Kirst quickly raised the blood axe within his right grip and threw it towards Uriah. With Uriah only being about ten meters away from Kirst and the blood that the blood axe consisted of being manipulated by Kirst at the same time, the blood axe rotated at its center of gravity in order to fly at canon fire speed to crash into Uriah only moments later.
When the blood axe hit Uriah, Uriah himself shattered like ice which resulted in small, blue ice fragments ending up on the ground and then scattering with wind that seemed to come out of nowhere. After that, the blood axe proceeded to do a U-turn in order to return to Kirst but before it could make it even half way, white mist suddenly enveloped it, freezing the blood axe solid within an instant. Kirst then sensed the loss of control of the magic power imbued within the blood axe and could only watch as it fell onto the partially frozen ground and shattered into ice fragments.
Much of the white mist within the surroundings then moved towards Kirst but Kirst noticed their sudden shift and didn't hesitate to cast three spells at almost the same time:
(Blood Wave)
(Blood Debt)
(Blood Lust)
The blood beneath Kirst's feat rapidly propelled him about four meters into the air and flowed forward like a wave while Kirst seemed to use his own two feet to stand atop the blood wave. He mused at this time:
(The Blood Wave spell is wholly responsible for creating this blood wave; Blood Debt siphons magic energy from my opponent as a sort of payback for the blood that I lose from my body as a result of casting Blood Wave and that is at the same time used to partially make up the blood wave. Blood Debt takes effect so long as my opponent is within twenty-five meters of me. Blood Lust draws blood into my body in order to replenish my magic energy reserves; blood is plentiful so long as Blood Lord is active. Blood Lord is the basis of most of my strategies since it actively creates the blood that I use in most of my spells; the spell is also responsible for the hardening effect that I often use. I have to admit, out of all my combinations, the one that I am using now is my favorite.)
Kirst rapidly traversed about twenty meters over the field from his original positon when blue, cold wind blew over him from seemingly out of nowhere and an arm that seemed to be made of half-ice, half-flesh was rapidly generated from the cold wind itself, following which, the ice arm grabbed Kirst by his neck, at his front, using its frigid hand that radiated crystal-blue magic power.
(Chilled To The Bone)
Kirst and his blood wave were instantly frozen in place, being completely covered in blue ice and frost. The ice arm then clenched its hand, which still radiated crystal-blue magic power, into a fist and struck out harshly, punching through the ice that covered Kirst and hitting him squarely in the face. Kirst was rapidly propelled backwards as a result, over eight meters away into the frozen ground at the speed of a throw shot-put ball.
Kirst landed harshly and rolled on the ground for a few feet before he stopped. When Kirst then quickly rose to his feet, he had trouble stabilizing himself because his body was still partially frozen and blue ice and frost still plagued him from neck to toe.
Uriah's full likeness rapidly generated from the blue, cold wind at this time and stood atop the frozen blood wave. He was satisfied that he landed a decisive blow during the brief exchange but he was not entirely pleased:
(Magic energy was forcefully drained from my mindscape again; it felt like the loss happened in a similar manner to when I use my own Ice Spiritual spell to siphon my opponent's magic energy but Kirst did the same thing using blood path. This battle is starting to take a heavy toll on my magic energy reserves. How long has it been since someone lasted this long against me?)
Blood had never stopped drizzling from the atmosphere since the event started a few minutes ago and that resulted in the field being partially swamped where Uriah's ice could not completely freeze it. Kirst looked around him for a few moments, following which, he quickly stooped down and slid his right hand against the icy ground at his corresponding flank. Following that, the ice around him and below his feet started turning blood-red and waves of blood also began moving towards him.
Uriah soon lost control of the magic power within the ice that Kirst was standing over and watched as waves of blood moved past Kirst and quickly arrived at his own position, following which, two giant arms made of blood emerged from the ground, each wielding solid short-axes made entirely of blood. The blood arms were each about five meters in length and the blood short-axes were about two meters in length. The arms were based about two and a half meters away from the frozen blood wave, at Uriah's left and right flanks, and following their formation, the arms struck down with the adeptness of real weapon specialists.
