Thompson Varrow, who sat in the first row of seats rubbed his chin with his right hand and then commented aloud about Nick's move:
"Nick's offensive spell should be of the blade path. It worked by producing intense blade light that cut into Jessie's transformed body. The speed at which he did it would be very difficult to keep up with for the average rank 2 Magician. I hope that you were all able to follow his actions clearly enough."
Edward Keslow, who sat in the second row of seats, replied:
"I didn't manage to follow Nick's movements with my eyes but by using my magic sense, it was somewhat possible to keep up because of the intense magic power involved in his move, which I suspect must have been the result of a combination of spells. By the way...I thought that Nick practised space and soul path. When did he take up blade path?"
Pearl remarked:
"You never know with that guy. Trust me, it's better to just not think about the number of paths that he cultivates."
William Rollins decided to add to the conversation since Nick's blade light was related to his area of specialization:
"The blade light that Nick cast was definitely the result of an advanced grade spell. Blade light, although it is as fast as other light based attack methods, it is not nearly as efficiently lethal as say...sword aura. Nick was probably just testing the waters."
Patrice Suez made a comment about Jessie's transformation:
"That magic beast should be a rank 2 flame wretch. I believe that it fully matures at rank 8 as a flame Vulcan. I have long since heard of the Auburn family's elemental transformation path inheritance and it looks like we are witnessing one of its methods."
When the other competitors heard that, they paid closer attention to Jessie from then on. Within the battle area, Nick observed Jessie's transformation with much interest.
(Transformation path has to be one of the most complex paths to cultivate. The Magician would definitely have to be familiar with the magic beast's actual physiology to make use of the transformation correctly.)
Since Nick had made his move, Jessie felt that it was only right that he followed up with one of his own. Ignoring the four blast of flames currently emerging from his sides, Jessie looked at Nick's midsection and his eyes then began glowing with a bright, red light, following which two linear, fast moving beams of red light shot out from his eyes and hit Nick's abdomen like lasers. By that time, the grey blade light that had been radiating from Failed Tool had dissipated.
The attack was so quick that Nick did not have time to respond to it before he found his red dress shirt burning and the smell of burnt flesh filling his nostrils. Nick gritted his teeth and willed for Warrior Armor to cover his entire body, making him a silver man.
(Courage In Sacrifice.)
Nick cast his rule path method in response to the burn injury. To be cast, Courage In Sacrifice required a base consumption of 1%, in magical units, of the concentration of magic power used to cast the spell that caused the injury. In return, Nick was able to recover a little over 400 magical units as a result of Jessie's attack.
Nick then cast Space Rift in order to open a space gate directly below Jessie's feet, following which Jessie, who was a little caught off guard by the way that Nick used his movement method, immediately fell through the space gate, resulting in him having to cancel the method that he had used to successfully attack Nick.
Jessie then found himself falling out of a space gate positioned just below the ceiling of the gymnasium, above their sparring area, and he fell towards the floor while being unable to maneuver through the air using his bulky and relatively inflexible transformation.
Nick used this reprieve to cast Saint Soul in order to heal the severe burn wounds on his abdomen that were currently being covered by Warrior Armor. Because of Nick's prolonged use of Warrior Armor, Saint Soul's effect was enhanced and was rapid enough to be considered almost instant. Nick soon no longer felt the burn associated with the injuries or smelt burnt flesh; he did sense a surge in his own magic power after Saint Soul resolved. The latter was due to Saint Soul's secondary effect and its subtle boost pleased Nick greatly.
Nick then quickly looked up at the falling Jessie and had no intention of waiting for him to peacefully complete the almost twenty-meter drop. Nick bent his knees slightly as his legs flashed with sparks of silver light and then he jumped up. Nick felt a little uncomfortable as his body shot up meters into the air at cannon fire speed; he held Failed Tool firmly within his right grip and when he was about to reach Jessie's altitude in midair, he cast Absolute Pull and Absolute Push on himself to stop his upward movement cold.
Jessie had already noticed Nick's jump upwards but had no desire to stop Nick from getting closer to him. Once Nick and Jessie were at about the same altitude, for a split second, as both found themselves only about four meters apart from each other, the two intended to strike ruthlessly at one another. Their developed mindscapes allowed them to think and act within milliseconds.
