83 How to fight mages

Emp was displeased that once again, he had been caught in something bothersome on the day he went shopping.

Every time!

He couldn't even say that at least he wasn't the one who got attacked because he felt that Mable being the victim instead was much worse.

After that night, Mable was very cross with Gytha. She would not talk to her no matter what. They had been very good friends before but Mable couldn't get over what she felt was a serious betrayal.

Gytha kept apologizing and repeated many times that she didn't think that the secret was such a big deal but Mable would hear none of it. It didn't help her case that she also kept repeating that the ex-teacher wasn't a bad man. According to her, he couldn't be as bad as Mable described him to be. She was denying reality, refusing to see the truth for what it was. She agreed that what he did was wrong but believed that if he just apologized, everything would go back the way it was.

All her words just made Mable angrier and angrier. She yelled at Gytha that she wouldn't talk with her of anything until she was fixed. According to her, it was pointless to listen to any of her words for as long as she was under the influence of that sick mage. Even then, she wasn't sure she would be able to forgive her.

Emp could see it clearly, Mable had labeled her friend as untrustworthy. Emp could understand where she was coming from but he thought it was sad to see their friendship dissolve like smoke.

Obviously, the news of a teacher turned criminal couldn't be hidden and the whole school soon knew what had happened from how he used potions and magic to mess with the heads of some female students to how he invaded to room of one of them. From then on, Gytha was treated as an outcast. Either she was seen as a poor victim or some disgusting accomplice, in both cases, she was kept at bay.

If Mable was to forgive her, her situation might improve but Emp wasn't sure this would happen.

Brenia was one of the very few who did the opposite of everyone and got very close to Gytha instead. From what Emp saw, she was trying to be supportive and talked a lot with her in an attempt to understand. He thought it was very kind of her, Gytha really needed the the help right now.

Aside from that, the girl didn't get in trouble with either the school or the guards since the authorities believed she was at best manipulated and at worse, put under a curse or spell.

As for the mage himself, Emp was impressed by how much effort the city put into finding him. It was like the whole army of the kingdom combed the streets and raided the inns of the city. They looked everywhere and placated warrants of arrest on every shop and every public boards, in the town squares and even in the gathering places of death-seekers. The warrants even reached Dark-glint thanks to the caravan, the duke wasn't lying when he said he would have the whole kingdom looking for him.

Still, it didn't feel like they would ever catch him. After a week of intensive search, there had been no new of him and Heinrich who knew magic best didn't believe they'd catch him either.

Because of this, Emp decided it was best to prepare himself to fight mages. Not only in case Ninoslav came back but also in the event that he had to fight any other magic users in the future.

From what he heard from the duke and Heinrich as well as the fact that the illusionist didn't die, Emp understood he had been extremely lucky that night. The mage had not expected anyone to come and had been taken by surprise by Emp who just stormed in and attacked without a word. If he had stopped a second at the door to ask what was happening, things could have been completely different.

Even with such grievous wounds, he had found a way to not only escape the deadly fall but also heal himself and escape the guards. In combat, Emp learned that the illusionist liked to make multiple copies of himself and mix real attacks with a great amount of illusions to confuse his opponents. Until that night, he had been known to have never been hit once in his life.

His only obvious weak point was to catch him by surprise but currently, the chance of him catching Emp by surprise where much higher than the reverse. Illusionists usually had an easy time at catching others off-guard, this was the whole point of illusions after all. He could be disguised as anyone else, strike from an unexpected angle or even manipulate the mind of another to do it in his stead. Then, he'd be gone before anyone noticed.

This bothered Emp greatly, he felt worried that something might happen to either him or Mable without him being able to do anything.

Because of this, it didn't take long before he went to see Heinrich for some counsels on how to fight against a mage. Penny was there too but it didn't bother him if she listened to his question. She had tied her hair in a big bun with an even bigger pin and sat at a nearby desk immersed in her own studies as he explained his thoughts to Heinrich.

"Not only that guy but in the future, I will probably have to face many more opponents that would use primarily magic instead of forged weapons. Are there any tips or things you could tell me that would help?"

"Certainly, yes, there are many things that could potentially help you." The mage agreed.

He went on to tell him all about how mages fought and there was a lot to say. Emp had to sit down somewhere with Celtine so that they could write it all down. Speaking of Celtine, she was still acting very strangely compared to the usual her. She seemed uncomfortable on his shoulders but he didn't know how to deal with this nor did he have the time for it. Ninoslav could strike at any time and he needed to know what he was doing once it happened.