Uriah willed and the white mist flowing within the atmosphere moved to envelop him, doing so within moments before the blood axes struck his position. The frozen blood wave was then cleaved in two places, following which, the blood arms dispersed into the blood pool below along with their blood axes. Uriah had managed to evade the axe strike somehow and was nowhere to be seen but Kirst was not worried. Kirst quickly cast his next spell:
(Blood Loot)
All the blood on the field suddenly vaporized and saturated the field's atmosphere along with the white mist. Following that, some of the white mist flowed to Kirst's left side and the vague likeness of a human figure formed, which then reached out with its right hand at Kirst. At the same time, sensing his foe, Kirst condensed blood within his right grip to form another blood axe and immediately swung it at the vague figure of mist.
The misty figure still continued to reach out with its right hand in order to quickly grab the left side of Kirst's face while it also raised its left forearm in order to parry Kirst's blood axe and it used the moment before the blood axe hit its left forearm to cast a spell:
(Absolute Freeze, Persistent Influence)
Within the next second, Kirst's blood axe hit the misty figure, which was evidently Uriah transformed, on the left forearm as if the vague figure was solid and Uriah's and Kirst's ice and blood magic power surged, respectively. By that time, Uriah's active and residual magic power had affected the field so much that the field had practically become a freezer, which made the further influence of his ice path spells tremendous; the cold and ice created by Uriah's spells clearly enhanced the present and future ice path effects of his methods.
At the same time, so much blood was present over the field that the blood path laws that had accumulated and that made up the flowing blood magic had already begun having a boosting effect on Kirst, whose magic energy reserves were continually being drained in order to maintain such a situation.
At the point of impact between Uriah's transformed forearm and Kirst's blood axe, formless, cold, crystal-blue magic power and eerie, blood-red magic power radiated in opposite directions as they also clashed in place, respectively. It only took five seconds of resistance before the force of the blood axe overwhelmed Uriah's arm and sent his misty figure flying over fifteen meters backwards like a shot canon ball.
But at the same time, crystal-blue, cold magic power left behind on Kirst's left cheek suddenly twinkled before blue ice and frost erupted from the cold magic power and Kirst was then rapidly frozen solid. The blue ice and frost self-perpetuated until a glacier was formed that had a base covering a twenty-meter-radius area and that rose to a height of about twenty meters.
After Uriah's mist like body seemed to hit the ground, it condensed into his flesh and blood likeness and Uriah witnessed his left forearm bleeding before the wound and the blood was frozen over by blue ice as a result of his Ice Flesh talent. Uriah reasoned bitterly:
(Kirst's blood magic is getting stronger as the environment becomes more suitable for him. He was even able to temporarily suppress my Ice Flesh talent with it.)
The physical qualities granted by spells and talents were not absolute and could be suppressed and overwhelmed by a similarly strong or stronger magic power. For example, just now when Kirst hit Uriah with his blood axe, Kirst's blood magic power rivaled Uriah's ice magic power in quality and suppressed the effects of Freezing White Mist and Ice Flesh that had allowed Uriah's body to become and remain almost intangible like mist at that time. At that point, Uriah's body was flung away like a tangible object and his flesh was cut open and bled before the effects of Ice Flesh were able to overwhelm the remaining faint blood magic power left on his body.
Uriah slowly stood up and realized that the left sleeve of his parka sweater had been completely blown off. He was annoyed to say the least:
(I paid £50,000 to have this jacket made specifically for me after spending months doing academy missions and now it's ruined. Damn it! I hate being poor.)
Uriah hatefully glared at the glacier that encased Kirst and further mused:
(When I was twelve, although grandpa had left me with the absolute cold inheritance and a solemn will that guided me in getting back to the United Kingdom, I basically had no support except for some meager savings that had been squirrelled away. I had to fight for everything that I earned and make it to Raylam Priest Academy on my own merit. Try to hold your head up high when all that you had to wear were worn shirts along with pants and shoes that you found lying around that were always a size bigger or smaller than you. Try to feel grateful when most days, you starved and were laughed at by people who were no better than you. Try to remember who you were when all that you experienced as a teenager was constant failure...failure to make friends, failure to not hate yourself a little after all those false labels were put on you, failure to find peace in your own head when the world seemed to hate a poor nobody like yourself. This bastard! No one destroys my belongings and comes out unscathed, ever.)
