As they all prepared to witness Baron Milk’s defeat, a giant explosion came from the center of the arena which startled everyone. Smoke and dust covered the stage, preventing them from seeing what happened.
Was that a spell?
“What’s the deal? She already caught Baron Milk off guard, so why did she use such a powerful spell?” The fat swordsman near Dupond wondered.
Dupond also looked puzzled. “I don’t know. Selena never knows how to change tactic like that. Besides, she doesn’t know any spells that create so much dust. Don’t tell me—”
Dupond realized something terrible.
The explosion and all that dust was not Selena’s work!
While the audience had their views obstructed, Baroque and Melantha already saw what was going on on the stage.
“Oh ho, you were right, Melantha. The kid really has a secret weapon,” Baroque spoke.
“We thought the bird monster was weak… but it has such amazing burst power!” Melantha exclaimed in shock.
They did not see dust at all when using their sighting spells.
And the dust was not created by spells. It was the bird on Angor’s shoulder who did it.
When Selena reappeared on the stage and tried to stab Angor from Angor’s blind spot, the ordinary-looking bird launched itself at Selena at an impossible speed and kicked her away with a claw.
Dust covered the arena when Selena’s body created a giant pit on the floor.
The floor of the arenas in Sky Tower was made from special materials. Only level-3 apprentices could damage them using their full power.
And since level-3 apprentices usually did not participate in these matches, the arena floors remained in good condition for many years. Until today, when one of the arenas received a human-shaped crater on it.
“Unbelievable… that seabird’s weak magic ripples can hardly make it a monster. But it has so much strength,” Melantha exclaimed. “I can see how it flies so fast because it has curves and body build fit for a speed-type monster. But there’s no way it can release so much power.”
Baroque closed his eyes and sensed the energy ripples coming from the stage. When he re-opened his eyes, he widened them in astonishment.
“I see it now. Melantha, use Remove Delirium and you’ll know why.”
Remove Delirium was a spell only available to formal wizards. The effect was mainly to find hidden truths. The principle behind the spell was using small traces to backtrack truths that appeared in history.
It sounded like reverting time, but the spell had nothing to do with the most mysterious energy called “time”. It only used traces left by energy to deduct what happened earlier. It was similar to how detectives recreated a crime scene by using details left behind by the culprit.
Melantha cast a Remove Delirium and quickly sensed the change of energy in the bird’s body several seconds ago.
“This is… the sequence of gravity!” Melantha yelled out. “But a bird? Did it learn it when Sunders built his Sorcerer’s Garden?”
“Should be,” Baroque replied. “The sequence is still shallow. It can only change its own gravity because it only gained the ability recently. We were near the garden too, and none of us learned the sequence. Neither did everyone else, according to what they said later. However… a beast beat all genius wizards to it? Ha. I never expected to see such a thing in my life.”
Baroque looked back at Angor with a serious expression. “With the avian monster to help him, this kid will reach the top of the tower. There’s no doubt.”
…
As the other audience was still questioning “what happened”, the dust on the arena had slowly settled down.
The scene was now clear to everyone. Their once impatient looks were instantly replaced by great shock when everyone’s pupils shrank.
Baron Milk, who was “going to lose” according to their guesses, was standing in the middle of the arena, untouched. He was pointing his Trigger Crossbow to a pit in the floor — a pit surrounded by more web-shaped cracks that extended outward.
It was a pit that was about one meter deep. Inside the pit, a woman was shifting her body weakly. Her clothes and entire shoulder bone was shattered, and her eyes had rolled up into her head.
“But impossible! Selena was injured like that so fast?”
“Whatever happened just now? Shit! Everything was covered by freaking dust!”
“Any of you saw it? Why is the Level-1 weakling all fine? Selena’s almost a level-3 apprentice!”
The strongest ones among the audience were merely level-2 apprentices, so no one could really figure out the situation.
Apart from Baroque and Melantha, the only other individual on the scene who knew what happened, or who had a possible idea about what happened, was Dave.