Wild Era 2, Ch 37: Duel

As time resumed, some people screamed at the sight of the Herald standing there, towering above everyone else. 

Others were simply frozen in shock.

It was a natural reaction to seeing an Immortal descend, especially when that Immortal was a Silver Naga.

“Let the two combatants step forward,” Sleset hissed, his voice carrying across everything. “In the name of the Silver Lord, I will establish the terms of this duel.”

There were some murmured questions in the crowd about why the Herald was using the name “Silver Lord” for the Sovereign, but people next to them whispered an explanation.

Kelin hid a smile as he overheard it.

The nagas always called the Sovereign the Silver Lord and sometimes the Oathlord. It was their own unique name for him, ever since he’d met their race and changed them from Emerald Nagas to Silver Nagas. 

That meeting was also the origin of the Silver Army. They were the first race to fully follow him, and as Silver Nagas, they were literally a silver-colored army. 

The name was still in common use, since it was easy to say, but calling it the Army of Silver Stars was just as common these days.

Kelin squeezed Sandren’s hand as he walked forward. From the other side, Verasun did the same. 

They both stopped in front of Sleset at the center of the arena.

Verasun’s eyes were narrowed and he looked troubled, but he exuded arrogance and disdain.

He hadn’t planned on this duel being officiated by a Herald or all of the attention. He’d been planning to quietly kill Kelin in a small duel and deal with a problem.

Things had exploded out of his control and now he could only make the best of it.

He gave Kelin a single glance before he focused all of his attention on the Herald.

Kelin kept part of his attention on the man, but he was thinking of other things. 

It was good to see Sleset again, but it was also a complication.

No pressure, he thought to himself with some amusement. Just a Seventh Evolution old friend watching the duel.

The 122-level difference was steep, but if he didn’t make this fight look decent, Sleset would never let him live it down.

He’d been planning to draw it out while slowly dealing with Verasun through the mark on his soul, so that eventually the man would just keel over, but now it seemed he’d have to be a bit more direct.

He’d already submitted the rules he wanted through the Path, so he wasn’t surprised when Sleset reached into thin air and pulled out a scroll that glowed with silver light. 

The Herald unfurled it and examined the details.

“The requests from each combatant have been received,” he said as he snapped the scroll shut. It disappeared from his hands as he looked down.

He glanced at Verasun, but then his attention was on Kelin. His vertical-pupiled eyes were narrowed with amusement.

“Under the laws of Celadon, for impugning his honor, Baron Verasun challenges you, Kelin of Highmist, to a duel to the death. He has stated that he wishes this to be a duel without limitation, allowing the full valor of each combatant to shine.”

Sleset hissed in amusement.

“However, a duel between a Level 254 and a Level 132 is inherently imbalanced, particularly when the Level 254 is carrying over a dozen powerful dungeon artifacts that are not part of his own power, so I find this request amusing and deny it.”

Verasun started to speak, but Sleset’s power kept him from moving or making any sound. 

“Do not interrupt a Herald of the Silver Lord,” he hissed in displeasure. “Know your place, especially when you attempt to dishonor me with such a request.”

Sleset released his grip on Verasun and the man staggered.

“A fair duel is not fought by cheating.”

A series of boos and hisses came from the guild attendees who were watching, and Kelin noticed a couple of familiar young faces at the front, doing their best to make the sound carry.

Sleset raised his hand, however, and silence fell.

“Despite the level difference, I find this duel to be an appropriate challenge for a Knight of the Silver Lord, and so I allow it,” he announced, his voice carrying across the arena to the farthest seats, “but I will ensure it is fair.”

He studied Verasun and Kelin for a moment, looking through their existence on a different level, before he spoke again. 

“These are the rules of this duel,” he said. “First, the issue of a mana field, the key difference between the Second Evolution and the First. Verasun’s ability to use a mana field is allowed. It is part of his innate power.”

Verasun smiled at that and his confidence surged.

“However,” Sleset continued, looking at Verasun with amusement, “all combat artifacts and equipment that exceed the First Evolution are banned, as are all combat items that have not been won through personal effort inside of a Chaos Remnant or created directly by the duelist.”

