Following the activation of Space Canopy, the entire arena was then covered by an opaque, glass like canopy that blocked out the blue skies and sun above, creating a large shadow that loomed over the arena and producing darkness within the surroundings.
The magic power emanating from Nick at this time seemed palpable; it manifested as a thick, dull-silver mist that radiated upwards by about four meters before disappearing. Nick willed and at the center of the canopy, a bright, white light appeared, which then illuminated the arena completely. Along with the light came an increase in temperature by about eight degrees Celsius which made some people, including the competitors very uncomfortable.
Many began to sweat in great volumes but the more powerful Magicians could control their internal temperature somehow and did not sweat. Nick had apparently not only used Space Canopy to insulate the crowd from the prevailing fair weather but he created an artificial source of light and heat, taking the weather into his own hands. Ralph clarified for the audience and other competitors:
"Sky Canopy is a space path spell that originally only had the effect of insulating an area against the prevailing weather conditions. Nick Capitol has not only maintained the spell's original effect; he has given it the ability to produce artificial weather."
The spectators started discussing Space Canopy in response to Ralph's explanation:
"Oh, then Nick Capitol's spell is a successful enhancement. Although the artificial weather condition that it produces is a little uncomfortable, It's not bad for a rank 2 spell."
"Yeah, this should net him a good score."
"He only spent about seven hours to improve this spell to such a degree. That's amazing, after all, producing artificial weather could be another spell by itself."
"You're right, this is basically space path being used to mimic fire or sun path. Nick Capitol's space path attainment must be high."
...
Just as Ralph was about to tell Nick to cancel his spell, Nick pointed at the sky with his right index finger and used it to make a swiping motion to the right. Following that, the sunny and hot weather conditions quickly changed as the white light grew several times dimmer and the temperature dripped to blow minus ten degrees Celsius. Some of the competitors cursed in response to the change:
"What the fuck?"
"Is this the effect of Nick's spell? It can create two kinds of weather conditions - sunny and hot and overcast and cold."
"How did he make such drastic improvements to the spell in such a short period of time?"
...
As the competitors and spectators started asking reasonable questions, snow began being generated from directly below the glass canopy above them. One middle aged Magician with a head full of long, white hair and wearing a yellow colored magician's robe, who was situated in the spectator stands stood up and reached out to catch some of the snow and was fairly surprised that it actually seemed like real snow. He muttered aloud:
"Now he's mimicking snow and ice path...impressive."
Many of the other spectators that included students followed the older Magician's example and examined the falling snow. They were shocked at the realism that Nick's spell achieved; not because of the effect itself since even weaker spells could do the same thing but by the fact that Nick was creating this effect by using a space path method that he had only been introduced to a few hours ago as the base.
As everyone was coming to terms with Nick's obvious skill, he swiped his right index finger to the right again and the temperature increased to about twenty degrees Celsius, following which, the snowing ceased and a large mass of grey fog condensed immediately below the glass canopy. The fog soon seemingly took the shape of dark rain clouds which caused the lighting within the surroundings to become dimmer.
Not long after, lightning flashed amidst the dark pseudo-clouds, and drops of water began pouring down from the sky. Ralph raised his right eyebrow, thinking:
(Rain? He is using space path to mimic cloud path, lightning path, and water path in that order...)
While Ralph mused, Nick did not want to get too wet so he quickly swiped his right index finger again like before and this time, the clouds dissipated, the rain stopped and the white light of the glass canopy became brighter. Following that, heavy wind was suddenly generated across the arena, threatening to blow down many unsuspecting competitors and causing the spectators to hold down parts of their clothing.
After about a minute of showing Space Canopy's new effects, Nick cancelled the spell. The glass canopy overhead immediately vanished as if it was never there and the heavy winds ceased flowing. Someone in the spectator stands spoke aloud, seeing that Nick's display was over:
"He mimicked wind path at the end there. I can't believe it. Is it really the same spell detailed on the tablet or something else entirely?"
