Anger vs Caution
The battle was to take place at the outer sectors of the academy, as this wasn't an official mock battle or sanctioned in any way.
Lady Ophelia was one of the legendary seven mages, and thus had the authority to make this an official fight, but she wasn't interested in going through the process. Instead, she was acting on her own impulses.
Dilbert and I stood ten meters away from each other, and our classmates were observing from a safe distance of about forty meters.
The outer sector was large enough for us to have a proper battle, but how quickly can I finish it to prevent Lady Ophelia from having any suspicions. I was at a loss for how to finish the battle quickly without using any magic spells, since I hadn't learnt any.
I wished I'd asked for a weapon, so I could've enhanced it to help me win the battle. Unfortunately, I was stuck with my own skills and had to figure out a way to win without any magical help.
I may have seemed calm on the outside, but I was panicking a bit on the inside. What was I going to do? How well would I fare against Dilbert's fire rune? If it gave him enhancements for fire, then I was sure he would focus on using elemental-based attacks, more specifically, fire.
Some of my classmates had already written me off, underestimating me again.
"Hey, man, he's dead meat," one of Dilbert's followers said, and another added, "Dilbert's strength surpasses even silver mages and slightly higher, doesn't it?" They were exaggerating, of course, just trying to feed Dilbert's ego.
It made him believe he wasn't on their level. But rather above them.
Belitha was obviously worried and her concern was understandable. She didn't want to see me get hurt, even though she had faith that I could beat Dilbert.
As I thought about possible strategies to defeat him, I felt a wave of despair wash over me. No matter how hard I thought, I couldn't come up with an answer and this made me sigh vehemently. I was in a moment of despair and felt helpless.
Dilbert, with an egotistical air about him, declared that I was out of luck, as if I were a small fry. He expressed his indifference that whether or not he and I fought, I'd be dead either way.
His supposed friends cheered him on, chanting "Win it!" and "Go!" in an attempt to get him fired up. If Lady Ophelia hadn't come along, I could've gotten out of this duel. Oh boy!
"Die!"
Dilbert was the first to start after a war cry. Magic Seals are the visible manifestation of magicubes being collected by a mage when casting a spell, and they are accompanied by powered-up states.
A Magic Seal is composed of intangible energy in the form of a proper circle, with concentric rings and squares inscribed in it. As the mage gathers magicubes to cast a spell, the Magic Seal spins at a varying velocity, and in this case, it begins amassing a destructive amount of lightning with Dilbert right hand being the original creator of it all.
He was able to generate lightning from his magic seal and release it in a powerful, destructive blast that can obliterate everything in a wide area in front of him.
This attack is particularly devastating, not only due to the immense damage it can cause, but also because it has a special effect of paralyzing the target, even if they manage to survive the attack.
This paralysis leaves them numb and unable to escape his following attack.
The attack came towards me and I realized I had made a huge miscalculation. I believed Dilbert would only use fire elemental magic, but here he was using lightning.
The destructive surge of lightning released excess energy and exploded, pushing away rocks and leaves on the ground. Even the students watching the battle almost lost their balance, but I was safe.
Everyone could see me with my arm outstretched and the lightning slowly fading away, yet there was no visible shield that blocked the attack. Miraculously, I was completely unaffected.
[ Unique Skill ---> Oracle Engine ]
Activating...
[ Increasing Mana Output to 50% ]
Activating...
[ Magic System Download ]
50%... 75%... 100%...
[ Download Complete ---> Space Wall ]
Active.
I used the spell, Space Wall, an elementary spell that calls forth a magic circle to allow a translucent barrier to envelop my immediate surroundings.
However, my use of this spell was different from the usual, as one of the girls in the crowd noted that I had activated it without any magic seal and even at point blank range. This elicited a reaction of shock and awe from the other students, who exclaimed their disbelief at my level of fighting.
While I was flattered by the admiration, I couldn't help but feel a touch of disapproval at the surprise that such a basic spell could produce such an effect.
I found it difficult to understand how I was able to cast a spell without having learnt any spells beforehand. Scentia mentioned that she has the data dump function, which enables the basic content of a magic spell to be transferred into a user's brain, thus providing them with knowledge of the spell branch.
While I understood the concept, I couldn't help but feel skeptical about its effectiveness. I just acted as if I knew what I was doing when I honestly didn't.
"I see. I see. You're not half-bad are you? I'll take back calling you a small fry." said the ego filled Dilbert, he felt confident in beating me in a battle of magic spells.
"If I may ask, what aspect of that attack and defense warranted your statement back?" in other words I was trying to tell him that the attack wasn't so much special that he'd make a big deal of it, the spell Dilbert used was most likely a Tier C spell whereas my defensive spell was strictly Tier E. I just modified the specs to make it durable enough.
"Quit acting so smug you filthy creature! Don't get ahead of yourself, I wasn't even serious!"
"I'm sure it wasn't. Such a miniscule attack is–" I didn't get to finish my statement, and this was because Dilbert was quick to take offense, this made the battle a whole lot more predictable.
[ Fire Storm! ]
He didn't even let that snide remark stand, and with a dense ball of fire formed in his palm he hurled it instantly for me at more speed, like some sort of fast moving projectile.
Barely anyone could follow the speed of the hurled thermo-constructed projectile, all they could was a fast moving streak of energy that detonated into a large scale explosion strong enough to be classified as a storm.
