“A magic knight huh?” Sylvester commented upon seeing Artian’s transformation.

Meanwhile on the audience seats, Sylvester and Rossa were now more invested in the trial than they had been a while ago. While Artian’s little show was impressive in its own right, one thing caught their interest even more; Estelle.

“Did she just transform into an elf?”

“Did she just transform into an elf?”

Sylvester and Rossa stopped and looked at each other a little awkwardly after saying the same sentence at the exact same time. Not that it was anything strange really since they were seeing something unusual, but oddly enough, there was something about this spontaneous mimicry that caught Sylvester’s attention.

“Huh, are Elves a thing in their world as well?” Sylvester thought to himself, quite puzzled by this little bit of revelation. He wanted to let this new info stew in his head a little bit more, but his little bubble was immediately popped.

“Are these kinds of transformation spells or potions common in your world?”, Rossa asked Sylvester, her crimson eyes lighting up with a small spark of curiosity hidden underneath a layer of a strict rule of poise and elegance.

Sylvester was a little perplexed with Rossa suddenly initiating a conversation but after looking at her serious gaze, it was more than just for small talk. In turn he decided to answer her query with as much honestly and clarity as he can.

“If it’s a transformation used as a disguise, then yes. It’s normal.” He replied. “There are so many variations of spells that all result in an alteration of your appearance, but that-” He then removed his gaze from Rossa and placed them on the arena below.

“Is more than a simple change on the outside.”

Rossa looked at him for a bit longer, obviously in thought for a little. “I see” She replied.

“Thank you for your answer.” Rossa then retracted her own gaze and placed them below.

---

“Alright! Let’s do this Estelle!” Artian yelled, immediately charging forward towards the flying opponent. “Do try to keep up!” He added, smiling tauntingly at his fighting partner.

“Heh, speak for yourself!” Estelle replied in a similar cheeky fashion. She then poised herself as if she was holding an invisible bow, reeling her left arm backwards and aiming with the right, gathering mana into both hands and soon an illusory bow and string formed in her grasp.

She then pulled on the illusory string even further as a ball of energy started forming in front of the bow just a little out of reach from her other hand. She then carefully took aim towards the golem’s rurious red glare.

“Piercing shot!” She exclaimed, releasing bow string, relieving it from the tension.

The ball of light then shot out towards the Golem taking the shape of an arrow made of pure light. Even from an outsider’s perspective, it was several times more powerful than the spell Artian used earlier, Burst finger.

Recognizing the danger in front of it, the golem then avoided the attack with a swift sideways dodge immediately retaliating with a burst of its own. Estelle in turn dodged the attack with an artful sideways flip, firing another Piercing arrow in return.

Estelle and the Golem were now locked in a deadly dance of counter attacks and dodges, but this intricate balance was distured by Artian.

“Hey you big floating tin can, don’t forget about me!” Artian exclaimed as he gathered mana into his feet and prepared himself to jump.

“Air step!” A torrent of wind then formed on Artian’s feet propelling him high into the air at high speeds. He then placed the blade of his sword in front of him, his right hand barely touching the opposite end.

“Blessing of the air!” After these words, the blade wrapped in energy changed from a golden sheen, to a green soothing glow. The blade also became thinner and ethereal, different from its previous form.

Artian then reared his blade backwards gearing up for an attack, gathering mana into the sword itself.

“Eat this!” Artian’s voice caught the attention of the Golem and momentarily stopped its assault on the archer below.

“Wind slash!” Artian swung his glowing green blade towards the red target, a sharp torrent of wind then propelled from the blade, slicing it’s way through the air towards the golem.

The Golem’s eye then changed its color from red back to purple and its wings retracted, returning into the shape of a sphere. Artian’s attack was then rendered useless as the wind broke up as it made contact with the Golem’s invisible shield as indicated by the bright light and ripples that followed.

“Oh come on!” Artian complained as he still remained flowing in the air, just slightly below this opponent.

The golem’s eye then quickly turned back into red and assumed it’s more airborne form. With its attention now fully on Artian, it then retaliated by shooting Artian with its beam.

“Ah crap.” Artian reacted as he realized it was too late for him to try to dodge, and faced the incoming attack with the blade of his sword, splitting it into two streams of energy.

The attack itself was rather powerful and forcibly moved him from his position and caused him to violently crash into the ground forming a sizable crater and bit of rubble.

Before Estelle could react to what just currently transpired, Artian’s right hand then shot out of the pile of debris and dust.

“I’m okay, I’m okay.” Pulling himself up from the rubble and standing up once again, brushing off any dust caught on his clothes in a very off standish way.

Estelle’s figure then rushed over towards Artian as fast as she could. Her eyes containing just a little bit of worry. Artian seemed to sense what she was going to say and decide to interrupt her immediately.

