A Dragon’s Curiosity

 

 

Again, a nagging feeling of unease settled on Owen when the course of the fight did not match up with his predictions.

While his opponent was catching up, he was prepared to give up one of his weapons to escape and gain some distance, ideally snatching one of the scattered pieces of equipment on the ground.

Seeing that the actual situation deviated from his sixth sense and the Hunter only stuck close to him but did not actually attack, he was immediately alarmed.

Perhaps there‘s a trap waiting for me?

One could be a coincidence but twice was definitely a pattern.

Unwilling to walk into a trap or setup, Owen hardened his resolve and took drastic measures to disrupt the planning of the opponent.

Gritting his teeth, the warrior condensed a layer of earth element aura over the damaged earth chains on his shortened sword.

“[Crashing Earth Slicer]!“

Because a fight could be either extremely short if one was lucky or quite long if the situation was difficult, it was unwise to use big moves right from the start and execute fanciful skills.

The best course of action usually consisted of saving aura as much as possible and erupting with a decisive barrage at the right moment to snatch victory.

Now that Owen was forced to use one of his skills first, he could only hope that he would not lose in a battle of attrition in the end.

The earthen energy enveloped the chipped blade and borrowed its shape to condense an edge.

In the blink of an eye, he no longer retreated and swung the elemental attack at his pursuer instead.

Beneath the [Dark Veil], Nisha blinked her eyes at the rapidly approaching earth element attack.

From the density of the aura and the complicated structure hidden beneath the energy, this was a fourth-rank technique and probably one that the warrior was quite familiar with.

It condensed quickly and the surrounding air was cut apart even before the sword came near her, making the elf treat this surprise quite seriously.

 

From the perspective of the spectators, they only saw the two contestants clash fiercely against each other, one chasing and the other defending - and then the combat situation reversed and the attacker now had to defend.

When the Hunter was closely trailing behind the convict, he suddenly stopped moving and took the initiative to charge at his opponent, a yellow glowing blade quickly covering the chains on his damaged blade and growing in size.

Before the crowd had a chance to react, he smashed the skill at the Hunter.

Right as it looked like the fight was about to be settled, fiery red brilliance resisted the overwhelming earth element skill and blew up with a small explosion as earth and fire element aura was scattered in a wide area, making it impossible to see what was going on at the center of the clash.

Nisha was currently frowning and inspected her arm where the remaining half of her shield used to be.

Faced with the retaliation from Owen, the elf had no suitable skill to defend herself and fell back on a method that was not really a skill, one of the most basic techniques.

Although it sounded simple, the actual execution was rather difficult and it was the dragon’s first time using it as well, leading to some minor side effects.

Just when the prisoner was about to hit her, she pushed the broken shield forward and gathered a dense surge of fire aura, and crammed it all inside the gear.

On the brink of impact, the masked girl detonated all of the gathered energy and performed an [Aura Pulse], ejecting it all in a ripple-shaped wave that defended against the earth element skill coming at her.

Unfortunately, a lack of experience demanded its price in its own way, the technique was far from well executed.

A mix of angry fire and sharp earth aura swept the area and did not distinguish from friend or foe, hitting both fighters with the same vigor.

On her arm, the straps of the small round shield were gone, torn apart in the clash, while the wooden materials the item was crafted from were nowhere to be seen.

Nisha herself suffered some small cuts and a mix of wooden shards and metal fragments were stuck in her limbs, thankfully her torso was mostly covered by the energy from [Aura Pulse] and remained intact, while her eyes reflexively closed from the bright light, preventing debris from getting into them.

Only a wayward metal piece from Owen’s disintegrating weapon left a cut beneath the elf’s ear, a testament to the power of the two skills breaking down against each other.

The man himself did not get off easy either, while the blast mainly burst out away from him, debris and chaotic aura pushed him back and inflicted a bevy of shallow cuts all over him.

As an experienced veteran fighter, the prisoner did not dare to stay around after he lost vision of his opponent and quickly retreated from the explosion point, his eyes scanning the ground for a suitable replacement weapon due to his already damaged sword disintegrating in the explosion earlier.

 

Nisha did not know at first why her opponent backed away when he risked going for a big move earlier with a skill, she mainly relied on [Spirit Sight] to track his figure and did not catch his searching eyes.

It was only when the elf saw him grab for an item on the ground that she caught up with his thoughts and guessed his intent, but now it was too late for her to start searching for a second item as well.

Contrary to the expectations of most spectators, the dragon was not dismayed that she was repeatedly caught off guard and suffered from the explosion earlier.

It was only meaningful for Nisha to fight in the Arena when her opponents were strong and could withstand her strength, every setback she encountered here meant that she could learn something new in regard to combat and every trick widened her horizons.

They could not see the grin under the [Shadow Cowl] as she pointed her finger at Owen, who found what he was looking for.

“[Firebolt]! [Shadow Bolt]! [Shadow Bolt]!”

Unleashing three spells in a row, the first fiery construct rapidly approached the convict from the left side, with a second one hidden behind it, whereas the last spell curved from the right, all perfectly aimed at the man in front of the girl.

Her alias as the Hunter was aptly chosen, her experience with the bow translated well in this area, correctly aiming was a necessary skill that many mages struggled with, but not Nisha.

The elf did not need to see the result to know that all three skills were going to hit her opponent, hence she turned around and looked for a suitable replacement as well, the three spells should buy her just enough time.

