Chapter 28
"What is that?"
"What in the world is happening?"
Those who saw the massive fireballs bursting like rubber balloons gaped in astonishment.
"Lord Hayden didn't just cancel his magic... did he...?"
"Why are they exploding mid-flight?"
"I saw something really small flying from over there."
"Was that magic?"
Those among the servants of both clans sitting in the very back with poor eyesight didn't even properly notice that Kain had summoned very thin and sharp fire needles.
"Crazy. Did Kain really pierce through all of those? With fire needles?"
"That was possible?"
"When they dueled last time, I saw him actually pierce through everything."
The disciples on the 2nd and 3rd floors stared at Kain with expressions of disbelief.
Meanwhile.
"He didn't pierce through them. He made them self-destruct."
The disciples on the 4th and 5th floors saw through the essence of what had just happened.
"It looks like he added an expansion formula to overwhelm him, but if you increase it to that many, it's natural for the state to become unstable."
In reality, considering the amount of mana contained in Hayden's magic, even if he delved in meticulously, it wouldn't be easy to reach the core in the center.
So, instead of targeting the core of the fireball, Kain used his fire needles to precisely strike the parts where the mana was most erratically fluctuating, as if hitting pressure points.
As a result, the mana flow inside the already unstable fireballs became rapidly entangled, and instead of cleanly dissipating like when the core was pierced, they exploded loudly.
"You can see the unstable parts if you have good eyes for mana... but to think he'd hit each one with a fire needle and make them explode."
"He's got some guts."
"Kuh. I like him. Don't you, Neville?"
"Well, not bad."
"That's high praise. Kain would be happy to hear that."
However, no trace of emotion could be found in the eyes of Kain, who had made that daring move.
'Noisy.'
Well, it was true he did a decent job.
He could calculate the coordinates in advance and hit the heads of moving Snow Rabbits, so hitting the unstable parts of those slow fireballs was an easy task.
Strictly speaking, he hadn't pierced through them entirely with his own power, and the fire needles he had just summoned had all dissipated.
But Kain didn't really care.
Just as Hayden's goal was clearly to show a decisive victory, Kain's goal was also to clearly show a victory.
'It's definitely possible to subdue him quickly and finish it in one go. But if I end it like that, there's a high possibility the opponent won't cleanly acknowledge it.'
There were at least a dozen ways he could immediately exploit the simple-minded Hayden's weaknesses.
But if he won that way, it was obvious they would object, saying it was just luck.
'Even though we agreed to cleanly accept the victory or defeat, the opponent is Bederman.'
It was already despicable of them to drag a support fund fight that they had lost into a one-on-one duel.
Could he guarantee that they wouldn't do something even more despicable in the future?
That's why Kain needed to achieve a clear and impactful victory that no one could see as mere chance or luck.
"Tch...! If brute force doesn't work, you're trying to win with petty tricks!"
Hayden roared in anger and began to unleash a barrage of magic.
"Fire Arrow! Flame Spear!"
"Fire Arrow. Flame Spear."
But from this point on, it was actually simple.
Unlike magic that simply increased in size and was shot like a fireball, all he had to do was accurately respond with the same type of magic.
Whoosh.
Kain's magic precisely split the arrowhead of the Fire Arrow and struck the body of the Flame Spear from the side, deflecting it away.
"Flame Spear, accelerate."
On the contrary, the more they used higher-level magic together, the more Hayden was pushed back.
Eventually, Kain even mixed acceleration into his Flame Spear and launched a rapid attack.
"Damn it, Fire Wall!"
Whoosh!
Although the Fire Wall lacked physical force, it shouldn't have any particular problem blocking magic.
Especially if the caster had a sufficient amount of mana like Hayden, it shouldn't be breached no matter how many projectiles came flying.
Swoosh swoosh swoosh.
In an instant, three large spears of flame, Flame Spears, flew and successively struck the Fire Wall, but they couldn't penetrate it.
"Heh heh. Yeah, you can block them, but you can't break through, can you."
The corners of Hayden's lips curled up.
After all, if the other side couldn't break through, it was a fight that Hayden, with his superior mana, was bound to win.
But.
Whoosh!
"......!"
At that moment, another Flame Spear flew in and struck the Fire Wall.
It was the same, like that it didn't completely break through.
"What the..."
But the tip of that spear was blazing fiercely, sticking out from beyond the Fire Wall, right in front of Hayden's eyes.
And.
Whoosh!
Before he could even grasp what had happened, the final Flame Spear pierced through the Fire Wall in an instant and flew towards Hayden's head.
