Chapter 200.
Arpen swung his magic wand first and shot dozens of ice balls the size of a human body.
"Ice Bullets!"
I don’t know why he thought this was the size of a bullet, but it was clear that this was a phenomenal mana operation. Indeed, Arpen was only using the level of mana necessary for magic bullets. He wasn’t called a great madosa for nothing.
I flew high to avoid the ice and asked, "Don’t people of Sir’s level usually give up the initiative to attack?"
Arpen snorted. "There is no need to yield the initiative to a leech clinging on to Yuria!"
As he voiced the nonsense full of misunderstandings, he caught up to me and tried to bind me with a chain of ice.
I opened up my mana and blew hot air. "Hot Tornado!"
He smiled joyfully as the ice chain that was trying to bind me melted away in the hot wind. "You’re not bad! You probably won’t die even if I go all out!"
For some reason, that smile felt very ominous. Sure enough, Arpen suddenly started shooting thousands of ice bullets as big as his fist. While dodging the ice bullets with a high-speed maneuver, I shot thousands of lightning arrows at him.
"Thunder Arrow!"
Arpen also dodged with high-speed maneuvering and constantly fired ice bullets at me.
The sky above the capital was filled with ice and lightning, blocking my view, and it was even difficult to find my opponent’s position due to his high-speed movements. However, locating one’s opponent with one’s eyes in a magic battle was a stupid act that only trash would do. The most important thing in a magic battle was the detection and prediction of mana.
"Crash down, Northern Wind! Defeat the enemy, Knight of Frost!"
"The dragon swallows the morning sun! The dragon’s breath is like the sun!"
Arpen’s Knight of Frost and my flame dragon ran into and extinguished each other. In an instant, the ice and lightning that covered the sky disappeared due to the mana storm produced from the two magics extinguishing each other. With the things that had been obstructing my view now gone, I could easily see my opponent in the clear sky.
"Ice Bullet!"
"Arrows of Lightning!"
Again, tens of thousands of ice bullets and lightning arrows covered the sky and obstructed my view of my opponent. While the view was obstructed, I created a clone of myself with a solid body. My clone constantly fired lightning arrows and I made a big detour around the space with ice and lightning that obstructed my vision and sneaked into the area where Arpen was located.
"Lightning that Races Across the Sky!"
Then from right underneath Arpen’s feet, I fed him the classic “Lightning that Races Across the Sky.” However, what I shot was not Arpen but a clone of his.
"Tch!"
"Lady of Ice!"
Along with the sound of Arpen’s incantation from somewhere, ice awls flew at me from all directions. Rather than avoiding them, I put up a thick barrier and cast magic on the real Arpen, who appeared to use his magic.
"Lightning that Races Across the Sky!"
Kwakwakwa!
I could hear the sound of ice awls hitting my barrier like listening to the sound of rain under an eave.
"You’re pretty tough, little boy!”
Arpen dodged in a hurry but didn’t manage to completely avoid it, and a part of his barrier was torn down. My barrier also became thinner due to the tens of thousands of ice awls, and it looked like a hedgehog with ice awls stuck in it.
"That’s what I should be saying, Sir!
Arpen and I smiled and quickly restored our barriers. At the same time, we each entered a space full of ice and lightning. This was because as long as the capital remained below, the space full of ice and lightning couldn’t be expanded anymore.
It became dizzying as my vision was filled with ice and lightning, but since I was getting used to Arpen’s mana, I could roughly tell where he was. However, being careless was forbidden. The fact that I could read my opponent’s mana now also meant my opponent would be able to read my mana.
It was time to cause confusion.
"Stretch! Arachne’s Web!"
The threads of mana spouted from my magic wand everywhere. I let my mana flow into the mana threads so I could feel the presence of my mana in the surroundings. Arpen must have thought the same thing because I could feel his mana everywhere. He was a formidable old man.
I was looking for the main body beyond his mana disturbance but suddenly a big ice spear flew quickly towards my head. As expected, he wasn’t called "the world’s strongest" for nothing and seemed to have detected my position earlier than I could find him.
I dodged the ice spear and shot magic towards where it came. "Spear of Thunder!"
However, after casting his spell, he had already moved away, so the Spear of Thunder only split the empty air. However, because of it, I succeeded in detecting his real mana, not the mana disturbance.
Since large-scale magic was restricted here, the answer was to go into close combat battle. And a close combat battle was overwhelmingly advantageous for me. I made a quick dash for Arpen, avoiding the ice and lightning everywhere.
Arpen laughed at me as if he expected my charge. "Ice of Ten Thousand Years is indomitable and unyielding! The dots gather to form a line, and the lines gather to form a shape, the Ice of Ten Thousand Years in its original form!"
He made an ice lance with magic and charged towards me with it.
Should I use my martial arts? No, that ice can’t be broken.
At least, it was too much to break it with martial arts unless I used the Dance of the Fireflies.
I adjusted the direction of my charge and bounced up.
