17 Decisive Battle! (Arc Epilogue)

There are two ways to increase the effectiveness of Arts and Spells.

First is by improving the quantity of Mana that is being loaded into it. A way that most choose in order to create larger versions of their Arts.

Second is by improving the overall quality of the magical technique.

My own Blue Fire Bullets Spell is an example of that due to it being an upgraded version of the Fireball Spell. However, I couldn't use that right now because Jack wouldn't allow me to use a Spell in this situation.

Controlling Ether or moulding Mana into a Spell takes a little bit of time and concentration. If I was to hesitate in blocking for even a moment, he'd smash my body with his wooden spear and send me flying out of the arena's boundaries.

There's only one way out of this, and that is to try to test that Secret Art I was thinking of. I hardly know if this will work but now it's all or nothing!!!

[Lightning Art- Cognitive Drive!]

I focused my Lightning Aura into my brain and nervous system before augmenting them using both the enhancing and 'Burst' quality of my Lightning Affinity. My iris dyed purple as the world around me slowed down.

It wasn't that I slowed down time, but instead it was that I used my Lightning Aura to strongly enhance my cognitive perception of the world around me through my cognitive brain functions and nerves.

I had no time to enjoy the feeling of seeing the world in this new light as I used it's effects to plan my next move cautiously. Having enhanced cognitive facilities didn't mean I could stop time so it was only natural I'd rush a little. I couldn't handle the stress of concentrating my mental power in this purple world I was in for too long, after all.

I manipulated the rest of my Lightning Aura to focus itself into my hand, causing my mind to race as a feeling of weakness overcame me. The technique I was using now could be considered a pseudo-Spell that used my own Mana for activation.

Creating something out of nothing using Aura Manifestation used a lot of Mana. That kid called Jack was able to create Earth Armour due his high talent and Earth Affinity, but I couldn't. I needed a stable foundation and time to concentrate my power.

However, I didn't feel this was a waste of energy because I could increase the firepower by altering the 'current' of even the smallest sparks of electricity.

This was one of the greatest assets of the Cognitive Drive Secret Art!

It allowed me to complete Arts and Spells in an extremely short amount of time by allowing me to control Mana in the slowed down world through my enhanced, amethyst-coloured eyes.

Although the Lightning Spell I was completing was small compared to my thumb-size Fireball Spells, my mind used the extra cognitive ability it had to continuously increase my new Lightning Art's overall firepower.

The purple spark on my hand gradually changed size to become a blue bolt of natural Blue Lightning covering the entirety my hand!

I then sent out a fist towards Jack's armour after charging my Lightning Art enough in the near-stagnant world seen in my cognitive vision.

[Lightning Art- Azure Impulse!]

My fist smashed into his Earth Armour and destroyed his strong defences with a singular, impactful explosion of natural Blue Lightning!

Jack's eyes widened in disbelief as he saw my fist had pierced his manifested Earth Armour. It was then his face twisted as he tried to dodge by stepping backwards, but how could I just let him back away?

I changed my grip to point my my wooden sword towards the gap I created and stabbed into his Earthen Armour while putting away my wooden knife. I didn't want speed and unpredictability right now but pure overwhelming power, so it was only natural I held my sword with two hands instead swinging it with one.

[Earth Spell- Mountain Toppling!]

Without warning, Jack stabbed his spear into the ground and hurled up the floor underneath me by controlling Earth Ether. He probably knew he wouldn't be able to fix his armour in time so he created a distraction by throwing the floor I was standing on up into the air.

I wasn't able to stop him from using this Spell since he was decisive enough to waste extra amounts of Mana to forcefully finish it quicker.

Since we both were unable to see each other's movements, I decided that I would retreat as well because charging forward without a plan was too reckless! The Lightning Aura around me fully shifted into an emerald Wind Aura as I completely gave up on using short bursts of power. The sword in my hand shone an emerald light as I used the Elemental Swordsmanship of Wind to focus Wind Ether into my sword.

[Wind Art- Weightless Breath!]

I jump off the big patch of earth that was thrown into the air and defended my body, blocking an Earthen Lance that thrusted out of the patch of earth below me. This Earthen Lance was so fast that even I wouldn't have normally been able to dodge it fast enough. However, I didn't panic as I calmly borrowed the lance's power to fly higher into the air above.

What a tricky guy! So this is what magical combat feels like... it's so exhilarating, and makes my blood boil in excitement! My battle instincts were on full display at this moment!

For some reason, I don't quite like this feeling... I feeling a... headache...

[Wind Art- Air Walk!]

Instead of taking revenge for almost getting impaled, I casted a basic technique that anyone who grasped Wind Aura could use and kept my body afloat in mid air. The green light radiating outside my body signified how I fully changed my Aura Clad to focus solely on enhancing speed. If he couldn't hit me with his attacks, then his power would be wasted!

