Fortunately, the two weren't facing off at opposite ends of the box—Ivory was successfully capturing the two of them having a staring contest. Luckily, they were only about 10 metres away, so Ivory looked up from his phone to get a better look at Damaring. Apart from her horns, the right side of her chin and cheek looked to be scaled, or maybe it was really bad psoriasis? Other than all that, she looked like an ordinary Human. "Ordinary," Ivory mused.

Like the [Omnicaster], she was wearing a plain white robe. Hers, however, was worn differently: the top section was hanging off her waist, exposing her midriff, with grey cloth covering her chest. At her side was a sheathe, from which Ivory saw her retrieve a katana. Ivory saw the [Omnicaster]'s mouth move, and was disappointed that he couldn't hear; he assumed that he'd be able to hear his spells!

Damaring replied, and the [Omnicaster] simply held his head back and laughed.

"Let's go!" he yelled, and vanished. Whatever conversation the two had was obviously not meant for others' ears. Ivory looked up from his phone and saw him easily 100 metres up in the air. Ivory knew recording this would be a nightmare, but he persisted.

He was casually floating around in the air, flicking off [Fireballs] by the dozen from the safety of the sky. Damaring, meanwhile, was effortlessly sidestepping them—not even with grace, just dodging them like one might avoid a feather falling from a passing bird.

In the blink of an eye, Damaring produced a second, smaller blade out of nowhere and parried a line of [Fireballs], sending them back up at her airborne target.

"Thought we'd play for a bit longer," he yelled as he dodged the wave of homing [Fireballs] that winked out existence as they hit the boundaries of the battlefield. Ivory saw him then do the unthinkable: he started to dive bomb her! His voice overlapped as he spoke his next spells, yet Ivory heard them all clearly.

"[Extended Spellcasting]. [Teravoltage]. [Splinter Spell: Tier 6]. [Grand Caustic Lightning]!"

The [Omnicaster] came to a stop mid air before thick, continuous streams of black lightning erupted from his outstretched arm. Damaring looked up at the heavily augmented spell that had once reduced a hulking Seamwalker to a pile of steaming rot… and assumed a retaliatory stance.

Five of the six terrifying streams of black death missed her by some margin, but edged threateningly closer as they roiled chaotically to and fro. Ivory shrieked as one tore up towards Ivory, who fell flat on his ass, dropping his phone on the hard stone. Nozumu, now dangerously pale, helped him up. He thought of his [Dangersense], was it not working?!

One tendrilled fork of lightning had struck Damaring's parrying wakizashi which was managing to redirect it, with some effort. Damaring began to sweat, if only out of her body's natural muscle memory. Black sparks flew from the blade, causing superficial nicks on her arms.

The remaining tendrils of lightning suddenly petered out—the [Omnicaster] had cancelled the [Splinter Spell]. Seconds later, a deafening crack reverberated through the battlefield, and the full force of the [Omnicaster]'s cataclysmic spell took hold.

Damaring was flung back someten metres and slammed into an invisible boundary—she had no control over where the [Grand Caustic Lightning] was being redirected to, causing the considerable audience that had gathered on the side closer to the city to scream, go faint or pass out as the black lightning flew in their direction.

Damaring lasted another three seconds before her blade shone with a kaleidoscope of colours before exploding, leaving a rainbow cloud that vacuumed itself out of existence as fast as it had appeared. The terrifying lightning, too, simply disappeared as it routed through this void zone. It lasted for only a second—and then the black lightning annihilated the ground it hit, turning it into a large electrified swamp.

“Ha,” he cried, raising his arm to the sky and cutting the spell short. Several birds flying high above crashed into each other as they prepared to be transmogrified into slimy bird juice. “That's six to five! You’re losing your t—”

Before the taunt left the [Omnicaster]’s lips, Damaring was airborne and furiously slashing at the innumerable barriers that he had erected before the battle had begun, as per their rules. A black tortoise's shell peeled off from her back, as her katana glowed a fluorescent white as she smashed half of his barriers in seconds.

