‘The first thing you have to do in a Mage Duel is to set up your barrier. Your simply just a squishy shooting target without one.’ - [How to Mage 101]

In the middle of the forest of snakes, Terra Kingdom.

Glistening red barriers were enveloping the Yassi and the 7th stage Practitioner as they unleashed their own respective spells. Boiling hot flames darted off from Yassi’s position like a rain of arrows while a humongous red orb was fired from the direction of the 7th stage Practitioner.

Herebia stepped forward step-by-step as she constantly deflects her opponents spells. A black spear of hers flies towards the orb while punctures it and caused it to explode. The other spear on the other hand, was spinning like a windmill in order to deflect Yassi’s rain of [Fire Arrows].

Seemingly getting bored by this exchange, Herebia wanted to shake-up the rules a bit. She brought her hand together as she made countless hand seals. Yassi and the 7th stage Practitioner was surprised and they inwardly panicked.

Spells that demanded hand seals were abnormally strong. If summoning this freakishly powerful spells does not demand hand seals, what does?!

The rampaging elemental particles around Herebia turned silent and then twisted in front of her like a vortex. They swallowed up a substantial amount of the elemental particles around the area as slowly, a black sword concentrated in front of Herebia.

Herebia let out a hearty chuckle as she grabbed the black sword. It was quite elegant looking and it’s blade was colored black. The handle was long and the length of it reached about a meter or so. This was the [Chaos Blade], and Herebia considers this spell a mid-tier one.

Sword in hand, Herebia readied her stance and ran towards Yassi who was still fending off the already weakened black spear. The young lady was already irritated as she used a ability not even his father could use.

Instantly, a magic circle congealed onto both her hands and simultaneously two red orbs the fist of a baby appeared on top of the magic circles. This spell was none other than [Fire Blast]!

But what was inconceivable was she could cast it on both her hands! This was duo casting! This did not depend on the stage of a Practitioner, it only depends on talent!

Herebia jolted a little and then laughed. “Duo casting? That is indeed good! Say, you must be quite influential right? If your father or mother is influential, I could think of sparing you!”

Yassi’s face flickered as her connection towards the two spells were almost cut. Those words her opponent used made her heart jump. But, she still steeled herself and ignored her opponents words as she jerked both her hands forward and two beams of read light blasted out of her palms!

Bang!

The two red beams flew towards Herebia as they threatened to consume her. Herebia looked at the means in amusement and then suddenly crossed her hands. She was also quite curious about how powerful her Chaos Tome was as she was about to test out something that is supposed to be a trump card!

A [Zera] spell!

Of course, its not [Zera : Death]. That would be too overkill.

Hence, what she used was [Zera : Decelerate]!

When she crossed her hand, the elemental particles of the surrounding area of 10 meters as diameter, suddenly went more rampant. The elemental particles went so fast as if they were slow as the two beams started to slow down!

It was like fish traveling through mud!

But...

This was only in the eyes of Herebia! What the others could see was that the beams were traveling in a normal speed!

Herebia looked at the slow beams and casually dodged them, as the duration of this spell only lasted for 5 seconds. She easily dodged the beams and rapidly approached the glowing barrier of Yassi.

Yassi and the others on the other hand saw a ghastly scene! If in Herebia’s eyes they were moving slowly, in their eyes Herebia was moving extremely fast!

Well, if you did step out of the 10 meter range of Herebia, you could see that what Herebia see’s is the correct one. You will see that Herebia was moving at her normal pace while her enemies slowed down like someone stuck in mud!

When she saw how slow her enemies were, Herebia realized that she made a mountain out of a mole hill. She overestimated her opponents and used a spell that would practically overwhelm them.

Seized with this realization, Herebia just shrugged it off. If they cant take it, then fine! You’re future shall be cut off this day!

While she calculated her moves, Herebia decided on what to do. She swung up her blade releasing a crescent shaped black beam. This beam waved through the ground as it cut through blades of grass and landed squarely towards Yassi’s barrier. Without even batting an eyelid, Herebia changed directions and advanced towards the 7th stage Practitioner.

