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n“It seems we’ve noticed the same thing, then.” Wryly smiling in response to the question Loreina had sent to him, Hal swiftly sent back a message as he focused his attention on the two fighting in the crater.

nThough it seemed like Faulus had gained an edge over Valyr due to his attacks covering a wide area, that came with the downside of having to consume a greater amount of his own mana in order to conjure them in the first place.

nOn the other hand, Valyr’s attacks were smaller in comparison, yet its level of strength was similar. Naturally, such a small attack containing a lot of strength still meant that he had spent a lot of mana for it to become destructive…

nBut the cost was definitely far lower than how much Faulus was consuming with every move.

n“For him to not break a sweat while fighting against Faulus, that alone says that his combat capabilities exceed yours by a considerable margin, Loreina.” Feeling like he had gotten a better idea of Valyr’s combat strength, Hal soon sent a message to the young woman, who could only bitterly smile after reading it.

n“At the very least, I’m better than Faulus combat-wise.” Letting out a wry chuckle, she sent a message back to Hal, only to follow it up with a question not long after. “Now that I think about it, haven’t you fought against Faulus in the past?”

n“It was more like a showcase of who had the better talent.” As Hal replied to Loreina’s message, the young man slowly rummaged through his thoughts, recalling memories of a certain time in the past.

nJust as he had established his title as the Lord of All Trades, Faulus’ popularity swiftly began to rise through the roof, with many people calling him the future leader of the alchemy world thanks to his innovative concoctions.

nThough, because so many people had begun to praise his feats, Faulus let every word get into his head, causing him to request a match against many of the younger generation that had established their names before him.

nThe result?

nUtter defeat.

nLetting his ego get to him, he decided to fight according to the specialties of the opposing side, trusting in his prodigious talent that he would be able to defeat the other side, or in the worst case scenario, call it a draw.

nUnfortunately, this string of matches he had gotten into only made him realize that his talent only extended up to alchemy at most. On top of that, there were others he had requested to fight against that had considerable talent in alchemy as well.

nOne of them being Hal.

n“In any case, it seems like one of our companions will be incredibly useful during our expedition into the inheritance.” Grinning, Hal watched Faulus and Valyr continue fighting against one another as he sent a message to Loreina.

n“It seems so.” Faintly smiling as she responded back, Loreina inwardly let out a sigh as she looked at Hal for a bit, feeling the man’s intense desire to prove that he was the strongest out of all of them.

n‘I wonder if Ylvar can match up to him.’ Returning her attention to the fight happening down in the crater, Loreina focused on Valyr’s movements and actions, noticing how relaxed he was whenever he dodged or retaliated against his opponent’s move.

nRealizing this, she began to get the feeling that the young man hid a far greater portion of the strength than she and the others initially perceived. In fact, after watching Valyr for a while, she even felt like the man had the ability to triumph Hal in combat.

n‘I guess it’ll be fine.’ Scratching the back of her head as she wondered where that thought came from, she eventually decided not to think too much, returning her attention to the fight once more.

n…

n“Azure Wave!”

nWhoosh!

nSending out multiple waves of mana in Valyr’s general direction, a slight grin appeared on Faulus’ face as he realized that his current attack was working.

nThroughout the battle so far, Faulus began to realize that there were two things he had to be wary about when it came to Valyr. The first and most obvious among the two would be the lethality of the man’s attacks. After all, if an attack could form a crater, then Faulus was more than certain it could kill a person.

nAs for the second thing he had to be wary about…

nIt was the young man’s agility.

nThough it was not obvious at first, Faulus began to notice that Valyr seemed to have an easy time defending or avoiding the attacks he had sent out, forcing him to redirect or cast another attack in order to be on the offensive once again.

nWith that, he eventually thought that if he were to restrict Valyr’s movements within a certain area, he would eventually be able to land an attack that would allow him to win.

nBecoming more and more motivated that this thought would soon become a reality with his current attack, Faulus cast more and more Azure Waves, sending wave after wave of mana that gradually confined Valyr in a certain spot within the crater.

n“Finally! I’ve got you now!” Eventually, after what seemed to be quite a long time, Faulus had confined Valyr in a space small enough that any of his attacks would undoubtedly land on the latter, crowning him victorious in this first match.

nHowever, just as he was about to conjure his final blow…

n“Eh?” Summoning all of the mana within his body towards his hands, Faulus swiftly noticed that the amount of mana he had pulled out was minuscule compared to what he could unleash earlier. Wondering what was going on, it was only then did something click in his mind, slowly turning his head to look at Valyr.

n“Took you long enough.”𝒪𝓋𝔩xt.𝗰𝒪𝗆

n“Crimson Blade Torrent!”

nWhoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

nWith a confident grin, Valyr conjured a great number of blades made out of crimson flames in an instant, sending all of them in Faulus’ general direction as he controlled the blades to surround the latter.

nFeeling a great amount of anger at himself for falling into his opponent’s trap, Faulus slowly closed his eyes and gradually accepted his fate of being impaled by the blades…

nOnly for nothing to happen soon after.

n“Hmm?” Seeing as nothing happened for a while after he had closed his eyes, the man decided to open his eyes once more, only to be greeted by a plethora of blades only a few inches away from his face.

n“So, what next?” Manipulating the blades of crimson blades to stay in place, Valyr looked at Faulus and asked him a question.

n“What next?” Hearing the young man’s words, Faulus bitterly smiled. After that, he sat down and let out a long sigh. “Well, what else could it even be?”

n“I admit defeat.”

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