Rising Against Fate

Physical weapons capable of causing lethal harm weren't allowed in the tournament, and the weapons that were the exception to this rule were just considered redundant. Or at least that's what the newbies, who lacked experience when it came to real battles, believed.

However, there were ways to get around this rule. The easiest method was to create a weapon during the match using one's magical abilities. Although, instead of thinking of a way to get around this rule, realizing the fact that depending on the use, anything can be lethal was a better idea.

"You almost had me there."

Kat walked towards Kamin. Despite the wounds, there was no change in his expression and tone. It was as if he was in complete control of the situation.

It was the exact opposite in Kamin's case, who was barely maintaining his game face and curiously staring at the marbles in Kat's hand. Of course, the question in his mind was — 'what's he going to do with those?'

Kat lifted the marbles using his telekinetic abilities and started rotating them around himself in a spiral path. With every passing second, their speed was increasing.

It had only been nine minutes, and Kamin was already out of breath. Because of his lack of stamina and inability to follow the initial attack with another series of attacks, his opponent now had the upper hand.

He felt pathetic. It was like he won the battle, but that victory was about to cost him the war. However, he had no time for regrets. He took a long breath and prepared himself for the next clash.

This time, he wasn't planning to be hasty like before. Instead, he was planning to wait for the opponent to give him an opening.

When it looked like Kamin was prepared, Kat changed his hand into the shape of a handgun and pointed his index and middle finger towards him.

Kat made a shooting gesture, and as he did that, one of the eight marbles that were moving in a spiral path around him was shot towards Kamin.

There was still some distance between them, which gave Kamin some time to prepare his defenses. He created a thick wall of ice in front of him to block the attack.

Even though the Ice wall was able to block the attack, the marble was able to go pretty deep inside the ice. And right when Kamin was feeling relieved, Kat fired another marble in the exact spot where the earlier marble was.

Both marbles were able to pass through at a phenomenal speed, but Kamin saw it coming and was narrowly able to dodge it.

Kamin moved further behind and created another Ice wall—an even thicker one this time. But even before he could realize it, two marbles that were able to pass through the ice earlier came from behind and hit him in his back.

"AAAH!"

The hit was painful, but since this was a return attack, the damage wasn't severe. However, the pain would probably last for a few minutes.

After the attack, the marbles floated high in the air and then returned to Kat. As soon as they returned, they started rotating around kat in a spiral motion.

Initially, they were slow, but as they continued spinning, their speed increased.

Because of that attack, Kamin understood how that spell worked. It was his first time seeing the spell, and since he hadn't heard anything about it, this was probably a spell that Kat created himself for his own use.

There were several steps to it. The first was the spiral motion, which was to give those marbles speed. The second step was the movement of his hand, which was to give those marbles a direction. The third was the control. It looked like he was able to control the moment of those marbles, but by what it seemed, their speed decreased with every passing moment if they weren't moving in a spiral motion around him.

However, knowing how something worked and coming up with a counter were two different things entirely.

While he was thinking of a way to counter it, Kat fired another marble towards him. This time, it looked like he was firing two marbles one after another.

It took him a second to realize they were two, so he barely had any time to think. He jumped on the floor towards his right and narrowly escaped the hit.

He knew what happened last time, so instead of getting up, he quickly created two ice walls on both sides to prevent both incoming and return attacks.

It had just been fourteen minutes, but he had already started losing confidence. One hit from those marbles would mean game over, so he could neither go out and attack, nor could he patiently hide and wait for the opening. On top of that, he was running low on mana and had taken some damage from the attack earlier.

He only had a few options left. The first one was to dodge and defend until kat ran out of mana, and the second one was to go all out and finish it in one fell swoop.

Although the problem here was—he had no idea how much mana the spell consumed. He wasn't announcing the spell's name, so it was probably made by combining general class spells. And compared to the advanced class spell, the general class spell consumed very little mana.

"Dammit!"

He was frustrated, and the reason for this frustration was apparent. It looked like Kat was also able to sense that frustration.

"Dude, I can keep this up all day. Are you just planning to hide there?"

The 'all day' part was a bluff, but he could definitely keep that up until the match ended. However, it turned out to be the right amount of encouragement that Kamin needed.

"Dance of the winter blades."

He activated his signature move before charging forward, but much to his surprise, a marble came from behind and hit him. He lost his balance for a second there, and during that time, Kat shot two marbles at him, aiming for his t.h.i.g.h.

The blades that he had just created disappeared as he fell on the ground crying in agony. There were no cuts or wounds in his t.h.i.g.h, but the sheer force of the attack would probably make it hard for him to walk for days.

Kat had already prepared a trap before provoking him, and that one move gave Kat the victory.

"Stop! The winner of this match is Kat Nerdy."

Unlike how it was when he entered, the whole arena was cheering for him. However, like last time, he ignored the crowd and walked out of the stage quietly.