Rudy quickly reached Evan.
Their eyes met up close.
'Let's fight.'
'I'll defeat you.'
In that brief moment, they communicated through their eyes.
Evan swung his sword widely.
Clang.
Rudy blocked the sword with his hand.
Even if the sword's blade was sharp, it was nothing compared to the magical tool Rudy had painstakingly created.
Rudy grabbed the blade and smiled.
"Still using that sword, I see."
Andrei's sword.
It was the sword Rudy had given to Evan.
Despite its incredible ability to nullify magic, Rudy had handed it over to Evan.
Thanks to this sword, Evan had developed a higher-level technique to cut through the flow of mana.
Evan was unaware of this fact.
Evan pressed Rudy with his sword.
In terms of strength, Rudy was not inferior and did not falter.
As they reached a standoff, Evan spoke.
"Elementals."
Green light swirled behind Evan.
The light gradually took shape.
Deer, rabbits, horses.
The light transformed into animal forms.
Special elementals roaming the mountains.
Evan could borrow their power without directly contracting with these special elementals.
Dozens of elementals stood behind Evan, showing hostility towards Rudy.
Rudy had anticipated this situation.
Elementals and nature are inseparable.
In such a forest, he predicted the presence of numerous elementals.
Once Evan learned to handle special elementals, it was clear he would use them.
"Behemoth, Priscilla."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"Pwoooh."
"Is that an order to block all of them?"
Priscilla and Behemoth, who were behind Rudy, sighed.
The dozens of elementals behind Evan felt like a small legion.
Although they might be weaker individually since Evan had not directly contracted with them, their sheer number was overwhelming.
"Just hold them off."
Rudy glanced back and spoke.
Priscilla smiled at his words.
"It's demotivating to be asked to just hold off when we need to fight."
Cold air rose around Priscilla.
The chill began to freeze the surrounding ground.
Priscilla looked down at Behemoth beneath her.
"Hey, elephant, are you ready?"
"Pwoooh!"
With that response, Behemoth rolled its foot.
Crack. Although it was a small foot roll, the surrounding ground began to split.
The splitting ground, dividing into several paths, grew larger as it advanced.
Its effect reached Evan and Rudy in front.
As the ground where Evan and Rudy stood began to split, they both leaped backward.
The split progressed, reaching the elementals behind them.
Caught off guard by the sudden ground split, the elementals couldn't react quickly.
Short-legged and slow-moving elementals fell into the split ground.
"Freeze."
Seeing the elementals fall, Priscilla froze the split gap, preventing them from coming out.
Thanks to the dragon burning the surrounding forest, Evan and the elementals couldn't exert their full power.
'This won't do.'
Evan quickly decided.
He moved his mana, sending it into the ground.
His mana spread around, and green light swirled on the ground.
"Forest."
With Evan's command, sprouts emerged amidst the green light.
Sprouts grew, flowers bloomed, and trees rose.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})A spell he used during the individual assessment.
It was magic that instantly created a forest around him.
However, it wasn't as vast as the forest he had created during the individual assessment.
This spell energizes the seeds buried in the ground, causing them to grow rapidly.
But the dragon had burnt the land, leaving few seeds remaining.
Moreover, since Priscilla had frozen the ground, the weaker seeds couldn't break through the ice and failed to sprout.
A considerably small forest was formed.
Rudy watched and laughed.
"I was wondering when you'd use that."
Rudy moved his mana.
Light seeped from his gloves.
However, it was different from when he used his fist.
When he charged directly into combat, the gem on the back of his hand shone, but now, the glove itself emitted light.
Specifically, the circuits on the glove glowed.
"Hellfire Ascension."
As Rudy spoke, black flames spread around him.
The black flames approached the forest created by Evan and began to consume it.
The flames that had spread around converged towards one place.
That place was where Evan stood.
Evan didn't just watch.
Though unfamiliar with dark magic, he knew something powerful would happen if those flames gathered.
Holding his sword, he gathered the mana of the forest.
A sword aura-like energy appeared from his sword.
Evan pulled the sword inward and swung it.
The surroundings turned green.
The flames subsided, and the surrounding flowers and grass grew fresher.