The audience started to grow suspicious but sensing this, Ralph quickly made use of the arena's method in order to manipulate the gold coin in Nick's possession to generate the laws of Nick's altered spell in midair, many meters above the ground, for everyone to see. Nick felt a strange power suddenly wash over him and assumed that it was Ralph's doing. Nick reasoned:
(He already told us that he had a way of projecting the laws of the altered spell so I shouldn't be surprised. The new Space Canopy is much more useful than the original although it requires significantly more magic energy to maintain. The artificial weather conditions weren't actually that hard to conceptualize since I already knew how lighting, heating, cooling, condensing, humidifying and convection technology worked; I hadn't spent all those years reading books for nothing. The hard part was adapting the principles that support those technologies to my spell using space path. The effort was sort of like a puzzle but I think that I did well.)
The laws for Nick's altered spell appeared in midair, generated using bright silver light and presented for all to see. Ralph and the other licensed Magicians present examined the spell with curiosity. Ralph even more so since space path was his own specialization. The students tried to examine the laws as well but since most of them knew nothing about space path, they found doing so difficult, if not impossible.
After a while, gasps could be heard from the spectators, some blurting out loud:
"Was the original spell really redesigned by that young man in seven hours? This is clearly the work of someone skilled in spell making, who also has an exceptionally high attainment in space path."
"I can't even understand many of the improvements."
"Hmmm...the overall arrangement of the laws is secondary while the most prominent feature of this spell is how space path specific principles are used to apply non-related concepts."
...
Ralph spent over twenty minutes looking through the spell, longer than he probably should have, and concluded that Nick Capitol must be a space path master or very close to it. This notion internally shocked him:
(What age is he? This, this, this...)
Ralph soon calmed down and got back to performing his duties. He snapped his fingers and Nick's score appeared in silver light at Ralph's right flank for all to see. With that, there was no doubts as everyone saw '99%' from where they were standing or sitting.
Most of the other competitor's eyes widened and bulged when they saw the figure. Now there was no denying who would probably place first in this event. Ralph eyed Nick blankly for a few seconds before saying:
"You can return to your academy's section now."
Nick nodded his head in understanding and cast Space Rift in order to create a space gate that led to his previous seat within the section and walked through the space gate thereafter, following which, the space gate closed. Nick did not even greet Varrow when he appeared within the section. He simply sat in his seat and summoned his notes on the magic formation that he was conceptualizing.
Varrow turned his head slightly to take note of Nick's condition but said nothing. After a few seconds, Varrow turned his attention back to the other competitors on the field. The other competitors made full use of the ten hours of work time given to them and the second student was chosen, then the third and so on.
After Nick, there were many students that managed to successively make improvements to their spells and also many that flopped in executing their supposedly altered spells. Nick only paid attention when people that he had interacted with closely before performed their spells such his fellow competitors from Richter Order Academy, Harvey Nefari and Kirst Eltshire.
Unfortunately for his academy, Edward Keslow and Calder Wright were both disqualified from the competition for gaining failing scores of 32% for trying to alter the earth path spell, Rocky Missile, and 46% for trying to alter the sound path spell, Acoustic Shredder, respectively.
They joined Nick and Varrow in the academy's section instead of returning to the hotel. Varrow gave them words of encouragement at about the same time as they happened to both enter the room at around the same time:
"If you did your best, you should be at peace with yourself knowing that much."
Edward and Calder nodded their heads in acceptance of Varrow's advice and then both turned to Nick, who was busy with his notes. Calder sighed and Edward internally sneered at Nick while his expression became displeased. Nick noticed all of this but ignored it.
William obtained a 78% score for altering the light path spell, Glimmer Cascade. Pearl obtained a 58% score for altering the metal path spell, Mineral Mash. Jessica obtained a 64% score for altering the water path spell, Acid Rain. Jessie Auburn obtained a 65% score for altering the transformation path spell, Self-Giant Transformation. Jet Kawasaki obtained a 61% score for altering the wind path spell, Ten Mile Whirl. Victoria Nelson obtained a 69% score for altering the lightning path spell, Rumble Canon. Harvey Nefari obtained a 76% score for altering the darkness spell, Dreary Arrow.
The last person that Nick had some familiarity with that went up was Kirst Eltshire and he was attempting to successfully alter the blood path spell, Blood Tree, which was supposed to create one three-meter-tall capturing method using his own blood and that had a form similar to a menacing tree. Ralph said to Kirst:
"Show us your spell."
Kirst eagerly replied:
"I'll knock your socks off."
Kirst cast the improved version of Blood Tree and instead of one capturing method, his version of the spell created nine and they were all six-meters-tall rather than three meters.
