CHAPTER 192: BEYOND UNDERSTANDING

Just before Eisen threw the rocks down at him, while the two of them were talking, Lucen activated his trump card. The one skill he only used when there was no other choice: RELEASE.

He had only used this technique a couple of times, and most of the time he used it in the beginning, he would faint afterwards. But after a while, he learned how much he could take before fainting.

The moment he invoked RELEASE, pain lanced through every muscle fiber, sharp and burning like molten steel being poured into his veins.

His bones creaked under invisible pressure, and his heartbeat thundered in his ears. But beneath the agony came a flood of raw power, wild and untamed, surging through him like a raging tide.

His muscles started bulging a little as his heartbeat accelerated even faster than before.

"Very well, let me see how you will deal with this." Eisen made a downward motion with his hand, and the rocks floating above came crashing down towards Lucen.

Seeing the scene of so many rocks falling towards him at incredible speed, Lucen continued to smile as he made his mana flow towards his hand.

He had seen a similar technique used in an anime he watched before, when a girl who had the ability to make things float with a touch fought against an aggressive explosion guy.

Though the sheer amount of rocks coming at him was easily thrice the amount in that anime, and they’re moving at an even faster speed due to telekinesis.

’I’m going to recreate that scene, here and now!’ Lucen thought to himself as he expelled a lot of mana outward, the same move he used against the young fire dragon.

A huge ball of Lucen’s concentrated mana came flying out of his hand and met the numerous falling rocks.

The collision happened midair, then the world turned white. The sound that followed was not a sound but a roar that devoured everything.

A blinding explosion erupted, swallowing the entire sky. It was so loud that quite a few of the audience had their eardrums pop.

The shockwave tore through the stage, cracking the arena floor and slamming against the reinforced barrier with a thunderous boom.

The dust and smoke spread everywhere. The barrier shook as the mages strengthened it further.

The first thing that came to mind for most people when they saw this scene was a question. Were these two truly just teens?

"These children! Hahaha! As expected of the child of my rival and best friend!"

Kaelvar became even more excited, and his aura was unconsciously leaking like a wildfire. It was a good thing that the people near him were at his level, so they weren’t affected too much.

Elandor did not dare to loosen his grip on Kaelvar. This was a fool who could very well start a war, simply because he wanted to fight someone strong.

***

"So that’s what happens when you use your mana outside your unique magic. Also, the ability to burst out with more mana and aura, with obvious signs of strengthening your physical body, I wonder were you learned that trick and how far you can go with it."

Robert started mumbling excitedly to himself as he watched the explosion before him. Even he who was a fourth-circle mage couldn’t reproduce such a strong offensive spell.

***

Eisen was surprised by Lucen’s spell and blocked the incoming debris from the explosion using telekinesis.

’Using that much mana should have nearly exhausted his mana supply. So what else would he do now?’

While Eisen was thinking, he saw some movement in the smoke. Lucen appeared from the smoke, and his two guns were pointing at Eisen. Before Lucen made a shot, Eisen had already evaded by sidestepping.

The sound of gunshots could be heard echoing. Lucen had already anticipated Eisen to dodge, and did a backfist, aiming at Eisen’s head.

Eisen blocked the attack with his hands, wearing gauntlets. Lucen’s fist, enveloped by his aura mantle, made Eisen slide backward from the impact.

Lucen then aimed his left gun at Eisen’s abdomen. The moment he fired, Eisen had predicted this and was ready to slow down the bullet using his telekinesis.

It was rather effective, making Eisen able to dodge the bullet. Unfortunately, Lucen had also made his own prediction and foresaw Eisen dodging that way and had fired a bullet aimed at the area where Eisen’s feet would land after dodging.

Frost bloomed from the point of impact, racing across the stone floor like living veins of white lightning. In the blink of an eye, the ground crackled, and Eisen’s boots froze solid.

Eisen glanced down at his feet, and when he saw what had happened, he raised his hand slightly, then the air rippled as cracks spiderwebbed through the ice, lifting every shard into the air.

A faint cracking sound followed; every shard of ice around him shattered at once, lifted by his telekinesis, and turned into floating projectiles.

Lucen’s eyes widened. ’This guy’s proficiency in using the telekinesis spell is so f*cking insane.’

Eisen made a motion with his finger and pointed at Luce. The shards of ice flew like arrows towards Lucen, who started shooting, aiming at the shards of ice.

