n

n

n

"There are 80 players remaining, there have been no added rules.

" Said the voice.

n

"80... Huh...

" John muttered as he looked down at his badge number.

nThe number displayed was 7. As he saw this he clenched his fist before letting giving a short look around. It had risen unexpectedly fast considering only 20 players had been eliminated.

nThat would have meant that he had 35% of the overall eliminations so far. However, he didn't seem proud nor felt like he had accomplished something great.

n

"I never expected there to be so many people here at the beach...

" John said as he looked towards the small concrete and frozen sand on the ground.

nThey were stronger than John had expected. Some continued chanting even after they had dodged his glacies. But John guessed that he shouldn't be seeing any mage soon who can fight one-on-one.

n

"*sigh* mumble, mumble, mumble, mumble... Deprehendre,

" John whispered.

nHe cast deprehendre in search of only his teammates.

n3 scattered lights appeared scattered around the forest. One of them was close to the beach was pretty far.

n

"That must be them...

" John muttered.

n'I guess I'll head for the closest one. I wonder how everyone's doing.' Thought John.

nAs he thought that, he entered the forest.

n

"Well... Walking will take a while so...

" As John said that, he reinforced his body with magic and started to run.

nHe zoomed past the trees in a speed that was unnatural for a kid of his age.

nJohn never took the time to deeply think about it. But he realized that magic sure was revolutionary. He wondered what his previous world would be like if it existed. With reinforcement, he was much faster than the faster man on earth.

n

"It sort of feels like a cheat...

" John muttered.

nSuddenly, he felt a chill go down his spine and stopped.

n

"?!

"

nAfter that, something came into contact with the tree which was right in front of John and it vanished.

nJohn cast deprehendre without saying anything and looked around.

nJohn couldn't find anyone, the nearest person was at least 30 meters away from him, there was no way they could have launched an attack and he wouldn't have noticed.

nSuddenly John felt another attack coming and leapt to the side. A small hole was formed on the ground where he had been stood. But John managed to catch a glimpse of it.

nThe effects of deprehendre were still active. That was why John managed to notice. The person who was at least 30 meters away suddenly appeared around 10 meters in front of him and cast some sort of spell.

n'How?! When? Is deprehendre bugging out?' John thought with surprise.

n

"Is it... Teleportation...?

" John asked.

nAfter he said that the person slowly approached him, he had a staff in hand and John could see his characteristics. It was a guy with moderately long white hair which reached all the way to his ears and frost white eyes.

nHe was mumbling something.

n'It's a chant!' John inwardly exclaimed.

nA smirk formed on his face when John started fake chanting and propelled himself at him using velox duplici and Levite.

nWith these two combined, John may have as well be moving at the speed of a bullet.

nThat's when he heard him mutter.

n

"Advanced Spatial Magic: Spatii in sese unda reductos,

" Translation: Ripples in space.

n'What..? Did he just say spatial-' John stuttered.

nRight when John was about to hit him, he vanished.

n'Where did he?' John wondered.

nHe rotated his body mid-air and gathered air on his legs and started fake chanting again. While John did that, he noticed that he was right in front of him. He was chanting something again.

nAs John was about to propel himself straight at him to cancel it. John then stopped, instead of using velox to propel himself, he used it to stop his momentum and simply landed on the ground.

n

"?

"

nHe then took a deep breath and then started to concentrate.

n'This guy isn't someone I should take lightly, Ripples in space... I'm sure that's what he called it, meaning if just charge in, he might teleport again. For now, let's watch... There must be some sort of pattern to his moves something…' John analyzed

nThe man had completed his chant.

n

"Intermidiate Spatial magic: Ianuae Magicae pila,

" Translation: Teleport ball.

n6 Spheres of light were formed around him and slowly circled him.

n'That sphere... I recognise it. It's what caused the tree to vanish... what'll happen if I get hit by that?' John thought.

nAs he thought that, he propelled two of them straight at him.

nThey weren't that fast. Slower than glacies. John took a leap back and to his surprise, they were following him.

n'Seriously!? Homing killer balls?' John thought feling shocked.

nHe started to fake chant, while he leapt in the air, at the same time, John noticed that he was chanting another spell. That's when he got an idea.

n

"Glacies Murum

" John muttered after he finished the fake chant.

nA wall of ice was formed in front of him. He looked surprised when he saw it. It looks like he expected John to only have aptitude for a wind element.

nAnd just like John had predicted, he disappeared.

nAt the same moment, John cast Deprehendre. This time he set it to search for a distortion in the space around him.

n'8... It was hard to tell but I could sense it... There were 8 distortions in the surrounding space. The nearest one was…' John observed.

nThe wall of ice John had formed disappeared and one ball was heading straight at him. John ignored it and turned around.

n

"Behind me! Glacies Lancea!

" john shouted.

nIn an instant, four ice lances were formed at least one meter long in length.

n

"Saint-Class Spatial Magic: Wormhole!

" He shouted with a surprised expression once he noticed that John had predicted his next move.

n'What? Saint cla-?' John exclaimed inwardly.

nThey then attacked each other from point blank at the same time.

n