Chapter 15 Victory

Belle Street Warehouse

Lis swiftly closed in on Dison, slashing toward Dison's shoulder with his sword.

With the enhancement of various beneficial magics and martial arts, Lis, even though he wasn't of the thief profession and his main attribute hadn't been altered, his speed at that moment was quite impressive.

Clang clang clang～

Dison, after all, was a Silver Warrior. Other than intelligence, he held absolute advantage in all other attributes and naturally blocked the continuous series of Lis's slashes with relative ease.

A flick of the wrist parried the longsword, but instead of pursuing the openings revealed by Lis, he stepped back twice, positioning himself again and waiting for Lis's second wave of attacks.

Lis flexed his wrist, which had gone somewhat numb from the exertion of too much force, as he was still not proficient at dissipating the energy of his attacks.

Looking at Dison across from him, serious yet not initiating an attack, Lis grinned and stretched out his index finger.

"Fireball Technique!"

An orange-red fireball the size of a soccer ball formed in front of Lis and flew toward Dison.

As Lis's most adept skill in his previous life, he was thoroughly familiar with all sorts of tricks in using the Fireball Technique, so naturally, the power of this fireball was not to be underestimated.

Dison, somewhat unaccustomed to the transition from a solid martial arts contest to suddenly having a spell flying at him, nonetheless quickly dodged by shifting to the right.

Before breaking through to the Gold Level, the warrior profession does not possess the ability to directly slash through spells, let alone withstand the bombardment of spells with their bodies like a Legendary Warrior.

Boom!

The fireball hit the spot where Dison had just been standing, blasting a large pit in the solidified ground, with the upheaval turning the earth black and scorched.

After dodging the fireball, and just as Dison steadied himself, he helplessly noticed that another bundle of ice-blue arrows had formed in front of Lis and was rapidly flying towards him.

"Ice Arrow Skill!"

Something was off!

Even though Dison had never directly battled a mage, he knew something was amiss with the spells Lis was casting.

Too fast!

In the blink of an eye that Dison had dodged the Fireball Technique, Lis had already completed the casting of another spell. This casting speed was unbelievably fast, especially considering Lis was not using a magic wand.

Dison had observed other Bronze Mages casting spells, chanting incantations, and mobilizing magic power—all of which took time and could easily fail if one wasn't careful.

What Dison didn't know was that Lis had already changed professions to become an Arcanist; his Elemental Affinity had greatly increased, and with his in-depth study of various spells, he had completely mastered the magic models of these low-level spells.

Also, as a Golden Mage in his previous life, he might not be as familiar with martial arts or other professional skills, but when it came to utilizing various spellcasting techniques and tricks, he was highly skilled. The timing and methods of spellcasting came naturally to him.

It was due to these factors combined that Lis's spellcasting speed now far surpassed that of mages of the same tier.

Of course, limited by his own strength, Lis could only manage to quickly release low-level magic.

With some reluctance, Dison had no choice but to dodge again. But this time, instead of simply dodging, he side-stepped the Ice Arrow Skill and charged directly at Lis.

Continuing to dodge would lead to an unending cycle; he couldn't let young master Lis down!

Seeing Dison decide to engage in close combat, Lis wasn't afraid and met him head-on.

"Martial Arts: Furious Slash!"

As Dison reached Lis, he executed the technique, though he held back part of his strength, as he had the ability to stop the sword's momentum if Lis couldn't withstand the blow.

Lis could tell that Dison wasn't going all out, and naturally, he was eager to test whether he could withstand the attack of a Silver Warrior with all the enhancements he had.

"Martial Arts: Defensive Stance!"

This was a protective skill of the warrior profession, which allowed one to enter a defensive state and gain additional armor and block rate bonuses.

Clang~

The longsword crashed heavily against the knife in Lis's hand, and with teeth clenched, Lis's body leaned slightly backward, barely managing to catch the blow.

Even with the aid of many beneficial magics and martial arts, and even using a defensive martial arts skill, Lis still almost lost grip of his knife against Dison's restrained power.

