Chapter 247: Gionis (2)

As Gionis and Lennok accepted the duel, a stage was quickly set.

It was a chance to witness a Level 7 Archmage display his magic firsthand.

Moreover, his opponent was an ice wizard, a practitioner of a completely opposing element.

There wasn’t a single wizard in the tower with free time who wasn’t curious about this match.

The two wizards stepped onto the open ground in the center of the practice area and immediately drew forth their mana.

Woo-woo-woooong!!

Even under the gaze of hundreds of wizards, Gionis calmly conjured flames from his fingertips and smiled faintly.

His voice was low, audible only to Lennok.

“I merely wish to assess the level of ice magic, so don’t be too nervous.”

“……”

“You’re an unfamiliar face, so I assume you’re not affiliated with the Magic Tower… It’s impressive to have reached this level without formal training. Have confidence.”

Lennok chuckled at Gionis’s seemingly sincere murmur.

There was an underlying sense of superiority towards non-Magic Tower wizards. It didn’t anger him; rather, it felt fresh.

Few people had ever shown such disdain towards Lennok before.

“Mages of the Magic Tower certainly have a unique way of giving compliments. Or perhaps they’re just skilled at backhanded ones?”

Unlike the smiling Lennok, Gionis’s expression stiffened slightly.

Observing his face, Lennok conjured pure white crystals from his fingertips and retorted.

Crackle!!

“Feel free to give it your all. It won’t go as you wish, after all.”

For some reason, he seemed to be perceived as an ice wizard among these mages, but there was no reason not to play along.

Moreover, Gionis’s interest in Lennok also seemed to stem from the belief that he was an ice magic practitioner.

Lennok himself felt there was still room to delve deeper into ice magic in practical combat.

The greatest characteristic of unique ice magic is that its results are directly manifested in reality as physical forms.

In other words, depending on the user’s capabilities, one could freely transition between the realms of magic and reality, selectively choosing only the advantages.

With a Level 7 wizard as an opponent, the growth of [Ice Magic for Beginners!] would undoubtedly accelerate.

“……Hm.”

However, Gionis seemed slightly perturbed by Lennok’s words.

He frowned, abruptly brought his fingertips together, and exhaled a long breath.

The breath passing through his fingers embraced the surrounding heat, instantly transforming into a massive fireball that engulfed Lennok.

A considerable display of firepower, enough to make even the watching mages flinch.

Crack!!

But as Lennok slashed his finger downwards, a perpendicular sheet of ice slammed down from the air, deflecting the fireball.

Kwooong!!

The fireball, changing direction, shot straight towards the cavern ceiling, disappearing with a massive roar.

Just one exchange. But the wizards observing the duel perceived its meaning entirely differently.

“To parry Lord Gionis’s opening attack with ice manipulation…”

“And he even twisted the impact to redirect it. Is that even possible?”

The environment was utterly disadvantageous to Lennok in every aspect.

The time and place were optimized for fire magic. The spectators were sympathetic to Gionis.

It should have been a one-sided setup, with a Level 7 Archmage instructing an ice wizard in a didactic manner.

Gionis, his mouth slightly tightened, twisted his hand once more.

In response, heat surged like a whirlwind from his feet, transforming into five streams of flame that shot out.

Whoosh!!

At first glance, it seemed like a perfectly ordinary follow-up attack.

But the moment it reached close proximity to Lennok, Gionis twisted the mana he was manipulating, altering the flames.

Fwaaaah!!

From the tips of the five streams of flame, a colossal flower of fire bloomed instantly.

Its bright red petals spun furiously, encircling Lennok and engulfing him in flames.

Doo-doo-doo-doo!!

Simultaneously, petals detached from the main fiery stalk, scattering in all directions and creating chaotic shockwaves.

Gionis instantly gathered the dispersed waves of flame and spread his right hand wide.

[Flower Butterfly Fan]

Flames flickered from his fingertips, transforming into hundreds of butterflies that instantly covered the cavern, fluttering.

At this beautiful spectacle, the other wizards continuously gasped in admiration.

“The recovery and amplification control of the heat magic is nearly perfect…!!”

“Such precise flame control ability!!”

Listening to the praises echoing around him, Gionis muttered softly.

“Burst.”

Puh-buh-buh-buh-buh-bwang!!!

At that moment, the flame butterflies scattering everywhere exploded, triggering a colossal chain reaction of fiery storms.

From within that fiery spectacle, a massive tiger of flame sprang forth, completely devouring the spot where Lennok stood.