It only took a moment for the tossed patch of earth to fall back to the ground, revealing the silhouette of Jack who was gasping for air. It seems the electrical charge I used to break his armour earlier wasn't enough to stop him from trying to fight back.

From the looks of his Aura, it seems he consumed quite a bit of Mana to ward off my Azure Impulse after it pierced his armour. Though that doesn't matter to me anyway considering how I didn't expect him to go down after just one injury...!

While still in midair, I overlapped a ruby-like Fire Aura on top of my Wind Aura and started to prepare my Blue Fire Bullets Spell. My body started to descend slowly from mid air like a feather as I used an incomplete Air Walk to slower my speed of descent.

It's not like I couldn't control Fire Ether considering how I'm a Universal Specialist but even someone with many affinities like myself needed to first change the Elemental Affinity of my Aura before I could have any level of Ether Control.

A bunch of small blue flames started to pile around me as I used my Fire Mana to create sparks. I followed up by adding Fire Ether turn those small sparks into concentrated blue flames.

My body gradually descended towards Jack, but I wasn't agitated. I calmly proceeded to create more fire bullets using diligently trained visualisations I had of this Spell.

"It seems I underestimated you." Jack said ferociously as he glared at me.

Hah... As expected, he's still a a child isn't he? To think that it would only take one attack to effect his emotional stability. I don't really care how much of unfair advantage I have in mental fortitude considering how he'd been trying to anger me before the match...

"You may want to use a barrier to defend against this next Spell of mine. I'm unable to fully control its strength." I advised worriedly. It's not like I want to kill him using my upgraded Spell after all.

"Dream on!" He burned with fighting spirit. Oh? It looks like my words hurt his pride... He must have thought that I was advising him out of arrogance.

Instead of aiming for his body, I made sure that most of the fire bullets I prepared would hit the ground around him. Then I shot the flaming bullets at him as a barrage of magical attacks. I wasn't taking pity on him but was trying to shake his will.

Although he probably didn't understand how strong these little blue fire bullets were, he still decided to counter with full force. The Earth Ether around him trembled as a pillar of earth moved him outside the magical fire bullets trajectory before heading to my location lunging towards where I was falling.

A myriad of explosions resounded behind him, causing his face to pale in response. One could tell from that flabbergasted look of his face that he didn't expect my Blue Fire Bullets Spell to pack such a punch. It seems he's now starting to adapt to my strange Spells now and 'acts'...

"Having fun?" I asked while putting away my knife as I met his spear once again using Elemental Swordsmanship. Both my hands wielded my wooden sword as I decided to rely on the basics. He may have been able to cover his wooden spear in Earth Aura but the intricacy of my fighting style made it so I could still push him back despite his strength.

"Impossible... You can't be this strong! I've been training for so long... How can YOU beat me?" His eyes looked quite scary as he murmured under his breath. Looks like I wasn't the only one who toiled hard to attain power in these few years...

"Well, life isn't fair that way." I replied 'honestly'.

A roar escaped his lips as he kept my body in midair by barraging me with multiple strikes, but all I did was counter them after I unsheathed my knife and switched to using my own personal style of swordsmanship. His eyes were burning in fury as it was almost like I was being attacked by the ground itself. Not that I paid any attention to it since this was a duel that concerned both our reputations!

Seeing that this exchange that made the audience so shocked that they were barely breathing straight wasn't going anywhere, I decided to break us up by unleashing the rest of the burst power within my Lightning Aura and jumping up in the air once more.

No matter how prepared he was, he wasn't able to predict this outcome as I descended towards his surprised figure once more. I once again sheathed my knife and focused Aura into my next strike!

[Fire Art- Muscle Enhancement!]

I fully shifted to Fire Aura to improve my physique by using my muscles as a medium. Then I used my current falling momentum to strike at his immovable spear head-on. The Earth Aura around his body trembled after my sword smashed it!

The impact nearly caused him to let go of his Earth Aura coated spear but he still stubbornly held his position. The power of his Earth Aura intensified as it looked like he was going to use a Third-Tier Combat Spell by condensing his Earth Aura.

[Earth Spell- Giant Gauntlet!]

Jack's opal Earth Aura became more corporeal as he got serious! He clenched his fist and punched out with all his strength, causing his Aura to copy the shape of his hand in order to follow his movements. My Fire Aura turned into Earth Aura as I defended myself by injecting my Earth Affinity into my skin.

[Earth Art- Skin Reinforcement!]

A powerful sound of impact resounded as the Aura fist hit my body, but I was merely pushed back by his attack due to defence being reinforced to its very limits. Even though the attack didn't damage my skin, it still affected me internally with its pressure. This is definitely something I gotta work on...

