So this is the complete armor.
Gotta say, I'm impressed.
I don't even feel cold in this.
Meanwhile on the other side of the battlefield Nathan stood confused at the intensity of his own flames.
I guess he was expecting blue fire, not this.
His sword was a crude one, in fact one could barely call it a sword.
It was more of a pole, with no edge to speak of.
Of course the bone melting flames more than made up for it.
I can't get hit, not even once.
'Should I-'
'No Zeke, this is a battle I'd rather fight alone.'
'Alright.'
"Impressive," I comment
"I could say the same to you, your Ice armor is way more impressive than my...it does look more of a stick than a sword doesn't it?"
"Shape and size doesn't matter as long as it gets the job done."
"Wise words."
"Yeah, lets stop stalling and begin shall we?"
He nods back.
Swinging his sword he launches an arc of white flames at me.
I reciprocate him, only its ice and not fire.
The two attacks clash before his one overpowers mine.
Widening my eyes I barely manage to evade in time.
Even then it singed part of my hair.
That's one strong spell.
Not even my Thunder Arcs are that strong, mainly because that would require an astronomical amount of mana to perform.
So he either has an extremely large mana pool or can absorb mana at an abnormal rate.
I am forced to stop my line of thought as every instinct screams at me to duck.
And duck I did, dodging a spell that would've taken my head off otherwise.
Is he trying to kill me?
He gives me an apologetic smile before releasing another wave, this time his hand trembled.
Looks like he can't keep this up for much longer.
Good.
I would've needed to release my seal otherwise.
I materialize a dozen ice spiked behind me before shooting them forward
He frantically waves his sword around, likely aiming for another one of his arc like attacks.
But it does not work, not this time.
Looks like it has a cooldown.
Phew.
I'd be worried if he could throw them around like that.
To say he evaded them would be generous, he moved around like a headless chicken.
While unrefined his movements did allow him to dodge most, some did manage to nick him drawing blood.
He winced.
"Aw are you hurt? You want to call down the duel?"
I could hear him grinding his teeth even from here.
Good.
Anger will make him reckless.
And thats good for me.
He charges in blindly, throwing a barrage of wind sicles at me.
None of them hit their mark as I dance around them.
Enraged even further he sends mini wind shurikens, ones which lightly glowed orange.
Flames of that level weren't much of a threat.
Or so I thought.
With my Ice armor on I became cocky, thinking my armor would take the blow I flew straight into them, casing Nathan to look at me incredulously.
But alas nothing is supreme.
And his white fire did manage to weaken the ice, albeit none of them touched me.
So imagine my surprise when the blades tore straight through my clothes and skin, causing red liquid to leak.
Ignoring the pain I focus on freezing my wounds to stop the bleeding and numb the pain.
Bringing my sword up I go for an uppercut.
Expecting such an attack Nate used his own...construct to block it, even then judging by his drenched clothes and trembling hands it was clear he's at his limit.
But what's more surprising is the fact that my sword exploded....or it looked like it did.
What happened was that Solaris released a wave of frost on him, coating him in a layer of ice.
But his right arm remained unfrozen, as the white fire kept the ice at bay.
He mimicked what I did with his own sword, forcing me to jump away.
Can he replicate any spell he sees?
I don't get the time to ponder on that as I feel a chill go down my spine.
Looking at him I see his sword amassing an absurd amount of fire in his sword making it grow bigger, I see the green tint of wind magic too.
The little bastard is using wind to amplify his fire.
He swing his sword, and the wave that followed dwarfs all of his previous attacks combined.
Lightning now surges around the arc.
He's a bit of a monster ain't he?
Of course I don't have any right to say that.
I raise both arms this time, and absorb so much atmospheric mana that....lets just say this room won't be as mana enriched as before for a few weeks at least.
The mana purification process takes less than a second, and it unleashes itself into my mana veins.
This might not be enough.
Swiftly entering first phase I infuse my spell with Nacht.
The, now nacht infused, mana spews forth from my palms forming a giant blueush black Ice dragon in its wake.
In one fluid movement it absorbs his spell.
Before releasing a colder version of it back to him.
And there was nothing he could do to stop it, as he lay there on his knees, panting, as his hand was left scorched.
'He'll die at this rate!'
Zeke's alarmed voice brought me out of my musings as I prepare to Void step to him, but Zeke is faster.
He's fast enough to bring him to this side in the nick of time.
Because just a moment later his entire side of the room is frozen in black tinted ice.
Even the walls and the ceiling was frozen.
Man this will be a pain to explain.
I thought as I exit first phase
Nathan looked around confused as to how he came to this side.