Nick cast Space Rift and a space gate opened up in front of him, revealing Jessie's back as a corresponding space gate formed behind Jessie. With Tyrant Blade Still active, Nick struck out using Failed Tool with its blade moving from his right side, to his left side, then making its way rapidly towards Jessie's unguarded back; Nick's hand and arm movements were so swift that all his actions were performed seemingly in an instant.
Sensing Nick's violent movements behind him because of the magic power involved in supporting Nick's actions, Jessie immediately forced the flames that filled his body to cease leaving through the wounds at his sides and then a fissure appeared on his rocky back; the fissure was about one-foot-long and three inches wide at the center. Following that, an intense blast of orange flames shot into Nick's space gate from Jessie's back fissure and Nick was instantly engulfed in flames without having been able to complete his assault on Jessie.
Transformation path had its own advantages in that magic beasts' physiologies were basically engineered so that magic beasts could perform most of their magic abilities at a moment's notice. Even with Nick's mastery of his paths and his developed mindscape, it was difficult to compete with the speed of a magic beast's instinctive command of its magic powers. The latter also had much to do with Jessie's apparent skill as a Transformation Magician.
Forced to stop his swing with Failed Tool before it hit the mark because of the great amounts of flames now covering his body, Nick was also forced to cancel Absolute Push and use Absolute Pull differently, which resulted in him rapidly falling towards the floor, so that he could get away from the source of the flames. He then cancelled Space Rift and his space gates immediately closed. Sensing the closure of the space gate behind him, Jessie immediately ceased shooting out flames from his back and continued to fall towards the floor.
The entire exchange hadn't even lasted a full second but both Magicians had displayed their powers exquisitely, at least from Varrow's perspective. Still engulfed in orange flames, Nick soon cancelled Absolute Pull and cast another spell before he hit the floor:
(Dominion Field.)
The space that the sparring area consisted of and up to Jessie's current altitude, which was about fourteen meters above the floor, instantly developed a slightly grey hue as Nick's special space was established. Nick's descent immediately halted at less than one meter above the floor and the flames engulfing his silver body were gradually extinguished under the influence of his suppression using Dominion Field's power.
(These flames seem hot but don't actually have much magic power imbued within them. Is Jessie purposefully holding back or are the flames weak because he rushed to counter my actions? If I assume that it is the latter, then keeping the pressure on will increase my advantage. Hmmm...my magic energy reserves are decreasing quickly; my spells may be great but their magic energy consumption is no joke. I'll aim to finish this spar in the shortest time possible.)
Jessie observed Nick even as his body fell and his thoughts spun rapidly:
(This space path method that Nick has cast feels problematic. It's the same one that he used before we left the ship and so I know its effect but does he dare to use it on me while I am in this transformed state? I doubt it but just in case...)
Jessie also resolved to end the spar quickly since he did not want to reveal too much of his methods when there were no clear benefits involved. Fissures were suddenly created all over his body, at which point orange flames appeared, slowly emerging from them, including the fissure at his back that was created in response to Nick's earlier assault. Jessie willed and the flames suddenly and instantly grew in intensity as they blasted out of the fissures in his skin.
Despite Dominion Field's suppression, a pillar of raging, bright-orange flames engulfed Nick and Jessie's sparring area, rising up all the way to the ceiling, which glowed orange in response to being influenced by the flames, and all the way down to the floor, where the green mat kept its color and structure despite the heat. Nick was also engulfed in that instant and he strangely smiled while the flames washed over him. Jessie soon fell heavily to the floor with a loud 'thump' but he did so while remaining on his feet.
Jessie was only about nine meters from Nick and his vision was not hampered by his own flames and so he could currently see Nick's seemingly fanatical smile. He thought:
(What's wrong with this guy? Most people would be burning alive at this point or at least be close to that condition. What's so pleasant about this situation that he would smile, different from his usual cold expression?)
Nick sheathed Failed Tool and lowered himself to the floor, not minding the powerful flames around him. Warrior Armor was just too good a defensive method; although Jessie's flames were formidable, they were too 'weak' to crack his defense and that is why Nick was smiling.