"The main downside to magic is time." The teacher started to explain. "The time it takes to learn, the time it takes to cast a spell and the time you can keep it up are all limitations a mage must learn to circumvent or withstand if he wants to be successful.

Magic is of no use if you die before it can take effect. For this purpose, spell caster usually employ a good amount of warriors to keep them safe while they chant their magic. Against this sort of magic user, your priority should be to disrupt their spell in any way you can. Interrupt them, distract them, attack them directly, anything to stop him from finishing his spell. Most magic users are of that kind.

A truly powerful mage however, just like a powerful warrior, doesn't need any support. They're often called war mages because they can change the tide of a battle by themselves. Ninoslav is of that sort, and a good one at that.

Each have some wildly differing tricks but the goal always remain the same, gain time or go faster.

There are many ways to do both, traps, tools, sheer casting speed, extensive preparations, self-magic/"

"Wait, how does self-magic help?" Penny interrupted him.

She wasn't really a part of the conversation but it didn't stop her from absorbing anything the teacher said. Emp knew she disliked self magic so it wasn't abnormal for her to ask how this could help.

"You're one of the most talented students I've had, it should be obvious to you. If you can strengthen yourself using self-magic, you can improve your reaction time by a great margin. Not only this but with the right self magic, you can force yourself to speak faster and clearer. It is all about speed, in a fight between two mages, the one who can cast the fastest will often be the winner. Because of this, most well known mages have developed their own self-magic or made some combinations of many other to gain an edge over the rest."

Penny had not seen things that way before because she was more inclined to the studies of magic than its practical uses but hearing the words of her teacher, she understood she had made a mistake when she discarded self-magic so easily.

While she was regretting, the mage continued his lecture.

"A mage is just like anyone else, he must come into a fight prepared for anything. The problem lies in the fact that the opponent won't just wait for him to chant a long string of words before cutting him down. This and the obvious fact that one cannot say the words of many spells at once. Casting one spell means that you aren't casting the other spell that could save your life.

This is where tools and traps comes in. Miss Penny, can you tell us what are the tools most commonly used my mages of all spheres?"

The girl regained her composure and answered with certainty. Puffing up her chest with pride. She didn't have much in that area but gave the illusion she did by filling the front pockets of her shirt with all sorts of trinkets for her magic. Emp didn't care about her figure but he believed that this sort of trick was a bit sad.

"Most use wands, talismans and staves. Those with bad memories also fill loose parchments with the words they need."

"Exact, do you know about all those young master Emp?"

"No. I thought talismans were hung on armor for protection."

"No, those are charms, many common man confuse the two a lot."

Emp had never seen or heard about any of those things. Heinrich had never shown any in front of him and Jaska didn't use any either. From their names, he could guess what they looked like but he didn't know how they worked.

"Let's start with parchment then. There is no power at all in them, they only contain the words necessary to the spell. With all the things a mage need to remember and keep track of, they sometimes forget about the exact words of their spells. It is best then to write them down and you can just quickly glance at it when you need the spell. Don't let them!

Burn the paper before they can read it, rip it off their hands, blind them, anything to stop them from reading the words. If they were so doubtful about their abilities that they had to write down the words first place, they wouldn't dare cast the spell without having them in front of their eyes.

On this topic, I heard that Ninoslav once replaced the words on such a parchment on the fly with a small visual illusion. His opponent didn't notice the words had changed before it was too late and cast a distorted version of his spell. I heard he ended up with a liquefied arm."

Emp got one important lesson out of this, never rely on a piece of paper. If you can't remember the words by yourself, it was better to not cast the spell at all. Just with this short speech, he could already picture a number of ways things could go wrong with this. They could be tempered with before or even during a fight, they could easily be lost or destroyed and keeping more than one would mean you'd have to figure out which paper was for which spell when you wanted to use one. They were very impractical.

"Instead of parchments, the more talented individuals will rely on wands and talismans to do the job. When going to battle, mages usually put on a belt of wands, talismans or both. Some have better ways of transporting them like that bag of yours but really, the only thing that matters is that you need to be able to carry a lot of them with you, dozens if need be."

Emp didn't see why they needed so many of those wands. From what he pictured in his head, carrying all of those seemed impractical, what was the point of having more then one. He wouldn't carry so many swords into a fight after all.

Well... He did but that was only because he could easily.