Lis took the opportunity to leap backward, free from Dison's subsequent attacks.

Indeed, the substantial difference in attributes and rank suppression made it incredibly difficult for low-level professionals to challenge high-tier professionals.

His body, which had just undergone a period of training, was also starting to feel sore and weak.

My half-baked martial arts skills still aren't very useful right now.

Going head-to-head really isn't working, I still have to rely mainly on spells.

Lis forcefully threw the longsword in his hands at Dison, who hadn't expected Lis to simply abandon his weapon and hastily swung his sword to deflect the longsword away.

Taking advantage of the moment Dison was parrying, Lis's hand flashed with light as he took out a shield he had prepared in advance from his storage ring.

He charged forward ferociously, his combat energy glowing briefly as he gripped the shield tightly and smacked it viciously towards Dison's face.

"Martial Arts: Shield Bash!"

Dison barely managed to lift up his sword in front of his eyes in time.

Bang~

Even though Dison, as a Silver Warrior, had some resistance to low-level skills, he was not completely immune to the dizzying effect of the Shield Bash, and he entered the shortest duration of a Dizzy status.

This was the opportunity Lis sought!

He threw the shield onto the ground and once again took out his main profession weapon, the Jade Wand, from his storage ring.

Emerald light flashed, and as expected from Gold Level equipment, even though Lis couldn't fully utilize the wand's effects, the amplification was significant enough.

"Weakening Ray!"

"Dizziness Technique!"

"Slowdown Technique!"

"Oily Technique!"

The Jade Gemstone atop Lis's wand shimmered with spirit light, the magic power stored within being guided out to continually replenish Lis's Mana consumption.

Even so, Lis felt he was nearly at his limit, having cast close to twenty spells in the short duration of the fight. Even with the replenishment from the Magic Gem, he was nearly running on empty.

But he had prepared the groundwork for his last stand.

Weakening Ray, one of Lis's favorite spells from the early days of his past life's gaming, was favored not just for reducing the enemy's attack power but for diminishing their Resilience and Elemental Resistance as well.

Dizziness Technique, Slowdown Technique, and Oily Technique were Lis's handiest low-control triple set.

Especially the Oily Technique—if the enemy hadn't recovered from the first two control spells and happened to slip, that would buy Lis plenty of time.

After all, slipping doesn't check personal resistance, especially for a warrior. How can you exert force or apply martial arts while lying on the ground?

This combo of minor skills might not deal direct damage, but once you're caught, you can't really fight back effectively for a short time.

It's like a turn-based game; I move, you move, I move, I move, I move, I move...

Dison had never encountered such tactics before and perfectly took all the control effects, with no chance to counter the spells Lis subsequently cast.

By the time he recovered from the Dizziness, Dison could feel his body slowing down significantly as if it had rusted.

He had just taken a step back to widen the distance when his foot slipped, and he lost his balance, falling to the ground.

Dison, not bothering to get up, hastily grabbed his longsword to respond to Lis's ensuing assault.

But when he looked up, any other thoughts vanished.

There was Lis, standing about two meters away, his wand slightly tilted forward towards him, and a serene blue fireball calmly floating in midair.

Unlike a normal Fireball Technique filled with explosive burning energy, the blue flames were flowing over the surface of the orb like water, seemingly non-threatening.

But just one glance was enough to make all the hairs on Dison's body stand up.

The warrior's intuition was incessantly alerting him to the horror of this spell, something he could not possibly withstand.

Glancing at the quiet Lis on the side, pale-faced but not taking any further action, Dison knew that if young master Lis wished, the moment he had fallen could have been enough to kill him ten or eight times over.

Dison's right hand, gripping the longsword, tightened before he threw the weapon aside fiercely and bowed his head towards Lis.

"Young master, I've lost."

[Ding~]

[You have overcome the odds and defeated Silver Warrior Dison, completing the limited challenge quest]

[You have obtained...]