Rylan felt like the air had become heavier. No, as if space itself were pressing him down, attempting to crush him. Navy-blue mana dyed the inferno, tinging the flames in its hue. The woman, Antonia, smiled widely, but her eyes remained chilling. The blue-haired man was completely serious.

The pressure only increased, but the fire didn't stop coming for him. Forced to push Snowstorm to its utmost limits, Rylan ran around, still channeling Rainfall to clear the fire around him. An utterly passive position that he hated. Suddenly, he stopped running and looked at Damian and his loved ones. The barrier was being continuously bombarded with Fifth Circle spells.

I need to save them.

This wasn't the time to worry about injuries or consequences. He needed to end this battle, and quickly. Even if he died in the process. Rylan took a deep breath and looked at the two Sixth Circle Mages, his concentration remaining at its peak.

Stormcaller Sword Style, Final Movement: Storm's Descent.

His Aura veritably boiled within him, overflowing to create white clouds and lightning. The flames were forcefully pushed back, granting Rylan a space where only he could rule.

Wind Blades.

"Lesser Lightning."

His mana gave life to the two spells, which melted into the storm he'd created to empower it. Magic swordsmanship, the culmination of his efforts in both lives. Both enemies furrowed their brows. Antonia waved her staff, making layers upon layers of barriers take shape around them, even though the inferno hadn't disappeared. Dual casting? Triple casting? It didn't matter. They were enemies he needed to kill. That was all.

Rylan shot forward in the shape of a white lightning bolt, stepping on the frozen air and water to cut through the flames. The clouds followed, swallowing the fire and smothering it. The white lightning bolt crackled through the inferno, forcing it to part, and landed on the barriers. The first layer shattered in less than a second. Silver Twilight's edge kept pushing, coated in both Lesser Lightning and the electricity created by his Aura. His Aura Heart beat powerfully within his chest, resonating with his Mana Core. The manifestation of life force and the manifestation of knowledge, both working together with the sole intent of destroying the enemies before him.

Rylan could feel his muscles swelling as his Aura continued to flow, while his Sword Art became sharper and sharper. The barriers cracked and collapsed one after the other, but the two Sixth Circle Mages didn't stop casting. Space pressed down upon him, but he didn't retreat even as blood trickled down his lips. Finally, the last barrier was overcome. The moment the sword was about to reach them, however, the blue-haired man shimmered out of existence, the flames flooding the space where he had just been. Rylan blinked in surprise, noticing the presence of the Mage appear over twenty meters behind him.

Instantaneous movement?

Antonia wasn't fast enough. Rylan could feel, judging from her mana, that she was about to disappear as well, but his sword arrived first. She stared at him with horrified eyes as Silver Twilight's edge descended upon her chest. In the last moment, a thick yellow barrier took shape around her, adorned by runes of different sizes. Rylan's pupils dilated. He could tell from the amount of mana that this shield was unlike any of the others.

The Sword Art and the barrier clashed.

The magic steel and yellow mana pushed against each other in a fierce war of their own, but before it ended, Antonia disappeared. The blade sliced through the barrier a moment later, destroying it completely, but the fire didn't vanish alongside her. Rylan frowned.

Triple casting.

He turned around to face the two enemies, who had reappeared some distance away. Antonia was heaving, one hand on her shaking chest, staring at him like she was looking at a nightmarish beast. Meanwhile, the man only raised his staff, making the spatial pressure upon Rylan increase once more.

How annoying.

Storm's Descent, his current strongest Sword Art, hadn't been fast enough to kill them before they could react, but it had been powerful enough to overcome their defenses. He just needed to attack faster. Still, Rylan remained acutely aware of the Fifth Circle Mages' bombardment. Anxiety bubbled within him, alongside fear, but he knew he couldn't rush it. He took a deep breath.

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Focus. You can do this.

He shot forward. Both Antonia and the blue-haired man disappeared once again, then popped into existence even further away. Rylan didn't even blink. He only continued to run with Snowstorm.

"Julius!" Antonia shouted.

Julius didn't reply, but enormous spears of navy-blue mana came into existence behind him, each dozens of meters long. Rylan swung his sword, still channeling Storm's Descent. The fired spears crumbled in mid-air after the collision, but he pushed past the impact and kept going.

Faster.

The pressure increased again. Antonia's flames converged upon him in a firestorm, but Rylan didn't even glance at them. The fire reached his skin, immediately starting to burn through it, but he powered through the pain. Clearly caught off guard by his decision, Antonia frowned. Rylan flew toward her like an arrow.

