Levi was impressed at how quickly Piper had picked up using ritual magic. She had gotten really good at hiding her presence while she was setting up her traps. A trait she adopted well from training to be an assassin. If Levi won, he would have to face her and her team in the final. They would not be an easy opponent. Levi wasn’t much of a trap ritualist, but he was an exceptional ritualist. He knew that he would have to use some in this fight. The Wintoars are a tough group of three adventurers. One advantage that Levi had was that he was a star rank above them.
Only three students in all of the guilds were 3-star. That was Levi, Piper, and Anna. This came from their time-fighting monsters and clearing out the dungeon. Most guild members would reach 3-star shortly after graduation if they were diligent in their work ethic. It was rare to reach it before graduation, it took extenuating circumstances.
Levi’s strategy would have to be much different this round. He would have to be stealthier and be willing to take some hits. Being rushed was not the best for summoners and that’s what these three excelled at. Yes, there was a disparity in rank, but it was not that much different. Levi watched as the battleground changed. It was a large grassy field with a river that separated each half. There was no shelter, nowhere to be stealthy, he was going to be out in the open.
“Sheesh,” Levi muttered. It seemed like they were giving every advantage to the warrior guild. Shaking his head from following that line of thought Levi stood in front of the doors right as they opened.
“A completely grassy field,” Anna complained. She was watching the match with Piper in the rogues locker room. She had made her way over after the fight. To say congrats to Piper and compliment her on that move.
“I heard that the guildmaster Rob of the rangers guild had a fit. Your dad had to step in,” Piper whispered. “I bet he’s up to something.”
“Always about politics,” Anna murmured. Piper nodded in agreement.
“Ladies and Gentlemen and Beings alike, it is time for the second round. Returning to the battlegrounds representing the summoner’s guild, Levi Winterrrrsss.” The cheers this time were louder than before but not nearly as much as Piper’s introduction, but Levi didn’t mind. He wanted to win, not grow a fan base.
“How do you think he is going to do?” Anna asked.
“He’ll win,” Piper said. “He barely used his powers last match; I suspect to hide his abilities. He has to win fast, or it’ll be a long battle.”
“That’s true,” Anna said looking at the viewing ritual. She nervously grabbed Piper’s hand and the two of them held on for comfort as the battle began.
“Annd” the announcer’s voice rang. “In the other corner, the reigning guild champions the Warrior Guild!!” Cheers erupted. And chants of warriors spread throughout the stadium. “They are led by the three Wintoar brothers. Do they have what it takes to take down the newcomer? Let’s find out!”
When the fire spell was shot into the air, Levi wasted no time as it exploded. He could see the three brothers charging him from across the field. The vapor defused and created a cloud of steam. The steam was just dense enough that shadows could be seen in the midst of it. Levi drew out a summoning circle and summoned shadow spirits. These were spirits that could mimic the form of whatever the summoner wanted.
“Copy me,” Levi said. “Vapor three more sets of steam clouds, please.” Vapor did as instructed and there were three huge clouds of steam all throughout the grassy fields. In the steam cloud three figures were standing, two took off in different directions with one standing still waiting for the attack.
“He split up,” Fantoar said. “Each of us takes out a cloud. If you notice that it isn’t him, go to the center cloud. Got it?” The brothers huffed their acknowledgment, and they went running. Levi had sent three mimics and two orbs from Dameion with each shadow. Levi went to the steam cloud to his right. He guessed that the eldest brother, Fantoar, would attack the middle one; he wanted to save him for last.
As the minotaur approached Levi orbs of chaos flew out of the steam cloud. The minotaur was yielding a battle axe and was able to block it effectively with each strike. He pulled out his horn and the other two turned immediately and charged Levi.
Levi didn’t panic. He took a deep breath and called the shadows back to him. He created several more orbs of chaos and sent them in the direction of the other two minotaur’s, who were enclosed in his location. Not a single Orb hit. Levi cursed that they were stronger with magical defenses than he thought. He had Vapor create a cloud under his feet, so he levitated, the other shadows did the same.
Still in the dense steam cloud the three minotaurs approached. As the entered the cloud Serenity released an aura attack. It was a stronger aura attack than the three brothers had ever faced. They staggered but that was enough time as Anza was able to attack the closest brother. Levi joined in as well. The two of them looked like they were performing a dancing choreography as each of them jumped, twirled, and sent out attacks at the minotaur who was holding his own in the fight.
