Ronny became a blur to his audience soon after he executed his spell combo. A small crater was seen on the ground where he was standing just a few moments ago. It still had a few lightning sparks dancing over it as a mana residue.
Edward was seen retrieving a vial and throwing it on the ground. At first, Jules didn't understand why Ronny's opponent threw a vial of potion on the ground. But she soon got the answer.
The potion soon released a mana miasma after coming into contact with the surroundings. The miasma soon formed a mushroom-like cloud in the battle ring.
This was what Jules processed with her normal time perception. But her teammate perceived this event differently.
Ronny had already reached Dom's apparition. He threw a punch at the opponent's tummy which was just barely getting covered by the layer of wood in the form of uneven planks.
Ronny's hands had been turned into snakes' mouths by now. The punch landed on the guy's upper abdomen before he could realize that Ronny had approached him.
Although Ronny's time element spells were in the F-Rank, the synergy he had found while under the influence of the Potion of Serenity allowed him to use the spell combo almost like an E-Rank spell. As a result, he was faster than before, allowing him to land the punch without his opponent taking precautions against it.
The punch's effects hadn't even been processed by Dom's body yet. But Ronny decided to carry on with his momentum and grabbed his opponent's neck from behind. The grip that he had used to do that made it look like the fire snake had bitten at his back.
Ronny had done this to make his opponent stay beside him and not fly far away as a result of his merciless punch. He wanted to pin Dom down so that he could keep landing blows on him while keeping him in close range.
Ronny felt that his opponent's body was going to take off. So he pressed the neck downwards and used his right knee to perform a low blow on the same spot he had punched the guy before. After that, he went behind Dom, locked both his hands, and hammered Dom's back with that combined hand-lock.
Jules saw that as the cloud of the mana miasma was forming around the region, Dom was attacked by a blurred shadow. She could see the sparks of lightning and the light of the fire. She had realized that it was Ronny who had attacked the opponent with his extreme speed.
She saw that Dom slumped forward as something landed heavily on his stomach. Then she saw that he had been struck behind his back by a substantial force that only left residue mana in its wake in the form of lightning and fire.
Dom was pinned down on the ground with a loud thud. The ground beneath him cracked. But Ronny did not seem to slow down. As she could still see the sparks of lightning and fire wreaking havoc on various parts of Dom's body. Ronny, like the battle-hardened ranker he was, had specifically targeted the guy's vital spots while landing blows after blows at him.
The battle had become completely one-sided between Dom and Ronny in the latter's favour. She saw that Dom's wood element armour had played a very small part in safeguarding him. This was because Ronny had been too fast for him to complete his spell execution soundly.
A screech was heard from Dom's apparition that didn't sound human. He was seen using a movement spell that covered his legs with a layer of malleable wood. He used those legs to kick against the ground he was lying down on and hurled his body in the air.
Ronny was still fast enough to see Dom trying in vain to leave the session of beating he had arranged for him. He formed the combined hand-lock again while he was processing the events in the almost-stagnant world and hammered down at the top of Dom's chest.
Because the latter's levitating body was attempting to leave the ground, he had easy access to the chest surface.
Dom's body had been covered by the half-finished wood armour that looked like it had been formed by mismatched wooden planks. There were sparks of turquoise lightning and light orange flames all over his body. The elemental residues of lightning and fire formed patches around his vital spots.
Dom's movement spell to escape Ronny's unceasing attacks turned out to be futile. His levitating body was again sent back to the ground it came from. Seemingly frustrated by the screeching noise, Dom clapped his hands and performed his AoE.
The flying wood spears came into existence out of the thin air around Dom and Ronny and they all targeted the latter. Then he used his movement spell again to get away from his lightning-element opponent while sending the wooden spears forward.
In an almost stagnant world, Ronny saw wooden spears coming towards him. His mind was still processing the insights he was gaining during the battle. Something was telling him to imbue his mana sense into the fire-snakes he had as his arms.
Ronny just followed the instructions he was given by the higher consciousness and raised his hands. The fire-snakes seemed to have come to life when he shared his mana sense with his spell-generated reptiles.
Ronny had just started to process the surroundings around him in multiple perspectives when he shared the mana sense in a way the higher consciousness had told him to. The first perspective was his own. These two perspectives belong to the now-lifelike fire snakes.
'Hisssssss'
The fire snakes hissed when they saw that the wooden spears were approaching them from all around them. They raised their heads and shot towards the arrows. Their tails were still attached to Ronny's hands. But their fire-element torsos had been stretched tremendously.
Soon, multiple fire-snakes were originating from Ronny's palms. The number of perspectives he had to process also increased as a result. They each targeted the wooden spear coming their way.
Ronny was seen standing in the middle of a wooden spear storm that was closing in on him rapidly. The miasma layer was also present in the surrounding area. Things suddenly started going south for him.
That was until a hive of fire-snakes made their appearance.