With that, the naga waved his hand.

Verasun’s expression froze as almost every item and artifact on his body disappeared. Even the lightning-attuned rapier at his waist was gone.

From the look on his face as he checked his equipment, most of the items in his storage ring had just disappeared too. His expression turned quietly furious, but he didn’t dare to interrupt again.

Kelin, on the other hand, still had everything. All of his main equipment had been won inside a dungeon or was something he’d created himself. 

Some items he’d acquired from the Sarathians and a few minor things he’d bought at the guild, like his teleportation scrolls, had disappeared, but they weren’t part of his plan.

“Second,” Sleset hissed, “all recovery items are banned. There will be no mana or healing potions during the duel, or any other form of external support, unless it has been crafted by the duelist themself.”

With that, all of the mana and healing potions disappeared from Kelin’s storage items.

Verasun looked up with surprise and then delight flashed across his features. He hadn’t requested this, but he was obviously thinking that he would be able to easily outlast Kelin now.

Kelin didn’t react to the change, since he’d requested it as one of the limitations. Losing the mana potions meant things would be a little tighter, but he had hundreds of talismans for healing and infusion to make up for it.

Verasun’s confidence was badly misplaced.

“Lastly,” Sleset added, “a duel must have proper stakes. I will establish these myself, as is my right.”

He looked at Kelin first.

“If you fall here, Knight of the Path, your rank will pass to Verasun, who will gain both the rights and responsibilities that are part of it.”

Verasun’s eyes lit up like a child’s seeing candy when he heard that, and it looked like he wanted to shout with joy.

Kelin tried to keep expression indifferent, but he had to hide a smile, one that would have warned Verasun that something wasn’t right. 

He knew the truth of things and that the key word in what Sleset had said wasn’t rights, but responsibilities. 

If Verasun became a Knight of the Path, he’d have to work for the guild and the Path, including properly upholding dungeon laws. Most of his interests would be directly opposed to it. 

Sleset was just messing around now.

“In return,” Sleset hissed as he looked at Verasun, “should you fall here, Baron Verasun, the title and estates you hold will pass to Kelin of Highmist, with no guarantees for your descendants or current business interests.” 

Verasun’s expression froze when he heard that, but then his confidence seemed to recover and he forced a nod of acknowledgement.

Kelin tried not to frown at Sleset, but it was difficult. The naga was trying to help him, but he didn’t particularly want Verasun’s estate.

Duels between nobles in Celadon did typically have stakes, but dueling for a title was one of the most serious forms it could take. 

It was usually only done when there was no clear will and multiple inheritors couldn’t come to an agreement.

“That completes the rules of this duel,” Sleset announced. He looked around the arena, judging the crowd, and then turned his attention back to them. 

“You have five minutes to prepare your spells and equipment. I will establish wards to prevent your battle from harming the spectators.”

A wave of Sleset’s hand teleported away everyone who was standing nearby and then a silver shimmer ran across the arena, sealing it away from everyone outside. 

The nobles and guild officials were all located on a section of the stands now, close to the edge of the field.

Only the naga and the two of them were left.

Verasun had lost most of his equipment, but he managed to find a spare rapier in his storage rings that had been left behind and he pulled it out. 

He also grabbed a few other items that he still had access to, swiftly equipping them.

At the same time, Kelin checked through his equipment and readied spells on his staff. Then he drew out a pile of talismans and began to activate them, surrounding himself in layered shields.

The talismans appeared from his storage ring and disappeared again just as quickly, crumbling to dust, so that it was barely obvious how many he was actually using.

It almost looked like he was just holding onto the same one while a haze of ash disintegrated into the air around it.

He had calculated the upper limit of Verasun’s strength, so he had a good idea of how many talismans it would take to block a single blow.

It should be somewhere between five and ten, with a rough estimate on the lower end.

If Verasun had any signature abilities or other surprises in store, it could take even more.

Kelin had made all of the talismans with Blaze, which put the newest ones at the high First Evolution, but some had been made earlier and were weaker. 

Most importantly, mana density wasn’t the only critical factor in a level difference. Total attributes, ability tiers, mana fields, and other factors all came into play.

