"Just a scratch?" Gerald narrowed his eyes. With a flick of his finger, a stone slab at his feet cracked and a Stone Bolt shot out from it at top speed and collided with Tabbris' armor.

Bang!

"Woah!" The guy was spooked by the speed and the sudden impact, but then he dusted himself off and laughed, "Indeed, just a tiny scratch! Ready to give up?"

"So it's tough, but not hard, huh?" Gerald mumbled. An idea popped into his mind and his confidence increased. He grinned, "Give up? Never! I have barely just started!"

He took a piece of Fire Crystal and suddenly started spewing flames from his hand like a flamethrower.

"Watch out brother! He can use Earth as well as Fire!" Aster shouted from the edge of the arena, but her concern was unnecessary. Tabbris Northendark was well versed in speed-chanting and he simply spoke a few quick shouts to form a shield of water around himself.

The arena had every element in store, and there was a well at the edge of it, used for drinking and fighting. Tabbris simply pulled some water towards himself in preparation for a fight and now quickly used it to make a shield.

Pssssssh!

The flames surrounded the water sphere and the flame tongues licked the surface, producing loud sounds as the water turned to steam. But with the constant supply of fresh cold water, the shield was replenished without a problem.

"It's useless! The way you are using Mana is extremely inefficient, you will run out way before me!" Tabbris taunted from his safe bubble.

"I guess you are right," Gerald replied and ended his display. He placed his hand into his pouch and pulled out a piece of paper. A Greater Fireball spell scroll!

"A spell scroll? Weird flex, but okay! Come at me!" Tabbris taunted Gerald, but still, he doubled the thickness of his barrier just in case.

Gerald just gave a mysterious smile and sent a surge of Mana into the scroll. The paper burst into flames and turned into a ball of fire. It surged and compressed itself three times in the span of two seconds and shoot forward with just a thought.

Woosh! Boom!

A fiery explosion broke the anticipation from the onlookers. There were already more than a hundred people from the Guild training here when the two came to fight, and they moved to the side to watch the show. Now, after multiple loud sounds and explosions, more and more people gathered around the arena, excited to see the results.

The Greater Fireball exploded upon the contact with the water barrier and almost tore it apart!

"So powerful!" one of the onlookers shouted and many had the same thoughts.

Tabbris inside had to lift his hands to guard himself and take a step back from the explosion. As the smoke cleared, the barrier reformed once again and returned to its peak condition. Only then did the shaken confidence return to the young Northendark warrior.

"Good! That's probably the most powerful spell I have experienced so far! Too bad it's still not enough! Maybe if you had two or three more…" Just as he wanted to continue bragging, he saw Gerald open his pouch again and take two spell scrolls out.

He shut his mouth and watched with a serious expression on his face as Gerald continued increasing the number of scrolls.

From two to three, then five, ten, twenty… Eventually, around a hundred spell scrolls floated around Gerald, ready to burst into action at any moment.

"What do you think? Is it going to be enough?" Gerald calmly asked, barely holding back his grin.

Tabbris Northendark started to sweat at the sight of all that firepower. "Hey, hey, hey! You can't be seriously thinking of using all that?! We agreed on no killing!"

"Hahaha, don't worry I'm not going to use all that, I'm not that wasteful!" Gerald laughed out loud. "I just wanted to show you that beating you is nothing special, I could even kill you ten times over!"

Though most of those weren't Greater Fireball spell scrolls, as he didn't have that many. But the effect remained the same.

And although unwilling, Tabbris had to admit that he underestimated his opponent. He always relied on his armor and superior magic to win every fight, so he didn't think he needed even more of an advantage.

But today he clearly realized that having more trump cards was always better. 'I'll have to use it after all… It's my only hope! Unless...'

"So you won't use any more of those Fire spells?" he asked cautiously.

"Nope!" Gerald already stored back most of the scrolls.

"Good! Then prepare to lose!"

Just as Gerald stored the last scroll, Tabbris jumped forward and rushed at him with his fastest speed. From his hip pouch, he suddenly took out a shiny blue sword with silver and golden runes along the blade. It was mesmerizing.

Swish!

He swung his sword and struck Gerald on the right forearm as the latter tried to block the strike. Gerald of course immediately retaliated, striking his chest plate with his silver palm and triggering an explosion.

Boom!

Tabbris rolled on the ground like a rag doll for a few meters, until he eventually stopped.

Looking at the place where he was struck, Gerald noticed a few centimeters long cut. Drops of crimson blood came flowing out.

"You can cut me?" he gasped in disbelief and looked at his opponent.

Tabbris, having regained his confidence, jumped up and started showing off, "Did you think just my armor was a treasure? This sword also came from the same origin, it's just that I rarely had the need to use it!"

"Ever heard of the saying: Death by a thousand cuts? That's what you'll get. By the way, you are quite lucky I'm not strong enough yet or you would have lost a hand in that strike!" Just as he finished his sentence he covered his mouth, realizing he said something he shouldn't have.

Gerald's expression darkened and his eye twitched in anger. "I think we have chatted enough."

He took his Golden Space Pouch and turned it upside down. Earth Crystals started falling out endlessly.

"What is he doing? He can't be thinking about using all that Mana, right?" one of the Phoenix Knights gasped after seeing the pile of hundreds of stones.

"Prepare for death!" Gerald shouted, and on his command, the ground trembled.

Rumble!

Hundreds of stone slabs all over the arena suddenly cracked and turned into countless Stone Bolts that rose to the sky. Tabbris got an ominous feeling so he quickly retreated and formed an Ice barrier around himself this time.

Aster, who experienced the same thing, shouted, "Don't worry brother, he can't control too many at once! Just hold on for a few minutes and he will exhaust himself!"

But she was wrong!

"Disappear!"

With a wave of his hands, hundreds of Stone Bolts descended at once, completely annihilating the Ice Barrier in a second. But it was not over. As people gasped at the destructive power, and Aster shrieked in fear, the Stone Bolts rained upon Tabbris like hail.

Hundred of sharp stones struck him every second from all sides, preventing him from moving and forcing him to simply endure. He could do nothing else.

"You are so proud of your armor, right? That's why I'll break it for you!" Gerald roared madly. "I'll grind it to dust!"

Tabbris lifted his gaze and glanced at his armor. Every strike, every stone that hit him, they all left behind a mark. It was just a tiny, insignificant scratch.

But there were hundreds of them every second. With each passing moment, more of them were left on the surface of the armor, and the once shiny and the mirror-like surface was quickly turning rough. It was as if he was standing in front of a sandblaster.

Gerald slowed down his assault for a moment and loudly said, "This saying... I'll show you the true meaning of it!"

He grinned.

"This is what death by a thousand cuts truly looks like!"