Jude and Rile stood up on the stage once again and prepared for their next fight.
Even though Rile had yet to transform, his eyes were already a deep hue of red. Madness seemed to be trickling out of him as he shouted at Jude. “This is your last round wizard! I won’t be as gentle as I was in the first one. Today I will feast on your flesh!”
“What?” Jude was unsure how to respond to this. “What did I do to offend you?”
Rile burst into a maddening laugh, “Because I want to! Because you are here. Because you oppose me. Because the thought won’t leave my head!”
Jude looked off to the side to see if Jorgan knew what was going on, but Jorgan shrugged his shoulders as if he didn’t know either.
The king looked down with concern. This was the problem with some boosting items. The probability was low, but it could cause people to have stability problems. Since Riles class was Shifter, the instability worked its way through the beast side of Rile and his advance class, causing him to have some of the instinctual habits of a rabid dog.
It looks like there was only going to be one more round. The king felt a little regret over this, but it wasn’t too big of a deal.
***
“Round two start!”
From up above, Yarik and the other judges watched.
Yarik frowned as Jude used Formless Ice yet again, but this time creating a concealing fog with it. The fog obstructed the view of those on the stage, but the observers all around could clearly see what was happening due to the Foundations set up in the coliseum.
The last time Jude had used Formless Ice, Yarik had been impressed with Jude’s quick uptake on the combination of Spells and Foundations. But now it seemed that Jude had abandoned this combination and was using the fog as a cover to write down a Foundation with his large brush.
“What do you think he is doing?” one of the other old wizards asked.
“In the last round, his Foundation wasn’t strong enough to overcome this Shifter. I bet he is trying to set up a more powerful one. There is a limit, after all, to how powerful a Foundation can be when combining it with a spell.” Another said.
“Yes, but every Foundation he uses will be considered a skill and will limit him. A truly formidable Foundation would need at least one supporting foundation.” Said the first old wizard.
“That is not the real problem,” Yarik joined in, “the real-“
Yarik was cut off by a booming shout coming from Rile. He was using the same wind and sound attack as he did in the first round.
“See there,” Yarik continued, “Rile used that shouting skill and removed a large portion of the mist.”
“Oh, the boy used that weird Blink skill embedded into his weapon. That means he has set in all the skills he can use for this round.” Said the old wizard.
Another said, “Blink, Formless Ice, and a Foundation. I don’t think this young man will win this fight. Without his shield, he might even die.”
“Can you tell what Foundation he is setting up?” The olden wizard asked Yarik.
“No, his Foundation magic is different than what ours is, so I am unable to tell. But even with this difference, I am unable to figure out how he is going to connect it all together.” Yarik replied.
“Yes, it seems like he is laying down the same Foundation multiple times. Whatever it is, he intends to amplify its effect by quite a lot. But where is he going to get the mana to power it all?” The olden wizard asked, but no one was able to answer.
***
The battle continued with Rile madly chasing after Jude. But Jude played a passive role and continued to use Blink and Formless Ice to evade the crazed Shifter.
The King laughed to himself. Perhaps he was going to get the third round. At the very least he was getting what he desired, a longer delay and an enthralled crowd.
Even with the contestants limited to three skills, the ability at which they used those skills was incredible. Jude seemed to use his Blink ability to even partially fly in the sky. Even if it wasn’t for long, it was still an astonishing feat.
Rile, on the other hand, had turned into a beast of pure strength. He seemed to abandon his rational thinking and use overwhelming strength to take down his foe. But those with advance classes could see the difference. It was only because of Rile’s high understand of his skills and a Rank to match that he was able to unleash such a wild strength.
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By this point, the whole stage was littered with craters from Rile and strange markings from Jude.
Then Jude shouted in a crystal clear voice for all to hear, “Formless Ice: Converge!”
***
Formless Ice: Converge?
“It’s… a multi-layered spell combined with a Foundation!?” Yarik startled.
At this point, four large Foundations had been placed on each corner of the stage. But to activate multiple Foundations at once, one needed to connect them all together. Not to mention, supporting such a large combination of Foundations required auxiliary Foundations or external power sources to power it all.
But hidden within the multiple applications of Formless Ice that everyone thought Jude was using to escape from Rile were actually a well-prepared part of the Foundation as a whole. Not only did they connect the four large Foundations, but by the resplendent glow, it could be seen that they were gathering large amounts of mana.
At this point in the battle, Rile had ended up in the center of the stage while Jude had used Blink to appear high up in the air.
The red maddened eyes Rile looked up with a vile hatred. He took no notice of the Foundations glowing around him. His lengthy werewolf-like form started to twitch uncontrollably as his muscles started to expand.
“Oh my goodness!” An elite warrior said nearby, “He’s trying to absorb the ambient mana generated by the Foundation Magic into his body!”
