Fight (2)
"3... 2... 1... Fight!"
The moment George's hand went down, Emma's magical aura surged in full glory and reached half the distance between the two.
Melissa's dark aura also surged and pressed against Emma's aura.
Two black daggers made of shadow magus materialized in her hands while black lightning curled around them. They were pure black as if they were absorbing the surrounding light.
In a split second, Melissa adjusted her legs to a runner position and dug her feet into the ground. The energy needed to accelerate was put into the ground which sent up a dirt cloud behind her.
Her figure almost instantly disappeared in the eyes of the spectators as she achieved half the speed of sound.
Melissa's main strategy is to overcome the distance before Emma can react and cast a spell and force her to fight in close combat using her high agility stats. If she can accomplish this, her chances of winning will be exponentially higher.
A hundred feet at around half the speed of sound is a tiny distance, or about 180 milliseconds.
The fastest human reaction time for a mortal is 101 milliseconds.
Yet, not only did Emma achieve an inhuman reaction time, she was able to somehow chant out a spell within a faster time frame. Her mouth moved like a machine gun as chants came out.
A large red glowing spell instantly materialized out of thin air as standard magus left Emma's body.
"[Flamethrower!]"
A torrential surge of flames left the spell while covering an area several dozen feet. The burst of flames catapulted at Melissa's direction with its size large enough to engulf her.
Melissa's eyes shrank as a sense of danger overwhelmed her mind.
In a normal situation like this, she would be moving fast enough that the flames would not be able to transfer any significant energy that even her hair would be fine.
However, these flames are elementary flames, an altered form of standard magus when put into a spell. They behave differently and stick to a target like throwing oil on fire. If she gets hit, she will likely become severely injured and even die from 3rd degree burns if not treated fast enough.
Furthermore, Emma knows fire is a great counter to shadow magus since it creates a lot of light.
'Isn't this supposed to be a friendly duel?!'
As this thought appeared in her head, Melissa moved her feet forward and stomped both of them into the ground, leaving a small trail of destruction in the ground as dirt flew into the air around her.
When the flames had approached close enough and she could feel the heat, Melissa had slowed down enough to twist her feet and leap to the side, narrowly dodging the flames.
The torrent of flames left a path of destruction as the prairie field caught fire.
Melissa dug her feet into the ground again and leapt to the side as the spell changed towards her direction, sending a path of flames in her direction.
"[Shadow Clone]"
A black mass of darkness materialized out of Melissa's body and turned into a black humanoid figure of darkness.
"Distract her without getting destroyed!"
The shadow clone followed her commands and leapt in another direction.
Emma frowned as she was now forced to split her attention between the two.
A bunch of shadow daggers materialized out of thin air and were turned into projectiles which flew in the direction of Emma at fast speed.
Emma destroyed some of them using [Flamethrower], but there were too many coming from every direction. Furthermore, the shadow clone was now charging at her direction.
Gritting her teeth after being forced on the defensive, Emma angrily put aside the flame spell and rapidly chanted.
"[Fire Tornado]!"
Emma created another spell above her head which was smaller but more complex.
As standard magus went into the spell, elemental fire flew out the other end as it wrapped around her like a tornado which was rapidly growing in height and diameter.
The fire tornado rapidly engulfed the area as Melissa was forced to retreat.
All of the daggers and the shadow clone were engulfed and destroyed.
Melissa remained calm and continued with her plan.
As the flame tornado stabilized in size, Melissa ran around the perimeter at high speed, changing direction each time by transferring large amounts of energy into the ground.
She purposefully directed the dirt clouds into the tornado, continually weakening it and forcing Emma to waste standard magus.
Emma could not see what was going on outside but had a faint idea of what Melissa was trying to do. She grabbed the [Flamethrower] spell from the air and directed standard magus into it again at the same time.
She aimed it in the general direction of where she could feel Melissa.
A wave of flames flew out of the tornado but Melissa was able to dodge them again, this time with much better ease. She created another [Shadow Clone] and sent it in the other direction.
Emma's face turned gloomy again sensing another similar presence. She could not tell which one was the real Melissa, causing her anger to rise once again.
The fight had fallen to a stalemate.
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The air filled with smoke from the prairie fires as Abe, Bernice, and Hester watched from afar.
"Isn't this is too intense?" Bernice was in awe but also very concerned for Emma.
"I didn't think Emma was this powerful." Abe a glimmer of excitement in his eyes watching the fight. He has always been a fan of watching fights like these especially when it involves powerful adventurers.
"Apparently it's not intense enough. George seems to not care and is eating away like it's a movie." Hester's fear of Emma was the greatest, but he also seemed to be strangely observant this time.
Abe and Bernice looked over at George who was watching at the edge of the fires.
His indifference remained the same as he casually ate his breakfast while monitoring the fight.
"I didn't think of this, but why is George the referee when he's the weakest?" Abe suddenly thought of this issue he had never thought of prior.
"Why didn't I think of that?! It's too dangerous!" Bernice's face turned to fear for his safety and she rushed out to bring George away from the perimeter of the battle but Abe grabbed her arm to stop her.
"Abe?" She looked back at him in shock, "Why?!"
"George knows what he's doing. You getting close risks your own safety. You can go over once the fight is finished." Abe calmly stared at her and remained firm with his grip.
"B-But!"
"You may be a higher rank then me, but my stats as a [Tank] are higher. You won't be able to leave my grasp. Please just stay here and don't complicate things. You are a valued member of our party. We can't have you injured." Abe tightened his grip slightly.
"Abe..." Bernice noticed the concern in his eyes and bit her lip.
After a few seconds of hesitation, she finally stopped resisting and returned to her spot.
Only then did Abe release his grip.
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Notes:
* I've changed the skills of Emma shown in the last chapter. I realize skills are different from spells, so I have removed the spells from her stats. She still has them, but they are not displayed to keep the surprise.
* I have created Melissa's stat screen which only I can see. Having the viewers see it spoils the fun.
* I purposefully blocked Emma's ability to see Melissa's because she would instantly be able to tell if she was lying about being a [Ranger]. Plus, it would make the dynamic social circle way more complicated than it needs to be.