(I've come a long way and I'm going to go even further. That Jessie is probably holding back since this is just a spar but since we're from the same academy, I should do him a favor by showing him how foolish his mindset really is. Even a lion uses its whole strength to kill a rabbit. Are Magicians any less daring and unreasonable than lions?)
Nick knew that he had a little over 30,000 magical units left within his mindscape so he thought that he might as well use most of it to end the spar quickly since he would be in no danger afterward. Amidst the pillar of orange flames, Nick widened his stance and bowed his right arm while contracting its muscles and clenching his right hand into a fist at the same time; his right arm then flashed with many sparks of silver light.
Jessie saw what Nick was doing and was unbothered by it, thinking:
(My elemental transformation inheritance has been fine tuned for over one thousand years and most of the people that it belonged to had at least reached rank 7 initial stage. The flame wretch may not be the quickest or the most agile rank 2 magic beast put its offensive power and defense are far superior to other magic beasts at the same rank that specialize in the same areas. I've already tested this transformation at my family's training ground and rank 2 Magicians' attacks just don't amount to much when facing it. Whatever Nick is doing, I just have to tank it, then use the opportunity immediately afterward to counter and end the battle with one of the flame wretch's better magic abilities. Nick, you are too tender.)
Just as Jessie had the latter thought, his bulky body disappeared from its distant position and reappeared one foot away from Nick. Jessie was shocked:
(Huh? Impossible! I have over 16,000 magical units within my mindscape and the flame wretch has thousands of flame path laws embedded into its body. Space magic requires a huge cost to move magically rich beings and Nick is only rank 2 so he must have small magic energy reserves; that is common sense. How did he do it? Don't tell me that he was willing to give up thousands of magical units just to bring disaster closer to himself.)
Jessie had assumed that Nick was able to use his teleportation power on Duane so easily back on the ship because Duane did not have any magic power manifested at the time and had not saturated his body with magic energy to defend himself against that sort of method. Jessie's body was not only now saturated with his transformation path magic power, but thousands of flame path laws were carved into it because of his transformation, so he had presumed that what Nick just did was an unthinkable outcome since the magic energy consumption that would result on Nick's end would basically force Nick out of any winning position and bring him close to empty magic energy reserves with no way to guarantee victory.
Nick immediately sensed his loss as almost 21,000 magical units of his magic energy were consumed by Dominion Field in response to his maneuver. Nick, however, looked at Jessie and shook his head at him, speaking aloud so that Jessie could hear him:
"Jessie, you are too tender."
Within a moment, Nick's sparking right arm struck out with a punch towards Jessie's abdomen and when the punch harshly made contact, Nick's body radiated with a greater pressure than before. Internally, Nick's soul radiated a bright, silver light that poured magic power throughout his body, then into his right arm. Nick's magic power then invaded Jessie's body despite the resistance of the flame path laws embedded into it and Jessie's soul was almost completely suppressed as a result.
Jessie felt his entire body quiver uncontrollably as he lost the ability to willfully move himself. Nick then pressed his right fist even more harshly against Jessie's abdomen and Nick screamed internally:
(Move!)
Jessie's soul was immediately propelled away from Nick and Jessie's bulky body followed with it, flying backwards like a shot cannon ball towards the facing wall over eighty meters away. Within one second, Jessie crashed into the wall, about three meters above the ground, and immediately slumped down to the floor where he sat with his back against the wall and his head down. The walls were not damaged whatsoever by the impact because of their magical qualities.
The flame pillar engulfing Nick's sparring area dissipated within seconds and the nine observers saw Nick standing within the sparring area, straight posture, feet slightly apart and breathing even, leisurely looking towards Jessie as if he himself had done nothing worth mentioning.
Jessie's transformed body soon became enveloped in white light and when the white light dissipated about six seconds later, it was revealed that Jessie had reverted back to his human form. Jessie slowly raised his head and looked towards Nick, muttering under his breath:
"That was...unexpected."
Varrow nodded his head three times and said loudly:
"Nicely done, Capitol. Auburn, get your ass back here, I have something to say to you."
Jessie picked himself up slowly since he was feeling stinging pains all over his body as a result of Nick's move against him even while using his healing spell on himself. He slowly walked back to where Varrow and the others were. Nick cast Space Rift in order to open a space gate below his feet and that resulted in a space gate appearing above the second row of seats, beside Patrice Suez. Nick quickly fell through the space gate and took a seat beside Patrice without saying a word; he only summoned a bag of butter bread from his space band and began eating it.
