A/N I will be referring to Belladonna when he identifies as Don as ‘him’, and ‘her’ when she identifies as Donna. It’s not dependent on the disguise, though sometimes that is the case.
Hope that will clear up any future confusion.
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Ronin’s eyes widened with interest.
So Jasny Krustal was a hero of Elyr, after all. Freja’s husband and the God of Summer, Prosperity, and Brotherhood.
It would be a showdown between winter and summer. Ice and—
“Heatwave!”
Jasy Krustal spun his halberd, and the faster he spun, the temperature around him had increased to the point that it became unbearably hot.
But not for him. He was unaffected, but this heat had caused the surrounding grass to turn brown.
Duke Taevas panicked. “Please stay away from the crops! Thank you!”
“Oh.” Inspector Jasny was wearing his ‘game face’ on earlier, but it faltered when he was given this weird request.
But he just raised a thumbs up, and nodded. “We’ll keep that in mind, Your Grace!”
He moved forward, and Don had felt the heat aura slowly spreading and spreading..
If he doesn’t move now, he would be toasted to a crisp.
In retaliation, he also spun his Morningstar and yelled:
“Blizzard!”
The air around him had become colder and snow came out of nowhere, about a 5 meter radius. Similar to Inspector Jasny’s heatwave range.
Which means that if either side went closer, these temperatures would just clash and cancel out each other.
Don had analyzed the situation well. It was something Freja had thought him.
(Both our weapons require a bit of distance. But unless we close that distance, the effects of our skills would not be cancelled out.)
(Is his range dependent on his weapon, or on him exactly?)
While thinking this, he dueled with the old inspector, thinking that he may be able to use his speed and agility to gain leverage.
He studied the old man’s techniques and movements.
CLANG! CLANG!
The morningstar and the halberd hit each other. The halberd’s piercing pike tried to stab into the icy morningstar’s rounded base, but failed.
It’s not as frail as the Inspector thought, so it must not be made of normal ice. Which wasn’t really surprising for a Hero Mage.
It was a divine weapon that could not easily be broken, just like his halberd.
His eyes sparkled in delight, as he always loved a good powerful divine weapon.
“Your Morningstar is not bad, dear boy! Freja must have favored you a lot. Did you pick it yourself or did she place a special meaning to it—“
“Grah!” While the old man was busy questioning him, Don went for the old man’s shoulder.
Before the spiky bits of the morningstar hits his flesh, the fat Santa Claus look-alike easily sidestepped.
(His reflexes are still not bad, but his reaction time is noticeably lesser.) Don evaluated.
He planned his course of action thoroughly. (I could make a run for it and faint an attack, before spinning it to the other side and knock his weapon by the handle!)
After all, the most dangerous part of the halberd would be the half-ax and the pike. The rest was a shaft, a handle.
‘It’s the same with spears,’ Ronin thought, evaluating the fight as well.
‘That’s how Maella’s spear got snapped in half by his father’s sword back then.’
‘The shaft is the weakest point, and if you can somehow get past the dangerous tip, then you can slice through it!’
But with the Heatwave surrounding him, it would be difficult to get an attack on Inspector Krustal’s halberd shaft.
It was the same with Don’s Blizzard, though.
The only reason he wasn’t able to stab the boy using that sharp pike was that he was avoiding to. And the heat from the weapon freezes when it gets in contact with the Blizzard.
Don calculated his movements carefully, and both of them were having a very well-matched fight.
After all, they were complete opposite forces. They balance each other.
The only way to gain leverage…
(Sorry, old man. But I would have to play dirty.)
He grinned, and taking a note from a past experience…..
He summoned a fog.
Even with the heat, the fog would not exactly dissipate. In fact, it would increase if he summoned snow around the area as well, which will evaporate into a cloud of smoke.
“Cough, cough!” Inspector Jasny Krustal could not believe what’s happening.
“Boy, weren’t you a Hero Mage?” The blinded inspector asked beyond the thick fog. “I heard you calling out to Freja just now.”
He continued to enthusiastically evaluate the child despite how dire his position was:
“And yet he also had capabilities that were usually for Clairo Mage. You have a weapon, and yet you can also summon elements from his Mage Focus’s domain.”
He laughed, very much like Santa’s ‘Ho ho ho!’. “Aren’t you a special one? Just like your cousins before you and your servant’s son!”
“The House Zafeiri sure brings up all kinds of special ones—-“
Clink!
He felt a strong hit towards his halberd’s shaft, but had been able to hold firm.
They were past their ranges now and their powers had fully cancelled each other.
The temperatures were mixed, and almost the same as the normal temperature before. The browned grass had been buried and cooled in snow, which also melt into puddles.
Don did not stop there, and swung his foot in an attempt to hit the old man’s shins!
Inspector Jasny just chuckled, and used the long extended part of his halberd to hit his attacker, which successfully hit him in the face!
It broke Don’s nose, and the fog disappeared. He was wearing a glare until he noticed something.
Even though the halberd wasn’t knocked off or snapped in half…
There was a large dent on it. It wasn’t broken, but bent a little.
“Well done! Well done!” He told him, making the halberd disappear. “Nobody had ever made a dent on my halberd before! This house is truly full of extraordinary warriors!”
He offered his hand to help Don.
“You have much potential. Once the vacation is over, we expect to see you in the Academy for your first year!”
Don wasn’t satisfied with the result, actually. In truth, he wished he knocked out the weapon and did better.
But as he was about to sulk, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“You did well, Don. Take the Inspector’s hand and be a good sport. You have achieved what you wanted.”
He looked up to Ronin, who was smiling at him. His father was also there, singing him various praises so loud and fast that it was incomprehensible…
But only the praise of his brother mattered to him.
‘You did well.’ That was all he said, empty and hollow in delivery.
Yet Don thought….. or at least, he wanted to believe…
That deep down, Ronin was also proud of him.
He smiled, and wiped the blood off his nose. He took the inspector’s hand and shook it.
“I really did well, didn’t I?”
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