Ardyn’s composure cracked; the grin was gone, replaced by the raw edge of a pride that had been clawed open for all to see. His voice came rough, furious.

“I’ll shut that mouth of yours—”

“Finally, now you sound honest.”

Ruvian cut him, almost gently, lowering his wand into a ready grip.

Ardyn’s roar ripped through the air as he lunged, the broadsword came with unrestrained violence. His stride thundered across the platform, each step eating the distance like a predator finally released from its leash.

For all his fury, he was fast—faster than before. The weight of the blade did slow him and yet it seemed to drag him forward.

Ruvian felt it in the marrow of his bones. The speed, the precision—Ardyn wasn’t holding back anymore.

The blade came down fast.

Ruvian hissed the incantation, wand snapping sideways. A coil of wind blasting him off the line of attack by a breath’s margin. Steel screamed against the stone where he’d stood. The impact left a scar across the platform, sparks and dust bursting into the air.

But Ardyn was already moving, eyes locked on Ruvian with frightening clarity. His sword twisted with deceptive ease, and he chased the gap like a shadow, forcing himself inside the breath Ruvian had stolen. He was on him again before the crowd could even blink.

Ruvian’s lips pulled into a tight smile—half grimace, half satisfaction. The most update n0vels are published on novel•fire.net

Ardyn had already charged again, as if predicted Ruvian would evade it and to prevent him from chanting the next spell.

‘Of course he would do that.’

But Ruvian had also foreseen that Ardyn would try that. That's why his tongue had already shaped the syllables the moment his body was blown sideways. The spell was waiting, ready to use.

As Ardyn’s blade screamed down again

The spell incantation burst out as Ardyn’s sword whistled past, a fresh gust ripping Ruvian out of reach again, sliding him along the platform in a rush of displaced air. Steel split only dust and echoes.

With that last evasion, he reached the others, Noelle had already steadied herself. Her posture radiated composure, but her hands still trembled faintly around the hilts of her daggers.

Jareth stood beside her, less composed and significantly more frustrated, his expression pulled tight with guilt as he gave Ruvian a sheepish glance.

“Sorry,” he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.

“That was on me. I shouldn’t have leapt. It's my bad habit.”

Ruvian blinked in surprise.

‘This is not the time yet for that, but oh well.’

Noelle, ever the more analytical of the two, tilted her head just enough to signal suspicion as she kept her eyes on Ardyn’s unmoving figure.

“Why did you enrage him?” she asked, her tone neither fearful nor casual.

“So that he would swing his weapon harder at us.”

Jareth puzzled. “Huh? Wha—”

“Nothing, we're going with the same plan.” Ruvian cut in, voice calm but firm, slicing cleanly through the beginnings of Jareth’s words. They don't have much time to communicate.

Jareth blinked, his brow furrowed. “What? That didn’t work, right?”

Ruvian didn’t sigh, he wanted to. But instead he stared flatly at Jareth, his silence heavy with implication.

‘It didn’t work because you flung yourself into the sky like an idiot!’

“Yes but this time…” Ruvian explained with clarity,

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“We strike in the exact same pattern, but all at once and with different approaches. I’ll intercept the sword. You both follow through. But we go with plan B this time.”

“But won’t he see it coming, that you will intercept his sword like before?” Noelle asked, Jareth also agreed with her. She had a point because Ardyn had already read that pattern once and he’d likely already prepared a counter.

“Yes, he might, that's the point,” Ruvian admitted, glancing at her, “but trust me… It will work and I need both of your help. But If it doesn’t work, we will move to Jareth’s plan.”

Jareth straightened a little. “Alright, I’m in!”

Ruvian didn’t share the enthusiasm, not even a sliver of it. Instead, he simply adjusted his grip on the wand again.

He managed to use [Character Sheets] skill on Ardyn during their first clash.

Ardyn's stats hadn’t surprised him. His speed was monstrous, his strength undeniable. He was twice Ruvian’s weight and power, and yet—

He wasn’t landing a single blow.

Ardyn’s raw speed was listed as nearly double their own baseline, a discrepancy wide enough to make any attempt at outmaneuvering him seem laughable. But raw values didn’t always translate cleanly into practice. Ardyn’s true strength lay not in his speed, but in how he chose to use it.

And therein, Ruvian found his opening.