"Well that was close wasn't it?" I extend my arm towards him.
In a daze he grabs it and stands up.
Only to fall down once again as soon as I left him.
That woke him up and he sighed.
"Seems like you overworked your core." I comment.
"Yeah and I was so close to beating you too!" He whined.
"Keep dreaming, I was totally beating your ass,"
"Oh yeah? Your hair tells otherwise."
"Huh?" I pick up an ice shard from the ground and observed my reflection.
"..."
His spells singed my hair pretty bad.
"Alright fine I'll give you that one, but your still far off from beating me."
"I'll catch up to you soon, just you watch." He promises.
"Yeah we'll see about that. But for now focus on resting your core,"
I dispel my own spell, and the pain caused me to lose my footing.
Damn that hurts like a bitch!
"Hey you ok?" Nate looks at me, concerned.
"Yeah, just peachy."
"You should use those black flame things like when you healed your arm." He throws in casually.
My head immediately snaps to him and I open my mouth to answer.
"I uh went to look for you since you weren't coming back, I saw you using those greenish black flames to completely heal your burn, one which should have scarred." He admitted.
"Tartarean Vitality." I mutter, not knowing what else to say.
"What now?"
"Its called Tartarean Vitality."
"Huh? Weird name... Anyways I noticed how you fell unconscious after using it, and almost went in to help you, but seeing your arm completely healed in seconds had me stunned for a few minutes, and those few minutes were enough for you to begin stirring."
"How come I never noticed you?"
"I don't know, maybe because you were still focused on doing whatever you were doing?"
"That still doesn't explain why Zeke didn't sense you as well..." I trail off.
I think I did notice him, but I paid him no mind thinking he was just another student going to their room. And after you fell unconscious I was too worried about you to care about sensing others. I'm sorry.
Its alright Zeke, but do keep your guard up next time I fall unconscious.
Why are you so confident there is going to be a next time?
...Intuition.
"Speaking of Zeke," Nathan spoke, completely oblivious to our conversation, "Was that an ability of his beast will?"
"In a way,"
"I see, he must be very strong then," He turns towards Zeke and jumps up.
"What in the-? How did he grow so much?!"
"That is Zekes true form," No use hiding it after so many saw him during the mock battle, "He only used that form to look more inconspicuous."
"H-How old is he?"
"Eh, 8 years, why?"
"Eight years....impossible..." He seems too shocked.
"Have you met us?"
"Yeah the line between impossible and possible is very thin for you guys."
"Oi, you're one to speak."
"Huh? What do you mean by that?"
"You managed to copy my spell after seeing it once, not to mention you also changed its attributes to suit you and you made them of such hot flames that they would go right through a human body without much resistance."
"Hehe..." He scratched the back of his head before continuing, "I guess I owe you some explanations then?"
"Not really, I haven't elaborated on how I do half the things I've done, why should you?"
"Because I feel guilty copying your spell."
"Not like I patended it." I mutter.
"What?"
"Nothing, and I don't mind you using my spells, if you feel guilty over copying someones spell get over it. In a life or death scenario you have to use everything in your arsenal. Honor has no place in the battlefield."
"You speak as if from experience."
"Maybe I do." I comment cryptically.
"But I still feel like I should tell you about it."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah I trust you."
"Alright I guess..."
"Before I begin, tell me what does one need to attain nobility?"
"Uhhh Power, Money and Connections?"
"Close while a lot of nobles prefer this way, some don't. To attain true nobility one also requires an unique form of magic, one that is inheirtable, a bloodline trait if you will..."
"Don't keep me in suspense, whats your family's bloodline?"
"Thats where it gets complicated, while most true nobles have one bloodline, the Ambers house has 2."
"Say what?"
"Although the price we paid was a lower rate of mages being born."
"How low?"
"I'm the first mage in my house since my great grandfather."
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Authors Note
Yeah, I know I said Nathans abilities will be explained this chapter, but the chapter was becoming too long.
The fight....was way more epic than this but...I made them too op, as in retainer level op.
So I had to tone it down a bit.
Nathan's abilities will be explained tomorrow, thats a promise.
And I'll add in a Fay vs Art later as well, maybe I'll even have them going all out, minus the beast wills.
And don't be surprised if I give Arthur more abilities than he had in canon.
I'm buffing him.
As for the white fire, well it white is the hottest fire, and while Nathan doesn't have the skill required for it, hence its crude shape, he has something else.
Also what name should I give the Bloodline Trait, in general. (Kekkei Genkai? Nah lol)
I'll try and update tommorow, so be ready for that.
Til then.