The Power of a Mage

Although both had hit opposite ends of the arena, the crowd believed that Bastian had gotten the advantage in that exchange, due to the fact that the girl had impacted the wall first and the fact that she had been blown off her feet.

Bastian also believed that she was only pretending to not be affected.

I have to commend her fortitude. Not many fighters can receive that and remain conscious, let alone live. Even if it was me who had been hit by that, I would be out of this match.

Yet the girl stubbornly walked on. Suddenly she stooped. She lifted up her arms slowly, Bastian thought that this was due to the damage she had given him, then she whispered something, Bastian also thought that her internal damage was so bad that she could barely move. Then her seemingly shaky hands formed into a seal.

Kenshin had told Bastian to only use e-vision at certain moments because he didn't want Bastian to be overly reliant on it. One of the moments he was allowed to use it however, was when an opponent made seals. Bastian immediately activated e-vision, only to be met with an inexplicable situation.

A line of qi was stretching from the girl's body to Bastian's right hand. It was only after activating e-vision that Bastian noticed this qi. He immediately used his Soul Force to see if he could get it off.

This...this isn't qi! It has some mana mixed into it as well! This woman is a specialist!

In the world of cultivation, beings that could mix mana and qi were referred to as specialists, and were feared due to the fact that they had far more abilities than the average mage or warriors. Protocol for fighting specialists was quite different from when fighting normal opponents, and required actions that were suited to counter what specialists were infamous for.

Unfortunately Bastian realized this fact too late.

She didn't raise her arms slowly because she was weak; she was slow because she was fusing mana and qi! She didn't whisper because she was injured, she whispered because she was using an incantation! This woman, she led me on!

Bang!

With a loud noise, Bastian crashed into the ground. The crowd could not understand what happened, one moment he was up, and the next he was down. Only Bastian knew what had happened. He was on all fours and tried to stand up, only for it to be futile. He pulled at it with all his might but to no avail. To others it seemed as if his right hand was stuck to the ground. But only Bastian knew what had truly happened.

This woman can control gravity!

Bastian's inner voice was screaming in despair when he realized this. Others would not have reached the same conclusion as him; after all, there were other possible conclusions such as the brown qi covering his arm being heavy. Yet Bastian had the awakened the bloodline of a beast that inherently manipulated forces, gravity of course being one of them.

Bastian could tell that the brown qi covering his arm had made his arm much heavier than normal. To the point where he couldn't even lift it up. The qi itself was not heavy, but it distorted the gravitational field around Bastian's arm. The crowd was enamored by the contest, much so in fact that many had almost forgotten to breathe. The air was heavy, the atmosphere was intense, and the contestants were both nothing to scoff at. To viewers nothing was more entertaining than two opponents that were evenly matched.

Heavy Flash wasn't being polite either, just as her name said, she ran straight toward Bastian with incredible speed, with the intent of finishing him off. However, was he not Bastian, the Tempest Monk, a wind mage of incredible combat prowess?

Just because I can't move, doesn't mean I can't beat you, humph!

Bastian's right hand was stuck to the ground, but his left hand was free within an instant, 10 balls of purple mana materialized in Bastian's hand. Heavy Flash did not hold them in regard, because she was confident that she would be able to dodge the balls.

She was confident that the bogged down Bastian would not be able to hit her again, and even if he did, she would be able to take the hit. Using her skills, she had made sufficient defensive preparations, but to her surprise Bastian didn't attack with those balls.

Instead, he did something that made the pupils eyes of every man woman and child dilate, he fused all the balls into one large ball, and launched it straight toward his opponent. Although she was somewhat surprised, Heavy Flash was not affected by this, she was still confident in her ability to dodge especially now considering that the target was larger and there was only one. But as the ball approached her, it started shrinking rapidly. Within an instant, by the time it was only a few feet in front of Heavy Flash, the ball was a tenth of its size.

Then, with a screech, the ball suddenly dipped. It seemed that its target was not Heavy Flash, but rather the ground in front of her. Heavy Flash was caught off guard, and there was nothing she could do.

Boom!

A loud booming noise caused the majority of the spectators to cover their ears, and the majority of those that did not cringed their faces in pain.

"Ah damn it, is he trying to hurt us too!" bellowed Shasha as he covered his ears, in a futile attempt to save his hearing. The others were silent and merely looked on at the proceedings, curious to see what Bastian was up to, because they all knew that this would not defeat his enemy, in other words, what was he planning?

A large burst of wind suddenly appeared at the impaired point and expanded across the entire arena. The ground of the arena had been reduced to mere sand and debris flying around everywhere. Then as suddenly as it came, the explosive winds started to move. That's right! They started to move in one direction, picking up speed with every second, until a massive tornado had formed within the ring.

Heavy Flash was too busy trying to dodge the debris, that she failed to notice what was happening, by the time she realized it, she was in the eye of the storm!

At that instant, her surroundings became calm. There was barely any movement in her surroundings; however there was a massive wall of dust, wind and debris rotating fiercely around her. The crowd couldn't see what was inside the tornado, all they could tell was that Heavy Flash was inside, and that Bastian was outside.

Bastian raised his hand, and made a crushing gesture and the tornado responded. It started to shrink according to Bastian's command. As it shrank, it rotated faster and faster, with the objective being to crush Heavy Flash. The crowd was astonished. Such a ruthless move! Without a shred of hesitation Bastian had chosen one of the cruelest methods to dispose of his opponent.

Even a fool could tell what happened if one was caught up in the rotating monstrosity. They never knew that that Bastian was capable of such skills. Due to the fact that he had been using hand to hand combat to fight, the crowd had neglected the fact that he was a mage, now that fact was revealing itself in all itself in all its glory.

The howling winds from the tornado caused many to look on in awe at the might of a mage. Mages with a high cultivation have always been held in high regard, but most of the people here had never seen one in action before as they were rare in this part of the world, now however they finally understood.

With but a shake of his hand, Bastian had brought forth the forces of nature themselves, just to deal with one opponent! It not only showed how strong a mage was, it also revealed that he did not take his opponent lightly.

"Wha-what a monster!"

"So this is what a true mage is capable of! No wonder they are feared by so many!"

"Sigh now I wish I was a mage."

"Ah! I had bet on Heavy Flash to win; now my money is gone!"

A multitude of different reactions came from the crowd as they observed what was occurring in front of them. Shasha and co had somber expressions as they observed the tornado slowly encroaching upon its victim. Shasha was very familiar with what powerful mages could do, due to time however he had forgotten just how frightening a mage can be. Beads of sweat rolled down his head as he imagined what he would do if he was in the middle to that tornado.

"This fight is over." said Guy with a helpless expression.

He had never thought that Bastian could explode with such power; after all, he was not even a Scholar! Bastian as an Acolyte, had managed to effortlessly create a tornado that encompassed the entire stadium!