“You! [Amplify Gravity]!”

Both combatants crashed into earth with startling speed, giving Ivory a few seconds to process… this. He’d assumed the [Omnicaster] had an easy win—the combat triangle, and whatnot—but that was purely theory. Arrogance is a helluva thing.

As gravity returned to normal, the two Drathians picked themselves up and regarded each other once again. Based on resources used, Damaring was ahead. She had expended her [Embrace of the Black Tortoise], allowing her to escape unscathed from that frightful spell. Her enchanted, Genie-made weapon had been destroyed, as well. She needed to make sure this was the only fight she had until she returned home, else she would be in trouble. The [Omnicaster], on the other hand, had used a gargantuan amount of mana powering that spell—and would not be casting any of those spells again in this fight—and had lost half of his protections. Both combatants knew each other’s Skills, of course, so knowing specifically which cards had been played was in itself valuable information. "Guess that was phase 1," Ivory thought.

Damaring looked thoughtful for a moment and waved a hand over her face, materialising a frightful mask. It had a malicious grin with several sharp, black teeth protruding through the exposed lips. It had bright, plump red cheeks. Damaring gripped the left tooth and pulled—

She ran at the [Omnicaster] in a dizzyingly display, white katana in her right hand, and a jet-black katana in her left. She dodged a flurry of [Flashfreeze Purifier Arrows] from his [Conjured Spectral Bow] and, with a Skill, threw her now shining white katana directly at the [Omnicaster], visibly shattering most of his remaining barriers and throwing him back some 20 metres to an edge of the boundary, pinning him there through an arm. She vaulted to him and put her offhand katana to his neck, waiting for his surrender.

A few seconds passed and, clearly tired of waiting, slashed his throat open. Ivory and Nozumu gasped.

“Holy fucking shit! What!” Ivory screamed. Nozumu said nothing, his beak wide open. Damaring looked around thoughtfully as she retrieved her mainhand weapon.

"Is she waiting for applause?!" Ivory half-yelled; he was slightly appalled.

Suddenly, an arm appeared out of the now viscous stone. It grabbed for Damaring, who [Blinked] away, ever so narrowly avoiding losing the battle. That was a technique for fighting melee opponents; her quick reaction saved her from an embarrassing defeat.

The onlookers could not have followed that sequence of events, unless they had specialised Skills. Everyone was looking at the decapitated body as it disappeared with an almost cartoonish pop, leaving behind a log.

“[Sticky Quicksand]!” he yelled as the rest of his body flew out of the ground. The floor rumbled as the small pool of viscous earth expanded, covering the entirety of the battlefield. The [Omnicaster] sacrificed most of his remaining shields for that stunt, leaving few left. If Damaring got another direct hit on him, he would be vulnerable. He knew that vulnerability to a [Sword Saint] meant death in any other situation.

Damaring leapt and landed horizontally on the invisible wall. One black fang remained on her mask, which now had a fat crack running lengthways over the cheeks—which were now flat. Another two inches and it would break in half.

Damaring had no time to plan her next move with this new handicap, as more [Flashfreeze Purifier Arrows] shot at her. The [Hasted] [Omnicaster] was surfing on the [Sticky Quicksand], allowing him to safely snipe her from afar. Damaring was faster, but there was no real way for her to reach him. Not only was he an expert in kiting—Damaring could not risk touching the ground. She was, by all counts, at his mercy: but a [Sword Saint] has many, many tricks up their sleeve.

She spent the next minute running around the perimeter of the arena, plotting her next move. She was in no real danger, but she could not make a conventional counterattack without committing one of many trump cards. She was now behind based on resources used—her Oni's Mask of Luck had allowed her to pull off her previous stunt, and boosted her [Blink]'s activation to avoid certain defeat. Sometimes all it takes is the slightest push.