Uriah took a step forward but was then forced to stop in his tracks. Uriah's eyes immediately became bloodshot and he looked all around him in concern.
(This...)
Uriah was currently having a hard time respiring, as if the air had no oxygen in it and so his chest now felt heavy and every breath became painful. Magicians were no doubt in many cases superhuman but most still needed oxygen to live, at least at the lower ranks. Uriah used his advanced magic sense to scan the surroundings thoroughly and then he reasoned internally:
(The air is almost absent of oxygen and the damn blood vapor within the atmosphere is the most likely cause of this situation. Magic power is being radiated from the blood vapor subtly and so it must be consuming the oxygen somehow.)
Forced out of necessity, Uriah circulated his magic energy throughout his lungs, basically using magic energy to respire. Uriah's chest no longer felt as heavy as before and his breathing was no longer painful but his expression became grim.
(Having to use my own magic energy to respire has increased my magic energy consumption and as each second goes by, the magic energy consumption due to having no oxygen will later accumulate into a great loss, even more so when I continue fighting; the magic energy consumption might increase more than fivefold then. I need to do something about the blood vapor.)
Uriah thought through his options and ultimately decided to freeze the blood vapor but that required overwhelming much of Kirst's magic power and with such a large volume of vapor to deal with, his own magic energy reserves would fall by quite a bit after the task was completed but he needed to do it before Kirst recovered from being frozen and encased in ice.
Uriah willed and much more white mist was generated around him and flowed throughout the atmosphere. Uriah's body radiated with much crystal-blue magic power as the quality of his magic had long since been greatly increased due to the ambient frigid temperatures that just kept lowering.
The white mist quickly chilled the blood-red vapor enough that Kirst's magic power was overwhelmed by Uriah's cold and portions of the blood vapor then began to fall to the ground as liquid blood, following which, the blood instantly froze solid, covered in blue ice and frost. One minute went by and Uriah succeeded in freezing half the blood vapor and during that time, he passively recovered a small portion of his magic energy reserves in excess of what he had expended in freezing the blood vapor and respiring.
At that time, however, the glacier that froze Kirst suddenly developed many deep cracks all over its surface. From the cracks, large amounts of blood flowed like many streams while the glacier itself began turning blood-red, starting at its cracks. The glacier also began emanating large amounts of blood-red miasma. Uriah stopped his actions of freezing the blood-red vapor and witnessed as the large glacier turned to flowing blood over the next ten seconds.
When the glacier completely turned to blood, the field had developed a blood pool across its surface once again. Kirst stood at the center of the glacier's former positon while vigorously rubbing his neck with his right hand, internally complaining:
(That bastard Uriah really put a kink in my neck this time. His ice magic has gotten leagues stronger than it was at the start; that's why it took me so long to break free from that last glacier. The field has gotten so damn cold that if I don't keep circulating my blood path magic power throughout my body, I'd freeze solid within moments like a fish in the arctic.)
Kirst snapped his right middle finger and thumb together as a sort of trigger for his Blood Lady spell in order to use its effects to condense the rest of the blood vapor within the atmosphere. He mused:
(The Blood Lady spell is Blood Lord's counter-part that can also manipulate blood but unlike Blood Lord, Blood Lady cannot solidify blood but can liquefy and vaporize it; Blood Lord does not have the latter two effects.)
The blood vapor quickly turned into flowing blood and fell onto the ground in order to add to the blood pool. Much of the blood began to freeze but at a slow pace because of the concentration of blood magic power now on the field. Uriah stood in the midst of the blood pool, having frozen the ground below his feet to keep the surrounding blood away from and off of him; he observed Kirst before making any more moves while thinking:
(Kirst's magic power feels stronger than before. with the blood vapor gone, I no longer have to use my magic energy to respire but the fight isn't going to get any easier. Kirst somehow created all this blood and has been overwhelming my magic power since the beginning of the match but has not ever seemed low on magic energy. There is definitely more to that point than meets the eyes.)
