The Dragon Roars

"Good duel, General Varay." Arthur quipped as he walked away from the battlefield, leaving Varay, who had reverted to her normal state, behind.

I met him first, walking onto the stage and raising an arm for a high five. He reciprocated in kind, smiling smugly.

"That's my brother. One would think you're already beyond white core. That was some sick mastery over fire." I complimented, reciprocating his smile.

He chuckled sheepishly, "I'm not white core yet, although I'm on the edge of breaking through. You would have had as much mastery over fire if you focused more on it."

I shrugged, "I am focusing on them now, the key is way more versatile though."

"Yeah, you'll catch up to me in no time."

I raised an eyebrow, "I'd say I've already caught up to you. Wanna duel to find out?"

He raised his hand, "Not now, I'm completely drained."

"Fine, I'll give you a day." I relented, "But no holding back when we fight."

"Holding back against you is just asking to get my ass kicked." he retorted, making me chuckle in response.

As we headed back to the group, the elders, Bairon, and Virion began bombarding Arthur with tips on what he did wrong during his spar.

"Your fire spells are strong, but you expended an unnecessary amount of mana with each of them," Hester began.

"That's right," Buhnd chimed in. "And there were many instances where utilising your earth magic would've been more beneficial, yet you chose to revert back to your comfortable affinities."

"Elders," Alanis interrupted, "I believe it'd be most beneficial for General Arthur if we spoke one at a time and in a more controlled setting."

"I agree," Virion added. "Let's gather around and examine what our young general did wrong."

He still won, you know.

[Winning is not always the most important thing in a fight.]

I suppose...

With that Buhnd conjured up stone chairs for everyone to sit on, Arthur in the middle of them.

"Using wind to bolster your spells was a good idea, but your application of it was surface level," Camus explained. "For example, instead of using the wind to push the lightning spear, why not integrate it around the entire spell itself? That way, you'd create a spinning force to strengthen its piercing power without using that much more mana."

Surprisingly, it was Bairon who spoke next, "Because of the element's very nature, shaping lightning is much harder than shaping fire. A more efficient attack would've been moulding the fire into a piercing shape and coating it with lightning,"

Huh, is that so? I've never really found any difficulty in shaping lightning.

[Not everyone is a monster at moulding mana.]

True, I wonder how strong Ellie will be once she gets older.

[Considering her talent for making constructs, she'll be pretty strong.]

"Thanks… for the advice," Arthur said, visibly surprised at Bairon's words.

"Allow me to give just one insight," Varay said. "Your control over ice is good, but as your opponent, it was clear that your ice magic merely served as a distraction."

Leofric nodded in affirmation, "Besides the spell Absolute Zero, most of your ice manipulation serves to divert your foe's attention from your more powerful lightning spells."

Welp, they're reading him like an open book.

'They have been training him for the past month or so.' Zeke pointed out.

I suppose…

"Your speed and spell chaining make up for this slight shortcoming, but I suspect that in a prolonged battle this would lead to your defeat." Varay added.

"I'll keep your advice in mind. Thank you." Arthur inclined his head

Virion seized this opportunity, rising from his stone seat and clasping his hands. "Well, I apologise for our little interruption. Carry on with the training, Arthur. My expectations for your growth are high, especially since you're taking time off from the battlefield."

As Virion and the Lances began walking away, I decided to follow their example, "I'll be going as well then. Be ready for our duel tomorrow."

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Later that night, as I was walking aimlessly through the halls, I felt a sudden fluctuation in the ambient mana. And I don't mean the usual kind, the mana seemed to have a mind of its own as it flowed towards a certain room in the castle.

So, he broke through into the white core stage after all.

[What are the odds that he broke into the stage right before your duel?]

It seems like luck is indeed on his side. I thought with a chuckle, That only means he's going to put up more of a fight tomorrow.

[Darn battle maniac…]

Can't deny that.

'Is fighting all you think about?' Zeke deadpanned at me.

'Most of the time.' I admitted.

'That was a rhetorical question…'

'Hehe.'

'Don't "hehe" me!'

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"Are you ready?" I called out from across the room as Emily set up the barrier.

He nodded back in reply. "I am, are you ready to get your ass kicked?" he added cheekily, bringing his teal colored sword out of his dimension ring.

"We'll see who gets their ass kicked and who doesn't." I shot back, a smirk forming on my face as I summoned Shroud in my hands.

"Begin." Alanis' voice echoed around the room as our auras grew considerably stronger, sending fissures throughout the room.

