~WHUM~

Neron tightened his grip on the barrier, knowing he had the upper hand. He prepared a final spell to finish the duel and prove his prowess to his father.

“Just for a hood measure…”

The air around him crackled with anticipation as he prepared to launch the finishing blow.

Neron’s focus was unbreakable as he held his father, Mordred, captive within the radiant barrier.

The elemental energies he had summoned swirled and danced around his hands, ready to launch a devastating attack.

His young face was a mask of concentration, his breathing deep and controlled.

Mordred, however, was far from defeated. He had seen Neron’s potential and knew his son’s capability well.

But he also knew that he had to push the boy even harder to reach his full potential.

‘Now, what shall I do? A direct approach of brute force won’t help if I want to adhere to the rules…’ Mordred didn’t fret, though.

Instead, he grinned widely.

‘Well then…’

With a firm grip on his magical knowledge and experience, Mordred began to counter Neron’s spell.

Inside the barrier, Mordred closed his eyes, focusing his own magic. He summoned the power of the earth beneath him, causing the ground to tremble and shift.

A mighty tremor surged upward, cracking the earth and breaking the barrier’s grip on Mordred. The barrier shattered like glass, releasing the elemental energy into the night air.

“What? How?” Neron’s eyes widened in surprise as his father broke free.

“Barrier overload. Using earth to create more external pressure and internal pressure, the Mana in the barrier gets confused on what to restrain, and it eventually wears thin until it dissipates.”

This was the first time Neron was hearing this, so he clicked his tongue and frowned deeply.

“What now, kid?”

Neron quickly shifted his strategy, gathering the dissipating elemental energy and combining it into a sharp, whirling gale.

He aimed the gale directly at his father, but Mordred reacted swiftly, creating a vortex of his own to counter it.

~BWUUUUUUUSSSHH!~

The two winds clashed with a deafening roar, creating a shockwave that shook the area around them.

Mordred took the opportunity to attack, sending a barrage of boulders hurtling toward his son.

Neron deftly dodged the onslaught, using blasts of air to deflect the rocks away from him. He retaliated with a combination of lightning and fire, sending bolts arcing through the air as streams of flames followed in their wake.

Mordred expertly shielded himself from the attack with a wall of water, absorbing the fire and grounding the lightning.

He then directed the water into a massive wave, which he sent crashing toward Neron.

The young mage met the wave head-on, freezing it into a wall of ice and then shattering it with a powerful punch.

~BOOOOOOM!~

The duel intensified as both mages continued their onslaught.

Neron launched bursts of fire and wind, while Mordred countered with earth and water. The clearing became a battlefield of elemental forces, with the ground trembling, the air sizzling, and the night sky flashing with magic.

There were a few non-elemental attacks used here and there, but since elemental attributes were an easier, more potent means of offense and defense, it became the highlight of the match.

Even then…

‘Damnit!’

Neron’s young mind raced as he tried to anticipate his father’s next move.

It always seemed like Neron was steps ahead of him.

Whenever he conjured a whirlwind, sending it toward Mordred, the latter would respond by summoning a colossal wall of earth.

Even when Neron manipulated the whirlwind, splitting it in two and sending it to attack from different angles, there would always be something else that served as a hard counter.

It was an impossible battle.

“Haaa… has…” Neron began to breathe heavily after fighting for a while.

His exhaustion was more mental than physical—though the latter was also present.

“You can’t get distracted now.” Mordred yelled as he raised his hands, summoning an electric storm above the clearing.

~BZZZZTTTZZZ!~

Lightning struck down, aiming for Neron as he dodged the attack. Neron used the lightning to his advantage, directing it toward Mordred with a swipe of his hands.

Mordred quickly raised another barrier, but the lightning struck the ground near him, creating a temporary distraction.

Seizing the opportunity, Neron launched a powerful beam of concentrated energy at his father. Mordred narrowly evaded the attack and quickly retaliated with a burst of flames that engulfed the ground around Neron.

The young mage countered with a surge of water, quenching the flames and creating a steamy cloud.

As the steam cleared, Mordred could see the determination in Neron’s eyes.

‘That’s it, Neron! You’re growing so much!’

The young mage seemed to grow stronger with each moment, adapting to the ever-changing battle. Mordred realized he needed to use his experience and knowledge to outmaneuver his son.

“Intermediate Magic: Nature Emergence”

Sprouts of trees burst forth from the ground, almost encapsulating the bare field with multiple tall constructs brought forth by Magic.

“H-hold on! Isn’t this an Advanced Spell? That’s cheating!” Neron yelled, his eyes widening at the scale of the Magic.

There was no way this was an Intermediate Spell.

“But it is Intermediate.”

“Lies!”

“For real! For one, there are were already seedlings in the earth, so it’s not like I’m bringing the trees from nothing. Also, Nature Emergence is an Intermediate that focuses on causing a seedling to sprout very rapidly. I simply used this individual spell multiple times—instead of a Mass Spell that would be classified as Advanced.”

“Y-you… how?!”

“It’s Magic, kid. Deal with it.”

While Neron was worried about his father pushing himself to the limits that his health would allow, the boy wanted more than anything to win.

“W-whatever!” He charged ahead.

Mordred easily evaded the Spell that his son sent, darting backwards into a particular cluster of trees

Neron followed, his mind focused on the fight, but he didn’t notice his father subtly guiding him toward a specific area of the forest.

He wouldn’t notice this until it was too late.

Updated from 𝑖𝘦.𝒸𝘰𝘮