Yassi saw a black blur speeding towards her and her eyes could help but widen and her iris shrink to a dot. She didn’t expect this attack to be so fast! And their enemy also seemed to be on stimulants as she only appeared to be a blur in her eyes!

Peng! CRACK!

The result was within Herebia’s computations. The black beam collided with Yassi’s barrier issuing a loud sonorous sound and after a second or so, Yassi’s barrier was cracked and fell apart. The destruction of a barrier made it so that the user will almost certainly temporarily be unable to cast.

This was because the barrier was actually more than just that. It could protect it’s user by using the elemental particles and it also collects elemental particles of the particular element a Practitioner trains in. In other words, inside of Yassi’s barrier was a world of fire particles.

Due to the barrier’s breakage, it will cause the other particles that were isolated outside to flow in. Like a crack of a dam, the other particles would throw off the fire particles and render the opponent to be unable to cast spells for 5 seconds or so.

This 5 seconds could basically mean life or death though.

The 7th stage Practitioner saw Yassi’s barrier crack, as he felt a sense of deadly crisis. That was because Yassi’s barrier only cracked and the black beam seemed to be only enough to crack it. One could say that the black beam could only break it, but one could also say that Herebia chose to spare Yassi.

Remembering Herebia’s words, the 7th stage Practitioner mumbled incessantly as he prepared to sacrifice his longetivity to perform a powerful spell. He was also elated to see that his opponent slowed down after 10 seconds and it seems like he could hit her for sure.

Making countless hand seals, the 7th stage Practitioner suddenly raised his right hand which showed that it actually had it’s index and middle finger extended out like a blade. Slowly appearing beneath his feet was a humongous magic circle as it shone with a burning red radiance.

Herebia didn’t hesitate as she proceeded forward. She knew that this her opponent’s final move and she knew that her sword was enough. This was not arrogance due to her sword, it was because she knew that his opponent could not unleash it’s full power.

This was certainly because an energy only someone as knowledgeable as her could identify was floating out of the 7th stage Practitioner’s body. This energy looked dull and gray but this was actually an energy too important for one’s life. This was longetivity force or simply, life force.

This guy was sacrificing his life force to make his most powerful move. Although she had knowledge about this life force, she knew that her species actually had an abundant amount of this energy. Wasting an amount like this would be negligible for her.

But, not for humans.

Humans were limited in their longetivity, they would only last for about 60-90 years where 90+ year old humans are as rare as phoenix feathers and dragon scales. Although they were rare, some could even last for 100 or so but Herebia believed that humans which could last for as long as this would almost positively have an ancestor which was a member of the four bloodlines.

Surging upward, the fire elemental energy coiled around the 7th stage Practitioner’s body. He brought down his hand and faced it towards Herebia as his hand formed a claw. The claw was covered with fire elemental particles as it slowly congealed to a ethereal dragon head.

His eyes flashed ferociously as he drew back the claw and instantly struck it out!

Boom!

The speed of the dragon head claw surpassed the sound barrier as it emitted a sonic boom ans blood sputtered from the 7th stage Practitioner’s arms. They were shredded by the air when he broke the sound barrier. The dragon head flew towards Herebia at a blinding speed and the coiled energy followed after it. The energy slowly congealed to become a dragon body!

Although Yassi’s situation was in a mess, she still saw what her guardian did. She silently gasped as she understood how powerful this spell was. [Serpent Dragon Claw], ranked around the 9th stage spells. Why?

This was because it could be used by both the 8th and 9th rank but the 9th rank were the only one’s who could unleash it’s real power. This was because... the 9th rank could unleash two dragons and have them coil around each other and multiply their destructive prowess!

Swishing through the air, the serpent dragon sped forth and shot towards Herebia’s direction. Herebia’s expression grew serene as this spell was something his sword alone cannot deflect. It seems that even if she overestimated them before, this time she underestimated them though.

Her expression suddenly relaxed as she realized that this attack was nothing more than a dragon-shaped beam. It was grander and more powerful. Herebia once created a spell book and she clearly knew what a beam would mean. It mean’s that it will always go straight.