The disturbed state of the atmosphere was apparent as a result of the heat, enough that it vaporized a number of clouds in the sky.
I was completely masked by the explosion and the shockwave itself barely allowed for stable vision, the ground where I stood was decimated to a crater 8 meter deep and seven meters wide.
And behold, as the smoke cleared into the skies I was clearly still standing there unharmed.
"I'm surprised you're still standing after taking my Fire Storm!" he says after seeing I was unaffected but this wasn't a surprise because before now my defenses [Space Wall] was already activated, which would mean I didn't need to do anything rather than just stand and counter with the durability level of my defensive magic spell.
It was a barrierless method of defense, so there wasn't a physical representation of what the shield, wall or rampart looked like but it was enough to cover a wide range of defensive requirements and ensure my protection. Hmm, Fire Storm, What is this guy saying? That was just a basic level fire spell, nothing special about it.
"I'm happy. It's been a long time since I fought someone I could go all-out against."
Here he was again trying to brag, he hasn't done anything that'd classify him as powerful. And even his use of the fire rune that supposedly enhances his fire-based spells wasn't doing much to put him on a level where I have to go on the attacking.
The only reason I've been on the defensive so far was to keep myself from being found out by Lady Ophelia. I wanted to use a moderate spell but when wasn't Scentia known for overdoing something.
Although, I could understand that as an [Oracle Engine] of Tier A+ knowledge, she needs to select the option best suited to efficiently circumvent any threat that it may encounter.
"It's clear that you enjoy putting on a show with your low-level spells, giving them embarrassing names and making a big production out of casting them. While I can understand the appeal of the rush that comes with it, it's important to remember that such grandiose lies will ultimately lead to misery."
It was perfectly working, if it's one thing that never let's down it's Dilbertʼs inability to keep a straight head in battle. He was always easily enraged when someone made him look the littlest bit small. And I knew just the right buttons to push or nerves to pluck, and here by telling him how much of a ridiculous liar he was, and how corny it sounded to give weak spells name.
"Why you!"
[ Grand Conflagration! ]
It wasn't until after that I'd realized that maybe I took it a little too far, the glowing energy from his fire rune radiated like a sun, bright enough that you'd barely be able to see Dilbert.
He channeled his mana in an uncontrolled state and what manifests around him are scorching hot balls of flame that transcended the usual spells he'd casted up till now, fire and lightning spells included.
The scorching hot balls counted up to about thirty that spawned from the increased magic power output that the fire rune had helped come to be. Just one single ball of this particular flame was with enough thermal energy to burn several other magical phenomena, also, it's mere being present in large numbers caused a minor heatwave to erupt.
I wasn't surprised, rather I was very impressed, as I'd expected the exact opposite of weak fire spell from start to finish.
"Nyx!"
Belitha cried out my name just as the barrage of scorching condensed balls of fire traveled. It was like a heavy curtain of projectile fire directed toward me as a concentrated discharge of projectiles.
An overwhelming outburst of flaming balls all charging at me with a force enough to completely bombard and overwhelm closely anyone at the level of silver mage or partially higher. Each of the scorching flame balls curved outwards and then inwards like homing beams for me, covering every like angle I'd have perceived as the best manner through which to evade.
[Oracle Engine ---> Skill Enhancement]
In progress...
[Space Wall Evolutionary Process]
In progress...
[ Space Wall ---> Ultra Wall Formation]
Skill Enhancement Complete...
My defensive spell was evolved into a special-class defense that envelops me in a light blue semi-translucent protective orb. As each destructive orb of flame coming in contact with the sphere they would explode and clash with other explosions from the maximum flame rush.
The look in my eyes were non-chalant, I just had to leave it all up to Scentia to do the work, while I simply observe his mental breakdown.
The maximum fire rush was like a meteor shower, with each impact causing another ball of flame to explode, continually leading to an explosive chain reaction.
The ground cracked under the pressure of the the his attacking and my defensive prowess, but my defense had yet to be breached or forcibly broken through.
"No way! He's defending Dilbertʼs Grand Conflagration so easily?!" one of his friends had mentioned this, and it piqued my interest, and Scentiaʼs as well. Huh? This spell was just a consecutive activation of simply explosive flame spells.
That was no Grand Conflagration. That's an insult to the creator of the spell.
Out of distaste for his deceitfulnes I waved my right arm across the air and this immediately dissipated the entire attack, causing his barrage of flames to vanish by instantaneous dispersion. Only the smoldering, glowing remains of his fire spell; smoldering ash, was left.
Along with his spell, the heatwave had completely vanished and it'd become cool all of a sudden, the only proof that there was even an attack to begin with was the eyes we'd used to observe it. Nothing was left of his attack.
The Grand Conflagration was a Tier A spell, no way it would be this weak, he was simply just lying to gain praises. I was definitely sure of how the spell's damage would be, as I've said I couldn't practice magic but I've read a lot on it.
I could differentiate between a spammed Tier C spell and an absolute Tier A spell.
"Mister Dilbert, since it seems you're unfamiliar, allow me to show you what a real Grand Conflagration is..."
I said it, and I meant it. There wasn't a single form of humor in what I'd mentioned. Dilbert on the other hand had nothing to say, because he was still paralyzed in fear having witnessed his attack be vanished into embers by just the wave of an arm.