Free Web NovelChapter 187: Chapter 187 - Winner
The golden light swallowed the arena.
CRACKLE! CRACK! CRACK!
The countless branches of lightning raced through the falling rain, jumping from droplet to droplet faster than the eye could follow.
Lucienne’s pupils constricted.
’Impossible...’
Even the winged creature hesitated for a moment.
Its skull turned from one crackling branch to another, the white flame beneath its hood flickering violently as thousands of new trajectories formed every second.
BOOOOOM!!!
The first lightning beam smashed into the creature, sending it flying back into several more branches.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Lightning strikes smashed into it one after another.
Its robe began tearing, revealing the actual figure below. Even its crown fractured as a lightning strike connected with it.
At the same time, thousands more lightning strands raced towards Lucienne.
ROAR!!!
The creature let out a wild roar, rushing blindly towards her.
Strike after strike hit its body, disintegrating tiny parts of it left and right.
Within a second, it slammed into the ground in front of Lucienne, gray flames immediately appearing around its scythe.
Even as it was struck by lightning blasts, it chose to raise its scythe with all its might.
CRACK!
The ground around Lucienne split open instantly.
Massive gray flames burst out, completely surrounding her in a dome-like shape.
’NO!’ she thought, forcing herself up. ’It’s still outside!’
’There’s no way for me to win if you get destroyed.’
She stumbled forward a few steps, then slowly came to a halt.
’It’s already over, isn’t it?’
At the same time, Theo remained in the distance, breathing heavily as sweat dripped off his forehead.
"It worked," he muttered.
Maintaining both the rain and the storm was draining mana at an absurd rate, but for the first time since the winged creature appeared, it couldn’t simply deflect his attack anymore.
He watched as the creature swung its scythe around, desperately trying to minimize the damage.
"To think it isn’t going inside," he mumbled, raising an eyebrow. "That thing actually has crazy instincts too, huh."
Right now, it was just a battle of attrition, which was fine and even better for him.
They had to protect two people while he could safely stand from a distance.
But had it gone into the dome?
’I’d have manipulated all the lightning there to gather up and finished the entire fight in one go.’
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The explosions echoed out loudly as countless lightning bolts slithered towards the winged creature.
Even so, it did not retreat a single step.
Theo couldn’t help but frown.
’It should run out soon, right?’ he thought. ’I can feel my mana getting pretty low.’
Meanwhile, inside the flaming dome, Lucienne clenched her fists.
She refused to believe what was going on.
’But how?! How is he doing this? He’s beating an Obsidian-level spell that’d been carefully crafted for me!’
That wasn’t the only question racing through her mind, though.
’His mana... how does he have so much of it? Is it because he has three affinities... how does he even have those in the first place?’
’No! Nothing makes sense here! He clearly has insane combat experience combined with all the other stuff. How did he even have time to do all that?’
Lucienne bit her lip.
The more she watched, the more impossible the situation became.
Every moment that passed, another part of the winged creature’s body was blasted away.
Its robe had long disappeared completely, as it simply didn’t have the mana to regenerate it.
After a moment, she glanced up slowly with only one question on her mind.
’Who... is this man?’
Outside, an exhausted but large smile appeared on Theo’s face.
His breathing had become ragged, and his fingers trembled from continuously controlling the massive amount of mana overhead.
"Just a little longer," he muttered, feeling his core’s walls tremble.
The winged creature’s bones had long started to disintegrate.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The creature staggered for the first time.
Its scythe slipped half an inch before it tightened in its grip again.
Yet, the gray flames around Lucienne had wavered in that small moment.
Theo’s eyes lit up.
’There!’
Without hesitation, he focused every bit of lightning to crash through the tiny gap inside the flaming dome.
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The golden lights intensified once more.
Then, under everyone’s eyes, a large lightning bolt shot straight through the gap.
BOOOOM!!!
Clouds of dust rose into the air.
The dark storm clouds slowly vanished above as Theo’s knees buckled.
"Ugh," he let out, barely catching himself.
His eyes remained locked on the area in front of him.
