Inter-Kingdom Tournament Participants - Part 4
Hector stood at the opposite side of the stage, looking at me and smiling. He had gray eyes and blonde hair like Hannah but his was just a little bit shorter. It was tied into a ponytail and he wore expensive looking noble robes. He had a sword to his side and a wand on his hand.
'He's proficient in both magic and the sword like me, huh.' I tried to get as much information as I could from him before the battle began. 'Oh right, I have this skill'
[Identify] skill activated.
[Status]
Name: Hector Williams
Age: 16
Level: 10
HP: 250/250
Mana: 100/100
Talents: Wind, Fire, Earth, Water, Sword
'He's as talented as me aside from the light, dark and void elements. I can't expose too much of my skills, so I have to limit myself and still show that I'm doing my best… This is gonna be a bit hard.' Balls of sweat started to form on my forehead.
"Begin!" The teacher's voice sounded out.
Both of us didn't move immediately. I decided to probe him first and find out what skills he has and will use for the battle. However, when I looked at him, he looked calm and casual. So much in fact that it felt like he was provoking me.
'Alright, I'll bite. Maybe two elemental bullets should be enough to encourage him to take me seriously.' I took my wand and held it firmly, pointing it towards him and chanted
"Fire Bullet, Wind Bullet." The two elemental bullets whizzed past through the air and went directly towards Hector.
"Metal Wall." Hector commanded and as soon as he did, a slab of metal went up from the ground and covered his front, ultimately blocking the bullets.
I put my wand back into its sheath and drew the wooden sword that Mister gave to me.
"Is that a wooden sword? This guy is mocking us!" A third year student bellowed and the others followed suit.
I ignored their hateful comments and dashed straight towards the metal wall where Hector is supposedly hiding behind.
The metal wall slid back into the ground and revealed Hector with his sword drawn and ready to take my attack.
Our swords clashed together and we were at a stalemate.
"A wooden sword, huh. Aren't you underestimating me too much, John." Hector commented.
"Definitely not, Lord Hector. This is not an ordinary wooden sword, it was a gift from the man that saved me." I answered as I pushed him away with my sword and regained a bit more distance.
"Lightning!" A streak of lightning appeared from Hector's sword and raced towards me.
"Earth Sword!" Bits of earth started gathering on my sword and I ordered them to create a shield to block the bolt of lightning as I held my sword against it.
[-10]
'Shit, the shield wasn't strong enough to mitigate all of the damage.' I brushed the damage off and decided to dash towards Hector again.
'The only way I can hide my abilities completely is to overpower him with my sword skills.'
Our swords clashed and the battle went on like that for a couple of minutes. Blocking and attacking with our swords, the use of spells minimized.
"Hahahaha! This is really fun, John! It's been a while since I've met someone our age and is as proficient as you in the way of the sword!" Hector laughed as he slashed down towards me.
I blocked it and slashed back at him. "A wise, weird old man once told me that strong physical prowess might not necessarily lose to even the strongest of magic."
Hector dashed back to avoid my attack.
"Lightning! Raise Earth!" I chanted and pointed my finger at him as a bolt of lightning appeared and commanded walls of earth to surround his back and sides, making him unable to dodge.
"Fireball!" Hector counterattacked, my lighting and his fireball converging and cancelling each other out, creating a rather big explosion.
As soon as the smoke dissipated, I saw Hector with his back against the wall of earth I created, his clothes a bit tattered.
'Looks like the explosion did a bit of damage to him.'
"That was a good one. Forcing me to either take the attack or block it with my own attack. Clever, John. Clever." Hector praised me. "I guess I should take this battle seriously. Losing is not gonna look good for me and the other third year students, don't you think?"
I didn't reply and held my sword tighter, preparing for whatever he had planned.
"You see, Although I have talent for all of the basic elements, wind is my favorite out of the four. The reason being is that it's the fastest. You can't really block something you can't react to, right?" Hector gave a small speech as he got his wand out and started waving it in the air.
Plenty of small orbs of wind appeared in the vicinity around him, forming into small arrows all directed towards me.
"And one more thing. It's already hard to dodge something as fast as the wind, but how about something as many as this?" As soon as he finished talking, there were already twenty wind arrows floating and pointed towards me.
"I'll be really impressed if you manage to dodge everything. Wind Arrow Storm." Hector said with a smile on his face.
The wind arrows all rushed towards me with incredible speed at the same time.
"Raise Earth!" I raised the earth from beneath me to give myself a jump boost as well as get rid of some of the wind arrows that were aiming to hit me.
