The mana shield itself seemed to be going into shock. It was constantly moving and constantly freezing and burning. It was like the effect of a hand held to a heater after playing with snow for a long time, but this effect could be seen with the naked eye.
Still, Atlas hadn’t won yet, Amber had finally finished preparing her spell, and the encounter that would decide the outcome of the duel was just beginning to unfold.
Suddenly, Atlas’s body trembled. With a sudden movement, his eyes turned towards the sky and he saw that the thunderclouds had gathered.
Atlas’s plan had succeeded. The plan was completed with considerable success. Now he could try to bait her out fully.
The spell Amber had cast could be cast by a mage with at least seven magic rings. This was enough to prove that Atlas was indeed right in his thoughts.
He had thought that the woman in front of him was either skilful and clever enough to hide her own power, or that she was really weak. He had tried to pace his plan accordingly.
Still, Amber was a low-level demon worshipper, there was no doubt about that. The others were certainly not as stupid as this woman.
When Professor Percy saw what was happening, he rushed forward to take action, but suddenly Cordelia’s voice echoed in his head and he stopped dead in his tracks:
"Don’t bother, he’s strong enough to defend himself, move once the attack is over, let’s see what else the young man can do."
Cordelia and the other professors, including Percy, had all realised that Amber was a devil worshipper. There could be no other explanation. In such a prestigious academy, no maniac would actually go and try to hide his power.
This academy was a place where the strong were surrounded by the powerful and kept moving forward.
As Atlas looked out of the arena, he noticed that Percy wasn’t moving, and his smile grew even wider. He immediately realised what that meant.
That’s why he started to hold the holy sword in his right hand even tighter and then calmly said "Starry Night".
With that, Atlas’s body began to glow. The aura that suddenly flowed into the holy sword managed to take form, and a portrait of the night was formed behind the lightning clouds in the sky.
Atlas was now like a level two aura user.
This made him capable of a decisive victory against a maximum of four-ring mages, but this was not the case. Atlas had used this ability, but the aura was not what he wanted from it.
Each time he used an ability, he would receive 50 points to all stats until the ability ended. This meant that his stamina, speed, strength, and even intelligence would increase by an enormous amount.
With that, Atlas calmly took a deep breath, and at that moment, thunder was heard by everyone:
After these two gigantic sounds, Atlas’s smile grew even bigger, and he saw all the lightning flashes outside the arena approaching him.
He created the last thing he needed to do at that moment, the strongest mana shield he could create, then he created the strongest thing he could create that could become physical, a massive shield of black ice, and then he waited.
After only three seconds, what he expected happened:
A huge bolt of lightning, incredibly heavy and echoing throughout the arena, struck Atlas. The expansion spell created by Percy had been blown to dust, and the arena was blinded.
No one knew what the result of this attack was. However, Percy really thought that Atlas was in great danger.
As the cloud of smoke began to dissipate, the figures of two people appeared.
Atlas and Amber were standing on their feet and looking at each other.
Amber’s eyes were so red that they didn’t even show her pupils, and the veins in her neck were visible from nerves. Atlas, on the other hand, was covered in blood. Of course, as a mage with only three rings and a level two aura wielder who was only enhanced by his ability, he couldn’t just get out from under such a spell.
There was literally no way that was possible.
Still, he wasn’t dead. That was good news, very good news indeed.
"It’s all your fault!" Amber suddenly shouted, a very stupid reaction.
"I mean, you’re the one who jumped at my provocation, you devil worshipper," Atlas said with a shrug.
As soon as Amber heard those words, she reached into her robes and pulled out a knife and lunged at Atlas. However, Atlas refused to take even one step. At that moment, Percy appeared at Amber’s side in just a few seconds and grabbed the young woman by the throat.
Amber’s coughs echoed throughout the arena.
"You’re one of the devil worshippers, huh? Didn’t I just tell you ten minutes ago? Every single one of the students is under my protection until they graduate from this academy. What part of that don’t you devil worshippers understand?" Percy suddenly complained.
With these words, Percy turned to Atlas standing right next to him and then said, "Good job kid, you are way better than I expected," and started dragging Amber by the throat.
"Class dismissed," Percy said suddenly and disappeared after a very short time.
Atlas stretched his body at that moment and realised that all the aura in his body had disappeared. He knew that this energy would regenerate again, but he didn’t think it would be good to refrain from using aura for a while.
Nevertheless, even as he said this, he was aware of the energy that was constantly increasing in his body. His aura was regenerating faster than necessary.
Of course, this did not change the fact that his whole body ached. He hadn’t consumed this much energy in his body for a very long time, and on top of that, it was the first time he had completely consumed his aura energy.
This was a new and at the same time a fun experience for him.
He had managed to unleash a devil worshipper who was many times stronger than him and was able to counter an attack from him.
A wonderful feeling coursed through his heart.
"Master Atlas, are you all right?"
Atlas turned towards the sudden voice coming from behind him to find a large group of students standing in front of him. Speaking to him was none other than the elven noble he had rescued in the forest.
"I’m tired and incredibly sore, but at least I got hurt for a worthy cause," Atlas said. He seemed to be trying to act as much as possible.
"Please let us help you, sir," the elven nobleman said, and immediately after that, four men began to carry Atlas.
After the long corridors of the academy and some really long journeys, Atlas was brought to his own room.
After cleaning himself up, he threw himself on his bed and then took deep breaths, thinking about how he could better manage this encounter.
In his mind palace, everything he saw and experienced was recorded. This could cause him to write a scenario in his own mind.
This is what he was doing right now.
He was drawing a mental blueprint of different abilities and elements one after the other, making him question what would and wouldn’t work based on Amber’s attacks.
Amber’s attacks naturally remained constant each time. Atlas always managed to get as far as the lightning bolt, and sometimes even managed to push Amber back before she could use her high-level lightning spell.
This meant that Atlas had a long way to go. Of course, he could realise these things, but the problem was that he hadn’t done so in the heat of battle.
His body was young, not the perfectly trained body of his old life. This seemed to be an excuse for him to exert himself even more.
After a short time, Atlas’s eyes were heavy. It had been a very short day, but at the same time very long day for him. The fact that it was still early in the morning and the normal cafeterias had not yet closed was enough to show how little time the class had asked for him.
Of course, the price for this was that he almost died.
Whatever the outcome, Atlas had won, and he was getting better with each scenario he ran in his mind. It was possible to say that he would be much better in the next battle.
Of course, while he was thinking about these things, the news had already gone to the people it was supposed to go to. It was a strange place, a dark room in the north of the academy.
Still, everything that had been said about Atlas was present here. In a way, it would be more accurate to call it an operations room.
The future held many strange things in store for him.