A bit anticlimactic
The fight was relatively expedited. The Kilguane apprentices appeared to have no combat skills, no strategy and were even totally panicked.
Their main issue was that they weren't synchronized enough and couldn't adapt to their opponent. Not to mention the amount of mana they must have spent shooting randomly into Rebecca's cloud, they had barely erected any defenses when Artiel and Iracuz reached them.
It was a massacre and within seconds their opponents were either knocked out or under Artiel's foot, trying to stand up.
"Is that the elite of the kingdom?" Isaac wondered as he watched the apprentices give up and leave the arena, looking ashamed.
But he didn't think much about it. They were apprentices after all, they probably just needed real experience in order to have more aptitude for fighting. And even so, mages aren't really known for fighting, most of them spend their time in their towers, studying and experimenting. The fight was mostly carried out by more experienced people like Master Mages, Archmages and the soldiers who were given magical apparatus produced by the mage researchers.
Artiel and the others looked delighted, although slightly disappointed with their opponents' performance. They had gained confidence, especially Rebecca and Artiel who had never been able to win a match, since well… their only opponent was Isaac.
This was to be expected when faced with a monster like him. So they had never had the opportunity to really see their potential, until now.
Under the approving gaze of their master, the three apprentices left the arena, their chests high and proud, not without having bowed politely to Isaac.
The crowd was totally excited. The fight between the apprentices had aroused the interest of both mages and swordsmen. And now that only the Masters were left in the arena, things were sure to be all the more exciting.
Once the apprentices left, Isaac and Kyle exchanged a quick glance, nodded, and got ready.
Seeing that serious things were about to begin, silence fell suddenly in the arena. No one dared to speak, all were focused on the two mages motionless on the sand.
A few seconds passed without anything happening before Kyle made the first movement. With a quick wave of his hand, the young man conjured a fireball about 12 inches in diameter and sent it crashing towards his opponent at high speed.
Although "high speed" is little to describe how fast the spell crossed the distance between the two mages. It was so fast that it looked more like a line than a sphere at this point. Nonetheless, unsurprisingly, the attack was stopped and crashed dramatically into an invisible wall a few yards in front of Isaac and completely disappeared into fine dust on impact.
Isaac was surprised, just at the speed with which the object was smashed, if his barrier he had summoned earlier before the fight had not been there he could have died. Weren't deadly spells prohibited from duels? Isaac looked around for an answer, but no one seemed to be outraged, the crowd seemed rather excited by the show of force.
"Maybe the meaning of 'deadly spells' changes depending on the fighters", Isaac thought.
Kyle was just as surprised. He had used a class 5 spell that mixed the elements of fire, wind, and earth. Yet the attack had been stopped by a simple mana barrier, the weakest defense a mage could create.
Zachary had warned him that Isaac was "out of the ordinary", but at this point, he was no longer human, although technically he wasn't human to begin with but still. He had even aimed slightly to the side just in case to avoid seriously injuring him, but it seemed his worries were in vain.
He had to step up his game a bit if he wanted to get the results Zachary wanted, which was to force Isaac to show what he could do.
So he decided to get down to business and skipped directly to a class 8 spell, "Fire Ray", a spell that his master had taught him a long time ago and that was very effective against mana barriers.
Unlike more sophisticated protective barriers like the arena's, mana barriers nullify velocity by applying pressure to any object in contact with them, immediately stopping them.
The reason these were fragile was in the very crystal structure of the barrier. They were more inclined to give way, to break, and therefore made them very unreliable shields.
However, another weakness and one that Kyle intended to exploit was energy blocking. Although they are weak, mana barriers are even weaker against energy attacks including light, bolt, and in this case heat.
Although they are able to stop these types of attacks, the mana shields have to apply tremendous pressure in order to convert themselves into a real physical barrier, wasting an equally tremendous amount of mana. Whereas with a physical object, the mana shield simply affects the velocity property of the incoming object which is quite easily done with mana.
As soon as the spell was loaded after just a few seconds of casting, Kyle wasted no time and launched it at full power.
Unsurprisingly, the attack hit the barrier that separated the two adversaries head-on, disappearing into specs of light and creating powerful squalls at the point of impact.
Isaac didn't quite understand what his opponent was doing. Truth be told, the reason he still hadn't cast any offensive spell was that he was a little curious. He wanted to see how mages fought, what their strategy was, and how powerful an official mage would be.