[Wind Art- Weightless Breath!]

I also layered on my Wind Aura onto my Earth Aura to complete Weightless Breath so I could borrow the force of the impact to retreat a few steps. My body weight lightened as I allowed myself to be pushed back by the force of his spear strike.

Even as I planned what would be my next course of action, my body didn't stop I threw the wooden knife in my pocket and the wooden sword in my hand into his direction in order to force him to defend himself.

"Useless...!" He swept his spear with one hand to defend his body. It was then his anger finally overtook him as he decided to change from a defensive spear stance to an offensive one.

In that one momentary opening between him switching to a defensive spear stance from an offensive stance, I leapt forward to decrease the distance between us and grabbed his Earth Aura coated spear before punching him in the face!

My muscles were enhanced by my Fire Aura as a punch landed on his chin. Then followed with a series of hand-to-hand combat moves at an ultra close range! I wasn't even sure what kind of style I was hitting him with since Elemental Aura now caused even my fist strikes to be unpredictable. It was like my combination lacked a 'Rhythm'.

He wasn't even able to react in time as I barraged him into submission with absolute dominance in close-range combat! My martial arts were on full display after fusing them with magical abilities!

[Martial Art- Kaiser Blitz!]

A kick to knee, a punch to the gut, a chop to the neck, an vicious elbow to the lungs... all these martial art moves interchanging to various parts of his body in succession through precision!

"It's useless...!" Jack repeated as an Earthen Armour once again covered his body, but that didn't stop me from continuing on with my attacks as if I hadn't even heard him.to whittle down his Earthen Armour.

[Martial Art- Flowing Stream!]

Even as I was attacking I realised how to make each of my attacks more compact. It was as if the barrier that stopped me from becoming a Grandmaster martini artist opened up as I reached a level I heard many call the state of 'Inner Harmony'. There was no longer any wasted movements in my attacks as I only used what was necessary to break apart the armour he reformed onto his body.

[Martial Art- SPEAR System!]

[Martial Art- Mauy Thai!]

Two styles I ended up mastering in my past life finally merged into one whole as I broke down Jack's armour piece by piece. Even this powerful opponent in front of me was turned into a punching bag once he decided to step into the domain of expertise I was most proud of. I grabbed the back of his neck with both hands once his armour was at his breaking point and drove my knee into his chest while simultaneously bringing him towards me.

He grunted and used what was left of his willpower to suddenly counter with his fist to attack my temple, but switched it up by twisting my body while I grabbing his arm in order to give him a good overarm throw onto the ground in response!

The giant youth who was thrown to the ground looked like his soul had left his body as he realised his Mana was no longer abundant enough to recreate his Earthen Armour. Though that didn't stope the defiant look in his eyes as struggled under me.

The last thing I did to subdue him was to threaten my shining Lightning Aura coated hand above his head so that he wouldn't continue to struggle about while in my grasp... I wanted to end the match, but things didn't go as I had initially predicted.

Jack was definitely a prideful and fearless individual even at such a young age... He didn't even wait for me speak as he grabbed leg and kicked my stomach hard enough for me to lose my breath for a second!

I seemed to have only incensed even more than I did before when I fought him in hand-to-hand combat.

[Earth Spell- Double Gravity!]

Using the opportunity he created, the Earth Ether surrounding me vibrated as a suppressive force weighed down on my shoulders. I stopped using both my body enhancing Secret Arts at that moment as I was fully focused on not letting Jack escape my grasp. I tackled him once more and borrowed the force of the increased gravity to hold him down!

[Lightning Art- Electric Impact!]

A great amethyst glow shone all over my body as used the last of my energy to turn my body into a stun gun. Jack was almost knocked unconscious by the strength of the electricity that pierced through the last of his Earth Aura. His legs wobbled as he even lost the strength retaliate any further...

"I will not lose..." Even as his mind was almost unconscious, his will hadn't given as he stood once more. Even the hairs of my body stood on end as I watched him get to his feet... Though it seemed to be false alarm as he fully fell unconscious after falling over. It seems I underestimated his drive to win.

Gotta remember to stay away from him in future...!

"The duel has ended, the winner is Simon!" Mark exclaimed in excitement.

I moved away from Jack's beat up body and smiled, but something wasn't quite right as everyone else was silent. Their mouths comically hanging open after I won the duel...

I looked around and saw that most the servants were still looking at me in disbelief and awe. The House Master solemnly stood up from his seat and looked at me with sharp-eyes that seemed to see into all my acts.

"Follow me." The Duke ordered as he walked away with my parents in tow. It seems I shouldn't have showed too many of my hidden trump cards...