65 Chapter 65: Hot and Cold (1/2)

”I see.” Jie Bing nodded, but said nothing more. Since I wished to continue, there was nothing more to say. He would rather return to fighting instead.

Normally he would be somewhat worried about me summoning Vermillion Phoenix, but I had just summoned Serpens, Taurus and used quite a flashy spell. It would delay my summoning spell for Vermillion Phoenix. After all, all of these summoning spells were dependent on a shared pool of magical energy – my reservoir of mana – so if I spent a good amount of energy summoning powerful Constellation spirits, that's a significant chunk of mana not being directed toward casting the spell that would summon my Celestial Guardians.

That was why he could afford a few seconds of polite conversation. Now that I had made my decision, he wasted no time and returned to fighting again.

The spectators watched with bated breath, and I could hear murmurs as they commented on the match, but most of their remarks tended to be extremely irritating so I shut them out and paid no attention. I could guess somewhat the main topic of their discussions. Currently, I was blinded, and for most mages, that would be fatal.

If it had been any other mage, they would have surrendered upon losing their sight. That was how vital the sense of sight was to a combat mage. Without their vision, they couldn't see their opponents, they couldn't track their movements, they couldn't see the attacks coming, and they couldn't react in time or launch an offensive of their own.

…if it had been any other mage.

Seeing my confidence, Jie Bing had ascertained that I had some other means of fighting without my sight. Unlike Hal Gunther, he refused to underestimate me. He knew the dangers of looking down on an opponent and becoming complacent, of taking it for granted that you were guaranteed to win the fight. As long as I remained conscious and still willing to battle, I would remain a sizable threat.

That was why he wasn't holding back.

With a swing of his ice sword, Jie Bing began to condense his soul power. Since I was blinded and had to wait for him to move before I could react, he had ample time to prepare his assault. He waved his sword and launched a volley of icicles at me.

Even though I couldn't see, I could hear the slight wheezing as the frozen projectiles streaked toward me. Instinctively, I conjured Scutum Sobiescianum and the Constellation shield materialized in midair to halt the attacks.

”?!”

Jie Bing narrowed his eyes, and thought to himself that it was only natural that I would have more Constellation spirits or weapons to call upon. After all, he was the one who told me that our magic were very similar. Remarkably he was able to tell that I actually heard his attack coming, and he changed tactics.

Crack!

All round us, ice came to life, freezing the entire arena once more. As pillars of ice rose, Jie Bing fired a volley of icicles at me. At the same time, he dashed toward me, following his bombardment closely to swing his sword down if I blocked them.

Jie Bing's judgement was spot on. I frowned when I could no longer hear the icicles thanks to the thunderous cracking noise that his freezing ice was creating as it froze over the landscape. I gambled on using Scutum Sobiescianum to shield my front, but Jie Bing's sword slashed from my side. Only my instincts saved me when I felt a sudden shift in the air and I stepped backward, but the front of my chest was slashed open.

”Gah!”

Falling backward, with the blood freezing across my wound, I gritted my teeth and fired off a black blast from Castor at my front. To the side that was not covered by Scutum Sobiescianum, I unleashed a white blast from Pollux, just in case Jie Bing had switched directions and was no longer in front of me. Even if I didn't hit him, I could at least delay him to buy time for my next summon.

Then…it was done.

”Crow!”

A flock of Corvus materialized in the skies above, flapping their wings and soaring over the chilly air. Linked telepathically to them, I could use the dozens of pairs of eyes as my own, tracking down Jie Bing's location and responding immediately.

”Tch!”

Jie Bing clicked his tongue when he realized that, staggering backward when my Castor slashed toward his face. He blocked it with his ice sword, but my Pollux came sweeping in from a blind spot that one of my Corvus had spotted for me. He quickly conjured another sword and blocked my white short sword, and then sent a riposte that would have stabbed me in the shoulder had I not ducked. Sweeping under his swords, I then cut into his midriff, only for him to freeze a dense layer of frost armor atop his torso.

Clang!

”!!!”

Wow…this Jie Bing was really too cunning and meticulous. My respect for him went up. Ice magic was really one of the most flexible and adaptable magic. Comprising of materialization techniques and embodying near infinite variations, Jie Bing could freeze into existence any tool, weapon, equipment or armament that suited his current circumstances at any time. Already he had blocked several lethal strikes from me using the adaptability of his ice spells to shield himself from certain defeat.

However…he wasn't the only one!

With a determined yell, I unleashed Castor and Pollux at pointblank range, overwhelming his frost armor with black and white blasts of destructive energy. My twin swords shattered from the exertion of magic, but I succeeded in blowing Jie Bing back. Fortunately for my opponent, his frost armor had absorbed most of the blasts, and while they crumbled into icy fragments that fell from his body, he didn't look very hurt.

Raising his remaining ice sword (with the other one having broken during our earlier exchange when I struck him with energy blasts), Jie Bing cast another Absolute Zero, probably to freeze my flock of Corvus and deny me vision once again.

”Hmph.”

In response, I threw up a hand and gave an order to my slowly freezing flock of black crows.