The brother, Vintoar, was able to get a couple of glancing blows on Levi as a counterattack. Levi had some blood seep out of some minor cuts. Nothing too damaging but enough to draw blood. Eventually, Levi was able to get a strike on the head of Vin. The moment Levi made a connection so did Anza. Dameion began swirling around Vin, draining his mana and giving it to Levi. Levi started conjuring chaos orb after chaos orb. They would form around Levi and then fire into Vin.
He expertly dodged most of the attacks. Bentoar arrived first and went to tag out his brother. That moment of distraction was all that was needed as an orb of chaos slammed into Vin’s side causing a slight explosion. Before the explosion Vin’s bubble shield activated and sent him to the locker rooms.
Levi had no time to relax as Ben was attacking him. Ben used two double-edged swords as his weapon, which gave him much more speed than Vin. He was on the front foot, so he was able to attack Levi with much more ferocity. Levi was being pushed back when his senses told him Fan was close. Levi came up with a new strategy on the fly. He jumped high in the air and had the small flying cloud of Vapor fly him out of the steam. He dismissed the shadow spirits.
“Vapor,” Levi said. “Steam them.” Vapor’s eyes glowed in her cloak and the steam became piping hot steam that caused burns. Ben was screaming in pain as his skin was getting burnt as he was in boiling hot steam. Through the steam a small axe was thrown directly at Levi, he protected himself as it was too fast to dodge. The axe was lodged in Levi’s arms. He screamed in pain. The drones started to wrap their tentacles around the wound to prevent any excess bleeding. This helped limbs from being severed but not from the pain. The axe fell to the ground.
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Serenity came out of Levi and blasted the whole cloud with dragon fire. Suddenly a bubble shield appeared, and Ben was inside thrashing in anger, his fight was over. While Fan was distracted Levi flew to the water and drew a ritual circle in the water. The water began rise and form a shape a water elemental formed and used the water as whips. It started lashing out at Fantoar. For each whip he would protect, he pulled out a shield and protected himself.
“Winds of the valley, cool the land,” Fan chanted. A small tornado began to form, which protected him. Levi was surprised that the minotaur knew spells. He nodded in admiration. Levi knew the tornado would absolutely destroy the water elemental, so he released it.
Fan charged Levi; his speed was at a new level. Fantoar was pissed off. He hadn’t even come close to landing a hit on Levi. Levi was bleeding which means he got hit this battle, that was a small victory, but it wasn’t enough. He wanted to win no, he needed to win. This was his chance to be the best and he had to take out the best. Fantoar knew deep down that Levi was the best the city of Arcross had to offer. He was waiting for the rest of the city to catch on. It wasn’t because of anything amazing that Levi did. He was very good at the little things. Levi planned well, Levi was friendly with his familiars which always meant a deeper and stronger bond. Levi had displayed care for the creatures he summoned and most of all Levi was a hard worker.
“Blades of Wind,” Fantoar changed. He wielded a large two-handed sword. The blade was 1 meter long and half a meter thick. He sliced at the air and massive wind blades came flying toward Levi. Levi couldn’t dodge the first, so he did his best to tank it. This was not a good plan. Levi felt like he fell off a motorcycle going at high speeds. His skin under his cloak got torn up.
The small cuts were now large wounds. He would not be able to take another direct hit like that again. Levi conjured orbs of chaos and sent them at the wind blade each contact caused a small explosion. Levi took the explosion as a moment to jump on Anza’s back. This was a strategy that they had been practicing. Levi’s mana was too low to perform his big void attack. He had enough to conjure orbs and that was it.
On Anza’s back, she started running around in circles around Fan. Dameion was now orbiting Fan, draining his mana. Levi sent different orbs at the minotaur, fire, lightning, and chaos all exploded onto the minotaur who would just not fall. Fan was able to block some of the orbs with his blades. Determination filled his eyes, and his final stand was near.
“Fill my cup as I empty it with a final charge,” Fan chanted. A beam of golden light appeared and blasted Fan from the heavens. The blast was so strong it sent Levi and Anza back, tumbling like a plastic bag in a windstorm. Levi shook the dust off his face and looked to see Fan had grown to be 8 feet tall, and his sword doubled in size.
“That’s not great,” Levi said. The blast had destroyed the black holes that Dameion had sent to absorb mana. It would take some time before they could be reconjured. Fantoar was a distance away, so Levi had time to conjure a small ritual circle to restore mana with him standing in it. As he did he watched his mana bar tic up slowly. He knew what he needed to get to, his finishing move the void swarm. Fan had closed the gap forcing Levi to leave the ritual circle.
