It wasn't impossible to cast spell instantaneously. If one had high level of mastery over a spell, they could do it.
For example, on earth, when someone try to ride a bicycle for the first time, they would find it very hard to maintain the balance, let alone ride it.
However, after getting familiar with it, they could do it without any effort. Some wouldn't even need to hold the handlebars to keep it stable as they already have a significant level of mastery over it, and could do multitasking like talking on mobile phone etc.
The same rule apply on the magic spell too. The more you use it, the better you become.
Max for example, could now cast his fireball spell at a moment's notice. Because he had used it some many times, his body and mind had become extremely familiar with it.
The moment he willed it, his mana would flow automatically without him needing to control it and the fireball spell would be cast. This whole process would be very smooth and wouldn't take much time.
However, this wasn't the case for Bartan. He wasn't at the level to cast [Water Bullets] like this. If he was, it would have been easy for him to kill Max.
'It must be that pill. It not only doubled his strength but also made his mastery level rise to peak.' Max thought and expression became solemn.
Shua!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
He pushed his agility to the limits and dodged to the side. The water bullets crashed behind him and causing destruction.
Huu…
Max heaved a cold breath. The situation had become very dangerous now.
Bartan's mana seemed to have replenished and increased to the peak stage while he only had around two thousand mana points right now.
"Let's see how many times you can dodge now. I'll kill you first before killing those bitches. Hahahaha…" Bartan laughed like a crazed person and another three water bullets appeared in front of him. He didn't give him any time to retreat and forced him to dodge.
Seeing this, Max's expression was solemn and prepared to dodge again while calling out to his system.
"System, is there any way for me to raise my spell mastery to peak in a short time?" He could only ask his system right now.
If there was any way to raise his spell mastery, the situation would be changed.
[No, Host. The methods that can do such things cause irreversible harm to human and in most cases, they would be crippled for life or even die. For this reason, the system doesn't have such things.] System replied.
Sou!
One water bullet was shot towards Max.
"Fuck!!"
Max cursed and dodged once again. However, just as he dodged, another water bullet was shot at him from the direction where his body was moving due to momentum.
Bartan had a hideous smile on his face. Although, he appeared on the verge of insanity, he could still think things through.
Siii!
Max didn't have much time to stabilize proper and hurriedly twisted his body to the other direction and jumped to the side. But he wasn't fast enough and the water bullets brushed passed his ribs, leaving a deep gash.
Max clenched his teeth in pain. Bartan's eyes twinkled and shot the last water bullet two meters to the side where Max would land.
Max's expression became grim and there were signs of panic in his eyes.
Because his body was above the ground and moving sidewards, he knew that this water bullet would collide with him the moment his body landed.
However, even though he knew this, he couldn't do anything as he didn't have wind element that can help mages to change the direction mid-air.
He remembered a saying that you won't have to worry if you have a hundred dumb enemies stronger than you because you could always beat them with wits. However, you would have to worry if your enemy is only one and weaker than you but has wits.
However, right now Bartan was both. He was witty and stronger than him under the effect of the pill.
Max quickly suppressed his panic and conjured up three 300 MP fireballs that shot out to meet the water bullets.
Bang!
The first fireball exploded upon contact with the water bullet.
Sou!
There wasn't any visible signs of the water bullet's weaking or slowing down as it continued forward.
Bang!!
The second fireball collided right after and exploded. It was able to slow the bullet down by a small fraction of seconds which wasn't much and it continued forward.
Bang!!!
Third fireball also collided and exploded. Finally, the water bullet was slowed down a bit and its power also seemed to have weakened a bit.
Seeing this, Max was a bit relieved.
Bang…
The moment his feet landed on the ground, he circulated his mana in his legs and forcefully stomped the ground and was able to dodge it a hair's margin.
"Mm?"
Bartan's smile froze seeing him dodge his attack. However, he soon laughed and started casting his water bullets once more.
"Argh…" Just he started channeling his mana, he groaned in pain. "Fuck. The side effects are kicking in so soon." His face was contorted in pain and the spell was stopped mid-way.
Although the blood red pill had doubled his power and even replenished his exhausted mana. It's side effects had also started acting.
His mana core became brittle due to the sudden increase in mana and started cracking. His bones became soft and skin started to crack more and more, causing blood, which had somehow turned blakish, to seep out.
In just a moment, his figure became all bloodied and looked horrendous.
The pill he took was a forbidden, grade three pill called 'Blood Berserk Pill'. It had the capability to squeeze out every ounce of mana from the host's blood and bones and channel it to mana core raising his power by one-fold.
It also makes the mind to go in a kind of hypnotic state and force mind to work many times faster, making the thought process, reaction speed and the mastery of spell cast to rise dramatically.
However, nothing comes free. Because it drains the mana from blood and bones and mana in the mana core rises so unnaturally, mana core and the body soon starts to fall apart, causing the instant death.
That's why this pill was classified as forbidden and whoever found producing it, would be killed without any question asked.
"Grrr…"
Bartan gritted his teeth hard and suppressed the pain. He then started to cast his water bullets spell once more. However, it was taking a bit longer compared to before.
Seeing this Max's eyes twinkled. He retreated a few meters more.
He then opened his status screen and into the shop feature and tapped on a pill worth 30 thousand. A message asking for the conformation of the unlock appeared in front of him. He clenched his teeth and tapped yes.
Just as he did so, thirty thousand LPs vanished from his total of 63 thousand and a pea sized, green pill appeared in his inventory.
This pill was a grade two pill that can help recover a maximum of five thousand units of mana while causing minimal harm to mana core that could be easily recovered after a few days of cultivation.
He found this while browsing through the shop a few days ago. When he asked Belen, who had the knowledge about medicine about it, he found out that there wasn't any pill that could do this.
He quickly took it out and ate it.
Weng~
A cooling sensations spread through his body the instant he ate it and then converged towards his mana core.
In just a few seconds, his he had recovered five thousand units of mana.
"Die!"
Just as the assimilation process finished, he heard Bartan's shout.
Shua!
Without thinking anything, he moved in between the trees at his fastest speed and successfully dodged his attack.
Before he was in disadvantage due to the close range. But now that he had some distance from him, he could easily dodge his water bullets. At the same time, he started casting [Calidus Brachium].
He was only worried about Belen and others. Although he had told them to wait there, if they came here after hearing the fighting sounds, they would definitely be killed by Bartan in his crazed state.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Seeing him dodge his attacks, Bartan went mad and started spamming water ball after water ball. However, his enemy kept dodging successfully each time.
"Ahhhhh…" Bartan howled in pain and madness. After casting his spell five times in a row, each time consuming more than a thousand mana units, his mana reserves had depleted by half and the water barrier that he still had around himself also consumed another thousand units but he wasn't able to kill him yet.
Just as he was about to cast his water bullets another time, he saw Max's fist glowing with the sparks of flame and a dangerous light flashed in his bloodied eyes.
Thud!
He fell on his knees with a thud and seemed to have no energy to attack and the barrier around him also started to flicker as if it would vanish any moment.
"Nice!"
Max saw this and became excited. His cast was almost complete and he was thinking how he could approach him without getting hit by his attacks.
Shua!
His figure flashed towards him.
"Mm?"
When he was about fifty meters away, he suddenly frowned as he sensed the mana gathering in front of Bartan.
Swish!
Just then Bartan raised his head and smiled cunningly.
Three water bullets started to materialise in front of him.
"Fuck." Max cursed as he realised that he had fallen into his trap.
However, this time he didn't retreat. Instead, he pushed his speed to the limits and raised his fist.
