CHAPTER 193: THE FIRST SMILE

The second that it was declared that there was no longer any time limit for this match, Eisen dashed forward in a burst.

Lucen, seeing Eisen charged at him, had already guessed why a mage like Eisen would do this. The range of his telekinesis should have a certain limit, and the further away from him, the lesser his control.

The Earth Wall had an even shorter range, which forces Eisen to get into close combat if he didn’t have anything to throw at him.

When Eisen got into range, he raised an Earth Wall in front of Lucen, cutting off his view. Eisen was about to break apart the Earth Wall with Telekinesis to attack Lucen and then use the debris as weapons, but before he could do that, he heard Lucen’s voice from behind.

"Don’t you have any other tricks?"

Eisen ducked and did a sweeping kick. Lucen jumped upward, aimed his guns, and shot at Eisen.

The second Lucen made the shot, Eisen had already instinctively used Earth Wall to block and was ready to back away, expecting the Earth Wall to explode, but something else happened.

Instead of exploding or turning to ice, the bullet pierced through the Earth Wall. Eisen could feel the static in the air. Lucen had used something similar to a lightning spell.

Lucen once again got behind Eisen, but this time Eisen had his own ammunition. Several rocks floated beside Eisen, but unlike before, he did not use them to attack.

The second Lucen started shooting, Eisen used the rocks to block or redirect the bullets. Eisen also used the rocks to block Lucen’s sight.

As the two continued exchanging attacks, Eisen suddenly spoke. "I don’t understand. If you continue to fight this way, you’ll eventually exhaust your mana."

Lucen, before giving a response, used a ricochet shot to hit Eisen in his blind spot, but as if he had eyes at his back, Eisen blocked the bullet with a rock.

"Well, the same can be said of you. Using telekinesis the way you do drains a considerable amount of mana. Also, you keep on using Earth Wall like it’s nothing. If it were anyone else but you, their mana would have been depleted long ago."

"Are you saying I will deplete my mana first before you do?" Eisen, who usually had a flat tone, sounded truly confused as he spoke this time.

"Can’t even imagine it, can you?"

While the two were talking, they kept on attacking and defending. Lucen, who was fighting Eisen, noticed something.

’What the f*ck, why didn’t I realize this earlier? The core of Eisen’s fighting style is like the espers in anime. I was thinking of telekinesis, as just a spell that’s like having extra arms. I forgot, there was a whole a*s genre for this type of power system... Well, I guess, unlike espers in anime, in this world, telekinesis uses too much mana, which other spells could accomplish with less mana. Only someone like Eisen could fight like an esper with the telekinesis spell.’

Lucen got a little excited upon gaining that realization. Eisen noticed the excitement in Lucen’s expression and wondered if the other party liked fighting similarly to Duke Kaelvar.

As the two continued their exchange, waiting for an opening, Eisen noticed that the way Lucen was breathing had changed.

Eisen understood that breathing was important to muscle control; he figured this out while watching knights training. Lucen was about to make a big move; the second Eisen thought of that, he lost sight of Lucen.

’Below!’

The second he realized where Lucen was, Eisen quickly backed away, as he barely evaded a bullet from below. Lucen disappeared from his position and got behind Eisen and shot.

Eisen blocked using a rock, but it exploded upon contact with the bullet. Eisen had already expected that a few of these bullets would have some elemental spell, but it should only be a few since Lucen had used a lot of mana already.

Lucen then arrived at Eisen’s side and performed a tornado kick. Eisen ducked to evade, but then Lucen pointed one of his guns at Eisen the second he moved and shot at him.

Eisen used his telekinesis to slow down the bullet again and move one of the floating rocks beside him to block.

This bullet also exploded, and the explosion was a little stronger than before. The burst of debris was about to hit Eisen’s face.

Eisen lifted his two hands, wearing gauntlets, to block the debris. A few of the debris cut Eisen’s uniform and a bit of his skin.

This was the first clear damage received in this entire match. If there was still a time limit, Lucen would have more points now, but this match had no limit. So the only way to win was to knock out the opponent or make the other surrender.

Eisen looked down at the thin cut on his arm. A faint line of blood trickled down. There were also a few scratches on his body, but his expression did not change.

Yet he had no time to continue to assess his current situation as Lucen continued his attack. The speed at which Lucen moved was fast, and hard to predict where he would appear.

The only good thing was that before he made an attack, he needed to slow down, giving Eisen enough time to respond. Still, the intensity of the attack did not give Eisen enough time to think of what to do, as he slowly received more and more damage.

Eisen then thought of a way to escape Lucen’s assault; he used his telekinesis spell in a way he never did before as he lifted himself into the air with it. He was now several meters above ground.

This way of flight looked similar to the third-circle spell float, which, as the name implied, made the user float. This spell was usually used to stop the mage from falling to his death.

Eisen, whose body hovered several meters above the ruined arena, had dust swirling around him with pebbles and rocks floating in orbit like a miniature asteroid belt.

Lucen lowered his guns slightly and smirked. "So you can fly now, but I can do that as well." Lucen jumped upward and started shooting at the ground, making small, precise explosions, propelling himself forward towards Eisen.

Eisen’s eyes tracked Lucen’s every movement as he soared upward, propelled by the rapid detonations. Each shot echoed like thunderclaps, the smoke trailing behind him forming a spiral of flame and dust.

He and the audience had already seen Lucen use this trick in the match before, but only briefly; now he was using it continuously.

