‘What is this?!’
A question popped into his head.
Fire of magic. Even with an aura around him, the heat must have been difficult for his body to adjust to, but Roman Dmitry was rushing to him from the flames.
He couldn’t find an answer, but he had to dodge him now.
“Blink.”
Flash.
Spatial magic.
Felix’s body vanished, and he appeared around ten paces away from his original location. But Felix witnessed a shocking scene before he could even adapt to the new environment.
Roman Dmitry should have attacked the illusion he had left behind, but he was charging for the real Felix.
In just three steps, he was right in front of him, making Felix grit his teeth.
“Hold.”
He tied his ankles. This will earn him around ten seconds.
Stepping back quickly, Roman released the mana and suppressed his veins at once.
‘This cannot be.’
This was a series of events that deviated from his plan. Roman withstood the flames of a 4-circle fire magic with his body, caught up with Blink, and now released Hold in just three seconds.
He was a monster, and common attacks didn’t work on this monster. He wasn’t sure how Roman was adjusting to this, but he was certain this opponent wasn’t someone he could take on easily.
Roman had a reason for being sure of his victory. Roman Dmitry knew how to deal with magicians, but Felix wasn’t just going to step back.
‘He told me to do my best to get paid 1,000 gold.’
Wheik!
His eyes were stained red with the secret skill of the Phoenix Magic Tower.
Burning.
It was impossible for him to cast it perfectly, but he could imitate half of it.
“Inferno.”
Wheik!
A spark of flame soon spread everywhere, and at the same time, each of the flames showed its own will according to Felix’s control.
The flames seemed to have an ego of their own. Dozens and hundreds of flames rushed for Roman.
It was an ability that went beyond normal flame magic, and Roman couldn’t possibly escape from it.
But…
Kwang!
Wheik!
Roman avoided the attack in front of him with minimal movement. The flames would pass if he turned his head slightly, so he moved to the side to avoid them.
Roman Dmitry broke through the front without slowing down. It was as if Roman had anticipated how the attack would come.
Felix was completely overwhelmed by Roman’s movements and how he avoided all the magic attacks. It made no sense.
There were now thousands of flame sparks. Even just one of them was enough to burn the skin, so how was he fine?
‘Damn it!’
Suddenly, the opponent appeared right in front of him. There was no way out, so he used Blink to control the distance this time.
“Blink.”
Flash.
Their space was now close, and his movement was physically impossible to match. The moment his body disappeared, leaving an illusion behind, he moved twenty paces away, and Felix witnessed the devastating reality.
Puak!
“Ack!?”
An attack that went for his stomach.
Roman followed Blink again and punched Felix in the stomach.
Thud.
He fell to his knees, unable to bear the pain, and Roman appeared above him, saying,
“Today’s sparring ends here. I will see you at the same time tomorrow.”
Once a day—that was the condition for both of their benefits. Felix, who finished the first day’s schedule, looked up at the sky with a blank face.
‘… how is this possible?’
Roman Dmitry. The power he showed was beyond common sense. Surely, the Rune Flare he used after driving the opponent to a corner would have been powerful enough to change the outcome of the fight, but Roman rushed through the flames.
And that’s when it happened. Nothing was going as Felix had planned, and the more he fought, the more he felt like he was being caught in Roman’s grip.
And in the end, Roman’s movement to avoid the fire magic was excessive. Even though he had increased the intensity of the flame magic by using Burning, he didn’t seem bothered by it.
‘Roman Dmitry obviously knew how my magic would work. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have been caught after using Blink. As far as what I learned from the academy, there is no miraculous skill to know where the magic would happen. If that is the case, then it must have been because of Roman Dmitry’s prior knowledge.’
And his heart was filled with a lighthearted feeling. He thought a fight with magic and a sword wouldn’t be hard, and if he showed Dmitry his skills, the fight would be over, and he could take the money. So he didn’t expect what had happened today at all.
Even if Roman Dmitry was a great swordsman, Felix was sure that he would not be pushed back, but he was crushed.
Unable to do anything properly, Felix knelt down and spat. It was humiliating. The most humiliating part for him was thinking that Roman Dmitry got the best out of him.
‘If we fight again, will I be able to win?’
More than that, the thought of Roman Dmitry took over his mind. He let his imagination run wild. Roman Dmitry appeared in front of him. He used magic against him, and Roman rushed for him, but he couldn’t land a hit on Roman because of his agile movements.
The study of magic was complex. No matter how powerful one was, it was meaningless if the attack didn’t work, and that was why Felix knew how to drive his opponent into a corner.
But his plan collapsed due to Roman’s magic-piercing evasion ability. He didn’t think his magic could be destroyed, and a method to destroy Roman didn’t even enter his mind.
Finally…
‘I can never win like this.’
Defeat.
