Lightning halted.
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes, her hair fluttering in the wind.
Ken, who was running, dodging, and evading, suddenly stopped putting his hands in his pockets, Ken started walking leisurely.
Like a lightning bolt, she flew down, hovering above him and looking down at Ken imperiously.
Seeing that, Ken smiled.
“Hey, what’s up?”
She furrowed her brows.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Ken shook his head.
“I did promise a duel, right?
Everything before was me getting ready.
Although it seemed like you were trying to kill me more than duel me, I’m still keeping my word.”
“So you’re finally getting serious?” Elizabeth asked, her eyes still narrowed.
“Nah.” Ken shook his head, the annoying grin spreading on his face.
“I can’t do that.
After all, this is our first time after so long.
I’m afraid you won’t be able to handle me, so I’ll be gentle.”
Elizabeth scowled, a look of fury crossing her face.
She put her hand on a gem in her Headmistress badge.
It flashed, and a staff appeared in her hand.
The body was bone-white, and at the head was a circular crystal in which lightning continuously flashed.
Seeing the staff, Ken blinked.
Then a look of surprise appeared on his face, followed by astonishment.
“Is that a Storm Dragon rib bone and a Lightning Slime core?”
Elizabeth didn’t answer as she flew back up into the sky.
Ken shook his head and burst out laughing.
“Hahaha!”
Wiping a tear from his smiling eyes, he shuddered.
“I really forgot how amusing you are when you’re angry, Cookies.”
She looked down at Ken, her face losing all expression until only cold indifference remained.
“Oho.”
Even Ken looked slightly surprised as his smile faded.
“DON’T CALL ME THAT EVER AGAIN!”
Thunder rumbled continuously across the sky.
“Wow, okay, okay.” Ken put both hands up in a calming gesture.
“I won’t call you that…”
He smirked.
“Cookies.”
As if having enough of Ken, Elizabeth raised the staff above her head.
A rune carved into the middle of the staff lit up with brilliant light.
The clouds in the sky churned violently.
Before he knew it, Ken saw them growing darker and wider as far as his normal eyes could see.
The wind itself seemed alive.
Ken sighed, still smiling as he shook his head.
“Why am I like this?
I suppose it’s too late to change anyway.”
He saw Elizabeth point downward with her staff.
This time, hundreds, then thousands, of lightning bolts came down from the clouds.
The sound and shockwave alone would kill any normal mage.
Ken’s flax mana spread all around.
This time, the ground changed into rubber.
Two pillars of adamantine rose from the earth and formed a dome around him.
Elizabeth made a grabbing gesture.
The ground around him shook.
No…
She was using the electromagnetic force generated by the lightning to pull the entire dome apart.
Elizabeth shouted as she pulled upward.
Hundreds of lightning bolts struck the dome from all sides, but she could feel Ken was not inside.
She scanned the ground.
Then she saw him.
Ken was standing in front of a giant tree, looking at her.
She turned the staff toward him, about to direct another lightning strike.
Ken picked up a large broken tree branch from the ground.
As his flax mana spread, it morphed into adamantine chains hovering around him.
He shook his wrist, and the chains wrapped themselves around the branch before morphing into rubber.
The rubber stretched immensely, becoming like a giant slingshot.
Ken launched himself into the air straight toward Elizabeth.
ToShe redirected lightning toward him.
The rubber transformed into sleek wings behind his back as Ken dodged most of the lightning.
The rest he simply endured with his rubber shell.
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes.
Another rune lit up.
The clouds churned as thousands of lightning bolts struck the back of her staff.
Ken kept coming closer and closer.
Just as he was only meters away, she pointed the tip of her staff toward him.
A lightning bolt as thick as three pillars more like a beam than a bolt shot straight toward Ken.
Ken had no time to dodge.
His wings transformed into a massive shield made out of a rainbow coloured crystal in front of him as he grabbed it.
The beam connected.
Ken was thrown violently back toward the ground, crashing through the forest like a wrecking ball.