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At the moment, not only Gerri's two palms were on fire, but his whole body was covered by purple blazing flames. Even though Emery had stood far from Gerri, who was currently the very definition of a fire hazard, Emery could clearly feel the searing heat emanating from the guy.

Without realizing Emery's facial expression, Gerri continued using his fire elemental spells to create a propelling force around his body, making him able to float in the air.

As he looked at Gerri's current state, Emery almost thought the man had turned into some kind of fire elemental creature. Heck, Emery would really think Gerri was indeed one, if he didn't know the figure in front of him was Gerri.

"Emery! I guarantee you will lose against me! The fight will not last more than 10 minutes!"

Upon hearing that, Emery quickly schooled his expression, as he prepared himself. Ignoring the scorching temperature, Emery said, "I'm ready!"

Right as Emery finished saying that, Gerri swiftly zoomed towards him just like a large-sized fireball. It was clear Gerri intended to fight Emery in close range combat.

[Darkness Infusion]

Emery's tier 3 sword quickly glowed, as it was covered by a black-colored substance. Meanwhile, his whole body turned grayish, as [Granite Skin] was ready to tank any attack Gerri threw at him.

[Heroic Slash]

[Flaming Punch]

This time no tricks were involved, the familiar crescent slash was immediately released by Emery, while Gerri greeted the slash with the embodiment of a massive blazing fist. The two different, yet deadly attacks clashed against each other, causing a loud explosion at the point of impact.

Emery was being pushed half a dozen steps back by the howling winds resulting from the explosion. Emery expected Gerri to be the same as him, being pushed back by the aftereffect. Alas, it didn't turn out that way.

The moment Emery had only stabilized himself, he realized there was only a few meters separating the two of them. Hence, he hurriedly raised his sword and took a defensive stance.

As he arrived before Emery, Gerri began to launch his moves.

Gerri chose to combine the improved speed he got thanks to the [Fire Aura] spell with his martial art techniques. The result of the combination was a series of attacks that could be unleashed from the front, left and right. The attacks were coming towards Emery like a wave of raging torrent, causing him to be overwhelmed for a moment.

Clank! Clank! Clank!

Emery was barely able to parry the first two attacks with his sword, as his body was being pushed back, sliding on the ground because of the momentum. From the clash earlier, Emery was now sure Gerri had a higher battle power than him.

When Emery realized this fact, he was extremely shocked. It seemed his 53 battle power still was not enough to be compared with the flaming figure before him.

While still moving around Emery and launching attacks wildly from all sides, Gerri, apparently, still had the time and leisure to strike a question to Emery.

"Why are you still not using your transformation ability, Emery?!"

As Emery was getting overwhelmed, he suddenly noticed something that made his expression turn grave. It was clear Gerri's speed was gradually increasing and Emery was sure he would not be able to withstand his assaults.

Noticing Emery still hadn't resorted to his transformation, Gerri shouted, "Let me see the real Savage Acolyte!!!"

BAM!!!

Gerry's flaming punch managed to hit Emery's stomach, causing him to lose his breath for a second and be thrown several meters away. The most irritating thing about Gerri's [Flaming Punch] was its after effect, where it would dwell inside the body for a substantial amount of seconds, causing great pain.

Emery spat out drops of blood, as the pain wrecked through his body. He surely needed a new tactic, or he wouldn't have the hope to win the fight. However, Emery would not resort to his transformation.

Emery obviously knew his stage one [Fey Transformation] would be more than enough to outspeed Gerri. But no, not yet. Emery wished to prove himself, using only all the training he had gone through the past 10 days. This was also a way to see his growth. Moreover, Emery's main goal was to impress the grand magus with his combat and spells' prowess.

Even so, Emery would not let himself be bullied by Gerri for a second longer. Hence, he decided to make his own move.

[Shadow Mist]

[Shadow Binding Root]

With [Shadow Mist], Gerri's vision was hindered and Emery managed to give himself some breathing space, as his mirror images started to move. While Gerri was busy with his mirror images, dark roots rapidly emerged from the ground and slithered towards Gerri, disrupting his movement.

Therefore, not only did Gerri need to guess which of the images in the mist was the real one, he also needed to take care of the slithering roots below him, that were trying to catch his legs.

Gerri's movements were greatly impeded when one of the roots managed to tie his leg and bound his body.

Even though Gerri was able to free himself by burning the roots with his flame, with several roots working together to bind him, Gerri was at least stopped for a second. That was when Emery launched his offensive.

[Blink]

Emery's favorite spell was casted, as he appeared right behind the struggling Gerri. A bright luster appeared on Emery's sword before he sent another [Heroic Slash] to Gerri.

Before the slash met Gerri's exposed back, he unexpectedly managed to free himself at the last second using the spell [Ignite], before proceeding to dodge the slash. Immediately after, Gerri sent his signature purple fireball towards Emery, while Emery swiftly teleported away the moment he saw the purple flame fusing into a ball.

The two of them were fighting as if it was a game of cat and mouse. As the faster one wasn't necessarily able to catch the prey. Even when Gerri was able to get close to the real Emery, Emery would just blinked away. And when Emery managed to land a strike, the result was miniscule.

The battle was going on like this for a while, until at one moment both of them stopped and looked at each other, as they took a breather from such a fast-paced battle.

As expected, Gerri opened his mouth first, "Amazing, Emery! You can cast multiple spells at the same time and with the right timing! You… have improved a lot!" Gerri said, as the [Fire Aura] spell was gone from his body.

"So, will you give up now?" Emery asked.

"Oh, hell no!" Gerri replied. He then proceeded to raise both his hands up in the air, "I prepared this spell for those privileged acolytes... But I guess you are worthy of it, Emery! After all, this spell is perfect for an acolyte such as you.."

Emery shook his head and said, "You talk too much, Gerri."

Large amounts of blazing flames began to materialize above Gerri's hands, before they coalesced into a wave. The sight reminded Emery of the tier 3 spell [Fire Wave]. However, this particular spell appeared a lot more grand and intense, as the wave moved in accordance with the movements made by Gerri's hands.

In an instant, the wave was surging forward, towards Emery's direction. But instead of heading directly at him, the wave was flowing and rotating around Emery, covering him from every direction.

Realizing all around him had been covered with scorching flames, Emery knew he was in deep trouble. It appeared Gerri was able to find out that Emery's [Blink] spell weakness: it was unable to teleport him to the place he could not see.

Hence, Emery currently felt like he was in the eye of a flame tornado, the temperature was so intense Emery could feel his [Granite Skin] began to weaken. As if the situation wasn't bad enough, the rotating flame wave began to inch closer to him.

At this moment, Emery knew he would definitely be screwed if he didn't do anything.

To be continued