Chapter 25: I Did Tell You

Dante went back to pick up his greatsword. He turned to Kyran and pointed it at him.

“You asked for it and the Hall Master has given her consent. This time I will use my full strength.”

Kyran on the other hand ignored him and was looking at the whole stadium. Right now, his control over his magic was lacking. If he activated his magic, a repeat of the black hole from when he was surrounded by the army in the forest might happen. Remembering the size of the hole he created, the size of the stadium was smaller. He was not sure where the stadium was located so given the size his magic could create, wouldn’t that mean he would implicate those who were outside the stadium? And these mercenaries were not his enemy, he did not want them to become unnecessary casualties as well.

Should he absorb Dante’s attack just like what he did with the Four-colored Ruin?

‘But will I be able to absorb all of it?’ Kyran thought and looked at Dante.

Although Dante had been bombarding him with magic attacks since the start of their fight, he did not look exhausted. Apart from that, Dante was able to recover immediately, after Kyran punched him. Such recovery speed had only been witnessed by him when he sparred with his instructors at military school.

‘No, it is a little different. This man is a mage, the instructors at military school trained their body for combat, their defense should be different. Dante had a big build, but he does not have the air of a combat fighter, which means apart from the magic barrier he uses, he also had a very good defense against physical attacks,’ Kyran pondered.

Dante was far formidable than the army officers Kyran had encountered. Of course, his aura was still far off from Nolan’s and Celine’s. The fact that he still uses arrays was proof. But Kyran did not want to underestimate Dante. If he could not absorb his full force attack, and his identity was revealed, he would be in deep trouble. Not to mention, all these mercenaries and even Celine, would definitely come after him.

‘I can always escape, but…’ he looked at Celine. ‘Can I really do that with her here? If I did manage to escape, I will not be able to convince her of the threat I pose.’

Taking a deep breath, Kyran looked around the gallery. ‘If only I could lessen the people I’ll end up fighting that would be nice.’

“All of you leave if you don’t want to die,” he told the crowd.

The crowd at first fell silent. Then after a few seconds, they erupted with laughter.

“Leave he said.”

“What’s he talking about dying? Does he think we’ll be affected if their magic attacks collided?”

“I am not sure whether he is strong or just plain stupid.”

“Is he looking down on us? Die he said. How can we die just because they will exchange magic attacks?”

The crowd laughed at him.

Dante also gritted his teeth after hearing Kyran’s words.

To be honest, he only came here because the Hall Master told him to fight. If he had a choice, he would rather start looking for the new target with the high reward. After learning this man was from the Regis, he planned to ask him if he knew anything about the ‘target’ since it happened near the Regis Estate, but he had been ignored countless times, and this man’s arrogance was very vexing.

He angrily shouted, “Arrogant bastard. Will you stop acting pretentious! You’re clearly a defensive type mage, you don’t have the right to spout things about people dying!”

“You know, I really don’t understand why you keep on insisting that non-sense. It’s true that I’ve only focused on using my magic defensively, but I never said that I am a defensive type mage.”

“What?” Dante frowned at him.

Kyran then looked at Celine, “Hall Master. Does this stadium has a barrier that can counter a huge magic attack?”

“Of course. Any magic fluctuation is contained inside the stadium. Of course, the galleries also have a barrier to protect the people in it.”

‘Not to mention the Mercenary Hall’s defensive array. If a magic attack that will really threaten this place appears, it will definitely be eliminated.’ Celine added only to herself.

Unlike Dante, Celine did not believe that Kyran would say something like this because of arrogance. His words earlier ‘I can’t use my magic to attack’, made her think it had a deeper meaning. And the way his ‘barrier’ deflected Dante’s attacks. To say deflect was not the right word, but she still could not find the right word to describe it.

A thought suddenly occurred to her that made her eyes glint in anticipation, ‘Don’t tell me he can manifest more than 1% of dragon magic?’

It was possible with Kyran’s formidable physical defense, his body might really be able to withstand the use of more dragon magic.

If Kyran knew what Celine was thinking, he’d probably flip. What was the deal with him, and dragon magic? The Regis never inherited any draconic magic!

Kyran lifted his left arm and aimed it at Dante.

“I’ll take your word then. But don’t blame me if all these people will die,” Kyran’s words were still directed at Celine. Then he said to Dante, “Come on.”

“Tsk,” Dante was really annoyed at Kyran’s attitude. But he was not a petty man and lose his cool just because of a few words. “I’ll let you taste my full-on magic attack.”

“Remember to retreat after you fired your magic,” Kyran reminded him.

