Fight for freedom (Part 2)

Without straying he used his staff to create a shield of water and lightning, the sphere glowed in blue and lilacs layers almost like a pearl, Nicola's attacks on touching the shield emitted a rhythmic sound, like the strings of a harp. Cassius outside the arena raised his eyebrows in surprise.

The shield withstood the attacks before breaking and falling into pieces, underneath it Saluel had prepared arrows of lightning that shot towards Nicola who promptly defended with his defensive dagger of the earth element, isolating all the arrows making them harmless releasing a sound shrill of a bamboo flute.

He then, ran towards the opponent, the weakest point of most mages is the close range combat. Its eight tails acted like lightning rods, isolating the electricity with a layer of earth mana, they deflected the attacks that were launched against it. When got close, he used the dagger to create a cut on the mage's arm which one hemove the whip making it useless to manipulate the weapon.

Realizing that he was losing space, Saluel emitted an electric pulse from his staff, toasting Nicola's skin and paralyzing him, so he turned his own staff around and hit Nicola in the belly, throwing him away.

Nicola used the dagger of light and water to perform a healing effect on nerves that were damaged by lightning. The attack had made him realize what was missing, Nicola's training was mostly against magical beasts that lacked techniques or cunning, he needed to face more opponents like that to advance.

He stopped holding on, launching elemental attacks that hit the young mage by cutting off his defense and his skin. Black energy seeped into his body preventing healing. After more exchanges of attacks Nicola realized that the fight was too long and was becoming a battle of resistance, something that the magician had a lot to spare, so he decided to approach again, this time with an all or nothing strategy.

He would use his most powerful attack to defeat the wizard, something he developed recently and would consume much of his energy and if he didn't achieve his destiny it would be to wait longer at the Six Rings Academy.

He jumped towards Saluel with his four daggers together in an X form. After accidentally defeating the swamp snake he discovered this elemental resonance capacity between the daggers, by combining the seven basic elements they reacted with each other, but them at the same point as an attack would result in an explosive power that, with the dagger technique developed by Nicola would release a funeral sound. This attack was named by Nicola as Réquiem.

'Sin fox song style, first attack form, Requiem' Nicola said.

The daggers released the sound that marked the end of the battle, Saluel tried to react in time but failed. The combined power threw him away, his staff flew from his hand leaving him unarmed and fallen on the ground.

"Nicola Kanata won the duel, as of today he is free to go beyond the paths of the Six Rings Academy" the alchemist elder announced o everyone hear.

Nicola then went to Saluel and helped him, took some healing pills from the spatial ring dividing them, his alchemy level was below his blacksmithing level but it was not something to be looked at. The damage caused by the Requiem was not so severe because Nicola did not want to directly hit Saluel's body, so the daggers just touched without reaching the target body, just the space in front of him. What sent the opponent away was only the energy released by the attack.

"Thanks Nicola" Saluel said. "The Six Ring Academy loses an excellent elder with your departure". To become an elder in the academy it was necessary to prove your loyalty, so all the elders would always be emotional with the actions that involved the organization.

"You learned very well the skill that I taught you, a true blacksmith develops his own technique over time and yours has already started to change, when you fight you are forging your spirit with the elements. Nicola, you were a great student during that time I taught you "Cassius said as he approached the two who were still talking.

"Now let me see that set of daggers you developed" he completed with his eyes shining of the curiosity that just someone who love its work could have, releasing a series of laughs from the other elders.