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Arvell watched James with a scrutinizing look.

\'While there\'s no way he can maintain that forever, I\'ll probably run out of energy before I can break through his armour. Moreover…\'

Turning his attention to James\'s feet, Arvell knitted his eyebrows.

\'He still hasn\'t taken a single step yet.\'

James\'s feet were firmly planted, showing that even with Arvell using all his physical strength, he had yet to make James move a single step.

\'So much for testing the ability of my newly refined Nether Body.\'

Arvell had wanted to fight James mainly because he wanted to test the capabilities of his new physique.

Before, he felt highly confident in holding his own against James, even with the age and experience gap between them.

It was a humbling experience for him, to say the least.

Never underestimate your opponents no matter what.

That was a teaching Arvell lived by while surviving alone in the wilderness.

However, living with the Silvercolts in a sheltered home with 3 square meals a day and several other luxuries that most normal people don\'t have access to.

They had mellowed out his mentality too much, dulling his sharp edge.

Even during the examination, Arvell knew he shouldn\'t try to kill the treant but conserve his energy instead.

However, seeking the thrill of the fight, he ran in guns blazing and wasted all of his precious Aether.

A situation that left him almost on the brink of death.

\'I lost my edge.\'

Arvell would instead scout out his enemies before trying to fight them, utilizing their weak points to his advantage, not someone who wanted to fight blindly.

Even against James, Arvell was too eager to go and fight him that he didn\'t take into account baiting James\'s trump cards.

Arvell\'s best course of action now was to simply wait and figure out how James\'s ability worked.

After all, it wasn\'t like they were in a cartoon where each person would list the details of their skill to their enemy.

In a real battle, knowledge was everything.

Arvell began to slowly circle James in an attempt to probe him.

James silently stayed still, not even caring as Arvell approached behind him.

\'Does he not consider me a threat?\'

Arvell had no way of attacking James with any ranged projectiles, so there was literally nothing he could do at his range.

Other than throwing his sword, that is.

If not utilized correctly, an action that would only let James end the duel far faster.

However, it didn\'t change the fact that his back was revealed.

Arvell dashed as fast as he could, ending up behind James instantly.

He stabbed his sword forward as fast as possible, intending to use his sword\'s momentum to pierce through James\'s armour.

If he could break his armour fast enough, he could theoretically damage his real body before the armour had enough time to reform.

Thrusting attacks aimed at penetrating James\'s defence were crucial in this fight.

Just as Arvell\'s sword neared James\'s body, James\'s body spun 180 degrees, allowing him to parry Arvell\'s thrust.

\'What was that?\'

Arvell has expected James to have some way to counter him because James had let Arvell get behind him without stopping him.

Never did Arvell expect James to turn around so fast.

Also…

James didn\'t move a muscle throughout the whole process.

It was as if the ground itself had turned James around with speed fast enough to parry Arvell\'s thrust.

Zen watched the fight from the bleachers.

"Sis, how did James do that? It looked like the ground turned or something!"

Angela beamed with pride when she saw her little brother admire her fiance\'s technique.

A technique that she had helped James perfect over the countless hours they trained together.

Zen hadn\'t ever seen James fight before, so he was both surprised and amazed by what he saw.

"That was exactly what happened. Remember, James\'s magic is earth magic, letting him manipulate the earth to his will."

"So he can turn and move even when his feet don\'t move?"

"Precisely, his attacks would be sporadic and random. Usually, a person\'s body language is a tell-tale sign of their subsequent actions, but this isn\'t as effective on James.

While Arvell can still watch James\'s arms and anticipate when he might attack him, Arvell has no way of knowing when and how James will manoeuver around Arvell\'s attacks."

"Arvell is in trouble here. But… I know he has something up his sleeve."

Angela\'s mouth curved up slightly.

"That he surely does."

Arvell jumped backwards, dodging James\'s counterattack.

\'The earth… He\'s moving the earth! That\'s probably how he\'s healing up too! No wonder James never moved his feet. He needs to keep his connection to the earth to keep that spell!\'

Arvell knew that to have a chance of beating James, he needed to get James off the ground.

Basically making James go airborne.

Arvell was sure that whatever he planned on doing was going to be a risky thing to do.

Sending someone quite literally tethered to the ground into the air was a herculean task, to say the least.

After all, he not only needed to sever James\'s connection with the earth, but he had to make his body go airborne.

All while James did his best to resist him every step of the way.

