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40

Just as Frankie's dagger was about to make contact with Arthur's rib, Frankie felt his arm coming up against an invisible wall of force. Before he could understand what was happening, two things happened simultaneously.

One, a loud voice escaped from the lips of the man he was fighting, and two, the force that he felt earlier suddenly amplified and shoved him backwards.

Thankfully, Frankie was much more agile than Emile who was the victim of the same trick. Emile was directly lifted off his feet and got himself slammed into the wall. His head concussed against the solid surface and he knocked himself out from that.

Frankie fared better than Emile. Even though he had not faced a magic like this before, the man knew not to panic. If he faltered, he would be carried backwards by the force in the voice and the force would bang him into the wall. Frankie knew if that happened, he most likely would not be able to get back up. His opponent would use his magic to pin him against the wall and the force would eventually squeeze the life out of him.

Frankie placed both of his daggers before him to block the wall of force. He slid backwards across the arena as Arthur's booming echo caused the whole place to shake.

Just as he was about to hit the wall, Frankie felt the force give slightly and he kicked at the ground underneath his feet and he used the rebound in his step to roll out of the way.

As the dust settled, the arena started to get fired up.

"What just happened?"

"Did the guy just shouted Frankie back?!"

"It is definitely more than a simple shout, could you not feel the magic in the shout earlier? Even you cannot feel that, you should have been able to feel the ground move!"

One of the adventurers there probably came from a village near to Armana because Arthur managed to hear one of them say, "Wait... This is the Voice Magic! I've heard about this rumour that the son of the legendary dragon slayer has awakened this form of powerful magic in him... I never would have thought it is something real. The whole thing sounds like a joke but then... There is no way to argue with reality. The shout earlier was a clear demonstration of the Voice Magic. Wait... This means that the young man is the son of the famed adventurer!"

"Now that you mention it, I think I've heard something similar. Who would have thought the son of the dragon slayer will be joining us today. I hear his name is Arthur."

"If that is true, then the special treatment given to him by the higher up can be easily explained."

"Even though he has been given the special treatment by the adventurer's guild, he is willing to prove himself before us. Actually, now that I think about it, this Arthur guy is not so bad after all."

Support was slowly piling up for Arthur. In fact, even Lady Morgan was silently cheering for him.

However, this did not mean that those in support of Frankie had completely abandoned him either.

"Be that as it may, it does not mean that he will have an easy win over Frankie. Frankie might have been surprised by Arthur's unique form of magic but it did not mean that it was over for the man. Frankie still have some tricks up his sleeves. If there was anyone who was going to give the son of the dragon slayer a run of his money, it was going to be Frankie."

"Furthermore, let's not forget that the special treatment was for this guy, Arthur to advance to a level D adventurer. He is not yet a level S adventurer like his father. We're all of equal status here, there is no telling who might win this battle."

With that, the group turned their attention back to the battle. Arthur's approval rating among the adventurers was slowly rising. They saw Arthur as someone who did not boast about his identity and was game enough to accept their challenge even though he did not need to. That humility and down-to-earth personality sat well with the group of adventurers.

After overhearing Arthur's identity from the crowd, Frankie did not concede due to deference to Arthur's father. That did not matter much in the man's eyes. If Arthur could not defeat him, his father's name was not going to save him from the shame of elimination.

No matter who you were, as long as you failed to rise up to the necessary standard, then off you go.

Arthur shouted at Frankie and this time it was the latter who expertly dodged all of Arthur's attacks. As mentioned before, Frankie was as fast as the Red Mother. Since Arthur failed to land any hit on the Red Mother without outside help, naturally he was unable to land any attack on Frankie either.

The man hopped around the arena, making it impossible for Arthur to hit.

Both parties were waiting for the other to make a slip up so they could make use of the opportunity.

Frankie was a good adventurer because he was very familiar with his strength and he knew how to make use of it to his advantage. He realized Arthur's attacks while powerful was rather uniform and unidirectional. That was something that could be taken advantage of by his speed. Thus a plan started to form in his mind.

Frankie weaved through a few other attacks by Arthur as he tried to get close to the man. When he was close enough, Frankie charged right at Arthur. Arthur blasted him head-on with a shot of vocal materialization.

Frankie who had been waiting for that, leaped into the air and right over Arthur's head. The man's agility and dexterity meant that he was quite proficient at aerial combat, a skill that he had not displayed until then.

He somersaulted in mid-air and extended his arms like pincers to poke at the back of Arthur's neck. If hit, he would cause temporary damage to Arthur's spine and that would render him unconscious.

Please don't forget your power stone. They're the reason I'm still writing.

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