A mysterious cold atmosphere spread throughout the room, and a group of black shadows came out of the ice below Arnold’s feet. The height of the creatures kept increasing and by the time they stopped growing, they were already about 8 feet tall. They simply stood there as if waiting for someone to give a command.

Arnold opened his mouth to say something but before he could, his face was pressed against the ground and the golems were already destroyed. It all happened in an instant. Arnold tried to look up and see who it was, but his head was firmly pressed against the floor so he couldn’t see who was holding him down.

​​

“DAD DON’T!” Alice shrieked spiriting towards Arnold.

“Alice, don’t you dare interfere in this matter.” The vice president replied.

Then it hit him. The Vice President was one is the three S+ ranked warrior of Flying Swords. He was also known as John ‘The Lightning Dragon’ Beckett. A 47-year-old, front line warrior. Most of his hobbies included watching theatre and playing chess. His powers were second only to the guild leader. He was strong and intelligent, to say the least, but could also be very standoffish and a bit violent.

“Dad, please let him go!” Alice pleaded once again.

“Fine, Fine. But if he pulls another trick like that I won’t spare a moment to crush him like the insect he is.” John said finally letting Arnold go.

Arnold got up and looked at the vice president. Physically, he was in pretty good shape. He is very tall with olive skin, golden hair and green eyes, the same colour as Alice’s but they didn’t have a bit of warmth that hers had.

“Are you alright?” Alice asked while healing the bruises on his neck.

“I’m fine.” He smacked her hand away. “The only reason I was staying in this guild was for the treatment of my sister and since that’s not the case anymore, I’m leaving the guild.” He said walking towards the exit, he had barely taken a step when the vice president spoke up.

“About that, why don’t the two of you have the duel? The winner would get the slot for the treatment.” He said, before taking out a cigarette. “What do you say?”

Everyone was shocked about it. Why would the vice president even suggest something like that! Even though Miguel was only a D+ ranked warrior, he was still an important member of the team and his family’s well being was more important than that of a mere Porter!

But John wasn’t thinking about it anymore, for him a mage having Ice affinity was very important, as there was not a single mage who excelled in using ice abilities in the guild. It had always been a sore point for the guild’s reputation as Ice abilities were always looked up to and were counted as one of the rarest elemental abilities. Thus even though Arnold’s abilities weren’t really great, he could still be an asset for the guild in the future and letting him leave like that would be a terrible mistake. And that’s why he suggested the duel.

“You want me to have a duel with a pipsqueak like him?” Miguel shouted. Even if he wasn’t the strongest in his team, he was still way better than a Porter! How can the vice president even suggest something like this? It was an attack in his honour!

“If he is a pipsqueak, you shouldn’t have a problem with showing him his place right? Don’t tell me you’re afraid you’ll lose against him?” John mocked him while enjoying the cigarette in his mouth.

“Of course not! Let’s do it then!” Miguel said slamming his fists onto one another.

Seeing that this was his only chance to save his sister, Arnold immediately agreed and everyone headed to the training room.

The training room was especially large and was made of special material do that the room could stand the battle against superhumans. It was purely made up of self-repairing white marbles and ceramic, such that even if the walls got cracked they could immediately repair themselves in an instant. Several platforms were surrounding the room which acted as seats for spectators. Both Arnold and Miguel were standing in them at different corners of the room while the others were watching from the platform.

“Crush the arrogant idiot, Miguel!” EL shouted. Seeing him cheering on Miguel everyone else joined in. On the other hand, Alice could only hope that Arnold would win, although she seriously doubted that he’ll be able to.

“Competitors ready?” The guild manager asked both of them, to which they nodded. “Fight!”

Miguel didn’t waste a second to attack Arnold. Miguel was one of the fastest warriors the guild had, and since Arnold wasn’t wearing any armour everyone thought he was done for, but in reality, Miguel’s actions were extremely slow, it was as if something easy holding him back.

Even Miguel was confused about it until he saw what had happened. The entire room was covered in ice just like it was back in the meeting room and hence his speed was slowed down. The others realised it soon as well, the pipsqueak mage had already activated his spell. They all looked at Arnold who was calm and collected, and the next moment, five lances made of ice appeared behind him out of nowhere.

*****

MOMENTS EARLIER…

___

You’ve entered in combat with a <D+> superhuman.

