Silence fell upon the dueling stage, but this was only for a moment. The audience’s reaction exploded as if a tensely stretched-out arrow had been released.
“Did you just see that! Is that what I think it is?”
“I clearly saw it too.”
People started murmuring and they all talked about one word—
“That’s Silent Incantation!”
Silent Incantation was a very high level ability that magicians could use to eliminate the weakness of revealing what their magic was by saying it out loud. Of course, the magic power decreased a bit, but just the fact that a magician could use Silent Incantation was a huge advantage. However, since it was such an amazing skill, very few people could use it. It was a skill that geniuses specially chosen by the heavens could use.
Of course, all the mages watching this duel couldn’t use Silent Incantation; that was also the same for Lyla’s opponent.
“Are you done?” Lyla’s words were simple, but it was enough to show how calm and carefree she was in this battle. Normally, such an attitude would make people think that Lyla was looking down at them, and the young man also accepted it like that.
“What, what…” The young man was dumbfounded after finding out that Lyla could use Silent Incantation. However, Lyla’s carefree attitude hurt his pride; he lifted his staff high up again. “Ra! Homuel! In! Towul!”
It was lightning magic this time. Electric sparks began appearing on top of his staff. Lyla didn’t make a move this time again. The young man pointed his staff towards Lyla. “Kal!”
Crackle!
As soon as he cast his spell, lightning flew from his staff; however, it was only after Lyla had already flicked her fingers.
Thud!
A wall made out of stones appeared in front of her; Lyla’s wall easily blocked the lightning. When the wall disappeared, Lyla was able to see the young man’s expression. He was making quite an interesting face—it had shock, fear, jealousy, and even horror. Various emotions were all displayed like a whirlwind on his face.
“I let you attack twice. It’s okay for me to attack now, right?” Lyla raised her hand. Her staff was still laying loosely to her side.
Flash!
There was not even a sign of an incantation. A sudden wind swept over the young man.
“Ugh!” The young man quickly bent down; sharp wind blades passed over the top of his head.
“Hmm, now I understand why he easily accepted this duel.”
“What?” Elena responded to Zich’s murmuring.
“That guy facing Lyla. He seems used to doing magic battles.”
“Ah, yes. Jaewick is famous in the magical tower. He even won in the annual magic duel competition before.”
Jaewick was the name of the young man dueling with Lyla. This was the first time Zich had heard his name, and Lyla still didn’t know his name yet. However, this was not surprising because Jaewick was really an insignificant existence to them. When a dog picked a fight, people were not usually curious about the dog’s name. They would merely kick and try to drive the dog out.
Jaewick evaded another attack from Lyla. He didn’t evade her attacks with ease; he really had to twist his body to the maximum to barely escape her attacks.
‘That shouldn’t even be considered evading.’
Jaewick couldn’t even keep his balance, and he crashed onto the ground. A rock flew towards Jaewick while he was on the ground.
“U-Ughhhhh!”
Jaewick waved his arms around and flopped his stomach. He jumped up and down like a frog and rolled on the ground; and like this, he was barely able to avoid Lyla’s magic.
“Hah!” Someone in the audience tried to stifle their laughter. The ridiculous sight of Jaewick struggling on the floor made their lips twitch. However, no one criticized this person, because most of the people in the crowd were struggling to not burst out laughing.
“Hahaaaa!”
“Hah! Ha!”
Sounds of stifled laughter could be heard throughout the dueling stage. They weren’t laughing on purpose; it was just that Jaewick looked ridiculously funny. However, there were also people who were laughing at Jaewick with the purpose of belittling him. Was it jealousy? Or did he have a lot of enemies because of his bad personality?
‘It’s none of my business.’ The crowd wasn’t laughing at Zich or his companions; he did not care if people made fun of his opponent or not. Instead, Zich was on their side.
“Haaaaaaaaaaah!”
Zich stifled his laughter like the others, but it was so loud that his laugh was basically the same as laughing outright. Red from the crowd’s mocking laughter, Jaewick was now red all the way to his ears. He struggled up the steps and glared at Zich. At Jaewick’s glare, Zich laughed even harder; he even grabbed his stomach and hit the back of the barrier. Even though Jaewick’s eyes became even more menacing, he didn’t have time to keep glaring at Zich.
Whish!
“Ugh!”
Jaewick evaded another attack from Lyla. Lyla’s magic hit the barrier and disappeared. This happened multiple times; Lyla attacked and Jaewick did his best to avoid her attacks. Jaewick also kept attempting to use magic.
‘He’s saying incantations even while moving.’
That was also a very different skill to cast. Magic required intense concentration, so it was extremely difficult to use magic while moving. There were many magicians who stayed completely still and closed their eyes when saying incantations.
‘Well, he really does have some skills.’
However, the problem was that his opponent was Lyla.
“On!”
Boom!
Jaewick used magic one more time. Lyla avoided his fast-moving attack by moving one step back. At the same time, she swung her arm.
Crasssh!
A whirlwind flew towards Jaewick.
“Eeck!” He bent down as if he was falling. The spell narrowly missed the top of his head. It was clear to everyone that Lyla was just playing around with him.
“S-she’s amazing.” Elena was completely absorbed with Lyla’s movements. Her teacher was a mage who was even more amazing than she expected.
‘Even you could do that much before.’ Only Zich knew how strong and skillful Elena could be in the future.
