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“Whew.”

I adjusted my posture after confirming that the magic circle had stopped functioning.

My body felt a bit stiff, but the results weren’t too bad.

More importantly, the cats inside the magic circle appeared to be unharmed. But where was Danya among them? It wasn’t easy to tell, as they were all collapsed.

In the end, Evan’s objective must have been to activate this magic circle. For a sorcerer like him, having his prepared magic circle forcibly nullified likely left him with internal damage as well.

Even if this wasn’t the highest score I could achieve, it was still a solid performance.

The deep scowl on his face proved it.

“You damned brat.”

— Thud!

The red flickering of the magic circle added to the ominous atmosphere.

He raised his hand.

— Boom!

Instinctively, I raised my shield to block it, but before I realized it, I was sent flying backward.

A heavy pressure radiated from my arm.

The shadow of a wolf surged toward me, as if it intended to crush me completely.

I transformed the Lunar into the shape of a spear and thrust it into the shadow.

— Ssshh!

The form scattered like black mist.

“How did you… my shadow…?”

Evan was visibly startled but quickly regained his composure. That calm demeanor came from the experience befitting a high-ranking member of the Bloodstone Cult.

However, I didn’t let that moment slip by.

When facing an opponent of his caliber, every single breath mattered. Even though he had taken damage from the destruction of the magic circle, he was the fifth-ranked member of the Bloodstone Cult.

Compared to him, the likes of Richard, whose core had been shattered, weren’t even a valid comparison.

Every advantage, no matter how slight, had to be exploited to its fullest.

— Whoosh!

I pushed off the ground and leapt toward him.

The space between us seemed to fold, shrinking in an instant.

“…!”

At the halfway mark, just as he adjusted his stance to anticipate a body slam, I reinforced my arm and swung it at him.

Adding a second leap midair, I hurled my spear-like weapon with blinding speed.

— Thwack!

Blood spurted from his shoulder, accompanied by the sound of impact.

“Keep going!”

“Guh!”

Evan dove into a pool of shadows, re-emerging a few steps away.

Exactly within the range I had predicted.

I swung my shield at him, maintaining my trajectory.

— Boom!

This time, the blow struck him directly.

Evan’s body was violently flung backward.

‘This is it.’

Two consecutive hits.

I instinctively knew I wouldn’t get another chance like this. Without hesitation, I charged forward and grabbed Lunar from where it had fallen.

I switched to Lunar’s gauntlet mode, not bothering to sharpen it—he’d just block it with his blood-imbued barriers anyway.

I drove it straight into his face.

— Thud!

The heavy impact reverberated through my fist.

Evan’s head jerked violently to the side.

‘Got him.’

I had rattled his brain hard.

He wouldn’t have the presence of mind to defend himself properly now.

I prepared to transform Lunar into a sharp form again and finish him off.

Just as I launched another strike—

— Clink!

The spear-shaped Lunar stopped cold.

No, it didn’t just stop—it felt as though it was caught on something.

A pitch-black shadow wrapped itself not only around Lunar but also my arm.

“That’s enough.”

The moment Evan spoke, a chill ran down my spine.

I immediately abandoned Lunar and retreated, widening the distance between us.

— Boom!

A massive shadowy maw erupted from where I had been standing, greedily devouring the ground’s debris before disappearing back into the darkness.

“You’ve been quick on your feet from the start.”

“…”

“Do you have some sort of sense for shadows?”

I couldn’t explain it either.

Before every one of Evan’s attacks, an uncanny premonition seemed to envelop me.

‘… Could it be because of the Authority?’

The black energy entangled in those shadows was undoubtedly the opposite of divine power, the hallmark of Authority.

If this was indeed the effect of my Authority, then perhaps I had discovered a hopeful means of countering Evan.

The shattered, uneven ground stretched between us as we locked eyes, maintaining our distance.

Evan spoke again.

“Well, no use expecting an easy answer. From the moment the higher-ups showed interest in you, I knew there was something about you.”

“Higher-ups?”

“That’s not for you to know. You’ll find out soon enough when I capture you and take you to them.”

“And you think I’ll just let you?”

“Hmph, perhaps not.”

He took a single step forward.

“You have quite the variety of attacks for someone calling themselves a mage. Honestly, you seem more like one of us. I think I’m starting to understand why the Blood Witch and the cult leader are so interested in you.”

“Not sure what you’re talking about, but I’d rather not get involved with pests like you.”

“Pests.”

Evan’s face twisted in a scowl at the derogatory term for the Bloodstone Cult.

In the blink of an eye, a massive sense of danger overwhelmed me.

— Boom!

His relentless onslaught began.