Ralph nodded in approval and Kirst's score was soon revealed to be '79%', the second highest score at that time. Kirst's score was eventually eclipsed however when Patrice Suez improved a fire path spell called, Scorched Mark, to obtain a score of 80%.
Scorched Mark was supposed to create a burn injury from a distance by triggering a persistent and imperceptible mark that was imprinted on a target that the caster had already touched. Patrice, however, improved the spell by allowing the caster to imprint the trigger mark on a target from up to twenty meters away; that way, the offensive method would be not only deadly but also almost entirely discreet and if the target did not have a good enough detection method or magic sense, they could be put at death's door by the spell.
Patrice demonstrated the effect of the Scorched Mark spell by casting it on Ralph and although Ralph's face was enveloped in intense, scarlet flames because of it, he remained unharmed. Nick was slightly surprised at Patrice's result.
(Instead of improving a wisdom path spell, which would make full use of her specialization, she chose to work on a fire path spell. That's not typical.)
After a few hours, everyone from Richter Order Academy came to the section and hung around in order to witness the showing of all the results at the same time. When Patrice arrived, Varrow did not hesitate to ask the question that was bothering everyone:
"Why did you choose to improve a fire path spell?"
Patrice shrugged and answered without much energy in her tone:
"I have a deduction method suited for analyzing spells but it does not work on other wisdom path methods."
Everyone immediately understood her choice which involved her trying to improve a wisdom path method without using a specialized spell or make use of a specialized spell to improve the efficiency of altering a spell of another path. It just so happened that wisdom path was the path most suited for making deductions and so assuming that doing the former would have gotten her good results, she must have expected to obtain greater results by doing the latter.
By the time that all students showcased their spell or failed in doing so, it was well into the night when the results of the event were revealed. Nick came in at 1st place again, Pearl at 93th place, Jet at 90th place, Jessica at 87th place, Jessie at 84th place, Victoria at 76th place, William at 65th place, Patrice at 41st place, Harvey Nefari at 66th place and Kirst Eltshire at 49th place.
William seemed a little irked when he saw the results on the holographic display but he had no choice but to accept it. He then muttered to himself:
"I need to work on my spell making skills."
Jessie squinted his eyes and they became sharp when he saw the name, Lewis Nefari, of Grim Lord Academy in second place. Lewis, like his brother, Harvey, had improved the same dark path spell detailed on one of the stone tablets and Lewis did significantly better than his brother, obtaining a score of 82%. Lewis' score made Jessie very worried about the man's attainment level. Dealing with someone of ordinary attainment level was far different from dealing with a master and even a publicly known light path master like William was only 65th best in this event. Jessie started to develop an ominous feeling.
Ralph made an announcement soon after the list of results was displayed:
"The next event will begin in eight hours, so the one hundred and twenty-five of you that will be moving on to the next event should rest up until then."
Nick was hungry after working for so long so he decided to go back to the hotel to have a meal. He stored his notes within his space band and was about to leave when a loud shout was directed at him from the field:
"Nick Capitol, I don't believe that you are worthy of first place! Come down here and face me, Butch Taylor, of Great Overlord Academy, for three hundred rounds."
Nick weirdly raised his right eyebrow and walked to the section's railing to view his challenger. Butch was a man standing at six feet, he had a head full of light-brown hair, bright, green eyes, a tanned, white complexion and he wore black leather combat armor. Nick asked:
"You disagree with my placement? I don't even know who you are; you have no qualifications to disagree."
Butch proceeded to curse at Nick in response to his words:
"Bastard! You don't know who I am? Hmph! Come down here if you are a man and receive your beating honorably."
Nick thought for a moment and realized that he had not tested out his rule and blade path spell, Fear The Blade, yet. Nick looked at Ralph who was still hovering in midair but Ralph pretended like he did not hear anything and simply kept his eyes on the spectator stands. The spectators heard the commotion just as they were about to leave and decided to stay to see what the commotion was about.
"Oh, someone wants to fight."
"It's about time, I was wondering why things were so civil after all this time."
"Someone from Great Overlord Academy is taking issue with 1st place Nick Capitol. Maybe they are trying to show that Nick's placement is a fluke."
"Fluke? I highly doubt that, but let's see what Nick Capitol and Butch Taylor do first."
...
