*smack* *tuk* *boom*
Both Soren and Tobias were exchanging attacks for at least a couple of minutes. That was the current situation, ever since the first exchange with Soren getting hit on the face unexpectedly. Although Soren was getting more hits on Tobias, he was the one who had taken more damage from these exchanges.
"Haaaaah!" At that moment, Soren sent another downward strike towards Tobias who guarded his attack, right on the nick of time.
'Tsk. This guy is so persistent. Can't he just take one hit and go down already?' Soren was thinking to himself with an annoyed expression as he was disengaging from that last exchange of attacks. Tobias on the other hand barely showed any changes on his expression. After his thought, he decided to continue engaging with more attacks.
As the two of them were exchanging attacks between them, the Sea Knights around were either cheering the two of them or were talking about their combat styles. Argentus on the other hand was just staring at the two of them as they were exchanging their attacks. Although he wasn't saying anything, his mind had all kinds of thoughts about their combat styles, but he knew that these two were just holding back and they still hadn't exchanged any magic spells. He saw Soren trying to conjure a Mana Wall to block the attack, but his casting speed wasn't fast enough to allow him to conjure the full spell and that caused him to take a major attack during their first attack.
Although the two of them were still exchanging normal attacks, feints and even hilt strikes to disarm each other for over five minutes, since the battle started, neither of them had used any offensive magic yet. That seemed to be the situation for most of this exchange between the two of them, but Soren did use his Third Eye ability to keep an eye for any sudden changes and at some point, he did notice that something on Tobias has started to change. He did feel that the mana concentration on the edge of the hammer has started to increase in an unnatural way.
As the battle kept progressing, the concentration of mana had increased considerably while also being slightly slanted towards the outward part of the hammer. To be more accurate, if someone were to see the mana like a white fluid, it would look similarly to any kind of fluid inside a tilted container, but the surface of the liquid would be completely stuck on the edge of the hammer.
From that moment onwards, he became a lot more focused and waited for the big blast to come. He knew that one Mana Wall alone wouldn't be enough to protect him, so he decided to conjure a Mana Wall with a handle in the middle, similar to a shield and decided to go on the defensive.
Once Tobias saw the shield in front of him he wondered if Soren had found out of his attack, but seeing Soren's tired expression, he thought that he was going to conserve some of his energy while fighting more defensively. After a couple more exchanges, Tobias's expressionless face suddenly changed into as smile and said confidently:
"Not bad, I'll give you a round of applause for your tenacity Soren. You know how not to give up and persist in battle, but I think we've played long enough."
"And here I was wondering how long would it take you to show your tricks." Soren answered with a confident tone on his voice as he was smiling and preparing himself for the worst, he conjured Mana Wall after Mana Wall and once the third one was made, Tobias then slammed down his hammer on the ground and yelled:
"Mana Shockwave!"
The moment the hammer touched the ground, a wall of light exploded from the side of the hammer that was on the ground and then proceeded to expand quickly and move towards Soren.
*crash* *crash* *crash*
The shockwave had broken all the three walls in an instant, but Soren also noticed that the shockwave didn't have that initial burst of power and had been significantly weakened from the collision with the Mana Walls. With that thought and hope in mind, Soren guarded with his hands and shield and prayed that he wouldn't black out immediately. The shockwave finally hit Soren in less than a couple of seconds and proceeded to break his shield and push him backwards.
"Aaarghh..."
Soren's collision with the shockwave looked rather painful, but for Soren, due to the fact that the shockwave had lost the majority of its power, it could be compared to a punch on the face at most. It definitely hurt him, but it was far from enough to knock him out or give him any injuries, although his hands were hurting him since those were the first limbs that came into contact with the shockwave.
"What's the matter? Is that all that you have?" Soren asked confidently with a smile on his face as he was provoking Tobias.
"Tsk." Tobias' face though turned sour as he clicked his tongue since he was expecting to end this battle with that shockwave, he didn't expect that Soren would be able to fully guard his attack and manage to stay standing. Now he was the one at a disadvantage, since that shockwave not only took an decent amount of time and Mana to conjure, he also had used quite a bit of stamina by either guarding, dodging or attacking.
Although Soren was low on stamina as well, he still had plenty of Mana to spare for his attacks and since he checked with his Third Eye ability to see that there was no Mana on the hammer and Tobias' complexion was also looked rather ragged and tired, this would prove to be his best opportunity to win this fight, assuming that he doesn't get a second chance to cast a Mana Shockwave.
After grabbing his breath for a quick moment, he conjured a Water Ball and shot it towards Tobias who was still in his thoughts. That attack, not only caught him off guard, but it also hit him on his left arm, causing it to break a part of the handle. In the next moment, Soren charged quickly to attempt to completely disarm Tobias and end the battle before something else happened.
As for Tobias, the moment he saw Soren charge toward him, he shot out a couple of Mana Shots towards him, in an attempt to stop Soren's charge. Unfortunately for Tobias, due to his fatigue, his aim was a bit unsteady and that caused him to miss completely, so he decided to cast a Mana Wall to quickly block Soren's path. The moment Soren saw the Mana Wall, he quickly rolled to the side before continuing his charge.
With almost no mana left, the last thing Tobias could do at this point was to guard with his hammer by holding it closely with his hand and embrace himself for the worst. In the next moment, Soren and Tobias clashed their weapons for one final time. The two of them were left in a deadlock, with Soren using all of the power he could muster so he could break the handle in half, while Tobias was barely holding on by guarding with his hammer.
As everyone were looking with anticipation for the result of the skirmish, something completely unexpected happened. Soren suddenly disengaged from the deadlock, which then pushed him back a bit and then proceeded to do charge once again by using his tail to shoot himself quickly and then did a fast side flip that was aimed towards Tobias' head. Tobias saw the sudden attack and felt pressure as he knew that he wouldn't be able to handle the impact of the attack if he tried to defend it head on, so decided to dodge to the side as much as his body could allow to.
"Alright, that's enough." Argentus suddenly spoke seriously as he quickly entered between Tobias and Soren and then caught with his bare hands Soren's tail.
"Huh? Hey, what's that for?" Soren asked as he was wiggling his tail from Argentus' hands.
"Easy kid. The fight is over. This is just a fight for fun, no need to get so fired up for a kill." Argentus answered in a bit of a joking manner, but his expression was completely serious.
"Oh... I guess I got a bit more fired up than usual." Soren commented as he was having an awkward expression on his face. After that, Argentus let go of Soren's tail and said loudly:
"The winner for this fight is Soren."
After that announcement, some of the guards that were around started applauding and Soren then did a victory pose. As the applause was going on, Argentus went to Tobias to check on him and asked as he was helping him pick the parts of the weapon:
"Why didn't you go all out?"
"... I greatly underestimated him." Tobias answered with a dejected expression as he picked up the handle that was on the side.
"I told you to be careful, that tail strike of his would have easily knocked you into the next week, had you been hit by it." Argentus exclaimed with an annoyed expression.
"I didn't expect that he would actually go for it. And here I thought that I saw a red glint on his eyes for a moment before going for that finishing blow." Tobias sighed as he was thinking about that last attack.
"It was probably his killing intent." Argentus then got up and gave the pieces that he had picked up to Tobias and then went to the other guards.
"... But I'm sure I saw his eyes glow red for a second there." Tobias said to himself as was thinking back to that last attack.