"Both wand and talismans work in a similar fashion. Each of them takes a long time to make and are very carefully crafted by the mage himself. They always must be made from the ingredients and sacrifices intended to be made for the spell and engraved with a second magic to trap the spell in it. Once the spell is cast upon it, the wand will keep it in place until the mage, or anyone else for that matter, is really ready to use it. It is merely a way to cast a spell in advance.

For a wand, point it the way you want the spell to take effect and call the trigger word for it to fly out of the wand. Doing so will consume the wand or at least render it inert but the advantage of casting a spell instantly is massive.

The talisman work the same except they must be broken instead of activated with a word. Once cracked, it will affect the area around it with the spell infused in it. Some like to cast dangerous spells in them and throw them at their opponents while others like to put barriers or support spells in them to break at their feet when in trouble.

The problem with talismans is that anyone can use them since they only have to be broken to activate their spells. If a skilled bowman could pierce an explosive talisman with his arrow while still on the mage's body, the consequences for the mage would be disastrous.

Similarly, as long as one knows the word of activation, anyone could use a wand. Steal it from his hand, turn it around and call "fire" and that's it, the mage is toast in quite a literal way."

The corners of Emp's mouth rose because of the joke but he found this explanation to be frustrating for him. Casting spells way beforehand was cheating!How was he supposed to counter something he had no way of guessing would happen? He'd be fighting at an advantage and a lightning bolt would fly his way out of nowhere. His armor might be able to take on a few spell because of its enchantments but who knew how many wands the other party could have.

The way the mage proposed for him to deal with this didn't seem remotely feasible at all. If he was close enough to steal wands and talismans from them, he should just run them through with his sword. Even if he did take a wand, there was no way for him to guess the correct word to use it or what the wand was supposed to accomplish.

Should he just make his own wands then? All he needed to do was learn how to do it and then he could just cast his spells in advance like them, right? While he was thinking that, the teacher moved on to the next thing.

"Since we're talking about Ninoslav, he will probably use potions and alchemical mixtures instead of wands and talismans. He will throw flasks to release toxic vapors and drink strengthening concoctions while his illusions keep you at bay. If you expect to be fighting someone like him, I highly suggest that you prepare some protections against poisons and curses."

Curses he should be fine with thanks to his armor, as long as they weren't so powerful that they could break through the enchantment. Poison was another thing entirely though, he knew nothing about poisons.

"Then, you have staves. Most ordinary folks think that they are the same as wands but they are very wrong. Staves are bulky and hard to carry, if they were to be used like wands, it would be very inefficient.

Instead, you could say that a staff is a greatly improved version of a wand. Instead of having them hold a spell for you like a wand, you have the staff cast it in your stead. This is why they are much bigger than wands and often unwieldy. The whole spell has to be engraved on it in order to work. Once it's made however, all you need to do is have the sacrifice ready and fill it with magu for it to activate."

"But if the staff casts the spell for you, how does it make the movements needed for it to activate?"

"The answer is very complicated and also the reason why those handy tools aren't used by everyone. The short version of it is that the spell is way, waaaay, lengthier if you forgo the movements that should accompany it. Combine this with the absence of actual voice guiding the magu, the process gets laborious and very complex.

With a spell as simple as the ones you can currently cast reliably, you need a staff that will be just a few inches bellow your height and it will be entirely covered in precise runes. Because of this, you can forget about making a staff that could cover an entire field in flames.

On top of that, if it gets damaged in any way, it will become unusable and more often then not, it needs to be remade from scratch."

All of this was very interesting and he learned a lot but it didn't feel really helpful to him. This whole discussion resumed itself with two simple concepts; Don't let your opponent do anything and break everything they get in their hands. Aside from that, prepare for poisons and maybe some tricks of his own. What he got from this whole discussion was that it was best to stay as close to enemy mages as possible, don't give them any space to breath, be relentless and keep them locked in melee where they will have trouble casting any spells at all.

He summarized what he had learned to Heinrich who gave him a few approving nods.

"This is exactly right, this is why it will be extremely hard to do."

"What?" What did he mean?

"The way to fight against a mage is obvious, everyone knows it, mages themselves most of all. They will do absolutely everything in their power so it doesn't happen.No one that is simple minded ever become a great mage. We're talking about extremely smart and crafty people.