Just as I thought, the arrows collided with the wall of earth I created beneath me and created a giant dust cloud.
"If you think that you got rid of all of them, think again." Hector's voice sounded out.
As soon as he said that I focused on the dust cloud that formed from the attack and realised that I was only able to destroy five of the wind arrows. The other arrows curved up towards me like they were locked on to me as a target.
'He's controlling each individual arrow and targeting me. What delicate and amazing magic focus…' I was in awe of the skill Hector showed but quickly got back to my senses.
"Fireball! Fireball!" I launched two consecutive fireballs beneath me towards the arrows that were ultimately getting closer and I was launched even higher by the explosion.
Five more arrows pushed through the smoke.
'Five? I think I can block them with my sword.' I readied my sword and prepared to block the incoming arrows.
"Wind Sword." Wind began swirling around my sword, giving me the impression of a chainsaw but instead of the blades being made of metal, it was made of pure wind.
Two arrows came first and I slashed my sword towards them. 'Two down.' I thought as I brought my sword back to its readied stance.
An arrow came from the left side and I easily blocked it with a simple slash. 'That's three.' Seeing as it came from the left side, I looked to check the right side and saw that nothing was there.
'If nothing's there and there's two left… Then it's gonna be from behind.' I twisted my body around in mid air and saw the two arrows coming from behind. As I twisted my body, I was able to block one of them but was unable to completely destroy the last one.
The last arrow managed to cut the side of my lower abdomen and blood began to trickle out slowly. 'I need to work harder on my sword training. I should've been able to block that.'
[-30]
I landed safely down on the ground and faced Hector with my sword ready.
"That was amazing, John! Although I said that you wouldn't be able to block everything, I never thought that you'd only suffer a superficial cut! Truly amazing!" Hector clapped as he praised me.
"Thank you for your praise, Lord Hector. But that spell was even more amazing. It makes me want to try it myself." I replied.
"Go ahead! I won't stop you." Hector said as he smiled, doubting that I would be able to recreate it.
I took out my wand and pointed it towards the air above me. 'I think it went like this…'
Small orbs of wind started to form around me and they slowly started taking shape into arrows.
"That's…" Hector seemed dumbfounded by how I was easily able to recreate his own spell.
As soon as the arrows were finished taking shape, I tried controlling them all at the same time, making them move around the space near me.
[Wind Arrow Storm] spell learned.
[Wind Arrow Storm]
Conjure up multiple controllable arrows of wind.
"Amazing…" Voices of the students watching started exclaiming quietly.
"You really are one of a kind, John Colton." Hector said with his eyes open wide as he stared at the wind arrows circling around me.
"I could only conjure up ten arrows in comparison to your twenty. If anything, I am half as capable as you when it comes to skill." I replied, remaining humble. 'Although, it's really just because I'm out of mana to create more…' I kept that thought to myself.
"Are you ready?" I asked Hector.
He raised his hand and looked towards the teacher. "I forfeit."
I stood there dumbfounded and stared at him.
"I'm already out of mana and I won't be able to block ten of those with my sword alone. Thanks for the battle" Hector said as he saw me with my surprised look. He turned back and walked towards the audience seats.
"Number 1 wins the duel!" The teacher's voice sounded out.
Sounds of clapping and cheering can be heard from the audience as I stood there still surprised, wind arrows still dancing around me.
"John, get off the stage and get medical assistance. Your duel is over." The teacher ordered.
I snapped back to reality and released my magic focus, making the arrows disappear. I walked off the stage and went to the designated area for healing.
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[Status]
Name: John Colton
Age: 14
Level: 7
Experience: 400/700
HP: 160/200
Mana: 0/100
Strength: 23
Intelligence: 20
Dexterity: 21
Agility: 21
Wisdom: 20
Unspent points: 0
Skills: Identify, Intermediate Magic Focus, Primal Instinct, Indomitable Will, Sword Training - Intermediate, Magic Creation - Beginner, Pain Resistance - Intermediate, Overcome the odds - Beginner, Blue Fire, Body Master - Beginner, Foresight
Spells: Fireball, Light, Aqua, Wind Slash, Raise Earth, Blind, Fire Bullet, Earth Bullet, Wind Bullet, Water Bullet, Wind Sword, Fire Sword, Earth Sword, Water Sword, Metal Bullet, Lightning, Ice Lance, Heal, Void Step, Void Slash, Wind Arrow Storm
Boons: Wadur's Blessing
Curses: -None-
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