If Arvell had access to his other abilities, he could do anything from slowly whittling James down using Nether to simply create small pitfalls using his warp ability.

Either option would have worked as Arvell could have 1: outlasted James, or 2. Separated James from the ground.

Both of which were options that Arvell simply didn\'t have.

He needed to be able to defeat James without revealing any of his powers.

An incredibly arduous task with two dukes watching his every move.

But…

It wasn\'t impossible.

Arvell\'s brain began to work at hyper speed as he tried to figure out a way to beat James.

Suddenly Arvell\'s eyes widened in enlightenment as his lips curved into a slight smile.

\'That\'s it!\'

Arvell felt his plan was a little ballsy but something he could still pull off if he could play his cards right.

While Arvell would technically lose nothing by losing here, he still wanted to try to take James down.

He didn\'t want to lose!

Moreover, with the recent event with the 2nd rank beast, hiding his powers seemed even more redundant.

Since the Silvercolts already knew that Arvell could take down beasts as strong as that, Arvell saw no use in limiting himself beyond hiding his more unorthodox abilities.

While he couldn\'t use Sepis and Nord, nor use his spacial abilities, he could still pull out quite a lot of strength using just his time-based Aether abilities.

Arvell\'s heart rate increased in excitement as he tried to regulate his breathing to calm himself back down.

\'This is going to be fun!\'

Arvell dashed towards James as fast as he could, using every ounce of Aether to speed himself up.

Appearing before James, he stabbed his sword as fast as he could.

"Trying that again? Didn\'t you see that it was futile to try that?" James questioned.

He was blown away by the fight Arvell had shown him so far.

While he was holding back considerably, limiting himself to melee-only attacks, Arvell\'s ability was nothing to scoff at.

That\'s why he knew that Arvell was planning something.

There\'s no way someone with a fighting sense as good as Arvell\'s would run haphazardly at his enemy without as much as a plan.

\'But what can he do, though? He\'s right in front of me!\'

James slashed his sword diagonally to push the direction of Arvell\'s sword to the side while also giving himself the chance to hit Arvell head-on.

However, Arvell didn\'t move, deciding to continue on his trajectory regardless of James\'s incoming slash.

\'Is he anticipating taking himself down just to land this blow? Of course, but with the strength difference between us, I could completely different his blow while landing mine simultaneously. Sure he knows this, right?\'

James slashed down with his sword, hitting Arvell\'s sword to the side while slashing directly at his unprotected head.

All according to James\'s predictions, except for one crucical thing.

After hitting Arvell\'s sword, it seemed as if James was slashing at air.

Almost instantly after the sword passed through Arvell\'s body, Arvell disappeared into thin air.

As if it was never there.

\'An afterimage!\'

Having trained with Angela, he was used to her overwhelming speed, which often let her leave behind afterimages to confuse her opponents.

\'But where is he?\'

Arvell appeared right behind James and kicked him with all of his strength.

James reeled as he felt a sudden force assault him back.

Without losing his momentum, Arvell used the rebound force to twist his body and deliver a second kick in the same spot.

The combined force of the 2 full-force kicks weakened the bonds keeping James to the ground.

However, just 2 kicks were not enough to knock his hulking frame into the air.

James\'s aquamarine eyes flickered with amazement as he tried to stabilize himself.

\'Give him a few more years, and I\'m sure this kid will grow into a monster!\'

Managing to evade his detection and get 2 attacks onto him was something James didn\'t expect whatsoever.

Arvell even left his sword to direct James\'s attention away from his movements, effectively tricking him into attacking an afterimage.

An unorthodox fighting style, to say the least.

Most people wouldn\'t throw away their weapons just to kick their enemies.

Arvell was not only a highly skilled fighter but also fought using unorthodox methods.

Utilizing the short time Arvell bought for himself, he lunged over to the sword James had knocked down only moments ago before picking it up and throwing it back at James with every ounce of strength he could muster.

Seeing the sword approach him at high speed, James, still stabilizing himself, had no option other than to bring his sword as a shield to block the oncoming blade.

Meaning he still had to take the full force behind the sword.

James would have to take a blow strong enough to pierce through his armour and hit him head-on if he didn\'t block it.

Blocking it was the only option he had.

Unfortunately for him, blocking it was precisely what Arvell predicted him to do.

*CRACK*

The ground beneath James\'s feet cracked as he flew backwards through the air.

***

Author\'s note:

I will be running a limited time event for extra chapters.

Every 100 golden tickets will get you one free extra chapter.