The Dragoon Flower extract was a potent medicine to increase one's magic and abilities but only for a span of limited time. The old man upon taking it immediately felt his power surge. It must be instinct but he could tell that if he used it at the later part of their battle then its effect would diminish.
A tinge of pain on his head began throbbing, it persisted for a bit but after a few seconds, it disappeared, his hands that were shaking became stable then his eyes were again focused. He probably had 20 minutes before the effect ran out.
“I’ve been waiting for that! Are you feeling high? Using that means that you are going to go serious on me? Really?” Redgar was beginning to get excited.
The old man’s magic began to crackle. He was going to go all out. It won’t be a simple battle anymore. The boy who was watching from the side began to take their things. It totally drained the tension as Redgar saw the boy doing that.
Out of Redgar’s floating knives, only 18 remained. It floated serenely all pointing towards the old man.
“Here I come,” the old man muttered and he disappeared creating a flash and a low crackle. The old man was much faster, stronger, and sharper. The old man began his relentless attack.
Redgar gritted as he began deflecting attacks from the old man, he then sent one of the knives into the peak. Only aiming to deflect the attacks that could dismember or break him he quickly garnered some wounds.
“Shit!!!” Redgar screamed and he jumped into the air using the knife with wind element to propel him up.
The old man followed him with blinding speed, conjuring floating steps using his magic of light.
Redgar, unable to cancel the effect of the old man’s Armas, tried to escape from the ground, but it was not enough. The relentless attack continued even in the air, yet Redgar’s face showed no worry or doubt—only relentless grit and a smirking mug. It seemed the scarred man still had his own plan.
Redgar then used the wind and water knives to use another kind of magic. As one of each knife collided the sound of metal hitting each other resounded and mist was created, it flowed out as it exploded. Then he used the sound knife to hit another knife creating a sharp sound.
The old man tried to disperse the mist using the swing of his sword but to his surprise, it didn’t work. “What the hell is this?” the old man muttered as he felt that his sword hit none.
“You remember this mist?” the voice of Redgar resounded in the mist. Then the mist opened up with the scarred man in the middle.
Alphecca instantly realized what was the plan. He tried to get out of the mist but collided with the mist preventing his escape. The whole space inside the mist flowed with heat as magic from Redgar’s knives became more vivid.
“Blazing Devastation!” it was the same magic Lenaya used in the illusion back at the dungeon years ago.
Alphecca finally realized he was under some kind of hypnosis. The moment the mist had parted, he should have snapped to attention and attacked, but instead, his thoughts had remained hazy and unfocused. It was as if a fog had settled over his mind, dulling his reactions and clouding his awareness. It must have been the sound he used.
“Feeling lightheaded? Alphecca!” Redgar taunted and he began controlling the solar flares just by using his hands and his mind.
The old man smiled “That’s really sweet of you,” the old man couldn’t dodge and as much as he understood he must fight this off with his own magic.
The old man created a platform of light under his feet as his base to float. Redgar glared as he saw the posture of the old man. As he expected, the old man would try to counter by launching an attack against the flares of the Blazing Devastation.
…
Simon was watching outside the mist. The mist churned like a tempest, its swirling depths illuminated by an eerie, inner glow, it looked like a flickering dome. He could feel the magic between the both of them colliding. The old man was moving as fast as usual and the scarred man was probably in the middle of the dome.
His eyes twitched, the boy had never seen so much magic being used at the same time, usually, when the old man used his Armas it would be immediately all over. Then he heard the mountain rumble.
The boy wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating but he could see the peak beginning to move. The trembles and vibrations were telling him that it was really happening. The atmosphere then became hotter and hotter.
“Aargh!!” and a scream coming from the old man resounded through the mountains.
The boy immediately noticed a build-up of pressure in the mist. He immediately took their things and hid three steps down the stairs whence they came from.
The large ball of mist exploded while the heat waved in the whole summit. The old man flew down but landed on his two feet. Even stuttered as he tried to regain his posture, this time it was the old man who was smoking, there were burns on his shoulders and back.
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The boy was just watching what was happening and by his observation, the peak really did begin to move. It was falling in their direction.
The old man tried looking around and he saw the boy. He thought ‘Good boy’ and then raised his sword into the air. Light burst as the manifestation of his power.
“How much time has passed old man!!” Redgar began screaming, he lost some of his fingers, the pinky, and the ring finger on his right hand. He used the same hand to point to the old man.
The peak began to fall and the old man stood there silently as he summoned the magic on his sword. 15 minutes had passed since the battle began… It is funny that when he was young, he thought that his magic was endless with even limitless possibilities now he needed the drugs to summon the magic he would be needing to break the falling peak.
Redgar used his wind knives to propel up as the peak began to fall. The summit of the mountain trembled.
“I’m gonna cut you into two!” the old man said as he catapulted upwards.
The peak slowly fell as the momentum built up.
Redgar was on the air feeling the wind on his face, he would now end a legend tonight. He summoned back the knives close to him making it rotate. Slicing the peak using his earthen knives really did the trick but he was rapidly losing magic in his body. As the knives rotated around him he drank some potion to recover his magic.