Arpen, who cut through the empty air, shouted, "Are you running away?! Coward!”
I snorted at Arpen’s provocation and went up higher.
"Let’s say it’s a strategic retreat! I have no intention of colliding with that crazy lance!"
The mana contained in that crazy lance went beyond just being abundant but also had the coldness of absolute zero. At the minimum, a close combat battle wouldn’t be possible, unless I had weapons to deal with the cold.
"Oho, you are able to recognize it." Arpen looked at me with interested eyes.
Come to think of it, I think I heard about it from Elder Mirpa. A crazy old man of the Butterfly Tribe created absolute defense magic on the brink of death after the Demon King shot a hole in his stomach. If the crazy old man that Elder Mirpa mentioned was the great elder of the Butterfly Tribe, then that meant that magic lance was for defense.
But then there would be a gap somewhere if it was used to attack. There were roughly a dozen strategies going through my head. But six had the risk of the capital being destroyed, and three were also dangerous for me.
None will work.
One of the remaining three could potentially kill Arpen. But I couldn’t kill Yuria and Alphonso’s grandfather. One other would use too much mana. I had to fulfill my aunt’s favor, so I had to leave some magic remaining.
In the end, there was only one left.
I poured mana into the bracelet made by the Witch of Pride. Its original function was that of an artifact that guaranteed the survival of its owner in any space. It could easily block the cold air emitted by that lance. To be honest, I didn’t expect to use it for anything other than to control my mana output.
"That bracelet!"
Arpen was surprised to see my bracelet.
Oh, come to think of it, that old man was part of a Demon King subjugation party.
"How do you have the last legacy of the Witch of Pride?!"
"I bought it at a street stall!"
Arpen was choked up as he cried out. "There’s no way that could be true! That would have definitely been taken by that monster, Galak!"
Wow, so my great-grandfather was a monster who was even recognized by the world’s strongest great madosa.
"You punk, just who the hell are you?!"
Arpen truly began to unleash his mana.
Oh, this is dangerous. That old man didn’t forget that we were in the sky over the capital, did he?
I gathered my mana to use the strategy I had in mind. My idea was to adjust the World Reversal into a weapon shape and send that monstrous lance to the other side of the World Reversal. Although this method would consume a lot of energy, it would still be able to save a lot of mana because it reduced the size of the World Reversal extremely.
"The twilight of dusk—”
As I was about to recite the incantation, the Holy Sword I had hidden inside my suit suddenly began to cry fiercely.
What?! What’s wrong with this guy?!
The Holy Sword cried as if asking to be used. Certainly, it was one of the four God Swords, so it should definitely be powerful, but I didn’t know how much it could perform because I haven’t studied it yet.
Would I be able to use such a thing... to fight?
In the current situation, with the Witch of Pride Bracelet, the ice lance that Arpen was holding was an indestructibly solid lance. [1]
Will an unexpected attack work?
Perhaps this would be a good situation to study the Holy Sword?
I smiled and poured mana into it. Then the mana I poured in was replaced with divine power and was amplified to create a blade.
"That sword! I’m certain that Oryana said she’d seal it!"
It wasn’t just lost, but rather it was sealed?
Indeed, during the time of Saintess Oryana, the corruption of the temple was at its peak. The sealing of the Holy Sword was enough to dampen the momentum of corruption.
I charged at Arpen and shouted, "I bought this at a street stall too!"
"Don’t lie!"
Arpen launched an ice chunk about the size of a human being at me. I charged directly, cutting through the chunk of ice that flew at me with the Holy Sword.
I’d never used a sword that cut this well before. Considering that the ice chunk was made from the mana of a great madosa, it would have been as hard as diamond. But since the Holy Sword could cut it in half, its status as one of the God Swords was not exaggerated.
I could see why my aunt didn’t use the sword she inherited from her grandfather. This sword was a sword that ate some of the user’s skills. This magic sword was so great that it made you rely on it. But since I’m a magician, let’s use it freely with no qualms.
Kang!
Arpen blocked my Holy Sword with his ice lance.
“No way!"
"No way!"
Arpen and I spat out astonishment at the same time.
I was genuinely surprised when it managed to block the Holy Sword that I thought could cut through anything. Arpen, on the other hand, seemed surprised when his lance was scratched.
"So it is the Holy Sword!”
"It really deserves to be called the strongest defense magic!"
Exclaiming, Arpen and I stepped back.
While I was preparing a magic to attack again, I felt a huge amount of mana from below, and the dummies that were shooting the ice bullets and lightning arrows disappeared.
"What are you doing, Father?!"
A white-haired man looked angry as he flew up quickly from below.
Father?!
I looked at Arpen curiously.
Arpen groaned with the look of defeat. "Be-Bendis."
Come to think of it, the white-haired man’s face resembled Yuria and Alphonso.
1. I think because the bracelet reduces his mana output so he won’t be able to destroy the ice lance with it on, but he can’t deal with the coldness of the ice lance without the bracelet.
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