55. The Silent Witch (8)

55. The Silent Witch (8)

"are you ready?" The Silent Witch asked

"yeah!" Lex answered with a nod then put his backpack on the ground

Then at the same time, he lunged forward toward her the fifteen or more distance between them quickly reduced with his physical abilities now he can reach her in a few seconds, no matter how good or fast Lex is he still can't ignore the time needed to accelerate from zero to max, no matter how much he trained he just can't ignore this, this is another reason he wanted to learn instantaneous movement 'Blink' which is a technique that can accelerate speed from zero to Max at once

13 meter

10 meter

8 meter

*bump!

(!!)

Lex suddenly fell down on the spot even the inertia didn't get him, it's like he was suddenly stuck on the ground holding him on the spot, luckily he had activated <Mana Skin> so he by no means hurt or injured

(just what the hell…) he wondered what the heck happened that he was suddenly stuck on the ground, he looked at his left leg that he can't move till now, a few black shadow hands are holding him in place.

(Kuh! I can't feel her magic at all!)

"shine and eradiate become my second skin <add elemental>" he chanted on the ground, caused of the Silent World there's no voice coming out of Lex so he's like gaping and mumbling on the ground

(I must be looked like an idiot now… phew! Luckily this Silent World didn't disrupt the activation of Magic or it become impossible for me to win)

With Light Magic added to his legs, Lex able to escape from the shadow hand

*swoosh

The moment he stood up he got pushed back by a strong wind coming from the Silent Witch

"ugh!" Lex braced himself he bent his knees so that he didn't get blown away by the wind, in the end, he didn't get blown away, now there's about a 20meter distance between them,

(looks like this is what's she aimed for in the first place) Lex thought he understood this is what The Silent Witch aimed to push himself back to the original distance, this is can be considered counter to Lex who's trying to reduce the distance as long as Lex didn't get blown away it wasn't considered as attack magic from the Silent Witch

(well, I expected as much) on the other hand, Lex too expected this will happen before he lunged toward her, (it wouldn't be a match If I can win just by this much) in other words he tested the water just now that's all

"now then, the second try," Lex said it out loud because he didn't care as long as he was in the Silent World there's just no way for others to hear what he said, then Lex ran in the opposite direction he increased the distance for more than 30 meter

"Neutrum, flow within me, circulate the flow reach all of its ends be my blood, be my flesh, be my bone, replaces and duplicates <Boost>" he chanted, He can remain this Magic for about one minute only

it was the Pure strengthening Magic he learned from The Silent Witch collection of books, it was now an ancient spell that no one using anymore. It became an Ancient Spell cause there's no one needed this Magic anymore, long time ago this magic only used by someone who's fight in close combat like sword-wielder, spear-wielder, etcetera, <Boost> magic is very tasking to its user in physical and Mana way yet the effect is not that big either,

nowadays the one who fights in close combat for example sword-wielder they rather using Skill a physical type of Magic, a swordsman will use a <Flying slash> which only increased their physical abilities like <Boost> for a while when they've slashed the enemy like the Skill named, it didn't use much Mana and didn't task the user body as much as <boost>, but the effect more evident than pure strengthening magic, that's why <boost> become desolate.

But Lex didn't have that kind of leeway, most Skill can only be used by controlling Mana from inside and outside the body, there's only a few Skill that he can learn with his body constitution. next, the Skill he learned on the Scout Path was unusable in this kind of straight one on one match while he didn't know much about other Skills too.

With <Boost> Lex's physical abilities doubled or might be tripled and then as he took more distance between the two, now Lex had enough time to accelerate to his max speed.

Unlike the First Try, Lex didn't charge at her in the straight trajectory he knew she can easily predict his movement no matter how fast he is, that's why this time Lex ran toward her in a zig-zag way with random intervals between them.

(haha! With this you can't pinpoint your magic like before!)

But sadly the reality was not soft enough for him, his imagination shattered again by the Silent Witch, when their Distance under 10 meters Lex got caught again by another shadow hands resulted in him fell down in the same way as before he canceled his <Boost> when this happened to preserve his strength, later he got pushed back in the same way before too.

"isn't she too overpowered!? What the heck! How the hell I'm gonna beat her!" Lex ranted for a while before he can calm down again.

"it's ok Lex, calm down Suu... Haa... Suu... Haa..., I knew it's not going to be easy, let's stick to the original plan" this time Lex slowly walked his way toward the backpack he left on the ground before

"phew… now let's do this for real!" he exclaimed then he took a google from his backpack, then…

*boom *boom

He threw two smoke grenades between the two of them, this is something he bought with the Merit he accumulated with Mio, both of them instantly covered by thick smoke you can't even see one meter in front of you

This is one of Lex's plans which are to obstruct the vision of the Silent Witch, while he wearing Thermal Vision googles another thing he bought with his Merit, with this he can see the Silent Witch inside this thick smoke

In fact, it was easy for The Silent Witch to clear this thick smoke with her Wind Magic, but Lex wouldn't give her the time

"wuooohhh!" he ran circling the Silent Witch then….