"Ugh!"
Hayden, startled, fell backward on his backside.
The Flame Spear, having lost some speed upon colliding with the Fire Wall, barely grazed over Hayden's head.
"What in the—!"
Hayden struggled to maintain the Fire Wall while catching his breath.
"How in the world..."
As Hayden showed great bewilderment, the arena buzzed with murmurs.
And Cristan Siers, who had been silently watching the duel with his arms crossed until now, opened his mouth.
"Not bad for what I thought. Brother."
Finally, when Cristan acknowledged him, Blake Siers grinned and replied,
"Right? Honestly, I was surprised too. He's only just reached the 3rd Circle, yet he already perfectly understood the characteristics of the Fire Wall and relentlessly exploited its weaknesses."
The fundamental difference between a Fire Wall and other defensive magic of different attributes.
That was precisely.
"It must constantly 'burn'.”
In the case of earth and ice magic, one only needed to maintain the formed barrier as it was.
However, a Fire Wall constantly needed to circulate mana within a certain range and emit an upward burning force.
Kain had used this characteristic of the Fire Wall to insert the Flame Spear precisely straight up from the bottom and maintain it there, disrupting the upward flow of mana.
As a result, the Flame Spear was able to penetrate deeper into the Fire Wall as it went up.
And the fifth Flame Spear had been able to completely pierce through the Fire Wall.
"Indeed, Edward and Fohn's eyes weren't wrong after all."
Wayne Siers, who had been watching with anxious eyes, also brightened.
Cristan, feeling guilty for his earlier words for no reason, clicked his tongue and turned his head away.
"Flame Spear, accelerate."
Kain immediately created a new Flame Spear for his next attack.
'I've nullified all his offensive magic and broken through his defensive magic. My skills should be sufficiently proven by now. Time to finish this.'
If the opponent were a mage with keen senses, they might immediately grasp the situation and block by disrupting the direction of mana circulation within the Fire Wall, that is, by going against its grain.
But Hayden didn't seem to have the composure or the skill for that.
"Ha, hahaha."
Wasn't he still laughing like a madman?
"Hahahaha, Kain. You little brat... I've been going easy on you until now, but you're trying to climb all the way up!"
"Going easy on me, you say..."
Based on his past life's experience, everyone who had said those words to him had lost in the very next attack without fail.
"I didn't want to go this far..."
Hayden suddenly dispelled his Fire Wall.
At the same time, Kain also dispelled his Flame Spear.
Hayden's eyebrows twitched.
And the next moment, a massive amount of mana was released from within Hayden's body as if boiling over.
"Aaaaaah!"
-Hayden. I have something for you.
Last night.
What Richter had found Hayden and given him was a small, red pill.
-This is...? It looks like an elixir... I've never seen one like this before.
-It's a Circle Drafter. It's a secret medicine that allows you to use fire magic one stage higher just by taking it.
-Magic one circle above...?
As Hayden gaped, Richter nodded.
-Of course, the effect isn't permanent. It lasts for 48 hours after consumption, and it's useless if a mage above the 5th Circle takes it. But it's the perfect elixir for you right now.
This was a secret medicine passed down through generations in the Bederman clan, originally created to be given to lower-circle disciples in emergencies where the clan's full power needed to be mobilized.
-You're giving this to me...?
Hayden hesitated when Richter first gave him the elixir.
It wasn't out of a sense of guilt, but because his pride was hurt.
-Do you think I'll lose to Kain without taking this?
But Richter, who had expected Hayden to react this way, calmly persuaded him.
-Hahaha! Of course not. But since the support funds are at stake, you never know what kind of dirty tricks the opponent might pull. We need to have a contingency plan as well. This support fund is a significant amount for us too.
-But still...
-Just keep it with you. If a situation arises where you don't need to use 4th Circle magic, then don't use it. This is just in case.
-...Understood. Father.
Hayden was glad he had listened to his father's words back then.
Right now, he didn't care about pride or anything else; he only wanted to end Kain, who was looking at him with that annoying expression.
"Flame Road!"
With Hayden's incantation, pillars of fire erupted from beneath his feet.
The pillars of fire spread rapidly to both sides, reaching the edges of the dueling field in an instant.
"There's nowhere to run!"
And as if fueled by oil, the flames spread across the ground of the dueling field, threatening to engulf it entirely.
"That's..."
"Flame Road? Isn't that a 4th Circle spell?"
"What? Why is a 4th Circle spell appearing here?"
"Wasn't Lord Hayden at the advanced stage of the 3rd Circle?"
