"Dear, I think this is a bad idea after all." The wife with shining dark-blue eyes spoke to her beloved husband.
Edward turned his head and replied, "Let's just observe your dad for now. He's overly worked up since finding Grey's rank." before shifting his eyes towards the old man and his young kid warming up for the sparring in the backyard of Jurgen's house.
"Man, this people..." Reynold whined and continued digging and planting the tree that he and Jurgen left off, lost ij his own thoughts.
"All right, I'm all prepared." Jurgen uttered after finishing his final stretching. Taking a glance at his young opponent with curiosity. This kid is rather strange, he's not doing anything. He thought after seeing his grandson sitting in lotus position with his eyes closed.
On the meantime, Grey was busy on gathering mana as much as he could fit in his mana pool. He may not look like it, but this kid hates losing more than anyone, especially to an old geezer.
"Are you not done warming up yet." Jurgen yawned in boredom after waiting for Grey to finish his preparation. "Want me to give you an hour to prepare?" He taunted the young wizard.
"Even after seeing it several times, I'm still surprised on how he changes from a gentle old man to a bully magic instructor." Edward whispered his comment to Emily with a slight giggle.
Which she replied, "Good for you, I'm his daughter so I've suffered more than you do." and let out a sigh.
"I'm ready," Grey confidently replied and stood on his feet. "sorry for the wait." He apologized before picking the shorter one among the wooden swords that was handed to him.
His picking a sword? I thought he's a mage type?... This is interesting. Jurgen displayed a rather sketchy smile before he said, "All right then, let's begin." He then proceeded to taunting the child with his fingers and arrogantly said, "You're free to come at me whenever you want."
Grey took this as a challenge, he planted his front foot steadily to the ground and pushed the balls of his rear foot onto the surface before charging towards the old man at high speed. Don't underestimate me! He jumped at the level of Jurgen's height and swung the wooden sword horizontally, carrying momentum.
Jurgen saw the attack coming and swiftly took a step behind and leaned back his head to avoid the long swing from the kid. Not bad. He thought as he aimlessly stroked with his own sword for a counterattack that was coincidentally swung towards Grey's left shoulder.
The assault came from an unpredictable direction after the kid has just landed on his feet. But the moment when the attack was about to connect, Grey already slipped to his right and pivoted his body to the left.
The old man was stunned by his movements and before he knew it, the young combatant cunningly went behind him and aimed for his legs. Jurgen instinctively jumped away from Grey before he could even cause him any harm. "You're a... smart one." Jurgen blurted while panting.
Grey buried his reply in silence, although still breathing heavily, he vigorously propelled towards his opponent with annoyed expression.
"Oho!" Jurgen grinned in excitement as he saw Grey coming at him with all force.
Grey halted at the right timing and go for a low sweep, directed to the old man's left lower rib.
However, Jurgen quickly reacted and blocked the staff with his left arm. A bad decision that he quickly came to realize after feeling the aching down his bone. "Ack! Crap!" He hastily swung the wooden sword to drive Grey away from him.
"Damn it!" The old geezer quickly grabbed his left forearm and channeled his mana to decrease the pain. This kid, he was intentionally aiming for me to block his attack with my arm, which is I did without knowing that he's constantly channeling mana at the tip of that wooden stick. He annoyingly stared at the mischievous child in front of him who's watching him with innocent gaze.
Jurgen cautiously stared back at him, I can't believe I fell for it, and much worse, I almost lost my arm for not fortifying my body with mana cloak because I underestimated him. He thought before regaining his stance and calming his nerves, but with eyes burning full of annoyance.
"Grey just angered him, didn't he?" Edward stated after witnessing the comedic scene in front of him.
"Watch closely, dad's head is smoking in anger. This is the first time I saw him that annoyed." Emily whispered her reply before laughing at the scene. "This is really entertaining."
On the other hand, Grey was clueless of what's about to come. He's just cautiously observing the old man's movement with his eyes. 'This guy won't go down easily and he's not even using magic yet.' He thought before exhaling to calm his nerves. Shortly afterwards, the wind around them became heavier to take. This gave him some sort of hints of what's about to come and quickly dropped the wooden sword he was grasping.
Almost instantly, the atmosphere was filled with the old man's mana. A purple mark is shining brightly on his upper right arm, "I will get serious this time." Jurgen uttered before lifting his hand and started gathering wind onto his palm, preparing to cast an unknown spell.
Grey knew that approaching him would be harmful since he doesn't know what kind of spell he's about to cast. The only thing he could do is wait and avoid his attack at the last moment after it was casted.
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"That crazy uncle, he plans of using that spell against a kid?" Reynold whispered, shaking his head while clicking his tongue after taking a glance at the ongoing fight.
He's not taking any action despite seeing me cast this spell. Does he plan on taking my attack. Jurgen thought after he's finished casting the wind spell. He's now holding a small ball of highly compressed air on his palm that is seemingly hard to see if not because of the dust it was carrying.
Well it doesn't matter. He swept away all his worry and said, "You'll probably break some bones or two, but don't worry the guild have some top tier healers." before firing the ball towards Grey with a swishing sound.
The ball travelled faster than Grey has anticipated, it's almost like invisible on his perspective. But he somehow managed to locate it's course of direction, something is strange, he can fell it, an incredible amount of mana compacted inside that spherical spell. He must evade it, no matter what.
Grey quickly lowered his body and bent his knees, in one strong thrust he sprang up and with the help of wind magic, he flew high up into the air with lesser effort dodging the spell that he doesn't even know.
"Oho, flying again?" He sneered before snapping his fingers. The moment he snapped, the ball of compressed air expanded in a blink of an eye, pushing everything around it all at once in one forceful blow.