PROBABILITY OF WINNING: 38.54%

REWARDS FOR WINNING :

• 1000 EXP

• HIDDEN REWARD

___

“I don’t care about the rewards. I’m doing this for my sister.” He murmured and activated [ ELEMENTAL CONTROL: ICE ], summoning a field of ice. With the amount of mana he had now, he could freely use his spells to suppress the enemy.

•CURRENT MANA: 1110/1370•

[ ELEMENTAL CONTROL: ICE ] had a variety of uses, but its primary function was to slow down the enemies. After going into countless dungeons with Miguel and the others, he knew their strengths and weaknesses by heart, that’s why he knew that if he wanted to win, he’ll have to do something about Miguel’s agility.

Once this was accomplished, Arnold used [ FROZEN LANCE ] to summon five frozen lances to finish him off. He started throwing them towards Miguel one after another, but he managed to dodge them all even with his slowed agility. The others started cheering him on once again. Once he was close enough, Miguel leapt in the air, furiously slamming down his on Arnold, who in return once again used [ ELEMENTAL CONTROL: ICE ] and raised a wall of ice to protect him from the blow.

Miguel’s sword managed to shatter the wall upon impact but to his surprise the was a second wall behind the first one, but it wasn’t made of ice… it was made of the earth! Everyone was as surprised as him. It was quite rare for a mage to be able to wield two types of elemental magic.

“This is interesting.” The vice president smiled, stroking his beard.

Arnold predicted that Miguel might break through the wall and hence used [ ELEMENTAL CONTROL: EARTH ] to conjure a second wall of earth behind the first one.

•CURRENT MANA: 920/1370•

But Miguel wasn’t done yet and jumped over the wall of earth and managed to kick Arnold on his chest, who got off-balanced and fell. He tried to get up as fast as he could but Miguel was faster and kept attacking him with his sword and kicks, Arnold’s HP started decreasing. He had wounds and bruises all over his body. He was getting wrecked. EL and the others were happy seeing Arnold’s condition. Little did they know it was all according to Arnold’s plan.

Since Miguel was able to dodge his ranged attacks he decided to lure him in instead and let him think that he was winning so that he would get overconfident and make some kind of mistake, and Miguel feel right in his trap, as soon as his health dropped below 20%, a message appeared in front of him.

___

Your HP has dropped below 20%.

The ability [ WILL OF EARTH ] has been activated, increasing your defences and making you invincible for 5 seconds.

___

This was the thing he was waiting for. As soon as this message appeared, Arnold activated the ability [ ESSENCE OF LIFE ] to gain half of his HP back.

•CURRENT MANA: 860/1370•

Miguel was shocked to see that the wounds he had given to Arnold were slowly healing back as if nothing had happened to him at all!

He frantically started swinging his sword at him but then something grabbed his sword. He looked back and saw four giant-like creatures were standing behind him. He looked down at Arnold who spat some blood out of his mouth.

•CURRENT MANA: 460/1370•

“Looks like its the hunter’s turn to be hunted now.” Arnold nodded and the four golems immediately started plummeting Miguel down like he was a mosquito. Everyone was shocked to see the sheer power displayed by the golems. Miguel was trying his best to defend himself but he was failing miserably at it. The golems only stopped once Arnold ordered them to. Once their job was completed they melted and became one with the ice around them.

After the golems disappeared everyone could see the status Miguel was in. Large chunks of his armour were missing, even his sword was snapped in two parts, numerous wounds were visible on his body. He couldn’t even lift a finger. Everyone was silent.

The silence was broken by the sounds of clapping everyone turned around to see who dared to mock their ‘fallen’ comrade, but they couldn’t do anything because it was the vice president who clapping at Arnold’s performance.

“The kid has some potential after all…” The vice president said. He planned on making Arnold the winner by secretly interfering in the duel so that the other won’t be able to question him and he’ll be able to make Arnold stay, but in the end, he didn’t need to anything.

EL and the others rushed to check on Miguel’s condition. It wasn’t critical but he had two broken ribs, both of his arms were broken as well and his left shoulder was dislocated. Alice didn’t waste any time and started healing him.

Everyone else was shooting dirty looks at Arnold but he didn’t care, he would never compromise when it came to his sister’s well being.

___

You successfully defeated a <D+> ranked warrior.

REWARDS FOR WINNING :

• 1000 EXP

• HIDDEN REWARD

<claim reward>

___