He knew that the falling peak would block the old man to buy more time. Although the old man’s flash step was really fast it had a limit and a distance. He even experimented using the white knives, everything has its limits, the old man was also old and even sick.
Redgar was already at the level of Magic Laws on both fire and wind elements. Unlocking that level of mastery added so much to his magical prowess. Still, The old man could probably dodge all of the things he could launch at him. Redgar smirked as he plans failed. The mist he made earlier was a plan that he knew would never work twice against the old man.
The actions and magic he was doing were all practiced, losing his arm was actually the worst outcome at their exchange inside the mist rather the old man was not as sharp as he used to be.
When the old man launched an attack he just used magic in his sword and not in his body, which was why the old man was burned.
Redgar repelled that attack in exchange for his few fingers which was the far better result.
Three of the floating knives went in front of him. Dirt and earth began floating covering the three earthen knives. Infusing it with a combination of wind and fire he began rotating the three knives. This is a magic combination of Earth as the projectile, wind as the propellant, and fire to increase its power.
(Author’s note: In short it's really a very fast rocket!)
Charging it infusing magic of whatever he had left. He had the time, the old man could either save the boy or crack the peak, but neither of the two would buy him time.
Then trickles of light caught his attention. “No way…” Redgar muttered.
The peak that was falling was literally diced. It seemed that the old man activated his 2nd Phase, he understood why the old man was waiting for it to fall.
“Redgar!! That was too much!!” the old man's screams reverberated and sonic booms were created.
“Sorry is the boy still okay!?” Redgar said with his voice cracking for a laugh. He couldn’t care about the boy.
The old man was standing on a platform of light that was floating in the air, still inside the dust and crumbles of earth he made himself.
He smiled, it had been a long time since he had to actually rely on his skills rather than bursting enemies with his magic which was far simpler. This was the thrill he was looking for, now that he was running out of time he had to formulate every last sword strike he could muster.
The first was to create an unpredictable path. His sword that was made up of light extended then the old man spun to send the rubble of the beautiful peak flying upwards. It cracked the old man’s shoulders when he did, he was really getting old.
As the rock and earth floated he made sure that there would be debris that would be floating close enough to Redgar’s position. Looking around he found it, the path was complete. In connecting the dots of debris and earth he would be using his flash-step.
The old man disappeared from the platform of light that slowly faded.
“No!!” Redgar saw the rubble rise up into the air, it was dangerous, he knew what the old man was planning, and he only got 3 shots of the earthen projectile he charged.
Although the situation was dire Redgar smiled, it should be like this or it wouldn’t be satisfying at all. If he could survive the few more minutes of the old man’s god-like state he would win. It would be all snowball from there.
His senses were polished. Although the old man was very fast his flash step was actually a flashy move and could be easily noticed when he used it. He caught a glance of the flash step that came from the smoke of rubble. He didn’t need to use his eyes… his instinct was more trustworthy.
“There,” and Redgar using his fingers fired one of his charged projectiles.
“Aargh!” it hit the old man, the sound of him gritting was enough proof of it.
Still, knowing that he landed a hit was a total increase in Redgar’s confidence. The white knives glowed as they created a shield-like surface emission of light. It floated as close as possible over his body, although it was probably not going to stop the old man’s attack he was hoping to limit the damage he would receive.
“Lucky shot!” the old man muttered. Then the movements and flashes rapidly increased.’
Redgar glared but his instincts were still on point. The scarred man then used three of his knives to create a sound, it worked like a radar, to his surprise two objects were moving in the air. One was probably the decoy, using his fingers he pointed out. His prediction was crisped cut. Probably it's because of his impatience, he should have waited, or anything else he could have done but it was already too late.
His adrenaline must have blocked his pain receptors but pain began spreading on his chest. All of his knives began falling down one by one… magic was leaving his body. Redgar then checked his body and the tip of the blade was already protruding out of his chest.
“When did you get there?” Redgar asked as he felt his blood running out of his chest.
“That first shot, it hit me on the shoulders, I actually endured through it, threw some decoys while at it-” the magic on the old man’s body began to fade too “-I was already behind your back when I said lucky shot.”
Redgar’s eyes widened “Why… why… did you hold back?” wondering why the old man stood behind him all this time before stabbing him.
“No, my sword was already in your chest, this is the 3rd Phase of my Armas… I could actually turn invisible, you might have seen me use it twice,” the old man then smiled.
“An invisible attack? Couldn’t remember that,” Redgar said.
“Why didn’t you use the same boost when we fought the first time?” the old man asked.
“I want to bring my other eye… or I won’t be able to see Lenaya,” Redgar said gasping the last of his breath.
“That totally makes sense… sorry… I’m a man of my word,” using the same 3rd phase the old man cut Redgar’s body in half. “4th Phase…” the old man muttered and traces of Redgar’s body disappeared… it disintegrated along with a warm flash.
“Seal…” the old man muttered as he fell down from the air.