An Owl's Rise

Chapter 489: Chapter 489 Putting on a Show

After just a moment of shock at how weak Wilfried truly was, Evelyn began casting her next spell.

It took her less than a second to trace the pattern with her magical energy and conjure the magic.

"Aerial Blades."

Six razor sharp blades of wind that were each around three meters long shot out of Evelyn’s hand and raced towards Wilfried.

Having tasted her first strike and seeing the next one already coming for him, he finally realized that he was actually in danger.

Whatever delusions he had had about Evelyn just wanting to preserve her honor with this duel were gone.

Even someone like him could not miss the hostile intent behind her attacks.

Knowing her would not be able to get out of the way of the incoming blades and hesitating to trust his own sword skills, he held his left arm forward and intricate runes on a leather bracer he wore started to glow.

An instant later, a dense shield of magical energy formed in front of him.

Had Evelyn even used a quarter of her power in the spell she had cast, his flimsy defenses would have broken apart, and he would have been shredded.

However, she had been holding back to around only ten percent. And while the six blades of wind left cracks in the magical energy shield, they did not break through.

Once Wilfried had weathered the attack, he began casting a spell of his own for the first time.

’He can’t even use true magic, and his spell formation drawing speed is so slow. Has this guy seriously never been in any real fights, or even trained diligently a single day in his life?’

Evelyn had already suspected that her opponent was not the type to strive to grow stronger. But she figured that his parents would have at least brought him up to a barely acceptable standard.

Now, she understood that not to be the case.

She would not be surprised to learn that the only thing he did towards advancement was sit in an absorption chamber and have magical energy spoon-fed to him.

’I bet most of the training battles he’s been in were curated as well. With opponents that were likely told to lose to him on purpose. It’s honestly shocking to find someone like this in a world filled with so much danger. What was the point of raising his rank if this is what he is going to do with that power.’ Evelyn thought, finding Wilfried’s very existence to be a waste.

Had someone with real talent and drive been given the same resources as him, they could have made some actual progress.

Instead, all that had been created was a man-child with an inflated ego and rank who did not even know how pitiful he truly was.

"Hehe. I’ll admit that you’re a lot stronger than I expected. I suppose that I should not have looked down on a mercenary that fights out in the wilds for a living. But that opening sneak attack was the only chance you were going to get. You won’t be able to bridge the gap between our magical abilities. Now, let’s see how you handle this. Blaze Vipers."

Nearly seven seconds had gone by since Wilfried began tracing the formation for his first spell.

It definitely was an intricate and powerful spell, but Evelyn was certain she could have pulled it off in somewhere between two and three seconds after only seeing it once.

If she had time to practice with it, she likely could have gotten her conjuration speed down to closer to one second.

’His magical affinity is also the worst one against me. Even if I stood here and did nothing, he would be unable to hurt me.’

While Evelyn had no intention of revealing her fire magic, it did not change the fact that she was immune to any weaker flames.

The only way that Wilfred would have been able to burn her was if he had a heavenly flame of his own.

Something Evelyn already knew was not the case. She would have sensed it otherwise.

It was not long before Wilfried’s Spell showed its power and three giant serpents made of flames burst out of the spell formation.

For a second, they just swayed in front of their conjuror menacingly.

Wilfried himself wore a smug grin on his face, likely feeling assured of his victory now that he had cast one of his strongest spells.

"If you don’t want to be scorched, I recommend you use that speed of yours to jump out of the ring." Wilfried said as he swung his hand and let his Blaze Vipers loose.

Immediately they rushed towards Evelyn from different angles to close off any avenue of escape.

They were fast and powerful, as befitting a spell that took so long to cast and had so much magical energy packed into it.

Still, Evelyn would not have felt threatened in the least even if the vipers were made out of element that could actually hurt her.

During the time that Wilfried had been slowly tracing his spell’s formation, Evelyn had already completed five of her own and was ready to activate them at a moment’s notice.

"Gale Wall."

A torrent of wind formed in front of Evelyn, blocking the first viper as it struck towards her.

The flames tried to break through, but the intensity of the wind was too great and pushed them back.

There were still two more coming for her from her right and left side.

Of course, Evelyn was already moving to deal with them.

The one coming at her from the right she thrusted her spear towards and a compressed whirlwind shot out into its mouth.

For a moment it kept moving, before the wind that had gone inside of it expanded and burst the serpent made of fire.

As for the last one, she did not pay it any mind as a burst of wind shot out of her back, blowing it away and giving her a sudden burst of speed.

Had she truly just been a mid-tier mage rank human, this would have taken perfect execution to pull off.

Weak as Wilfried was for his level, he still possessed the magical potency of a peak mage.

’He should have started cast more spells rather than looking shocked with his mouth gaping open like that.’ Evelyn thought as she charged towards him.

Only once she was a few meters away from him did he hastily get into a proper fighting stance.

His giant sword swung at her with immense force, but that was all it had.

Evelyn stopped just short of the strike before springing forward with her spear.

She made sure to move just slowly enough that Wilfried was able to react and bring his weapon back to defend himself.

Though she was undoubtably going to win, Evelyn knew she needed to ensure the match appear far closer than it truly was.

To that end, she was trying to make it look like she was an experienced fighter who knew she would not win a protracted battle and was trying to end things quickly by attacking as fiercely as possible.

Methodically she struck out with her spear, always allowing Wilfred just barely enough leeway to block of dodge.

She finally had a good understanding of his level of skill and power and was doing her best to match him in overall ability.

Eventually, the hopeless man started to get used to Evelyn’s assault and threw in the occasional attack of his own.

Evelyn turned each of them aside with her spear, but she faked that it was straining her to do so since her opponent was supposed to be physically stronger than her.

She also cast a few weak spells here and there, but nothing that was able to do much damage.

’I should win an award for my acting. Holding back like this is way more difficult than just beating him to a pulp.’

At some point, Wilfried got off a spell that coated his sword in fire, and he remembered the Blaze Vipers he had already conjured.

Evelyn had destroyed one of them, but the other two were still around, having been floating in place for close to twenty seconds now.

They were part of a continuous spell that required Wilfried’s direct control rather than acting autonomously.

He had sent them to attack Evelyn after first conjuring them, but once she had escaped and started pressuring him in close combat, he had forgotten about them for far too long.

Another example of how he was unaccustomed to fighting. He had probably believed that the spell would finish the fight and had not even considered what he was going to do afterwards if they failed.

However, with two fiery serpents closing in on her from behind, and Wilfried recklessly attacking her from the front with a flaming sword, Evelyn felt that she was under just the slightest bit of pressure.

It was only enough to get her a little more serious though, and she had a few spells already prepared to counter Wilfried’s attacks.

Yet, just as she was about to make her move, a feeling of weakness suddenly infected her.

When she traced the magic back to its source, she realized that it had come from the stands. Someone a lot stronger than Wilfried was trying to interfere in the duel.

She was only frozen for a moment, but that was enough.

The two Blaze Vipers fell down upon her and Wilfried jabbed his sword towards her chest.

Exploiting the opening that had been created for him by an outside force.