The others glanced at Nick, most not knowing what to say. William, sitting at his front row position beside Varrow's left side, turned to give Nick a thumbs up and said:
"Nice fight. That last part was spectacular, even more so than when you did it at the student assembly."
Jet Kawasaki squinted his eyes and snorted in response to William's words. William then turned around to focus on Jessie. Patrice lightly smiled and spoke to Nick in a low tone:
"Well done."
Nick gave her a slight nod as a reply and everyone proceeded to watch as Varrow got ready to speak to Jessie. When Jessie arrived in front of Varrow, Varrow explained:
"Auburn, you lost so easily because you underestimated your opponent. I know your background and where you must have come from so that is not surprising. Let me tell you, other Magicians that are participating in the inter-academy competition are capable of doing things that you would not believe so you need to give your all when facing them. Don't give the bare minimum, thinking that there are perfect and non-perfect times to act; try to seek an absolute advantage at all times or your opponent may develop enough momentum to decide victory in an instant. Do you understand?"
Jessie maintained a serious expression and replied:
"I understand, Sir Varrow."
Varrow then said:
"You can take a seat now."
Jessie then proceeded to take a seat to the left of William and Victoria Nelson in the first row. Varrow moved on by giving out further instructions:
"Victoria Nelson and Jet Kawasaki. Go to the sparring area."
No one said it but Nick's show of power had gotten them pumped and so they were all itching to face off against each other. Jet used his movement spell to fly to the closest end of the sparring area within a second with a trail of blue wind following directly behind him, forming an upside down 'U'. After Jet landed onto the floor, the trailing blue wind dissipated.
Victoria simply clapped her hands and with a thunder like rumble being heard, she disappeared amidst sparks of blue electricity that then visibly ran through the floor and stopped moving at the end of the sparring area, opposite to Jet moments later, at which point Victoria reappeared standing amidst sparks of blue electricity, observing her opponent.
Seeing that they were both in place, Varrow shouted:
"Begin the spar!"
Jet immediately started things of by flicking his right index finger and thumb at Victoria which resulted in a crescent shaped gust of blue wind shooting out from in front of those fingers like a slung stone. The crescent blade of wind had the dimensions of a common clothes hanger but it was fast and so it reached Victoria's face in less than a second.
Victoria Nelson had been at rank 2 for over five years and had been involved in many conflicts both inside and away from the academy. She specialized in lightning path which forced her to cope with the speedy and sudden movements of her own spells and body. To her, although Jet's blue wind blade was a threat, it was too slow to hit her body.
Victoria's body sparked with blue electricity and she took a wide step to her right, dodging the blue wind blade with practised skill.
(Shocking Movements)
Victoria then simply pointed at Jet with her right index finger and cast another spell:
(Shock Ray)
A beam of bluish electricity shot out at Jet and crashed into him instantly but he stood in place, not affected by it in the slightest as a thin layer of blue wind enveloped his body, resisting the electricity and forcing much of it to dissipate.
(Windy Bliss)
Victoria was not the least bit worried about one of her signature spells being blocked but before she could cancel the attack to perform her next move, Jet outpaced her by generating a violent gust of blue wind that then propelled him to Victoria's immediate left flank, leaving behind a trail of blue wind from his starting position that was in the shape of a half-moon curve.
(Windy Turn)
Jet kicked out with his right leg using the momentum of Windy Turn, aiming to kick the left side of Victoria's lower abdomen; even the movement of his right leg created a trail of blue wind behind it. Before Jet's kick managed to hit its target, however, Victoria slapped her own chest with her right hand and a burst of blue electricity erupted from her in all directions.
(Stun Grenade)
Although Jet was still protected by Windy Bliss, Stun Grenade had a physical 'kick' to it that pushed him backwards by two meters, following which Windy Turn's effect was cancelled and the trails of blue wind dissipated. Jet remained standing but could not react in time to counter as Victoria made her next move.