When fighting a mage, you must always assume you already fell into their trap, you must assume they wanted you to fight them at this moment and this exact place, that it was all planned. There will be traps everywhere you look, they will have counters for any and all tricks that you ever revealed in public, they will rain down offensive magic at you with wands and talismans as they build barriers around them or move to a safer position. Rushing straight towards a mage is the stupidest thing you could ever do because you can be damned sure that the space between you two will be overflowing with dangers.

You need to go around, hit them from a distance, know them as well as they know you, prepare counters for their strong affinities, in short, you need to be smarter. If they are water mages, blast them with lightning, prepare water bombs for fire mages, find a way to skip across the terrain of your fight without ever touching the ground, have many layers of protective charms on you to escape instant death from an unexpected magic, keep tricks in reserve that they never saw before, have your own wands and talismans ready to throw their plans off the rails, if you can, have your own traps fill the field. There is no such thing as too prepared to fight a mage."

"This is why mages are so superior to warriors." Approved Penny with pride.

Heinrich sighed and shook his head in disappointment.

"You are an exceptional student so I really hope you won't discover how wrong you are the hard way."

"How could I be wrong? It's obvious that mages have the clear advantage over idiots waving bits of metals around."

"You have no idea how many mages died thinking the same thing. As your teacher, I urge you to pay more attention in combat class, maybe watch a few spars between the students, I heard some of them have come up with interesting techniques."

Heinrich was probably talking about the royal sword dance. Emp found himself wishing once again that he knew some technique as good as that one. For now, he relied on raw physical advantage to win his fights but he doubted it would be enough in the future.

"I'd rather be studying than wasting my time outside teacher."

"It's not a waste of time if you get to learn something that could save your life in the future. I insist you should go take a closer look. By that I really mean to observe it all carefully, not just waste your time there thinking of other things."

She made a pout and leaned back on her chair with her arms crossed.

"Muh, fine. If it's you asking it than I will. Even though I don't think there's anything to be learned of this."

"I'm glad you finally saw reason. Emp, when is your next practice with lady Hasting and lady Harmaton?"

That was the first time he heard anyone call Brenia lady Harmaton. He knew that was her name but he felt that if someone called her lady they might get their spine ripped off. She was very sensitive on how people viewed her and lady wasn't in the descriptive she wanted associated to her. What was just as surprising to him was that Heinrich even remembered the name of the girl who slept through all of his classes but Emp didn't ask about it and just answered the question.

"Later today actually, it will be the test run of my armor."

It would also be his first real physical test since he drank the elixir.

"Great, Penny, you will go there with them and bring everything you would need if you were dragged in a fight yourself. Do not spare any effort, think of this as if you were really about to meet a mortal danger. You will observe carefully, and if they are willing, you will challenge Emp yourself. This should benefit the both of you greatly."

"That would be unfair for him, I can't hold back the powers behind my spells, he might get hurt."

Emp heard that great mages could lower the power behind their spells if need be but Penny was just a student, this ability was out of her reach.

"That will not be the case, you haven't seen his new armor yet but I was the one to infuse power into it. From what I know of your progress, there is no spell of yours that could possibly break through his armor."

"What! How can that be?"

"I told you people are smarter than they look and that warriors have tricks of their own. You won't have to hold back and it will give you an idea on how you would fare against a novice warrior. You have to understand that if you consider yourself a novice in magic, they do the same as warriors, they can get far far stronger than what you will see today. Watch and learn carefully because the day you will underestimate a real warrior, you will deeply regret not taking today seriously. The best of the best in any empire are those that can easily use both martial techniques and magic at the same time."

The mage didn't even ask him or the two girls he trained with if they would be bothered by Penny's intrusion but since he wasn't, he didn't complain about it. After all, the mage was right, it would indeed help him understand how to better fight a magic user.

Later that day, he brought her out to the field and met with the other girls. The only one that wasn't there like usual was Gytha who had probably been turned away by Mable.

Looking at this, wasn't it strange that there were only girls here aside from him? They were here to practice fighting after all. How come the only ones willing to practice outside of class hours were the girls? What were the guys doing? This suddenly intrigued him a lot.

"Celtine, remind me to ask the guys what they do in their spare time later."

There was a light tap of her foot on his chest to confirm she had heard him and he walked up to the others.

Brenia was acting differently than usual with Mable just like with Gytha. She was much more delicate with her words and demeanor than usual. Anytime he wasn't with Mable, Brenia would stick closer as if to replace him and he believed that if he wasn't her "official" guard, she would be there all the time. She didn't seem to think he was doing a bad job however because since the events of that night, he seemed to have gained more respect from her and she now jokingly called him hero.