Casting her gaze backwards, she saw a tree and a man. Herebia mused to herself on how unlucky this guy really was. She augmented a [Chaos Rope] around her waist as she used it to pull herself away from the serpent dragon’s path. She voided the dragon with a big margin as a feeling of pity slowly surfaced from her heart.

She pitied the unlucky guy who was about to be burned by the serpent dragon. Herebia mused to herself on where she should bury the unlucky fellow.

Contrary to her expectations, the guy dodged afterwards and guffawed proudly about his ‘magnificent dodge’. But... the tree was still struck by the serpent dragon. Like a being bombed, the tree exploded to smithereens. When a tree explodes what comes after?

That’s right, projectiles.

Because of Hilroy’s close proximity towards the tree... the one who faced the full brunt was him. Splinters was stuck to his body as half of his body, the one who was facing the tree, looked like a porcupine.

Alas, Hilroy’s luck was still as bad as always.

The pity inside of Herebia’s heart was gone as she ignored the fool behind her and concentrated on his enemy. She rushed forward and headed towards the 7th stage Practitioner’s direction. But when she saw the enemy, something extremely surprising happened.

Herebia... Herebia... Herebia tripped on a rock.

“F*ck!! Puew!”

That was her last curse and the sound of her face slapping on the ground. It seems like she had taken some of that guy’s bad luck. Well, that was really not because of her luck. This was because she was surprised about his opponent and it resulted in her tripping.

This was because her fast momentum was instantly depleted rock bottom as she realized that her opponent was already lying down on his butt and passed out.

Gritting her teeth, Herebia slowly rose up and slowly walked towards his passed out enemy. She thought something for a moment and then realized that it was because his opponent squeezed out his life force that this happened. This opponent of hers over exerted himself.

Sighing lightly, Herebia cast a glance at Yassi as she saw that the brat was looking at her in fear.

She nodded her head slightly as she realized that the brat had given up in fighting and accepted her ‘fate’.

Arriving in front of the 7th stage Practitioner, Herebia paused for a moment and then placed her hand on his forehead. She then fiercely grabbed it and dragged it upwards until the man seemed as if he was standing.

Hilroy was still grimacing in pain as he sat down on another tree. Like plucking out feathers, he plucked out the ‘porcupine spikes’. When he got towards his butt, his unlucky halo once again activated. From the top of the tree came down a meter long brown snake.

While Hilroy was enjoying his unluckiness, Yassi was shivering in fear. She never expected to meet a truly formidable opponent such as this woman. This woman could actually beat or even mope his father rather easily.

Was this the place of her death? But... Yassi slowly connected the dots as she realized that this woman valued her. She did not kill her with the sword beam or pursue her after her barrier was destroyed. If she did, she would have been sliced like tofu from the woman’s blade.

A glimmer of hope appeared inside her heart. She could live! But... what worried her was the question wether this woman would release her or not. Surely this woman wouldn’t let her go home, right?

Although her life could be somewhat said to be secured, she still trembled. Was this woman going to use her as a slave? Or will she serve towards a Mage’s experiment? Surely she knew that her opponent’s magic was weird and it was neither of the four kingdom’s Syllabus.

Watching the woman raise the man, Yassi was prepared to see blood flow. What surprised her was that no blood flew out. Instead, Herebia’s hand which was holding the man’s forehead glowed ominously black as a truly terrifying sight happened.

Hilroy, who had fended off the fragments and the meter-long snake, watched with wide eyes. This would’ve been his fate if he didn’t guide Herebia on this forest.

Yassi’s face fell as she pushed the urge to vomit down her throat. This sight in front of her did not necessarily mean bloody but it was certainly scary. Her eyes grew wider and wider as her iris constricted further. She was watching someone become...

Someone becoming a raisin!

The body of the man slowly dried up as if his muscles were disappearing. His bones grew more accentuated and he looked more bony and malnourished. The eyes of Herebia was glowing with a pale black light as countless information flashed inside of her brain!

This was a [Zera] spell!

The [Zera : Scanner]!!!