Kirst put both his hands at his sides and lightly clenched them, following which, blood flowed up from below Kirst's feet in order to form blood axes within both of Kirst's grips. At this time, each movement of Kirst's left a trail of blood-red miasma that faded quickly while his body emanated the miasma perpetually. By this time, the blood pool that was flooding the entire field had become one-foot-deep but Kirst did not feel any discomfort as a result and instead felt right at home. He flexed both his arms a little before muttering:
"I'm ready"
Kirst took one step forward with his right leg and a path towards Uriah immediately opened up in front of him as a result of a portion of the blood pool parting to the side in order to form a straight path. Kirst then ran forward rapidly with an acceleration that rivalled race cars and at a velocity that did the same. Blood coursed through his veins rapidly while his heart pumped like an engine piston. During that time, Kirst cast:
(Blood Haven)
The latter spell used up Kirst's own blood in order to heal his heart and other muscles as they split and burst due to their intense pumping actions and movements. Kirst then cast Blood Debt and Blood Lust in combination in order to drain Uriah's magic energy reserves and recover his own magic energy using the surrounding blood, respectively.
Kirst reached Uriah within moments, traversing Uriah's ice, and swung his right blood axe savagely towards Uriah's face. One of Uriah's own spells resolved at this time while he kept a watchful eye on the blood stains that were developing on his clothes and body, the latter two being covered with a layer of blue frost at this point:
(Embodiment Of Cold)
Uriah's body instantly transformed into a vague figure made entirely of cold wind and he then parried Kirst's right blood axe with his left forearm and punched at Kirst's head with his right fist. Uriah's punch came in fast but Kirst used his left blood axe to parry it just inches away from his face. Uriah sneered and his fist radiated with crystal-blue magic power, following which, ice and frost spread to cover Kirst's left blood axe and entire left arm in milliseconds.
Kirst was not impressed and so he raised his right knee at a speed that made it blur from the perspective of anyone observing it, following which, Kirst kneed Uriah in the belly. Uriah easily sensed the attack to his belly before it made impact using his advanced magic sense but he was not able to physically keep up with Kirst's movement speed and agility in order to block it. Uriah's cold wind body did not even have the benefit of intangibility because all of Kirst's attacks were backed by blood magic power of quality equaling and sometimes exceeding the quality of Uriah's own magic power.
Uriah was sent flying backwards like a cannon ball and hit the ground over ten meters away, falling into the blood pool with a splash; Kirst circulated his magic power over his left arm and the ice that covered it rapidly turned to blood and its frozen state was remedied. Uriah quickly got to his feet but when he did, two one-meter-length arms made out of blood were generated within less than a second, at each of Uriah's immediate flanks, and they each held blood short-axes. As soon as the blood arms fully formed, they struck down with their blood short-axes at a hair raising speed, aiming for Uriah.
Uriah was forced to parry both blood short-axes by using his left and right hands, Uriah being too concerned about their likely lethality to let them chop him carelessly. As soon as he held the two blood short-axes within his grips, Uriah froze them and their corresponding blood arms solid and they were thus covered in a thick layer of blue ice and frost but as soon as Uriah did that, he was impaled at the front and rear, each side by two blood spikes that shot up from the blood pool at slanted angles.
The two blood spikes at the front impaled Uriah at his midsection and the two blood spikes at the rear impaled Uriah at his shoulders.
DRIP DROP DRIP DROP...
Blood actually began falling from the apparent wounds of Uriah's cold wind form and was now dying the cold wind a red hue. The blood mostly fell through the cold wind and didn't even freeze before dropping into the blood pool below Uriah. Uriah internally reasoned:
(I'm actually bleeding? All the damn blood magic power is starting to affect my own blood and preventing it from readily freezing over; the accumulation of blood magic power has also basically negated the intangibility of my current form. Although my cold is still acting on the environment, Kirst's blood is no less dominant in its own way. Since the blood that is flooding the field is not being frozen as it should, Kirst's magic power must be constantly coursing through the blood pool. How much magic energy does this guy have?)