So he decided to wait a bit longer to see where Kyle wanted to go with this attack and he wasn't disappointed. After just over two minutes of relentless attack, a crack suddenly appeared on the barrier, followed by another, and soon after, the entire mana wall gave way before Kyle deactivated the spell.
Although Isaac has what can be described as an infinite mana quantity of mana at his disposal, that doesn't mean that all the spells he can cast are infinitely charged with mana. Hell, even if he tried, that would only bring more problems than anything. Most of the mana a spell will ever be able to use is poured in it at the casting phase. Once casted, it is very hard to fuel it with more mana in order to maintain it without destabilizing it and finally breaking it.
This flaw can be overcome with runes which can be fueled very easily but require a certain time of preparation before being deployed. That was why Isaac created arcanes, runic patterns embedded directly into the air or water. Although not as durable as runes inscribed into stone or metal, they not only offer more flexibility and stability, but also enable one to refuel his spell.
It was something he thought would be used widely. But apparently, inscribing runes directly in the air was a feat no one except him had been able to achieve.
When the mana shield he casted broke, Isaac understood very quickly how stupidly broken his mana reserves were. His mana shields weren't that hard for him (although he didn't upgrade them a substantial amount since his fight against the Geloms after he witnessed how they tended to break easily against hight velocity objects), he could have destroyed them with relative ease but he started to reconsider when he saw the state in which Kyle was.
Breathless and almost completely exhausted, Kyle would never have believed that this barrier would have given him so much trouble. Normally, a normal mana barrier would have given way after just a few seconds of contact with the beam. What's more, he had even provided a greater amount of mana to increase its potency, he had felt that what he had cast was equivalent to a class 9 spell. Something that was at the very limit of his capabilities.
"That was anticlimactic," Isaac thought. He would have thought an official mage would be more resilient and have a higher mana capacity. But no matter, that was still very instructive.
The audience was silent, admiring, and thoughtful. To think that an official mage was out of breath due to a mana barrier was a sight they never thought possible.
And Zachary was one of them. He had understood that Isaac was out of the ordinary and much more powerful than him, but from there to think that Kyle was so exhausted while Isaac had not even cast a single spell, was not something he forecasted. Even he had to resort to more than a measly mana barrier in order to counter a Fire Ray spell, hell he was the one that designed it to destroy mana shields in the first place.
But this was a problem. If Isaac was to cast a spell with Kyle being that exhausted, that would be a death sentence. Zachary didn't know if Isaac could control his power, he didn't even know if Isaac thought his mana barrier was powerful or just a normal-sized one.
So he got up and flew quickly towards the arena before announcing his presence with a clap of his hands. Both adversaries turned their gazes to Zachary slowly descending to the ground, waiting for him to speak.
- "Kyle" he said in a sympathetic voice, nodding slightly.
He had chosen Kyle because he was his apprentice but also because he was the most gifted of the royal mages of his rank. Of course, if he could, he would have placed master mages against Isaac, but they had other responsibilities to fulfill for the time being.
What is more, if it was up to him, he would have liked to fight Isaac himself, but the King had strictly forbidden him to do so. It had made him sad, but he understood. Who would want two Archmages fighting in their city.
On Kyle's side, the young man felt his strength returning after this sudden expenditure of energy, but frankly, he didn't really want to continue this fight.
He was sure, he had no chance of defeating his opponent, he didn't even want to try anymore. So he raised his hands in the air before breathing in and then said:
- "I give up," he said quite simply.
Several seconds of silence fell on the arena during which no one dared to move. Many were still trying to figure out what had happened earlier, others were just plain dumbfounded.
Kyle Ravenfair, an official mage and Academy instructor, had just admitted defeat to an opponent who hadn't even cast a single offensive spell?
A few more seconds followed before the silence was broken with a single clap, followed by another and within moments the crowd rose up, applauding not only Isaac and his victory but also Kyle who had given them a worthy performance for an official mage.
Isaac did not know what to do and remained motionless, observing openly around him without knowing how to react. He remained like that, lost in thought, in the midst of a crowd applauding him until two hands grabbed his. Surprised, Isaac turned and saw Zachary and Kyle, smiling before they lifted his arms, triggering hisses and howls of cheer from the audience.
Isaac turned his head from side to side, his mouth open and unable to utter a single word or move.