Fan swung his giant sword down where Levi was. Levi was easily able to dodge the attack as it was quite slow now that the minotaur was so large. Each attack Levi was able to see and move out of the way. Levi didn’t regain enough mana to perform the void storm. He did have an idea. Levi started drawing three ritual circles at a time. The first two were summoning rituals for Frost Giants, these were defensive specialists that used giant shields of ice to protect the summoner. The last was an explosive ritual that would explode and send all the damage to the one who destroyed it.
That put Levi’s mana very low, so this had to work, or he was out of the battle. The two frost giants conjured their massive ice shields and protected Levi with each of Fan’s swinging swords. The sword of Fan bounced harmlessly off the shields, and he regained balance. The giants weren’t there to fight they were there to force Fan to avoid focusing too much on the ritual Levi had created. Anza, who was still able to attack would send tentacles to spear the legs of the giant Fan.
“Okay, giants,” Levi said. “Let his next attack land on the ritual circle.” The giants nodded slowly in acknowledgment. The massive, enhanced Fan swiped his sword down toward the frost giants who dodged at the last second. The two-hand sword crashed into the ground, the ritual circle, that was made of chaos energy, exploded in clouds of dark gray with red lightning bolts shooting up the blade of the sword. Eventually reaching Fan a giant bubble shield engulfed the overgrown minotaur and flew off to the locker room.
“Yeah,” Levi said weakly. “Hit the showers.” He fell flat on his back taking long deep breaths in. The crowd erupted in cheers. They started to chant his name.
“What a battle folks!” the announcer boomed. “We were in for a treat!! Winner is Levi Winters of the summoners guild! He moves on to fight the rogues guild! A match you surely will not want to miss!”
Levi eventually got to his feet and slowly walked to the locker room. His body was cut up from the wind blades and weapons, and his mana was nearly spent. After reaching the locker room, he plopped himself down on the bench and closed his eyes. He was absolutely exhausted and admittedly in a lot of pain.
“Are you okay?” Serenity asked.
“Just drained, that was a hard battle,” Levi said.
“That was the best you have fought,” Serenity complimented. “You fought with confidence, you led us all very well, congratulations.”
“I feel like I could use all of you better,” Levi said.
“You can,” Serenity said. “But this is not the time to test that out, this is the time to fight with what you know and what you are good at. Training is the time to test things out, to make mistakes, not here, not now.”
“Yeah alright, that’s fair,” Levi conceded.
“Summoning the frost giants was a great call. What was that trap ritual?”
“It was one made of complete chaos magic,” Vapor said. “I have never seen it applied in such a way, clever.”
“Return to Sender,” Levi said. “That’s what I call it. It doubles the amount of damage that was used to destroy the ritual and sends it back to the one that broke the ritual. Very hard to execute cause most people don’t go around breaking rituals, well unless you’re me of course.” Levi frowned. “I really need to learn how to utilize my utility familiars more. But that will be a later task.”
“That was well done,” Tycen said, entering the locker room. He had two potions in his hand, a mana, and a health potion. “Here, you’re on your own for stamina recovery.”
“I think I have some food I can eat to help with that. I appreciate it!” Levi said. He downed the mana potion. It was sweet, tasting like melted icee. He could instantly feel his mana pool begin to refill. It was a strange feeling—it felt like his stomach was full from drinking sparkling water. But rather than feeling bloated and icky, it felt soothing and calming. He drank the health potion that had the same flavor and texture as the mana potion. He could feel the potion course through his body and instantly heal any lingering wounds.
Levi took a slow breath and pulled out a rice bowl out of thin air. He pulled a second one out and offered it to Tycen, who gladly took it. Levi thought about how he was about to eat a heavy meal an hour or so before his next big fight. There was a slight break to allow the minotaur team to recover before being forced into another battle. The magical pathways that grow after each rank up help devour and consume food in a much more efficient way. Everything that Levi consumes is used and beneficial. Some work better than others, like all food. He marveled at how he definitely would not get a stomachache; that was new territory for him—before digging in, Levi pulled out a couple of raw fish for Serenity and Anza to eat. They did so with great happiness. For the crystal wisps, he pulled out two open flame grills. For Dameion, he wasn’t sure what he liked to eat or even if he could, so he talked to him and reassured him. Lastly, for Vapor, he gave her some leftover star tokens.
With every bite, Levi could see his stamina bar start to increase. Satisfied with the meal and being fully refreshed. Levi felt like he was now ready for the battle against his girlfriend. But in the time being, he turned his attention to the viewing ritual with Tycen. It was time for Anna to fight the Wintoars.