It was obvious by now that Kirst had a large reserve of magic energy, so much so, that it began seeming bottomless to Uriah. Kirst sensed Uriah's blood and smiled. He immediately cast another one of his spells:
(Blood Let)
Kirst then threw his left blood axe at Uriah and it rotated rapidly as it towards him. With Uriah stuck in place because of the blood spikes, he could not dodge the rapidly incoming blood axe fast enough, so he mobilized the white mist within the atmosphere to intercept it while he froze the blood spikes impaling him. The blood spikes impaling Uriah quickly froze solid and the incoming blood axe was also frozen solid when the white mist intercepted and enveloped it, following which, the blood axe shattered into ice fragments; the blood spikes also shattered into ice fragments moments later.
Uriah solved his problems swiftly but he quickly noticed that his bleeding had not abated and instead increased tremendously during the period that he was impaled. He internally cursed:
(Shit! This must be the result of one of Kirst's spells. My Ice Flesh talent has been suppressed.)
Uriah then took his attention off his bleeding and turned his attention to Kirst but at that moment, the blood on the ground directly in front of him parted and Kirst suddenly appeared at his immediate front. Following that, Kirst moved at blinding speed to hit Uriah in the chest with his left palm, casting:
(Blood Loss)
Uriah felt a visceral discomfort from being touched by Kirst and sensed Kirst's magic power pour into his body and so Uriah acted quickly by using his own superhuman speed and agility to grab Kirst by the face with his right hand and cast:
(Chilled To The Bone)
With the power of Embodiment Of Cold and Chilled To The Bone stacking on each other, Kirst was immediately enveloped and encased in another glacier of blue ice that was generated, starting at his face, then covering the rest of his body and spreading past his rear by twenty meters to gradually rise at an incline that rose nine meters above ground, covering a girth of about one meter.
Uriah withdrew his hand after Kirst was firmly frozen in place and was alarmed. Not because of the now extensive blood loss that still plagued his cold wind form but because his magic energy reserves just took a far greater dip than he had expected, by about 2,000 magical units in excess. His magic energy reserves now stood at roughly 11,000 magical units and it was still falling. Uriah mused:
(My magic energy is being drained like crazy. Kirst must have cast a spell that caused this when he slapped me. I'll finish him as soon as possible before this excess magic energy loss becomes a real problem...no, it's already a problem.)
Uriah quickly dug his fingers into the blue ice that was enveloping Kirst with each hand grasping opposite sides of Kirst's position and Uriah cast two of his spells:
(Ice Spiritual)
(Ice Barrage)
The crystal-blue magic energy emanating from Uriah then thickened by three times, following that, the ice glacier expanded from both of its sides in order to reach the arena walls. The blood that came in contact with the growing glacier froze instantly and was subsumed by the glacier. Like that, within ten seconds, nearly half the field was now used to house a large blue ice glacier that even spread over one side of the spectator stands, looming above the spectators sitting there.
At that time, Kirst's complexion became blue and his lips became purple as his body was practically being subsumed, weakened and suppressed by the ice; Kirst was visibly becoming closer and closer to ice himself as the cold invaded and overwhelmed his body. It had been about half a minute since Uriah had first noticed the excess loss of his magic energy and his last move had basically cost him 5,000 magical units.
Adding the loss of magic energy caused by Kirst's method, Uriah lost a little over six thousand magical units and a lot of blood in one fell swoop but at this time, his magic energy reserves seemed to stabilize. Uriah quickly and subtly circulated his healing spell, Ice Influence, to heal his internal injuries resulting from the previous exchanges; even though he was in a form consisting of cold wind, the intense blood magic power that he faced left real and lasting injuries that could not be remedied with the power of Ice Flesh. Uriah soon cancelled Ice Influence after his injuries stabilized within ten seconds and rejoiced:
(The effect of Kirst's magic energy draining spell has finally ended.)
The spectators observed the large piece of ice extending over a section of the stands and began discussing:
"This match is something else. Uriah's powers are just too effective, too cold."
"Hmmm...I feel that Kirst's powers are not lacking either but the cold environment seems to have made Uriah's spells far more potent than what you should expect from even an above average rank 2 Magician casting a legacy advanced grade spell."
"Right. Kirst's vitals are barely detectable right now with him enveloped in that ice and they are getting worse, which means that he is close to dying, maybe even becoming ice too. After all, the human body is mostly made of water."
"You all are really underestimating Kirst Elthirst. Haven't you noticed that the output of his magic power never seemed to decrease in intensity and that he never stopped making blood throughout the entire match."
