The whole arena was silent in anticipation. Dark scorch marks and burning piles of debris were littered everywhere.

Jude stood perfectly clean inside the center of the largest scorched area.

Serena, some distance away, first looked frustrated, but it didn’t last long. A smile spread across her face as she said, “Do you think that this is all I have?”

“Grow!” she commanded her magic once again.

More runes grew out of the ground, this time they weren’t surrounding Jude but Serena herself. Jude noticed that the runes this time were also different and the new Foundation quickly took shape. This time, the plant runes burst forth with an innumerable number of vines that quickly grew upwards, interchanging with each other. In a matter of moments, there was now a fortified tower made of wood magic that had sword-like thorns growing out of it.

Serena sat at the very top in a meditative posture and eyes closed. She spoke out for everyone to hear, “I call this my Thorn Fortress. It’s offense and defense are incomparable to the likes of you.”

Jude was truly impressed, Serena’s handle of both Foundations and her magic was indeed exquisite. It was too bad that her personality did not match up to her skill.

However, Jude would not let her know these thoughts and instead put on a bored expression.

“Isn’t calling it a fortress a little too much? It can just barely be called a tower, and even that is giving it extra credit.” Jude said back.

Serena fumed at Jude’s words but quickly calmed herself. Instead of using words to fight back, she sank into the tower itself.

This action caused Jude to worry, Serena was using this ‘fortress’ to give her a convenient place to recover her mana through meditation. The tactic was quite solid as she would easily be able to win a war of attrition with any wizard of the same level. Given enough time, Jude would run out of mana while she could remain at her peak.

But during all this, Jude had not been idle, nor would he let such a situation remain. During this small intermission, Jude worked up one simple spell and started formulating his next.

Even as they were speaking Jude had pulled out his large brush. The bristle end was the size of a mop, but stiffer to handle inks and paint. When Serena descended, Jude touched the tip of his staff onto the brush activating a control spell over it.

Jude could have used Telekinesis to control the brush, but since he didn’t have practice using it that way, it would have been like writing with his left hand. This control spell, however, gave him an almost printer like quality as he could have the brush paint out any design he imagined in his head.

With a single thought, the brush had already started furiously writing across the blackened ground. But because the ink was black as well, no one knew exactly what was being drawn.

The thorns on Serena’s fortress continued to grow until they were the size of spears. A glint of purple could be shinning across their black surface.

Once they reached their maximum size, they began to launch themselves into the sky. However, Serena did not seem to be in direct control over the Foundation as the thorn spears launched haphazardly. The area effect was quite large, but it did center over Jude.

Even with the quick movement of the brush, it wouldn’t be done by the time the spears arrived. Jude slapped his bracer, activating the Spectral Shield just in time as a random spear came his way. The spear struck his shield, and with a piercing sound like metal rubbing against metal, it borrowed its way passed it.

Jude could not dodge out of the way in time and suffered a major hit to his health pool. He now realized that there was something special about these thorn spears. He speculated that they had a similar power to that of Serena’s absorption abilities. But rather than focus on absorbing, she had used it to bypass magic defenses.

This girl was terrifying.

Getting hit had caused Jude’s control over the brush to falter somewhat, but once he regained his composure, it continued writing.

The Foundation Jude was setting up was nearly done, but now that he knew about the thorn spears ability to penetrate through magical barriers, he would need to make some adjustments. Making changes to Jude’s Foundations was relatively easy, and the time he spent using them in the Valley Maze proved to be a worthwhile experience. Jude simply added a fluctuation of elemental binding to the shield. This type of shield was usually elementless, but by fluctuating the elemental base of the shield, he could stop or at least slow down the absorption piercing of the thorn spears.

The changes were made quickly, and with the wide span of spears, Jude didn’t have to dodge another one, but he did have to keep a close watch on them. Either Serena or her fortress seemed to have taken notice, and the next wave of spears flew into the sky like a full host of arrows. It looked as if a dark cloud had risen up.

“Activate,” Jude said, and he pushed mana into the Foundation.