The first thing Brenia did upon his arrival wasn't to call him hero and laugh at his reaction however, it was to ask about Penny instead. Those two were like fire and water.

"Hi, what's she doing here?"

"Hi everyone, The teacher asked her to train with us today. He wants us to show her that fighters aren't as weak as she thinks."

This answer made Brenia smile broadly. She walked up to Penny and the two girls stared at each other.

Brenia was wearing her usual armor and her hair was wild. She was the third most muscular women he knew, right after Marcy and her sister in law. Aside from on her chest, she had no useless fat and when she wore anything else than her armor, you could see that her muscles were well defined.

Watching her standing in front of Penny and looking down at her was a bit funny. Penny was shorter and slightly broader than her. She always wore loose clothes but from her fingers, one could tell she wasn't pudgy. She was merely weak.

For the training, she wore some cream colored pants too thick for the weather, and a long sleeved pale-gray shirt that hid half of her hands as well as her legs down to almost her knees because of its length. Both of those two pieces had pockets all over, most had been added by herself overtime with cloth of the wrong color. The front of her shirt was covered in those and they were all filled with unknown materials.

She wore a woven hat adorned with a green ribbon and a wide brim to hide her eyes from the sun and some ordinary slippers.

Mable and Calla too usually wore slippers but they weren't going to train or fight. Even Nessa switched her dancing shoes for boots when training. Aglaya wore high heels instead but she wasn't going to fight either and wore some even at night from what he saw the other day.

Finally, Penny had a large belt falling from her waist onto her hips holding seven different bags and a wide leather shoulder belt made to hold wands. That shoulder belt was, at a glance, the only thing that kept her loose belt in place as it was tied up to it. It currently housed sixteen wands of unknown use.

Emp felt it was impressive that even though she had started learning magic at the same time as him, she was already confident enough to make herself some wands.

"I don't want to be here but the teacher feel I need it." She told Brenia without flinching.

"He asked her to watch us train seriously and then, maybe have a spar with me."

Brenia squinted one eye and looked his way with a skeptical expression.

"Why you in particular hero?"

Emp snorted hearing her call him hero again and gave two light taps on his breastplate.

"My new armor makes me immune to any magic she could currently cast according to the teacher. Since she never had any spars before, it would be dangerous for anyone else to have a go with her."

"That make sense." Approved Nessa.

Brenia seemed a bit disappointed that she wouldn't be able to truly tussle with Penny but got over it fairly quickly and discussed the elements of his new armor with him instead.

When they were done talking about equipment, they decided to set Brenia against Nessa first and then send the winner against Emp who would then maybe go on to spar with Penny if she felt like it.

They started with some warm ups, Emp sat Celtine at the garden table with Mable, Aglaya and Penny and went on to train. He stretched, ran some laps and jumped a few times as high as he could. Even with his heavy armor on, he was still faster than he had been without it before he took the elixir and could jump high enough to easily get on top of the table. He felt that without so much weight, he could go far higher since even with it, just the table was easy enough that he didn't even need to bend his knees.

That was what he felt but he couldn't be sure of it since he didn't actually jump on top of the table, he would probably have broken it. Once he was done, he came to sit with the others as he waited for the other two to start their bout.

"Aren't you even faster than usual today?" Mable asked. "Is that some magic in your new armor?"

"Yes I am faster but no, it's not the armor."

He had not told anyone in the school about the elixir yet and after what happened with Gytha, he wasn't sure he should. He still had so many of them on him, he didn't want anyone to get the idea that stealing them might be possible.

"What is it then? A new self magic?"

"No, I just drank something powerful. I still need to improve if I want to keep up with that sword dance and the older generation."

"I won't worry a second for my lord protector." She said with a smile exuding confidence. "Those old men will never hold out when compared to your talent."

Emp smiled from her compliment even though he felt it would probably be harder than she seemed to believe.

Penny made no comments about what she had seen up to now and instead waited for things to really start with a bored air.

The two girls on the field took their respective positions and prepared themselves for their mock fight. After a quick confirmation that they were both ready, they raised their weapons and charged each other.

Emp narrated some of the things that were happening for Penny's benefit. This fight was very similar to their usual. Brenia took the first advantage with a charge that forced Nessa to back off. They exchanged many blows and the dancer took the lead, forcing Brenia in a dizzying back and forth.