Victoria's body continuously sparked with blue electricity and she ran towards Jet at superhuman speeds and within milliseconds, she reached within less than one foot of him and slapped the still unsteady Jet on the forehead but her right hand was unable to reach him directly because of Windy Bliss' vail. She did not need to touch Jet directly for her spell to resolve, though.
(Flash Bang)
Jet felt as if his head was hit by a brick and his knees immediately buckled while his entire body was enveloped in flashing blue light and electricity. Victoria circled to Jet's rear while reasoning internally:
(Flash Bang creates a silent but intense explosion at the point of impact. Jet's defensive spell seems to have a low tolerance for physical impact so even though the electricity resulting from the spell's effect was blocked, he was still knocked down.)
Victoria stood at Jet's rear and cast Flash Bang again, this time, by moving her right hand to slap the back of Jet's head but Jet made his own move before Victoria's right hand made contact with Windy Bliss. Jet somehow managed to move both his hands to his rear with blue wind trailing behind them, revealing their taken paths and keeping up with Victoria's speed. Once his hands were in place, side-by-side, Jet clenched and unclenched his hands vigorously with blue wind trailing behind all his finger movements.
Jet's movements were so fast that they momentarily outpaced Victoria and before she knew it, ten crescent shaped, blue wind blades crashed into her torso and lower body, at which point her body flash with a thick blue light.
(Flash and Shock Bang)
Despite her efforts, however, she was ultimately still pushed over ten meters across the stage in seconds. Victoria remained standing and although she had cast her defensive spell as soon as she had noticed Jet's intention to attack her, two of Jet's wind blades had managed to hit her right shoulder before her defense had full formed. Victoria mused:
(Flash and Shock Bang uses offence as defense and momentarily creates an electrified field that neutralizes non-physical, ranged attacks by destabilizing them using hundreds of thousands of volts of electricity. Two of Jet's wind blades were actually able to move faster than the electricity. How?)
Varrow squinted his eyes and critiqued aloud:
"Jet's overall speed is only slightly above average for rank 2 but his burst speed can be incredible. The two wind blades that made contact with Victoria no doubt moved faster than the other eight."
Patrice Suez commented:
"Wind path Magicians, while fast, don't usually compare to light and lightning path Magicians in terms of speed. Jet has a way of bridging the speed gap somehow at irregular intervals."
Everyone silently agreed with Patrice's analysis and Nick glanced at her discreetly while he ate his butter bread, thinking:
(Wisdom path...troublesome.)
Nick could tell based on his experience as a spell maker that Jet's method of bridging the gap in speed was likely not just using his spells.
(It would be one thing if all ten wind blades had been shot out at the same pace but the fact that the pace was different for two of them seems unnatural to me if they were created using one spell. I also noticed a slight fluctuation in his magic power at the time that he cast those wind blades that also seemed out of place based on his previous spell casting. Either that spell is uniquely flawed or something else influenced it... maybe a magic tool or a talent or a complimenting spell.)
Although Nick's knowledge of the mechanisms involved in spell casting was relatively copious but he was too lacking in terms of real combat experience to judge Jet's performance accurately.
Back in the sparring area, Jet rose from the floor to his feet and turned to face Victoria, following which Victoria's body intensely sparked with blue electricity and she then ran towards Jet at superhuman speeds. When she reached within four meters of him milliseconds later, she circled around him, appearing as a bluish blur; the only thing that seemed distinct about her actions to Jet, being the sound of electric sparks.
Victoria proceeded to cast one spell four times, each time at a different point along her path, evenly spaced when her path was considered as a whole.
(Shock Bolt)
(Shock Bolt)
(Shock Bolt)
(Shock Bolt)
Four bolts of blue electricity violently crashed into Jet from four different angles in an instant and he knew that it was not possible for him to counter each one appropriately so he poured more of his magic energy into Windy Bliss in order to attempt to tank the attacks.
(Sigh. I can't dodge the attacks at the speed that they're coming towards me.)
The vail of blue wind enveloping Jet became five times thicker in an instant. When the bolts of electricity struck Windy Bliss, the veil's wind currents swirled erratically in response and soon decreased in thickness but ultimately remained intact after all the electricity had coursed through it and dissipated. Jet was about to go on the attack when Victoria ran directly behind him and clapped her hands together; the rumble of thunder could be heard immediately following her actions and both Jet and her were enveloped in a flash of blue light.
