Zoemi muttered under his breath while walking outside the mansion, and a hair-like shadow shot out behind him, seeking and immediately connecting him with the red-haired Vianee’s shadow, while the two of them were taking positions.

”…”

Setting ups spells before the duel properly starts was considered to be not only rude and bad manners but often lead to the automatic loss, but the black-haired boy didn’t particularly care about any of that, despite the fact that the young dark-blue-haired butler who ended up going with them to be the duel’s witness, certainly noticed the premature setup.

Still, he remained silent, so it was as if nothing happened.

With that, the black-haired boy and the red-haired man stood against each other in front of the Banemor mansion.

Zoemi’s expression was that of a stone-cold mask, while Vianee was smirking to himself, still very pleased with the reaction.

The fire mage still thought that it was a good thing to anger this particular opponent as both darkness and shadow spells – the ones being only the inferior copies of the original spells from other attributes – didn’t boast particularly good range, and the black-haired boy just so happened to move all the way to the Academy-set middle range.

From that distance, Vianee would be able to pelt him with the barrage of the explosive fire spells without ever being in danger.

”…”

”…”

The two opponents froze in place, waiting for the signal to start the duel being called out by the supposedly impartial dark-blue-haired butler, who momentarily seemed as if he forgot the role he was supposed to play.

”Hey, how long are you planning to stare? Start it already!”

Even the blue-haired Aerea ended up scoffing at the young butler, who seemed to be deep in thought.

”…hmm? Oh! Right…! Begin!”

He flinched in surprise and then waved his hand almost dismissively.

”Say goodbye, you tra-GSHHHH?!?!?!”

Vianee smirked, raising his hand with a massive fireball already coiling in front of his palm when suddenly the front of his shirt bulged out and a human hand burst through the collar of his shirt, grabbing his throat and choking him out of the attempt of provoking the enemy to make a mistake.

”Vianee?!”

Aerea gasped, looking around in terror before realizing that the black-haired boy facing her brother did already make his move.

Zoemi was also reaching out his hand – but it was cut off by pulsating darkness right above his elbow…!

”I gave you a chance.”

Zoemi scoffed with a disgusted expression and moved back.

*WHAM*

”GHUAGH…!”

He ended up pulling most of his arm out of the darkness, which in turn caused the hand choking Vianee to pull the red-haired man down, slamming him against the ground, pushing the air out of his lungs.

*WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM* *WHAM*

Zoemi repeated the movement a few times for a good measure before releasing Vianee’s throat and freeing his own hand, and then casually activated his shadow enchantments to close the distance between them before the red-haired man could properly stand up.

”Don’t forget about your enchantments.”

Zoemi stopped right before the fire magician crawled his way back onto his feet, deactivated his own enchantments for a moment, and…

*SLAM*

Delivered a full-on soccer kick onto the head of his opponent, sending him tumbling back like a ragdoll.

”…you…! YOU LITTLE FUCKER! DO YOU THINK THIS IS A GAME?!”

Since the kick wasn’t augmented by any spell, Vianee who indeed have his own enchantment active, managed to get up relatively fast, with his face bright red from embarrassment and fury, behind the layer of dust and dirt from the ground in which Zoemi slammed him a few times before.

”Good. It would be so annoying if you got down after only that.”

”?!?!?!?!”

Instead of responding to the furious question, the black-haired boy smiled eerily and reached out his hand again – but this time a murky black fire erupted from his fingertips and coiled around into a fireball.

”Catch.”

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and casually flicked his wrist, sending the fireball flying with such an amazing speed that Vianee who happened to blink at the very unfortunate moment completely missed it…

*BOOOM*

”GRAAAAAAAAUUUUUGHGHGHGHGHHH….!”

…but what he couldn’t have possibly missed was the ice-cold explosion that encased his stomach in a flame-like icicle.

”Shut up, you aren’t properly damaged yet. Ice explosion.”

*click*

”H-huh…?!”

*BOOOOOOOM*

Zoemi scoffed and shook his head in annoyance, snapping his fingers and causing the fresh murky ice to explode, sending the utterly confused Vianee flying.

”Where do you think you are going?”

Zoemi raised his brow and asked in annoyance as the fire magician’s body was about to hit the ground – he ended up stepping forward and snapping his hand like a whip.

As he did so, a water sprout with whip-like properties shoot out from his palm and extended all the way to the airborne enemy, coiling against his neck and…

”Get back here. I am not done.”

The black-haired boy scoffed pulling back on the water whip that contracted like a rubber band, propelling Vianee straight at the awaiting Zoemi.

The black-haired boy already had his hand at the ready – encased in a massive glove made out of soil put together by the earth mana.

It really took only a fraction of a second to…

*WHAM*

*CRUSH*

Vianee’s face met with the earth fist and get slammed into the ground so hard that his legs shoot out and fell down only full five seconds later.

”Tsk. Weakling, at least don’t lose consciousness when we fight – beating on an unconsious person isn’t what I wa… ghhh…!”

”…kill…!”

Zoemi glared down at the messed up face of the red-haired man with his eyes flashing whites, and clicked his tongue in annoyance – but then he suddenly faltered, as his shadow extended without his permission, and a murky-black-figure burst out of it wielding two massive ice spears very clearly aimed at the defeated opponent.

”Vianee! YOU BASTARD, YOU SAID YOU WILL NOT TRY TO KILL HIM!”

Seeing all of that Aerea cried out before charging at the black-haired boy with water spears already forming from the moisture in the air.

”BACK!”

Zoemi, didn’t even pay attention to the blue-haired woman, far too concerned about the murky black-shadow who freely wielded ice – and was clearly using Zoemi’s own mana to do so.

|It’s sir Ludier…! The corpse puppet spell was at least partially successful – but why the hell is it acting on its own?!|

Zoemi gritted his teeth, doing his best to take control over the shadowy figure about to finish off the unconscious Vianee.

”I TOLD YOU TO GET BACK, YOU UNGRATEFUL MORON!”

”…!”

Feeling his mana getting drained almost as fast as during casting corpse puppet spell at the execution ground, Zoemi managed to get a hold of the death-attribute-mana-filled strings and take direct control over the shadow puppet, forcing it to sink back down into the murky shadow it sprouted out on its own.

”…whew…”

Zoemi breathed out, having regained control over the situation, when…

*STAB* *STAB* *STAB* *STAB* *STAB* *STAB* *STAB*

”Gh-ghugh…!”

…multiple water spears pierced through his torso making him falter and take a step forward, throwing up a mouthful of blood as at least two spells pierced through his lungs, causing a profound hemorrhage.