Brenia made a large horizontal swipe with her training axe to push Nessa back but she fled forwards instead and spun just outside the axe's reach on Brenia's left. She crossed her swords into a pincer to catch her arm but Brenia dropped down to escape. The two swords followed, darting down towards her until Brenia used her crouched position to propel herself into Nessa. She headbutted the other girl in the stomach and kicked at her ankle to make her fall.

Nessa lost her breath but still spun on herself to let Brenia's kick pass her by. It was at that point that she attempted once again to breach into the next stage of her dance. She swung both her blades in front of her in opposite directions and tapping her heels on the ground, jumped back out of Brenia's reach to refocus her breath. Knowing what was coming, Brenia didn't pursue her and hid behind the blade of her axe instead.

Her swords blurred into a wall of steel in front of her as they moved faster and faster. She then started to spin on herself and her feet switched their positions constantly, slowly widening the wall of rapid cuts in front of her. At first, only the wind getting cut was heard but shortly after, scrapping sounds showed up more and more often. Emp knew they weren't supposed to be there, if the two swords clashed against each other it meant that she couldn't hold the rhythm.

The wind produced by the impressive speed made her clothes flutter but just like every other time before, her face warped into a displeased and strained frown. The wall collapsed, one of her swords flew out of her hand and far away while the other sliced part of her own skirt off. Her hands shook as if they were stuck in an earthquake of their own and the spins finally beat her. She collapsed backward with a face red from the effort.

"She failed again." Sighed Aglaya.

"She can't do it, it's just too fast." Nodded Mable.

"At least this time she didn't injure herself."

"What was that?" Asked Penny, confused. "She was doing well against Brenia until she did that. Why would she do that to herself like that?"

"She was trying to reach the second stage of her sword dance but she hasn't managed to speed up enough for it so her muscles gave out and she lost all strength in her arms and legs." Emp explained.

He felt that if he gave her one of the elixirs she would probably do it easily. The real question was, should he? He had harbored this intention before but the story with Gytha had really shook his beliefs. If he was to give her such a huge boon, would she become troublesome later? She was a friend for now but who knew what the future held except maybe Time himself? If he gave her the elixir and she managed to reach even higher than the second stage of the dance, she might turn into an unbeatable monster.

Was there someone that could help him make up his mind? Who could he even talk about this with?

He really felt conflicted about this, looking at the ridiculous speed she needed to reach to make it into the second stage, he wasn't sure that it was actually possible to do. Maybe the mouse or Jin could do it but their self magic had for only goal to raise their speed. Not only did Nessa need more than just speed to achieve it, she would never get her hand on the mousse's personal self-magic.

If this really was an impossible thing to do, would it mean that if he didn't give her that elixir, she would fail to grab the territory of her father? Maybe if she trained for a dozen years or so she could reach the required speed an coordination but by then it would be too late? If the north of Artefine fell because he didn't give that one elixir to her, he'd feel responsible forever.

Two years ago, when he had not been able to help that woman in the auction house in Red-water, he told himself that he would help those he could reach. Nessa was one of them. Was he going back on his word just because of an irrational fear?

"Emp come here, you're next." Called Brenia, interrupting his thoughts.

He switched place with the tired out Nessa and told himself he would think about it later.

Brenia expected a great fight like they usually had but this time, Emp had to warn her.

"Be careful today, I'm not the same as last time."

"Pffft, what is that bragging about? You just beat a tiny mage, we'll see who improved most."

"No, I'm serious, I'm way better than I was."

Brenia just grinned and leaped towards him. In a few steps, she had closed in on him and swung down with the axe. Emp got his thunderchew hammer in his hand and swung it once almost casually. The air screamed in agony as it tried to resist the hammer and the handle bent under the pressure. Despite starting the motion as the axe was already falling, the flat head of the hammer caught the axe swinging downward long before it reached him.

There was a loud clunk and the axe was torn away from her hands to be buried deep into the earth at their side. Her face instantly expressed the pain she felt in her fingers but Emp was unwilling to underestimate her or go easy on her. Before she could react to that unexpected situation, he used his free hand to receive her charge with a punch. There was a meaty sound as his fist collided with her armor and she froze on the spot with eyes as round as saucers.

She made a step back and clutched her stomach with a groan.

"What? That wasn't even a fight! She got instantly defeated!" Mable screamed as she saw the scene.

Aglaya and Penny just gasped in surprise while Nessa almost fell off her chair witnessing that scene. They had all seen him warm up earlier but they still didn't think it would be such a clear cut fight.

Weren't they always on equal footing before?