During the brief interlude where both contestants did not pay attention to the other party, the announcer outside took the opportunity to introduce the spells that dazzled the crowd.

Of course the spectators already knew that the challenger, Hunter, was a genius that cultivated mana and aura at the same time, but it was an entirely different experience to see the combination of spells and skills personally.

“What a surprise! The Hunter did not just show off their dual mastery of the two attributes, Darkness and Fire, the three spells were casted chantless as well!

[Shadow Bolt] and [Fire Bolt] look simple on the surface, but you shan’t underestimate the power of these magical techniques.

Although they are both third-ranked spells, the important thing to note here is that they were cast without a chant!”

Taken by surprise, the announcer repeated the important part twice and stood up at his table in excitement.

Only the experienced cultivators among the crowd knew the significance of the chantless casting, hence the cheers and atmosphere were not quite heated at the time being, the spectators were rather confused after the announcement and waited for the subsequent explanation.

“You might not know, dear guests, but for the sake of the accuracy and power of a spell, it is necessary for magicians and priests alike to chant the corresponding spell before they use it. It guides the mana and shapes the spell, it’s an important part of being able to cast magic.

Only once a magician is completely familiar with the spell can a part of the chant get dropped, leading to a shortened incantation.

And great mastery is needed for every single spell to drop the preparation part entirely, showing how much dedication our contestant the Hunter put into their practice, managing to cast two different spells without chanting.

Don’t look down on this magnificent feat, some magicians never manage to reach mastery in their entire lifetime.”

 

The announcer did not need to additionally hype up the crowd after his short speech, most of the spectators started to look at the contestants in a different light after learning how difficult it was to achieve a shortened chant or go chantless.

If Nisha had been able to hear the comments of the man and the enthusiasm of the crowd that praised her as a genius, she would definitely roll her eyes at their ignorance.

She never planned to show off her mastery of a spell when she picked the two [Bolt] spells, her choice was based on the advantage of speed more than anything else.

Subsequently to breaking through to the fourth rank, the elf had already started practicing the spells corresponding to her cultivation rank, [Fire Shard], [Dark Shard], and [Death Shard], of her respective elements.

Thanks to the leap over the first great divide, the abilities of the fourth rank were much stronger than their third-rank predecessors.

By compressing and combining the necessary mana for the spell, the consequent damage and speed jumped greatly once the bolt was compacted into a shard.

Just the density alone of the gathered elements ensured that a fourth-rank spell would never break under the barrage of third-rank abilities, no matter how many were thrown at it.

It happened that the dragon was not that familiar with the new spells yet and had not achieved either chant shortening or becoming chantless with them, and speed was more important than power right now.

Rather than chanting and bombarding the convict from afar, it was more practicable to toss a few Bolts at him and search for a replacement weapon.

By accident, the reputation of the newcomer, the Hunter, soared due to a misunderstanding.

The target of the spells had his back turned to the cloud of dust after their clash and had already identified a decent enough target, yet his combat instinct suddenly made Owen aware of the incoming danger.

Giving up on a new weapon for the moment, the man turned around and was rather dismayed to find the spells flying at him.

At a glance, he noticed that the incoming abilities failed to reach the fourth rank, which would necessitate a strong defense with a skill of equal rank.

But that did not mean that he would be unscathed either if he took the blast head-on, and as such the convicted warrior prepared to take the threat down first before picking up his replacement gear.

Owen’s remaining gauntlet had almost reached the end of its lifespan, nearly all of the teeth on its back were either broken off or bent out of shape, even if a blade hit them directly, there was no chance left to break them with the spines.

The gauntlet itself still had some durability, but not enough for an extended fight.

Making up his mind to make the best out of his odds, the prisoner activated his weapon enhancement skill again and more reddish-yellow sand climbed his body to form chains around his gauntlet.

Clenching his fist, the chains exuded an earthen glow as the man punched the first [Fire Bolt] with all his might, intending to follow up with a backhand smash to take out the second spell.

Just as the fiery projectile scattered and was successfully defended against, Owen’s eyes snapped open as he learned that another [Shadow Bolt] was hidden behind the first spell, meaning there were three attacks in total and not two as he had thought.

Unable to come up with an ideal solution due to a lack of reaction time, he could only clench his teeth and take care of the second spell for now.

Because the convict had planned to execute a backhand, he was currently overextended and did not have the room to gain momentum.

As a last resort, he decisively gave up on his remaining weapon and the chains wrapped around his fist glowed brilliantly as they detonated together with the weapon and managed to dissipate the second spell as well.

Unarmed and fixed in place from the backlash of igniting his own skill, the second [Shadow Bolt] unerringly found his exposed shoulder and back and smashed into Owen, setting off a dark cloud of mana from the impact.

Around the arena pit, countless spectators jumped from their seats and stood up to cheer, whereas the announcer loudly shouted his commentary.

“A direct hit! The Hunter has definitely taken First Blood just now! What a surprise!”

Not concerned with the outcome of her attacks, Nisha paid no attention to the boom behind her and found what she had been looking for.

Although it looked more like a kitchen knife and only had the length of a dagger, she passed over the closer blunt weapons and similar gears and picked up a blade.

Armed with a short knife and a damaged mace, the elf waited for the result of her last attack to settle to head into the fight again.