"Give up, you little shit !" Astolfo roared at his opponent.
"Give up, you rubbish!" The boy received a response in the same tone, and his battle continued. At the moment, Astolfo was still at 100% capacity, but he was sure that if those flames lasted too long, he wouldn't be able to resist.
About that...
"Transcendence!" Kayden finally used his spell to take advantage of the window of opportunity Carlos got for them. His speed simply became monstrous, and he reached one of the mages almost as fast as Astolfo.
Using a concentrated beam on each one, Kayden paralyzed their movements, and counting on the surprise factor, he brought his katana down towards the head of one of the mages who had his back to him.
The other mage didn't have the option of approaching and trying something suicidal. He simply had no other options other than trying to take as little damage as possible. The boy tried to retreat.
Kayden simply stepped forward with his footwork and remade the strike. This time, he increased the speed to absurd levels, making it simply impossible for the mage to dodge.
When his blow hit his opponent squarely in the neck, he was removed from the arena by the judge. This happened in less than 3 seconds, but it gave the other wizard time to conjure a fireball against Kayden.
The size was 3 times larger than the ones being released before, which caused Kayden to hesitate before doing what he was about to do. But well... he had been through a lot of pain before, hadn't he?
The boy ran and collided at high speed into the gigantic fireball. As soon as his katana passed out of his, he blasted a flash PoP directly into his opponent's eyes.
Again, his opponent was caught by the surprise factor. Kayden getting through that spell without protection probably meant he had at least 50% of his body with 3rd degree burns, that was just bizarre.
"What a shit idea", Kayden thought as he brought his katana down towards his opponent. Due to the pain in his body, his mobility was severely limited, and a blow that should have been fatal only cut his opponent's arms deeply.
Even under attack, his opponent gave his all and conjured another gigantic fireball. Kayden knew he couldn't do the same again, not even the first time he should have. Using the last 30% of mana he had, he made two concentrated beams.
One with just 5% was thrown against Astolfo's opponent, and the other with 25% was against the wizard who conjured the giant fireball. The two hit squarely, and when Kayden was about to receive the impact of the fireball...
He found himself on the judge's side along with the eliminated members of the other team. Meanwhile, below, the battle continued.
" Ugh !" A groan escaped Astolfo's opponent, but not from pain, but from surprise at the shock he received on his left leg. His movement was weakened long enough for Astolfo to gain distance.
In terms of pain, they were both practically going crazy. Their bodies were slowly burning from the outside in, and the temperature of the flames continued to increase. No matter how hard Astolfo struck with the spear shaft, his opponent did not move away.
But now this confrontation is over. Astolfo used his wind to propel his attack towards the wizard, a full blow to his head would have been landed if the judge had not once again removed the wizard from the scene.
"Oh? Where's Kayden?" When he looked around, Astolfo only saw the last wizard left. His body was practically unable to withstand anything anymore, he didn't expect his opponent to have such an exotic spell.
Gathering what was left of his strength, he rushed towards his adversary. Unfortunately, its movement was slow and it was met by a giant fireball at high speed.
The boy threw himself on the ground to dodge and tried to go again, unfortunately there wasn't much he could do, the wizard seemed to have enough mana to keep casting that spell until he got it right.
One time or another he would hit the target and Astolfo would be forced to leave the match.
"Shit, shit, shit!" In his last attempt, Astolfo raised his spear and imbued it with neutral mana and another layer of wind. With all his strength, he threw the spear, his speed was simply absurd.
Shimmm !!
He cut through a ball of fire.
Shimmmm !
Again he cut another fireball and reached the wizard who... simply dodged to the side. Even though she was at high speed, she was slowed down by the impacts and was also not at 100% of Astolfo's strength.
"Crap!" Astolfo closed his eyes and waited for the impact with the next fireball, his body was already completely destroyed, that had been his last attempt and he failed.
CLAP!
Instead of the fire consuming his body, he saw the wizard's body soaked on the floor, unconscious.
"HEY Astolfo, will you stop resting on the floor?" Maria's voice brought him out of his confusion, the boy was so focused that he simply forgot about the other two teammates on his team.
While the wizard was distracted, Maria and Jean simply used the same spell combo as before and knocked out their opponent by surprise.
"Team Kayden is the winner!" The judge's voice put an end to the fight, instantly everyone was levitated close to the judge and those who had not yet received treatment because they were fighting were healed almost instantly.
Carlos made the movement of shouting in celebration, but was stopped by a slap on his head from Kayden.
"Behave," the boy whispered.
Their fight was one of the most difficult they have ever faced, everyone had an incredible desire to win, even if it meant sacrificing themselves for their team. Not only that, but here the attacks were much stronger.
There was no energy spared to not kill the other opponent, each spell was made to knock the opponent down so that he would never get up again. It was only thanks to the judge that this wasn't a bloodbath.
"Hey, the suicide asshole," Astolfo shouted to the other team. "It was a pleasure fighting you," the boy bowed in respect. "Could you tell me the name of the spell you used?" The endless flames really impressed him.
Astolfo's tone, along with his aggressive personality, didn't match this humble attitude of his. Fortunately, his opponent was also somewhat different.
"Imbecile, you're the one who doesn't know how to give up. His name is Endless Flames, it's a technique from my family", the boy said with a tone of pride. "I hope we can fight again someday."
That was the last interaction they had before an official in a red suit came to take each of the teams away. As soon as they set foot in the VIP room, they were greeted with applause by their school. Mainly from the principal, for him it didn't matter who won, as long as it was from his school. There were only two teams in the room, the others were probably fighting.
"Very well, very well, come and get some rest, the next fight should be in a few minutes," the director said with a smile.
Kayden sighed and plopped down in his team's chair. This fight had been quite frantic. The way the tournament was organized, they would have three more fights to be among the top fifty.