Arthur went for the first hit, closing the distance between us in a span of a second and crumbling the ground underneath his feet.

I brought up Shroud in time, stopping Dawn's Ballad from cleaving through my shoulder when a blinding white light coming from the point of contact between the two swords overtook our vision

________________________

3rd Person POV:

As the light faded away, the two brothers, now on different sides of the battlefield, brandished their respective swords, coating them in the element of their choice.

Fayden advanced forward this time, an arc of wind and lightning following the tip of his sword, and aimed at Arthur's mid-section. Arthur met the attack with his own sword, coated thickly in ice mana.

This time when the swords clashed, they did not create a blinding light. Rather they released the elemental mana stored in them. A thunderstorm brewed on one side, the occasional thunderbolt scorching the ground, and the ground froze on the other side, the moisture in the air freezing and falling down as snow.

Forcing Arthur's sword away, Fayden fired the spell he had been conjuring in his other hand. Caught off guard, Arthur barely had the time to shield himself with a shield of earth and wind magic.

But his arm did suffer multiple shallow cuts on them, crimson blood blossoming on the tattered sleeve of his shirt.

Arthur hissed in pain, jumping away from his opponent and coated two of his fingers in fire, using them to cauterise the wounds in rapid succession.

With his hand relatively healed, Arthur raised both his arms and the ground quaked from the magnitude of his spell. Fayden's eyes widened as he sensed the massive amount of mana Arthur was using, as the earth broke off from the ground and levitated upward.

He didn't know what spell it was, but he knew he couldn't let Arthur complete it. He lunged forward, spheres of thunder and ice forming behind his back, but before he could get too close to Arthur, a wall of earth blocked his way. The wall rumbled and cracked at the force of his spells, but never gave way. If he could see the other side of the wall, he would notice the second wall of ice behind it.

On the other side, the levitating boulders of earth were enhanced further as ice covered their extremities. They arranged themselves in such a way that they resembled a serpentine dragon, the ones often depicted in east earthen mythology. Lightning coarse through its body, acting as tethers to dozens of pieces. One end of the dragon ended in a jagged tail of rock and ice. The other end was made mostly out of earth, with ice forming its jaws and crystal clear eyes. The body was made of partially frozen rock, its claws made purely out of ice. Thunder arced throughout its massive body.

In the time it took for the dragon to materialise, Fayden had broken through the two-layered wall. And as his gaze fell on the behemoth of a spell, he paled considerably, muttering something along the lines of 'Well… fuck.'

Arthur smirked, letting his arms drop, and his construct followed suit, diving after the brown-haired man. In a moment of panic, he swung his wind-coated sword at the construct, an arc of razor sharp wind following it.

The dragon opened his maw, devouring the spell in one go with no visible damage to it whatsoever. Fayden, leaving all pretence of attacking, ran, trying his best to get out of the attack radius. And he would have if the dragon didn't follow him.

Okay, normal attacks don't work. I can't outrun it. That only leaves… Fayden trailed off in his thoughts, and another voice in his head spoke up.

[Don't rely too much on the key, use your innate power sometimes.]

Fayden knew he was right. He had been relying on Shadowsoul too much, and he had to hone his normal skills further. And what better way to do it than in the middle of a spar of this level?

Releasing his hold on Shroud, he unsummoned it, as white mana began slowly accumulating on his palm, forming the handle of a sword. He had used this spell only once before, and it had damaged the very continent beyond repair. Of course, he won't be using it at nearly the same level, he didn't want to sink the castle, but he was still hesitant on using this move.

Shaking his head free of his conflicting thoughts, he focused solely on hastening the formation of the weapon. This time, the construct wasn't as chaotic as before. Its handle and crossguard soon lost their pristine white colour, replaced by dense rock. Its blade gained a cyan hue, as the temperature in the room dropped several degrees. He smelt ozone in the air as yellow lightning began wildly dancing around the frozen blade, causing the ambient mana to quiver almost as if the very mana feared it.

He skidded to a halt, turning to face the rapidly approaching dragon. Holding the sword in reverse grip, he cocked his arm backward, as if preparing to throw a javelin. Green wind began swirling around the bladed weapon as the muscles on his arm tensed. The dragon began spinning, a trail of green wind forming over its body as it sped up tremendously. With one mighty roar, he hurled the weapon at the dragon, which shot towards it at multiple times the speed of sound.

He glanced at the audience watching them, "BRACE FOR IMPACT!"

The two spells collided, an explosion of four elements following.

And among the sound of clashing elements, the distinct sound of glass shattering filled the air.