(Thunder and Peace)
Jet's body rapidly flew out of the blue light moments later amidst an eerie and unnatural silence; blue wind trailed behind him as he moved. The vail of Jet's Windy Bliss had noticeably vanished from sight and so he internally cursed:
(Shit! She broke my defensive spell...but the fight is only just beginning.)
Jet quickly turned around after flying a little over four meters away and then held his arms all the way out in front of himself as he clasped his hands together, pointing them both at Victoria, who was now plainly visible as the light from her spell faded. Blue wind was generated all across the sparring area in front of Jet and blew all the way to and past Victoria, going straight for and hitting the facing gymnasium wall that was situated dozens of meters away.
Victoria stood firmly with faint, blue sparks still appearing over her body. Despite the large amount of magic power that she felt concentrating within the surroundings, Jet's wind felt like a slight breeze to her and as she was about to act, the effects of Jet's spell manifested.
Victoria suddenly felt weightless and she rose into the air listlessly as if her limbs had lost their bones. A violently swirling twister then almost instantly formed around her when she flew up to six meters above ground and enveloped her, following which the twister grew upwards by another meter before making a sharp U-turn and crashing its apex into the floor.
Following that, all the blue wind within the area suddenly retracted and flowed down towards the twister's point of impact, creating an imposing hurricane like gale that pressed Victoria onto the floor like she was a pile of grapes that the wind was trying to flatten into paste.
(Windy Tunnel)
Sweat poured from Jet's face as he maintained his spell; he reasoned internally:
(Windy Tunnel is a rank 2 advanced grade spell that usually takes some time to cast and resolve but my Wind Streak talent allows me to increase the cast and resolving speeds of my wind path spells at a burst rate every once in a while.)
Soon, Jet saw a bright flash of blue light where Victoria was being pressed down and then immediately sensed a strong resistance to his offensive method but his spell held strong and still pressured Victoria. The blue light, however, persisted and did not seem to be fading as time went on.
Victoria gritted her teeth as they were slightly dyed red by blood that was flowing up from her throat.
(This wind path spell is strong; not even my Flash and Shock Bang can adequately defend against it after being active for so long. The wind is pressing against my organs and since my body still feels listless, the surrounding pressure is doing a fair amount of damage. Heh...I didn't think that Jet would be so tough as to successfully trap me using such a formidable spell so easily.)
Talents were varied with some of them being absolutely terrifying and their effects often had a deciding influence on battle situations, without which their host may not be able to produce the same result. Jet's Wind Streak talent proved the latter fact easily.
Victoria used the time that she spent defending against Windy Tunnel to form the laws of one of her own advanced grade spells within her mindscape. Jet grew more frustrated as time passed but Windy Tunnel was fairly complex so he could not cast another spell while maintaining it and if he cancelled it to use another advanced grade spell he might not be able to use Wind Streak to overwhelm Victoria so easily as before.
(I have to keep that lightning monster in place and wear her down slowly. I still have over twelve thousand magical units left within my mindscape and so I can maintain Windy Tunnel for another ten minutes. She'll definitely be at death's door by that time. Hmmm...I guess she could try to counter my spell but she'd need an advanced grade spell of at least equal might to escape Windy Tunnel. Hmph! I want to see if she can cast such a spell with all that pressure baring down on her.)
Ten seconds...twenty seconds...forty seconds...one minute and ten seconds. After that much time had passed, Victoria was finally able to complete the laws of her advanced grade spell and she cast it with stern defiance written all over her face. Over 8,000 magical units of magic energy was consumed by her spell in an instant.
Thousands of sparks of blue electricity ran through the floor of their sparring area within moments and persisted until each spark became a raging blue bolt that shot up towards the ceiling as reverse lightning. The seven students sitting in the stands, that did not include William Rollins, were forced to squint their eyes because of the intense, almost blinding blue light. The loud rumbling of thunder also followed the appearance of the blue light and all other sounds were drowned out by it; no one could even hear their own breathing.
(Lightning Queen)
Jet was hit directly by the lightning bolts that shot up from the floor at his position and even though he immediately cancelled Windy Tunnel and cast a defensive spell to counter, the blue wind that appeared to envelop his body lasted only a second before it was destabilized and fell apart as a result of the raging lightning.