The roots and leaves of the plants covered the flames, making them disappear.
It felt as if life was swallowing death.
Countless life forces devoured Rudy's flames and the ice created by Priscilla.
The split ground started to reconnect with the roots of the plants, and the elementals that had fallen below climbed out using those roots.
"Ah..."
Rudy watched in awe.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Life had been bestowed upon the land destroyed by the dragon.
Roots took hold in the ground, turning the barren land fertile again.
Then, a tree behind Evan began to grow.
It grew so tall that it almost reached the sky, engulfing the surroundings.
"Rudy Astria."
The elementals that emerged from behind Evan walked forward.
They, who had appeared as ordinary animals, now radiated power.
With more plants and stronger natural forces, the elementals' power also increased.
"Now, let's finish this."
Hearing Evan's words, Rudy looked at the tree behind Evan.
A tree slightly smaller than the dragon.
It was an enormous tree.
If someone were to stand in front of this, they would feel utterly insignificant, overwhelmed by its immense vitality.
Yet, Rudy moved forward with a smile.
"Let's see what you've got, Evan."
Evan, observing Rudy's advance, curled his lips upward.
He gathered energy in his sword.
The massive tree behind Evan shone brilliantly.
"Attack."
The elementals behind Evan charged towards Rudy.
Behemoth and Priscilla also moved forward simultaneously.
Behemoth attempted to split the ground, but the tangled roots of the tree prevented it.
Priscilla created several ice chunks and started hunting the elementals with her sharp teeth.
She wanted to use her ice powers but refrained, fearing it might burden Rudy.
As Behemoth and Priscilla couldn't fully utilize their abilities, the elementals reached Rudy.
Rudy confronted them, mana in hand, snapping the neck of a deer and blocking a horse's kick.
It felt like battling dozens of animals, only these were stronger than ordinary ones.
While Rudy dealt with the elementals, Evan raised his sword.
A massive mana swirled around Evan's blade.
It was the same technique he used during the individual assessment.
"Phew…"
Rudy took a deep breath.
"Just have to endure it once."
Evan swung his sword.
A green light enveloped the surroundings.
A vast swarm of light.
Evan created an even larger swarm of light than in his individual assessment.
Rudy was renowned for his ability to move swiftly for short distances, so Evan used a larger technique to prevent him from escaping its range.
Kwagagagagak!
The green light, which had just been bestowing life, now ravaged the surroundings.
A massive explosion occurred.
The light destroyed even the trees it had created, enveloping the vicinity.
Evan was certain.
Rudy couldn't have escaped.
"Phew... Phew..."
Exhausted, Evan adjusted his mana, remembering how he had lost consciousness during the individual assessment.
Still, the use of such a significant amount of mana left his body drained.
Evan exhaled roughly, looking ahead.
The swarm of light gradually faded.
Thud─
Then, a sound of feet kicking the ground was heard.
"Ah?"
Rudy burst through the light, lunging forward.
His clothes were mostly torn, blood flowed from his head, and his entire body seemed burned, reddened as if scorched.
Yet, he charged forward.
Rudy had pondered a lot about Evan's technique.
This contemplation wasn't done alone; he had asked Rie, Luna, Astina, Gracie, and others.
How to block Evan's technique.
How to avoid it.
Despite deep thought, no answer emerged.
With the joint assessment approaching, learning new magic was not feasible.
Therefore, Rudy chose a frontal assault.
He received the technique head-on.
Strengthening his body with mana to endure as much as possible.
If Evan used the same ability as in the individual assessment, Rudy would try hard to dodge, but he didn't expect it to be easy.
Certainly, Evan must have thought of a way to counter this.
So he won't avoid it.
Instead, he thinks about what comes after.
Evan's eyes widened at the sight of Rudy suddenly charging towards him.
He assumed a defensive stance to block the approaching Rudy.
Green mana acted like a shield in front of Evan.
However, Rudy didn't approach Evan directly.
Instead, he bypassed Evan and headed towards the large tree behind him.
The tree, as big as a dragon, became Rudy's target.
Rudy clenched his fist.
Intense light emitted from the jewel in his hand.
