CHAPTER 96: ZEPHYR VS SAGE MAXIMUS (1)

Zephyr strained as much as he could, but the floating orb of water simply refused to compress.

Clearly whatever translation origin was using to execute his intention of ’compression’ wasn’t working the same way as it had with the fire spell. Mainly because water was malleable and had a fixed volume compared to the fire spell that was simply a gaseous combustion reaction. It could be compressed to something very tiny to pack more violent energy within.

That’s not going to work, host. Aegis informed Zephyr. Water as a liquid is mostly incompressible, so I’d suggest giving up on treating it like a gas. Rather you should focus on using it to its strengths. For example, you can visualize it as a high pressure jet.

Zephyr immediately altered his approach. He stopped trying to compress the orb of water and instead focused on giving it a rod-like shape.

Sage Maximus in the middle of the training room stared at Zephyr with a nod of approval. The boy seemed to understand the nature of the various states of matter. He watched as the water floating over the boy’s hands began to stretch thin and rotate, building up speed increasingly with a sharp hissing sound.

"Slow..." Sage Maximus muttered softly. "Way too slow." Zephyr had used more than four seconds to switch from flame to water, and another four to five seconds to shape it to his will. While it was fast for his age, and for someone trying out a spell on the fly for the first time... it was still too slow on the general scale of things. The people he would be up against had comprehended various words that allowed them to cast specific spells within the blink of an eye.

They would never allow Zephyr such a generous amount of time like he had used to switch and shape the spell.

Eventually, Zephyr finished shaping the spell. He locked his gaze with Sage Maximus, who smiled amusedly at him like this was all child’s play.

Zephyr clenched his jaws, pointing both hands at the sage to focus the water jet like a nozzle. Unlike the fire arrow spell, this needed more continuous guidance.

FSSSZZZ!

The high pressure water jet shot towards the sage with rapid speed, closing in on his position near instantly. As it reached the sage, Zephyr waved his pointed hands downward diagonally in a slash, using the water jet like a high velocity cutting tool to attack the sage.

"Hmph" Sage Maximus snorted, waving the back of his hand to meet the water jet and materializing a spell model simultaneously. The water jet collided with his hand in a splatter—

"A Hit!" Zephyr, already in a heightened state of awareness, felt the impact of his spell within a split second, but didn’t celebrate yet. He doubted it was going to be that easy... and he wasn’t wrong.

The resistance that was supposed to follow through was not felt at all. He only felt the first impact, and when the scattered water in the air cleared enough for him to see Sage Maximus’ hand, he saw that it was still fully whole. The sage had flash frozen the water jet at the point of impact, turning it solid within milliseconds and shattering it, creating a gap wide enough for his body to pass through the jet unharmed.

He stood with one hand still behind his back, and the other outstretched, with a sneer directed at Zephyr like he was asking him... ’Is this all you’ve got?’

"What the fuck?" Zephyr, blurted out in confusion, almost losing control of the water jet for a moment.

Well, that doesn’t conform to fluid dynamics. Even Aegis inputted.

Even if Sage Maximus had flash frozen a section of the water jet, because of the speed at which the water was moving, that space would have been filled in a matter of nanoseconds, leaving no room for his body to pass through wholly. This was common logic... But yet, the sage had defied that logic... How?!

Zephyr gritted his teeth and came back for another swing. He’d never expected it to be easy anyway. This was someone generally recognized as one of the strongest people in the whole Freehold Sanctuary, so this much was expected.

He brought the water jet in for another impact, watching closely to see how the sage evaded. But yet again, it happened too fast.

"...How the hell is he doing it," Zephyr muttered under his breath. Coming in for another swing again. And another. And another.

Sage Maximus’ excitement began to taper out and his expression slowly became more and more flat, like he was getting genuinely unimpressed. That look irked Zephyr who was growing increasingly impatient. He was now keeping up with this simply to keep some form of attack constant on the sage.

’Aegis, have you figured anything out?!’

Still analyzing, host....

....

....

Pattern gotten!

Host! The same way your spell is a constant rapid flow, his flash freeze is also matching the velocity and speed of the flow, creating the space for him to pass through freely...

’But isn’t there supposed to be more ice on the ground that way?!’ Zephyr sent a thought while putting pressure on the sage.

That was the same point of my earlier confusion and why I wasn’t willing to jump to the conclusion that he was matching your spell velocity. The shattered ice on the ground is indeed way too little for such a large amount of frozen water.

But I have noticed another subtle pattern, host.

Watch the air around his hand very carefully as your water jet makes impact.

Zephyr focused his gaze instantly, watching for what Aegis pointed out... and indeed it was right there! A slight distortion in the air just as the impact and splatter happened each time.

’He’s using some kind of space magic?!’

Affirmative, host! He’s been disposing of the excess shattered ice to throw you off the whole time. Mind games. Subtle deceit at its peak!

’This damn old cheat!’ Zephyr gnashed his teeth as he increased his efforts. He wanted to curse at the sage for not playing by the rules... for using magic beyond his level, but then he realized, there weren’t any rules in the first place. Sage Maximus had never told him he was going to hold back... or use magic at Zephyr’s level... or basically ’not cheat.’ Why had he defaulted to thinking he was going to? The sage was simply receiving his attacks with his wealth of experience, so what was wrong with that?

Another lesson learned.

Zephyr switched tactics. He needed to try something different again.

He moved. And Sage Maximus’ eyebrow tilted up slowly like he just regained life. He had gotten tired of swatting at the water jets with a single hand for a while now, and was about to switch things up... but it seemed like he didn’t have to.

"Interesting—"