The woman on the other end of the stage stood there with her eyes closed, seemingly having nothing ready at all. Yet when Angor closed his eyes to listen carefully, he could hear the sound of flowing water coming from the woman’s position.
Dripping River.
She was the first female opponent Angor met in the tower, and also the strangest opponent.
The arena screen had not announced the start of the fight yet, and the magic-inhibiting array was still working, but the woman already showed strange energy.
Water. Angor felt as if he was facing a puddle of water rather than a human being.
[Baron Milk VS Dripping River]. The countdown reached zero.
The woman looked plain enough. She had short curly blue hair and heavy panda eyes which remained closed before the start of the match. Now, she finally opened her eyes and revealed a pair of black pupils behind her eyelids.
Dripping River extended her fingers and when she drew a line on the floor, a string of river suddenly appeared in front of her.
“Quickened spell!” Angor constructed his defense line while carefully observing the movement of his opponent.
There was something else strange about the spell. The “river” was not on the ground itself. Instead, it flowed around Dripping River’s body like a decorative strap on her clothes.
“Bind,” Dripping River spoke in a gentle tone which sounded like clear water running through porcelain wares.
The river strap rushed at Angor following her command.
Angor too had already established his first defense—an ice wall.
Angor avoided the river string behind his wall. He then initiated his dirty tactic again by showering the area around Dripping River with his golden bolts.
“Shield,” Dripping River chanted again.
The river string left the ice wall and weaved itself into a water shield, blocking the flying bolts.
A water shield that deflected his bolts… Angor could not believe his eyes. But it already happened. The shield made of water worked like a real shield. When the bolts hit its surface, they created the same noise as when metal hit metal.
Angor kept shooting while gradually enlarging his target area. To his disappointment, the water shield grew in size as well.
Nothing was perfect. If the water shield became bigger, then it would certainly grow thinner at the same time. With that in mind, Angor switched his attack pattern and focused on one spot.
However, he had already spent half of his ammunition, yet the water shield did not even have a single scratch on it.
More importantly, Angor could not sense any decrease of mana from Dripping River at all. She did not need mana to sustain her shield? If the battle dragged too long, Angor was sure he would lose in the end.
Seizing an opportunity when Angor slowed down his attack, Dripping River mumbled something else, “Blade.”
The river strap became a water blade and came down from the air, breaking Angor’s ice wall in half.
“Use water as everything… such amazing skills. I can’t catch a breather at all,” Angor thought to himself. “She uses the flexibility of water like a master. Is she really from Brute Cavern? Not Song of the Deep?”
Forging elements into objects was considered an extremely advanced Elementalist technique. He read about it in a book before, so he happened to know its weakness as well.
The objects might look like real things, but they were still made of water.
And an element that countered water would do a good job against such trick.
Fire was always the natural nemesis of water. However, while fire could vaporize water, it could also get put out by enough water, so Angor did not choose fire spells. Instead, he used a cantrip which was not recorded in any of the books in Brute Cavern.
During his preparations, Angor re-calculated the models for several level-0 cantrips and turned them into usable models when he had enough time.
They included a variant version of Dust Removal.
Dust Removal was a level-0 cantrip which was often combined with Cleanse. The cantrip used a correct combination of Wind and Earth elements. Now, Angor planned to use another combination for it.
He named the new cantrip as “Dust”.
The nature of the new cantrip was using a certain combination of Wind and Earth elements to create dust which covered an area.
It looked like Sandstorm spell but was a lot weaker. The best it could do was creating small dust grains which were barely visible to human eyes. The dust could not really do anything to people since human noses were enough to keep them out.
However, the cantrip might do wonder in such a situation—the dust could absorb water and nullify the transformed objects.
Angor kept shooting to keep the water blade away while silently constructed the cantrip model for Dust in his mind.
This cantrip was even weaker than average level-0 cantrips, so he established the model really fast. He never paid much effort to practice, yet it only took him three or four seconds to finish the model.
Angor cast the stream of dust toward the water blade in the air.
