Different Option

The distance between the two vanished, and they sent forth their next attacks. Fate aimed a kick at Venden's stomach, who grabbed the leg and shoved it upward. As Fate was sent into a backflip, he spared a quick use of his Mage Grasp to change the direction of his spin from vertical to horizontal, sending his foot Venden's way once more.

The other duelist threw his arms up to the side of his head in a quick block, grunting from the strike as Fate twisted to land on his feet. Venden instantly noticed that his Mage Reach was free, and sent a telekinetic shove toward Fate.

Fate didn't register the attack in time, and was sent flying across the platform, descending to his feet with a thud. He looked up to find Venden sprinting toward him, another wave of Mana paving his way forward.

With a step to the side at the last second, the wave of Mana flew past him for the most part, the rest blocked by his own quickly-summoned telekinesis.

In a battle of true Mages, those who stepped past the Apprentice Stage, every inch of one's Mage Reach could utilize its full power, meaning every scrap of Fate's could use every pound of his 1,050-pound strength. The only restriction was shape and size, determined by how much Mana you used.

Grendeven went big in both respects, while Fate went small, avoiding most of the former's attack while blocking the rest with a relatively small amount of Mana.

With Grendeven's Mage Reach passing by, Fate sent his own forward and wrapped it around the exposed noble before he could bring out another blast.

In a moment, Venden's telekinesis was restrained again, causing an angry vein to throb on the aristocrat's forehead. "Is that all you know how to do?" he roared.

"Someone's angry," Fate smiled. Good for him. Angry people made for poor fighters.

Venden finished closing the distance, throwing his arms forward in a bear hug. Fate switched his Skill on out of reflex, only to see the twinkle in Venden's eye as he did so.

A series of horrible cracks rang out as Venden brought the full power of his Mage Reach to bear on Fate, suffering the brunt of his opponent's own Mage reach in the process.

What Fate had neglected to remember was that his opponent was a Journeyman, like him. Unlike an Apprentice, whose Mage Reach was weaker in several ways and could only be used with the body as a starting point, a Journeyman could utilize their Mage Reach anywhere within range.

For Mages with Mage Grasp like Fate and Venden, that range was five thousand miles. While that sounded like a lot, no one ever really used that ludicrous range. Mages preferred to keep their Mage Reach within their aura or their line of sight, where they could easily control and react with it.

Sending it out past that range would be akin to stumbling around in the dark with your ears and nose cut off. You could still 'feel' things, but wouldn't have awareness of what was around your Mana. This problem was theoretically alleviated for those that have ascended past Arch-Mage, but that was far away from their current Stage.

This all went to say that Fate had made a mistake. Venden could conjure his Mage Reach practically anywhere within his aura, which when extended was more than enough to cover the stone platform they dueled on.

The two fell to their knees at the same time, both driving the other down with the force of their Mage Grasp. Fate's intangibility saved him from the worst of it, at least half of Venden's Mana missing its mark, but that was still the equivalent of someone dropping four grown men on top of him.

His kneecap fractured from the impact, a grimace appearing on his face as the pain combined with the jarring landing gave him a splitting headache.

Venden faired much worse. His left arm was a mangled mess, his right was broken in three places, and every orifice on his face was leaking blood. A tooth flew out of his mouth when he coughed the blood out of his throat.

His legs, on the other hand, were perfectly intact. The two duelists stood as one, one's callous blue eyes darkening a measure as he mustered his Mana, the other's green pupils quaking with undiluted rage as he prepared to put this whelp in his place.

Their Mage Grasps shot out once more.

If before, the two were playing tug-of-war, pushing and pulling at the opponent's Mana with their own in an attempt to physically overwhelm them, now they were rapid-firing chunks of Mana like machine guns.

As if a switch had gone off in Fate's brain, he utilized the new perks of being a Journeyman to the same effect as Venden. Dozens of invisible head-sized blobs of Mana smashed into each other every five seconds, neither duelist concerned about their Mana usage in the slightest.

Fate had enough Mana in his Mana pool to use his Mage Reach continuously for sixteen seconds which, when shortened into hundreds of bursts that took a fraction of a second each, extended his Mage Reach's uptime by five times, or about eighty seconds. Venden could do the same, and could even do it better than Fate.

But Fate took a different option.

When he saw that controlled attacks weren't working, he sunk into the ground once again, the stone protecting him from Venden's wrath as he rained his Mage Reach on the noble from an unassailable position.

If Venden were an Earth Mage, or any Mage with a Physical Skill, perhaps he might've been able to reach Fate's new position. As it was, the noble was forced to weather the storm that was Fate's Mana, his Skill overloaded with the hundreds of Mana shots coming his way.

He let out an angry yell as he threw caution to the wind, slamming the floor below him with his Mage Grasp in an attempt to burrow his way to Fate's hiding spot.