Even sensing the attacks didn’t make it any easier to block them. His strikes were fierce and left no openings.

Dozens of shadowy fists rained down like an endless barrage.

I used the Berserker’s Shield to guard against critical areas and relied on Lunar and Ether for the rest.

— Clang! Thud!

The sound of countless impacts filled the air.

In the gaps between his strikes, I cast numerous spells.

When Evan condensed and hurled shadows at me, I deflected them with my shield.

Any fragments that landed wrong tore up the ground, but I used the debris as a springboard, utilizing Leap to counterattack.

Of course, Evan effortlessly manipulated his coat to block my retaliations, but the cumulative effort was weakening his attacks.

I used every brief pause to recover my stance and prepare to withstand his next deadly strike.

Wounds etched themselves all over my body.

The absolute focus required to survive made it abundantly clear—I was standing at the edge of life and death.

He was overwhelmingly strong.

But at the same time, a surge of exhilaration swelled within me.

The fact that I was holding my own, even slightly, against such a powerful opponent filled me with a strange thrill.

Was this the joy of realizing my growth?

Or was it a cynical reaction to a hopeless situation?

I couldn’t suppress the faint smile curling at the edges of my lips.

I was enjoying this.

Analyzing his relentless attacks, calculating my every move to survive—this process was accelerating my growth at an astonishing pace.

The sharp trajectories of his strikes, the occasional graceful arcs—they were mesmerizing in their deadly precision.

The fifth-ranked member of the Bloodstone Cult’s attacks were nothing short of an art form.

— Crack!

A shadow that seemed to retreat suddenly coiled back, reaching to strangle me.

Noticing its sinister intent at the last moment, I twisted my neck just in time to narrowly evade it.

“Kehehe!”

“You crazy b*stard!”

I couldn’t understand why he seemed more irritated than I was.

‘This is sorcery, and therefore magic.’

Each of his attack paths imprinted themselves into my mind, sparking a new understanding deep within me.

This is it.

It feels like I’m uncovering a circuit within magic, much like the paths of my master’s Snowflake Swordsmanship.

My foundation is the earth.

Water, fire, wood…

Unlike other elements, the earth is the one element every human must inevitably stand upon.

Unless you’re falling from the sky, you can’t escape the ground.

— Thud!

Even as the shadow I failed to block slammed my face, violently twisting my head, my focus remained on this realization.

Earth.

What is soil?

Everything begins from the soil and returns to it.

— Boom!

A stream of dirt erupted from the ground, piercing through the shadows.

“…?”

Evan looked at the thin column of dirt, his expression filled with confusion and disbelief.

— Rustle!

The column of dirt drew a semicircle around Evan and landed on the other side, cutting cleanly through the waves of shadows.

As soon as the arc was complete—

— Shhh!

Fine strands of sand wove together, forming a web across the arc like capillaries.

“…!”

Before Evan could react, stems of earth burst forth in a pattern resembling snowflakes, perfectly binding him in place.

All of his sorcery halted instantly.

Evan blinked in bewilderment, seemingly observing his immobilized state.

After a moment, he muttered.

“You brat…”

“…”

“Did you block all the paths of my magic with dirt?”

I couldn’t nod.

The earlier blow to my neck from his shadows had left me unable to move it.

Would I be fine like this?

That idle thought crossed my mind as I transformed Lunar.

No—there was no need to focus on Lunar anymore.

The earth felt closer than ever, its elements vivid in my senses.

It was as if the ground and I had become one. I summoned the elements I needed from it effortlessly.

Of course, what emerged was a gauntlet.

It seems I’m destined to keep fighting with my fists, no matter what.

— Boom!

I drove my fist into him without hesitation.

There was no need to think about what came next.

Even if my fist shattered, I had to seize this chance.

— Crack!

Evan’s neck bent at a perfect right angle.

I raised my fist, intending to deliver a vertical strike to finish him off for good.

But just as I was about to hammer down with both hands—

— Tsss!

A spine-chilling sensation crawled up my back.

I whirled around instinctively, attempting to block whatever was coming at me from behind.

— Crunch!

An ominous, truly dreadful sound filled the air.

It wasn’t until after the sharp pain in my hand registered that my vision caught up to the situation.

My hand was caught in a shadow.

And standing there was another Evan.

“I had a feeling something was off. So I left a little piece of my shadow behind.”

— Shhh!

The body I thought was Evan’s crumbled into black dust and vanished.

The shadow gripping my hand twisted into a sinister smile.

“You really are an entertaining one.”

— Crunch!

Another horrifying sound echoed, this time from my fist.

It was the sound of my hand shattering.