As the dust rose, the skeletal creature and the flaming dome were nowhere to be seen.
Instead, a single flicker of blue light shone brightly inside a large crater.
’It’s done,’ he thought, letting out a relieved sigh.
Lucienne lay completely still inside with her head low.
The bubble had protected her from the lightning blast, yet her body and robe were covered in cuts, bruises, and dust.
That clearly wasn’t the worst of it, though.
From what Theo could see, her face seemed almost beyond pale.
’That spell,’ he thought. ’For her to be that exhausted... I wonder what it was.’
He shook his head lightly.
"Screw all that," he muttered, lying down on the arena grounds. "I really need some rest now."
Only as he lay there did he get a good look around the stands.
Countless people had stood up from their seats, their eyes filled with disbelief.
A faint smile appeared on his face as he closed his eyes.
’Can’t wait to hear what rumors they come up with this time,’ he thought, almost chuckling to himself.
The noise all around him slowly faded away.
The warm sunlight shone down on his face, washing away some of the exhaustion in his muscles.
Even the immense ache around his core started to feel like an afterthought.
But only a moment later, a shadow covered the sunlight.
"How are you feeling?" a familiar voice rang out.
Theo’s eyes fluttered open, finding Elise standing over him.
Her expression surprised him for a moment, showing pride, happiness, and even a hint of smugness.
"I’m remembering that face," he said, smiling.
Elise let out a very faint chuckle and shook her head.
Then she extended her hand towards him.
Theo’s smile widened.
He accepted the hand and, with a soft groan, rose back to his feet.
"You performed beyond my expectations," Elise said, nodding once. "Well done."
Theo scratched the back of his head.
"Thanks," he replied. "Though I’m pretty sure I’ll have fun moving around tomorrow."
Elise’s smile widened only for a moment.
Then her expression turned cold as her eyes moved away from him.
Following her gaze, Theo spotted a blond woman in the distance who was now assisting the over-exhausted Lucienne together with several healers.
Theo narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Is that her instructor?"
Elise gave a single nod.
"One of them, yes." freёwebnovel.com
Theo raised an eyebrow.
’’One of them? She has multip—’’
He paused for a moment.
’’Never mind, of course she would.’’
Just then, the blond woman glanced back at them, clearly having sensed their gazes.
Despite holding a neutral expression on her face, Theo could feel her murderous intent very clearly.
Had there not been thousands of spectators around, he had a feeling the day would’ve ended with a blade in his chest.
’Way to go,’ he thought, smiling. ’Seems like I made another enemy because of a duel.’
Theo didn’t even know what to say or think about it.
Whether it was because of pride or some other reason, he just couldn’t understand why people had to get like this after a duel.
The woman’s gaze finally shifted away from him as she leaned down to Lucienne’s ear.
After whispering something in her ear, Lucienne’s head snapped up, anger clearly visible on her face.
SLAP!
Before anyone could react, Lucienne slapped the woman across her face.
"Huh?" Elise let out beside him, clearly caught off guard.
Theo’s eyes widened slowly too.
"What is this now?" he muttered.
The blond woman took a step back, her eyes wide.
Before anyone could react, an elderly woman wearing church robes and two other people wearing Westridge clothes appeared between them.
For a brief moment, complete silence fell over the arena.
Even the spectators who had barely recovered from their shock had no choice but to open their mouths wide again.
Lucienne slowly lowered her hand, breathing heavily as anger clouded her face.
Though exhausted, there didn’t seem to be a single hint of regret in her eyes.
The blond woman, on the other hand, stood frozen with one hand against her cheek, disbelief written all over her face.
The elderly woman had placed herself directly in front of Lucienne and spoke in a low voice that Theo couldn’t make out from this distance.
Lucienne nodded a few times, then muttered a few sentences.
The expressions of the elderly woman and the two Westridge instructors shifted immediately.
A moment later, one of the Westridge staff members gently guided the blond instructor backward while another remained beside Lucienne.
Theo blinked twice.
"What was that?" he muttered.
