In the next seconds, Silvus' almost nonchalant face from before morphed into one full of anger and humiliation.
"You! What did you say to me!?" He yelled out, raising his voice for the first time in this manner, not being able to control himself.
"How dar--" Again, Silvus was cut off, but this time not by Lyrian.
"Begin." Zysrial calmly spoke from his throne, seeing Silvus start to become too flustered.
His younger brother's heart immediately sank into his chest as he heard Zysrial speak. Slowly, Silvus turned to face him.
He looked at his elder brother, frustrated by the fact that he didn't want him to speak any more to the peasant that clearly just insulted him in front of everyone.
His look was met by a stern one from his brother, causing him to quickly turned back around. Suffering humiliation here was one thing, but actually irritating his brother was a whole other, much worse deal.
"Fine! I will make you regret those words, you scum." He stared directly at Lyrian as he spoke.
"Go ahead and try." Lyrian retorted.
"Dentro Wind!" Silvus quickly spoke, raising his right hand in the air as a wooden log suddenly summoned beneath his feet, elevating him in the air.
"Aeras Blast!" Silvus yelled once, again, raising both of his hands in front of him this time as several power gusts of wind conjured out of his palms, shooting toward Lyrian at extreme speeds.
Lyrian narrowly dodged the blasts, noting that their power was no joke. Even with his current power, he would certainly take some serious damage.
A small number of gasps and whispers waved through the crowd as they saw Lyrian dodge the blasts.
Without wasting time, Silvus began to circle around Lyrian on his log, launching several spells toward him as he did so.
"Aeras Slice!" He yelled, sending a blade-shaped blast of wind.
"Aeras Ball!"
Lyrian dodged the attacks quite easily, but he was slightly confused at the level of their strength. Even for someone like Silvus, they were quite weak.
Still, the crowd became surprised at his ability to not be taken out by a single hit.
Silvus finally stopped circling Lyrian, flying back to his original spot as he witnessed his final creation.
Without even noticing, Lyrian had been encased in a wind tornado. He thought that it was just the debris of wind from the flying log that Silvus was circling him with, but that wasn't the case.
"Hahaha! You fell for my trap, fool! Those spells I used on you were just decoys, now, behold the power of my real spell!" Silvus finally shouted, a large grin on his face.
The crowd was mesmerized, impressed at Silvus' battle intelligence.
Silvus raised both of his hands into the air, "Aeras," He channeled the most amount of mana that he could into this spell as he spoke, "Coffin!"
Upon hearing this, the wind tornado around Lyrian sped up to a powerful degree, causing him to lose his footing just a little bit.
Suddenly, a spike of wind darted out of the tornado and shot right toward Lyrian's face.
His eyes widened as he noticed the bolt of wind aiming right for the middle of his head at the very last moment, just barely being able to dodge it as it scraped the side of his cheek.
Feeling the warm blood run down the side of his face, Lyrian's eyebrows furrowed in anger.
'I didn't want to get hit even once, but I failed so quickly. I should have been paying more attention.' He thought to himself, 'Enhance.'
His body suddenly began glowing in a slight green aura, as he sensed another spike of wind darting at him from the back.
This time, he dodged it without a scratch, but following those spikes came several others.
In just a few seconds, hundreds of spikes darted at him like he was in some sort of pinball machine, as the darts flew back into the tornado only to be thrown out once again.
Finding some time when no dart was coming at him, he tried to quickly jump out of the tornado but to no avail.
With a powerful push, he was thrown back into the middle of the arena, forced to begin dodging the spikes once again.
The astonished gasps from the crowd grew more and more as they witnessed Silvus' powerful ability.
Lyrian's stats were higher than Silvus', so he had confidence going into the fight, but this spell threw everything off, and the 6% magic attack bonus from his prize he got from the potential tests wasn't helping his cause either.
'If I try to escape, I am thrown back in, only making it harder for me to dodge the spikes. If I try to stay here, my mana and stamina will eventually run out... what do I do?' Lyrian thought to himself as he continued to dodge the spikes.
After multiple minutes of dodging, it seemed the tornado was getting even faster, as the outside was completely blurred to Lyrian.
Right now, both his stamina and mana were running low already. He thanked the magical item he got from the potential tests, however, as it was the only thing keeping his mana alive at the moment.
Finally, he caught a glimpse of Silvus outside of the blurry tornado. From the looks of it, he was still moving his hands around, seemingly quite frantically.
'I see... he's the one controlling the darts.' Lyrian thought.
He also noticed that Silvus wasn't too far away from the tornado, if only he got the chance to power up his fist-enhance skill, he could still launch off an attack towards Silvus.
"Hey, you royal!" Lyrian suddenly yelled from inside of the tornado spell as he continued to dodge, catching the attention of the crowd and also Silvus.
"My mana is still nearly full, but I know that you are close to running out right about now!"
"Hah! What a bluff! Do you think I'd actually believe that? There is no way you're mana could finish faster than mine, while whilst dodging for so long under immense pressure!" Silvus called out the bluff.
"Oh really? Did you forget about the magic item that I won when I came first place during the magic potential tests? That's right, Syan's Mana Ring!"
Silvus' face lost its color upon hearing Lyrian's threat, his expression filled with both fear and desperation.
Meanwhile, he continued conjuring the wind spikes, his actions becoming more frantic.
Silvus knew that his mana was dwindling, and though he would run out later than Lyrian, uncertainty clouded his mind. He couldn't be sure of anything anymore.
"Once I get out of here, and you no longer have any mana left, you're dead!" Suddenly, Lyrian's serious voice pierced through the chaos of the tornado, filled with determination and a hint of killing intent.
The word along with the killing intent struck Silvus with reality, causing a momentary pause in the onslaught of spikes.
In that crucial moment, Lyrian made a risky decision. He un-did his full-body Enhance, disregarding the danger of the spikes impaling him.
With every ounce of mana he had left, he focused all his power into his fist.
The risks weighed heavily on Lyrian's mind. Would he have enough time to charge up his attack before being pierced by the spikes?
Could he muster enough strength to break through the tornado's barrier? And most importantly, would his punch finally succeed, unlike his countless failed attempts in the past?
With a sense of urgency, Lyrian knew he had no choice but to seize the opportunity. Gathering all his determination, he unleashed his punch with a surge of energy.
"Shock Fist!"