Asher's Battle 2

"Will you surrender now or do I have to beat your ass?"

Asher calmly stood on the stage with a smile as he stared at his opponent on the other side.

The crowd was stunned silly by what had taken place just then. Even if they had expected Asher to win, they didn't expect him to dominate in such a manner. It was quite obvious based on how Asher had neutralized the attack that Mischael was not his match.

It should be known that Asher was the only member of the Seven Pillars fighting at the moment. Also, since his opponent, Mischael Von Maeur, was a child of the capital, it was natural that the duo's battle would attract the most attention among the ten stages.

At that moment, over 60% of the audience was stunned, but one party regained themselves and began cheering.

"Go! Young master Arnhaunt!"

"Show that brat how we Mapleians fight!"

Mischael, whose attack had been nullified with ease, was stunned and couldn't help but freeze on the spot out of shock. Although the Lava element was not as spectacular as the Metal element, it still possessed an impressive level of attack power that surpassed the Earth element. Despite this irrefutable fact, Asher had managed to do what Mischael would call the unthinkable and neutralized his attack with ease.

"That, that was just luck. Don't think you've won because you were just lucky." Mischael snapped.

"I'm going to-"

Mischael's words got caught off by the sight of a palm in front of his face.

Being bored by his opponent's tantrum and hoping to end the battle as quickly as possible, Asher charged at Mischael at a speed that almost rivalled Aurora's Lightning Step. Considering that such movement had even caught Ethan Croft off-guard once, it was inevitable that Mischael, who had never experienced it before, would also fail to react in time.

Pam.

Asher's palm wrapped around Mischael's face while his (Mischael's) eyes were still wide open. What followed next was a layer of frost spreading from Asher's hand and covering Mischael's face. The frost expanded and thickened at such great speed that within a second, it had covered Mischael's face. The latter tried to counter-attack but Asher retreated right away before glancing at him with a smile.

With his nose and mouth blocked by a thick layer of ice, Mischael found it hard to breathe. He tried to break the 'ice mask', but Asher refused to give him an opportunity to do so, charging towards him at an average speed and forcing Mischael to react to his actions.

It was obvious from anyone who watched as a third party that the battle was completely in Asher's hands and he was merely playing around with Mischael. Asher could end the battle right away, but he didn't. This action of his made him seem cynical to some of the spectators and they began to pity Mischael, who was almost out of air.

Try as he could, without a source to take in air, Mischael was being affected by his body's natural reflex and warning system.

Without inhaling pure oxygen, the longest one could go without breathing in oxygen was eleven minutes, but for mages, particularly in the Guardian realm, this extended up to twenty minutes. However, to achieve such a length of time, one has to be properly trained in holding their breath and delaying the body's internal warning mechanism due to the increase in Carbon (IV) oxide in the body.

Mischael, however, lacked such training and could only hold his breath for up to five minutes. This meant that he had five minutes to smash the 'ice mask', otherwise, he would pass out and automatically lose the match. But with Asher sticking close to him, this would be impossible.

"Haha. That kid is a really bad egg." Ol' Fang laughed.

As someone who despised the royal family, this feeling stretched to families who had close relations with the Castellans, which were mainly marquis families. Seeing Asher play around with one so easily, Ol' Fang couldn't help but be pleased.

"Such a barbaric move." Marquis Von Maeur frowned with displeasure.

Although he didn't have much hope of his son beating Asher, the marquis had expected his son to go for a draw or at least, show the public what he has and impress some figures. As long as Mischael had done that, even if he lost, the spectators -both nobility and commoner- would be moved and still rate him highly.

However, not only did his son fail to do so, but his very first move was neutralized, following which his opponent took control of the battle and had him dance on his palm. If that wasn't bad enough, the method Asher utilized irritated the Marquis. It was a move that disgraced the opponent and showed a clear difference in strength and skill between both parties; a difference the size of the gap between heaven and earth.

"Is this really the son of a duke? Using such a means to defeat his opponent is quite shameful." A marquis who was a close friend of Marquis Von Maeur said out loud. It was obvious that he intended to badmouth Asher, especially since Darius wasn't present.

"Oh? And what does a man like you know about 'shame'?" Ol' Fang suddenly said as he glanced at the speaker.

The special region for members of the six great factions was separated from the VVIP region by a mere difference in seating arrangement with a bit of space in between them. When one adds in the fact that Ol' Fang was at the Seventh-stage of the Guardian realm, quite close to the peak, it was easy for him to pick up the conversations on the other side. There was also the fact that the marquis didn't bother to keep his voice down.

"Oh wait, seems like I made a mistake. You're already quite familiar with what it means to be shameless if I may say so, Marquis Falni." Ol' Fang sneered.