Varrow immediately noticed the failure of Jet's defensive measure and flicked his right index finger to envelop Jet in a gust of pale-green wind that dragged him out of the sparring area at a speed that made Jet indiscernible; at least indiscernible from the perspectives of the watching students.
By the time that Jet reappeared, he was placed in front of Varrow. Sweat poured from Jet's face but otherwise he stood up straight and then slightly bowed to Varrow in appreciation, saying:
"Thank you, sir Varrow. The injuries from that attack would have been difficult to heal."
Varrow scoffed, replying:
"I didn't pull you out to spare you from some injuries. I pulled you out so that Victoria did not accidentally kill you. You have great potential but your 'skill' still needs to be honed. You should know what I am talking about, so work hard."
Jet internally sighed and nodded his head in acceptance of Varrow's advice, following which he went to take his seat in the second row. Soon after, the duration of Victoria's Lightning Queen ended and she appeared standing proudly within the sparring area; the injuries created by Jet's Windy Tunnel had already been healed by her own spell. She then left the sparring area and made her way back to her seat, speaking to Jet on the way:
"Dear Jet, you almost had me in a tough bind but your defeat was certain once you became unable to cast any other spells...yeah I noticed. My Lightning Queen spell takes a long time to prepare despite it being of the lightning path so your condition just gave me the time to design your defeat. I'm telling you this so that you don't make the same mistake during the competition; don't try to perpetually trap a powerful opponent, you're just creating problems for yourself."
Jet creased his brows in response to hearing that but he knew good advice when he heard it. He flatly voiced his acceptance of the advice:
"Thank you for the honest critique."
Victoria nodded her head and took her seat beside William who patted her on the right shoulder, saying:
"Great performance. They should be calling you bright light, not me."
Victoria brushed William's hand off her shoulder and replied:
"Don't butter me up, William."
Varrow smiled appreciating at the promising woman and then his face became stern once again, instructing:
"Jessica Jones and Pearl Wiles. It's both your turns."
Jessica and Pearl eyed each other for a few moments, Pearl sitting at the second row behind Victoria and Jessica at the front row to Varrow's right side. The two then soon walked towards the opposite ends of the sparring area with Pearl positioned at the end closest to the observers.
Pearl begun their exchange with a few remarks:
"I know that you are a Water Magician and I guess that I am kind of the same. Share a few notes with me."
Jessica squinted her eyes and replied:
"You're not fooling me. You're no Water Magician."
Pearl stuck out her tongue tauntingly at Jessica and then said:
"You got me..."
Jessica knew that Pearl was definitely not a water path Magician and she had her reasons for being confident in her judgement:
(First, as a Water Magician, I am sensitive to water path laws that are in the atmosphere and they react differently around me compared to others; I've been traveling with this woman for a while so I can tell that she does not experience the same phenomena just by the flow of her magic energy as it leaves her body. Second, those silver eyes of hers emit a faint trace of magic power; others may not be able to sense it but my magic sense is not ordinary after the training that I did with Rebecca over the past few years. Those eyes seem to radiate the power of...metal path?)
Pearl smiled at Jessica, thinking:
(That woman is as bright as the rumors suggest. A few years ago, I did cultivate both water path in addition to metal path because it suited the conditions of my mercury form inheritance but after fighting the mutant shifter within Forgotten Peril, I made a breakthrough in my metal path attainment and I realized that water path was excessive and that I could gain greater efficiency and power by just focusing on metal path. I had to go through the trouble of removing the water path laws on my body and within my mindscape and also changing my meditation and foundation laws but with my family's help, I came out stronger than before. Sigh, the process was completely hectic and if my mercury form inheritance did not have a progression route all the way up to rank 8, I would never have made such a possibly ruinous change but I now know that painful changes are the cornerstones of progress.)
Seeing that both women were ready, Varrow gave the command:
"Begin the spar!"
In response to the command, Pearl slightly shifted her left foot and the green mat that had not been the least bit affected by Jessie's scorching flames, Jet's pummeling wind or Victoria's brutal lightning, now visibly morphed into liquid metal, beginning at Pearl's left foot until all of the green mat within the sparring area was metallic-silver, liquid metal.
(Mercuric Alchemy)