My spells, unlike how it is usually depicted in other fiction, don't work using mana or any magical energy of some sort. In the first place, I don't possess such a thing. Instead, my spells use my Stamina instead as fuel.

A fact that I learned during my training since the longer I spam them spells, the more I feel like I just ran through a marathon.

Now with such information, one would surely understand why the timing for this battle is probably the worse cause not only I'm not in peak condition anymore cause I've been spamming spells since this morning up until now, but I also don't have the time to even prepare anything.

True, I bought my items with me and they are just sitting somewhere close by. But before I could even make an attempt to get them, the sound that indicates the beginning of the battle already rang and ahead of me, there's already a weird-looking guy standing there...

In short, my opponent is already here, and I doubt that he'll let me put on my ass-kicking stuff even if I asked.

Not gonna lie, looking at my opponent right now, the guy's overall aesthetic and vibes look pretty menacing as hell. He's really making me feel that bloodthirsty of his. The fact that he looks like an ugly bastard as well did not help at all.

Now as for my reaction to that. Well...

*Bang!*

Doesn't matter since I just pulled out my gun and immediately shot at him. Not even giving him time to say his generic voice lines.

Well, I currently don't have my rifle indeed and my other goodies as well but that doesn't mean I'm completely hopeless already. I mean, I'm not that dumb, of course I would think of separating one of my trusty guns and strapping it in me as a preparation for these kinds of scenarios.

It's not much but it's definitely better than nothing.

"Woah woah woah~ For a newbie, you sure are prepared."

The bullet I fired was easily dodged by the guy. After seeing me pulling something out of my back packets, all of a sudden, he disappeared like he wasn't even there in the first place.

"... You even have a gun with ya~"

Of course, I immediately tried looking for him by glancing in all kinds of directions but I can't find him still.

"That's not something a kid like you should have."

His voice that was echoing throughout the area is also not helping me pinpoint his exact location since it was going all over the place. Sometimes I hear him near me, then next far away from me... Basically, every time he speaks, the location of the voice changes.

"... Where did you get something like that huh?"

I am already guessing what my opponent's sigil could be. At first, I thought that it might be invisibility or something, but judging how he kept changing places right now with almost no delay then the only answer is probably teleportation or something similar to that.

"Not talking? Alright then..."

In any case, if he can really change places at will, then I will really have a hard time fighting him. Almost all the things in my arsenal right now are projectile-based, so unless I can put him in a spot where he cannot move for some time, then hitting him would be almost impossible.

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But that's the thing... doing such a feat is also as impossible, especially in a place I'm currently in where there's literally not a thing here to help me do that.

That's why I quickly decided to give up on the idea of trying to catch him and immediately went for an idea I know that is a bit effective for this kind of scenario.

I mean, If I can't hit him, then I'll just have to make it so he also cannot hit me.

"[Light Barrier]"

Upon doing my training today, I found out another interesting fact about my Spells.

It's that, my spells have no casting cooldown.

Well actually, it does have a cooldown, but that cooldown seems to be nothing but an indicator for a Stamina consumption reset and not to prevent me from spamming spells... cause I definitely can spam spells if I want to.

But here's the thing, if do that, the amount of stamina it would take me to cast that particular spell doubles or sometimes triples even as the spamming goes by. And in order to reset the usual amount of stamina my spells take from me whenever I recast them again, I would have to wait for that one-minute cooldown first.

In short, spamming is taxing for me but definitely doable.

That's why in this competition of ours where we both compete to see who can act more like a b*tch, then I am definitely a force to reckon with.

"So that's your Sigil huh?"

And my opponent seems to have got the gist of what I was trying to do since he finally showed up in front of me again.

"Well, that's a pretty annoying sig-"

*BANG!*

As much as I want him to continue what he was trying to say, he can't cause my gun is not interested.

Unfortunately though, he didn't get hit by the bullets and just teleported somewhere else again. But this time, he didn't disappear and just reappeared behind me, then...

