When the wand’s eruption occurred, Sieg threw himself to the left side, once more performing a skillful side roll. However, such a course of action was predictable despite Sieg’s necessity to do so. Before Sieg could even land, his body was welcomed by a stream of soaring knives which cleanly dug past his robe’s futile resistance and etched themselves into his flesh.

Sieg could do nothing but bear the pain until at last his evasion of the deadly blast was complete. The moment he landed he did not hesitate to conjure a wind gust that swatted away the following knives dashing towards him.

Sieg paid no heed to the knives which did pierce him and instead focused on unleashing a rain of fire onto his opponent. Golden 3 on the other hand began taking one wand after the other and sending them forth. Just like so the battlefield ignited into a frenzy of flames. Both Sieg and Golden 3 could not avoid the torching of their flesh as they continued the arduous battle.

BOOM!

A wand ignited into scorching fury before another did, then another, and another…

BOOM!

As Sieg avoided yet another near encounter with the deadly eruption and just as he retaliated with his own orbs of flames, he could not help but curse at the nature in which Golden 3 chose to approach this battle. However despite his bitterness over it, he could also not deny its genius. To intentionally oversaturate a conductor with his Inner-Mana and then send it forth as it explodes was the perfect way to quickly create devastating attacks while negating Sieg’s inherent advantage of being able to forge spells within rapid succession of each other. In the hands of a lesser foe, then even such a trick would have failed to place a mage within such a precarious situation, yet Golden 3’s mastery over The Artifice Sword-Style was what made this battle such a dire one.

Sieg would not win this battle if this continued, however, he did not fear such a possibility in the slightest. After all…

BOOM!

While once more avoiding another eruption, Sieg felt his legs be pierced by the sharp points of knives. He ignored the small agony which they brought, a task easily done when the heat of the explosion near him was a far worse torture.

However, even then his focus was not upon that scorching pain, instead his eyes were firmly locked on Golden 3’s remaining number of wands. It appeared that his foe had at last arrived upon his final wand. While Golden 3 may have successfully suppressed him with the clever usage of sorcery, should Sieg successfully dodge this final wand then it meant that his victory would be assured.

That realization made Sieg’s blood boil with elation.

I just need to push a little more!

Fire erupted in the space before his hands and soon a new barrage of fire spears shot forth towards Golden 3. Naturally, Golden 3 was able to avoid most of their fury unscathed and even through a few more knives forth. He then at last reached for his final wand, grasping it tightly with his left hand. Just as he did, Golden 3 opened his lips and began speaking within a foreign language, that of Dragonese.

“In front of me my enemies wait…”

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Planning to use magic now? As if I’d let you!

Just as Golden 3 began his chant, Sieg summoned forth a bombardment of fire orbs. They were small and were forged of a miniscule amount of Inner-Mana yet that allowed their speed to be quicker and their rate of fire to be significantly faster.

Golden 3 evaded each fire orb with varying difficulty, his chant never ceasing.

“...before my eyes I ask that they become part of your dance as they are set in a glorious blaze, I Manifest thou, Fireball!”

Golden 3’s voice layered atop itself as a fireball thrice the size of the current fire orbs being sent his way manifested.

It burned with sizzling fury, the wand’s tip aimed directly at Sieg. Then the fireball shot forth.

Sieg clicked his tongue in annoyance for having failed to disturb the spell’s conjuring and swiftly jumped sideways to evade with the aid of a rapidly manifested wind blast. The fireball would be concerning if it landed, yet far less so than the previous eruptions which Golden 3 had been sending his way.

Sieg merely assumed that this was the start of Golden 3’s forward strategy. From what he could tell, Golden 3 would send a few spells Sieg’s way in an attempt to make his releasing of the wand's combustion unpredictable and increase the chances of it landing.

In the next moment however, Sieg’s eyes widened when he saw Golden 3 raising his previously free right hand. His hand grasped at nothing, he merely spread out his palm towards the direction in which Sieg’s body was moving.

Immediately Sieg’s surprise turned into dread as he saw it…

Don’t tell me!

He saw a small ball of flowing water suddenly manifest in the area just before Golden 3’s open palm. Sieg’s head turned numb and he wanted to take action against it; however it was already too late.

The ball of flowing water trembled before soaring towards Sieg’s chest at a terrible speed. As it traveled through the hot air it stretched forth and began to transform into pure white ice, an ice within the shape of a jagged blade.

Then…

“Ack!”

Sieg felt a cold and wet sensation course through the center of his chest.

No! No! I— I can’t lose like this!

The agony that the sword of ice brought was instantly drowned beneath the sheer weight of the despair which collided into him. He wanted to scream in protest yet when he opened his mouth only crimson blood seeped out. His white teeth too were drenched in crimson while his chest heaved heavily back and forth.

Sieg’s eyes could not mask his despair, nor his utter confusion. So great was his shock that before he realized it, he uttered a murmur.

“S–Since… Since w-when did y-you learn M-Magery?”

He had never once expected that Golden 3 would pull out such a card, after all Golden 3 had never even shown a hint of interest upon The Magery Techniques. It was not foolish to think that he lacked the ability to summon forth incantationless spells, and yet he had done so upon this very day, executed in a style familiar to every slave within the third stage no less.

However, before Sieg could receive an answer, he saw Golden 3’s expression distort violently before his right hand suddenly bulged.

What followed after was the unique sound of flesh, bones, and muscles being rapidly torn apart from the inside out. With that sound came a shower of blood which shot forth in all directions as Golden 3’s entire right arm combusted. Within that explosion were threads of his Inner-Mana which were of a light blue color, contrasting drastically with the crimson of the scattering blood.

Seeing this, Sieg was first left within utter shock before his previous suffocating despair transformed into elation.

“Hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah!”

Before he realized it, he had already unleashed a hefty laugh. One accompanied by the sound of gargling blood.

“Hah-hah-hah– Fool! Y-You had gotten me, I’ll admit that much, yet it appears that your attempts to mimic The First Sword’s style failed, Hah-hah-hah! Now look! See the situation before us! Instead of one of us obtaining absolute triumph we will instead crawl to the end of this duel as pitiful bleeding pieces of scorched flesh! Hah-hah-hah! Come on Golden 3, let us see who has more blood to spare!”

Sieg could not help but let his mouth run loose, he was far too happy to care. For a moment he had truly thought it was the end, that victory was impossible, yet now things had shifted. With both having received a critical injury it was only a matter of time before they succumbed to it, and the one which fell last would claim triumph over this duel of fire.