Immediately after shouting ‘fight’, the NPC disappeared from the arena as a barrier erected itself. Phoenix was already taking action too, as a fireball appeared in her hand.
But before she could throw it at Violette, a condensed water jet extinguished right out of her hand. Phoenix looked at Violette in a daze.
She had been looking for mana movement, and could barely see any from the girl before the water jet shot out. Phoenix ignited another fireball, but the same thing happened.
Only this time, she glimpsed at what happened. Violette had channelled her inner mana, pushing it through her staff, before the gem at its tip exponentially multiplied its power.
‘Efficient. Good.’ Phoenix thought, smiling.
She then started launching the fireballs as they ignited, going for speed over power. But Violette remained calm as she shot each one down, like she was at a shooting range.
Phoenix smiled even wider, pouring an immense amount of mana forward, conjuring forth a wall of flame. In response, Violette conjured a wall of ice, blocking its path.
When the spells collided, a steam cloud exploded outward, obscuring the arena rapidly. But the barrier worked as a true sight screen, showing the two players clear as day.
Violette started running in a concentric path, firing jets of water, and bullets of ice at Phoenix, trying to use the steam as cover for her actions.
But Phoenix was shooting out attacks of her own, intercepting the projectiles. The players were dumbstruck at what they were seeing.
Both the woman and the girl were precisely shooting at each other, in close to nil visibility. It was like the steam wasn’t even there for them.
Both of them were currently using a form of mana sensing, Phoenix seeing it through her eyes, while Violette was feeling it more naturally, like her mind was echo-locating the mana particles.
The spells progressively became stronger as both players tried to gain the upper hand.
Violette conjured a giant water ball around Phoenix, encasing her in it, before promptly freezing it. But before it could finish freezing all the way, a giant fire tornado spun to life, melting the ball of ice.
Phoenix pushed the tornado forward, enlarging it as it moved, blocking retreat paths for Violette. But the girl didn’t panic, as she waved her staff sideways, as a small-sized tsunami appeared behind her.
The wave and the tornado collided, once again creating more steam in the arena. The visibility was now reduced to zero for anyone inside the barrier.
But spells kept getting launched from both players, as though nothing was there. Violette even went into double casting, unleashing a torrent of ice shards from her staff, as her hand now held a whip made of water.
She whipped at Phoenix repetitively, but none hitting true, as Phoenix had conjured a small wall of fire that she moved around with her hand, blocking the attacks.
Everyone in the crowd was now roaring and cheering, witnessing a battle that could be on par with mage battles in the tournament. The pace at which both the woman and girl were throwing spells was insane.
Any other mage would have needed to drink a mana potion by now, since their mana pools would be spent. But this seemed like a trivial moment for both fighters, as they never once stopped to drink a potion.
The spectators had access to basic information displayed on the fighters in the arena, and could see the mana bars and health bars.
But what they saw was a mystery. The health bars were still full on both sides, and the mana bars kept going down, slowly, but would replenish by a large amount whenever they reached under fifty percent.
But no one understood how, since the players never stopped launching attacks at each other. After this fight, a lot of mages would start prodding at their teachers and masters, and would eventually discover mana breathing.
But for now, only a few players knew of it. And they were not sharing their secrets.
Astaroth was currently sitting in the bleachers, but he wasn’t looking at the fight below. Instead, his head was tilted upwards, and he was sporting a grin that could only be compared to a proud parent’s grin.
A player next to him eventually noticed, and turned his head upwards. When he did, his eyes went wide, and the blood in his face drained.
The barrier protecting the arena was not semi-spherical, but cylindrical. That allowed a lot of casters to enjoy a wider range of angles for attacking.
There was an ungodly amount of ice shards at the top of the cylinder, each icicle like a needle. They were being formed out of the rising amount of steam that emanated from the fight of water and fire below.
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“Ev… Everyone! Look up!”
Some of the surrounding people wondered what the commotion was about, so they also looked up. And slowly gasps and shouts started propagating around the stands.
It took no more than ten seconds for all the spectators to look upward. And the ice shards kept multiplying by the second.
‘You keep going, Violette. Push yourself further. Go beyond yourself!’ Astaroth cheered internally.
Violette, who was fighting a standstill battle down in the arena, and appeared to be double casting, was performing a feat many would never achieve. She was triple casting, all the while moving around and attacking.
The amount of split concentration required to do what she was doing was inhuman, and regular mages would drool at the prospect of achieving this. But it was no simple feat.
In the arena with her, Phoenix was still unaware of what was happening over her head. The steam produced by both elemental attacks was magical in nature, so it charged the air with mana particles.
But the farce eventually ended when Violette grinned and lifted both arms to the sky. And then she chanted out loud.
“Cataclysmic event: Unending Hailstorm!”
Phoenix raised her head and finally saw what was over her head all this time.
‘Wow,’ was her first thought.
“Shit.” was what she said, before the millions of small needles of ice started falling.