Even though Klea managed to keep up against her opponent in close combat, in truth she was barely able to stand due to the continuous use of spells in this battle. Her spirit energy was running out, and she won't be able to cast spells soon, leaving her open to the other girl's attacks.
Within a short span of time, Klea was forced to use multiple tier 3 spells and her newly learned tier 4 spells. The rapid use took its toll on her, considering water spells were the hardest spells for her to master.
In addition, the opponent she is currently facing is far too slimy. Everything she tried to attack her ended up being dodged and left no effect on her at all.
When the snake girl took out her sword to fight in close combat, Klea was secretly relieved. This was the perfect opportunity to switch to using battle arts for a while and let her spirit energy charge up in the meantime.
Unfortunately, even as Klea used the third stage [Immortal Gate] to boost her abilities and add 8 more points to her battle power, it was not enough to overpower the snake freak. If she thought of the immortal gate as her trump card and did not do her combat puppet training, she would have lost within seconds.
Each blow and movement from her opponent felt like a building descended upon her, quickly pushing Klea to her physical limits. However, regardless of what she felt, Klea still has to put up a tough front.
"I will not let you beat me!"
The current situation has forced her hand, and now her only real option was to use the special spells she had learned from her time in the Combat Institute's Destruction Path. Even though she was not able to perfect the spell in time, this was a time as good as any to test it.
"Take this and feel the might of my spells!"
Klea closed her eyes and raised her hands, concentrating all the three colors of her elements into her spirit core. Immediately, she felt the strain of using such a powerful spell, but her options were now or never.
[Storm Haze]
She opened both her palms, showing off the torrents of water dancing in her left hand like a fierce stream and the crackles of blue lightning floating just above her right hand. The energy from her spell had caused her to slowly levitate away from the ground.
Meanwhile, Silva was having a hard time figuring out how her opponent still had the energy to keep the barrage of spells.
Silva trained since her childhood and she had accumulated battle experience, be it live or practice, for as long as she could remember. Perhaps, she was not the most talented acolyte to come from Oroboros, but she was confident her wit was unmatched.
Even with a quick calculation in the heat of the battle, Silva knew Klea was only a rank 7 acolyte and there was no way she could keep up her barrage of high-rank spells for this long. Their battle should have ended long ago with Klea exhausted on the ground unable to cast spells and her victory.
"That chick issss out of her mind! What the hell iss sshe trying to pull?!"
Silva had had some experience with combined spells like this and she was able to create a maximum ballpark of the power such spells were able to dish out. She decided to cast [Oak Flesh] to bolster the defenses provided by her scales with a layer of wood, while using her [Wall of Thorns] spell for additional protection.
Silva knew the spell [Storm Haze] would work similar to a multiple, quick-cast spell of [Lightning Bolt] and [Chain Lightning] all concentrated in a single area meant to overwhelm the opponent. But the spell had a glaring weakness: the fact it only stayed in a certain area, therefore if the opponent decided to run away from the affected area, the lightning would just strike whatever came in the zone without affecting the intended target.
Unfortunately for Silva, her opponent was able to create a storm cloud enough to cover the range of the arena. In other words, she was forced to stay within the area of the spell or risk losing by getting out of the arena.
"Dammit!"
Silva's only real option was to dodge the bolts for as long as she could, hoping her remaining stamina would outlast the spell.
Silva touched her ring and took out a small vial filled with reddish liquid.
[Bloodline Booster Potion]
This was the same substance she used to defeat the orcs attacking her in Elder's Respite. Without wasting time, she uncorked the bottle and emptied the contents into her mouth.
[Battle Power increased by 10]
[Current Battle Power; 56]
[Skin hardened]
[Stamina increased]
"Bring it on!" Silva roared with confidence.
The first bolt of blue lightning flashed from above. With her newfound burst of power, Silva dodged the attack right as the ground she stood not one seconds ago was scorched. The smell of burnt material entered her nose, causing Silva to wince a little. There was still the matter of the chain lightning, as well…
"Arghhh!"
Her suspicion was proven correct, as the weaker bolts following the first struck her and sent a tingling heat onto her whole body. She was fortunate her increased physical prowess and the [Oak Flesh] spell she cast beforehand was able to endure the after-effects of the direct hit,
Another lightning bolt struck down and yet again, Silva was barely able to dodge it.
Followed with another one and yet another one. The smell of burnt wood permeated the arena and even with her protective spells, Silva was already panting in a mix of exhaustion and pain due to the effects of the spell.
"How can ssshe ssstill be able to casst her sspell for this long?!"
Silva looked up at her opponent levitating in the sky, eyes closed and still casting the spell without a sign of exhaustion. Now that she was able to take a good look at Klea, Silva realized her opponent was not just using her own inner spirit energy, she also called forth natural lightning from the sky and used the excess energy to boost her own spirit energy.
"That's crazzzy!! Is ssshe really a ssecond year acolyte?!" Silva bit her bottom lip, unable to hide the shock from her face.
Meanwhile, the audience cheered and gasped, following the progression of the match. From their reactions, it was clear that their duel was one of the best they were shown so far.