To earn the respect, the best way to do it was to show your own strength. In front of powerful magic, everything was meaningless. Of course, Baston hadn't reached his strongest level yet, but he believed he could deal his opponent easily. He also wanted to experience what it was like when battling with other wizards. All this time, he only made a fake performance so this sparring now would be a precious lesson for him.
The fat boy was taking a rest while waiting the arena for being prepared by the butler. Since this was the only comprehensible way to finish the quest, he didn't defend himself too much. It was because there was nothing
else that he could do right now. He was inside Alicia's house and the boys came
from the same family. This thing already locked his fate to be always on lose side because anything he talked about the injustice here would be drained and never mentioned anymore. If he said the boys bullied or disturbed him, the butler and any other else would assume it was just a joke between kids. The next thing that would happen the best was they would apologize, but inside their hearts, Baston could guess they didn't take it seriously.
For the fat boy, everyone would think it was very disadvantageous for holding the sparring in this big mansion. But still, they
didn't know what was Baston's purpose for agreeing in this duel. The head of family indeed wanted to find out Baston's strength and Baston himself would gladly display it to everyone. It didn't take too long for the arena to be ready when the contestants needed to attend as soon as possible. When Baston
got in there, he looked around to find everything was already prepared perfectly.
He wondered if they already knew he couldn't avoid this scheme and that was why
the place was already reserved.
"Alright, everyone! This is only a sparring. There's no need to take seriously. You can do whatever you want with your magic, but if
somehow, you unleash deadly or big one, I will quickly negate the magic attack. Of course, I will also interrupt if I found out that one of you were unable to fight anymore. Without further ado, let's begin this sparring now!" the butler quickly made a statement by being a temporary referee.
"They are really prepared to this extent…" Baston thought, looking at the butler then to Theodore as his opponent.
Theodore held his hands arrogantly, "You can attack first. I'm afraid if I attack first, you will quickly lose. In the end, it will be too
easy and I won't be satisfied with that."
Baston didn't answer, but he was glad his opponent let him attack first. He wanted to know how Theodore handled his magic against him. The fat boy then quickly manifested a sharp ice glacier and threw it to Theodore. The boy was flabbergasted, but thankfully, he also woke up quickly and held one hand to the front while reciting his spell name.
"WIND SHIELD!!!"
The ice magic then immediately was blocked by the wind magic. It wasn't too awesome because both of them unleashed elementary spell. However, what made everyone surprise was Baston didn't need to recite the
spell. Normally, if someone wasn't too proficient with magic, they needed to recite first before successfully casting the magic. If they were getting better, they only needed to say the name of the spell just like Theodore. The best one didn't need to speak anything because they only needed to unleash the
magic. This what made everyone got dumbfounded about Baston.
Everyone thought he was just a lucky poor fat boy who struck a chance for getting an ice element of magic, yet the proficiency he displayed to all of them was simply amazing. There was no way such a poor person had this kind of ability. Everyone didn't see how he trained, but they were very sure Baston had enormous talent in order to make him an excellent wizard.
"Don't be cocky yet because you have great proficiency of your magic! In magic battle, the winner doesn't depend only on it, but also on raw power!" Theodore gritted his teeth, "Take this, WIND SLASH!!!"
The wind suddenly formed itself into a sickle and headed directly to Baston. The fat boy didn't show any expression before an ice rock came from the ground and shielded him from the wind slash. It blocked perfectly, but Theodore didn't give his opponent a time to rest before he launched a barrage of his wind slashes from many directions. One advantage of being a wind magic user was their fast movement and casting, unlike any other elemental. Theodore moved quickly with the help of his magic, so Baston would have a difficult time to lock him.
Despite the barrage of attacks, Baston didn't get flustered. He easily blocked the wind slashes by summoning ice rocks in his surroundings. Because of lacking the power, the wind could only scrap a little from the solid ice. It made Theodore started desperate since he couldn't find any opening. His opponent was simply stronger with no weakness so he needed to look for some opportunities. He changed his strategy and stay still, reciting a spell before
he unleashed his magic.
"WIND CANNON!!!"
A medium wind cannon then quickly headed to Baston. It was different from the wind slash before since the speed of this magic was faster. Baston quickly made a double ice rock to block it before the wind cannon
crashed into impact.
"BAAAMMMM!!!"
The ice rocks as a means of protection were shattered. The damage of wind cannon was bigger than wind slash, making the ice magic broke as soon as it touched the opponent's magic. Fortunately, Baston casted another ice rocks so that his first ice rock was still standing while the newer one took the collision. Theodore grinned since his wind magic was successful. It gave him a new hope to defeat Baston.
"Until when you want to always hide inside your rocks? Are you a coward? Let's fight face to face and we can end this sooner!" Theodore taunted.