A shield rose up and encompassed a large area around Jude. At first, it was a clear white, then firey red, then a teal. The colors continued to change faster and faster until it had a multi-colored face like that of a soap bubble. But unlike a bubble, it did not pop as the multitude of spears came raining down.

Inside the thorn fortress, Serena had a shocked expression. The piercing abilities of her magic were something she had worked long and hard on. She knew there were ways to overcome it, but never had she thought of what Jude was doing. The Wizards of Geonar all focused on a single element, how could they ever imagine a day when they would see another person use multiple elements simultaneously. She knew that the white was elementless but the teal and red were wind and fire respectively.

After identifying the elements, Serena quickly cooled down. Combining Fire and Wind? So what? Those two elements go hand in hand. Distain filled her eyes as she thought this, If you need one element to bolster another element, then your control of a single element is lacking.

However, the results were quite effective. Her thorns could not penetrate the Foundation but bounced off like needles against a steel plate.

But so what if you can protect yourself. Your foundation can only keep you safe, what can you do against me? She thought again. I can stay here and meditate and fill up my mana while you will slowly be drained by the use of your Foundation.

Foundations drew heavily on the mana from the environment but still required the user to invest mana into it unless it was powered another way. If not, a Foundation's like the ones Jude and Serena were using would eventually run dry and disappear.

Jude’s mana reserve wasn’t lacking just yet, but what he really needed was enough time to formulate his next spell. He needed something that wouldn’t be overly taxing, but still, annihilate Serena’s fortress in one move.

His first idea was the create a massive lava golem, but the complexity and mana requirements were just too high. However, the thought was on the right track. After a couple of minutes of formulating and simulating Jude had established his spell while Serena was patiently playing out the war of attrition.

“Lava Pool,” Jude cast his the first of the new spells.

The surface between Jude’s Foundation and Serena’s turned steaming hot. The stage’s checkered blocks quickly turned black then started to crack. Red lines of heat then began shining through as the pieces of the surface began to sink. Before long a small area completely turned into boiling lava.

But Jude had barely waited for the lava to form when he cast his next spell, “Lava Shot!”

I really need to invest in coming up with better names, Jude thought to himself. Perhaps I can buy a thesaurus in town. Or maybe just think it through. Let's see, Shot… could also be bolt, arrow, missile projectile. Lava Bolt? Yeah, I should have gone with lava bolt.

From the lava pool that formed between them, a large globule of lava burst out and shot towards the thorn fortress. Before landed, Jude made sure that it burst, covering a large portion of the fortress with red-hot lava. In the process of bursting the lava shot, Jude also made use of this action to disperse his own mana from the spell to keep Serena from absorbing it.

Serena, however, had no plans to absorb this spell. She knew this the moment she saw the lava pool form. While she could absorb magic and elements into her plants, it was only possible for it to happen one at a time. Lava was both the elements of Fire and Earth; there was no way for her to absorb them, at least not yet.

While this was outside of her expectations, she did not panic. A tap of her staff and she teleported to the east side of Jude’s Foundation. Another tap and she was behind. Then a final tap she and she was on the west side. Each time she stopped she scatter seeds and commanded them to grow.

Jude had been concentrating on his forward assault and did not notice Serena use her teleportation as her first fortress was still standing, albeit burning down. Serena had also been very quick as all three new thorn fortresses were being created nearly at the same time. By the time Jude noticed, Serena was already at the third site, spreading her seeds.

“Lava Shot! Lava Shot!” Jude shouted, still wishing he had come up with a better name.

Jude’s Foundation could easily handle one thorn fortress, but the combined strikes from three would tear it down. His first move was to destroy the ones to the sides of him, then take care of the one behind. But Serena wasn’t just creating more of these foundations; she had other tricks up her sleeves.

“Briar Patch Thorn Wall!” She commanded her foundations.

Large hedges of thorn vines sprouted in front of the fortresses. The two lava shots hit them and started to burn them away leaving the fortresses safe. But unexpectedly, before the thorn walls could be completely consumed, they slung themselves like a catapult, not only ridding themselves of the lava but flinging it back towards Jude.

