23 Battle (1/2)

Immediately, the four figures blurred, and in less than 30 seconds, several clanging sounds echoed in the field. At this, Faykes was surprised; he hadn't thought that they were fighting using weapons.

Although as magicians, it wasn't uncommon to use elements to reinforce their physical capabilities, as everyone in the Mundane stage did that. What surprised him is seeing the reinforcements occur in a fight above Mundane class. After all, it is common knowledge for magicians to use magic reinforcement as an auxiliary thing, allowing them to increase their chances of escaping or whatnot.

Faykes began channeling water and air elements, reinforcing his eyesight. Although, if he had the light element, it would be the best reinforcement to increasing the capability of his eyes.

Upon seeing the situation, Faykes was quite shocked, with his mouth wide open for a few seconds, before closing it.

The world is unfair! This was what Faykes wanted to scream out loud.

Of course, this was all because he saw how Xander was fighting the trio that caused him to be a bit jealous, then helpless.

Xander was fighting using a single finger!

Every time a palm appeared to target his head, his chest, and his arms and legs, he deflected the palms with a simple poke.

It was this poke that was creating the clanging sounds!

One of the palms contained a metallic sheen, indicating the metal element that reinforced it, and every movement of the palm caused the winds to howl, indicating the overbearingness and weight of that palm. Xander, however, just continued poking at it with his finger, causing it to be deflected and upon closer inspection, dents were appearing on the surface of the palm!

This was what Xander had been doing in the past 3 days: Real, fatal physical combat!

He had wanted to test his physical and magical limits, and what better sparring partners than his magician bodyguards?

After they had signed the binding contract that he had modified, he had already insured a level of loyalty amongst these subordinates of his.

Joseph, Bryan and Ryan were already feeling helpless. Although two of them, Joseph and Bryan, were dual primary element magicians, Ryan was different, as he had three primary elements. All three of them were at the precipice of reaching Legendary Rank, just half a step more.

For the three of them, it wasn't just a simple sparring session - in fact, they were forced to fight like they were in a life or death battle.

How were they forced? Xander threatened them, of course, with their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Although as soldiers, they had begin regarding their lives as dispensible, they had their loved ones. Joseph was married and had 2 daughters. Bryan had two ailing parents that were undergoing treatment for their disease, which is why he joined the military in the first place. Ryan had no one, except the orphanage that took care and raised him well, headed by a kind female magician, who was around Legendary-6 stage. He had a crush on here ever since he reached 16 years old.

With the stakes at hand, how can the three be careless? Although in the first sparring session, Xander was defeated easily, it became more and more difficult to force Xander to defeat. And it has just been 3 days!

On the 2nd session, it felt like the three were fighting a rampaging magic beast that were at the same stage as they were in. Xander eventually lost, but not without a cost; Bryan and Joseph lost both their eyes, which were restored by Xander easily.

On the 3rd session, they barely won, when the three had to sacrifice one arm each to cast a spell in the Legendary stage, [The Touch of the Wicked], which coincided with the elements they controlled. Although Xander escaped quite easily thanks to his [Absolute Defense] spell, he recognized the strength of the spell and decided to end the sparring at that. He then reversed the time of the trio, forcing the lost life energy to return, with their arms restored. Of course, the trio thought this was Life Magic, and their respect for Xander rose higher.

Today however, was the 4th session. After a few minutes, Xander was already yawning in boredom as he used one finger to deflect their physical attacks, no matter how big or small these were.

Throwing Magic-infused stones towards him? With a boop, these stones shattered.

Using their bodies to physically attack Xander? After a few minutes since starting the fight, their bodies were already filled with small holes, causing blood to flow. they managed to staunch their bleeding with magic, but they could feel their bodies were beginning to weaken.

The trio eyed one another and at that moment came to a conclusion: Delay! Although both Joseph and Bryan were dual primary-element magicians, Ryan was not; he was a three-element magician, making the potency of his spells more diverse. He also had the highest amount of understanding of his primary elements and magic circles as well.

Immediately, Joseph and Bryan began to attack with increased fervor, this time casting spells while physically attacking. Xander saw this and smiled, dodging their attacks, before releasing a barrage of spells in his disposal.

Given that all of them were already at the 81st class magic circles, the strength of the spells were comparable to peak Master class magicians; and that's just because he is limited by his current cultivation level.

If he was in the Master class, the power of his spells would reach the same level as Legendary Spells; if he was a legendary magician, his spells would be as powerful as a mythic class powerhouse, and so on. With this, he could easily dominate those of the same cultivation class as he was, and fight on par with 1 class above him.

Joseph and Bryan now had to bear the burden of evading the spells while casting their own spells and attacking Xander. Meanwhile, Ryan was a few meters away from the three, his fingers moving and creating runic signs in every step he takes.

After a minute, Joseph and Bryan were quite tired already; they could only hold for another minute. The problem was, Ryan had only managed to complete two-thirds of the spell circle, and needed roughly 2 more minutes.

Upon noticing the progress Ryan was undergoing, the duo looked at each, and nodded. They both bit their lips, letting it bleed, and using their thumbs, they marked their forehead, and both their cheeks with their blood. They then performed hand signs that created runic writings in thin air, quickly moving towards their bodies.

Immediately, they began exhibiting a power beyond their level: Legendary Power!

Upon seeing this, Xander couldn't help but be pumped up; this was truly testing the limits of what one can reach! Although he already saw what Ryan was casting, he just smiled inwardly, since he could easily use his spell [Void Rejection] to cancel all spells being cast in the area. This was the weakness of large, forbidden magic spells; as long as you can identify what is being cast, you can plan ahead by removing or disturbing the essential elements of the spell.

Of course, it's a different story when one can cast a forbidden magic spell instantaneously. Forbidden magic spells were also known as legendary magic spells, and at minimum, if one wanted to cast it at a lower class than Legendary, one needs to have a profound understanding of the elements involved in the spell, as well as the magic reservoir for casting the spell. The latter was why forbidden spells were cast by two or more magicians that has a primary element matching the spell.

Given the runic signs he had seen, there were traces of Fire, Decay, and Death elements in the spell; a tri-elemental forbidden spell is quite potent... if there were other casters beside Ryan who was casting the spell, that is.

At most, Ryan would be able to showcase Legendary-1 strength of spell.

Xander took no more notice and began evading the attacks of the two in front of him, while casting spells that targeted weakpoints in their bodies.

During this fight, he realized a big problem: The only attacking spell he had was [5 Elements Foundation], which can only be considered as boosting the affinity of 5 elements in the user, and using this increased affinity, he could manipulate the elements in the configuration of elemental magic spells. Meaning, he really has no attacking pseudo magic circles. However, this was one way for him to evade the limitation of having no 81st class magic circles in the Elite class; since he could make the spells from his control of the 5 elements and its derivatives, the spells he make were of 81st class, since his primary elements of Space and Time ensures perfect understanding of the elements under its control.

He decided to make the last three advanced magic spells he had to be purely offensive spells. Currently, he had 7 advanced spells:

[Instaneous Regeneration (no limit)] falls in the domain of Life-Death, specifically the Life System

[Absolute Time] falls in the domain of time.

[Absolute Defense] falls in the domain of space.

[Elemental Dominance] falls in the domain of the 3 Ordered Elemental pairs.