CHAPTER 108: OUTCLASSED

"Komi!" Zephyr immediately stopped the next chain of lightning he was about to conjure mid-way, suffering a small backlash as this wasn’t as easily dispersible like the other spells. He had kept this one a secret. It was the ’thing’ he’d been working on throughout the previous day after he had woken up with his physical and mental stats over 90%.

After playing out multiple scenarios in his head, even without knowing the extent of Komi’s strength, he had realized he needed something new aside from the ice spell to add to his arsenal. Something more wide-range and still dangerous. An area of effect spell.

So he’d worked with Aegis to try and create one. They both cycled through a lot of options, but majority of what was thought up wasn’t viable. Most spells took a casting time so long it was useless in a fight, while others simply weren’t possible for Zephyr yet. They required a rapid change of elemental states that he lacked the ability to process without having some specific words embedded inherently in his mana core.

In fact, this current lightning spell he just used, that first required dousing an entire area with tiny water droplets, was a result of trimming down the requirements of the spell to something more feasible for the current Zephyr.

Instead of trying to directly summon lightning from thin air—which would require way more from him in terms of processing capabilities to be able to ionize the very little natural moisture in the air, he first created an ideal environment, taking a whole lot of ’load’ away from his part.

The lightning itsef had taken about 1.83s to cast, but together with the creation of the water spell, and then the water to gas state transition, it was about 3.81s... which was actually still fast compared to some of his other spells.

But he was sure he wouldn’t be able to cast this spell on a capable person twice. Even though it was somewhat fast, it still required three different steps that gave whoever he was up against more time to disrupt the spell process. Even Komi would’ve disrupted his spell if she hadn’t been so casual about wanting to see his capabilities.

Zephyr quickly ran up to her still body on the ground, checking for her pulse and heartbeat. ’Okay, she’s still breathing...’ he sighed in relief. Imagine he’d killed the sage’s daughter by mistake...

He was just about turning her over from her awkward sideways position so she could lie on her back when she suddenly jerked up and gasped for breath, startling Zephyr backwards a bit.

"Hey, are you okay?" Zephyr asked gently, watching her confused eyes flitting around the surroundings trying to process what happened as she panted rapidly.

"What happened?!" She snapped in confusion before pausing as it came flooding back clearly. She had been stunned unconscious by Zephyr’s spell for a few moments...?

She. The one who had made a bet that Zephyr wouldn’t get to her level within a year...

She rubbed a hand on her face in embarrassment and disappointment, she couldn’t even look Zephyr in the eye directly, what face did she have left?

Even though she knew this definitely wouldn’t have happened if she took to her father’s advice from the start and treated Zephyr like she would anyone on her level, she still accepted the loss without making a fuss about it.

"So, it seems you won..." she muttered with a sigh.

"Not really... that’s just because you let me." Zephyr surmised aptly. "There’s no way this would have happened if you didn’t allow it... and I’m sure I’m never going to get this lucky again." He stood up and stretched out a hand to help Komi up.

She finally looked up at him with her usual plain stare, then took his hand of help before standing up, clenching her jaws as she moved. The aftereffects of the lightning spell was still there. Her side was charred black and the veins beneath her skin from that area spreading outward were very visible. Like little black rivers branching all over her skin.

"Ohh..." Zephyr saw the open blackened side and hissed. "That looks really bad. Are you gonna be okay?"

She scoffed, "My body has seen worse Zephyr, you don’t need to worry about me. I’ll be fully healed by the end of the day." she reassured him. "This is nothing... just negligence on my part."

"So are we still going another round?" Zephyr asked Komi who was already walking in the direction of the door. She paused and turned back to look at him with a surprised look.

"Trust me, you do not want to take me on while I’m in this state." she stated matter-of-factly.

Zephyr spread his hand. "I’m not here to take things easy in the first place. You’re pissed off and I can tell. So I’m sure you won’t be holding back at all... And that’s what I want."

She turned to face him fully now. "You won’t like this." She said with more eagerness in her voice than she was supposed to.

Zephyr chuckled with wariness. He knew what he was getting himself into. "Well at least I’ll really know where I stand." He got into a ready position, shedding all traces of playfulness from his face as Komi tilted her head and watched him like he was a prey. The air around her turned deadly as she unleashed her full killing intent and directed it at Zephyr.

’Fuck. I really think I’m not gonna like this...’

...

Zephyr did not, in fact, like it.

She had rushed him with a flurry of spell models, not giving him any space to breathe at all as he expectedly widened the distance between them. As she was bombarding him with various minor spell models to keep him occupied while she took her time to carefully weave a large spell model that covered the air above them, taking up the whole center of the already massive training room where they sparred. The spell model glowed with a bright orange light as the various symbols and patterns were weaved into their correct positions.

Even without knowing the effect of the spell, Zephyr could tell he was fucked from the immense mana build up in the air above him. The spell model siphoned ambient mana from the surrounding area like a large funnel, glowing brighter like a heavenly being was about to descend. Zephyr, whose attention was still taken wholly by the spells that kept coming at him without any stop, not giving him time to even think clearly enough to cast any spell, gritted his teeth in frustration. ’I just had to talk, huh?!’

Komi was not giving him any room to do anything at all. It was like she had lost all sense of moderation and restraint. Even with his superior speed, he was only able to barely evade the spells directed at him. The reason being that she wasn’t even firing at him specifically. She only targeted his general direction, so a lot of spells that she was burning mana to cast was going to waste, hitting nothing. But it was effective in limiting his range of movement to a very small area where he could do nothing but use his maxed out speed, agility and dexterity stats to evade to the fullest.

Still, it was all futile. By the time Komi finished the Grand spell she was weaving, Zephyr knew he was literally not coming out of there in one piece. As the completed spell model was directed at him, he felt a danger so corporeal, it sent a tremor down his spine that made his sphincter contract violently in fear.

The last thing he saw was the blinding light of a massive beam of energy streaking towards him while he roared at the top of his voice.