Sparks of electricity were dancing around Joseph's body, as if they were little children without a care in the world.
Across the room, the electricity was reflected off of the shiny glass armor that was worn by Boldee.
They have not said a word to each other after Luke and Lala had made their escape.
The two men were at a stand-still.
Boldee did not have the agility required to meaningfully wound Joseph, and Joseph didn't have the right kind of offensive power to injure Boldee whatsoever.
But of course, Joseph came here of his own volition for a reason.
He had a plan.
They had once fought shoulder to shoulder, so they were well aware of each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Boldee was using the Glass elemental, a rare class. It allowed him to create and manipulate all kinds of glass structures, weapons and tools.
The glass that was used as Boldee's armor was called "Willow glass".
It was a very flexible type of glass.
But the more flexible it was, the less durable it got.
While it insulated Boldee from Joseph's thunder, it also failed to provide much protection against physical attacks.
Boldee had already tried making it thicker and more durable in the past, but the thicker the glass was, the more of its flexibility was lost.
Joseph also knew this, and was planning on fully taking advantage of this knowledge.
"That armor of glass isn't going to save you."
Joseph said as he took out a steel shortsword.
It wasn't an ordinary sword, as the handle and the blade were not separate parts, but a whole.
The reason for this was simple.
Joseph could increase the effectiveness and conductivity of his thunder through his weapon, and also allow physical attacks against his targets.
A universal rule for all elementalists was that whatever kind of power or element it was that they were manipulating, it would always be for the best if they could maintain direct contact with it.
For example, most of Boldee's glass armor was in direct contact with his skin, helping him maintain the complex form and flexibility of the glass.
Joseph focused most of the sparks of electricity around him into his weapon, making the air surrounding the sword crackle and snap loudly.
Boldee snorted.
"Always relying on petty tricks. I see you haven't changed at all."
Not bothering to answer, Joseph charged at Boldee and swung at him with an overhead strike.
Boldee easily avoided the strike and countered it by stabbing at Joseph's left thigh with his glass rapier.
The rapier itself was made of a thicker, but still light type of glass, so that it could have a good balance of speed and durability.
Joseph smirked.
"Too slow."
Boldee's eyes widened in shock.
Joseph's sword struck his right arm diagonally from below, cracking the thin layer of glass for an instant, allowing some of the electricity to flow into Boldee's arm, paralyzing it for a moment and causing Boldee to almost drop his rapier, thus making him miss Joseph's leg entirely.
The hole in the glass armor was repaired momentarily as Boldee jumped backwards.
Joseph spun the shortsword in his hand, while thunder surrounded him.
"You haven't changed either. You're still as weak as ever."
Joseph had performed a successful feint.
He had intentionally exposed his left leg while performing a simple strike.
The attack wasn't that strong as most of its momentum was wasted on fooling Boldee into thinking that the swing was over, while Joseph had actually redirected his strike into a strike from below by switching the hand he was striking with just when the strike was almost over.
If Joseph had been using a longsword that required both of his hands to wield, this wouldn't have been possible.
Boldee was annoyed both by being outwitted, and by Joseph's taunts.
"I see age hasn't numbed you down at all, Joseph."
The attack had barely caused any physical damage, but it had definitively left a mark on Boldee's pride.
Boldee made his armor even thinner in exchange for greater agility.
He rushed at Joseph and started stabbing at him at a rate that was many times faster than before.
Joseph wasn't able to evade all of the stabs, instead using a mix of evading some of the stabs and parrying the rest of them.
"Aww, did I hurt your feelings Boldee?"
Drops of sweat started dripping from Joseph's forehead as he smiled, while Boldee appeared to be in his peak form.
As the barrage of attacks continued, Joseph was waiting for an opportunity.
Just the slightest gap in defense was all he needed.
He was sure that Boldee would get tired sooner rather than later, as his stamina must have declined after years and years of running an inn.
That was Joseph's expectation.
He was wrong.
The one who was starting to get tired first was Joseph instead.
He needed to do something right now, otherwise he would get overwhelmed and injured severely, or would possibly even die.
Joseph's eyes turned bloodshot as he started coughing out blood.
"Damn you!"
Joseph cussed at Boldee.
While thunder and glass clashed, an orange and sharp pipe formed in Joseph's free hand which was behind his back.
Boldee was confused by Joseph suddenly coughing out blood, but he would only have a split second to think about what had just happened, as he also started coughing out blood.
"What have you done?"
Boldee asked as he wiped the blood off his face.
The pair of men were once again in a momentary stand-still.
They were standing only a couple of steps away from each other.
Joseph was grinning with blood still flowing out of his mouth, and shrugged.
He was completely unharmed on the outside.
Boldee examined his own body.
A single copper pipe with a diameter no bigger than 5 centimeters was sticking out of both of his sides.
It was lodged inside of him and just barely sticked out of the sides of his stomach.
Boldee looked at Joseph's grin with great horror.
"You madman!"
Even though a pipe had been stabbed through his insides, Boldee still hadn't given up.
It wasn't his first serious injury.
"What? Am I not allowed to have two elementals?!"
Boldee's sense of horror was well justified, as Joseph had used his second elemental – the metal elemental.
Unlike Luke, regular elementalists usually had only one elemental, or at most two, depending on the capacity of their soul.
Having two elementals at once was very rare, but managing to use two elementals at the same time and living to tell the tale was even rarer to see.
Of course, people that could not only store, but use multiple elementals existed, although they were extremely hard to encounter.
Storing the elementals in the soul and using them each took a different toll on the soul, which couldn't be handled by ordinary elementalists.
The order in which elementals were incorporated into the soul mattered very much.
There was also the fact that Boldee was unaware of the fact that Joseph had acquired a second elemental, catching him completely off-guard.
As Boldee kept glaring at Joseph, the latter placed his hands on the ends of the copper pipe.
"This is goodbye. Boldee."
Joseph channeled his thunder elemental through the copper pipe.
"AAAAAARGHH!!!!!!"
A terrifying scream resounded through the village as Boldee's life was quite literally being zapped out of him.
Luke, who had been standing some distance away from the inn had also heard the unpleasant scream and immediately recognised the voice, causing him to turn his head towards the inn.
'Boldee…! Damn it, I shouldn't have left him alone!'
"Lala! Stay here!"
"…But!"
Luke pointed at the unconscious shadow elementalist.
"You need to guard him in case he wakes up. I will be right back."
Luke rushed onto the second floor of the inn, as Boldee still kept letting out bone-chilling screams.
What he saw made him belch.
Boldee was helplessly swinging his rapier around, trying to stab Joseph, who was, at this point, standing behind Boldee without him realizing, and still holding onto both ends of the copper pipe.
Joseph's back was turned towards Luke making him see this as an opportunity to strike.
Luke couldn't just launch wind blades at Joseph, as he could kill Boldee accidentally as well, so he opted for using the same method that he used to kill the succubus.
He had modified this attack since the last time he used it.
Luke formed an invisible veil of wind, and accurately threw it towards Joseph.
As the veil touched Joseph, it was instantly torn apart, having no effect.
It was because of the storm of lightning surrounding Joseph.
Joseph was now glaring at the panicked Luke.
"Back for more, are you?"