Damaring grinned under her mask: he had made a mistake in letting her catch her breath! She reached into a void in front of her to don her next mask—

She let go of the wet leather as she saw that the [Omnicaster]'s eyes were closed. He was still firing his [Spectral Bow], but he was [Auto Aiming]! The loops around the arena satisfied the conditions of his Skill. She had grown overconfident: he was regenerating his shields!

The mind games stopped now, she thought. She abruptly did a flying backflip with her [Reverse Velocity] and flung the remaining fang from her mask into the centre of the battlefield. It was swiftly devoured by the roiling quicksand.

This worried the [Omnicaster]. In his line of work, he had learned quickly that fearing the unknown was folly; the unknown was ever present as there were never two of the same foe. But here, now, against Damaring—whom he would like to say he knew well—he felt fear. Fear, and excitement.

Damaring clapped her hands together and yelled a Skill—Ivory couldn't hear what it was, but he had a pretty good idea what it could have been called.

A gigantic white tiger with blood-red eyes materialised in a terrifying cloud of white electricity. A conventional tiger would be a housecat by comparison—before Ivory's brain could contexualise the scene, it opened its maw and unleashed such a monstrous, crackling roar that could rouse a Dragon.

Pale, white electricity exploded out of its body and briefly arced out of control, before homing in on the spot where Damaring had thrown her second black katana. The quicksand laden battlefield began to violently react, as if the magical sand itself were being mortally injured. Eruptions of molten sand threatened to cook the [Omnicaster] alive as he flew up and hastily undid his remaining barriers and burnt through an emergency Skill to reform them into [The Thunder Wyrm's Legacy].

With the speed of natural lightning, the [Avatar of the White Tiger] leapt at the [Omnicaster]. His level 60 capstone Skill was holding out against the onslaught of blows from the beast's paws and fangs, due only to two main factors. The first was that his Skill was exceptionally strong, enough to withstand practically any lightning spell of the current age. The second was that he, too, knew the Skill! A [Lesser Parallel Thought] was ready to brief him afterwards: he had first dibs on Symbols, and he definitely should have chosen the White Tiger.

Gargantuan paws unleashed blow after blow on the [Omnicaster]’s new defence. Tonnes of shocking force per blow, and equally as much from its crushing fangs. It was holding up, yes, but it was beginning to tax him. The best defences always came at a tremendous cost, whether it be from mana, energy or life—and mana was not something he was at liberty to flush down the proverbial toilet at the moment.

The [Omnicaster] had had enough. He enjoyed these skirmishes, but it was time to finish this. The [Avatar of the White Tiger]’s rancourous glare, which could—and once did—reduce an [Archmage] to tears, but he stayed firm. His defensive formation was weakened as he withdrew his left arm and pointed at Damaring.

“[Sepsis]!”

The crackling beast’s next swipe missed him entirely, and the momentum caused it to barrel down and destroy one of the newly created glass spires.

He smiled a toothy grin as he saw Damaring’s hands no longer clasped—the main anchoring motion for summoning these avatars—she was instead hugging herself, and hunched over. The powerful hex was working its magic, but Damaring was recovering quickly due to her superior bloodwork, courtesy of her Drathian tutelage. The [Omnicaster] saw his chance for victory and returned her Skill in kind. He clapped his hands together and uttered the sister-Skill.

“[Summon: Avatar of the Vermilion Bird]!”

A great, flaming bird flew alongside the [Omnicaster] as he divebombed Damaring— now recovered from her [Sepsis]—who had dismissed her own avatar. Both combatants knew that their use of Skills were wildly excessive and used in an unreasonable manner—but that was their tradition. Play to win. The [Omnicaster]’s voice overlapped again as he went for the winning blow. The benefit of being a spellcaster—one did not need one’s hands to cast magic!

“[Burning Haste]. [Vermilion Volley: Fireballs].”

The battlefield was lit by a torrent of rosy [Vermilion Fireballs] in conjunction with the streams of fire coming from his avatar. Small in size—the size of an apple—but exploding with an explosion the size of a small carriage. Their travelling speed was being tripled with his Skill.

