CHAPTER 126: FRANTIC STRUGGLE

The Elder braced for the next attack, disregarding his momentum-killing force field in favor of a more solid barrier.

He wove his spell models in the air, stacking barrier upon barrier on top of each other while staring at Florian, who watched his preparation with a placid look.

"Overconfident..." the Elder whispered to himself, taking the chance to prepare even more spell models to the maximum his mind could handle and hold at a time.

By the time he finished, there were four stacked barrier spells surrounding him and another two advanced attack spell models waiting for him to channel mana through them.

The spells gave him a sense of security that made him recover his confidence as an Elder. He assessed the situation with a more levelheaded outlook, thinking back to how his opponent—Florian, had cast the earlier spell.

The spell was way too fast. Had there even been signs of a spell model being woven?

Florian watched the man finish his preparations before finally moving. He stretched both his arms out slowly, and right behind him, the massive sword that held Dana’s pierced body up began to dissolve like a liquid and float in the air around him like he was some kind of metal lord.

The Elder’s eyes widened immediately. "Exalted?! The Crestwoods were hiding an Exalted?!" he muttered in shock at the absurdity of it. "No, no, no, no..." he quickly corrected himself, seeing a small resemblance between the young man and other Crestwoods. He had their signature blond hair and general look, so he was surely a mixed blood.

A Half-Exalted!

It wasn’t as absurd, but it was still unbelievable. It meant that a Crestwood had intermingled with an Half-Exalted at some point, and this young man was the result.

How? How could it have been possible?! He knew very clearly how insanely difficult the Exalted had made breeding with any of their bloodline to be...

The Elder’s eyes refocused as Florian drew the last bit of metal from the sword into the air.

The metal surrounding him suddenly stopped moving, and immediately Florian launched at the Elder with a dash, sending a spear of metal flying ahead of him.

The spear struck the Elder’s barrier dead on with a loud bang, and though the barrier held strong, the Elder couldn’t help but frown at the extent of the force the attack carried. Defending passively wasn’t going to be viable for a long time.

He activated the attack spell models he had floating in the air. They both rapidly released heat and moisture into the air, creating the perfect environment from which the main spell effect—lightning—was created.

He sent the lightning attack directly at Florian, expecting him to dismiss the metals he moved around him constantly.

But surprisingly, Florian still charged at the Elder head-on. He simply spread the metal into a cage-like shape that led into the ground and timed a jump into the air just as the lightning spell hit.

It passed right through the whole metal construct and dispersed into the ground to the shock of the Elder.

Florian landed immediately, and closed the distance, reshaping his metals into two heavy hammers that pounded down heavy blows on the barrier in quick succession.

The Elder gritted his teeth, looking for a way out, but Florian wasn’t giving him any. The blows were so heavy that it required all his mental focus to keep the barrier solid. In fact, with every hit, the dome started to sink deeper into the ground, and him along with it.

He, an Elder, was being totally overwhelmed by this young man to the point where he could do nothing but passively receive the attacks.

Who the hell is this kid?!!

Florian continued to pound on the Elder’s barrier, sinking him further into the ground until he was halfway buried.

The Elder was at a loss for what to do next. He hated the passive situation, but there was nothing he could do at all. But suddenly, Florian abruptly stopped his attack, taking the Elder by surprise.

He jumped a few steps back to his earlier position, widening the gap between him and the Elder.

The Elder didn’t let the chance slip by. As Florian retreated, he jumped out of the hole he had nearly been fully buried in with a roar and wove an advanced fire spell model in the air, activating it immediately. It honed in on Florian’s position, blasting down intensely at the metal wall he instinctively raised to shield himself.

Since electricity hadn’t worked before, the Elder now intended to overwhelm him with intense heat.

And it seemed to be working. Florian kept layering his metal wall with even more metal, moving further away from the area of the flames.

Their roles had changed. Florian was now the one on the passive end. But the Elder was still very wary, keeping up his barrier just in case.

Florian had thrown away his overwhelming advantage for seemingly no reason whatsoever, so he’d be a fool if he thought the young man wasn’t planning anything.

But as he channeled more mana into his fire spell model, watching as it melted the metal, making it harder for Florian to control, he began considering dropping his barrier spells to the bare minimum and going all out with his full power.

At the moment, most of his power was skewed towards his defensive barrier. If he put more into his attack instead, he was sure to overwhelm the young man.

Just as he was debating this, he was suddenly jarred out of his thoughts by a sharp pain on his thigh.

"Urkhh—" he buckled slightly before stabilizing his footing.

"What was that?!" He stared at a small, bleeding hole in his thigh.

His eyes flitted about, scanning for where it might have come from, when he spotted something blur past before feeling another sharp pain in his abdomen this time.

He ceased his fire attack immediately, focusing solely on stacking more layers of barrier around himself.

He dropped to a knee, holding his abdomen to stem the blood that was leaking out.

How had his barrier been breached?! Was the boy somehow in here with him?! He scanned around with increased vigilance but found nothing.

Whizz

This time his eyes caught the blur more vividly, and he ducked to the side immediately, trying to evade, but his leg was still caught by the attack.

"Hiss—!"

He clenched his jaws in pain. "How is my barrier being breached?!!" He hissed, compacting the stacked barriers closer around himself even further.

"Show yourself you dog! Fight me like a man and stop attacking from the shadows!!" he called out, hoping to goad the young man into action.

"I am fighting you like a man already." Florian walked out of the smoke from the fires that burned previously, showing himself fully. "I don’t need to hide to finish you off."

As he spoke, a black blur suddenly slashed at his position, but he leaned slightly to the side, evading cleanly with a tilt of his brow. "That’s the extent of your space magic?" Florian watched the spatial slash travel into the distance, where it split Dana’s body on the ground into two before dispersing weakly.

"I was wary of your space magic after fighting her," he nodded at what was left of Dana in the distance before turning back to face the Elder, "but yours is actually really pathetic."

The Elder frowned, sending more spatial slashes straight at Florian, but it was all futile. The destructive power itself was sufficient, but it lacked the speed to hit Florian even once. Space magic had never been his forte, but it was the only spell he had in his arsenal that Florian was sure to not be able to block head-on.

Florian shook his head in disappointment as he watched the Elder’s frantic display. "So much power at your disposal, yet you do not know how to utilize it effectively," he sighed. "In the end I guess it’s just a skill issue."