*drop *drop *drop

Many things started to bounce and ran around the Silent Witch

***

('blocking my vision…') the Silent Witch thought when she saw the training ground covered by thick smoke

('that's a good strategy, but I'm sorry it's useless against me') as she clearly can tell what Lex doing where is he right now

('I'd never depended on my vision in the first place, I can even tell where you are with my eyes closed, you don't have any to chance to win from the beginning as long as you're inside this Silent World, with this… I can end this ambiguous relationship cleanly')

('there's no one who knew it, it's my hidden card, you might think it's a voiceless world, but not for me, I can hear more clearly inside this Silent World more detailed and more precisely')

('??') suddenly The Silent Witch got confused by Lex's action

('what is he doing?') she can tell that Lex started to run circling her without reducing the distance, he just ran circling around without approaching her then…

*Dump *Thump *Bump

*Brrmm

*Tuk *Tuk

*Grrr

*Tap *Top *Tap *Top

('what is this!?') many kinds of noise started to appear around her, she can tell that it wasn't Lex but things she still can tell that Lex hasn't approached her yet. But the noise approaching her from all direction

For insurance she activated Mana Detection, her mana become wave-like sonar started from her to her surrounding ('Magic Item?') she thought as she can feel the existence of Mana on those things, it's small and negligible but there's still Mana on it she can't let her guard down and without vision, she can't tell what those things are…

She thought of using her Wind Magic to blow away the smoke, but it's a bit too late, as those things already started to get near her, using Shadow hands she grabbed the nearest things that almost got direct contact with her when she saw the identity ('Toy?') it was a truck car toy with a very small mana stone in it.

*brmm

('!?') She got startled by another toy coming from behind her luckily she was fast enough to catch it with another shadow hand ('how? I checked it with Mana Detection, the one behind me still have a bit more distance!')

('ah!') this is the second surprise for her ('this one doesn't have Mana on it! A clearly normal car toy! Now that I discerned it there's much more noise than the one I can detect with Mana detection, the toy mixed from two groups one with Mana and one without Mana!') the realization got her distracted which is also what Lex aimed from the very start, when she comprehended it those toys have already got near her then…

*boom *booom *boom *booom

The toys started to explode one by one not everything but most of them exploded some exploded with Mana some exploded physically, it's a small bomb made of Mana and Made manually by physic law, this is what Lex requested from the Mare Crimson.

Taking this chance Lex who had prepared his Magic once again in the middle of a chained explosion

"<Boost>!" he ran straight toward the Silent Witch

*booooom *swoosh

The smoke got blown away by the explosion too and the result is….

"…."

"…." The Silent Witch and Lex stared straight into each other eyes

"Kuh!" Lex made a frustrated expression with his whole body covered and held by shadow hands, his right hand only about 5cm away from touching The Silent Witch body

The Silent Witch saw Lex's hand which almost touched her body she sighed in relief ('phew… I underestimated him it was a close one') then she saw the now restrained and immovable Lex "that's a good strategy, you almost got it" she praised him as she's already sure that she won the match she let her guard down.

Then suddenly Lex's frustrated expression disappeared without a trace, replaced by a mischievous grin like a child who succeeded his prank, Lex slowly opened his mouth, the next words coming from Lex shook the Silent Witch to her core

"you can hear me aren't you?" Lex said

('!!?')

****

"you can hear me aren't you?" Lex saw the shaken and panicked expression of The Silent Witch unlike her usual cold and poker face, he knew his plan succeeded

(everything going as I planned till here, now for the final touch!)

(don't hesitate Lex… I can do it… Just do it… Don't think the consequence… do it and be done with it!)

(Suu Haa..., you won't see this coming!) he took his final deep breath

The Silent Witch who still distracted by Lex's words snapped out when she felt the activation of Magic from Lex

*boom *splurt *splash

When she realized it, blood already splashed to her face and followed by….

"arrrgghhhhh!!" followed by Lex's screams

Lex cannot use Magic outside his body as he can't control the Mana outside, but he can control Mana inside his body means he can use Magic inside his body, from his hand which is about 5 cm away from The Silent Witch, he made a small explosion inside the base of his middle finger then boom, his middle finger got blown away by the explosion.

*tap

The blown-away finger touched the Silent Witch, she got distracted and she didn't expect something like this, she didn't have a countermeasure of Lex's move at all.

Seeing his plan succeeded Lex gritted his teeth to bear the pain coming from his missing middle finger, he showed her a strained smile with hard breath "Haa… Haa… I won!" he said.

Then…

The first thing that The Silent Witch do is to pick up Lex blown away middle finger, she saw the tired and strained face of Lex

('Uuu') she felt pained when she saw Lex injured like this, she quickly put Lex's finger on its original place "Tick Tock <Recovery>"

"phew…" she sighed in relief watching Lex's finger re-attaching, the next second she and Lex disappear from the training ground, she teleported back to her house

Only the spectator left in the training ground

"""….""" The nine of them got silenced they were all speechless by the sudden sequence of events and the result of the match