The [Avatar of the Vermilion Bird] was cutting her off with its breath of fire; its fire was far more dangerous than the [Omnicaster]’s spells, so she dared not cross. Having to navigate a multitude of obstacles—the electro-death swamp, the glass spires, and now the [Vermilion Fireballs], the avatar’s fire and the burning ground—severely hampered her options for movement. She copped two direct hits to her torso, sending her crashing along into the ground. That is all the [Omnicaster] was after: an opening. Mana running dangerously low, he dismissed his avatar and summoned a [Fairy Wind] to fan the flames and further disorient her.

“This is my win!” he yelled between laughs. He landed opposite Damaring and conjured a glowing blade of pure magic; a blade vastly superior to Damaring’s own. Her burns hindered her agility, but she managed still to dodge his attacks. He was not a natural swordsman, but the quality of the tool was enough to make Damaring fight a purely defensive battle.

For two minutes—far, far longer than any of the previous ‘bouts’ lasted—Damaring dodged, ducked and slid away from his assault. She couldn’t parry her way to victory; she would not risk the destruction of her weapon in a skirmish.

After another antagonising minute of dodging through the battlefield of fire did she see her chance. She activated [Reverse Velocity] and appeared before him, startling him for a fraction of a second—enough time to uppercut his forearm that held the [Edge of Heart’s Fire] with her knee, breaking it. Before he could heal it, Damaring yelled her final skill of the battle as she slammed her palm into his now targettable armpit. She yelled with such ferocity that even the spectators heard it.

“[Pressure Point: Mana Circulation]!”

The flaming sword winked out of existence. He stumbled back as Damaring brandished her katana.

“[Personal Pond]—”

As a quaint pond adorned with Drathian ornaments and statuettes appeared beside him, Damaring had her katana to his throat and her other hand grasping his uninjured arm.

Damaring grinned from ear to ear. The [Omnicaster] sighed loudly and raised his injured hand up..

"Five to six, then."

Damaring sheathed her katana and offered him her hand—he'd fallen backwards onto a spire of sand as he cast his last spell.

They did not let go of each others' hands as they got up—they raised their other arms up and congenitally spoke a Skill.

"[The Sparring Stadium of Drath]".

In the blink of an eye, the terrain changed: the rosy cinders and spires of glass and sand winked out of existence. No longer was there a flat, rocky surface—a well manicured grassland appeared, along with a tall, white pagoda.

Ivory exhaled sharply, not realising he had been holding his breath for quite a time. He was utterly exhausted after just watching that fight. Ivory exchanged a look with Nozumu, who was equally as exhausted. Despite his dislike of the combat arts, it was hard not to be awed by such a display.

"Shit!" Ivory yelped. On the ground in front of him was a smashed iPhone, and his wand, which was luckily intact. He picked up his wand and pocketed the acorn, staring at the metal mess before him. It was like looking at a stained glass relief—except it was cracked glass. He picked up the iPhone and put it in his Bag of Holding. He was too exhausted and scatterbrained to be that upset about it; it wasn't as if it was of any use in this world. At best, it was a curio.

"(Let's go. Quickly now; they might fight again, dead gods. Let's go into town.)"

"What?" Ivory replied. The two of them realised at the same time that the [Omnicaster]'s area of effect spells had been disabled. Both sighed.

"The town is ahead. Let us go swiftly," Nozumu said, and gave a dirty side eye to the two Humans who were chatting to each other, each mostly healed. Ivory walked along the smooth path and saw Damaring whisper something into his ear. The [Omnicaster] turned around to look at Ivory, gave him an appraising look, and gave Ivory two finger guns, seemingly also mouthing "pow pow". Ivory raised an eyebrow and turned to Nozumu.

"He… he's a weirdo."

"Yes," he replied all too swiftly.

“What was his name, anyway? It was hell for my internal monologue…” Ivory groaned.