It was a brilliance he had never seen before.
Rudy struck the tree with his fist.
The tree growing behind Evan was a manifestation of Evan's mana itself.
It wasn't a separate entity like the surrounding plants.
Despite Rudy's strength, it seemed impossible to damage that unharmed tree.
Or so it should have been.
"An opening."
Rudy's fist pierced through a gap in the tree.
On the way back from the Railer family, Rudy learned about mana flow from Robert.
Since then, Rudy had been able to read all the mana around him.
But knowing the flow didn't mean he could do much about it.
It's common knowledge that a wizard's mana gathers at the heart, but who doesn't know that the heart is a person's weak point?
Who doesn't know that the core of a magic tool is at its center?
Few possess skills like necromancy, where the core can move around.
Most of the time, even knowing where mana gathers doesn't mean you can destroy it.
However, the current situation was different.
The tree was Evan, and Evan was the tree.
Their flow was identical.
They were interconnected.
Rudy read that flow.
If he could break the tree, he could disrupt Evan's mana flow.
In a normal state, the flow would be stable, making it hard to find a gap, but Evan was using powerful magic.
Thus, the mana flow in the tree was unstable.
Rudy found a gap in that unstable flow.
Inserting his hand into a normal flow would have swept him away, but striking at the gap in an unstable flow could sever it.
Rudy thrust his fist into the gap of the flow.
Thud─
The tree resonated loudly, and at that moment, the movements of the surrounding elementals stopped.
Simultaneously, Evan's mana wavered.
"Cough..."
Evan exhaled deeply.
He felt as though he had been hit in the chest, struggling to breathe.
The tree shook violently.
Though his body wasn't physically hit, Evan's mana was disrupted.
Just as Evan erased magic by cutting mana flow, Rudy had also pierced through the mana flow.
From the point Rudy pierced, cracks began to form.
Thus, the tree broke apart, and pieces of the shattered tree fell from the sky.
"Rudy... Astria..."
Evan looked at Rudy, astonished, as if he had never considered such a technique.
Rudy's skill involved manipulating mana flow, a tactic characteristic of Evan.
Evan never expected anyone else to use this technique.
Although there were papers on mana flow, there was no information on the ability to manipulate it.
"How's the punch?"
Rudy shouted as he fell from the sky and raised his fist again.
He didn't miss the moment when Evan was shaken.
"Ugh...!"
Evan barely managed to lift his sword again.
His mana was greatly disturbed, but if he couldn't withstand Rudy's attack now, it would mean defeat.
Evan gathered mana in his sword.
Roots from the surrounding trees sprang up.
Simultaneously, green-colored mana enveloped Evan's sword.
The roots, along with Evan's sword, aimed at Rudy falling from the sky.
"Evan."
Rudy smiled.
"Once, you were almost like a hero to me."
Rudy spoke, holding his fist.
Evan didn't understand what he meant.
That was only natural.
Rudy was referring to a time when he observed Evan in a different world.
In a world where Evan was a hero.
Rudy admired the Evan of that world.
In Rudy's heart, Evan was a superhuman.
That's why Rudy thought he could never replace Evan.
However, the Evan in reality was different from Rudy's thoughts.
Evan was just an ordinary boy, no different from himself.
He worked hard to cultivate his abilities, experienced failures, and wasn't particularly sociable.
Evan wasn't a superhuman or a hero.
He was just a boy struggling and making tremendous efforts.
This was the same for Rudy.
He wasn't a hero or a superhuman.
He was just someone struggling to protect those around him.
Although Rudy saw a future where he came closest to being a hero or superhuman, that too wasn't actually the case.
Even in that position, he couldn't protect everyone.
Realizing this, Rudy made a decision.
He wasn't replacing Evan's position nor was he a hero.
He couldn't overcome everything alone without the help of those around him.
Rudy understood his role.
'My role is to enable everyone to do what they must.'
And now, it was time to return Evan to his original place.
"Put your all into your sword."
Black flames surged in Rudy's fist.
Simultaneously, the mana stone on the back of his hand emitted an intense light.
"I'll put my all into this fist."
Mana around Rudy stirred violently.
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