Varrow was about to advise Nick but Nick quickly cast Space Rift and entered the resulting space gate before he could do so. A space gate appeared about eight meters in front of Butch Taylor at the same time and soon, Nick emerged from it. Butch laughed heartily in response, saying:
"A fool come to get his just desserts!"
Nick did not waste time bickering with Butch and didn't even ask why he was targeting him.
(I learnt a long time ago that other people's schemes weren't worth trying to decipher if my benefits weren't involved. Just smash and cut through it and be done.)
Nick formed the laws for his spell within his mindscape and while Butch laughed, Nick unsheathed Failed Tool with his right hand and cast it:
(Fear The Blade.)
The activation of Nick's spell was subtle and only took about four seconds. Butch only sensed some vague magic power emerge from Nick's sword as it seemed to weirdly bend and twist out of shape before reverting back to its original state. Butch snorted and then said:
"What a useless method!"
Butch said that and acted brazenly, but inside, he was very cautious. He was not an idiot and suspected that Nick was highly skilled but he had his orders and he had to carry them out.
(I just have to put some pressure on him to probe the extent of his powers.)
Butch quickly clasped both his hands in front of himself and was about to cast a spell but before he could even start forming its laws, Nick appeared in front of him, directing an indifferent sneer at him, following which, Nick shoved Failed Tool's blade into his throat, starting at its tip and leaving through the nape of his neck. Butch opened his mouth wide in shock as if to scream out but no sound came out.
Nick sensed that Butch was experiencing a distorted sense of reality and observed him as he froze in place with his hands clasped and his mouth agape. All the observing Magician's noticed Butch's strange state and assumed that it was due to Nick's spell that he cast when he drew his sword.
Five seconds in, Nick had seen enough to conclude that:
(Fear The Blade is effective in producing a false reality that affects the target physically. I am satisfied.)
Nick then raised his left index finger and a marble sized sphere of grey light appeared at its tip.
(Venus.)
Nick the blew on the grey marble and it rapidly flew towards Butch and when it came into contact with him, it twinkled like a miniature star and stuck to his chest, following which, Butch quickly rose into the air as if gravity no longer affected him. Four seconds later, when Butch had rose into the air by eighteen meters, he suddenly regained his proper sense of reality and sensing this, Nick cancelled Venus and cast Absolute Pull on Butch.
The twinkling grey light immediately dissipated and Butch felt himself being dragged towards the ground rapidly before he could even react. Butch realized that he was about to hit the ground and cast his defensive spell:
(Gold Body)
Butch's skin immediately gained a consistent golden hue and metallic texture. He was about to try and use his magic power to cushion his fall but he found Nick suddenly falling along with him at his left flank, at which point, Nick swung his sword and Butch was cut horizontally in half at his midsection; for some reason, Butch could not react.
Nick once again sensed that Butch was experiencing a distorted reality and nodded his head in satisfaction. Butch was unable to direct his descent and was rendered helpless because of Nick's spell, so he simply crashed into the ground where he had stood before. Although his gold skin prevented him from dying from the fall, his impact created a two-feet-deep pit as he fell face first and the sound of fracturing could be heard. With Butch not being able to focus, his spell had apparently lost some of its effectiveness.
After Butch regained his proper sense of reality at the moment of impact, he screamed out due to the pain associated with his fractured bones and instinctively cancelled his Gold Body spell, returning his skin to its natural color. The spectators mostly laughed and Ralph looked on, amused. Some persons said:
"It looks like Butch Taylor swallowed more than he could chew and was almost choked to death."
"Nick Capitol is in 1st place for a reason. We are seeing that now."
"I feel like what happened to Butch that caused his current pathetic state is not simple. Does anyone know what spell Nick used to prevent Butch from reacting appropriately?"
...
Nick shook his head and cast Space Rift while sheathing Failed Tool amidst Butch's screaming. He entered the space gate and appeared within the section once again, after which, the space gates closed. Varrow commented:
"Great method, it seemed to have some kind of wisdom path effect. Was it an original spell?"
Nick replied respectfully since he was speaking about his own creation:
"Yes, I designed the spell myself."
After saying that, Nick walked out of the section with the nine other students watching him. Back on the field, Kirst Eltshire ran to Butch's side while reprimanding him:
"Butch, when did you get stupid? Don't go challenging people because of your own outrageous opinions."
Even though he said that, Kirst's thoughts were different:
(Nick Capitol is a tough nut. My scheme didn't even phase him. He is stronger than I thought that he might be.)
