard… I’ve been going easy on you until now, but you’re trying to crawl up to the very end!”
“Going easy…”
From his past life’s experience, everyone who had said those words had been defeated in the very next attack without exception.
“I didn’t want to go this far…”
Hayden suddenly dispelled his Fire Wall.
At the same time, Cain also dispelled his Flame Spear.
Hayden’s eyebrows twitched.
And the next moment, a massive amount of mana erupted from within Hayden’s body as if boiling over.
“Ahhhhh!”
The night before.
What Richter brought to Hayden was a small red pill.
“This is…? It looks like a potion… but it’s one I’ve never seen before.”
“It’s a Circle Drafter. An elixir that lets you use flame magic one level higher just by taking it.”
“Magic one Circle higher…?”
As Hayden’s mouth fell open, Richter nodded.
“Of course, it’s not a permanent effect. It lasts 48 hours after taking it, and it’s useless if a 5th Circle or higher mage takes it. But for you right now, it’s the perfect elixir.”
This was an elixir passed down through generations in the Bederman family, originally created so that lower Circle disciples could be given it during emergencies when the family’s full power needed to be mobilized.
“You’re giving this to me…”
Hayden hesitated when Richter first offered him the elixir.
Not because his conscience bothered him, but because his pride was hurt.
“Do you think I’ll lose to Cain without taking this?”
But Richter, who had expected Hayden to react this way, calmly persuaded him.
“Hahaha! Of course not. But since the opponent has funding at stake, who knows what dirty tricks they might pull. We need at least one countermeasure. This funding is no small amount for us either.”
“That’s true, but…”
“Just keep it with you. If a situation doesn’t arise where you need 4th Circle magic, you don’t have to use it. This is just in case.”
“…I understand. Father.”
Hayden was grateful he had listened to his father’s words then.
Right now, pride and all that didn’t matter—he only wanted to finish off Cain, who was looking at him with that insufferable expression.
“Flame Road!”
With Hayden’s incantation, a pillar of fire shot up from beneath his feet.
The pillar instantly spread to both sides, reaching the ends of the field.
“There’s nowhere to run!”
And like oil had been poured, it began extending across the dueling ground, threatening to cover the entire field.
“That’s…”
“Flame Road? Isn’t that 4th Circle magic?”
“What? Why is 4th Circle appearing here?”
“Wasn’t Lord Hayden at 3rd Circle proficiency level?”
“Did he achieve 4th Circle without saying anything?”
“This is cheating! Young Master Cain, what do we do!”
“Well, there was no mention of Circles before starting, so it’s probably not exactly cheating…”
“Whose side are you on?”
The Sears family members were aghast.
“When did Lord Hayden achieve 4th Circle?”
“Right. I didn’t know either.”
“So he had been hiding a trump card!”
“Looking like he was losing until now must have been for dramatic effect!”
“Nice!”
The Bederman family’s spectator section was about to transform from a funeral atmosphere to a festival atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Cain looked at the approaching flames with interested eyes.
“Flame Road…”
There was no way Hayden had achieved 4th Circle in that short time.
Given Hayden’s personality, if he had achieved 4th Circle, he would have bragged about it loudly enough for even mountain village woodcutters to hear.
Which meant.
‘Circle Drafter, huh.’
Cain knew somewhat about Circle Drafters.
When they waged large-scale war against Desmond’s followers, the Bederman family had given Circle Drafters to disciples below 5th Circle to boost their combat power.
‘It seems the manufacturing method has been secretly passed down well until now.’
But even if Cain argued here about Circle Drafters and elixirs being cheating, it would be useless.
Circle Drafter was an elixir that even the Flameforce family couldn’t figure out how to make, and there was no way to distinguish between those who had taken it and those who hadn’t.
By now, probably only the family head and a few others in the Bederman family would know about the existence of Circle Drafters.
‘I understand the drug effect lasts about two days… Then there’s even less way to prove it.’
There was only one way to prove Hayden had taken the elixir.
Since Circle Drafter couldn’t be retaken within a certain period, after the drug effect wore off, ask Hayden to use 4th Circle magic again.
If he couldn’t, it would prove he had used underhanded methods at the time.
‘But after the duel ends, Hayden will return to his family, and once he goes back and trains further to achieve 4th Circle, there will be no way to catch evidence.’
They didn’t believe until the end that Cain had killed an Ice Troll, but they must have been anxious.
Or maybe they didn’t trust Hayden.
Honestly, if Cain used his full power now, he could somehow endure even Hayden’s 4th Circle magic with 3rd Circle magic.
‘I could modify Fire Wall a bit and surround myself with it seamlessly.’
But enduring would be all he could do.
Cain had no intention of ending this duel that way.
‘If you’re going to use underhanded methods to show 4th Circle magic… I should show something befitting that too.’
For the first time, a faint smile appeared on Cain’s lips.
Cain reached out his hand toward the flames that had already covered more than half the field.
And he quietly incanted.
“Fire Wall.”
A wall of fire rose in front of Cain.
Seeing this, Hayden snorted.
“Hahaha! Try blocking it with something like that!”
But Cain paid no attention.
“Fire Wall.”
Cain began casting Fire Wall consecutively, connecting them together.
First to the sides, then forward.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh!
Cain concentrated all his mental power, performing the repetitive task in an instant.
And the work grew faster and faster.
The procession of connected Fire Walls became.
“Th-that’s…”
“Flame Road…?”
“That’s impossible!”
It was just like the Flame Road that Hayden was casting.
‘Implementing magic one Circle higher is like implementing magic from a dimension above. That’s why higher magic cannot be implemented without the Circle as a conversion device.’
Even Cain couldn’t be free from such fundamental constraints of magic.
‘But.’
Whoooosh!
Like calculating the multiplication of numbers with many digits using only addition—in a simple and honest way.
‘I can make something roughly similar.’
Cain had created a phenomenon similar to Flame Road by calculating and connecting Fire Walls countless times in an extremely short period.
“Impossible.”
“That’s possible…?”
ROAAAAAR!
The Flame Road Cain created surged forward powerfully, soon clashing with Hayden’s.
‘Of course, this is crude compared to the Flame Road I’ll cast after directly achieving 4th Circle in fire magic myself.’
But that alone would be enough to devour the Flame Road that Hayden was using with the help of an elixir.
ROAAAAAR—
“Cr-crazy…!”
Cain’s magic greedily consumed Hayden’s Flame Road as it advanced.
“Th-this is cheating! This makes no sense! Ahhhhhhh!”
Soon it engulfed the panicked Hayden.
And at that moment.
“Enough!”
With Rowen’s voice announcing the end of the duel echoing through the arena, the flames that had covered the dueling ground vanished like a blown-out candle.