Because for all his fluid footwork and uncanny reflexes, Ardyn favored heavy, dominant swings, telegraphed by full-body motion.

He wanted his blows to land, not just threaten. And heavy strikes, no matter how fast they began, always gave room for evasion.

Now they stood across from him again, forming that same formation, armed with the same spells, stepping once more into the same pattern he had already seen.

But this time, Ruvian, at the front. Jareth and Noelle just behind, keeping to his flanks. Which, of course, was their second pattern of attack.

Ardyn gave his broadsword a tightened grip. His lips curled into wrath.

“Come.”

He said, inviting them. Ardyn had already noted their rhythm and structure. But that was fine… because Ruvian was counting on it.

The three of them launched forward at once, moving in unison. The slight gap of their formation, between Ruvian and the others, was intentional.

Ardyn’s gaze narrowed, watching only Ruvian. And then, when Ruvian crossed the invisible line – the range where Ardyn’s blade could reach him, Ardyn didn't waste any time.

The broadsword came down with brutal force, purple lightning cracking across its length like veins made of fury. It cleaved toward Ruvian with enough momentum to tear through the air in a loud, shuddering arc.

But somehow, the blade didn't strike Ruvian.

It struck a stone wall.

From beneath the floor, a wall of earth surged upward in a sudden, vertical bloom, not just intercepting the blade but cutting off Ardyn’s line of sight entirely.

Still, the impact didn’t stop him.

He howled through it, forced the blade straight through the wall, chunks of stone flying as he swung, carving into the very floor beneath him, splitting it with the sheer violence of his advance.

However, Ruvian was no longer there.

Ardyn’s swing hit only air and stone.

And even though it was only for a second… A flicker of confusion crossed his face.

“What?!”

The sound tore from him more in disbelief than rage, because something felt wrong. And then the sensation came—the cold brush of movement behind him, rising not from open space, but from the shadow appearing on the floor itself.

Ruvian emerged, rising from the melted shadow beneath Ardyn’s feet. His form distorted once—smoke, then flesh, and by the time Ardyn twisted with a retaliatory strike, Ruvian had already closed the gap.

He had cast Wind Burst without chanting, a sharp horizontal push compressed into a wind exploding him outward in a straightforward dash.

The blade missed him by inches, whistling through the space he had just left behind. Ruvian’s wand met Ardyn’s torso, and in that instant, the air between them shrieked.

Another chantless spell and a gale, detonated from point-blank.

The spell compressed a column of air into a concentrated pulse, and at this range, there was nowhere for it to go except through its target. Ardyn’s chest buckled. His broadsword slipped from his fingers, clattering to the ground as his body shot backward like a cannonball.

He was still mid-air, twisting helplessly, when Jareth and Noelle caught him on the other end.

And they did not hesitate.

Noelle’s daggers sank low into his left knee, slipping between plates. Jareth’s spear snapped toward his shoulder, aiming for the joint where armor no longer moved. The coordination wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t have to be.

Both blades found their mark before Ardyn’s body even touched the ground. The strikes weren’t elegant. But they were fast, brutal, and placed with enough precision.

One blow sinking into the joint at the knee, the other snapping toward the shoulder socket just beneath the armor’s curve. By the time Ardyn crashed into the stone, skidding with the ugly friction of body against the floor, the momentum had already shifted.

Ruvian stood a few paces back, wand still raised, its tip faintly glowing with the residual charge of overused mana. His fingers twitched from the raw nerve-throb that came from his Spellcore, due to spending more than he had.

He let out a slow exhale, and resisted the urge to drop the wand altogether.

‘It works!’

His mana reserve was nearly dry.

And he had known this would happen the moment he triggered the second spell. Not because it was particularly extravagant, but because of how he had cast it.

It was beyond his capabilities to cast 2 spells at the same time without incantation , but he managed to find a way to make it happen.

He had drawn both of the spells into written chants earlier that morning, scrawled into his enchanted notebook—Write That Down—the one currently affixed to his chest with two strips of reinforced tape.

And when the system recognized a pre-written incantation released into his head, it treated it as a more precise chant. The mana cost doubled as per the flaw of the enchantment.

For the first time, the hall went incredibly quiet. No one knew how to respond to what they had witnessed. (+20PP)

Even Delila’s smile, so carefully composed and elegantly worn until now, began to slip.

PP= 940

ME= 180