“Nah-ah. I told you I’m fine.” Artian said as he raised his palm in front of Estelle.

“This much is nothing you know? Lighten up! Our mentor’s attacks are far worse than this you know.” He then flashed a smile and formed a thumbs up with his hand.

Estelle was silent for a moment and then made a deep breath and then lightly slapped her own cheeks.

“Okay, okay. If you say so.” She replied to Artian in a soft voice.

“Now, that’s over with. Man that thing is a little hard to crack. And this thing is supposed to phased out as well” Artian shifted the conversation into more current and relevant grounds.

Estelle regained her composure immediately and replied to Artian’s words. “We can assume that it becomes vulnerable when it starts turning red and flying all over the place.” Estelle added her own observations.

“Which means we need to hit hard before it turns purple. Simple enough.” Artian then prepared himself to charge forward once again.

“Since we kind of have an idea of what we need to do.” Artian then faced Estelle, and raised a corner of his lips forming into a smug hal smile.

“Let’s try playing baseball!”He declared as if it was the most obvious thing to do. Artian then swinged his blade into the air and caused the glowing green blade to turn back into its golden more solid form.

“Sure then, let’s try it.” To which Estelle easily agreed. The two of them pumped themselves up and once again charged up their drive and motivation.

“Round three let’s go!” Artian again leading the charge and Estelle once again covers for him, like they did just moments ago. This time however Artian ran to the right, and Estelle towards the left with the latter firing arrows at a much more aggressive pace.

“Piercing shot!” Estelle yelled once again and shot out an arrow towards their flying opponent. And just like her previous attempts, the golem easily avoided the projectiles headed towards and retaliated with its own.

Their intricate dance once again unfolded with Estelle shooting volley after volley all of which miss the mark. That was until she glanced where Artian was and saw him raising his hand, signalling that he was in position.

Dodging another incoming attack with a backflip while still upside down and hanging from the air from her last motion, she aimed while still upside down and hanging from the air, and sent her arrow towards the flying red eye in the sky, but this time she did something slightly different.

“Piercing shot!” She shot one arrow and immediately followed it up with another arrow, but aimed at where she predicted it would move to dodge the first one.

And just as expected the golem easily avoided the attack, but this is exactly what she wanted and most importantly, what Artian wanted.

“Air step!” Artian then once again shot himself into the air just behind the golem taking advantage of the fact that Estelle took all of its attention away from him. But their plan hinged on this one moment, when the Golem just finished dodging the first arrow.

Artian didn’t just jump behind the golem, he wanted to put himself directly in the path of Estelle’s first arrow.

“Got you now! Uraaaaagh!” Artian swung his blade with but using the blunt side instead, hitting the arrow and sending it back towards the golem grunting as he put in quite the effort.

The Golem wanted to dodge and get out of the way but Estelle’s second arrow came in perfectly timed, thus it was sandwiched between the two attacks causing damage to its wings massively crippling its mobility.

Seeing that their plan was successful, Artian charged in for the kill but the Golem hasn’t given up yet.

Even with its mobility massively impaired, it still retracted back into a sphere and changed the color of its eye to purple.

“Not giving up are ya? Then let’s see just how tough that stupid shield of yours is!” Artian declared as he raised himself high and then plummeted down when he let gravity take over.

“Blessing of fire!” Artian yelled as his golden blade grew twice in size and changed to an orange, lava like glow.

Using his downward momentum he then thrust his blade downwards toward the golem, it’s invisible shield lighting up in sheer stubborn resistance.

Artian’s strike was effective, but his sword only managed to penetrate a centimeter into the shield merely scratching the golem’s metallic surface.

“I’M NOT DONE YET! BLESSING OVERFLOW!” Artian then charged up more mana into the sword and its light grew even more intense and violent.

The golem’s shield then collapsed under the violent attack and exploded in a magnificent display of spars as Artian’s blade pierced into the golem right into its core.

The eye then started flickering into the different colors randomly, indicating that it suffered massive damage. All of a sudden, the ball explodes violently into a large fireball causing Artian to go plummeting into the ground once again but this time with much greater force.

“Artian!” Estelle ran towards the point of impact as fast as she could. As she drew near she could see Artian’s figure slowly walking out of the cloud of smoke and dust, fanning the air around him and coughing exaggeratedly.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Good job out there” Artian said as he saw Estelle’s approach and raised his right hand into a fist.

“So did you!” Estelle wiped her worried expression off her face, mirroring Artian’s actions and raised her own fist.

They then did a special handshake by first bumping their fists in the middle, bumping them up, and then down, and ending it by linking their pinkies and shaking their hands three times, smiling as they stared deep into each other’s eyes.