Verasun’s class was Epic, which was a degree under Legendary, so his attributes weren’t as high as Kelin’s would have been at the same level, but he would have at least one ability at the Epic tier.

He might also get lucky and chain several attacks together, so that needed to be taken into account.

Kelin put the five minutes to good use.

Dozens of talismans disintegrated in his hand, one after another, layering him in a shield that was so dense it radiated golden light across the arena. 

After the first minute, Verasun began looking at him with confusion. As the mana density of the shields continued to increase, he finally exploded.

“What is this?!” he shouted angrily. “External items were banned! This is a clear violation of the Herald’s order! And how does he have so many?!”

“Impudent!” Sleset hissed in response, his temper flaring as his eyes landed on Verasun, who staggered in place and turned pale.

“You dare to question my word?” the Herald asked. “Those talismans were crafted by the knight, and so they are allowed. You too could use such items, if you had the capability to make them.”

Kelin just chuckled as he kept adding more talisman shields. 

When he reached a hundred talismans in the shield, he stopped and switched the ones in his hand to Soulfire Infusion talismans, which he held ready.

With Mystic Echo at Expert, and since he’d made the talismans himself, every shield he added created a secondary shield at 60% of the strength, which merged in as an additional layer. 

The total ended up at 160 layers, creating a talisman shield so dense it was like a dragon’s hide. 

It was probably excessive, but he had no reason to use fewer.

There was still a little bit of time left, so he cycled his mana and calmed his breathing.

He also looked over to where Yao and Naomi were standing and gave them a smile. Sandren had moved next to them and he nodded at her too.

Then he tossed his sigil into the air, drew a ward, and waited.

Verasun moved to a point about fifty feet away from him, and the two of them faced each other as the count reached its end.

Sleset raised his hand and silver light gathered around it, like starlight over the field. 

“Begin,” he hissed as he dropped his hand down like a blade.

Verasun was already waiting for the signal and as soon as he heard it, a wave of mana crashed down on the field like a storm descending.

Lightning mana crackled across everything, sending sparks up from Kelin’s ward, and wind howled as it tried to push everything toward the ground.

The weight of the mana field descended as well, making it feel like Kelin’s ward was being crushed under pressure like an ocean tide, but it wasn’t able to break it.

The mana flowed around the ward, hissing and crackling with its Lightning affinity, but that was all.

Verasun frowned when he saw that, but he didn’t hesitate to lunge across the field, moving so quickly that his body resembled a bolt of lightning as he crossed the distance. 

His rapier was in his hand and it carved through the air, crackling like a storm of fury.

The impact slammed into Kelin’s ward, which cracked straight down the center. 

Blazing golden and silver light erupted in every direction as Verasun tore through, his rapier aimed for Kelin’s heart.

It was too fast for Kelin to dodge, so he didn’t bother. He stood there, enduring the weight of the mana field, as the impact shattered eight layers of his talisman shield.

The rapier’s tip stopped long before it got to his heart.

His hand flicked out with two soul arrows, which sank into Verasun’s soul. Four more soul arrows that he’d prepared earlier blazed from his staff and followed it in. 

The man recovered quickly and dodged outward, once more moving like a lightning bolt. He stopped on the field thirty feet away, frowning as he studied Kelin’s defense.

Kelin’s ward began to fuse back together, and as it did the pressure of the mana field that had broken through it receded as well.

Kelin flicked a couple of Soulfire Infusion Talismans at it, using their mana to speed up the process instead of his own.

Then he activated a few more shield talismans, replacing some of what had been broken.

Across the field, Verasun seemed confused as he looked down at his chest, where the arrows had completely disappeared.

He knew he’d been hit, but he didn’t understand where the spells had gone.

In Kelin’s mind, the six soul arrows burned brightly in Verasun’s soul, making the mark he’d placed blaze as well.

Ascending Flame burned with them, slowly increasing their power, and the Law of Endless Flame hummed within. 

The baron’s attributes gave him a fairly strong soul, but he wasn’t a specialist in the area, so his defenses were only average.

It would take a little while, but that was all.