"That is weird. Making ice is different than making blood. After all, the latter is way more complex and involves things like DNA, proteins and salinity. With that in mind, it takes way more magic energy to produce one liter of blood than it would take to produce the same mass of ice but Kirst exceeded Uriah in terms of magic power output, that is, until Uriah sealed him. How does he have so much magic energy?"
"Ha, ha. You all really are an ignorant bunch. Kirst is a relatively famous member of the royal family and has even been showered with public resources from birth. Much of his details are a matter of public record at this point."
"Yeah, he's right. I know that Kirst has the Magic Element talent that increases his passive and active magic energy recovery by two times normal. That is part of the reason that his teachers favor him so much. The Magic Element talent is supposedly rare and was possessed by a rank 9 Magician in the past."
"What? Rank 9, you're kidding?"
"No, I'm not. Not only that, Kirst has an advanced apprentice grade magic tool on his person called, Blood Pool. Didn't you notice the red ring on his right middle finger? That magic tool is able to store thousands of liters of Kirst's own blood and somehow use it to decrease his own magic energy consumption when using his methods. I heard that ring was a publicly delivered birthday gift from the royal family's chief elder."
"Kirst really has all that juice? Wait, then how comes he's in such bad shape, right now?"
"Having a bunch of magic energy at your disposal doesn't mean that you know how to make use of it adequately."
"Oh...huh? Something is happening on the field."
...
Uriah's face grimaced as he witnessed the subtle movements of Kirst's eyes within the blue ice; his advanced magic sense also tipped him off to the fact that Kirst's vitals were rising in strength. Kirst looked at Uriah through the ice; the cold would have destroyed his eyes already if he had not used some of the large amounts of blood within Blood Pool to partly fuel his use of his healing spell, Blood Haven. Kirst spent a few moments musing before getting ready to take action:
(Wow...this Uriah is strong, stronger than I could have expected but his ice is still not enough to take me down. My magic energy reserves are basically full and with Blood Haven acting at full power, I'm being healed of my injuries at a rate that his cold can hardly keep up with. He's done.)
The ice directly in front of Kirst suddenly cracked and Kirst visibly smiled, casting:
(Blood Splatter)
(Blood Debt)
(Blood Lust)
Blood then seeped through Kirst's pores and covered him from head to toe like armor. Uriah's body that was still in the form of cold wind had already stopped bleeding by the time that Kirst's vitals had dropped to rock bottom and all the blood on him had frozen over and fell away, but no sooner than the crack in the ice glacier appeared, blood stains strangely developed over Uriah's cold wind form and stuck on like an adhesive. Uriah's magic power evidently could not freeze them away.
Uriah quickly sensed his magic energy reserves falling once again and both his eyes twitched in response. Before Uriah could think up a proper counter using the magic energy that he had remaining, however, waves emerged from the blood pool that still existed over the other half of the field. These blood waves moved towards Kirst's positon but in order to stop Kirst's plans, Uriah used his magic power to freeze the blood waves by blowing blue, cold wind into them as they approached him, which they would have to do in order to reach Kirst.
Uriah's magic power was effective in freezing the blood waves but he could not compete with Kirst in terms of the amount of magic energy that the latter had to spare so the blood waves were quickly thawed and the ice turned to blood, following which, the blood waves flowed forward again. Uriah gritted his teeth and flew into the air, above the four meter and above high blood waves.
No sooner than the blood waves crashed into the ice glacier, did five four-meter-long blood arms that each wielded blood short-axes emerge from the converging blood around Kirst's position and began hacking at the glacier. Each swing was done at incredibly fast speeds that blurred the blood arms' movements and sliced away large portions of the glacier with difficulty because the glacier was evidently made by very intense ice magic power. Within six seconds, the ice had been cleaved enough to free Kirst, who quickly fell into the blood pool below.
Kirst landed into blood pool and his blood armor that was produced by his Blood Splatter spell started rippling in response. Kirst looked up at the floating Uriah but did not say a word. At this time, as far as Uriah could tell, Kirst appeared as fresh and battle ready as when the match started.