“Y-y-you…!” Jaewick’s body trembled in humiliation. He wanted to immediately use magic and completely destroy his opponent from head to toe. However, it was clear to him and everyone that there was an enormous difference in their strength. Jaewick could not accept his defeat like this.
‘How could a mage like me get defeated by a wandering magician? And also a teacher of that failure, Elena Dwayne?’
He could never admit his loss. ‘I’m going to use all I can to win!’
Jaewick began muttering spells again. A fireball appeared in front of him, and he threw it towards Lyla.
Boom!
Lyla was able to deflect his attack easily again. However, this was not the end of Jaewick’s attack.
“…What?” Lyla tilted her head as Jaewick’s staff came flying towards her. However, she also deflected that attack by hitting Jaewick’s staff with her own, but this was also a part of Jaewick’s plan.
“Hey!”
“What the heck!”
The audience began murmuring amongst themselves. Elena also opened her eyes in shock. Jaewick had used his magic and staff as feints to come right in front of Lyla.
‘Since she’s a woman, she must have barely any strength! I should just grab her first, and if I hit her, she won’t be able to use magic properly!’
Since he was a mage, he was also not physically strong, but he was confident that he wouldn't lose to a woman. Jaewick reached out with his hands.
Grab!
“I got you!” Jaewick grabbed Lyla’s arms with a great amount of force. He pulled her arms to him and raised his fist.
‘If I just land one punch, I can win!’
Whoosh!
Jaewick threw a punch— his goal was Lyla’s face. Jaewick thought that he would soon be able to see her face covered in blood and thought that she must be filled with shock and horror. For that reason, he stared directly at her face.
However, she was smiling.
‘Huh?’
For a moment, Lyla’s head suddenly disappeared from his view. Obviously, Jaewick’s punch hit the air.
‘Where…did sh…’
While he was still trying to process what happened—
Punch!
“Agh!” Jaewick’s eyes spun from the pain on his cheek. His body spun around, and his view kept changing between the ceiling and the floor. But he saw Lyla a few times in between. She withdrew her fist and looked down at him as if he was a pathetic human being.
Slam!
Jaewick’s body flipped as he hit the ground. The entire basement became quiet at once. If the last silence was from witnessing a high-level magic skill, this was silence from shock at the unexpected development of the duel.
Clap! Clap! Clap!
A carefree clap rang throughout the room and shattered the silence. “As expected of Lyla. She immediately let out a counter-attack. A stick-skinny guy who only works on magic is not her opponent at all. I really did a good job teaching her.”
“Ugh!” Jaewick raised his head. His cheeks were swollen up; Lyla landed a solid punch on his cheek. He lifted up his body and clutched onto his cheek.
Lyla came slowly walking towards him. “From what I know, in magic duels, you’re only supposed to use magic. I guess duels in magician’s towers are different.”
Crunch!
An ominous sound came out from her fingers; Jaewick flinched.
“This became a bit more fun.”
Thud!
Lyla threw down her staff to the side. Even though she hadn’t even used it once so far, Jaewick could only think of one reason why she would throw it to the ground—to fight a battle with her fists.
“W-wait…!” Jaewick was about to shout something but—
Tap!
Lyla increased her speed and then raised her fist.
“Agh!” Jaewick covered his face with both arms, but since he only focused on magic all his life, his stance couldn’t have been more awkward.
Slam!
Lyla threw a punch directly at Jaewick’s exposed stomach. Jaewick’s arms naturally opened up, and his face came into view. Lyla’s arms began to move with great speed.
Punch!
“Ughhh!” Jaewick’s head bounced back, and his whole body trembled in the process.
Lyla clicked her tongue. “As expected, I can’t do it like Zich. I can’t end this with just one punch.”
Zich said, “If you can punch like me…”
“Well, I guess it can’t be helped.” Lyla stared at Jaewick whose blood was flowing from his mouth and murmured, “If I can’t end this with one punch, I’ll just have to punch two, three, or more times.”
“W-wait!” However, Lyla ignored Jaewick’s words again. She ran towards Jaewick and began wielding her fists.
Punch! Punch!
Lyla’s fists continued to hit Jaewick in sharp succession.
‘W-what kind of mage…!’ While receiving a rain of fists, Jaewick screamed inside his mind.
It wasn’t as if Lyla had learned some amazing martial arts. In the end, she was a magician through and through. However, her physical abilities were very good; to the point that even Zich was impressed. Moreover, she had knowledge of basic martial arts, and she also had experience with Zich’s rough training and rolling with Hans and Snoc during the early parts of their journey. In addition, her opponent was a traditional mage who didn’t use his body much and had barely any experience in physical fights. With all these factors in Lyla’s favor, she was able to one-sidedly beat the hell out of her opponent.
Bish!
“Ugh!”
Jaewick’s face was smacked again. His face was now covered in blood.
Lyla stopped attacking for a moment and asked, “Do you want to surrender?”
“How the hell is this a magic duel!” Jaewick’s pronunciation was still relatively clear.
Lyla replied back as if he was being absurd, “I wonder who first swung his fist? Because of your behavior, I thought it was all right that I could use my fists in a magic duel in the magical tower. I guess that must have not been the case?”
“Agh!” Jaewick glared at her as if he wanted to kill her and suddenly jumped back. Lyla quietly watched him do this.
The place that Jaewick ran towards was where his staff was. He quickly grabbed his staff and moved toward Lyla.
“My gosh, you’re so persistent. Fine. I’ll settle this with magic, just like how you wanted.” Lyla headed towards where her staff was and said, “But this one will be a bit dangerous. You brat.”