“Come at me whenever you’re ready.”
Ralph nodded at Lith’s words and cast a rank 1 fire spell ‘Flaming ball’ without chanting. He cast another rank 1 spell ‘Wind treat’ which was not an attack but a support spell that helped propel the flaming ball faster towards Lith.
A small blazing ball with intense heat was coming towards Lith, who stood still with an indifferent look. Ralph after casting ‘Flaming ball’ and ‘Wind treat’ rushed towards Lith with a sword in his hand.
Staying still like a statue, Lith didn’t flinch at the incoming ball of fire. He simply covered his face with his sword and muttered softly
“Disperse.”
Clang!
The incoming ball of fire disintegrated and the sound of metal hitting could be heard. Ralph knew his fire spell would hardly have any effect, so he went straight for the offense and slashed his sword at Lith’s face.
Ralph underestimated Lith’s ability on elemental control and thought that the fire spell may give him at least a bit of advantage to do damage on him. Having been beaten to near death so many times by Lucy, these little tricks were nothing to Lith and he easily defended against the sword slash.
After having failed to damage at the first slash, Ralph quickly cast a rank 1 lightning spell ‘Quick Bolt’ on himself. He moved to Lith’s back instantly and slashed at him.
Lith willed the Earth element in the surroundings and a rank 1 ‘Earth Wall’ was formed behind his back, which blocked Ralph’s slash once again.
He also cast ‘Quick Bolt’ on himself once again. Quick bolt was a lightning spell that increased one’s movement speed. Kicking off the ground, Ralph once again charged at Lith.
Holding the sword with both his hands, Ralph zapped around Lith while raining down a barrage of sword slashes on to him. Lith blocked each and every one of Ralph’s attack with his swift movement, quick reaction time and with the use of Earth spells.
Lith felt bored of these basic attacks from Ralph and thought to end this spar after ten minutes of constant defending. He cast short jump and distanced himself. After distancing himself, he cast the time spell ‘Slow’.
Ralph, being weaker and not adept at space or time elements, couldn’t avoid Lith’s time spell. His thoughts slow down along with his movements. Lith didn’t waste time and teleported in front of him and stabbed Ralph in the chest, thereby killing him.
Arya rushed to the arena and revived Ralph. After getting revived, he was very shocked to find out that his opponent, Lith, was more proficient in willing the magical elements than himself as well as being much stronger than him.
Ralph had come across many time affinity opponents during the tournament but none of their spells worked on him. This was the disadvantage of time spells. To make these spells work, one had to be stronger or at the same level as their opponent and Ralph being the heir to the lust family and the son of an Emperor rank was naturally leagues above his opponents in the tournament.
He hadn’t fought any descendant of a Supreme rank; he had no idea how large of a gap there was in these two bloodlines. After his fight just now, he still couldn’t make out the difference as he saw Lith’s proficiency in willing the elemental energy to be leagues above his own and that could only be achieved by being a genius and some serious hardwork.
Whatever the case, Ralph accepted the fact that Lith was stronger than him. He walked towards Lith and patted his shoulder. He said with a determined gaze
“You are strong.”
Lith smiled at his response and nodded his head. He didn’t know wether Ralph was just the serious type of kid or he hid his emotions in front of people who he didn’t know but whatever the case, he knew Ralph had a good impression of him just from these words.
What he thought was right. Ralph developed a good impression of Lith and thought of him as a rival. Walking out of the arena, he became even more determined to work harder to surpass Lith, of course, he didn’t say these things out loud and kept it to himself.
Dennis’s blood was boiling and he was itching to fight. He was a battle maniac and had it not been for his curiosity to watch what prowess the 1st and the 2nd topper had, he would’ve already intervened and fought them.
After Ralph exited the arena, he went to it and looked at Lith and said with fire burning in his eyes and taking a fighting stance
“Your highness, please don’t hold back. Here I come!”
