Chapter 714 Setting Things Straight
Rodney wasted no time bursting forward, his excellent physical condition, due to so many years training his body to peak condition, showing how far he had come. Although his siblings were great mages, they were not so physically inclined.
To them, it almost appeared as if Rodney had flashed forward into them.
Elias, whose time as a Mana Knight's squire had trained him a bit in the martial side of combat, was a bit better off, but not by much. Luckily for him, his wind affinity was extremely high, and his magic revolved mainly around boosting his speed and the sharpness of his attacks.
Pulling out his rapier from his hip-rest, he quickly burst back, firing three slashes of wind toward Rodney, who raised his shield to block.
Mariah barely had any reaction time, but her ice affinity was even greater than Elias' wind affinity, and the speed of her ice spells was practically unrivalled. So when she thought of erecting an ice wall, it magically appeared, just before Rodney slammed into her, separating them.
But it was fleeting, as it was too flimsily built to withstand Rodney's full charge. He crashed through it like a runaway train, but his sister was gone.
Elias was trained to protect the women of his family, so as soon as he saw Rodney was gunning for her, he boosted her movement speed with some wind magic, which allowed her to dart away.
The fight was only starting, and already Rodney had gotten both of them on the run. This soured their mood instantly.
"I am not running from you! You want to cross swords, then so be it!" Elias shouted, before charging back at his older brother.
Rodney was already repositioning to defend himself from Mariah's onslaught of flying icicles, as she went on the offensive when his brother appeared behind him.
"Always the slower one!" Elias shouted, slashing his rapier down.
But a deaf dong was heard as the blade in his hand vibrated in his grip.
By some means Elias couldn't grasp, Rodney had positioned his blade in a back grip, the flat of it resting on his shoulder blades, as it blocked the impact of the thin blade with ease.
From the side, Ulrick was slightly smiling.
'His battle instincts are sharp. Much sharper than those two. His experience shows in every move he makes. Nothing goes to waste,' he mused, his eyes grasping much more than Elias' or Mariah's.
He was proud of his son's growth, even if Rodney refused the sentiment. But Themiscus' society had no place for non-mages in its higher ring.
Shield raised in front of him, icicles crashing into it, Rodney grinned. With a pivot of his foot, his weight shifted from right to left, and he slipped out of the path of the next four icicles.
This had for effect that his brother, who was right behind him, suddenly had to defend against the attacks in his stead.
Elias, whose speed was far greater than many fighters, suddenly flourished his rapier blazingly fast, deviating the icicles away from him, unable to break them. But his face showed anger.
"Mariah! Aim at him! Not me!"
"Shut up!" she shouted back, her voice cracking in fury.
Rodney danced around both of their attacks, almost like he was predicting them before they even happened, and so many times he positioned himself in a fashion to cause friendly fire.
Whether it be from Elias' wind blades or Mariah's pillars of ice and icicles, he was always in a position to defend, deflect, and evade each attack.
It reached a point where Elias even wondered if Rodney had unlocked time sight or some form of magical ability to predict the future. But Ulrick knew what was happening.
'They don't know how to fight together, so it makes them easy to predict. And his instincts for combat were honed by years of fending for himself. They wouldn't land a hit on him in years if they could fight non-stop.'
Ulrick had seen more battles than the three of them combined, so he knew this factually. But something was bothering him.
Fighting against mages was not so easy. Predicting where the spells would come from, or appear, was something that someone unattuned to mana shouldn't be able to do.
This would require the experience of fighting mages that had a high affinity to magic and could control where their spells went and appeared from. Which wasn't so common outside of Themiscus.
Looking at the two monarchs that accompanied his son, Ulrick started having some stray thoughts.
'Which one of the two is the most powerful in magic?'
His battle lust grew a bit, and Astaroth immediately felt a slight sting on his nape. Turning his head to the old man, he saw the intent in his eyes.
'He wants to fight. I wonder why?'
But he quickly ignored the old man, as the battle was getting interesting.
Rodney, through clever positioning and maneuvering, was slowly putting himself in a position where the two siblings would either have to stop attacking by risk of hitting each other or get into melee range with the commander.
Astaroth grinned.
'Checkmate.'
Elias shouted in rage, slashing the air before him, as a massive wind blade conjured from his blade and flew forth.
Rodney ducked, and the blade collided with Mariah, sending her flying back like a meteor.
Fortunately, she had conjured a layer of ice on herself, keeping the wind from injuring her, but she wasn't able to stay on her feet.
Elias froze in shock at what he had done, and it was a grave mistake.
His momentary daze made him unable to react when Rodney's shield suddenly appeared before his face. It smacked into his head hard, sending his eyes rolling into the back of his head, unconscious.
And before Mariah could stop her crazy flight back, Rodney turned around, arm and sword raised.
In a shout of victory, he shot his blade forward, sending it flying like an arrow off a bowstring, straight toward his sister. There was no killing intent in the attack, but it was flying directly for the woman's head.
Her eyes widened for a moment, thinking it was her end. But the blade halted mere inches from her eyes.
"Alright, that's enough. Rodney wins this fight," Ulrick declared.
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