Lucen’s marksmanship skill synergized with his gun kata skill as he shot down the shards of ice while having time to twirl his two guns.

After shooting down the shards of ice, Lucen lost sight of Eisen. It was at that moment that his battle instinct sounded an alarm, as he looked down and saw Eisen crouched as he unleashed an uppercut.

Lucen swayed his body backward, evading the strike. He then countered with a frontal kick. Eisen caught Lucen’s leg with both hands, the impact sending a ripple of dust outward.

His boots cracked deeper into the stone beneath, but his expression remained composed. Eisen was about to use Earth Wall to attack, since he had a grip on Lucen’s leg, but before he could do so, Lucen fired his aimed at Eisen’s head, who was forced to let go of Lucen’s leg and duck to evade.

Lucen then took some distance from Eisen; the two stared at each other. Lucen still had that smile on his face, while Eisen looked as emotionless as ever, his black eyes staring at Lucen, calculating the next few moves to make.

The smoke had finally cleared, and only a few of the audience members caught that dazzling exchange of attack and defense between the two.

The crowd had forgotten to breathe. Even the nobles leaned forward, eyes wide. No one wanted to miss a single movement from the two.

***

Lysette had her eyes wide open as she watched the match between Lucen and Eisen. She had predicted that it was going to be a match like no other, but she never expected it to be like this.

She looked at the devastation of the battle between the two. The stage that was enhanced with runes had crumbled and nearly disappeared.

Yet even after all that, neither of them had received any significant damage. Lucen, who had never been hit in the entire tournament, remained smiling, his trench coat just a little dusty.

’A smile was a tool...’ Those words spoken by Lucen about smiling had resonated within her, as it was something she had always done.

’Is that smile due to your certainty of your victory, or is it a smile to hide the fear of failure. You truly are an exciting person to observe.’

Lysette did not notice it as she was so focused on that match, but her heart was beating faster and faster, and there was even a slight blush on her face. It made her look as if she were intoxicated.

***

"I see... So you’re something similar to a magic knight, having both a mana core and an aura mantle. Is that why you did not hesitate to gamble a majority of your mana?" Eisen asked as he continued to observe Lucen’s movement.

"A gamble implies that I wasn’t certain of the outcome," Lucen said with a grin, his eyes glinting with fiery confidence.

’In my past life, I was the type to play MMOs, counting the cool downs of my skills and of my enemies.’

"You’re telling me every move you made is planned?"

Lucen shrugged his shoulders before he answered. "Who knows, maybe, maybe not."

Eisen narrowed his eyes slightly. "You speak as though you can predict every variable in a battle, like in some game. But combat isn’t a game."

Lucen chuckled. "Well, that depends on how you look at things."

Eisen looked at Lucen, scanning his expression and his subtle body movements. "I have seen many different people, and even now, I have difficulty understanding most of them, but even then, they move in certain ways that even someone like me can understand a little, but with you, I can’t understand at all."

"That’s normal, isn’t it? To understand yourself is already hard enough, but to understand someone else, well, that’s even more difficult."

Eisen stared at Lucen, who continued to have that confident smile on his face. ’To understand yourself?... Now that I think about it, I have always observed others, but I never observed myself... Do I even understand myself?’

Eisen clenched his fist, and his mana started leaking out like a tidal wave. For the first time ever, there was a distortion in that emotionless face of his.

It went by quickly before he returned to that emotionless look, but those who were focused on him saw it, a subtle hint of emotion.

"I see... That is something to think about. I would want to continue this conversation, but our time is almost up. This match must end."

When Lucen and the audience heard what Eisen said, they finally remembered that this match had a time limit, and there were only two minutes left before the end of the match.

"NO! I can’t accept that! I want to continue to watch you two battle! Don’t worry about the time limit. The only reason we even put that there in the first place is because there were too many contestants, but now there are only a few of you. So it should be alright if you don’t care about that time limit. That should be fine, right, Principal Aldren?"

Kaeldar spoke in a loud voice so that everyone could hear, as he asked the Principal if he agreed.

Principal Aldren sighed as Kaelvar’s booming voice echoed through the entire arena. He could hear the audience members also agreeing to it.

Principal Aldren then looked at the King, who smiled and nodded his head. Aldren sighed as he spoke up. Very well. The time restriction will be lifted for this match onward!"

The audience cheered after hearing Aldren’s words. Lucen widened his grin as he spoke amidst the cheers. "It would seem our playtime has been extended."