Lucen then continued his attack this time in mid-air, but it was slower than when he was moving on the ground since there was a limit to the speed given to him by propelling with explosions.

Eisen evaded the attacks by moving his body around using telekinesis and blocking a few he could not dodge with the orbiting rocks, which he then used to counter-attack.

The audience on the ground was in awe. To those who knew how many circles the two had in their mana cores, this feat was even more impressive.

A first-circle mage and a second-circle hybrid were able to perform something that only those at the sixth-circle and above could do, which was flight.

Eisen’s expression remained calm, but his focus was sharper than ever. The pebbles and rocks orbiting him began to rotate faster, forming an invisible barrier that deflected Lucen’s bullets with razor precision.

This was the best option he could do for now. Lucen then got close enough and let go of one of his guns, pointing his open palm at Eisen at close range.

The second Eisen saw this, he immediately remembered Lucen’s explosion attack that destroyed all the rocks that covered the sky before. Eisen quickly backed away as he placed all of the rocks he had gathered in front of him.

That was when he heard the now familiar sound of gunshots, but the barrier of rock he created did not break. Instead, he felt something from behind and tried to evade, but it was too slow. Something hit his shoulder from behind.

A bullet had pierced his brachial plexus, making him now unable to move his left arm. ’Well, it doesn’t matter. The pain is bearable, and I can still move this arm using telekinesis.’

As Eisen continued to fly around, he saw that Lucen, who had tricked him, had landed on the ground. The two guns were no longer in his hands.

’Did he finally exhaust his mana? Or is he about to yield?’

The second Eisen thought Lucen was going to yield, he shook his head. The thing he learned about Lucen through this battle was that this person will never yield. ’So then what is he about to do?’

Not knowing what was about to come, Eisen went lower to the ground and used Earth Wall several times, and then used telekinesis to lift up all the Earth Walls to create something similar to a floating fortress that surrounded Eisen.

An unfamiliar weapon to Eisen then appeared in Lucen’s hand. This was the bolt-action rifle Lucen used when fighting the Goblin King.

Lucen then imbued the bullets with the lightning element. He was not really bothered by the floating fortress of rocks that Eisen had suddenly built in the meantime.

Lucen fired the rifle, and a lightning round shot out at incredible speed, making crackling sounds, and showing a blue streak of light passed by, followed by the sound of thunder.

The bullet pierced through everything that blocked its path. Eisen tried to slow it down, but he could only barely do it.

Eisen then lifted his two hands, wearing gauntlets. The sound of the bullet hitting the gauntlet rang. The gauntlets then cracked and broke. Eisen then fell from the air and was about to hit the ground.

As he was about to use telekinesis to stop his fall, for the first time in his life, he actually felt a bit of exhaustion from using his mana.

Even though he had stopped his fall and had survived Lucen’s attack, Eisen had a confused expression on his face. This was the first time a clear expression was seen on Eisen’s face.

Lucen, who was steadying his breathing as he also exhausted most of his mana after that attack, he smiled at Eisen and spoke.

"Is your mana pool finally getting depleted?"

Eisen didn’t answer. He simply stared at his trembling hand, still faintly glowing with mana. For the first time, that glow flickered. The confusion that was stuck on his face returned to a serene calm.

"I see... A human’s mana after all is finite." Seeing his reaction made Lucen sigh.

"How boring, are you truly not a robot?"

"I don’t even know what a robot is," Eisen replied flatly.

"... It doesn’t matter." Lucen tried to change the topic. "Seeing as both of us are exhausted, and seeing as you are the one who has received quite a bit of damage to your body, how about you concede. You’ve run out of tricks, Eisen. You don’t have any moves that can harm me, and you’re bleeding out. The logical move is to concede, right?"

Eisen’s eyes stared at Lucen for a few seconds, and then he looked at his body. The only reason he was even able to move now was because he was using telekinesis to move his body.

The amount of blood flowing out of him would eventually make him faint, thus making him lose.

There was also the fact that what Lucen said was true. He had used every kind of trick he could perform, but not a single thing had hit Lucen.

’It would seem that the factor of battle experience had played a huge role in this outcome... Yes, what Lucen said was correct, the logical thing to do is not to waste any more time and surrender, but...’

Eisen could feel his heart racing. Even though his thoughts were to yield, there was something else. He did not want to admit defeat just yet.

Fighting and talking with Lucen was enjoyable. He had learned so much just from this simple clash and a few words from him. If he continued, he should be able to learn more, but much more than that, he simply did not want to lose to Lucen.

He did not know where this illogical feeling was coming from. It’s not like he has never lost a fight before. He had lost many times against the Duchess Seraphina. Yet for some unexplainable reason, he did not want to admit defeat against Lucen.

"Everything you say is correct." Eisen finally spoke after that long pause.

"So will you concede?"

"No, I will not," Eisen answered while shaking his head.

"Huh?" This time, it was Lucen’s turn to be confused.

The crowd was silent. Everyone was waiting to hear what Eisen was about to say next.

"Everything you say is true, but I don’t feel like losing to you, Lucen Thornehart."

For the first time, the logical voice in his mind fell quiet. The noise of the crowd faded, replaced by the steady thrum of his heartbeat. It was at that brief moment, for the first time in his entire life, that Eisen showed a smile.

Lucen blinked; he then showed a bright smile when he heard Eisen’s reply. ’Heh, this dialogue, it’s like something from those hot-blooded animes. Did I somehow gain a rival?’