Nozumu coughed a few times, then massaged his throat.

“Patta,” he managed.

“Was that meant to be in an Au—my accent?”

“You understood, so it must not have been too bad,” Nozumu said with a grin.

“It’s not the worst, I’ll give you that.” He chuckled and beckoned Ivory forward. “Let’s go.”

It felt surreal to Ivory that they were just… getting on with it, after all that. There were a few Drathians that were still gobsmacked, but most were just getting on with it. Two Humans with beautiful, ornamental parasols were striding towards the gazebo, while a group of seniors were setting up a tea-picnic where, five minutes ago, there was burning glass. “These must be a resilient people,” Ivory thought. “That, or very odd.” It was especially curious because it was now dusk; the sky was a beautiful shade of purple, and floating lights appeared in the air, not far above Ivory’s head. The lights weren’t emitting any colour in particular—they were dull white—but underneath them just seemed… brighter. As if the light of the setting sun was being tastefully magnified.

The duo were silent as they followed the path; it winded left and right, flanked by assortments of red bamboos and stone monuments. Ivory saw alternate routes that could be taken, if one preferred to walk through nature—not trampling over everything, but naturally forming dirt and stone paths—but this was the official ‘this is the official walkway into town, please enjoy the walk’ route.

“Here is the inn. We shall return here after we have browsed the night markets—”

“Could we go tomorrow night instead?” Ivory interjected. There was such a thing as too much fun, and he really needed to take it easy for the rest of the night.

“Oh,” Nozumu replied. This was a break in the script! “As a guest of 出島, a room has been prepared for you ahead of time. Please know that the [Innkeeper] has agreed to allow you to pay at the end of your stay, whenever that shall be.”

“Hidenori must have put in a good word,” Ivory thought. “He also must know that I can afford it!”

“Great! Let’s head in.”

“Ah, the [Innkeeper] does not require translation. I will meet you here tomorrow, and I can show you around. Goodbye, and see you tomorrow.”

Nozumu performed a stunning bow, and Ivory bid him farewell.

Ivory did not care to bask in the beauty of the structure; he just wanted to get in and have a lay down. The front door was one of those sliding doors like on Hidenori’s ship, except it was thin and semi-transparent, like paper. He slid it open and was greeted by the [Innkeeper]. She was a tiny, hunched Human who looked positively ancient. She spoke with a heavy accent.

“I am Xei Shi, and I am pleased to welcome you," she bent forward a bit more in a bow, "I understand that you are tired—allow me to show you to your quarters. Our pleasantries can wait until tomorrow—please, follow me.”

“I appreciate it. Seeing those two fight… I’m sure you heard it?” Xei Shi looked back and rolled her eyes.

“Their violence brings me business, so I will not comment further.”

“Do people travel far to see them?” Ivory asked. He wouldn’t be shocked if it were true.

“No. They give no warning; they never last long, so it would not be possible to travel to see them. Locals will hurry to catch them. Such violence inspires few; many come here for my hot springs. Enough of my craft—here is your room. A meal is ready for you inside. Go, go. Rest, and come to me in the morning.”

Xei Shi practically shoved Ivory through the wooden door and shut it. The expectations that Ivory had for this place were clearly very incorrect. He didn’t even get a word in before turned heel and walked away.

Truthfully, Ivory was grateful for it. As he took stock of the room, even more exhaustion hit him, as if it were being considerate, him being a metre from a bed and all. He figured it was the sleep that he didn’t get while he was on Hidenori’s boat, but he still wasn’t hungry, so he didn’t know. Not even the rich aroma from the tray on the other side of the room could entice him: all he wanted to do was collapse on the mattress-type thing on the floor. And that’s what he did.

[Sorcerer Level 12!]

[Spell - Eerie Cinders obtained!]

[Spell - Electric Jolt obtained!]

[Spell - Gust obtained!]

[Skill - Translation: Drathian Proper Nouns obtained!]