"Did he reach the 4th Circle without saying anything?"
"That's cheating! Young Master Kain, what do we do!"
"But since there was no mention of circles before starting, it might not exactly be cheating..."
"Whose side are you on, huh?"
The people of the Siers clan couldn't hide their shock.
"When did Lord Hayden reach the 4th Circle?"
"Right? I didn't know either."
"So he did have a hidden card up his sleeve!"
"The fact that he seemed to be pushed back until now was obviously just a dramatic performance!"
"Nice!"
The spectator seats on the Bederman clan side were on the verge of shifting from a funeral atmosphere to a festive one.
Meanwhile, Kain watched the flames engulfing him from all sides with intrigued eyes.
"Flame Road, huh..."
There was no way Hayden could have reached the 4th Circle in that short time.
Knowing Hayden's personality, he would have boasted about reaching the 4th Circle immediately, loud enough for even a woodcutter in a remote mountain village to hear.
That meant.
'A Circle Drafter, perhaps.'
Kain also knew a bit about Circle Drafters.
During the large-scale war against Desmond's followers, the Bederman clan had used Circle Drafters on disciples below the 5th Circle to boost their combat power.
'It seems the method of making it has been secretly passed down well until now.'
But even if Kain claimed it was cheating, mentioning Circle Drafters or elixirs here wouldn't do any good.
The Circle Drafter was an elixir whose creation method even the Flameforce clan hadn't been able to figure out, and there was no way to distinguish between someone who had taken it and someone who hadn't.
Even now, after so much time had passed, probably only a few people in the Bederman clan, including the clan head, would know about the existence of Circle Drafters.
'I heard the effects last for about two days... in that case, there's even less way to prove it.'
There was only one way to prove that Hayden had taken the elixir.
Since it was impossible to re-consume a Circle Drafter within a certain period, they could ask Hayden to use 4th Circle magic again after the effects wore off.
If he couldn't, they could prove that he had used an underhanded method at the time.
'But once the duel ends, Hayden will return to his clan, and once he returns and trains to reach the 4th Circle, there will be no way to catch him.'
They hadn't believed to the end that Kain had caught the Ice Troll, so they must have been anxious.
Or perhaps they didn't trust Hayden.
Frankly, if Kain used his full power now, he could somehow endure Hayden's 4th Circle magic with his 3rd Circle magic.
'I can just slightly modify the Fire Wall and surround myself with it without any gaps.'
But that would only be enduring it.
Kain had no intention of ending this duel like that.
'If he's going to show 4th Circle magic by using such an underhanded method... then I should show him something fitting in return.'
A faint smile appeared on Kain's lips for the first time.
Kain reached out towards the flames that had already covered more than half of the field.
And he quietly chanted.
"Fire Wall."
A wall of fire rose in front of Kain.
Hayden, seeing this, snorted.
"Hahaha! Try blocking this with something like that!"
But Kain paid no mind.
"Fire Wall."
Kain began to cast Fire Walls in succession, attaching them to each other.
First to the sides, and then forward.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh!
Kain concentrated all his mind and performed the repetitive task in an instant.
And that work became faster and faster.
And the line of Fire Walls that was created in that way was.
"Th-that's..."
"Flame Road...?"
"No way!"
It was as if it were the very Flame Road that Hayden was casting.
'To manifest a magic one circle higher is akin to manifesting a magic from a different dimension. That's why, without the circle as a conversion device, it's impossible to manifest higher-level magic.'
No matter how skilled Kain was, he couldn't be free from such fundamental limitations of magic.
'However.'
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Just like calculating the multiplication of large numbers with dozens of digits using only addition, in a simple and honest way.
'I can roughly create something similar.'
Kain had created a phenomenon similar to Flame Road by endlessly calculating and connecting Fire Walls in an extremely short amount of time.
"No way."
"Is that even possible...?"
Whoosh!
The Flame Road created by Kain powerfully extended forward and soon collided with Hayden's.
'Of course, this is crude compared to the Flame Road I'll be able to cast after I directly reach the 4th Circle of fire magic.'
But even so, it would be enough to devour the Flame Road that Hayden was using with the borrowed power of the elixir.
Whoosh—
"I-insane...!"
Kain's magic voraciously consumed Hayden's Flame Road as it advanced.
"T-this is cheating! It's impossible! Aaaaaah!"
It soon engulfed Hayden, who had fallen into a panic.
And at that moment.
"The duel is over."
Along with Rowen's voice announcing the end of the duel, the flames that had covered the dueling platform vanished in an instant, as if a candle had been blown out.
