One might think that Billy was starting to deal with the elementalists on the wrong way. Still, there was no other way to make them interact with him after what he did to many of them. He had a few months to make some of them change their minds, so that was fine.
In the end, the girl got up and then approached Billy. It was clear that she wanted to skewer him with an Earth Spear, but she couldn't do that in a duel… at least not before the duel started.
"The duel will be like this, if you manage to kill me, you win," Billy said. "If you don't manage to hit me even once after ten minutes, I win. Since I won't be gaining anything by doing this and you can have your revenge, I also need to gain something out of this. So, if I win, you will explain to me how you guys use your magic for one hour."
"And if I refuse?" The girl asked.
"Then I will kill the closest person to you, I hate liars, after all," Billy said. "Besides, I can see that you are eager to follow his footsteps, so killing you won't change anything."
The killing intent of the girl decreased a bit, she was prepared to get her revenge, but she didn't want to sacrifice the rest of her family for that. Unfortunately, retreating was no longer an option. The rest of the elementalists wouldn't forgive her for not even trying… in the end, she realized that even if she failed, there was no way someone outside her tribe would be able to learn magic, so she accepted Billy's terms.
While facing each other at a distance of ten meters, Billy gave the sign for the start of the duel. He didn't assume any combat stance. He just lowered his stance to be able to move to all sides as fast as possible. Just as he had expected, an Earth Spear emerged right below him, but he jumped to the side and dodged the attack instantly. While Billy didn't have any sensing skills because he could use Earth Manipulation. He could sense the same magic being used nearby him and thus dodge them before they took shape. It was hard to tell if the elementalists could do the same. If they couldn't, it was probably because another of Billy's skills were helping him to do that.
Nevertheless, the girl didn't give up after that. She tried the same trick again and again until she confirmed that Billy really could anticipate her attacks for some reason. The other elementalists were speechless thanks to that. They didn't find anyone that could do such a thing against them, after all.
Despite that, the girl quickly managed to find a way to counter Billy's evasive moves. She just had to seal all the possible places he could run away to. The next attack, she made four spears emerge around Billy to piece him from the sides. However, much to her surprise, one of the spears didn't go up, and Billy escaped using that route.
This time, the girl was left speechless. Some of the old elementalists also looked like that since they knew what the girl tried. They also couldn't understand how Billy managed to interfere with her spells… that shouldn't be possible.
"All right… ten minutes are up," Billy said. "You lost, what are you going to do now?"
The girl didn't have many options aside from clenching her fists and teeth in anger and following the rules that they had established previously. Still, she wouldn't be able to accept the result until she understood what had happened.
"... How did you do all that?" The girl asked.
"If you mana to scratch me the next time, then I can explain a part of what I did," Billy said.
The girl didn't like that because it would be the same as assuming that scratching would be the best she could do. In any case, they sat on the ground because she had to explain how they used magic, even though it would be the same as explaining how she breathes… Still, before they could start, a slightly older boy got up and challenged Billy.
"Duel with me!"
"If you really want to, then wait for one hour," Billy said. "Once we are done here, I will duel with you, but if he loses as well, you will have to teach me for another hour."
The girl nodded while biting her lips in annoyance, a kid three years younger than her was making fun of her tribe. He couldn't learn anything, and still, he was treating the duels like currency trading to get what he wanted. Still, there was nothing they could do about that.
"All right, start," Billy said.
At first, the girl was reluctant, but then eventually, she began to explain how she felt about that magical world. Basically, all the people of her tribe naturally obtained the power to control the elements. Thanks to that, she was really bad at explaining things. In fact, Billy felt that she probably felt the same way when he tried to explain how he could manipulate earth. Still, the elementalists didn't have a system, so it didn't make any sense.
After one hell of a convoluted explanation, Billy understood one thing: the elementalists started first by learning how to manipulate mana. When that happened, they would gain that glint in their eyes.
"How exactly do you control mana?" Billy asked.
"... just by thinking normally, there is no secret," the girl replied.
"What were you doing when you realized that you could do that?" Billy asked.
"... Watching my parents train their magic," the girl replied.
That seemed too simplistic. Billy saw the elementalists use their magic countless times as well, but he never felt that he could control his mana like that. He even got by some of them as well, but nothing changed.. Still, it didn't look like the girl was lying.
