Chapter 776 Success?

Mana gathering, runes activating, magic circle shining. Eldrian glowed from within the crystal of frozen air for a few seconds. Disappearing, as many had suspected he would, but dared not believe.

The sight came as confirmation to Eldrian's friends, but to Alec and the other vampires it was a law-breaking thing. Thanks to the tons of frozen air between Eldrian and them, few had seen the runes. Their minds racing to try and make sense how he had accomplished this.

"Aren't you going to press your advantage?" Sofiera asked the vampire princess who had come to them filled with questions.

Eldrian hadn't teleported that far and it would most certainly be best for her to attack before he could gather his bearings. However, she did not move.

"I would prefer not to use such underhanded tactics." Levana replied, though honestly no one could claim it to be truly underhanded. Using all to your advantage was a given during a duel.

—

"Oh god...it hurts..." Eldrian grumbled, for the most part the teleportation had worked. He was out of the crystalized air cage. However, not all of him had made it.

In particular, he had lost his right arm somewhere above the elbow and his left leg below the knee. He also had a few cuts covering his body, or more accurately, tears of missing flesh covered him from head to toe. The amount of blood loss was most certainly on the dangerous levels.

'I told you it wasn't safe.' Came Two's reply, no hint of sympathy shown to Eldrian, who was grinding his teeth to hold in his scream as they cauterized the wounds. Stopping the bleeding was paramount.

"Can't you at least say something a little  comforting?" Eldrian complained, falling back into his habit of speaking aloud. Which Two quickly admonished him for.

'You're already seen as a freak! Do you want to seem insane too?'

'Haven't I told the others about you?' Eldrian asked, happy for the distraction as the smell of burnt flesh permeated the air. After the duel, he was going to ask Myropsis to help him regrow his limbs. Sadly, Eldrian had no spells capable of this, and he wanted to save what mana he had left for the duel.

He could attempt a crude healing, but it would take far too long. He was surprised that Levana wasn't attacking him already.

As everyone started becoming curious why Eldrian was taking so long, he finally hobbled out from behind the tree. Using his spear as a crutch in his left hand, sending an awkward smile to his friends.

'Why's Levana standing next to them?'

Seeing Eldrian's state, everyone who knew him well facepalmed. Which meant everyone but the vampires, Theas, and Jade.

"Seriously?" Myropsis complained, already knowing that Eldrian planned to use her talent with water healing to help him regrow his lost limbs. Next to divine, it was the best at healing lost limbs.

"Good luck." Vivian said.

"Do you want to postpone the duel?" Levana asked, channeling mana into her voice so it could reach Eldrian. Continuing with things as they were now would certainly not work with her plans to get a draw.

"Nah, it was my own mistake. Wouldn't be fair to postpone now." Eldrian answered. Stopping after only a few meters of hobbling. Hobbling was not easy, and he wanted as much distance as possible between him and his opponent.

"Then what about we call it a draw?" Levana asked. Not wishing to be seen as a bully.

"That's hardly fair." Eldrian countered. "You aren't hurt and have plenty of mana still left to use. If anything, this would be my loss. But I'm not ready to admit it!"

Not knowing how to continue, Levana relented. "Alright, but if you die, don't blame me."

"Of course I won't." Eldrian smiled, looking at his HP stat, which was now below a thousand. As for mana, he had exhausted his mana soul and only had two thousand left flowing through his body. Since Levana was giving him time, he took out one of the mana recovery potions Erik had given him and downed it.

It was a truly refreshing feeling as the liquid flowed through him. To normal people, it enhanced their mana regen for a time being. But that was only because they couldn't absorb all the mana in the liquid at once.

While Eldrian wanted to enjoy the feeling, he decided to simply extract the mana since he needed all he could muster.

He continued to do this until his mana was back to three thousand, Levana courteously giving him the time for that.

'The crystal finally stopped expanding.' Two noted, having kept track of it the entire time. They would need the data later on to determine the power of the aura of ice. Wrath was much, much simpler.

"Thanks for waiting." Eldrian smiled, pushing his spear forward after having formed a chair for himself. "Let's continue."

'He's serious... Is he insane?' Levana pondered, taking a deep breath and moving forward. Resummoning her wings of darkness and readying for a charge. Disappearing from sight once she moved.

'Light magic?' Eldrian pondered, noticing with mana sight that she was doing something. To most, she would appear completely invisible. Certainly this would be a spell or skill for assassins or thief. It was also the first time Eldrian saw it.

'It seems quite complex, likely Tier 5 is required to cast.'

'Yeah... Are the traps in place?' The question was answered when Levana suddenly appeared again. Flying through the air, wreathed in flames.

'I've prepared ten mines.'

Eldrian nodded, watching as Levana's wings of darknesses flapped once and she recovered. The shock on her face was a precious sight. However, Eldrian had learned he had to take her seriously if he had any hope of standing a chance. And with his condition, the only thing he could rely on was magic.

Thus, he turned all his focus on keeping her at bay.

Once Levana recovered from the shock, she charged again. This time managing to react in time when a new explosion occurred. 'Not limited to the ground and how is it possible that I am running into them?' She wondered. She didn't think Eldrian had enough mana to cover the entire area surrounding him. Something was strange.

Just in case, she decided to circle around. Keeping her distance before charging from the opposite direction.

Eldrian, naturally, shifted in his seat to remain facing her. Once she crossed fifty meters, he activated the true trap.

'Now.' He commanded Two, who immediately shifted all the runic mines to surround Levana. Immediately, she was forced to focus on her defense and pushed back. Frustrated, she gave up on trying to reach Eldrian and starting forming a spear of darkness.

'Seems it worked.' Smiling, Eldrian channelled his mana through Crystoi and started forming a ball of flames. Thanks to the pain he had recently suffered, he had a significant amount of anger he could direct. His true target was perhaps Two who had shown him no mercy, but he was able to shift the blame to Levana in a crude way.

'Really? What an insane way of going around things...' Two grumbled.

'Sadly, spirit magic and auras feed on the emotions. So I need a source—at least, for the moment, this is the case,' Eldrian replied, the ball of flames growing and growing. Soon, it was larger than Eldrian as he pushed well over a thousand mana into it.

Noting that Levana was also about done with her spell, Eldrian smiled and whispered, "Incinerate all. Turn to ash."

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