That spell was named as 'Calamitous wind', it's power comes from compressing air to form a ball of wind that decompresses on impact or through the caster's will, causing anything around it to be pushed back with violent wind that almost looks like an explosion, sending shockwaves all around it.
"I knew it, dodging it was really a good decision." The young white-haired wizard joyfully said.
"You dodged it... luckily!" Jurgen stared up at him with several balls of the same spell casted all around him using his magic. He fired them all at once to cause confusion.
But Grey used his wind magic to conjure a wind barrier that deforms the compressed balls, lessening its shockwave on impact. "Well, sadly, same spell won't work on me twice." Grey confidently said as he spread his fingers, palm facing his grandpa. Shortly after a strong visualization, a vast amount of yellow flames spread into the air that he quickly reshaped into a several tiny fire balls.
"So you're a dual caster after all." Jurgen laughed hysterically. "This is really interesting!"
"Woah, even after watching him practice, I'm still amaze on how he can cast magic easily without any chant or whatsoever." Edward froze in amazement while proudly smiling.
"I know you're still holding back, give it your all." Grey steadily looked at him with his cold piercing gaze. He then dropped his arms, firing down all the fire balls at once with a swooshing sound indicating the activation of his spell, Blazing rainfall.
Grey focused to guide its course of direction using his fingers, aiming for the elderly man's head. Afterwards, the young man analyzed and predicted all of his escape routes so that avoiding the spell will be futile. 'Since I'm up against an experienced warrior, I guess he won't mind me trying a little harder.' His thoughts drew a smirk on his young face, forcing his mana out to shift the direction of the flame balls to the old man.
However, Jurgen stood unfazed by the flames, he stubbornly raised both of his hand and chanted, "Wind of nature, bestow me your protection... Wind magic: Gale barrier!", activating an invisible air shield that raises all the air above his head to push away all the flames that comes at him. With his wind magic, he was able to fully extinguish the flames in seconds. But the moment after the old man was almost done putting off the fire, Grey completely disappeared from the is sight. This caused him to look around for the young man and quickly spotted him on his right. "He moved?"
The young wizard changed position earlier after using the 'Blazing rainfall' as a decoy to cast another destructive spell while the old man was still busy defending above his head.
"Ho? Going sneaky huh?" The stubborn old fart stood firmly, still unbothered.
Grey sneered at him with his right palm facing the old man, already done casting his next spell. "Hellfire ignition!" A large mass of flames emerge from below his feet and guided it towards Jurgen with his hand movements.
Going for my lower body? He guessed the young man's scheme before slightly lifting the ball's of his feet the lightly stomping it on the ground. "Tidal wave!" He chanted, before the entire backyard flooded with water. It flowed towards Grey with almost unstoppable force given by it's mass.
"Grey...!" Emily worriedly yelled as she moves away from the water.
Grey will most likely drown if he ever caught by his magic since the water level is atleast a meter. So, he quickly moved back and pushed both his palm onto the ground. Activating a defensive spell called 'Stone wall' to atleast block most of the water that pushed towards him.
Ho? So he also know earth magic huh? I can't believe my grandson is a tri-elemental wizard. The old man smirked joyfully, flicking his finger, diverting the flow of water to go to either side of the 'Stone wall'.
"Being stubborn again huh?" Grey whispered mid-fight before extending his hand in front of him and focused on constantly channelling his mana on the atmosphere, planting his feet steadily on the ground. "Well I guess I can't help but to do the same." Grey said and smirked, concentrating his mana and letting it flow freely in the surroundings.
Once the cold breeze brushed through his white hair, the visualization was complete, the mana on the atmosphere instantly turned into water that flowed and collided with the old man's water magic.
"Wha-What?!" The old man's eyes widened in surprise with only one question in his mind, He's a quadro-elemental? He stood frozen in place with mouth slightly ajar.
After witnessing this actions, even Grey's parents couldn't even believe it. It's only over a month since their son was taught fire and wind magic and ever since then they've only taught them those two elements. So how?, How in the hell did he learned that? They asked themselves while watching their son.
So things like this really surprises them huh? I guess digging books from our basement was really worth it. Grey thought, smirking in excitement. He moved his fingers to avert and accelerate the water flow, pushing back the old man's water spell and even breaking the stone wall that's blocking it's way.
The cracking sound of the wall dragged Jurgen out of his thoughts, causing him to panicked for a moment upon taking a glance at Grey's large scale water spell heading his way. "What the–" His voice trembled as he hastily jumped back.
However, the long jump that should atleast move him a few meters was stopped upon bumping his back onto something hard. Jurgen quickly turned his head just to see a giant stone wall blocking his escape path. "Damn it, what—" He whispered in shock.
"If things like that can surprise you, then how about this." Grey opened his hand, spreading his slightly-bent fingers. He pointed his palm to the elderly man with grin and concentrated all his magic on his fingertips.
"Lightning cloak!"
Several thunder bolts enveloped his body with sparkling light. Grey sharply breathed out before chanting, "Strike, Lightning streams!", startling the old man with extremely focused uncountable bolts of lightning coming out of his fingertips, constantly striking the water and causing it to spark with bright yellow color. The water that's heading to the old man's direction is now completely electrified, leaving the old man with no other choice.
"Hoo?... I intend to fight you with my dual element but I did not expect you to possess an Arcane element." The old man Jurgen seemingly lost his mind. "I guess playtime is over." He spoked with a mischievous grin on his face before the electrified water came in contact with his body, sending lightning shock to his nerves.
Did I win? Grey whispered in his thoughts as he displayed a victorious grin and hoped that he won the match.