Even in his imagination, he knelt helplessly, but he still continued to trouble himself.
People called Felix poison. When the Magic Tower master went missing, everyone said that the Phoenix Magic Tower was doomed since its main magic was cut, but Felix persisted and trained with what he knew about Burning.
It wasn’t a great achievement. However, the fact that he alone could implement even a part of Burning, which had to pass through a battle and complex methods of implementation, showed how diligent he was.
Three years. A mere successor rose to the power of tower master. People denied Felix, saying he was just some guy aiming for power, and now too.
He felt annoyed with Roman Dmitry’s abilities!
He acknowledges him. From the moment he was defeated by a huge margin, he knew that the man was greater than the rumors, but accepting defeat was a whole different thing.
As he was able to use a part of Burning by implementing thousands of experiments, Felix had no intention of being used as a scarecrow.
‘I will definitely win the next time.’
As he was lost in thought, the sun went down and rose again.
The next day was the second round of sparring. Felix was the same yesterday as today, but he changed his strategy for dealing with Roman.
‘If the opponent can predict my magic and move, then all I have to do is make his predictions meaningless.’
This time Felix attacked first, and he didn’t refuse the favor. Felix raised his mana, and immediately put the plan into action.
“Stone Edge.”
Kwak!
Rumble!
The rocks on the ground rose up. This was usually used as an offensive spell, but this time, he set them up in coordinates under his feet, which caused Felix to stand on a rising rock.
In an instant, he had an advantageous position, and Roman Dmitry jumped at one rock and tried to attack Felix.
‘As I thought.’
A high position was not an attractive advantage. As long as he didn’t use the 6-circle magic, Fly, he knew he could not move away from Roman’s attack range.
Even so, he didn’t choose a high position for no reason.
“Inferno.”
Wheik!
Rumble.
Sparks rose, but they didn’t attack the opponent. The flames were moving around, and they went beyond the predictable movements.
There was a rain of fire from the sky. How could anyone even manage to attack all the flames that were covering the world?
Even Roman Dmitry wouldn’t be able to stop it.
‘The strength of this magic lies in not aiming it at the enemy.’
Even if the magician attacks at a range of five meters, anyone within ten meters will be swept away by this magic.
Felix planned an indiscriminate flame attack. Even if it wasn’t the best attack, he determined that he had to use it.
“Fire Wave.”
Wheik.
Wheik!
The flames raged, and a force that was not aimed at Roman burned the surroundings, and Felix continued to use magic.
He couldn’t locate Roman Dmitry’s whereabouts. He couldn’t find his figure under the rock because it was engulfed in flames, but he thought that the opponent wouldn’t collapse just from this.
It was then…
Wheik!
Roman Dmitry emerged through the flames.
Seeing his figure floating in the air, Felix used an attack he had prepared in advance.
“Fire Cannon.”
Wheik.
5-circle magic.
This time, there was no way to avoid it.
Fire Cannon was fast and powerful.
Because he was in the air, he had dug a perfect trap to drive Roman into a corner.
Kwang!
Rumble!
The flames of Fire Cannon covered Roman’s body, and that moment…
Felix saw it.
The wall that blocked the flames, the intangible wall.
Felix couldn’t help but be shocked when he saw such a shield.
Aura’s shield. It was a kind of technology he had never heard of in his life. What was certain was that his magic was completely blocked by the shield, and he couldn’t stop Roman because he was too exhausted.
Puak!
The strong impact made his head snap back, and he fell to the ground.
It hurt.
His face and body were both in pain, and his mind had a single thought.
‘Was it a magic artifact? No. If he had borrowed the power of magic, then I would have noticed the flow of mana right away. Roman Dmitry had no reason to win by doing that. He used aura as a barrier, as well as his own skills.’
He chuckled at this.
What was Roman Dmitry?
He tried to use his head to take down Roman Dmitry, but he couldn’t even touch Roman’s hair. He felt devastated when Roman got close to him and said,
“Felix, it doesn’t matter if I win over you. I have something to gain from fighting you, so a one-sided fight like yesterday and today is not what I want. So don’t do anything like that and try to bring me down. As long as it is magic, feel free to use any method.”
Roman’s words felt humiliating to him.
But Roman didn’t stop.
“If that isn’t enough, call the magicians from the Magic Tower. Even if it’s one against many, I can beat them all. A total of one hundred eighty battles over six months, and if you cannot drive me into a corner even once, I will regret choosing you over the many other magicians.”
At that moment, his eyes were stained with anger. The pain hadn’t even subsided yet, but Roman was doing this.
And right then…
“Just once. If you can win against me, then I will give you 10,000 gold.”
10,000 gold.
At those words, Felix went speechless. He was sure of it now. From the start, Roman Dmitry didn’t consider him his equal.