Jude had already dispersed his magic out of this lava, so it became an element that could damage him back. The lava hit Jude’s shield causing it to quiver, making Jude have to invest more mana into it, to restabilize it.

Serena’s laughter sounded across the stage as she said, “Is this all you amount to? So what if you are a demon slayer. It must have been a demon worm. Ha ha ha.”

Jude’s heart was riled, but he knew that he couldn’t let it get the best of him. He had to take a cold look at the situation.

Serena now had three active foundations. While her mana upkeep would be great, she could meditate in peace while in her fortresses. Now that she had three, she could teleport to any of them, and it would be hard for Jude to track as the foundations themselves would hinder Jude’s Area Analyze. But then he remembered that he had another skill. Foundation Analyze!

“Lava Shot,” Jude said. He didn't just use Foundation Analyze as he didn’t want to give away that he was up to something.

This time the Lava Shot went high into the air where it burst, creating lava rain.

Lava Rain! That’s so much better a name. Next time I will use that from the start, Jude thought.

The thorn wall could not block the lava rain nor could it shoot it back. However, it had lost some of its power as it cooled during the fall. Jude would have to optimize the spell for this to be more efficient, but he was more preoccupied with his Foundation Analyze.

“Lava Shot,” at the same time he did not let up on his assault. Already the other two fortresses were launching attacks onto Jude, the one that the lava rain was falling on was having trouble keeping its thorns intact. But still, the pressure of the remaining to fortress attacks were already enough to make Jude worry.

However, Jude was getting interesting results back with his Foundation Analyze. Much like Area Analyze, the Foundation was composed of many different mana conduits, though because it was made with Wood Magic, they all consisted of the wood element. However, the structure of the conduits was much more like in the pattern of the Modicuit rather than in an area where they flow in a natural pattern. This reminded Jude a lot of the nodes in Allur Forest, although the complexity was simple by comparison.

Peeling back the cover and viewing what was underneath the Foundation let Jude quickly find all the inputs, outputs, and internal structure. Finding the weak points, however, was not as simple. But seeing the overall structure gave Jude yet another clever idea.

“Lava Shot,” he shouted once again.

The only problem was that his mana was starting to get strained. This made him all the more wish he still had the meditate skill. Especially with Serena flaunting her own use of it. He remembered the simple structure of it and wished that he could somehow recreate it. It was the one skill that he was never able to control fully because of its passive nature. Just activating it would cause the spiral-like circuitry to draw in mana.

If only he were able to reproduce it.

Or could he?

He knew he couldn’t do it inside the Modicuit, creating circuitry was all angles and straight lines. The primary component to Meditate was a spiral circuit. However, with his knowledge of Foundations and script writing, perhaps it was possible to recreate it on the ground.

“Lava Shot,” he cast out of habit.

The brush was still out and had the control spell still active. He still had a firm grasp of what the circuitry looked like, could it possibly work as a Foundation?

Jude’s shielding foundation was written mostly to the edges, so when the brush started moving again, it started creating a new foundation inside the first. The spiral-like structure of the Meditate circuit began to take shape around him. However, for this to work, Jude had to invert the original circuit because now it was on the outside. Otherwise, he would end up drawing mana out of himself.

“Lava Shot,” he cast again.

The circuit was almost too simple, and the new Foundation quickly took shape. As soon as he activated it, he got a ding of a notification.

Meditate Field

You have entered a meditation field. While in this area you will gain the effects of meditation.

Jude smiled, this was awesome! Now he could not only get the effects of Meditate, he could also actively use his spells!

“Lava Shot!” He laughed creating more lava rain down on the single thorn fortress that he had been attacking. By this point, fires were starting to spread across it, but it was still standing.

Ding~!

Jude got another notification, and he could not believe his eyes.

He quickly checked his Modicuit just to make sure it was true! Yet there it was, completely there. How could this have happened?

He rechecked the notification.

Meditate skill restored.

Meditate advanced to Rank V.

Was this possibly the way to restore his Modicuit?! Even though he was in battle, he checked his Modicuit once again.

It was true.

The skill had been perfectly restored. All the damage around it had been made new.

