"The contract is finished, the duel will commence in five seconds." Mr. Norris stated.
Jayce felt a burning sensation around his chest area, looking down at his shirt a tattoo appeared where his heart would be.
The same happened to Isaac but the mark appeared on his hand, these marks ensured that the parties held up their end of the bargain.
Jayce quickly strapped his gauntlet back onto his hand and got into stance.
"DUEL STARTS NOW!" Mr. Norris screamed across the arena.
Hearing the start of the match, Jayce charged toward Isaac as fast as he could. This took Isaac by surprise as Jayce's fist slammed into his face.
'Doesn't matter if he has mana if I never let him use it.' Jayce thought internally.
One of the strategies he and Bella came up with was to end the fight right from the start. If that was not possible, the next one was to overwhelm him so he couldn't cast any spells.
The longer the match went on the more Jayce was at a disadvantage.
'How is he so fast? I didn't sense him cast any spells.' Isaac thought to himself receiving Jayce's punch.
When a mage casts a spell, the mana in the air shifts toward where the spell is being created.
This gives other mages the location where it is and if they are skilled enough to decipher what kind of spell is being used.
This is one of the first things mages are taught when they obtain mana. So when Jayce covered the arena in less than a second without the use of mana it took him off guard.
After landing the first hit, Jayce went for the second aimed at his gut. Instead of coming into contact with Isaac, his fist was stopped by a firey force field.
Seeing Isaac's attack ahead of time, Jayce crossed his arms. Isaac shot out a small explosion from his hand sending Jayce back a few feet.
[-25 HP]
"Tch."
Jayce was annoyed that he wasn't able to end the fight right there and then. His chances of winning plummeted when he didn't end the fight with one attack.
"HOW DARE YOU HIT MY FACE!" Isaac yelled.
There was blood all over the bottom of his face. He was missing some teeth and his nose was bent to the side.
If Jayce was able to land another hit on his face, he would have won the duel right there and then.
Mana gathered around Isaac as he raised his hand into the air to cast a spell.
"AUGUE!"
Ten fireballs that were the size of a basketball appeared above Isaac, swinging his hand down they simultaneously launched at Jayce.
Seeing the path the fireballs would take, Jayce was able to dodge them without much effort.
Watching Jayce dodge his attack like it was nothing just infuriated Isaac even more.
When he challenged Jayce to a duel he thought he would just toy with him before an "accident" happened. Once Jayce was out of the way, nothing would be able to stop him from getting Yuko.
'I'll make sure you don't leave this duel alive!' Isaac thought.
Channeling his mana, Issac started to gather fire to form a single gigantic fireball.
"GIGAS AUGUE!"
This fireball was big enough to cover half of the arena. Even if Jayce could predict where it would go, it covered too much of an area to avoid.
Realizing that he couldn't dodge it, he opted to sprint toward Isaac. Jayce thought that if there was one place safe from the fireball, it would be where Isaac was standing.
Seeing Jayce run to him, Isaac smiled as he pulled out a dark purple cube with a circuit design from his storage ring.
Once Jayce was only a few feet away, Isaac poured his mana into the cube.
The cube began to get brighter and expand, consuming both him and Jayce at the same time the giant fireball came into contact with the ground.
The fireball exploded as the onlookers covered their eyes due to how bright it was.
Once the fire cleared up, the audience looked back at the stage to see that both of them had disappeared.
Opening his eyes, Jayce saw that he was no longer at the arena but now in a large black room. The room had no details, doors, or windows.
The room was too large for him to assume how big it was exactly.
Feeling the air getting hotter behind him, Jayce quickly ducked as a fireball passed above his head.
Turning around, he saw Isaac but was now wearing a dark red cloak with bright red trims, a long wooden staff that had a dragon carved at the top, and was wearing a ring on every finger.
He also noticed that his nose was fixed and his missing teeth were back.
"Now that we're alone, no one can stop me from gutting you like a pig," Issac said with arrogance.
"So you are saying that no one can interrupt us," Jayce questioned Isaac.
"Better yet no one can sense anything that happens here, even if you scream at the top of your lungs hahaha," Isaac stated while laughing like a madman.
Isaac had this planned after receiving that first hit from Jayce, he wanted to make sure he suffered for injuring his handsome face.
'System, can mana leak out of this space?' Jayce asked internally.
[Answering Host Question]
[Question 1, No mana will leave this space. You are currently in a pocket dimension, the only way to leave is the same way you entered.] The system replied with a robotic voice.
A smirk spread across Jayce's face as he inspected Isaac's new equipment.
[Crimson Robe]
[Rarity: Rare]
[A robe that has been made with magic threads and enhanced with fire magic. Commonly used by fire mages to increase their magic output.]
[+20% Fire Damage]
[+80 Fire Resistance]
[+15% Mana]
---
[Firestorm]
[Rarity: Epic]
[A staff that was crafted by a high-tier magician. Before the magician died, he infused the last of his mana into his staff exponentially increasing fire magic and reducing the mana cost of fire magic. But this resulted in the staff being unusable for any other type of magic.]
[+55% Fire Damage]
[-50% Mana Cost of Fire Magic]
[Cannot Cast Spells of Other Types]
---
[Mana Ring]
[Rarity: Uncommon]
[A ring that has a mana gem to increase the mana of a mage by a small amount.]
[+10% Mana]
---
Jayce checked all the rings but they were all the same thing, excluding the dimensional storage ring. After inspecting the equipment, he finally decided to see Isaac's stats.
---
[Name: Isaac Luptons]
[Race: Human]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 17]
---
[Stats]
[HP: 110/130]
[Mana: 482/500 (+525)]
[Stamina: 93/110]
[Vitality: 8]
[Endurance: 6]
[Strength: 7]
[Dexterity: 9]
[Agility: 11]
[Intelligence: 25]
---
[Skills]
[Fire Magic (B+)]
[Mana Sense (D)]
---
Calming himself down, Isaac turned his attention back to Jayce. Instead of being afraid, Jayce was happy with his current situation.
'He must have lost it.' Isaac concluded to himself.
What Isaac didn't know was that Jayce wasn't happy because he was insane, but because of his talk with the system.
'System, increase Demonic Synchronization.'