A vein popped at Dante’s forehead. This guy was really getting on his nerves. “I can take care of myself,” he answered through gritted teeth.

Kyran did not reply. He controlled his breathing and started to focus.

Dante raised his greatsword, and a ten-meter wide light-brown magic array appeared on his feet.

Magic fluctuations flowed in the air. Slowly, a light-brown vortex started to form in front of Dante.

Kyran’s eyes narrowed as he felt the sudden rise of magic energy around him.

The outer part of the magic array on Dante’s feet started to sizzle. Every time it touched the floor, a new rune writing will appear, adding at least half a foot to his ten-meter magic array.

Celine smiled. Dante was her favourite ‘examiner’ whenever there was an actual combat examination for new applicants. As a mage, he has a rare ability to multi-cast. He was also fortunate to have found a rare magic item for fast casting. Most of all, he almost reached the Master mage level. Though it would be problematic in terms of being monitored by the Royal Army once he reached that level, having another Master mage was of great help to the Mercenary Hall’s strength.

Turning her attention at Kyran, Celine’s smile turned malicious. This man had really taken her interest. Once he becomes a mercenary, she would definitely make time to ‘play’ with him. While it was true that the Mercenary Hall did business with the Regis Clan. It was mostly the President and the Regis Patriarch who met and deal with it. As for her, she never had a chance to meet with a direct Regis family member. She was very curious about the Regis’ dragon blessing. And she could not wait to find out more about it from Kyran.

‘Now let’s see how he will counter Dante’s magic….’ Celine’s thoughts trailed off as her eyes grew wide.

As the vortex in front of Dante grew bigger, Kyran also made a move. Purple rings started to appear and circle his wrists.

‘What…?’ Celine’s brow creased as she felt the Mercenary Hall’s defensive array stir. From her senses, she also found that the cause of it came from Kyran. But this magic while still having that profound feeling, she also felt fear.

And those purple rings. Were those arrays? Was that how it looked like when using dragon magic?

‘Hm?’ Dante frowned as he felt another magic rising in the air. Because the vortex in front of him had gotten big, he could not see what Kyran was doing. However, he was sure this rising magic came from him. And for some reason, he felt his heart start to palpitate as if telling him of a very bad omen.

The crowd watching from the galleries also felt the rising magic. Unlike Dante, however, they had a full view of the changes around Kyran.

The purple rings circling around Kyran’s wrist started to grow and move in front of his palm that was aimed at Dante. Fissures crackled around him as a small black orb appeared at the center of the rings.

A large yellow magic array suddenly appeared on the floor and the ceiling of the whole stadium. It was the Mercenary Hall’s defensive array that started to activate.

“No!” Celine exclaimed as she stepped closer at the edge of the rail.

White magic arrays also activated one after another in front of the galleries.

“What’s happening?”

“This… all the magic barriers have activated…”

“Is it because of Dante…?”

Even before the other mercenaries heard that person, they knew it was not the case. Their gaze fell on Kyran.

Black purplish lightning crackled on the black orb. The size remained the same but it felt more terrifying than the large vortex Dante created.

Kyran only used his eyes to look at the yellow magic arrays on the floor and at the ceiling. He already felt it trying to suppress him, but similar to the restraining arrays of the army, it did not really affect him much. On the contrary, his magic became excited wanting to break free even from his control.

“Aargh!” Dante’s greatsword started to absorb the magic vortex. It grew in size and magic overflowed from it.

“Rawrgh!” he swung the greatsword in Kyran’s direction.

The floor was immediately destroyed as concentrated magic flew in Kyran’s direction.

Kyran on the other hand just stood watching it drew near. His arm still lifted and the black orb in front of him crackled.

When the concentrated magic was ten meters away, the orb finally reacted. It only took a second to expand and occupy the ten meters distance.

Simultaneously, the yellow magic array fully activated. Thick yellow lightning struck the still growing black orb.

“This magic… Is it dragon magic? No… this… This is not dragon magic!” Celine’s eyes grew dark as she watched the black orb easily engulfed Dante’s concentrated magic and even the defensive array’s attack.

The crowd grew restless as they saw the black orb still grew in size.

Crack!

Gasps filled the air when all arrays in the stadium showed signs of breaking. Even the powerful defensive array of the Mercenary Hall started to crumble.

Dante saw the black hole come at him at an alarming rate. He wanted to jump out of its way, but after looking at the ‘orb’, he was petrified. He felt like he was looking at a very deep abyss.

“I did tell you. You should’ve taken me seriously,” Kyran’s voice resounded.