Arya looked at the excited Dennis and chuckled. He didn’t even wait for her to exit and without having any concern about her, came in to fight.
Lith smiled and nodded his head. He willed the space around him and cast short jump. Reaching Dennis in an instant, he cast ‘slow’ and simultaneously stabbed him in the heart.
Dennis was dumbfounded at such high speed. Though he had seen how fast Lith was, experiencing for himself was an entirely different concept. He couldn’t even cast a spell and was already damaged to a very high degree. He wanted to move away from Lith but found his thoughts and the surroundings to be slowed down.
After finding Dennis to be still, Lith cast an Earth spell ‘Earth Cage’ and trapped Dennis in it. He thought of willing the earth elemental energy and crushing Dennis to kill him but it would be going way overboard and this was just a friendly spar. Therefore, he exited the stage after trapping Dennis inside.
Arya chuckled at how easily the match ended. She snapped her fingers and the cage, along with the time spell, broke down, freeing Dennis.
Dennis looked around and found Lith to have already exited the stage. He met his gaze with him and asked
“Did I lose, your highness?”
“You didn’t lose, Dennis. But it would be nothing but a waste of time for you to be trapped like that for twenty minutes. So, I intervened and set you free from the time and earth spell. Alright, less talks here, let’s go to the living room and analyse your fight.
Although you both lost in a miserable way, it was still a lesson. Come I’ll give you more insights on this little spar of yours.”
The three nodded their heads and followed Arya to the living room. The three sat together on the sofa and Arya sat opposite to them.
Arya explained various things to Ralph and Dennis and also to Lith on how many things could’ve been done differently and what could’ve been avoided. She also taught them the basics of elemental energy control which was useful to Ralph and Dennis but useless to Lith.
There weren’t many things that were helpful to Lith and he just sat there sipping tea and accompanying Ralph and Dennis who were listening to their teacher explain things intently.
Sipping his tea, Lith looked at his teacher and now that he had a good look at her, he couldn’t help but be amazed at how beautiful she was. Her curves were perfect and her face seemed to be sculpted just like her body to perfection. Not to mention the opaque sunglasses that she wore only added to her overall charms.
It was only now that Lith understood why in the novels that he read in his previous life, harem was so popular among the protagonists and why they went around collecting ladies like they were pokémon.
Though he found his teacher beautiful, he currently had no love interest in her. She just seemed like a cheerful beautiful lady to him and nothing more. After admiring her beauty secretly, he focused on the explainations she was giving.
Arya finished with her explaination and went to her room leaving her three students alone once again.
“Ralph, teacher explained so well. Come let’s test it out. Your highness, you be the judge of the fight. Let’s go!” Dennis got up and said cheerfully.
Lith and Ralph agreed to Dennis’s comment and went to the arena once again to practice. Though this time Lith was at the sidelines watching them.
Dennis and Ralph had an intense fight. Both were the direct descendants of an Emperor rank and were on par with each other regarding their prowess. Ralph was a genius and he learnt many things from Arya just now and could apply it in the battle pretty easily.
Dennis, though understood the things his teacher said, couldn’t apply well in the battle and as he battled Ralph more, slowly he was understanding whatever his teacher taught more deeply. He was a person who learnt better when it was done practically instead of taught orally unlike Ralph.
Their battle ended after an hour with Dennis losing by a short margin. He wasn’t like Ralph who could learn and apply just from being taught orally and that was the deciding factor of their match. Dennis now had two losses against Ralph. Sleeping on the arena ground and breathing heavily he said
“Huff…Huff..next time…Ralph…I’ll be sure to win.”
“Huff…Huff…goodluck then.” Ralph too said while breathing heavily and being in the same position as Dennis.
Ralph was getting more comfortable with Lith and Dennis as time passed and was starting to open up to them. Though it was slow, it was still progress. His reserved and cold attitude was slowly being melted by the warm company of Lith and Dennis.