The projectile flies toward Appius at a speed that no Human – or Elf, for what matters – can block. But [Mages] don’t just fight in reflexes. [Mages] mostly fight with preparation. And that’s why the bolt vaporizes before touching Appius. I can see an amulet blazing up through the energy world and taste its charred effect on my tongue. And now, it’s much dimmer compared to before. Whatever protective artifact just saved Appius’s life, it’s not going to work more than once or twice more. And now, we are close. Very close. Almost hugging-distance. I can feel the bastard breathing heavily, and I can’t wait to put a lance through the roof of his mouth.

But there’s a question for you, now.

Appius is clearly much more experienced than me at magic. It doesn’t take a genius to understand that, right? But I have an incredible experience with the basics of casting and overall Mana manipulation – also, I use Light Magic, which has the simplest spell matrixes to cast since it’s kind of the foundation of everything else. However, it’s highly unlikely that a normal bolt will kill him. This is the case of a… no, my metaphor is no good for this situation. I was going to say it’s an immovable object against an irresistible force. But this is more like two very sturdy objects beating each other. There’s… I don’t know. Just watch.

I can’t cast another [Advanced Light Lance] because he has brought out a very small staff, a little twig, really, that clearly has another spell attached. And now that staff is aimed at my face.

[Advanced Hexagonal Three-Folded Shields]

The impact is nothing world-ending, but I see the little shield I casted in front of his staff already has a crack in it. I casted it extremely close to the source, which means the bolt is hitting the shield at full power. But that’s one source of attack I have taken care of.

And so, a battle of attrition begins.

Every time he casts from his staff, I pull up a shield. Every time he tries to cast something else, I throw a [Light] matrix and dissolve his spell into nothingness. At the same time, he’s so proficient with his spells that he barely blinks in his attacking rotation. I really don’t want to test the defensive spells in the hat since they already somehow failed to shield me from Atticus’s blow. Lord Juler says that’s because that blow was too weak.

Now, for all this guy looks like a sweaty meme of some MIT DnD-playing freshman, he knows what he’s doing. He’s even feinting. He thrusts the little staff almost up to my face and then tries to shoot a bolt with his other hand. This type of close-range [Mage] combat means that no big spells can be used. They take too much time to cast. But that’s good because, in the end, lower-tier spells are all about the fundamentals.

And who’s got more fundamentals than me?

He finally dispels the massive shield he had summoned, probably to alleviate the Mana consumption. In fact, if we were to continue like this, it would just become a show of who has the biggest Mana reserves or who can imbibe more potions. And the answer to the first question is ‘him,’ and to the second is ‘me.’

Now, I haven’t slammed a fist to this nerd’s face yet because [Mages] usually have enchantments or wards against physical damage. Even if we are at the Nine Towers Academy, Appius likely has some measure of protection against me. So, a punch wouldn’t do much, and it would indeed expose me to a good counter-attack. But see, if it’s true that many enchantments cover the ‘blow’ part of a ‘blow,’ it’s also true that the ‘displacement’ part is not covered.

“Little bitch,” I say while ducking the umpteenth bolt from the wand and doing a simple leg sweep. Now, as I said, I’m not the fittest nor the best fighter. After some training, I did not become a UFC champion, but my opponent looks as fit as a watermelon in a millennial’s jeans pocket.

And so, Appius falls to the ground.

This time, I multi-cast while re-using all my skills.

[Light Overcharge]

[Overcharged Polarization Field]

[Light Acceleration]

[Light-Bended Reality]

[Overcharged, Accelerated: Advanced Light Lance]

[Light Overcharge]

[Overcharged Polarization Field]

[Light Acceleration]

[Light-Bended Reality]

[Overcharged, Accelerated: Advanced Light Lance]

The two bolts hit the man in rapid succession before he could awkwardly roll away.

He screams in pain because of the second attack. His amulet failed, partially, and he took a blow to his ribs. The wind is kicked out of him, and he starts wheezing. But the bastard is still keeping up his casting, and now there’s more of a distance between us.

Also, I can smell something different in the magic. Threads of blue energy are accumulating all around Appius.

“WORM!” he screams incoherently, raging because of my blow. But then, he smiles.

If I have to guess, he will use a powerful skill.

I feel the familiar feeling of electricity swarm my skin a moment before being zapped. There’s no real matrix around me—oh, wait. There is. I look up in the air, seeing a massive construct that I had completely missed during our close combat.

“Fuck,” I swear.

“HAHAHA! YOU ARE DEAD, WORM!”

Looking around, a mild panic spreads through my body, taking over part of my anger. The massive spell matrix is too far in to disrupt. And the energy lines look as thick as tree trunks, for God’s sake. They are so big I’d need to exhaust all my Mana just to disrupt that abomination.