Kelin took advantage of the moment to create a Blaze-intensified Soulfire Bolt, which he sent searing across the distance.

Verasun raised his rapier to intercept. The blade was covered in a layer of lightning and it sliced through the bolt as it closed in.

The spell exploded into a wave of golden light that mixed with sparks of lightning as it dissipated in the air.

Verasun’s confidence soared at the outcome and a cold smile creased his lips. 

His preference seemed to be storm magic and blade work together, using Lightning and Wind to boost his speed, but he wasn’t the type to try things twice.

He held his rapier in one hand as he raised the other to the sky. 

Dark clouds gathered in the sky above him, shrouding the arena, and lightning crackled as it leapt from one to the other.

A crash of mana struck Kelin’s ward, making it explode into fragments of golden runes as the outline of a silver bolt stretched from the ground to the sky.

The remnant power of the lightning bolt surged through his talisman shield, shattering four layers.

Another lightning bolt came down immediately after, cracking through eight layers, and then another in quick succession.

Even though his shield blocked the attack, there were still bits of stray electricity that made Kelin’s clothes float around him and the hair on his arms stand straight up.

The remnants of the energy gathered around his spell deflection bracer and were shunted away.

His ward was shattered and with the lightning descending, it wasn’t going to be possible to repair it. Verasun’s mana field was also pressing down around him, making it difficult to move quickly. 

Despite that, his expression was calm.

The talismans in his hand disappeared and were replaced by a silver staff, which he planted on the ground. 

The staff stood upright on its own as a field of light spread out from it. 

When the fourth lightning bolt descended, its trajectory bent and it struck the staff, which glowed with runes along its length.

The lightning was channeled through the staff and sank into the ground, where it swiftly dissipated.

In Kelin’s sight, the staff’s mana signature was like a branching tree that stretched thirty feet in every direction, its branches reaching up to the storm and its roots descending deep into the stone at his feet.

It was those roots that were diffusing the lightning. Otherwise, it would have left craters in the ground.

Three more lightning bolts rained down from above, accompanied by crushing pressure from the mana field, but they were all drawn into the staff and dissipated.

It didn’t even take any mana from Kelin. The staff’s defense was innate.

His ward began to recover as the staff absorbed the lightning, slowly fusing together into a golden dome.

Verasun scowled when he saw it, and he glanced over at Sleset, but he knew better than to complain again.

Instead, he focused his attention on the staff and his subclass as an Artifact Sentinel came into play. A strange ripple of energy passed away from him and surrounded the staff.

The sigils on it faded away and the staff wobbled in place, unable to maintain its enchantment.

Kelin reached out and caught it before it fell.

A wave of analysis told him that the effect was limited, but it would last as long as Verasun’s attention was still on the staff.

He tossed it to the ground at the side.

The baron’s smile grew wider at that and the lightning storm above the arena intensified. More lightning bolts began to rain down on Kelin, shattering layer after layer of his shields.

At the same time, Verasun blurred forward, his rapier raised as a blade of lightning extended from the edge.

The reforming ward exploded again into fragments of runes as the rapier sliced into Kelin’s shield, sending a wave of sparks rolling outward.

A pair of soul arrows sank into his soul, followed by another, but this time, Verasun didn’t retreat.

One slash followed another, swift and elegant, stabbing and weaving as he lunged, with lightning erupting and digging into Kelin’s defenses at every angle.

He was an agile and adept fighter, and better at fencing with his rapier than Kelin had expected for a mage.

Until now, Kelin had been biding his time and waiting for the soul arrows to work, but if he let Verasun continue, his shield would be worn down too quickly.

There was also his reputation to consider, especially with Sleset here.

Only about thirty seconds had passed since the duel started, and from the outside, it looked like Verasun was completely suppressing him. 

In reality, the baron was living out his last moments, but they couldn’t see it. 

If he let it go on, the spectators wouldn’t understand how he’d won and it would harm his reputation in the city.

That meant it was time to change things up.

He looked up at the storm above him and golden runes began to glow across his body as layers of stoneskin formed.

He kept the layer thin, mostly for visual effect, and held out his hand. 

