[ Duel — Tathan vs Ainen. ]

Tathan opened his eyes and looked straight in Ainen's direction despite being four kilometers away.

Ainen could already feel a piercing gaze on him from afar as he was teleported into the barrier upon challenging Tathan.

A sound blast rang before Tathan appeared a hundred meters from Ainen and clapped his hands in a praying gesture.

The shockwave spread all around, and suddenly, the nearby active geysers that had just launched water in the air glimmered.

The steaming hot water became highly potent as they transformed into a long dragon and shot at Ainen with breakneck speed.

Ainen dodged the attacks, but he wasn't the only target for the attacks.

The bows he had been conjuring above him were targeted as they were destroyed and denied the opportunity to fire arrows.

But not all.

Two arrows still shot launched towards Tathan at Mach 15 as Ainen continued to dodge attacks.

A whirling pool appeared before Tathan as a defense.

The arrows struck it and exploded violently, blowing the defense and pushing Tathan a bit, but the injury he got couldn't even be considered minor.

'All of his stats are the same as yours, not coincidentally, of course, and he is using Water this time, which will help him defend against your Fire better,' Lord Black said.

Lord Tathan had the exact same stats as Ainen, but it was the style of this boss. Against every duel, his stats would be the same as his opponents.

But his combat prowess and arsenal of powers were crazy.

Ainen was forced to be on the move more than he could attack, though he had also been taking some attacks to use one of his magic core's effects—Spectrum Ring.

Spectrum Ring: You can store a certain amount of energy from attacks coming at you, reducing their potency. The stored energy is divided into Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Lightning, and Wood, depending on the attributes of the attack. You can use the stored elemental energy to empower your own or other people's skills.

The water dragons were like default attacks. The geysers all over the lake were transforming into lethal steaming hot water dragons and either shooting at Ainen or shooting long-range attacks at Ainen.

'Damn, he is so annoying.'

Ainen's hands flickered as Tyrant Mage's Arms activated. His Strength increased by 30%.

The gauntlets transformed into blades as Ainen's eyes glinted, completely focused as he dodged the attacks while closing in towards Tathan and slashing him, exerting his physical strength to the full.

'Let's see how he defends against these blades.'

Infernal Oscillating Blades. These blades with high frequency vibrations, with razor sharp hot wind circulation on the edges, and a glass foundation had the highest penetrative lethality.

The same barrier that blocked the explosion was cut through this time as Ainen's blade made a gnash on Tathan's chest.

Ainen's speed was also slightly faster than Tathan's.

But a dangerous water fist came straight to his head, forcing Ainen to cancel his second blade swing and dodge away with Jet Blaze Flight.

Ainen crashed into a wall of water that appeared in the direction he dodged as if Tathan predicted it. The wall of water instantly enveloped Ainen the moment he made contact.

Ainen's eyes brightly glimmered before flames burst out, focusing on devouring the water quickly while also going full throttle on Jet Blaze Flight to dodge the water dragons.

BOOM!

Tathan appeared right above Ainen from a water dragon that Ainen just dodged, his fist already transformed into aquatic draconic gauntlets.

Ainen tried to dodge his head, but the fist still struck his shoulder, shattering the skin-tight barrier from his Magic Core's effect as the impact sent him blasting into the giant lake, but he came up as fast as he went down because a powerful geyser shot him upward right into Tathan's second attack that he had already launched after punching Ainen.

A high-concentration water jet beam.

Ainen felt danger to his life, but there was no movement leverage to dodge with how quickly things happened, and his defense wasn't strong enough for this laser. Even if he didn't die, he would be severely injured by that attack, which could put him on death's bed, so the only way was to use the Spectrum Ring effect, reducing the potency of the attack to defend.

Zrrrrom!

The laser struck Ainen's flame barrier while its potency was reducing fast, absorbing its power and turning into Water energy for Ainen.

He also burst with full-powered Jet Blaze Flight, getting away quickly to escape bombardment from Tathan.

The water bubble he burned away with his Palatebloom flame gave some characteristic that Ainen wielded as a stream of Fire that acted like water whirled around Ainen to act as his defence.

He also boosted this strange Firewater he cooked with Palatebloom Fire with the water energy he absorbed using the Spectrum Ring effect.

A water dragon shot at him like a bullet from below, but Ainen was confident this time, kicking it instead of dodging as the Firewater barrier increased his defence against these lethal attacks.

Tathan appeared behind him, his pose like a martial artist about to chop him from the diagonal as a gleaming water jet formed around his fist.

BOOM!

Ainen met the fist head-on with his Tyrant Mage's Blade as the chop and the blade clashed, resulting in an explosion that blasted both Ainen and Tathan away.

Water dragons lunged at Ainen while Ainen rained arrows from two bows he conjured above him towards Tathan, limiting his options to launch an attack and gaining a window to dodge the dragons.

'This is annoying. We are in a deadlock.'

Both of them clashed for a bit more with no sight of victory anytime soon.

And thus, it was over.

[One minute has passed. You have failed to win the duel. You can try again five minutes later. Good luck.]

Tathan shot towards the sky at speed surpassing Ainen's maximum speed and once again opened a crack in the air before vanishing and appearing at a different part, a different biome area of this island.

"He suddenly feels so strong once the duel ends." Ainen blinked as he also failed to inspect Tathan.

'This boss is probably just an avatar of a strong entity or something, which explains why it can change its skill-set, talents, and everything else at each duel.' Lord Black speculated.

"Yeah, that seems to be the case." Ainen wryly smiled. "Although he had the same stats as me, I don't think I can win as I am right now."

'Yes. It's clear you lack in combat sense compared to this boss. You have to start training to execute certain moves faster and read the flow of battle. And make more spells and combat techniques.'

"It looks like you also failed."

Ainen turned around and saw Prisha floating several meters away.

"Well, I expected you would lose."

"What do you want?" Ainen flatly asked.

"Let's spar. We can't hurt each other anyway, so we can spar without worry. Also, you don't have to be wary of my class. I had already tried it, and I can't target people due to protection from the barrier."

"Not a bad idea, but I want to explore this island first. I'll think about sparring later."

"Aren't you worried I'll defeat the boss before you?"

"I am not worried, though I'd feel frustrated if that happens." Ainen cracked his index finger and flew away. "Don't bother me again."

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