Kirst breathed out deeply, following which, his visible breath filled his view. He then willed for all the blood on the field to gather towards him while at the same time, Kirst pointed his right index finger behind him, following which, the blue ice glacier rapidly began turning to blood. The blood all flowed towards Kirst, who then stretched his arms out at his sides and clenched his hands. Blood then rose from the ground in order to gather within each of Kirst's grips to form blood axes.
The ground that became free of blood rapidly froze over because of the harsh ambient cold. All the blood that flowed towards Kirst gradually shot into the air to form into over thirty giants, which were each eight-meter-tall, one-meter wide figures that had the vague likeness of Kirst himself. Each of these giants wielded two blood axes, one in each hand, and stared at Uriah just as Kirst did but far more eerily. More blood giants then began forming as the glacier continued to melt and within six more seconds, five more armed blood giants were created.
Kirst took a step forward and so did the blood giants. Kirst raised his right blood axe and so did the blood giants. Kirst threw his right blood axe at Uriah and so did one quarter of the blood giants. The blood axes approached Uriah like cannon balls and he openly sighed, casting:
(Influence Of Absolute Zero)
Blue, cold wind immediately blew out in all directions around Uriah; approximately 1,500 magical units remained within Uriah's mindscape after his spell resolved. The blue, cold wind enveloped the fast incoming blood axes, freezing them solid and covering them in blue ice and frost. Following that, the frozen blood axes shattered into fine ice fragments that scattered with the surrounding wind. During that time, Uriah was forced to lower himself towards the frozen ground that now absent of blood because of Kirst's earlier actions
Uriah cancelled Embodiment Of Cold and Freezing White Mist and so his form reverted back to his usual flesh and blood likeness. Seeing Uriah's movement, Kirst and his many blood giants, who now numbered over forty, openly sneered at Uriah, the blood giants' sneers being quiet. Kirst lightly pushed his left blood axe into his right grip and raised it, following which, he was about to throw it; a large portion of his blood giants that had not done yet thrown a blood axe were about to do the same thing, mimicking Kirst's actions.
Before Kirst's blood axe left his right grip, however, Uriah declared with a straight face:
"I surrender."
Kirst stopped his actions in response to Uriah's declaration and then said:
"Well, at least you know when you're beat."
Kirst waved his left hand and all his blood giants and his blood axe were vaporized and scattered away from the field, soon spreading out of the arena's opening above them. The remaining blood on the ground and the blood flowing from the partially transformed and degenerated glacier also vaporized and scattered away from the field, going through the arena's opening above them.
Ralph Elthirst then appeared floating about eight meters above the field at this time and announced:
"Kirst Elthirst has won this match by way of his opponent's surrender!"
The spectators created an uproar when the result of the match was announced; they loudly discussed:
"I told you that Kirst was not to be underestimated."
"Uriah fought heroically but in the end, Kirst outlasted him, at least in terms of magic energy."
"Kirst is the G.O.A.T within and outside of our Great Overlord academy!"
"Kirst is bae!"
"That match got me so hyped up. Those two turned the field into a dual harsh environment that had brutal ice and eerie blood. They are an example of the kinds of Magicians that we should be aiming to be."
...
The licensed Magicians made their opinions of Kirst and Uriah known:
"Kirst is incredibly talented. Although he took a beating from Uriah, he came out more or less in the same condition that he started the match in. That's unthinkable for a rank 2 Magician facing an opponent of equivalent standard."
"It's unthinkable alright. He skillfully used the combination of his spells, talent and advanced apprentice grade magic tool in order to triumph. He has more skill than many licensed rank 2 Magicians."
"Uriah did great too. If he had an equivalent magic tool in his arsenal or some way to quickly and actively recover his magic energy reserves, he might not have lost to Kirst."
"What is the point of talking about 'if'? Uriah lost and that's the way that the cookie crumbles. If it was a life and death battle, there would be no ifs to consider."
"Whatever, I still think that Uriah has the greater potential between the two. Also, I would love to get my hands on his spell set. Does anyone know if his spells form a part of some kind of inheritance?"
...
Nick observed the two competitors and silently contemplated:
(Those two...could I beat either of them?)
Nick thought for a while and came up with an answer:
(Sure, I could beat either of them but it would not be easy in either circumstance and the win would not be guaranteed. In fact, I am just as likely to lose as I am to win. That's not good enough, just as likely to lose could well mean death once I graduate from Richter Order Academy.)