This fire magic of Blaiver Tower didn’t end with a single attack; it continuously expanded, adding mana and increasing its destructive range in conjunction with the gathered heat.

It was a spell specialized in taking the initiative on the battlefield, preserving the small initial spark and relentlessly sweeping over everything like a raging torrent.

While it seemed like magic crafted to shine most brilliantly on the battlefield, precisely because of that, it was prone to collapsing midway if one didn’t thoroughly understand their abilities and meticulously consider the balance of offense and defense.

The fundamental principle Lennok had realized through Byzen in the Autonomous Region was something Gionis also clearly understood.

‘But it’s not without openings.’

He knew this not because he was proficient in ice magic, but because he understood fire magic well.

Outwardly, the tiger’s momentum was undeniably grand. But it was merely part of the process of accumulating power and heat.

In reality, its actual power was no different from the previous flame butterflies, and the focal point shaping its form still had to exist somewhere.

‘I see it.’

Lennok’s left eye spun rapidly, transforming into a Stasis Demonic Eye, visualizing the surging mana flow before him.

He fearlessly extended his hand into the raging inferno that filled his sight.

For a brief moment, the gloves and shield crafted in the blacksmith’s workshop protected his body within the burning flames.

Lennok, seizing the flow of the burning inferno, directly slammed mana into it.

Hwooooong!!

At that moment, a pure white wave erupted from the very center of the explosion where Gionis had unleashed his fierce assault.

As the wave passed, the entire color of the cavern flipped.

The vibrant red-filled vision desaturated, instantly losing its color and suppressing the heat that permeated everywhere.

Crackle!!

A massive tiger of flame, charging towards Lennok, transformed into a colossal ice sculpture in the blink of an eye.

A move that completely overwrote the opponent’s magic with his own color.

It was only natural that everyone witnessing the sight couldn’t maintain their composure.

Lennok, who walked out, pure white frost trailing from his lips, smiled contentedly.

“Shall we continue?”

“……”

Gionis no longer replied.

The faint smile that had graced his lips had also vanished at some point.

Ku-gu-gu-gu…!!

As he took a silent step forward, the immense mana surging behind him instantly transformed into a colossal wave of fire that swept over Lennok.

Simultaneously, Lennok, who created two long pillars of ice from his hands and slammed them down, also began to retaliate.

Fwaaaah!!

Instantly, frost extended from both sides of the ice pillars, engulfing the surroundings and forming a massive gateway.

Immediately after, the wave of fire collided, mixing cold and heat everywhere, and water vaporizing, scattering a thick mist.

The hands of the two wizards, simultaneously grasping the moisture and heat scattering in the air, moved gracefully.

In the blink of an eye, red and white flowers began to bloom and fade dozens of times all around.

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo!!!

If the flames continued to gain strength and swell in size as time passed, then he, too, merely needed to continuously erode the opponent’s heat and sever its flow.

The important thing wasn’t to force a power struggle, but to discern the subtle rhythm in the opponent’s offense and defense and precisely slow its pulse.

A rain of fire pouring from the cavern ceiling and ceaselessly rising pure white pillars of ice from below met and exploded.

Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwang!!!

The other wizards, who had initially watched with mouths agape, gradually began to realize as time went on.

The truth that this incredibly tense balance of offense and defense was by no means the scene intended by the Magic Tower Master’s direct disciple.

That Gionis’s gaze, which had stiffened to the point of becoming chilling, never once left Lennok’s hands.

What did it mean that a wizard who had completed the hierarchy of fire magic was pushed to a point where he couldn’t afford to relax?

The wizards who had accompanied Gionis to assist him coughed awkwardly, their expressions uneasy.

“Ehm…!!”

“For a mere ice wizard, his skill is…”

“They say he’s an Agent from the megacity; perhaps he received special training?”

That under the conditions of a duel, they couldn’t simply overpower that nameless ice wizard with skill.

Wasn’t that simple fact alone enough to tarnish Gionis’s high standing?

But the wizard whom Gionis was facing with all his attention had forgotten all such concerns.

He merely let his gaze wander, as if entranced by the ceaseless flow of mana that constantly bloomed and vanished before his eyes.

Fwaaaaaah!!

Following the beautiful, flickering white and red mana lights, Lennok’s gaze also continuously rotated.

The simulated training with Evelyn. And the ensuing duel with Gionis.

The rare experience of engaging with two superhumans of completely different natures, despite having completed his own hierarchy, was frantically replayed within Lennok, transforming into concrete meaning and bursting forth.

