Legacy of the Dark Sage

Kairo continued to spin midair, increasing the range of the fire hurricane. In an instant, the temperature in the surroundings rose to an astonishing level, and the arena floor showed signs of melting.

"Tsk," Styx gritted his teeth and halted the ascent of his summoned boulder. He summoned more bouche shields and surrounded himself, making him appear like a pangolin atop a boulder.

The fire hurricane had now mostly covered the middle of the arena, and Styx was trapped inside.

If Styx had not summoned more shields, he would have been burned alive. It was not an exaggeration. Styx might be wearing the Nemean armor, but its magic defense was not high compared to its physical defense. He summoned it in the first place because Kairo was a Fire combat mage using dual swords, thinking that they would have more melee exchanges.

He did not expect Kairo to use fire elemental swords and create a wide area attack.

"Ngrgh!" Styx summoned more shields after sensing the outer layer of his defense melting.

The audience, watching the match, was shocked at Kairo's attack. It should be noted that he was only using the flames from the two long swords to create such a powerful fire hurricane. He had not used an ounce of his Fire magic yet! If he had, how much power could this hurricane have?

Rake and Tilda watched the match in trepidation. They did not expect Kairo to possess powerful elemental long swords. More importantly, they were positive those swords were not crafted. To be precise, they were not crafted by any Array Specialists of this era. If they guessed correctly, those swords might be ancient magic weapons used during the old era. It would not even be an exaggeration to think they were weapons during the Dark Sage's era.

On the other hand, Kyran remained indifferent. He already sensed something strange when Kairo took out the long swords. If he knew what Rake and Tilda were thinking, he could tell them they were not far off with their guess. After all, those long swords were not crafted by a human.

That was right. Those long swords were products from another plane.

'Ruin and Deception is already supplying the Royal Army's weapons. If this goes on...' Kyran's brow furrowed slightly. Even if he managed to gather more people on his side, if he could not supply them with armor and weapons that could rival the quality of those from other planes, they would only end up as cannon fodders.

Kyran had to meet with Gustaff and see if he had materials from other planes that he could use to craft armor and weapons. For the other materials he could not get, Kyran would have to ask Olivia. But first, he had to meet her. That had been Byron's message to him the other night.

Byron had already made contact with Olivia. However, after showing the token Kyran received from Olivia's essence, she still insisted on meeting his 'master' in person.

Kyran took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He could almost guess how the Field Operation would unfold tomorrow. It was good that he decided to have one human as a team member. He was confident in his puppets' defenses. As for Mitchel, Kyran would have to craft something to ensure he would be protected in case he had to face an attack from those weapons.

"Damn it! When will that guy exhaust his weapon's fire power?"

Rake's voice snapped Kyran out of his reverie and opened his eyes.

"True," Tilda agreed. "No matter how good Styx's could defend against those flames, if this continues..."

Rake looked at the timer above. It had already been more than two minutes since the match started and more than a minute from when Kairo trapped Styx inside the fire hurricane. Suddenly, his eyes widened as a thought crossed his mind.

"D-Don't tell me he's trying to suffocate Styx to death?" He exclaimed in fright.

Tilda also gasped in realization.

That was right. This scenario was pretty much the same as Kyran and Lev's match, was it not? After that match, Kyran ended up in bad shape. Was this Kairo's intention? To ensure that even if Styx survived, he would be in very bad shape for his next matches?

"Just like what happened to Tyr during his match with that Lev!" She exclaimed.

"You guys are overthinking," Kyran told them calmly.

The two looked at him in disbelief.

"How can you stay calm at a time like this?" Tilda asked.

Kyran shrugged while keeping his eyes on the arena. "Those flames are not enough to suffocate Leader Styx to death," he replied. "Besides, I ended up like that during my match with Lev because I used a lot of magic energy. Leader Styx's magic energy reserves are definitely far greater than mine."

Rake touched his chin in contemplation, "You have a point."

"But still," Tilda, however, was not convinced. "That fire has consumed the air around Styx. It will only be a matter of time before he runs out of oxygen--."

BOOM!

Suddenly, a huge explosion erupted, resulting in a mixture of heatwave and shockwave spreading out from the arena in different directions.

Rake immediately summoned his magic and created a wind barrier to protect the three of them.

From the gallery, gasps of surprise filled the air, and three-layered magic barriers appeared around the gallery to protect the audience.

Some mages who did not know about the barriers in front of the gallery also deployed their magic barriers or used different magic items to protect themselves.

In the arena, clouds of smoke filled the center.

Rake and Tilda strained their eyes to see what had caused the explosion.

Kyran remained indifferent. However, a slight smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

As the cloud of smoke cleared, two silhouettes could be seen within. One figure was midair, holding two blazing long swords, while the other was standing below, looking up.

"You f*cking bastard," Styx's foul mouth rang out, and immediately Rake and Tilda's expressions somewhat relaxed. "Come down here and fight!"

Kairo laughed at Styx's provocation. He was not one to be provoked easily, but he did descend, albeit very slowly.

"You managed to withstand that. Impressive," he commented.

"I'm not here to impress!" Styx growled and summoned translucent arm bracers. They hovered half an inch on his arms as he slammed his fists together and jumped.

As Styx jumped, a five-meter radius dark brown magic array appeared on the floor, and a small boulder sprang up. He used this boulder as a foothold and jumped again.

More boulders emerged on the floor, and Styx used them to get closer to Kairo.

Seeing Styx's actions, Kairo simply smiled. He halted his descent and changed course to meet Styx.

He brandished the blazing long swords to his side before swinging inwardly, creating two flaming arcs that intersect in the middle toward Styx.

The flaming arcs were released just when Styx was in the motion of jumping. Instead of evading or summoning a bouche shield to defend, Styx pulled back his right arm, poised to smack the incoming attack. He arched his back and flexed his muscles as a dark brown magic array formed above his right arm bracer.

"Rawrgh!" Styx roared and punched out. As he did, a concentrated earth magic energy shot off his hand, which turned into a translucent huge fist that collided with Kairo's attack.

BOOM!

The explosion once again sent the midair with smoke.

Within the smoke, Kairo and Styx did not stop. They still went after each other, unleashing fire slashes or earth punches.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

With each collision of their attacks, small explosions occurred, making the smoke thicker.

The audience strained their eyes as they tried to see through the smoke. Unfortunately, they could barely see what was happening and could only rely on the silhouettes that seemed to change positions every second.

Styx had no ability to fly. Thus, he continued to summon boulders to use as his foothold while attacking Kairo.

On the other hand, Kairo maintained his distance while sending out flame slashes at Styx. At times, he also aimed at the latter's summoned boulders to lessen his foothold.

"F*ck! Stay still, you coward!"

Styx's foul mouth could be heard within the smoke-filled arena. As for Kairo, he did not seem intent on replying and only focused on attacking Styx at a distance.

"Argh! The time!" Rake suddenly exclaimed as the timer above caught his line of sight.

Hearing his exclamation, Tilda also looked up. She frowned at once, seeing that only a few seconds were left before the match would end. To be precise, there were only 9 seconds left!

"I see," Kyran suddenly said. "Looks like, after their first plan failed, their next is to force the match into a draw."

Rake and Tilda looked at him.

"What?" Tilda asked in confusion.

But Rake somehow understood; after all, his match ended in a draw!

"Time's up!"

The female announcer's voice rang out as soon as the timer turned 0:00.

"Fifth match! Draw!"