One of the spikes sticking out of the crystal sphere, which had crash-landed a step away from Noah, had already penetrated his Adam's apple, wounded his neck, and drawn a small quantity of blood from his throat that slid onto his chest.
Noah saw the reflection of this sight on the crystal sphere's shiny surface, and upon realizing how close he had come to death, Noah's pupils dilated, his eyes thinning to the size of needles.
"That would have gone into my mouth through my chin if I had been any shorter. I might have survived, but my face would have been permanently damaged."
Swallowing nervously, Noah crawled away from it and thanked his lucky stars that he was 6 ft. 1, as he stood up and patted the dust away from his distinguished self.
The sounds of footsteps were heard.
He turned around to look in the direction where it came from and saw a shadowy figure behind the dust.
"Roy... this bastard has grown up to become my equal," Noah said through gritted teeth as he saw his figure become more and more clearly through the dusty clouds that were dying out.
Soon after, Roy took a big step to get out of it and then he saw the dishevelled Noah; he smiled and rushed towards him like a barbarian about to spike a deer to death.
Seeing him approaching, Noah didn't sit still and waved his hand to lift a sphere from the ground and hurl it in his direction.
Roy formed an X with his swords and pressed his feet into the ground with such force that they were planted inside.
"Clang!"
Sparks flew as the crystal sphere collided with the defensive X formed by the two overlapping swords and came to a halt. Roy threw it away with his sword and dashed towards the mage.
And then... the scene of Noah kiting Roy in the same way that any other mage would in a game was seen.
"Answer my call, Crystallia."
Noah muttered something as Roy chased him, and a silvery white book appeared behind him, hovering behind him and following him wherever he went.
It was a spellbook because it had a magic symbol drawn on its cover, its edges were fortified with crystal, and it gave off an esoteric vibe.
It was a specialty of Spellbook users who had awakened.
When a mage undergoes the adulthood ceremony to awaken to their true potential, they obtain a class and are bestowed with a weapon such as wands, staffs, orbs, and books, depending on their class.
Noah obtained this spellbook called Crystallia when he awakened as a Crystal Mage.
"Crystal Magic: Rapid Fire!"
An instant after he said that, the spellbook opened up, and its pages started turning on their own until the page containing the spell mentioned by Noah was revealed.
This page glowed, and a silver magical symbol appeared behind Noah, and this was the moment he stopped running from Roy and twisted his body to a halt to turn to him, then he raised his hand in his direction.
"Activate!" The symbol behind him grew larger and spewed out several crystal shards the size of a palm, one after another, the second he said that.
"Swoosh!"
The space between them was instantly filled with crystal shards that blasted through the air to reach Roy quickly, leaving him with no choice but to release waves of moonlight from his white-surfaced sword and make the purple-surfaced sword cry out the horrific roar of the sword that was piercing to the ears.
"Whoosh!"
An instant later, sharp arcs shaped like a crescent moon as well as the physical manifestation of the Roar of the Sword smashed apart the massive array of crystal shards before dying out.
"T-Those are... runic weapons?!" Noah took both his attacks as some kind of special function of his weapons, as it was a known fact that trainees couldn't manifest Aura and materialize it in the real world, but with the Roar of the Sword, Roy could do the impossible!
Roy's response was, "You are correct. They've helped me suppress my opponents in the past, and they'll help me defeat you as well."
Noah was too preoccupied with the fact that Roy possessed two runic items with offensive special abilities when all he possessed were runic items that increased his mana and mana recovery speed.
"How can a loser like you own two such valuable items?" Noah said this as he looked at Roy with envy, and Roy realised he was jealous of him.
"Loser? You don't have the right to call me that. Unlike you, who were given everything you ever desired, from the necklace around your neck to the rings on your finger, I earned mine by swimming in muddy water and fighting off and slaying formidable foes."
Roy bridged the gap between them with his excellent swordsmanship and overpowering skills and jumped towards Noah, bringing his swords down on him.
All of Noah's efforts to keep him at bay were thwarted!
But... Noah felt troubled and simply snapped his fingers, and two types of waves, one of blood and the other of a huge block of crystal in a jelly-like state of existence, manifested around him and, while circling him, instantly twirled and intertwined, and condensed into a floating reddish-silver metal-like shield.
Pushing his right hand out was all he needed to make it move towards Roy.
"Clang!" It smashed and stopped the descent of the two swords.
"This shield is my strongest defensive skill, created by combining my ability with my rank-1 defensive magic spell. It is capable of stopping Weapon Masters' most ferocious advances. So you, a mere trainee, shouldn't even consider taking it down. Just give up. You're never going to be able to break it! " Noah yelled at Roy.
"Whether I can cut it down or not, we won't know until I give it my best shot at shattering it... to reach you."
Roy kept slashing the shield enclosing Noah rapidly, the impact of his swords striking the shield pushing Noah backwards.
As a result, while they moved all over the backyard, he landed 70 strikes on it in a minute.
A part of Noah's shield had been sliced off and destroyed with each hit. Shards of crystals and condensed blood that were once a part of it were now scattered all over the ground. What seemed worst for Noah was the fact that his shield was less than half its original size!