He began to see.

Using Gionis’s flames as red light, and his own moves as blue light, he diagrammed the strategic battle calculating the offense and defense of the battlefield, and captured it directly in his vision.

Lennok’s greatest weapon and strength: an immensely powerful intuition and precise tactical calculation.

Using this as a foothold, Lennok’s mental image, which reviewed countless branching points from a future perspective, twisted once more within him, extending its roots into his most crucial sensory organ.

It spun violently within Lennok’s left eye.

Red zones classified as dangerous factors and blue light judged as safe factors chaotically intertwined around his pupil, twisting Lennok’s vision.

At that moment, Lennok naturally slammed his mana-infused hand into the air and moved forward.

Crackle!!

As if by promise, with that simple gesture, the surging heat rushing towards Lennok split apart like mushrooms after rain, clearing a path.

It was not merely observing branching points from the level of a Domain, but hypothesizing his own choices in a localized battlefield and glimpsing the results beforehand.

In Lennok’s left eye, red and blue lights ceaselessly spun, continuously illuminating the dark path.

He found a branching path that delved into the gaps of the inferno filling the surroundings.

“Hwooooooh…!!”

Kee-gee-gee-geek!!

The dozens of flame spears Gionis unleashed over time resonated from all directions, connecting into massive chains, and burst forth, encircling Lennok.

Just before, a bundle of pure white ice pillars diagonally slammed down, twisting through the inferno and forcibly creating a path.

Beyond the faintly twisted open space between those pillars, Gionis instinctively recoiled a step upon sensing a flash of violet eye-light, but…

Lennok’s hand sprang forth from beyond the pure white mist first.

A chilling flash gleamed between his five fingers, piercing the gap with infinite precision.

The fact that its timing was unpredictable despite its lack of speed was, in itself, proof that Lennok’s senses had reached a new level.

The moment it touched, the duel would be over.

No, if this had been a real fight, Gionis’s life would already have been forfeit.

The very moment Gionis instinctively tried to rotate his mana with full force, having realized this…

Lennok, who had perfectly captured the flow of mana rotating within him, raised both hands.

“I concede.”

A chilling silence fell.

No one present fully understood those words at once.

Even Gionis paused, asking again.

“What… did you say?”

“As expected, the magic of Blaiver Tower truly lives up to its reputation. Even though I knew you were holding back, it was still difficult to get close.”

“……”

“I tried my best, but it seems this is my limit.”

Even if Lennok had achieved his objective, Gionis must also have felt that he was reaching a dangerous point.

The manipulation difficulty of the spells exchanged by the two wizards so far was roughly around Level 5.

They had merely wielded Level 5 spells from the Archmage stage, conducting a duel. Neither could be said to have used their full power.

However, if the atmosphere became overheated beyond this point, it might not remain just a duel.

Though a rough excuse, it was enough justification to stop the duel.

Lennok waited for his reply, but Gionis said nothing.

He merely stared intently into Lennok’s eyes.

“……”

Only then did Lennok perceive his own reflection in Gionis’s monocle.

Lennok’s left eye, which had ceaselessly spun with red and blue light, had at some point transformed into a clear violet.

“Ah…”

Had the Mystic Eye, which had once opened after seeing Eolara’s Mystic Eye, changed again because of this event?

He had been so focused on the fight that he hadn’t even realized his vision had subtly changed.

As Lennok gave a wry smile, covered his left eye, and widened the distance, the wizards, only then realizing the duel had ended, began to applaud.

“Woooooow!!”

“That was an excellent duel.”

“As expected of Lord Gionis, your skill was flawless.”

“The guest wizard is also amazing. To be able to keep pace with Lord Gionis for even a moment…”

“Though he lost rather pointlessly, it must have been a good experience.”

Even if they didn’t fully comprehend the diverse elemental applications and manipulations exchanged by the two wizards, it wasn’t hard to be awestruck by their dazzling complexity and precision.

What was most satisfying, of course, was the outcome: Gionis ultimately won, and the ice wizard lost.

But did the very person who first proposed the duel truly understand the meaning of this exchange?

Lennok calmly gazed at the opponent before him, who had slightly lowered his head.

Gionis said nothing further, merely glared briefly at Lennok, then sharply turned his back.

Even in the face of such fervent cheers and praise, he didn’t hesitate, passing by the other wizards and disappearing.

His fists, visible beneath his robe, were clenched so tightly they appeared white.