Stronger.

Storm's Descent became even fiercer as a greater number of clouds took shape, protecting Rylan from the fire. It started to rain, but the rain bent only to his will and granted him an extra layer of protection. It was as if Rylan were the god of storms, dashing towards his enemies while surrounded by a rainy sky. He swung Silver Twilight again, but Antonia cast the same yellow rune barrier as before. This time, however, the barrier was destroyed even faster. Both Julius and Antonia flinched, but she managed to teleport away just as the Sword Art's energy was about to reach her.

Just keep going. One step at a time. You will win. Just keep going.

Rylan repeated the same words in his mind like a mantra. His focus started to transcend its past limits, but he didn't dwell on it. There was no time. His gaze zeroed in on Antonia's new position, making her frown. He'd noticed it. She was weaker than Julius, though not by much.

I need to kill her first.

Of course, it wasn't as if Julius would just stand by and let him do it. They were difficult enemies, and the fact that he was on a timer certainly didn't help. Rylan gritted his teeth and pushed himself to his limits. He shot toward Antonia, who teleported away less than a second later. From the opposite direction, Julius' mana coursed through the cracks on the floor, drawing a strange symbol under Rylan's position. A chill went down his spine. Without even needing to think about it, Rylan jumped diagonally, both upward and backward. A fraction of a second later, the mana underneath his previous position exploded outward, consuming everything in a radius of five meters.

Once the explosion dissipated, all that remained was a large hole on the Tower's floor, perfectly spherical. The air flooded the space that the explosion had consumed, replacing the atmosphere that had been destroyed. It was as if the small explosion had utterly disintegrated everything within its range, including the air itself. Another chill went down Rylan's spine. The realization that he didn't know enough about the spells his enemies could use struck him once again. He clenched his jaw and kept moving with Snowstorm.

The battle raged on. All that existed were the enemies before him and the other Mages, alongside Damian and his loved ones. Slowly, Rylan's steps and attacks became sharper and more accurate. The fire scorched his skin, bullets of mana grazed his muscles and limbs, and space itself seemed to be fighting against him, slowing him down and tightening its grip around him, but Rylan persevered. One step in front of the other, he got increasingly closer to keeping up with the two Mages' movements, forcefully extinguishing his anxiety.

The movement may be instantaneous, but that doesn't mean you can't read it. Just focus.

The Magic Tower's floor cracked and creaked dangerously, but it didn't fall apart. Rylan kept moving.

"How is he getting faster!?" Antonia shouted after narrowly escaping a blow that would have killed her with Julius's help.

Julius frowned, gritting his teeth.

"I don't fucking know!" he replied before teleporting away as well.

Rylan wholly ignored their words. They were worthless. He only needed to kill the two of them.

He continued to move. Rylan slashed at the incoming mana spear, which was so large that it scraped the ceiling and floor simultaneously. The impact pushed him back three meters, his muscles straining to bear the pressure, but he held on. In the next moment, he put as much strength as he could into his sword, then crushed the mana spear head-on. His entire body ached due to the strain, several of his muscles tearing. His Aura magnified his regenerative abilities to patch the wounds. Rylan let out a breath.

These spells are way too strong.

His regeneration was no longer able to keep up with the rate he was being injured. The crimson flames had leaked out of the cracks in the walls, and he could tell they had consumed part of the Mage Tower already. The spears of navy-blue mana severely damaged the Tower's structure just by coming into being due to their density and power. The Sixth Circle Mages clearly weren't trying to inflict damage to a wide area, but that didn't mean their spells were easily contained. In the end, the Tower had only been imbued with Damian's magic, who was also a Sixth Circle Mage.

Quickly. Faster, stronger.

Rylan's senses, augmented by both his Aura and Mana Cultivation, started to surpass their limits. His blood rushed through his body as his heart thumped with the power of a thousand galloping horses. His muscles swelled, filled with so much power that he felt like he could crush a mountain between his fingers. Silver Twilight's attacks only became sharper and faster.

That was when it happened. The flames' temperature suddenly surged to the point that the air started to shimmer, the moisture boiling. It took less than a few seconds for the temperature in the floor to rise severely as well. Rylan blinked and looked at Antonia and Julius, who were fifteen meters apart, but standing in the same direction. Both of them were surrounded by thick barriers and looked ready to use the instantaneous teleportation again.

But that means they can still cast one to two kinds of spells.

This was assuming that they couldn't quadruple cast. Rylan narrowed his eyes at Antonia, who had raised her staff.

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