Chapter 187

My concerns about a painful sparring session didn’t get alleviated when we finally arrived at our destination.

Mostly, it was a standard sparring room. A huge, open area with no impediment, the floor covered in stone, each inch enchanted carefully for extra durability to resist the aggression of the high-leveled combatants, and several wards ready to be activated in case of a danger to prevent death.

Yet, the details shouted to me that it was going to be a painful battle. The level difference between her and my fake identity was already a given, but apparently, that wasn’t enough for her because she had pushed for such an unfair area of battle.

Of course, at a glance, an underground arena with no obstruction seemed like the perfect place to have a fair duel between two high-leveled individuals, but that discounted one important fact. Every small detail of the arena was designed to enhance the advantages of the melee fighter and chip away at the perks of magic.

The size of the arena was the first big problem. It was not exactly small with an area of several hundred square feet area, but for a supernatural warrior, even the longest distance could be covered in less than a second. Combined with the height of the ceiling, just below fifteen feet, a distance that she could easily jump with halfway decent Strength and Speed stats, any movement advantage a mage might establish was completely gone.

The thick enchantments that covered every surface were another challenge, basically ruling out most of the elemental tricks. The earth spells were out directly, but even a glance was enough to show that it would also weaken any water or fire spell that they came into contact with, removing most of the spells that a mage could use for zoning away from the fighter.

So-called security wards were another trap. Ideally, they shouldn’t trigger unless overwhelmingly powerful magic was used, but I had sufficient magical expertise to catch some last-minute adjustments on them. They would go off much easier than advised, wasting the mana of the mage, after which no doubt my opponent suggest that we continue.

The last confirmation about whether it was intentional was the several bottles of healing potions, each brewed freshly as indicated by their magical aura, no doubt there to keep me in fighting shape...

So that she could torture me longer.

I looked at her beautiful face with admiration as she stood at the opposite side of the room, raising a wooden stick — the only thing that could be classified as an advantage for me, as it was much less deadly than a sword or an ax, but I had a suspicion that the only reason she picked was to maximize the pain she inflicted.

“Are you ready?” she asked, doing her best to sound calm, but unable to hide her vicious anticipation, confirming that subterfuge was not one of the skills she had picked.

“No weapon for me?” I asked.

“I’m sure a big man like you wouldn’t need a clutch like that,” she suggested, her smile widening.

“Oh, someone was talking to her friend,” I answered with a wink, watching as her amusement turned into fury.

“Let’s begin,” she growled, and dashed forward without even waiting for an answer.n, I thought even as I started moving, doing my best to stay under the limits of what was reasonable for a high-leveled mage even as I raised my hand, conjuring an arcana shield.

[-128 Mana]

Its purple glow didn’t survive for long, shattering at the impact, her impressive charge more than enough to deal with it — even if I hadn’t designed it to explode in the first place.

It was a shaped explosion, all its strength connecting with her. Yet, it didn’t delay her more than a fraction of a second, which wasn’t enough for the limited version to pull back. Her staff connected to my ribs, hitting hard enough to send me flying, and I hit against the wall.

[-138 HP]

“Try to be more attentive,” she said as she swung her staff, yet, despite sending me flying in a very undignified and painful unassisted flight, she was still angry.

Curious, I thought even as I made a show of standing up very slowly, even as I carefully used my mana remotely to test her soul space, to catch whether she was wearing a disguise. It was the real point of my exploding shield, letting some of my mana stick on her skin, using the broken shield as an excuse in case she had equipped any magical talent.

Yet, a glimpse into her soul space showed she had absolutely no magical talent, making me much more relaxed. So, rather than dispersing my mana, I let it stay in her soul space, getting a more detailed glimpse of her abilities.

She had a very high level, I realized as I started examining her soul space.

Forty-two!

I was fighting against my dear friend, not-Delia...

[Level: 32 Experience: 499160 / 528000

Strength: 46 Charisma: 63

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 6528 / 6528 Mana: 7659 / 8000 ]

SKILLS

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Tantric [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Master Craft [84/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (0/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 22/26]

[Helga - Level 22/26]