City of Sin

Book 7, 183

Duel Between Legends

Nasia shrugged when Richard marked his territory, but the exchange left sweat pooling on Duane’s forehead. He had felt restless ever since her gaze had fallen upon him, but her aura was that of a fresh saint.

Saunder stared at Richard, “You really want to fight me?”

“Of course,” Richard smiled, “Don’t worry, though. My rune knights and followers won’t intervene.”

“You think I’m scared of them?!”

“Heh, You think you’d be talking if you weren’t? What happened to that lesson you wanted to teach me?” Richard’s expression suddenly darkened, his tone now freezing, “If you don’t have the balls to fight me, just scram!”

“Balls?” Saunder laughed, “Alright then. If I can’t even take care of a whelp who isn’t even legendary yet, I won’t be able to keep my head up!”

Before he was even done speaking, the first parts of a spell formed in Saunder’s hands. Red light surged around his body as the temperature of the surroundings surged up, a blinding sun forming around him in the blink of an eye.

This was Sunbeam, a legendary spell renowned for the damage it dealt to undead. It was powerful even against normal beings, possessing frightening power. The fact that Saunder had gone straight to it showed how great of an opponent Richard was.

The sun quickly stabilised, launching a thick beam of golden-red energy towards Richard. This energy was condensed to the point that it almost had a physical presence, but its speed slowly grew with time as it tracked the target. Eventually, it would be too quick to escape.

Richard smiled at the attack, shouting loudly as a shadowy face materialised in front of him that looked like a combination of both devil and demon. It immediately started chanting a spell, its pitch so high that nobody could tell what it was saying, but a blue fireball shot out only moments later.

A loud explosion rang out as the fireball came into contact with the beam of energy, dispersing it greatly. However, Saunder continued to chant furiously as he pumped his mana into the spell, replenishing what was lost.

*BOOM!* Another fireball collided with the sunbeam, extinguishing another small part of it even as the attack continued barrelling forward. The illusionary voice went even higher until one couldn’t hear anything at all anymore, shooting out more fireballs in an attempt to scatter the attack. However, the legendary spell continued to amass speed and power!

Just as the energy was going to overcome the attack, Richard suddenly howled and materialised two more faces on either side. The one on the left was a typical demon with chilling fangs between its lips, while the other was angelic and radiated vitality. Both had their eyes closed, but their lips moved furiously in an odd combination of sparkling melody and low rumble. It looked and sounded like a duet of heaven and hell.

Two more fireballs were launched towards the sunbeam, these completely different from the blue ones. The angelic face had shot a milky white fireball filled with the power of life, while the demon had launched a dark red one with boiling magma at the core. The immediate impact from the demon was much greater, dispersing a large section of the attack, but even once it was exhausted more than half of the flames of life were still burning.

Saunder almost stopped chanting at the sight. Three faces of different types, all shooting out fireballs with different attributes that could each match the sunbeam in power for a few moments. This was a spell at the legendary level, and it could compete with a pyromancer like him on near-equal footing. It was a huge blow to his confidence.

The situation quickly turned into a stalemate, the fireballs bombarding the sunbeam and keeping it from reaching Richard. This was a direct duel of magical ability, comparing mana pools, control, and focus.

Each of Richard’s summoned faces chanted at about the same speed as he would. He was already extraordinary in that department due to Manacycle, but now his speed had tripled. The spell couldn’t be countered directly either; the lava was his Archeron bloodline, the flames of life came from his elven heritage, while the central face was the strongest and held both his truename’s power and the power of the bluemoon. They were vastly different but all powerful in their own right.

Veins started popping up on Saunder’s forehead even as his eyes filled with blood. Mana gushed out of his body endlessly, but the sunbeam was slowly pushed back. He eventually put his palms together, the small movement causing him to sweat profusely as he increased his output beyond his limits to survive the onslaught.

It was at this point that Richard laughed, “Did I tell you about this little ability I have? It’s called Blaze.”

Before Saunder even had time to be shocked by Richard separating his body from the spell, his vision was filled with red, blue, and white as the faces sped up their chants even further. A hundred fireballs were launched in ten seconds, forming an enormous web that threatened to kill the legendary mage instantly.

Duane’s eyes went wide and he flew forward to try and stop Richard, but he suddenly ground to a halt and looked down. Nasia had appeared below him before he even knew it, staring at him with the amusement clear in her eyes. He felt like a frog being eyed by a snake, a shiver running down his spine. The strong sense of danger kept him from acting recklessly, but that also caused the situation in the battle to deteriorate.

“Don’t you want to know why I’m so good at fire magic?” Richard said leisurely, “Let me give you a taste of the flame potion.”

Saunder yelped. The flame potion was a forbidden medicine that had already been missing for hundreds of years. He quickly realised the danger and activated all of his accessories, but the faces still broke through the barriers and sent more fireballs towards the sunbeam.

He suddenly made up his mind, shouting as the last dregs of his spell exploded to dispel the immediate threat. Having gained a bit of time, he blinked straight towards Richard to engage in close combat.

At the legendary realm, mages were perhaps even more frightening during momentary close combat than warriors. They could blink over and launch a barrage of spells up close, devastating their opponents before they even knew what hit them. As an experienced combatant, Saunder was confident in this tactic.

At least, he was until he saw Richard’s two blades gleam. Feeling a tremor in his heart, he immediately stopped mid-blink and cast a random teleportation spell to pull away.

As a level 22 mage, Saunder had another legendary spell outside of Sunbeam— Negative Energy Blast. It was a powerful spell with extremely long range and tracking abilities that could be cast from a kilometre away.

Saunder’s silhouette flickered as he disappeared into the skies, Richard’s own figure doing the same. The legendary mage smirked; random teleportation covered a much greater distance than mere blinking, and it could be cast faster with less mana. Richard wouldn’t be able to close the gap reliably.

He appeared hundreds of metres away in an instant, but he immediately detected something and looked to the right, expression darkening as Richard appeared fifty metres away. He frowned and repeated the spell, certain that lightning wouldn’t strike twice, but this time Richard was only a few dozen metres apart and had already appeared before him!

The to started an intense chase in the skies, but no matter how Saunder tried to escape, Richard easily kept pace. After dozens of teleportations, even the legendary mage felt the exhaustion stacking up as his mana reserves fell to a dangerous level.

At one point, the spell flickered and then dissipated promptly. It had failed!