Spikes of stone erupted from the ground all around him, stabbing toward the air.

Within seconds, he was surrounded by a forest of twelve-foot-tall stone arches that joined together over his head. Golden runes glowed as Earth energy ran through them.

As another lightning bolt came down, it crashed into the stone and was channeled into the earth. 

Elemental energy followed natural laws, so in this case, Earth absorbed Lightning.

That wasn’t all.

Stone spikes erupted in front of him, stabbing up toward Verasun, and the baron had to leap out of the way.

A sphere of Soulfire appeared in Kelin’s hand. He poured mana into the spell and let it swell in size, so that golden streams of power arced across the surface. 

Then he hurled it ahead of him. 

The spell exploded below the baron’s feet and an inferno erupted upward, covering thirty feet in every direction. Whirlwinds of soulfire whipped through the interior, howling with force as they spun across the center of the arena.

He poured mana into the spell and the size of the inferno swelled to fifty feet, covering the area in curtains of flame.

Verasun looked like a tiny dark speck at the center.

Kelin heard the shouts of the crowd as the duel reached the level they’d been waiting for, and he sent the flames soaring even higher.

Fierce currents of flame whipped through the interior of the inferno, spinning around the baron's figure, but they didn't touch him.

A thin layer of lightning and wind had formed a mana shield that covered Verasun’s body and kept the fire away, protecting him as he walked through the flames.

Then his mana field swept across the area, making the massive inferno collapse toward the ground, where it simmered like a layer of golden embers.

Wisps of soulfire billowed and eddied, but under the pressure, they could only rise a couple of feet before collapsing back. 

Kelin didn’t bother to send more mana into the spell, just like he hadn’t used Blaze to intensify it. 

Instead, he sent a series of stone spikes flying toward Verasun. Each of them was a spear half a dozen feet long and a few inches wide.

Over twenty of the spikes tore themselves out of the ground and flew forward, creating a chain like ballistas were firing on the baron.

Mana fields weren’t perfect, especially at the Second Evolution, and the spikes were pure stone and force. They wobbled as they approached the baron, but he still had to deal with them.

Verasun dodged some and batted others out of the air one at a time.

While he was dealing with that, Kelin took out an unending chain of Soulfire Infusion talismans and began hurling them into the inferno.

The flames slowly leapt upward, building on themselves. Echoes of flame added to the force of each talisman, sending the inferno billowing higher.

By the time Verasun knocked the last spear away, the inferno was even higher than before, raging like a firestorm as golden whirlwinds spun through the center.

The baron let out a shout of anger and the storms above the arena intensified. 

A curtain of wind slammed into the inferno, followed by tornadoes that descended from above, their winds whipping into a frenzy.

Lightning bolts slammed down at the same time, tearing apart small sections of the inferno, but it was a bad match for fire. 

The wind did most of the work.

As the tornadoes tore into the inferno and began to pull its flames apart, Kelin kept activating talismans and hurling them into it.

His only intention was to create a giant mess of mana.

Under the influx, the inferno reformed and the whirlwinds inside began to rage against the tornadoes, each of them spinning and clashing with a fury.

Sweat was forming on Verasun’s forehead now and he sent a strange glance toward Kelin, as if shocked he had the mana to compete with him.

Kelin gave him an amused look as he kept flicking more talismans at the inferno, dozens of them and then more, one after the other in an endless stream.

More than that, he exerted his mana control abilities to the maximum, intensifying the inferno and channeling its pattern into an area-wide enchantment, one that routed the flames back in on themselves to sustain the whole.

By comparison, Verasun’s tornadoes were formed from pure force and were a much larger mana drain.

“You shouldn’t play with spells in front of me,” he sent with a pulse of mana. “It’s embarrassing.”

He was deliberately goading the man, and Verasun’s angry shout echoed through the area, stunning the spectators as they stared at the events.

That was the point where the duel began to turn against Verasun, at least in the spectators’ eyes.

Before long, there were hundreds of talismans infused into the area and they combined with the force of the natural elements, filling it with far more mana and elemental energy than Verasun was able to gather.

