Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

And just like he had predicted, his opponent closed the gap that they themselves have created to bombard him with magic all around.

"Smart move; however, you are still too inexperienced… [Battle Protection]" Ivan used one of his class-specific skills that complemented with the shield he was holding and the area that the black shield covered increased at that instant.

All the magic even the ones targeting his bind spots and tricky angles was easily defended by just a single rotation from Ivan.

"Is that all you have".

Connor's eyes was enraged hearing the taunt from his opponent and in his fury, he cast a spell which could easily be disrupted given the distance between them.

"That idiot" the guild leader of the Crimson demolition guild smacked his fist on his seat.

"What's wrong guild master?" Kenan Lantz hurriedly asked. From his point of view, the situation was still fine as long as Connor could find a way to get past the defence of that shield, he didn't expect the guild master to react otherwise.

"That fool he fell for such an obvious Taunt"

"Eh? That was a skill?"

"Most likely it is a [Derogatory Taunt], a class-specific skills of [tainted Knight] class and such. For Connan to be using a powerful intermediate tier magic that requires a long time to prepare at this moment, there is no other way to see it".

The guild master explained sounding a little serious.

Only after chanting the spell midway, did Connor realise that he had fallen for a taunt skill. This realisation had come a step too late, if he stopped the magic midway he would suffer some dire internal injuries but if he did not stop it, he risked getting attacked by his opponent.

"Tainted Shield Bash" Ivan immediately grabbed this opportunity and smacked his great shield towards Connor's head.

The latter realised that he cannot get hit by this class specific skill of a warrior that immobilised and pushed the enemy back for a second or two. In an actual battle, where even a second can decide the outcome of a fight, it would be fatal to get hit by such an attack.

Steeling his will, Connor made up his mind, before the attack actually hit him, he stopped his chanting and put his staff in front of him.

<strong> BANG…</strong> a powerful force hit his staff and then his body before his entire self was sent airborne a few meters away.

"Hohh, you managed to stop that attack from landing huh. However, I wonder what price you paid for that".

Ivan laughed after seeing the former spit out a mouthful of blood. He kept his shield in his space ring and brought out a crude black sword instead.

The audience was stunned when they saw such a scene, Connor was already having a hard time getting past the defence of that shield but now, he also has to care about his opponent's offence.

A series of black blade shadows came flying at Connor whose energy was currently rampaging inside him. Forcefully gulping down the mouthful of blood, he conjured a novice tier magic just in time.

"[Flash Fire]".

Three to five fireballs that had an intense shine to them flew forward and burst apart. Just like a sun, they brightened the whole stage and forced everyone to cover their eyes as the light was just too much.

A few seconds later when they opened their eyes again, they saw the participant from the kingdom of blackthorn stand in the same place while Connor was a few meters away from him now. However unlike the former, the latter looked clearly tattered and a little tired. Obviously, some of those black blade shadows managed to hit him.

"That was quite the circus trick, I am amazed. You have successfully managed to open up a distance between us so what now?" Ivan asked smiling gleefully, he continued to mount pressure by swinging that sword and sending those black blade shadows at his opponent.

"Haa… haa… don't think that you have won yet. That strength from those weapons of yours is just secondary, it is not yours" Connor retorted dodging left and right.

"Haha, what a poor excuse. The power of the artifacts belongs to the one who wields them" Ivan laughed.

The tournament did not bar the participants from using their own weapons and artifacts. In a way having powerful artifacts displayed one's capability and power. So Ivan was in no way violating the rules.

Connor looked back at the audience stands and coincidentally their eyes met. His brother Tyler who had already moved up to the final day, was looking with a tinge of worry at him.

Connor gave a smile and shifted his gaze back towards his enemy. He was not like Marcus who had a skill that attacked one's mind and couldn't be blocked physically. He had only one path for him to take from the beginning.

"I'll show you that just by having a strong weapon doesn't make you powerful…" right after he declared that, mana like a broken damn poured out of his body and flowed inside the staff inside his hand.

The mana around the surrounding started stirring up indicating that a big magic capable of covering a large amount of area, was invoked.

"Hohh, I didn't expect a participant of his potential to have learned that skill, your kingdom of Ellesmere does indeed have some unpolished gems" Davis Hall, the special guest and the officer of the Headquarters of Adventurer's Association, commented.

As a mage who had climbed his way up on his own, he couldn't help but relate with the young man on the stage.

Henry Alaric Ellesmere seated beside him, smiled and nodded. These young participants were the future of their kingdom, hearing them being praised by a man of Davis Hall's calibre who had been watching the battles in silence all along, made him happy.

Feeling the disturbance in the surrounding mana, Ivan narrowed his eyes. As a warrior, he knew not to give a mage enough time to cast their spell, if he did they could dish out a spell powerful enough to change the tide of the battle and this was one of the instances, a basic rule of thumb.

He brandished the sword in his right hand and sent a few of the black bale shadows towards Connor in an attempt to disturb him only to receive another surprise.

SHH.. SHH.. SHH.. all of the blade shadows crashed onto the ground with none being able to hit their target. It wasn't like Ivan's precision had gone down, his attacks simply missed because his opponent had dodged.

Yes, Connor was dodging his attacks even while being in the midst of conjuring a powerful spell. Immediately, the audience was sent into a frenzy as they couldn't believe what they just saw with their own eyes.

The same went for Simon and the guild leaders of the top five guilds. Karina Lowell, the guild leader of the Magician's guild even got up from her seat.

"[Concurrent Chant]" her cherry red lips silently uttered.

"To think that there would be one other person other than you and that lass from the Magician's guild, it seems that this old one had underestimated this kingdom too much" Vouves said with a smile.

The pretty lady seated to his right, gazed at the battle occurring on the stage with interest.

"Eh?! Gramps, are you trying to say that this guy is as powerful as Alice?" Denzel asked in doubt.

"What do you think? That young man right there has mastered one of the Rare Superior Skill just like your sister.  Although from his crude way of using it, it could be seen that it hasn't been long since he learned it and is putting it to work somehow" Vouves answered it for him.

On another corner of the audience stands, Simon stood rooted in his seat, his eyes widened with surprise. [Concurrent Chant] a rare Superior skill that had the potential to reach the legendary tier was one of the skills that Irene had told him to master before he reached level 500 and went through a rank up.

The skill allows a person to do multiple things at once just like the parallel thought processing skill which allowed a person to process multiple though at once. Well, the concept was similar, just in this case, one can do something else physically even while they were already busy with a task at hand.

If one acquired the [Concurrent Chant] skill, they would be able to conjure a powerful magic and would still be able to move or do something else in the meantime. Something that normally would not be possible without the skill.

Irene's Advanced tier Permafrost magic was the prime example. Even while conjuring an advance magic, she was capable of moving and performing other tasks all at the same time leading her enemies by the nose.

Though the skill she had was much more evolved and cannot be compared with the one shown by that participant from the Crimson demolition guild, it was still something that was derived from it.

"[Concurrent Chant] huh" Simon iterated, his gaze plastered on the battle that was currently occurring.

Storms of blade shadows flew towards Connor and targeted him from every direction, some missed, while some barely managed to scratch him. Even though suffering a minor scratch from these blade shadows which contained a powerful corrosive energy similar to the dark attribute of mana would be extremely painful, Connor held onto it by gritting his teeth.

With every passing time, the mana around the surrounding raged even more. By now, even the most stupid of the audience could tell that Connor was upto to something.

Alarm bell started ringing in their heads and if not for the fact that Cyrus had told them that the barrier erected around the stage to protect them is even capable of withstanding an attack from a person above level 500, they would have already started panicking and running for their lives.