“To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised.” As Faulus’ eyes widened in disbelief from Valyr’s words while Loreina smirked at having her suspicions be confirmed, Hal listening to the young man with amused expression on his face, chuckling not long after. “Ever since that fight you had with Faulus, I already had a feeling you were holding yourself back.”

“I just didn’t expect you to be holding yourself back far more than I thought,” added Hal after that, causing a grin to creep up onto Valyr’s lips. “So, aside from magic, what other types of combat do you specialize in, Ylvar?”

“Cold weapons and summoning,” replied Valyr, making Hal feel greater excitement towards the fight that would occur between the two of them.

“Are we only limiting ourselves to one type of combat?” Though, just as he thought how fun it would be to finally go somewhat all out against his opponent, Hal caught himself in the midst of his excitement, taking in a deep breath to compose himself as he asked.

“I don’t know.” Valyr shrugged his shoulders as a smile continued to adorn his face. “Are you fine with only having to use one type of combat?”

“Well, the same could be said to you,” said Hal in response with a faint chuckle, examining Valyr from head to toe as he felt the other side’s intent. “Are you fine with only having to stick to one type of combat?”

“Against someone like you? Of course not.” Saying these words, Valyr flared his aura to the fullest, leaving both Faulus and Loreina at a loss for words as they did not expect the man to be hiding such a level of strength all this time.

“Guess that settles it.” Feeling giddy towards the battle they were going to have, Hal decided to respond to Valyr’s showing of power, releasing the entirety of his aura as well as the two auras clashed throughout the crater, making one feel as if one were looking at two lions baring their fangs at one another.

Whoosh!

Taking out an exquisite looking sword from his spatial bracelet, Hal gripped its handle tightly as his expression turned calm. With the man’s breathing following a certain pattern, Valyr gradually felt like Hal’s presence was gradually disappearing in front of him with every passing second.

“To keep things even, I won’t use archery during our fight.” Letting out a long, drawn-out sigh, Hal looked at Valyr, who had already taken a battle stance after seeing the former prepare for their fight. “Does that sound good?”

“Yep.” Nodding in response, Valyr gradually calmed his emotions as well, preparing both his body and mind towards something that he considered as one of the most important fights in his life. After all, not only was he going to fight against a prodigy lauded by everyone for his talent…

His victory in the fight also meant that he would have a greater chance at becoming the leader during the expedition into the Four Pillars’ Inheritance.

“I’ll be doing the countdown.” Seeing that his opponent was ready, Hal took the initiative to start their fight, prompting Valyr to nod as his expression turned even more solemn.

“3… 2… 1…”

“Fight!’

“Limit Break!”

Whoosh!

At the very instant Hal signaled the beginning of their battle, Valyr did not hesitate to use one of his buffing skills, increasing the advantage he had over Hal in terms of stats as he used the opportunity to distance himself from the young man.

“Blade of Six Paths…” Responding to Valyr’s action, Hal decided to chase the former, pushing his body to the limit as he channeled a bit of mana into his blade.

“Mortal Severing Slash.” Then, after feeling like the gap between them had gotten narrow enough, he slashed his sword outwards, sending a blade of white energy towards Valyr as it zoomed through the air.

“Oh no…” Realizing that he wouldn’t be able to dodge the blade of energy in time even with heightened stats, contrary to what any sane person would have done in his situation, Valyr stopped in his tracks and stood in place, his eyes fixated on the blade of energy getting nearer towards him.

“Anyway…”

“Darting Shadow.”

Whoosh!

At the very moment it seemed like the blade of energy would make contact with Valyr, as if all bones had turned into mush, the young man deftly avoided the attack altogether as he moved many meters forward, slithering on the ground at great speeds as if he were a serpent.

“Wha—” Not expecting Valyr to have an evasive skill in his arsenal, especially at the level he had shown, Hal stared blankly at the young man slithering on the ground, only to snap back to reality once his opponent was only a meter or so in front of him.

“Crimson Blaze!”

Swoosh!

Taking advantage of Hal being dumbfounded by his evasive maneuver, Valyr swiftly conjured a ball of crimson flames before throwing it at the young man, not even bothering to charge it to its full potential.

“Seven Sage Steps!” In response, Hal decided to show Valyr his own evasive skill, moving away from the orb of crimson flames nearing him as each consecutive step increased the gap between him and the young man.

Bang!

With no target for it to make contact with, rather than have the fireball reach the walls of the crater, an idea appeared in Valyr’s mind as he manipulated the orb to collide with the ground, kicking up a great amount of dust into the surroundings.

Bombarding the ground by activating Crimson Blaze over and over again, more and more dust covered the surroundings of the two, prompting Hal to put himself in Valyr’s shoes as he thought about what he could do with the dust around them acting as a cover.

Swoosh!

However, just as he had gotten an inkling of an idea as to what Valyr was planning to do, Hal started to hear hurried footsteps heading in his direction, leaving his mind at a crossroads as to what he should do next. In the end, he decided to play it safe, sending out an attack with his blade in the direction of the sound.

“Blade of Six Paths…”𝒪𝗏𝑙xt.𝐂𝞸𝑚

“Ghastly Tornado!”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Allocating a bit more mana into the skill, the tornado of energy blades formed by his attack quickly dispersed the dust hampering his vision, allowing him to see who or what was causing the footsteps he was hearing.

“…” Being left at a slight loss for words, Hal found out that the one causing the footsteps was a large boar, which currently ran around in circles as its cover was blown.

“If Ylvar wasn’t making the noise, then where…?!” Of course, the question regarding Valyr’s whereabouts soon popped up into Hal’s mind, looking around for any traces of him. Though, just as he had felt like he had tracked the young man’s presence…

“Looking for me?” Valyr grinned, both of his hands tightly gripping on his blood red spear.

“Well… here I am.”

Bang!