*THSIING!!!*

He struck my light barrier with his knife... which was then deflected away. But I'm pretty sure that he was just testing how sturdy my barrier is so I guess it did not really matter.

Well, my barrier can block a couple of gunshots before breaking apart so if this is all he can do, then he would really have a hard time getting me...

*BANG!*

After him striking my barrier, I immediately turned around and then shot at him again. Though just like how it is usually, I missed him again since he just teleported out of the way.

He teleports away, attacks me, gets blocked by my barrier, I then shoot at him, repeat... This routine would go on again and again for at least a couple of minutes continuously. Well, there's literally nothing we can do to each other, do we?

In fact, I even have the advantage since I have a safe zone of my own and can attack freely using my gun. Unlike to him where one wrong move he makes and he will get a hole in his body.

But I know that this extra advantage of mine would not last long. I mean, I only have a gun in me. That's all, no extra bullets or anything so... I can only do so much with it until the time when I finally ran out of bullets comes.

Which is not that far from happening cause...

*Click!*

*Click!*

After a long while of shooting non-stop, my gun finally made a clicking sound, indicating that the mag inside my gun is finally clean and empty.

"Shit!"

*Thud!*

Making me very pissed off as I threw the gun away out of frustration.

"HAH!!! FINALLY!!"

Now seeing me lose my gun, my opponent reappeared in front of me and made some happy noises, knowing that other than my barrier, I finally have nothing more.

"Why are you laughing like you won already you bitch?"

"Oh? Finally speaking are we?" My opponent said to me laughingly as he excitedly pulled out another blade behind him.

"I mean, you don't have your gun anymore. You don't have a way to hinder me from smashing those shields of yours into pieces."

"... You don't know that."

"Oh?"

"My sigil, King of Barriers, allows me to construct a barrier of protection around me whenever I want to. Now all I have to do is stay in here until the time for the fight is over haha. And since you are the challenger, once the time is up, it will be my victory."

After saying that, I immediately cast another light barrier around me, making the cracks that were all over my pre-existing barrier, disappear. Turning it back into its brand-new state.

I was full of smiles watching this happen, but suddenly...

*Tashk!*

*Crack!*

A knife immediately collided with my barrier and cracks reappeared in it again. Making the smiles on my face, disappeared.

"... Wait for the timer to run out? Haha, we'll see about that!"

After that, my opponent started unleashing a barrage of attacks on my barrier while laughing madly. While he's doing that, he's also teleporting around me, making the cracks all over my barrier even worse.

Obviously, I tried keeping up with him, casting Light Barrier whenever my barrier is already on the verge of breaking, healing all the cracks up.

*Crack!*

*Crack!*

*Crack!*

But due to the unstoppable barrage of my opponent, that brand new state of my barrier wouldn't last very long as it would be filled with nothing but cracks not long after. Making me cast another one to keep it all up.

This process would repeat over and over again...

Over and over until...

"L- Light Barrier!"

I am now on the verge of my own consciousness. I am now so tired that I can barely breathe anymore. I tried not to make it obvious but before I even notice it, I am now panting heavily on the floor, salivating.

"HAHAHA!!! WHAT'S UP, RUNNING OUT OF FUEL??"

And my opponent didn't fail to notice this of course as he became even more hyperactive about smashing my barrier into pieces.

*Crack!*

*Crack!*

Now, the barrier I just put up, is already on the verge of breaking again... Seeing this I immediately raised my hand with obvious great difficulty and tried casting a spell again.

"Li- Light..."

As I call out the name of the spell that I was about to cast, I continue raising my shaking poor tired hand. I continued raising it up until it was finally at its most likable spot.

Right in front of my opponent's face.

Then... I called out the name of the spell that I was going to cast.

"ICE THORN."

"Eh?"

He must be so surprised that instead of a barrier made of light surrounding me, Ice started gathering in front of my palm instead. Now he indeed noticed it, but it was already too late cause before he could even process what in the world is even happening...

My Ice Thorn got already launched... right through his face that is.

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