Chapter 213: Dance

The battlefield felt charged with tension as Sage and the leader faced each other across the shattered plaza, dust swirling slowly between them. The sounds of distant clashes and the groans of the wounded faded into a muted backdrop.

Their eyes locked in a silent exchange that carried more weight than any weapon. The leader’s sharp gaze scrutinized Sage with predatory intent, while Sage’s expression remained cold and unyielding, even as blood trickled from his nose and ears, and his fingers trembled from the strain of forcing a Level 3 spell through a body already pushed to its limits.

For a few seconds, neither moved or spoke, both instinctively aware that their next actions would significantly influence the battle’s outcome.

The leader narrowed his eyes slightly; irritation gave way to calculating focus as he replayed their previous exchanges in vivid detail, timing, range, patterns of Sage’s spells, and how his body reacted post-casting.

This was no longer just an assessment; it was an analysis of a threat. As he finally exhaled, tension eased from his shoulders, replaced by a slow grin that was both cold and confident.

“Pulling off a Level 3 spell in your current condition must have strained your soul tremendously,” he remarked casually, as if discussing the weather rather than combat. His tone dripped with quiet certainty.

“But it doesn’t matter. You’re still just a Mage and a weak one at that. You can’t hope to challenge a warrior two ranks above you. So in the end… you’re going to die.”

Sage remained impassive. His expression didn’t shift; his posture stayed firm; his breathing remained steady amidst the chaos around them.

His gaze never wavered from the man before him. When he finally spoke, his voice was low and unwavering: “I’m going to kill you.”

The words hung heavy in the air despite their lack of volume. The leader’s lips twitched with irritation at what seemed absurd, a battered Apprentice Mage declaring he would kill a High-Level Knight should have been laughable. Yet instead, it felt like an undeniable challenge.

His eyes hardened as he surged forward without warning, blurring into motion with his blade aimed at Sage’s throat.

In that instant, the violet magic circle ignited beneath Sage’s feet once again; runes spiraled into action as lightning crackled violently across its surface. In an explosive flash, he vanished.

The leader’s blade sliced through empty air as momentum carried him forward for just a heartbeat before Sage reappeared several meters away, staff raised high as multiple fire circles flared into existence before him.

Massive fireballs erupted outward like falling suns, their heat warping the air around them as they roared toward the leader.

But he vanished just as quickly too, his body slipping sideways through flames in a blur, while Sage disappeared again in another flash of lightning before any counterattack could reach him.

He reappeared from a different angle and immediately unleashed a wind spell, sending compressed blades of air slicing through the dust in rapid succession. The leader twisted, evaded, and surged forward again but Sage vanished once more.

What unfolded was no ordinary battle. It became a dance of movement layered over movement, where prediction clashed with instinct and calculation collided with chaos. The battlefield morphed into a shifting maze of lightning flashes, explosive impacts, and shockwaves rippling outward in violent bursts.

Every time the leader lunged, Sage disappeared. And each time Sage reappeared, he followed up instantly with a Level 2 spell, fire, wind, lightning, hammering at the leader from various angles before he could regain his footing.

The rhythm repeated faster and faster until the fight devolved into an unrelenting game of cat and mouse where neither side could seize a decisive advantage.

Frustration began to build within the leader as his patience thinned with every exchange. His mind struggled to reconcile what he was witnessing. A Mage two ranks below him shouldn’t be able to maintain this tempo or cast Level 3 spells repeatedly with such speed.

Rapid-fire Level 2 spells were expected from a Mage with a developed soul and efficient casting patterns but chaining Level 3 movement spells at this pace was something entirely different.

“How strong is his soul?” That thought pressed against his mind, irritation mingling with genuine curiosity. “Casting high-tier spells in seconds… that’s not normal. It’s not just talent; something else is at play.”

Their figures blurred in and out across the battlefield appearing on shattered rooftops, fractured ground, collapsing walls, each reappearance accompanied by booming detonations and violent shockwaves that sent debris spiraling into the sky.

To anyone watching, the fight was incomprehensible, a chaotic dance of lightning and steel where the weak, injured Mage somehow kept pace with a High-Level Knight through sheer unpredictability and relentless spellcasting. It was unprecedented.

A warrior two ranks below a High-Level Knight might survive for mere seconds or land a lucky hit before being crushed. But a Mage? Going toe-to-toe like this? It defied everything dictated by battlefield hierarchy.

