First would obviously be a light show. What kind of performer would I be without opening with a beautiful display of light?
The lighting could have been better, though. A light show in the middle of the afternoon was less than ideal. Still, my sheer mana capacity should have been more than enough to make up for it.
DING! DING! DING!
Multiple balls of light suddenly appeared throughout the arena, floating around like static bugs.
But obviously, I wasn’t fighting opponents who would just wait and see what I was planning to do.
CLANG!
Aqua was already on me, her ice sword meeting my barrier and shattering the moment it made contact.
"Tsk..."
"Nice try."
I replied, flicking a finger and pouring an absurd amount of mana into the lights closest to her. Right now, they were basically floating remote dynamite I could activate at a whim.
BOOM!
Aqua met the explosion head-on, skidding backward and narrowly avoiding being knocked out by covering herself with ice.
FWOOSH!
CLANG!
Next came a flurry of light beams, this time coordinated by Lucius and Celeste. It was like an entire archer volley, only a hundred times more precise. But it was still absurdly ineffective.
I grinned, switching my basic ward to a radiant aegis mid-volley. The beams splashed harmlessly against it as usual.
Then, without warning, just like Anna had said, the thing did more than simply defend me. It siphoned my mana and poured it over the lights nearest to the two of them, just as it had with Aqua.
BOOM!
The explosion rang out, with Lucius blocking most of it with a ward that left Celeste unharmed, though Lucius still bled from the mouth from the sheer impact of defending against the blow.
I wasn’t done yet, however.
"Barely even a sweat."
I twirled my hand, the balls of light converging above me into a swirling halo. I was about to show the people of this medieval fantasy world what it looked like to face a literal minigun loaded with explosive rounds.
I lowered my hand, and instantly, the balls of light responded, spinning even faster above me as they began releasing one by one. Their built-up momentum hurled them toward all three of them, exploding the moment they made contact with anything solid.
And Aqua definitely had it worse. After facing an explosion head-on, she had hoped Lucius and Celeste would buy her enough time to recover.
But now she was forced to spend her mana blocking. And unlike Lucius and Celeste, who had formed twin wards, she was alone.
"Lady Aqua."
I said, shifting my barrage toward her, to Lucius and Celeste, whose faces strained under the added pressure.
"You can stop blocking now."
I began advancing on her, never letting up on the relentless explosive ordnance aimed at the two people who could ruin this moment for me.
CRACK!
"What do you want?"
Aqua cracked her wall, the defenses melting into the floor as she eyed me narrowly. Her body was wet from the melted ice of her magic, the water seeping into her clothes.
This was my time to shine.
"Not much. Only this."
Not even a second later, I took off my robe and placed it over her as I closed the distance, covering her body, which was now beginning to show through the wet fabric, with the mage robe.
"W-What?"
"This is a duel, not a public humiliation. Wear this, and then I’ll continue fighting you."
The crowd immediately went wild at the sudden show of sportsmanship.
"R-Reyn covered up Lady Historia!?"
"He didn’t take advantage of this situation to leer at her!?"
But among them all, one voice rang out the loudest: Annabele, more than supportive of the choice I had just made.
"Go, Reyn!"
Aqua stared at me, her blue eyes wide with something between confusion and disbelief. The mage robe hung from her shoulders, still warm from my body heat.
"You’re... not going to attack?"
"Not while you’re defenseless and vulnerable. Where’s the fun in that?"
I stepped back, giving her space, and raised my voice loud enough for the crowd to hear.
"Take your time, Lady Aqua. I’ll focus on the other two while you recover."
The audience erupted again. Even the head trainer looked mildly impressed, his scarred eyebrow rising a fraction of an inch.
Aqua’s lips parted, then closed. She pulled the robe tighter around herself, and for just a moment, her gaze softened into something I hadn’t seen from her before.
Gratitude, and probably interest.
"You’re... not what I expected, Lord Brimstone."
"Get used to that feeling."
I turned my back to her, facing Lucius and Celeste, who had weathered my barrage and were already preparing their next assault.
Lucius wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, his blue eyes burning with something that looked a lot like frustration.
"You’re fighting three people, and you’re still playing games?"
Lucius spat.
"You’re the one currently pinned down. I more than deserve to play games."
I replied, and Lucius only smirked at my response. Before I even noticed it, Celeste, who had been hiding just behind him, had vanished the moment the next explosion hit.
"Got you!"
The woman’s voice came from behind me.
It was a good ambush. Too bad for her...
BOOM!
A huge explosion rang out from where I stood, blanketing the entire arena in dust as my barrage toward Lucius came to a stop.
"Reyn!?"
Anna yelled.
"No need to worry."
I said the moment the dust cloud cleared. I timed it perfectly, standing proud and completely unaffected by Celeste’s point-blank attack.
She could only stare at the back of my head, as if she couldn’t believe what had just happened.
"Was that all?"
I didn’t even need to cast another ward. Titania’s cloak was more than enough...
"I-Impossible..."
"Not really."
I moved, twisting my body and sweeping Celeste’s leg out from under her, sending her crashing down. That definitely caught Lucius’s attention, and he immediately rushed toward me.
Whether he meant to rescue Celeste or take me down, I wasn’t sure. But it didn’t matter. He was screwed either way.
BOOM!
A radiant spear manifested above him and struck him in the spine with its blunt end, pinning him to the ground. He couldn’t move under the spear’s density, amplified by the absurd amount of mana I had poured into it.
As for Celeste...
My foot was enough to pin her down and keep her from moving.
"What about you, Lady Aqua? Are you prepared to fight again?"
Aqua stared at me for a moment, surprised by my efficiency, before shaking her head with a reluctant smile.
"No, I wish to yield..."