When they connected, the water flow quickly began to absorb dust and lose its own volume. Just when Angor thought that he had solved the situation, Dripping River suddenly chanted another word.
“Oil.”
“Oil?” Angor wondered if he heard right. Oil? How?
The water flow in the air visibly became something else following Dripping River’s command. The once crystal-clear water quickly turned into turbid, blackish-yellow grease.
“That’s… oil?” Angor was surprised.
Of course, Dripping River did not answer him. She ordered the “oil belt” to rush at Angor, and summoned a small ember at the same time.
The oil belt immediately became a raging, flaming snake.
The “flame belt” hit the ground beside Angor and exploded, blasting Angor away.
Angor stumbled and struggled to halt his momentum at the edge of the arena.
“It’s really oil! But water and oil are completely different substances! How could element manipulation do such a thing?” Angor was really shocked now.
Again, Dripping River kept her secret. She raised an eyebrow and rubbed her temples as if she was really tired.
Angor was sure she did not get tired because of the fight. But considering those panda eyes… maybe she really needed some sleep?
Dripping River answered Angor’s question this time, by… suddenly began to snore while standing upright.
“Woah. For how long was she awake?” Angor tried casting a Bind spell at Dripping River.
And she was easily caught in it.
She was asleep for real!
At the same time, something showed up on the arena screen: [Winner: Baron Milk].
Angor walked off the stage while still carrying his questions and a weird feeling. The medical team of sky tower came and placed Dripping River on a stretcher. Then they carried her away while walking past Angor’s path.
He clearly heard one of the medics muttering, “The girl fell asleep on the stage again…”
Again? So this isn’t the first time for Dripping River to doze off like that?
The participant waiting area at Level 3 was quite populated. Instead of malevolent attention, many people looked at him in jealousy this time.
“Man… Dripping River. He got a jackpot,” Someone commented in a small voice.
Angor took a corner to rest, still puzzled. He did not meditate this time. He was still thinking about the previous fight.
He did not really care about why Dripping River suddenly fell asleep. The important thing was, how did the water belt become oil? They were both liquids, true, but it was impossible to change something into a completely different material just like that.
He could not find any answer in his mind.
Angor had four matches in the morning. Apart from the fight against Dripping River, the other three proved to be easy enough.
In the afternoon, he planned to get four more wins. However, after seizing the second victory, he saw Nausica in the waiting room.
Angor hesitated a bit and decided to quit. When Nausica’s battle began, he joined the audiences.
Her opponent was an ordinary Elementalist apprentice who did not appear to know any special spells or abilities. Angor was confident he could defeat someone like that easily just by using his Trigger Crossbow.
Nausica, however, did not proceed with the fight as easily as he expected. Nausica was a Bloodline apprentice now, who had not fused a bloodline into herself yet, and she only knew a common spell combination. Her only advantage was her superior close combat skills.
Her enemy used his defensive spells and managed to repel Nausica’s attacks just fine.
Angor wondered. Why doesn’t she use Solefly?
If she used Solefly in her melee fight, she would have won already. But she did not. She was not even using the dueling sword on her waist.
Nausica still defeated her enemy in the end, but it looked tough. And she only fought this one battle before leaving the Sky Tower quickly.
After watching Nausica’s battle, Angor gained another victory and returned home when the outside was already bathed in the dusk light.
…
Upon reaching his villa, he quickly found his tablet and looked for books about Element Imitation.
Reading several books only deepened his doubt. The theory in the books was just as he thought, that imitation could never change the natural property of an element.
So how did Dripping River do that?
Besides, her water shield was too sturdy. It looked like metal rather than water. Maybe she actually used a metal shield?
But he saw her changing the water belt into a shield with his own eyes!
A knock on the door interrupted his train of thought.
“Mister Padt.”
Butler Goode’s voice came from his garden entrance.
Angor shut off his tablet with a start. He then quickly hid it inside his pocket watch and calmed his breath before finally going outside to open the door.
“Mister Padt. The master is expecting you.”