Chapter 10

As Jason walked out into the arena beside Anna. As they got to the center Tobias passed a bracelet to Anna telling her to suppress her power by four levels.

"That would not be fair to Anna," Jason said with a confident smile.

Anna was about to rebuke Jason in anger for looking doen on her but then realized something. "You are already a nineth level mage apprentice! how did you level up so fast? I'm a tenth level now but when we met iwas an seventh level and you were only a third level!" Anna cried out in shock.

Tobias looked over in shock before saying, " Ok then, Anna you only need to suppress one level."

"No, I want to fight her at full power., Jason stated

"Are you looking down on me Jason? I am going to beat you into mush!" Anna said angrily with a glare.

Instead of fear, Jason only felt this ten year old girl was cute snd he wanted to pat her head. He even started to reach out before deciding that it would probably be better if he didn't.

"Are you sure? Alright, then put on your life medallion. It will form a membrane on your skin to recieve all the damage. when it turns blue that means the damage recieved is enough to knock you out or kill you. Should the damage to a limb be enough to lose it the membrane there will harden it to your side making you "lose" it. You may begin the duel after the medallions turns red. Good luck." Tobias said before leaving the arena.

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Jason had managed to learn to cast all the spells he was previously given. He had even made two new spells. One took nearly three minutes to cast and took seven hundred and fifty mp. The other was only a slightly more complex basic spell, it was the main spell he practiced and he could almost instant cast it now. Unfortunately it cost 100 mana to cast, which was the same as a mana shield. Mana attacks damaged a mana shield by however many mp it cost to cast, so one spell could one shot the mana shield. These were his two current trump cards. The good news was that at level nine jason had one thousand three hundred and fifty mana which was shocking. An average first level mage acolyte only had one thousand five hundred mana.

As soon as the medalions flashed red Anna and Jason cast mana shield on themselves. Even though they couldn't get injured this would buy them time before the medallions revieved damage.

Jason immediately tried to run closer so he could also make use of his body. Anna on the other hand set up a second mana shield and then continuously cast mana bolts at him. Jason dodged the first four mana bolts but after that he was to close and the rest began to hit his mana shield.

"bang"

"bang"

"bang"

"bang, bang"

"bang, bang"

After a while Anna showed her talent by casting a spell from each hand. Finally Jason's mana shield cracked and broke. at this point he sent a mana shockwave to knock Anna off her feet followed by a "mana dart" from his right hand, that immediately destroyed Anna's mana shield. Then the sent another 'mana dart' to break the last shield, followed by two heavy punches to Anna's neck turned her medallion blue.

Anna layed there in shock, not understanding what had transpired. One moment she was bombarding Jason with mana bolts the next she had lost.

"Jason what was that spell you had used? I know I didn't teach you it. " Tobias asked.

"I call it mana dart. I made it by adding a compression rune to the mana bolt sigil. I was actually try to make a mana arrow but I cant compress it enough" Jason explained.

"Ah ok, just be careful when you are practicing with sigils you made yourself. also if you are going to be making your own sigil you should memorize this rune. it makes it impossible for others to understand what runes your sigil has. you need to perfectly overlay this rune over the power in-put rune. It will take some practice. Every sigil over level five has it already and you will need to remove it on those sigils so you can see the correct input rune for them. " Tobias said, passing a hide skin with a complex rune that closely resembled the Norse rune for 'heritage'.

"But why did you punch her throat? And why punch at all when you could just cast the spell you made or even a basic mana bolt?" Tobias asked in confusion.

"I punched because 1. I wanted to save mana, 2. I worried that a spell might break through but I could stop my fist if I felt the medallion fail. I went for the throat as that's one of the most vulnerable parts of a human body, and I treat duals the same as a real fight, otherwise they are pointless except for bragging which is meaningless to me. Also mana dart takes one hundred MP per cast. " Jason. said.

"Why the hell would you blow a quarter of your mana on a single spell? it's one thing with a shield but why do it with an attack.?" Anna finally joined the conversation.

"Well....actually I have one thousand three hundred and fifty mana currently, remember I've been forging my body so my mans well is larger than normal. " Jason responded somewhat embarrassedly.

"That's three times the norm and is more than I have even though I have been eating bloodgrass since I was three! even now that I am level ten I only have two times the norm for my level, with one thousand MP. It is so unfair that you have so much mana. " Anna exclaimed.

"Anna you know the suffering he has to go through to obtain his mana pool. You have the same opportunity yet he doesn't have your opportunity to eat body strengthening medicine. "Tobias softly reproached Anna.

A grimace crossed Anna's face, "I am sorry Jason, I did not mean that. I was just shocked and upset about my loss. I know you and Thomas are going through hell to get stronger. I snuck down to the dungeon yesterday and saw you when you came out of the acid, it was horrible. " she apologized.

"It is ok . I can understand and I am not so narrow minded that I would hold this against you. Although I think it is pretty obvious that Thomas like you hahaha." Jason changed the subject and teased Anna. Tobias guffawed when he heard Jason as everyone in the castle knew that Anna and Thomas adored each other but refused to admit it even to themselves.

"NO HE DOES NOT! WE ARE JUST FRIRNDS! ARGH!" screamed Anna while blushing before running away.