Kirst begged Ralph to send them to their section so that their supervisor could heal Butch and Ralph, taking into consideration Kirst's identity, complied by waving his hand and both Kirst and Butch suddenly vanished amidst silver light. Ralph mused:
(Even the elite within the royal family are prone to petty schemes. Kirst is too green if he thinks that the powerful Magicians watching are ignorant as to his probable involvement in what just happened.)
Nick went back to his hotel room and summoned a meal of smoked chicken and potato salad from his space band and spent some time eating it before going to take a cold shower. When Nick came out, he got dressed in a white and red striped polo shirt and blue jeans pants. Nick sat at the dining table and summoned papers from his space band and continued working on his notes for his magic formation.
After seven hours passed, Nick stored his notes into his space band and went back to the academy's section at the arena. When he entered the room, Varrow was present, sitting in his usual seat and waiting for the next event to start. Nick greeted him politely and Varrow waved at him in acknowledgement.
Nick then went to his usual seat at the far left end of the back row and summoned papers, a clipboard and a pen in order to start working. Over the next thirty minutes, the other seven competitors from Richter Order Academy appeared within the section and took their seats. Edward Keslow and Calder Wright opted to sit with the spectators in the stands for the rest of the competition.
While most of the other seven competitors discussed the competition so far, Nick was wrapped up in his own thoughts. Soon, however, Ralph appeared high above the grassy field, that no longer had the stone tablets visible, and started speaking:
"The next two events will be battle based. The first of those two events will take on the form of a battle royal among five competitors per match. Each match will have a duration of twenty minutes; after that duration ends, the people who are still remaining will advance to the next event. However, if there are more than two people that remained in the battle by the battle's end, random competitors will be disqualified until only two remain. The only fighting rules of the battle royal are that the fighting must remain within and directly above this grassy field and if a competitor voluntarily surrenders by voicing that intention or even thinking it seriously, they must not be harmed following their surrender; I will make sure that the latter rule is enforced. The participants of each match will be chosen at random except for Nick Capitol, who by order of the royal family, will be allowed to choose the order in which he participates before and after any match-up has been decided."
The competitors within the arena immediately took issue with Ralph's statement:
"Why should Nick Capitol get that kind of treatment?"
"He could choose to wait until the last moment to participate while the rest of us run the gauntlet."
"Not just that, he could choose to fight with weaker opponents so that he could advance effortlessly."
...
The licensed Magicians within the stands heard the complaints of many of the students and sneered, saying:
"Of course Nick Capitol is getting special treatment at this point. As a Magician, only results are what matters."
"This generation is soft. Complaining about what someone else has earned...disgraceful."
"They'll learn soon enough. It's simple, if you out perform others, you will be rewarded accordingly."
"Hmph! In our world, as long as you are able to do well, you will be given favor. What is so bad about that? Only losers would have a problem with it."
...
The students heard the admonishments of the licensed Magicians and they quickly stopped complaining. Nick heard about the benefit that the royal family was sending his way and at first, he didn't think much of it until he realized that with the number of competitors that would be taking part in the next event, its total duration might well be over eight hours.
(I'd rather not wait too long to participate. I might as well get this event over with as soon as possible.)
Nick then walked to the railing of the section and declared:
"I will participate in the first match."
Ralph heard Nick speak and approved his request:
"So be it. The first match will begin in twenty minutes. All students should begin preparing wisely."
Nick turned around and was about to head back to his seat but Varrow stopped him with a hand signal and asked:
"Do you have a plan?"
Nick nodded his head in affirmation and said:
"Yes. I will poke the other competitors with sharp objects until they are out of commission."
Everyone in the section heard that and frowned, simultaneously thinking:
(What kind of plan is that?)
William suggested:
"Nick, I know that you're strong but since you've been given an advantage because of your performance so far, maybe you should use it to increase your chances of victory. After all, you could end up fighting some very tough people."
Nick shook his head, saying:
"I've got other things to do. I won't waste too much time on this event."
Everyone could hear the cold decisiveness in Nick's voice and even Victoria, who was usually prone to being full of herself was taken aback by Nick's arrogance. She soon said:
"You better not lose and shame us."
Nick shrugged his shoulders and went back to his seat. Patrice then sent Nick a mental message using one of her methods.