Bringing himself back to the present, Jude now concentrated on the battle at hand. This battle was one of life and death. He could look into the Modicuit problem later.

“How is your mana?” Serena cried out from one of the forts. “You must be about dried up right? I noticed that you didn’t meditate between the previous matches. I’m guessing a country bumpkin like you doesn’t even know what it is so I will tell you. It is a way to recuperate your mana at a fast rate.

“While you have been fighting for your life, I have been sitting back and relaxing. All the while regaining my mana. However, you have been pouring out your mana like a sieve. I imagine that you can only cast one or two more spells, then your shield will go down and I will take you apart piece by piece.

“I will pin you to the ground with my thorns, then skin you alive like the dog you are. But don’t worry. I will keep your skin as a rug and make sure to wipe my feet with it every night. That way your pathetic life will have some use. At least at the end of it.”

Jude laughed loudly, “What a bunch of bull crud. How could any wizard not know what Meditate is? But don’t worry, my state of mana is just fine. But I wonder, how is yours? Keeping up three Foundations can’t be easy. I bet you have to keep meditating so that you don’t lose mana too quickly. Let's just see who can outlast who!

“Lava RAIN!”

During her ignorant rant, Jude had optimized the Lava Shot spell into the rain mode. Now when the lava shot up into the air and burst into rain, it didn’t lose any of its attack power. Instead, the little globules of fiery rock rained down like miniature fireballs. This made the mana cost skyrocket, but the power went up as well.

The first target was the already half-ruined fortress which could not hold up to a single casting of the spell. Next Jude targeted the one to the other side, the lava rain seemed to fall randomly, but in fact, it was targeting the inputs. With the inputs burnt away, there was no way for Serena to control or input mana into the Foundation, substantially weakening it. This fortress fell even faster than the last as they seemed to fall at the same time.

After all this, the last fortress gave way even quicker as Serena had apparently given up on it.

“I don’t care if you’ve destroyed my Foundations,” Serena shouted from a distance, “If you think you can defeat me, then you are dreaming. As long as I have this staff, I can effortlessly evade all your attacks.”

“Then let’s take it up a notch,” Jude replied.

Take it up a notch? Serena frowned at this comment. She had already taken it up a notch, what else could Jude do?

“Lava Rain!” Jude cast once again.

Serena smirked, Lava Rain was a good area of effect spell, but with the size of the arena and her ability to teleport, there was no way she would let herself get caught in it.

However, this time instead of a single spurt of lava shooting out of the lava pool, the whole stage started to shake like there was an earthquake. Then, the entire pool of lava shot into the air. It soared high into the air before bursting into the lava rain.

Serena looked up to the darkening sky above with horror as she watched the flaming embers fall with an eerie light. The scope of this spell covered the entire stage. Still, Serena was not one to give up so easily. However, her wood magic would not protect her from this rain.

Just as the rain was about to fall on her, a smirk flashed across her face as she tapped her staff on the ground and teleported away. When she reapeared, she was on top of Jude’s shield!

Laughing she said, “I bet you didn’t expect me to go here right? But I knew you would not hit yourself with your own spell-“

Her words cut off when she looked below to see that Jude was no longer there. Then she realized that a piece of cold metal was now laying across her neck.

Jude, who was standing behind her with his sword across her neck said, “I could easily do to you what you said you would do to me, but I’m not the same kind of evil person that you are. However, that doesn’t mean I won’t kill you if you don’t give up.”

Even with how Serena had treated him, Jude didn’t want to kill her. It wasn’t that he wanted to play the hero, rather it just the right thing to do. That was just who he was.

“NEVER!” she shouted as she brought her staff down. In her mind, she could easily teleport out of any situation. But this time she had made one fatal mistake. Before her staff could touch down a feeling of weightlessness overcame her. Time slowed down as the shield under her disappeared. Her staff had nowhere to tap, and because of that, she could not teleport away. Then she felt the cold blade at her neck warm as her falling made it slide heavily across her throat.

The last thing she heard was the whisper of Jude, “Just remember, I offered you freedom, but you choose the path that leads to death.”

Then she sunk into the eternal darkness.