Nick had no family, no legacy to depend on and no one that really cared about him so he could not accept his abilities as they currently were.
(I have to be strong enough to care for myself. I know that those two have areas covered that I am yet to fully develop at a decent standard so I have those to work on and again, I need to become better at managing my own magic energy expenditure. I am not sure that I would have lasted as long battling Kirst Elthirst as Uriah did because of how high my magic energy expenditure tends to be...)
Just as Nick was thinking about the areas that he needed to improve on, William Rollins and Thompson Varrow walked through the section's door. William observed the field and quickly noticed the massive glacier that still loomed over a portion of the spectators. He then cheerfully said:
"It looks like I missed a good fight."
Varrow silently moved to take his usual seat in the front row while William gave Nick and Patrice each a polite nod and sat in the front row, beside Varrow. Nick said to William:
"Your battle with Lewis Nefari was amazing. It was pretty interesting how you held back just enough to avoid vaporizing Lewis' entire body at the last moment."
William chuckled and rubbed the back of his head with his right hand, turning to Nick and saying:
"You caught on to that, huh? I figured that Lewis' attack wasn't going to kill me and I didn't want to be responsible for killing a Nefari while still attending the academy. Trust me, that's a bad idea while the whole world is watching."
Nick could understand that so he said nothing more. Patrice also spoke to William:
"You've become a light path master but you still have some gaps in your spell set that you have not sorted out."
William turned to Patrice and shrugged, replying:
"It's been too recent that I became a light path master and I haven't had the time to adopt other good methods detailed in my inheritance, not to mention that I have other things to consider before I push towards rank 3 like magic items and earning more talents."
Patrice nodded her head in understanding and remained silent. Patrice thought:
(I plan to push towards rank 3 after this competition ends. I've been attending Richter Order Academy for a long time and I feel that the level of new experiences that I can now gain are greatly capped. I need to move on into the 'real world'.)
Nick glanced at Patrice, not to try to guess what she was thinking, but to better contemplate something with her in mind:
(I have a feeling that my battle with Patrice could have gone either way if my spell, Fear The Blade, was any less effective. If it had not defended against Patrice's wisdom path methods when it did, I might of had manifolds more difficulty in beating her. With powerful Magicians, things don't seem to be as simple as stronger and weaker. Uriah's and Kirst's battle already demonstrated that. Spells, talents, magic tools, theoretical knowledge and attainment levels; a combination of all these will determine victory or defeat and a Magician that may be superior in terms of many of those factors could still lose out to another Magician who is superior in just one other aspect, all things being equal.)
Nick's understanding of what it meant to be a 'strong' Magician was evolving at this moment and he knew that he had much work ahead of him if he was going to become truly strong.
Back on the field, Uriah turned around and walked towards the corridor entrance once the result of the match was announced. Kirst did not try to stop him in order to talk because he knew that someone like Uriah probably needed time by himself after eating such a defeat; he internally commented:
(I've had many defeats so I know the feeling of wanting to crawl into a hole and lick your wounds too well.)
Kirst walked towards the opposite corridor entrance and both he and Uriah shortly returned to their academy's sections. In the meantime, Ralph made use of the arena's power to melt away the portion of the glacier that still remained as well as to restore the field to its original condition. Ralph also had the residual ice and blood magic neutralized using the arena's power too.
After about five minutes, he announced the next match-up and after the following battle concluded, the next round was set to begin. The first battle of the next round was then announced:
"William Rollins and Nick Capitol. Come to the field."
William didn't even bother turning around to glance at Nick and just cast Instant Light while pointing his right index finger at the center of the field. William disappeared amidst a flash of white light and a beam of white light that was shot out from his finger made its way to the field center, following which, William appeared at the beam's head amidst a flash of white light.
Nick cast Space Rift and opened a space gate that led to a position about twenty meters away from William's immediate front. Nick then stepped through the space gate and closed it behind him. Nick stood facing William and the spectators immediately started discussing possibilities. The entire arena was filled with their chatter. Nick shook his head slowly and internally resolved:
(I'm probably going to disappoint all of you but I can live with that.)