As soon as the barrier disintegrated into pieces, both the parties ran at each other and clashed in the middle.
From the very get go, Clarence was already at a disadvantage and everyone could see that.
'Fucking monster'
Clarence thought as he exchanged blows with Bernard. The latter used a double-sided halberd with the length of just a forearm as his weapon.
Every strike of the halberd sent waves of shock through his body, even after he used the curved side of the blade to slide off the attack. He couldn't imagine what might have happened otherwise.
Clarence used Ghoul's walk to slightly disrupt Bernard's mind, then Incapacitate to hold back his arm for a moment. At the same time he also cast Momentary push on his arm to stab him at the waist.
Unfortunately, the attack missed by a hair's breadth, which Clarence thought was because Bernard slightly twisted his body. Who then counterattacked with his halberd, which Clarence had to block with both his daggers as he had no time to do anything else.
The attack had such a heavy force behind it that Clarence's legs went a couple inches below the ground, making the surrounding ground spike up a bit.
'I would've been in deep shit if that attack so much as even grazed me.'
Bernard followed up with a kick which Clarence could only take head on since his hands were busy holding up the halberd with the daggers and his legs were sufficiently deep in the ground that if he tried to dodge by moving them, he'd most likely trip and fall.
*CRACK*
Clarence spurted out a mouthful of blood as he felt his ribs cracking from the kick. He had been executing his mighty arms from the very start, but they could only hold up the halberd. He really couldn't believe Bernard was so strong.
None of his spells were even working. Agile needle at least needed a cut or some opening for it to do their job. Incapacitate can also only hold back his one arm for only a moment.
"I've already learned a spell to defend against spells which attack the mind. You should be honored. I especially learned them for you.
I've been continuously getting reactions from the spell. You've been trying to affect my mind from the start of the battle, right? I just feel thankful I learned the spell."
Clarence just showed a mirthless smile at that and thought,
'There goes my remaining spells, Illusory arts and Ghoul's walk are useless against him too.'
Clarence used Momentary push on his legs to jump out of the pit around his legs and put more strength in his hands to push back the halberd. He couldn't believe Bernard had the strength to continuously put so much pressure on him.
But just as he was trying to get out, another kick came his way, this time at the other side. Clarence was trying his best to move out of the pit but he couldn't, due to the pressure from halberd and just when the kick was about to connect with his ribs, he used Twist and moved his torso out of harm's way.
Grabbing the momentary opportunity, he desperately tried to get out of the pit with all his might and he finally exited it.
'Hah, hah, hah, finally I am out of it. But it is still going to be hard.'
Bernard just smirked and closed in the distance while swinging his halberd with one hand. Clarence dodged the attack and slashed his dagger at the hand, then shot Agile needle at the cut which he made.
Unfortunately, Bernard was a little faster, as he just rotated his arms to move the cut out of the spell's way, which meant that the needles only pricked his skin and soon fell off after he jerked his arm.
Not discouraged by the failure, Clarence kept slashing out minor cuts while simultaneously dodging using Twist.
Sometimes he blocked the attack with Mighty arms and Momentary push or just slid the attack off through his curved side of the blade.
He also used illusory arms. This technique made your arms so fast it left behind afterimages. The more understanding and higher ranked you are, the more afterimages are formed.
But sadly, it looked like Bernard had come prepared for his every trick. He was able to accurately determine where his hand was, dodging several attempts at making cuts. And whenever he tried attacking the vitals, strangely, they always missed.
Clarence was only getting so many chances, as Bernard was definitely as fast as him. He had dedicated his whole life to fights. No way he would leave any holes in his fighting style.
As the fight went on, Bernard started landing more and more hits on Clarence. By the end of ten minutes, when both of them separated, Clarence was riddled with injuries while Bernard only had some cuts here and there, which were closing up gradually.
It was probably through a spell, as Clarence could sense mana being used. His attacks missing several times in succession also made him suspect he was using another spell to make the attacks miss.
*****
Bernard was not the stupid kind of battle maniac. He was not the masochistic kind, nor was he the one who only used brute force. He was also not the slow but strong kind.
He was the intelligent kind who trained in every aspect and used them all in the battle to his utmost advantage. Although he wouldn't resort to trickery and despicable play, every one of his moves was played after he carefully thought through them. He had studied a lot of strategies related to battle and researched every battle he came across.
At the start of the battle, he deliberately put on an act as if he was affected by the Ghoul's walk to lure Clarence into attacking him where he used his spell to make the attack miss.
Using that brief window of time, he hit him with his halberd using both his hands at an angle and strength which wouldn't allow him to slide it off. As expected Clarence had to use both his hands to block and due to the strength behind the halberd, he got pushed down into the ground.