Minutes dragged on painfully as both combatants neared their limits until finally, the leader halted several meters away, breathing heavily now, his aura flickering slightly as exhaustion crept into his movements.

He narrowed his eyes at Sage before slowly allowing a smile to tug at the corners of his lips. “I’ve figured out your spell’s weakness.”

Sage’s expression remained unchanged but his gaze sharpened slightly.

The leader chuckled softly as if sharing an inside joke. “Every time you disappear, you reappear ten to twenty meters away from where you were last seen. It’s consistent, too consistent.”

He casually lifted a hand, tracing an arc in the air. “That alone isn’t enough to catch you, of course. I can’t pinpoint your exact location just from a distance. But that’s not the real flaw.”

His gaze sharpened. “When you reappear, the mana at that spot fluctuates violently. It spikes before stabilizing, like a beacon announcing exactly where you’ll be.”

Sage’s jaw tightened as he absorbed this truth.

Tempest Step: Violet Rift wasn’t true teleportation. Real teleportation required folding space itself, collapsing the distance between two points and stepping directly through without traversing the space in between.

That kind of mastery demanded immense understanding of spatial laws and stable anchors at both ends, something Sage didn’t have. Instead, his spell converted his body into a lightning-aligned mana state for just a fraction of a second, propelling him along a path defined by electrical flow and reassembling him within a limited radius.

It felt like teleportation because it happened faster than perception could grasp, but it was still bound by physical constraints. He could only move within a short range since the lightning path needed an existing mana channel to anchor to. When he reassembled, the surrounding mana was violently displaced before stabilizing, an unavoidable consequence of that sudden energy conversion.

He had been aware of these weaknesses but had hoped that the chaos of battle would obscure them long enough.

The leader grinned wider. “So you can run… but you can’t hide.”

With renewed aggression, he surged forward instantly. Sage vanished again, lightning flashing beneath him, but the leader twisted mid-motion and lunged sharply to the left, predicting where Sage would reappear.

Sage materialized there with his staff raised high, eyes widening slightly as he saw the leader’s blade slicing toward him faster than expected.

A feint.

The leader’s grin widened further, thrilled by their unfolding chase as he pressed on with relentless attacks, forcing Sage to vanish repeatedly. Each reappearance became a calculated trap until something shifted in their dynamic.

The five Master Knights who had been observing finally joined in, reading Sage’s patterns too. Every time he vanished and the leader shifted toward his predicted location, they intercepted with coordinated strikes from different angles, forcing the leader to defend instead of pursue.

The battlefield erupted once more into chaotic motion. Lightning flashed violet across the shattered plaza; steel clashed in violent bursts; shockwaves rolled outward like crashing tides as their combined assault kept pushing the leader into constant movement.

The fight escalated into something primal and unyielding; each participant read one another in real time, adapting and countering purely by instinct and sheer willpower.

Fatigue began to show its toll. The leader’s aura flickered unevenly; his breathing deepened as his mana reserves thinned under relentless pressure. Though a 5-Star High-Level Knight possessed far greater reserves than any of them, even he wasn’t inexhaustible.

The relentless pace of high-speed combat, combined with constant defensive maneuvers and the continuous output of aura, was draining him faster than he had anticipated. Minor cuts were starting to mar his arms and torso, shallow but numerous, while blood trickled down beneath his armor.

Sage was in no better shape. His face had turned pale, and his body trembled as blood seeped from his ears and mouth. The strain of repeatedly casting Level 3 spells was taking a toll on his soul energy. Each use of Tempest Step felt heavier and slower, almost as if his body was resisting the transformation he desperately needed.

The Master Knights were equally worn down; their movements had lost their precision, and injuries were piling up as the battle dragged on. They were all pushing their limits, yet none showed signs of stopping.

The leader staggered back slightly after deflecting a combined strike, his chest heaving as he glared at Sage through the swirling dust and flickering lightning. It dawned on him that the fight had shifted from one of dominance to a test of endurance.

His mana was fluctuating now; his aura felt unstable, and his movements lacked their usual finesse.

Across from him stood Sage, battered but resolute, staff planted firmly against the ground with eyes still blazing with cold determination.

Both sides were in critical condition and this battle was far from over.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep