After the first attack, Marcus couldn't land a hit with his shortsword. Joseph parried every one of his swings.
"It seems like you got used to the mist..."
He appeared in front of Joseph and swung his sword. It was blocked and a light blue ball flew in his direction.
As it hit it pushed him back into the mist, then blew up.
Joseph was still ready for an attack, he was sure that the guy survived that.
They continued on with more and more clashes, but unfortunately, Joseph couldn't make a better attack fast, so he tried to use more and more small magic bullets and different shaped and sized arrows, but none of them seemed to affect his opponent.
'Seems like this is not going to work.'
After collecting all the mana the wand can take into it, he waited for a moment to use a better spell.
Marcus was facing him head-on, he seemed like he gave up on the ranged fight, but it didn't make it easier for Joseph. He wielded the sword like an expert and the only reason he couldn't cut Joseph was that Charles directed his movements while he was trying to dodge the attacks.
After a big swung from Marcus, Joseph pushed him back and he got out of balance. This was the moment Joseph was waiting for.
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He held out his wand and cast the same spell he used against the troll a long time ago.
It hit the guy in the left shoulder and blew him up. Smoke filled the air in the little space he saw Marcus, but he knew that his opponent was still alive, because he detected him moving to his side.
As he came forward again, Joseph saw his shoulder. There was a hole in the cloak and around it was cindered. Burned flesh was visible through the hole, but it seemed like a minor injury for that spell.
"What are you wearing?!"
"You like it? It's really good against little mages like you!"
Just as he finished his sentence he swung his sword again.
'I should try something new... Maybe?'
Joseph took away his wand as Charles deflected the attack towards his hearth.
He held the sword with two hands and charged it with mana. It started glowing blue as Marcus cut towards him, then his sword was cut in half. He jumped back from the surprise and disappeared into the mist.
'Seems like making a bunch of small mana dots buzz on the edge of my blade in high speed, is a lot more effective than I thought.'
As he was ready for another attack the person in the mist sighed.
"It seems like you are a lot more trouble than I thought."
Joseph heard a loud popping sound as he felt Marcus get further and further away.
"Well, whatever. This will be your grave either way."
"What are you speaking about?"
But there was no answer.
He heard a fizzing sound from the place the guy was at.
"Oh no, you didn't!"
He swiftly put his hands on the ground and made the earth highen up in between him and the thing.
After a few seconds, there was an explosion, but at that time he was lying on the ground, and the chunk of dirt between him and the explosive got blasted into pieces instead of him.
'Fortunately, this guy didn't know that grenades are not that good against opponents, who know about them.'
The mist started to dissipate and he saw the end of the other battle where were Catherine, Arborus, and five dead people on the ground, who looked similar to the guy he was dealing with.