---
- "Well done !" Rebecca immediately said.
- "Congratulations !" Artiel bid while friendly patting Isaac on the back.
They weren't really surprised, there was no way their master would lose in something that had anything to do with magic. Isaac answered them with a goofy smile, still in his thoughts when Zachary put his hand on his shoulder.
- "Frankly, I wouldn't be very honest if I were to say that you did a good job since you have hardly done anything" he commented, laughing before turning his gaze.
The small group was still in the center of the arena, about thirty minutes had passed since the end of the duel and most of the stands had now been deserted although some students and professors were still present, staring intently at them.
They were told that the fight was finished and some soldiers even started to evacuate the seats for God knows what reason. And yet, they were still seated, begging the guards to let them stay, which they accepted after Zachary told them it wasn't that problematic since most of them were either staff or senior students.
- "Good, since the test could not be completed since…" he said before turning his gaze to Kyle, smiling. "… You haven't cast a single potent spell."
- "You couldn't record me casting the barrier ?" asked Isaac, curious.
- "Well, about that. Strangely, no, we couldn't. But we were able to record the movement of mana directly in the air," answered Zachary. "I'm definitely going to test something out to confirm this, but let's focus on your test for now."
That was… interesting. Kyle was curious as well. Most mages cast spells using mana inside of their body because it's more fluid and easy to handle than natural mana floating around in the environment. That was the current understanding of what the mana capacity of a mage, along with the rate at which one can absorb and purify from his surroundings to his circuit quantifying mana regeneration.
To be able to bend mana in the air, that would mean to be able to have an unlimited amount of mana at his disposal. Kyle couldn't believe it, they had to test this out in order to confirm if this was true and if Isaac was truly capable of such a thing.
The opposite arena gate suddenly opened, revealing two intermediary mages levitating what appeared to be a crystal about two meters high.
Isaac eyed the object intriguingly, curious to know what its function was. Logically, it was most likely useful for the aptitude test, but how? Zachary hastened to clarify things.
- "This is a mana crystal, very rare but useful, they have quite low magical conductivity but extremely high mana storage capacity" he explained.
Isaac arched an eyebrow then. How was storing mana in a rune and this crystal different? So he waited for Zachary to continue.
- "Unlike the traditional mana gathering when casting a spell, mana crystals have a stabilizing effect which allows you to store more mana and with less risk," he said.
Isaac gave an understanding "Aaaah" and approached the crystal, scanning it from top to bottom. Although he couldn't really get any information on its structure or function just by looking at it, the near non-existence of mana emission confirmed Zachary's statements.
The crystal could be considered nonexistent if one observed it solely through its mana vision. No smell of mana, nothing came out of it so well that his mana vision showed the crystal as a black hole, much like shadow portals.
An abyss in which mana entered, never to be seen again.
- "Good," said Zachary, approaching the crystal. "We are going to use it to absorb the mana you are going to emit to avoid any incident and also to quantify it. The arena has been protected and enchanted so that the mana emanations are reduced but this protection is not infallible and also…" he added he looked Isaac in the eye. "We're talking about you, so I'm going to up my game and try to avoid any unfortunate event," he finished before snapping his fingers.
Immediately, three other crystals were brought into the arena and installed at each cardinal point of the enclosure, each surrounded by two intermediate mages.
- "Special circumstances, I had two of them come from the Royal Palace on purpose but… I asked for the Academy's Headmaster to bring two more, just in case" Zachary commented.
Isaac watched with interest the crowd gathered in the arena and the Headmaster who did not seem to have moved from their stands.
- "You will have to release the greatest amount of mana that you can emit and redirect the whole towards the four crystals here present" Kyle explained while putting himself beside Zachary.
For Kyle, using a mana crystal when the arena already had mana evacuation measures was a bit overkill. But he wasn't going to question his master, especially after seeing Isaac's abilities.
- "No, not the greatest quantity," Zachary said. "I'll tell you when to stop," he added to correct his apprentice.
Isaac nodded in response and walked over to the center of the compound. To tell the truth, he had already tried this experiment: releasing as much mana as possible. But it had... let's say "unwanted consequences." His first ever magic experiment, the one that shall never be cited again, the infamous "Experiment #1 : Golden Ray."
Regardless, he didn't have to concentrate so much mana this time around and decided to go for a hundredth of the golden ray's energy first.