(I think that your decision is the correct one.)
Nick glanced at Patrice, who was pretending to mind her own business, then got back to working on his notes until the twenty minutes given for preparation had expired. Ralph immediately ordered:
"Nick Capitol, Dusty Pembroke, Sharlene Mets, Carl Jaeger and Nancy Gratsis. Make your way to this field, now."
Nick cast Space Rift following the instruction and walked through his space gate in order to appear on the field. Victoria spoke to William after Nick appeared on the field:
"Did you notice something about the competitors for this match?"
William slowly nodded, then replied:
"Other than Nick, they are all from aristocrat academies and they all came within the top fifteen rankings of the last two events."
Jet heard the two speaking and asked aloud:
"Is the decision as to who competes at a particular time really random? If it is, Nick is incredibly unlucky."
Varrow kept silent but internally, he was suspicious:
(Great Overlord Academy, Rising Waterfall Academy, Ten Thousand Burials Academy and Martial Sword Academy. These academies are where the cream-of-the-crop attend, even among the old aristocrats. I doubt that four of such academies being involved in a single match with one of our students is a coincidence.)
As the other four competitors made their way to the grassy field through the two rectangular entrances at its perimeter walls, Ralph observed Nick closely. At this time, Nick was standing in place while sporting an indifferent expression as if the battle that was about to take place was none of his concern. Ralph thought:
(His opponents should give him much difficulty. They will probably target him from the start...or at least that seems to be the intention of the old buzzards...)
When all five competitors stood over fifteen meters apart, Ralph gave an instruction and then vanished from view:
"Begin the battle!"
No one moved immediately. They all observed each other before deciding on their next course of action. Dusty Pembroke was a relatively short man, standing at five feet, eight inches; he was a student of Rising Waterfall Academy. He was dressed in brown leather combat armor; he had a pale-white complexion, a slim body, short, curly red hair and brown eyes.
Sharlene Mets was a slim woman of Sino descent; she was a student of Ten Thousand Burial Academy. She wore a plain white, cotton long-sleeved blouse along with a red skirt that had floral patterns printed on it that reached down to her ankles and a pair of open-toed, flat female footwear. She had sharp, dark eyes, pale skin, long black hair and striking, red lips.
Carl Jaegar seemed to be a man of eastern European descent; he was a student of Martial Sword Academy. He had a high nose bridge, tanned skin, a head full of short, brown hair, dark eyes, bushy, black eyebrows and a persistently smug expression on his face. He wore a pair of tan cargo pants, a zipped up black leather jacket, a pair of fitting, black leather gloves and a pair of black combat boots.
Nancy Gratsis was a short woman standing at five feet, six inches; she was a student of Great Overlord Academy. She had pale-white skin, clear, blue eyes and a head full of long flowing brown hair that had scarlet streaks dyed into it. She was wearing a set of blue, leather combat armor that had a hood attached to its top but she did not sport it over her head at this time.
Carl soon kept his attention focused on Nick, who had been standing on the spot motionlessly. Carl spoke with vigor and did not hide his battle intent:
"Let's not beat around the bush here. Nancy, Sharlene and Dusty, I say that we deal with the pitiful elephant in the room first, then we can settle things amongst ourselves. We cannot let upstarts step on our heads."
The other three then eyed Nick with glares, fully indicating their wicked intentions. Varrow noticed this and sighed internally:
(Among the most notable academies, there is a sort of elitist mentality where if you are not one of them, the students from these academies, that is, the 'aristocrats', don't even treat you like a human being. Someone with a normal background but does well like Nick sticks out like a sore thumb to them and they will certainly try to put him in what they think is his place.)
Nick observed the four opponents within his field of vision, taking note of their strange malice but he was not worried. Before he became a master at six paths, including earth path, he might of had to worry about even just one of these people but now, things were different and he was different.
(These people are meat on my chopping block.)
Nick effortlessly cast one of his spells:
(Dominion Field.)
The space over the entire grassy field and up to twenty meters above it, suddenly developed a slightly grey hue as Dominion Field resolved. The other four students sensed the change and went on high alert but their malice did not fade. Carl instantly summoned a double-edged, 0.8-meter-long sword, that had a silver hilt and a chrome colored blade, from his space band and into his right hand.
Dusty moved his left fingers in slow backwards and forward motions and from the ground, what looked like black colored sand was generated in response and the black sand began to faintly swirl around him.
