His body jerked as the water slammed into him, lifting him off his feet and tossing him backward like a ragdoll. He tumbled uncontrollably in the torrent with his swords flailing uselessly in the air as the wave of water battered him. The sheer force of the spell washed him back, hurling him several meters away before the wave finally dissipated, leaving him soaked and sprawled on the ground.
He gasped for breath and coughed up water as he tried to recover. His momentum, his speed, his relentless assault- all of it had been drowned out by the surge of my magic.
“Don’t… Laugh!” He cursed at me. I would have loved to begin mockingly laughing at him, but before I could even hurl a spell at the angry guy to finish him off the mage conjured a new spell- this time, a highly condensed stream of water, resembling a torrent had been compressed into a firefighter’s hose and he turned the pressure up tenfold. The power behind it was immense.
I had no choice but to face it head-on. It would easily kill Seraphiel and Aurora should I allow the attack to connect to their defenseless bodies which they entrusted the protection of to me.
This Wizard was clearly specialized in the water element, and his repertoire of spells was greater than mine in that element. I had no such mighty attack under my belt as of yet in any of my elements. It was like an extreme budget version of Kamehameha.
I gritted my teeth and swung my saber with a [Power Strike]. The force of my slash cut through the torrent, splitting the water in two. However, that wasn’t enough. The torrent lasted for a few seconds, so my feeble counter only diverted the first bit of it.
The mage’s spell hit me square in the chest as the remaining water slammed into me with the force of a battering ram. Both my Earth Armor and Water Shield were shattered by it, but I dug my heels into the ground, absolutely refusing to be sent flying. I felt numerous bruises and cuts form under my armor and my HP dropped a good 30%. In the end, I managed to stand tall, shaking off the pain.
These bastards weren’t going to take me down so easily.
Without my Primordial Villain’s 50% HP boost and my insistence to invest quite heavily into the Vitality stat over my journey I would already be in big trouble, but thanks to it I managed to survive and remain in fighting condition.
Once the torrent finally faded, I responded with a quick [Fireball] by sending it flying toward the mage. “He’s still alive after that?! No way!” He shrieked as the flames roared while streaking through the air, but the water specialist wasn’t bad at all. He conjured up a water shield just in time for the fire to slam into it with a burst of heat but failed to break through.
The Phenom guy wasn’t giving me a break either. With a shout of fury he charged at me again as his twin blades flashed vividly due to the speed at which he swung them. I cast [Wind Step], boosting my physical speed, after which I darted forward to meet him head-on. Our blades clashed in a flurry of blows with each strike ringing out like a series of thunderclaps.
I had a distinct feeling that this team was quite competent compared to what we’ve seen from the rest of the competition thus far. It was very lucky for us that my mighty fire spell hit their two tanks and cooked them in their metal armor, or things would be looking even uglier for us than they were right now.
His movements were sharp and precise, his every slash aimed to kill me. However, thanks to my boosted speed I managed to keep up with his assault for the time being. My saber parried his strikes with a grace that only materialized from the many duels I had with Ayame over the past month.
For the record, I haven’t beaten her as of yet, though I always fought her as a pure swordsman, not with all my spells at my disposal. I think I could beat her if I went all out, but to decide that we would need to conduct a death battle, something I’m not interested in.
I twisted, dodging a double horizontal slash aimed at my chest, and countered with a thrust aimed at his gut. He blocked it with one sword, using the other to swipe at my leg, but I jumped back a step, just barely managing to avoid being severely wounded.
The spearwoman had recovered from being kicked in the belly. She joined the fray by thrusting her weapon at my side again. Her expression was a strong mixture of grief and rage. I sidestepped while deflecting her spear with a swift parry, and spun to face the Phenom, whose swords were once again bearing down on me.
I blocked his overhead strike with my saber and kicked out at him, forcing him to stagger back.
As if on cue, the mage unleashed another spell- a swirling vortex of water aimed directly at me. After nearly getting done in by him with his last attack, I was ready for him this time. I muttered a quick incantation, casting [Cyclone] to meet the vortex head-on. The winds from my spell collided with the water, creating a storm of mist and debris between us.
His powers were still stronger than mine sadly, but the Cyclone diverted a lot more of his spell than my simple saber slash did previously, so I could just shrug the rest off with minor bruises.
Stay tuned with freewebnovel
The fight was getting more desperate as I slowly lost in both initiative and HP.
They must’ve been very well aware of the timer they were on since as soon as my team finished with their opponents it would turn into a 3v6 for them, thus their reckless offensive on me was understandable.