Chapter 15: Victory

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Warehouse on Belay Street

Lys swiftly closed in on Dyson, slashing his long knife toward Dyson’s shoulder.

With numerous enhancement spells and combat skills empowering him, even though Lys was not a thief or a similar class and his main attributes hadn’t been adjusted, his speed at this moment was quite impressive.

Clang, clang, clang~

After all, Dyson was a Silver Warrior. Apart from intelligence, all his attributes were overwhelmingly superior, so he easily blocked Lys’s consecutive slashes.

With a flick of his wrist, Dyson deflected the long knife but did not seize the opening to counterattack. Instead, he stepped back two paces, resetting his stance to await Lys’s next move.

Lys flexed his wrist; he had put in too much force earlier, and his technique for dissipating energy was still unrefined, leaving his wrist numb.

Looking at Dyson’s serious face before him, who remained on the defensive without launching an attack, Lys grinned and pointed forward with his index finger.

“Fireball!”

A solid, orange-red fireball the size of a soccer ball formed before Lys and flew toward Dyson.

This was Lys’s favorite skill in his previous life, and he was intimately familiar with its various applications. This fireball’s power was naturally formidable.

Dyson was momentarily unsettled—just moments ago they had been engaged in close combat, and now a spell suddenly flew toward him.

But his well-trained body reacted quickly, dodging swiftly to the right.

Before reaching the Golden rank, a warrior could not cut through spells directly, nor could they withstand magical bombardments like legendary warriors.

Boom!

The fireball struck the spot where Dyson had just stood, blasting a large crater in the packed earth, charring the overturned soil black.

Dyson barely regained his footing when he noticed another projectile—a long, ice-blue arrow—rapidly forming before Lys and speeding toward him.

“Ice Arrow!”

Something was wrong!

Even though Dyson had never faced a mage directly, he knew something was off about Lys’s spells.

Too fast!

He had only just dodged the fireball, but Lys had already cast another spell. Such casting speed was unheard of, especially without a staff.

Dyson had seen other Bronze mages cast spells with incantations and magical channeling—these required time and could easily fail with a single misstep.

What Dyson didn’t know was that Lys had changed his class to Arcanist, greatly enhancing his affinity with the elements and deeply studying various spells, mastering their underlying models.

Moreover, in his past life as a Golden-rank mage, Lys may not have been familiar with martial skills, but he was adept at spellcasting techniques and timing, making him highly proficient.

All these factors combined to give Lys a casting speed far beyond that of mages of his level.

Of course, limited by his strength, Lys could only rapidly cast low-tier spells.

Dyson sighed in frustration and dodged again, but this time he didn’t just evade; after sidestepping the ice arrow, he charged straight at Lys.

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He couldn’t keep dodging endlessly—he couldn’t disappoint Master Lys!

Seeing Dyson attempt close combat, Lys did not flinch but met him head-on.

“Martial Skill: Furious Slash!”

Dyson reached Lys’s side and executed a martial skill move, though holding back some strength. If Lys couldn’t withstand the strike, Dyson was confident he could stop the sword’s momentum.

Lys noticed Dyson wasn’t going all out, which only encouraged him to see if he could endure the Silver Warrior’s attack with all his buffs.

“Martial Skill: Defensive Stance!”

A warrior’s defensive skill that put oneself into a guarded state, granting extra armor and block rate.

Clang~

The heavy sword slammed against the blade in Lys’s hand. Gritting his teeth, Lys leaned back slightly, barely managing to absorb the blow.

Despite multiple enhancement spells and martial skills, and using a defensive stance, Lys nearly lost grip of his weapon under Dyson’s restrained strength.

Lys pushed off to leap backward, evading Dyson’s follow-up attack.

Indeed, the vast difference in attributes and rank suppression made it extremely difficult for a low-rank fighter to challenge a high-rank one.

His recently trained body was already starting to feel sore and fatigued.

His half-baked martial skills were of little use for now.

Head-to-head combat was futile; he had to rely on spells.

Lys forcefully threw his long knife at Dyson, who was caught off guard that Lys would abandon his weapon. Dyson hurriedly swung his sword to knock the blade away.

Taking advantage of Dyson’s parry, Lys’s weapon gleamed as he withdrew a shield he had prepared in advance from his storage ring.

Charging forward fiercely, his fighting spirit flared, and with both hands gripping the shield, he struck hard at Dyson’s face.

“Martial Skill: Shield Bash!”

Dyson barely raised his sword to block.

Bang~

Though a Silver Warrior had some resistance to low-level skills, he was not immune to the stun effect of the shield bash and was briefly dazed.

Exactly the opening Lys sought!

He threw the shield to the ground and withdrew his primary weapon, the Emerald Staff, from his storage ring.

A flash of emerald light—the equipment befitting a Golden rank. Though Lys couldn’t fully maximize the staff’s effect yet, the amplification was still significant.

“Weakness Ray!”

“Stun!”

“Slow!”

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“Grease!”

The emerald gem atop Lys’s staff flickered with spiritual light, channeling stored magic to replenish his mana.

Even so, Lys felt he was nearing exhaustion. In a short battle, he had cast over twenty spells. Despite the mana replenishment from the magical gem, his energy was nearly spent.

But he had already laid the groundwork for his final combination.

Weakness Ray was one of Lys’s favorite early-game spells in his past life, not only reducing enemy attack power but also weakening their resilience and elemental resistances.

Stun, Slow, and Grease were Lys’s preferred trio of control spells.

Especially Grease—if the enemy hadn’t recovered from the first two controls and slipped, Lys would gain precious time.

After all, falling down ignored personal resistance. Especially for a warrior—how could one exert force or use martial skills while on the ground?

This combo didn’t deal direct damage, but once hit, the target couldn’t mount an effective counterattack for a while.

Like a turn-based game: I move, you move, I move, I move, I move...

Dyson had never encountered this style before and fell completely into the controls, unable to counter Lys’s subsequent spells.

When he recovered from the stun, Dyson felt as if his body had rusted, his speed greatly reduced.

Taking a step back to create distance, his footing slipped, and he fell to the ground.

Unable to get up, Dyson scrambled to grab his sword, preparing to face Lys’s next assault.

But when he looked up, all other thoughts vanished.

Lys stood about two meters away, his staff tilted slightly forward, pointing at Dyson. A blue flame orb floated silently in midair.

Unlike a normal fireball filled with burning explosive power, the blue flame flowed like water across the orb’s surface, seemingly harmless.

Yet at a mere glance, every hair on Dyson’s body stood on end.

A warrior’s instinct screamed the terrifying truth of this spell—he could not withstand it.

Looking at Lys quietly waiting nearby, pale but motionless, Dyson knew that if Lys wished, that very moment on the ground could have ended his life many times over.

Tightening his right hand around the sword’s hilt, Dyson then fiercely threw the weapon aside and bowed his head to Lys.

“Master, I admit defeat.”

[Ding~]

[You have overcome the stronger opponent, defeating Silver Warrior Dyson. Limited challenge quest completed.]

[You have earned...]