(Black Reserves)
Sharlene merely started to take steps towards Nick. Nancy remained motionless for now but kept her focus and eyes on Nick like a hawk.
Nick then asked aloud:
"Are you all sure that you want to start things off like this? I won't be easy to take down."
Carl snorted and then said:
"Nothing but shameless boasting."
Carl quickly swung his sword at Nick in a vertical motion with his right hand and a green sword aura shaped like a one-meter-long crescent shot out at Nick like cannon fire.
(Mad Sword Aura.)
The look in Nick's eyes immediately became sharp and a ghost white blade appeared out of seemingly nowhere, six meters in front of him, and intercepted the green sword aura while rotating violently like a circular blade attached to an active power saw. The ghost white blade was ultimately destroyed as it was consumed by the green sword aura but the green sword aura dissipated almost immediately after.
The badge clipped to the right side of Nick's waist shimmered with a brighter silver light than usual, making its emblem that was shaped like a dragon's claw appear slightly animated. Following the brief clash of the ghost-white blade and the green sword aura, dozens of ghost-white blades were mobilized to take up space all around and above the grassy field; it almost seemed like they had become decorations of the space that had their tips pointed downwards.
Dusty felt like the saliva in his mouth started to taste like iron as he observed the few hundred ghost-white blades appearing like phantoms. Sharlene stopped walking and her brows creased in response to the appearance of the ghost-white blades. Carl snorted, thinking:
(My Mad Sword Aura was destroyed too easily. It seems that the space magic that is currently enveloping this field is suppressing my magic power. That's annoying but not something that I can't overcome.)
Carl then roared at the others:
"What are you all waiting for? Attack him!"
Sharlene sneered and Dusty ignored Carl; they evidently had no interest in dancing along to Carl's tune but soon, Nick's feet were completely enveloped by a mass of what seemed to be swirling shadows and he could no longer move his feet after that. Nick looked at his immobilized feet and then towards Nancy Gratsis and thought:
(This should be her method. She doesn't seem to be doing anything but my Dominion Field's suppression seems to give me an idea of whose magic power it is that I am suppressing and it is indicating that these shadows are Nancy Gratsis' doing.)
Nick unsheathed Failed Tool with his right hand and discreetly cast Fear The Blade on Nancy. Nancy's magical sense immediately alerted her with danger signals but she could not tell the exact nature of the problem until she saw the blade of the sword within Nick's right grasp exaggeratedly bend out of shape, then revert back to its original state.
Nick's magic energy reserves dropped by a large chunk but he was not too bothered by it since working to hamper Nancy's actions was just too important right now. Seeing Nick's currently immobilized state, Sharlene ran forward at superhuman speeds and reached within one foot of Nick's front within moments, following which, she punched at the left side of his head with her right fist. Sharlene looked frail but her short punch caused the air around her fist to echo with a loud 'boom'.
(Miraculous Strength)
With Sharlene's fist only being an inch away, however, Nick's right arm flashed with red and silver sparks of light and then his entire right arm became coated in a metallic-silver hue along with a metallic consistency. Nick's reaction was rapid, so much so, that Sharlene's fist could not make impact onto Nick's head in time.
(Tyrant Blade)
(Cross Stream Sword Technique)
Nick's right arm and hand moved like a blur and before Sharlene knew it, she could no longer feel her right arm but sensing Nick's further movements using her magic sense, she was able to barely react to Nick's moves by parrying them with her left fist while having cast another spell:
(Countless Miraculous Fists)
Sharlene parried every one of Nick's blur like movements with her now dully glowing red fist and then quickly took large steps backward while her complexion grew pail and blood trailed at her feet; Nick could not give chase because of Nancy's shadows enveloping his feet so he placed Failed Tool at his side, ending the use of his sword technique.
Sharlene looked at Nick's left flank and saw that her dainty, white, right arm was lying on the ground while oozing blood, staining the piece of white, cotton fabric that was still wrapped around it. She then looked at her bleeding right shoulder stump and her heart palpitated while she gritted her teeth.
Many of the students in the stands and sitting in their academys' sections opened their eyes wide upon seeing Sharlene's sudden and severe injury. Varrow actually stood up and clapped his hands three times in response to witnessing Nick's entire sword technique, laughing heartily and shouting:
"Nice sword technique!"