Moments later, the level of mana present reached a density that was too great for his mana field to suppress.

He was only at the Second Evolution.

A massive storm of wind and fire raged across the area, swirling and crashing against the barrier that divided it from the spectators.

Only Sleset’s magic allowed them to still see what was happening.

Kelin continued throwing talismans into the storm, sending it even higher, and then he took control of the flows of Fire mana all around.

At his command, the inferno split apart and all of the loose flames condensed into golden whirlwinds that cut back and forth across the area, tearing across the ground and leaving trails of blazing force behind them.

Verasun’s tornadoes were a bit taller, stretching up to the clouds above, but they were in the minority as the whirlwinds surrounded them.

Three whirlwinds gathered around each tornado. Fire blades formed where they met, slicing into their structures as they began to tear them apart.

The Wind and Lightning elements in the storm began to feed the inferno, slowly pouring into it as the whirlwinds grew larger.

At the same time, Kelin walked forward, leaving the stone arches behind.

Lightning fell on him as Verasun noticed, with a chain of bolts descending on his shields, but he ignored it as he walked across the distance.

He could see the soul flames leaping upward in Verasun’s soul and the man was beginning to sway. 

He was still able to think, but his movements were no longer as swift as before and his eyes were turning glassy.

Kelin sent Soulfire Bolts searing toward him as he approached, knocking him off balance and distracting his attention.

Verasun wobbled as he did his best to parry each one. Lightning crackled along his rapier, even as he staggered.

To the crowd, it looked like he was the one overwhelmed now, desperately fighting off Kelin’s advance.

It was true enough.

Kelin walked slowly across the area and with each step he sent another bolt crackling toward him.

Verasun tried to reach for something at his waist, and then at his chest, only to stagger again as he realized there was nothing there. 

Whether it was an artifact or a potion, they had all been stripped away.

By the time Kelin arrived, Verasun’s expression was pale and desperate. 

His speed was still decent and he slashed out at Kelin faster than he could block. It left a trail of lightning across his chest and another few layers of the talisman shield shattered.

But there were still over sixty left.

Kelin raised his hand and a wave of Soul Paralysis froze everything around him. When the wave hit Verasun, the man staggered and fell to one knee.

He struggled as he tried to stand up again.

Instead of hitting him with another Paralysis, Kelin raised his staff in both hands and brought it down with a hard swing, cracking the man across the head.

A feedback of lightning shot up the staff, shattering some shields when it hit him, but that didn’t stop him from doing it again.

And then again.

“That’s for the mine,” he said, “and all the people you killed. It’s too bad you won’t survive long enough to pay for all of the other dungeons you created.”

With each blow, Verasun staggered again, and on the third one, he fell back to the ground, holding himself up on a knee and a single hand. 

His rapier dangled loosely in the other as he tried to raise it.

Rainbow smoke was rising from his body and his eyes were covered by a haze of prismatic light, but the effect was almost invisible at the center of the firestorm.

To everyone watching, it looked like Kelin had beaten him to the ground with pure force.

His struggles were diminishing as the flames in his soul leapt higher.

It was time to end it.

Kelin raised his staff again, but this time it was surrounded by a field of rainbow soul flames that formed a blade along one side. 

They intensified under the force of his will as he sharpened them.

It was more of a Soul Axe than a Soul Arrow.

Kelin’s grip tightened on the staff and he brought it down with all of his strength behind it. The staff bent in the air, curving into an arc as it descended like an executioner’s blade.

It slammed into Verasun’s neck and sent him crashing to the ground with his face in the dirt.

At the same time, the magic continued on, striking deep into Verasun’s soul and mixing with what was already there.

His soul blazed with flames as the blade tore through it.

Rainbow smoke billowed up from him, swirling away into the air, but with the golden whirlwinds whipping through the area, it was barely noticeable.

Silence fell across the crowd, all of them waiting to see if Verasun would stand up again, but his body only twitched a few times.

Kelin felt it when the last spark of the baron’s life burned away.

Except for the whistle of the inferno that was still spinning around him, the area was deathly silent.

Golden flames burned everywhere, outlining the field and highlighting that one was standing, while the other was dead.