Baston didn't follow what his opponent said, but he quickly casted more ice rocks until half of arena was covered by it. Not only it
limited Theodore's movement, it made Baston slowly advanced to his opponent. The wind cannon was indeed strong, but after it blasted one ice rock, the remaining
energy would soon disperse. Either Theodore could cast wind cannon repeatedly or Baston could cast his magic faster, the result could already be predicted.
Meanwhile, the butler nodded thoughtfully after looking the way Baston utilized his magic. He didn't rashly used his magic, but after analyzing his opponent, the fat boy should come to conclusion before he made a good decision about how to defeat Theodore. The butler thought Baston handled the sparring efficiently, but when he casted more ice rocks, the old man frowned. It was far from efficient because it would consume his mana greatly. He thought Baston would be soon losing but at the moment, the fat boy didn't look tired at all. Baston was still the same at his own pace but Theodore didn't look good. After casting wind cannon consecutively, his mana was depleting fast and his breath started to become rougher.
"How could this fat boy last longer than Theodore? Unless he has much larger capacity of mana, no one can stay fine after casting many ice rocks…"
The butler was pondering that way because not only Baston displayed such good strategy of facing Theodore, he also had much mana reservoir inside his body. He wondered how much stronger Baston because only with high level, their mana capacities would also become bigger. Theodore might not realize his impending lose, but as the butler of this family, he certainly could see who would be the winner. It was just a matter of time before everything was clear.
"Damn it, I'm going to lose if I don't do something…"
Theodore became panic in his mind. His wind cannon couldn't catch up with Baston's ice rock. His movement area would be getting limited and, in the end, he would lose terribly. If only he could fly in the air, he might
have a chance to counter the ice magic. The magic wasn't suitable on his level, but he had a preliminary knowledge about it. As soon as he made a decision, he then moved as far from Baston. He recited his spell silently while watching his opponent warily.
It was foolish to wait for the opponent to cast their spell completely, yet Baston wasn't in a hurry. He wanted to see what fascinating
magic that Theodore could cast since he was lacking a battle experience. Since the quest was to get respect from this family, it would be boring if it ended quickly before both of them could use their ultimate magic. It wasn't long before Theodore finished reciting the magic and stared at Baston seriously.
"Don't be happy yet! With this magic, I will be sure to defeat you!" Theodore stretched his hands, "FLY!!!"
Slowly, Theodore's body started floating until his legs were lifted from the ground. Right at the moment, the ice rocks at the arena
couldn't block his sight again since he ruled from the high air. Baston didn't get surprise too much since he already saw the better version of this flying magic from Angus. It was different from many spectators around, including the boys.
"Look! Theodore can fly now!"
"It's amazing! No wonder he has an excellent score in the academy! I believe he will be the leader of youngster in the family!"
"Just you wait. He will defeat that fat boy in no time!"
The supporters clamored Theodore's winning chance, but Baston and a few people who saw the boy knew it was unlikely he could resist to the end. It was because the mana expenditure of this type of spell was greater than the usual one. Someone like Theodore shouldn't be able to use this magic
because it needed high mana maintenance to support the surrounding wind magic. Not only he had already used wind cannon, he forced himself to use fly. The butler knew if he let him be, Theodore would quickly fall to the ground.
"The match is over! I announce Baston is the winner!" the butler quickly declared.
"What?"
"How could it be? They are still fighting!"
"It's not fair! Why you side with outsider in this battle? Are you a spy?"
Despite the complains from younger members of the family, the butler still insisted on his decision. The young boys were daring and hot-headed, so they didn't have a wisdom of adults. Only some people who watching the battle could judge that Theodore was bounded to lose. His mana was already depleted while his opponent still looked fine. Theodore quickly lost his
consciousness before the butler quickly caught up and carried him away. Even though Baston didn't show his true strength, everyone could guess he had amazing skill when performing magic duel.
It was such an anti-climatic sparring, yet Alicia's father who watched it from his resident with the help of magic only smiled. The fat boy was indeed very different among kids on his age. He never showed any rash
decision and treaded carefully before the opponent surrendered automatically. This type of person was really rare and if he could be cultivated early, he would become a good helper for the family. In his misunderstanding, he even wondered the reason why Alicia invited Baston here was to make him join his big family. It didn't mean he could marry his daughter, but he could side with this family when time permitted.
As long Baston could grow up and became mature, the family would have a good helper. Who knew if he could become a great wizard by then. Just imagining he could deploy more great wizards made him terrific. At least, he wanted to make sure Baston could join his side before he might invest on the
fat boy. With that, he turned off the monitoring magic and looked at the window. He sighed while commenting on Baston's performance.
"Not bad…"