“He can do that?!” Another asked.
The eyes of Yarik shown with a light of understanding, “It is possible if he used a boosting item that specifically draws in mana from the surroundings. But those are so rare; I thought only the king would have access to them. Even so, I don’t think he can absorb the amount of mana that this Foundation is putting out.”
By this point, Rile was no longer a lengthy werewolf. Now he was four meters tall, and his muscles had expanded to the point where he looked more like a supreme body builder than his previous slender figure. Even his fur was having a hard time catching up as it was now laid out thinly or in patches.
***
All this did not take long, in a matter of a few seconds, Jude had reached the apex of height that Blink could take him.
Jude looked down, and he guessed what was going on.
Rile had cheated.
At this moment he could call it quits, but that would waste his effort… And his escape plan.
“Activate!” Jude’s voice reverberated out.
The Foundation had already been glowing in a soft blue light, but once the command to activate the Foundation sounded out it turned blindingly bright! Jude had used a dozen Meditate Foundation to link all the other Foundations together, and the amount of mana they could draw in was staggering.
The light faded away with the whole coliseum trembled as if something heavy landed on it.
***
Yarik opened his eyes to see the stage gone.
No, gone wasn’t right. It was still there but underneath a mountain of ice.
Jude stood at the pinnacle of that mountain like a king looking down at his subjects. A chill went through Yariks heart as he remembered the one title he had removed from the list of titles announced for Jude.
Unconventional Conqueror.
Right now this title truly fit Jude. And Yarik was beginning to worry that his plans at controlling Jude might all be for naught.
***
Jude looked down at the referee and asked, “Does this count as a win or not?”
The referee who had been on the outside of the stage woke up from his shock to find that he was soaked in sweat. “Yes, Jude Wins!”
Jude then looked to the Judges and asked, “Rile seemed to have been cheating by using a consumable item. Does this mean that he has been disqualified? Have I won the competition?”
At this point, the king spoke up with a laugh, “Young man, is Rile even still alive for him to dispute this? I think you have already won the competition. Let us not worry about what Rile may or may not have done.”
Jude scratched his head, “He might still be alive. But it will take a while for him to defrost. However, since the king has said this, naturally I won’t pursue it.”
The king nodded, “Since we won’t have the third round, why don’t we prepare for the award ceremony and enjoy another round of the beauties dancing.”
Jude made his way down the mountain of ice and returned to where Jorgan was. Yarik and a few others were also there waiting for him.
“Jude,” Yarik said, “Don’t you think it is time for you to dispel this mountain of ice?”
“About that, I didn’t have enough time to create a foundation that would remove the ice after it was done. Technically, the foundation is already off.” Jude replied. But what he didn’t say was that he intentionally left it that way.
“What?! How are we going to prepare the award ceremony and do the dance?” asked one of the people behind Yarik.
“Don’t worry,” Yarik said with a smile. “I will take care of it.”
Yarik seemed to stand there motionless for a minute before he said three words in slow succession.
“Wind.”
Above the ice mountain clouds formed then began to circle. A funnel took shape and began to descend onto the peak as Yarik said the next word.
“Fire.”
The raging wind of the tornado that was forming burst into flame like a spark onto gasoline.
“Empower.”
The fire tornado quickly expanded in size. Jude had never seen an F5 tornado in his life, but if he had to guess, it would be this size. The tornado quickly encompassed the entire mountain and did not spill out of the fighting stage at all.
Jude was impressed, not only by the display of power but the display of control as well. Jude knew very well just how hard it was to control these large area effect spells. It was only by using a Foundation that he kept the power of the ice mountain inside the stage. If Jude had created it with a spell, there was no telling how out of control it could have gone.
The large fire tornado didn’t last long, and soon it too was gone. It left behind only one single ice cube the size of a man. In it was the Shifter Rile.
A team of people quickly dragged the giant ice cube off the stage and to the healer tent. There was still a chance to save Rile, however, even if he did survive his honor would not.
***
The preparations were underway for the award ceremony, and the dancers were dancing on the stage as Jude and Jorgan sat back to watch.
Jude yawned. It had to be at least one in the morning, Jude thought as he tried to guess what time it was.
“Even after that fire tornado that Yarik unleashed it is still so cold. What exactly was that Foundation that you set up?” Jorgan asked Jude.
Jude smiled, “Have you ever heard of an ice burg?”
“No, what is it?”
Jude expected this response; sea travel was a rare thing as the ocean was perilous in this world. Besides that, they were also south of the colder areas of the world.
“It is a large piece of ice that is in the ocean.”
“What does that have to do with this?”
“The part you see floating on the surface is only the smallest part of the ice. A much larger part is hidden beneath.”