Nathaniel conjured two daggers that were made entirely out of flowing water as he got into a pose. His lower body was curled into an S-shape, and he was ready to lunge forward at any moment. A velvety black tongue slipped out of his mouth from between his lips, and his eyes had turned to yellow slits.
Leon frowned deeply as he chose to take this fight more seriously. The vibes that he was getting from Nathaniel were all wrong. If he took this too lightly, then he would probably get beaten up.
His hair suddenly stood up straight and changed color from black to red, before bursting into a flare of brilliant, orange flames. His eyes turned into red orbs, and two glowed brightly as the flames spread to the rest of his body. Already, he had chosen to fully combine with flames.
Two orbs of fire that were as large as his own head floated beside him, and he held out his hands. "Come!"
Nathaniel snarled and launched himself forward. His lower body slithered over the ground quickly, sending him straight at Leon, who was already distancing himself from the Naga, while also holding his hand forward. Smaller fireballs that were around the size of an eyeball split from the larger fireball and shot forward in a rapid staccato that resembled gunfire.
The fire mana that filled Leon's body acted as a constant source of more fire mana to keep the cycle endless.
Nathaniel dashed and twisted madly, using his superior flexibility to turn into a shadow that Leon had difficulty touching. That said, the sheer amount of fireballs was something that he himself also found difficult to dodge, and some of the little fireballs hit his skin, leaving small blackened spots.
It was not enough to deal much damage to him, though! At most it just increased the temperature on that spot. This was thanks to combining his body with the water element in order to boost its resistance. This was the basic tactic of every Combiner. They would seek to combine their body with their attuned element in order to boost their defense, agility, or some other aspect of themselves. Nathaniel's combination with water brought him a natural resistance to fire, and increased his flexibility. This all cost a lot of mana, though, so he had to close the gap and bring down Leon as quickly as he could!
Leon's body dashed around as he tried to exploit any opening he could from Nathaniel's relentless charge, but the other boy was just too nimble. He kept dodging, and Leon could not focus his fire, having to spread out the fireball barrage, but even that had little results to show for it.
'This is taking too long. His mana is being consumed, but so is mine. A battle of attrition would be bad.' Leon thought and stopped running. He instead turned to face Nathaniel and wait for him to come closer.
"You should have kept on running!" Nathaniel hissed as he slithered over the blackened ground.
He flashed his water daggers and lunged forward, drawing an arc with the glistening water. Just as it was close to Leon's neck, the tip of the dagger gained a light, almost invisible, purple shade.
Poison!
Leon was not aware of this change, but he did not plan on letting the blade touch down in the first place.
He quickly stepped forward and raised his hand in the trajectory of Nathaniel's incoming arm, hitting the inside of his left elbow, and pushing away the arm. That spot turned into a bright red and orange glow, and before Nathaniel could react, a small explosion was set off, flinging his arm backwards!
"What?!" He was shocked! While his strong scales and the sheen of water had protected him, he could tell that Leon had intentionally held back with that small stint, or else his arm would most likely be gone!
Leon was like a flaming shadow as he stuck close to Nathaniel, his open palms flashing like a Buddha's as he slammed them on different parts of Nathaniel's body.
Chest! Shoulder! Arm! Hip!
Palms rained down on the Naga's body, and miniature explosions rang out as he was subjected to the violent barrage. He was not able to do a thing, as Leon's reflexes were much faster than his own, thereby rendering anything he tried to do as useless.
Boom!
One final, larger explosion sent Nathaniel flying back by several meters, before rolling on the ground and coming to a stop against the base of a tree. His entire body hurt, but it was nothing serious. He opened his eyes, and put his arms underneath him to hold up his upper body. His serpentine lower body shook a bit before gathering to raise him up.
'What monstrous strength! Indeed, a rare genius!' Even though he was losing, Nathaniel was not discouraged in the least! Instead, a fiery passion had been stoked in his heart, and he wanted to fight Leon even more than ever!
Just as he tried to pull upon more mana to continue the fight, a firm voice reached his ears.
"Enough, this spar is over."
Nathaniel looked up and was surprised to see their teacher, Avery, standing atop a prominent branch of the tree that he had stopped under. Her features were upturned in an excited smile as she looked down at him.
"W-what?" Nathaniel was confused. The spar had just started, how could it suddenly be over?!
"You have been fighting for quite a while now. The others are done, and you two were the only ones left." Avery smiled at the Naga, and then motioned around with her right arm.
Nathaniel took a look around, and to his surprise, all his classmates had gathered around the spot where he had been fighting with Leon, watching amusedly or excitedly as the two of them exchanged blows.
Heat rose to his cheeks as he realized that they had probably seen him get his ass handed to him.
"Oh..." He mumbled and scratched the back of his scaly neck.