It had been a day since the return of Xue Mo to his Inn room, and Dio announcing him the second-round winner.
On that day many events had happened. Due to Amro's death and his father's attempt to attack the trio, Dio had decided to give his place to Deckim, who was more worthy. At the same time, Trevor, the city lord, issued an order to destroy the entire household due to Amro's father trying to kill his daughter.
Finally, the last and most important thing of that day was Dio's announcement of his and Xue Mo's fight being the next day.
Meanwhile, the one who had garnered so much attention, Xue Mo, was in his Inn's room with Lu Yao sitting in front of him with closed eyes.
"I still can't do it!" Lu Yao said with frustration evident in her voice. She had been doing this exercise, which Xue Mo suggested for a few months now.
"Patience is a virtue!" Xue Mo said while sipping tea in his cross-legged position.
"Spoken like the old man you are!" Lu Yao's retort made him choke on his tea, eliciting a small chuckle from her.
Cough Cough
"Are you trying to kill me?"
"If I were, we wouldn't be partners." Lu Yao's words made him speechless. 'This fox had been getting more comfortable every day,' He thought while smiling inwardly.
He remembered how estranged they were a year ago. They were curious, cautious, and had their guard up 24/7. After a year, they both grew to know each other's thoughts as if they had known each other all their lives.
Though they never spoke about their pasts, they knew that this was a matter of time before they do. They had been getting closer by the day, unknowingly the small Partnership that they built had been slowly growing as their feelings did along with it.
"Well, I am an old man." Xue Mo replied, clearing his thoughts.
"Are you sure this is the right way to manifest my energy?" Lu Yao asked, changing the subject.
"You have asked this question more than ten times!"
"And I will keep asking. You, yourself, said that you aren't sure if it would work and that this is something you just created."
"It will. Just keep trying."
"Fine, I will." Lu Yao said before changing the subject,
"It's in an hour or so. So, how many seconds will it take you to finish him."
Xue Mo knew that the 'him' she was talking about was Dio, the teacher would kick the ass of.
"Hmm, well, I could do it in a blink of an eye, but that would mean that we exposed ourselves completely, and that's not what we wanted." Xue Mo replied nonchalantly as Lu Yao nodded her head before clarifying.
"I meant how many seconds it would take you to kick his ass while holding back."
"Oh that, then it would be anywhere from five seconds to hours. We should stretch it for a while; let's say 15-30 minutes is enough time?" Xue Mo asked back and got another nod in reply.
They weren't underestimating Dio or anything, but anyway they looked at it, Xue Mo would win. Either because of his superior stats, body cultivation, magic, battle experience, or overall power, Xue Mo outclasses Dio in every possible way. It would be even weirder if he didn't trounce him. However, he knew that this was temporary and because this was a weak world with weak Players. Once he goes into a world like Lu Yao's Moon Rift planet, or superior, he would truly find a challenge then.
***
"He's coming!" Said Dio, his voice betraying his calm expression, glinted with excitement and heart-pounding in trepidation. He wasn't even trying to hide it.
Trevor stared at the right where Dio was looking. And he saw him. The person who struck both fear and relief in him. The one whose Dio wanted to fight thinking as a worthy opponent and the one he almost... offended when he saw him.
With the same ordinary face that everyone had memorized, the white fox laying lazily on his shoulder and finally, the terrifying aura that tries to suppress. Everyone stared at Xue Mo with blazing eyes shining with anticipation at the fight to come. A battle they may not see like again.
Every time Xue moved, the sky darkened; with every step, lightning seemed to come alive as it gathered in the skies above. The phenomena that happened the day before when Devan, Amro's father, tried to attack the newly recruited kids of the Battle Mage Academy seemed to repeat itself. But, this time, it was on a grander scale.
While lightning crackled and gathered in the sky, the people around Dio started to back off, leaving him, Xue Mo, and Lu Yao alone. The previous relaxed but strict Dio became the opposite, as a grin adorned his mouth while his face turned serious. With him, the lightning also intensified, making the audience retreat further.
"Are you ready?" Dio asked his smile, not faltering. "Let's go!"
With Dio's words ending, a black colored fire materialized near Xue Mo, slowly expanding in size before lengthening and taking on a chain's appearance.
Crack
With a test drive, Xue Mo launched the black fire chains on Dio, who looked more serious than ever, with his grin only growing in size watching Xue Mo's attacks. 'Indeed, this kid has great potential.'
'It's time for me to get serious too!' seeing that Xue Mo went 'all out' from the get-go, Dio wanted to reciprocate the feeling and give his all.
The previously scattered lightning started congregating and amassing above Dio's head, while he fended off against Xue Mo's attacks.
With every whip of Xue Mo's black chains, Dio met it with an arrow made of lightning. With every hit, the tempo became faster; a lightning arrow met every lash. This kept on happening until the audience couldn't follow the trajectory or the speed of the attacks, only hearing the aftermath effect.
While Dio was having his fun, he forgot that Xue Mo hadn't moved from his place while the fox sitting on his shoulder was sleeping through their 'intense' battle as if she was in a quiet area. If Dio noticed these abnormalities, he would have known that something was wrong, but Dio was having too much fun to notice, and this is why Xue Mo even left these loopholes, as he knew that he wouldn't see them.
Not soon after, the concentrated lightning gathered above Dio's head, and seeing it he smirked, looking confident in his win, Dio stared at Xue Mo and announced, "If you could take this attack, I will admit defeat!"
As always, Xue Mo stayed quiet. He watched as the lightning slowly morphed, becoming a spear made of thunder and with incomparable speed shot towards him who let out a 'surprised' and 'worried' exclamation. His face turned pale, while a drop of sweat formed on his forehead from 'nervousness' which he quickly wiped before putting on a determined expression.
Xue Mo released his chains of fire, turning them into a column of black colored menacing light and shot it at the incoming spear.
The two attacks collided, releasing a blinding light before dissipating each other shocking Dio, the audience, and 'Xue Mo,' who quickly reacted and formed another chain of fire and directed it at Dio, who responded by closing his eyes.
Opening them, he saw himself surrounded by chains of menacing black fire that made goosebumps rise. He smiled bitterly and spread his hands out in defeat.
Although the fight seemed fast, it took an hour to end, surprising everyone, Dio included. The only two who weren't surprised were the sleeping fox, and the ordinary faced 'kobold.'
"I admit defeat!" Dio, as promised, announced before looking at Xue Mo and saying,
"I welcome you to the Battle Mage Academy. You won't have to do the third test, a 1v1 fight with the most two who obtained magical beasts stars."
cough
Finishing Dio looked at Trevor waking him up with a cough; he told him, "I'm going to rest. I will leave the rest to you!"
"Yes, Sir Dio."
"Now, announcing that the third and last test shall be held this afternoon, the competitors shall be Kyle and Axel," Trevor said with a loud voice, before following after Dio.