"Energy burst! Mana shield!"
He shouted in that fierce battle while still blocking him and the captain's eyes widened in surprise as he sensed immediate danger.
He was going to slash his sword from left to right, but recalled the bouncer sword mid-air and took a step back as he saw a transparent blue shield suddenly appear around the boy's body.
At the same time, a dot of white energy appeared in the exact place he was standing just a moment before.
The dot of energy started getting bigger, growing at an unreal rate, and before he could understand what was happening, the dot had grown as big as his hands.
The power coming from this sphere was strong, something he wasn't expecting to see in a quick fight like this one.
He didn't think the boy could cast magic in this short time, even if it is his special scripted spells.
He believed he didn't give him more than a quarter of a second and the boy created an opportunity from just that much by allowing his Aura-covered sword that directly hit his blue shield and then this white sphere of energy started manifesting.
The power from this sphere of white light was close to a high-ranking (tier-6) spell.
He was facing a young boy, a magic archer who specialized in magic and archery.
But... he didn't think he would also have a skill like this.
This one was beyond his expectation.
'In the first place, what skills manifest that quickly!?'
He was astonished by the way this 'young' master used his skills and the skills he had.
They were something special, and he didn't need appraisal skills to tell that.
Strength, mana consumption, cooldown, power, and duration, were all more powerful in all aspects in all these cases.
Even if he can justify that absurd Mana regeneration speed and Mana pool by some artifact and natural special physique… where the hell did he find such a powerful skill?!
He didn't know, and he didn't have time to know.
The skill didn't even take three full seconds to finish, and he knew this one skill had more than enough power to break the remaining three barriers around them.
That meant this skill was enough to actually hurt him...
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt'I didn't think I would actually use it...'
A helpless smile appeared on his face as he saw the young boy inside that blue shield that blocked his Aura sword.
Blood slid down his nose and he was smiling, too.
A smile with his somewhat blood-colored white teeth.
It was ridiculous how he would have to use a sword technique against a twelve-year-old child.
Even if it was just the most basic first form, it was his swordsmanship.
His greatest achievement was his greatest role in the raid against a flame drake, a top-rank (Purple) level beast.
He played the greatest role in defending against that creature's flames and they succeeded in deflating it because he was there.
At least, that was what people all over the empire talked about.
His techniques were purely for defense. And that raid had succeeded purely because there were also powerful people that attacked the creature with their strong attack power.
But he did endure those extremely hot flames and came out alive because of this sword technique.
And now, this small attack was forcing him to use one of those very techniques.
Not that he couldn't survive after being hit by it.
It wasn't strong enough to penetrate his passive defenses.
Just that... the boy had aimed the skill precisely at the weak point of the skill... his neck.
Whether it was intentional or not, this definitely was not good, so...
"Steel sword first form."
He smacked his saber into the ground and a pillar of rock rose up as soon as the energy blast shot from that ball of white energy reached him.
"Rock..."
-Zyuuuuuuuuuuuu!
-Booooooooooooooom!
The pillar of white energy collided with a yellow rock and completely blocked the ray of energy that lasted for a whole six seconds.
The hard yellow rock burned in the blaze of strong energy that was even more than what he had exacted.
Maybe this one was enough to even scratch his active defenses?
The strong knight captain genuinely wondered this as he saw the scorching orange-black surface of the yellow rock that slowly had started scattering and crumbling down into the same sand and debris of the training ground.
The part that was hit by the energy ray had almost become lava and was converting the pile of sand into something similar.
It was a strong attack and everyone knew this.
Everyone who had given up on trying to watch the fight mid-way that is.
Those who were stubborn enough to persist were all being treated by the water mages for they had fainted by the time this last attack had happened.
And all this, from the start of the white energy dot to the summoning of the rock pillar and its crumbling into a sandpile, not even half a minute had passed.
Not even the mages and knights who were helping them were able to see what had happened in these last ten seconds but... the two ladies as well as some knights who were just blankly looking into those barriers had seen a glimpse of that spectacular scene.
The two ladies were looking at this fight without any disturbance from the start so they were even more astonished.
They had mostly seen the things that happened in that closed barrier area.
And that end was one of the few things that they clearly saw.
The beautiful elf lady was surprised... stunned would be more appropriate to describe her current outer self.
Her eyes were wide open, her mouth also opens not closing even after the rock wall crumbled down, and her hands were shaking as if it was extremely cold.
This was just the outer appearance too... her mind was more chaotic than that.
But the young girl beside her had a different expression.
As soon as the rock wall turned into a pile of sand, she vanished from her place and reappeared behind the young boy who had shot that white energy laser.
She caught his falling body and shouted angrily at him while sitting down slowly.
"You fool!
Dumb son of a b...
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmYour piece of a shit idiot!!
Giving up normally is a thing you know?!
Why even do flashy things like this when you know it's not necessary one bit?!"
There was a smile on his face as he looked at the angry red face she had right now.
There was blood all over his face, his Mana almost depleted, his stamina less than one-sixth, and his eyes blurry with red tears… aftereffects of that amazing skill.
She was almost on the verge of crying while looking at him, a tear was already at the ends of her eyes.
But the smile on his face didn't disappear and instead… deepened even more.
Shaking his head and gently wiping away her tears with a white handkerchief and storing it back in his white crack, he took out a red potion and looked into her eyes.
'You know I'm alright, no?'
"Y-you!! Dumb f…!"
She furiously raised her fist at his smile and strongly swung down at his chest... but then stopped midway and lightly tapped his heart.
"Today is your birthday... at least don't get all bloody like this..."
She was cute right now, genuinely cute.
He just shook his head at this expected reaction and drank his red potion, recovering all his health, Mana, stamina and some vitality lost because of all this spilled blood.
He got up from her lap, looked at her worried self that had a mix of anger, sadness, and worry on her face, and... gently hugged her.
"There, there. It's alright so stop cursing and just calm down little girl."
"Shut up you bastard! You-"
He hugged her more tightly as she shouted that and her heartbeat raised, even more, a pink blush appeared on her pretty face and she calmed down... and hugged him back.
Two pretty kids, hugging each other with great love... everyone in this training ground watched this scene with envious, happy, and embarrassed gazes.
The knight captain that he fought was sitting on the ground, breathing deeply, looking at the young couple with envy and gladness.
He envied the boy, for reasons unknown, and was happy for the two of them.
The oldest one in this place, the pure elf, looked at the two with a pretty smile and blushed while remembering someone else...
The fight was over and the game treasure hunt that had started with a special stone would now continue...