Speedmage Tournament

51ST GEAR - OMNIPRESENCE IN THE LAND OF SWORDS

51ST GEAR - OMNIPRESENCE IN THE LAND OF SWORDS

All of a sudden, everything became black and white. All the noise in the arena subsided, and everything and everyone was frozen. That popcorn from the audience that is about to fall off stayed in midair, those birds up in the sky that hovered indefinitely, and even the sweat on my chin that refused to drop. Time itself has frozen in place.

...Except Ericka, who seemed to have retained the colors of her body. She was heavily panting, and then she started to move.

I was only able to tell it because I have Mystic Glasses equipped. A normal human would not be able to spectate during this Time Freeze.

Ericka approached the frozen Vincent, and struck his back!

A magical circle point indicator manifested, but it was frozen in time. Not being contented, Ericka struck Vincent's back again, and again, and again!

"Yaaaaaaah! Yayayayayah!" Ericka struck Vincent's back over and over, and the stacks of blue magical circle point indicators manifested!

All of a sudden, the world retook its colors. The bird flying above has gone to the north, the popcorns of an audience dropped to the floor, and my sweat fell on the ground. Time has resumed its flow!

"What the!"

Vincent exclaimed as he saw his back stacked by multiple magical circle point indicators. Those magical circles burst out and repelled him away from the President of Ice!

"Gaaaaah!"

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Six points for Ericka, now in a massive lead of 7:3!

I never thought that scoring multiple times in a row was possible! Normally, the repelling effect prevents a Speedmage to do a strike combo. But since Ericka froze the time, the repelling effect was delayed until time resumed its flow!

"Heh! Not bad. You're the second Speedmage that has ever struck me on the back." Vincent wiped the sweat on his smiling face.

"Don't... underestimate... the Merry Knights!" Ericka said. She was already gasping for air ever since the Time Freeze duration ran out.

I saw from my Mystic Glasses that Ericka's Time Freeze spell burns a lot of mana. If I said a lot of mana, it means almost half of her total mana pool was spent just to get that blitzing six points. Her stamina is also almost empty, but it was a good move on Prez's part.

"Gah... hah... hah..." Ericka panted as she tried to skate toward the opponent! "I'm not... finished yet!"

Vincent did a ninja seal, and then he teleported towards the 2nd Checkpoint Tower to evade Ericka's sluggish strike. He touched the checkpoint almost immediately while panting.

Beep!

Point for Vincent, now at 7:4!

Both Speedmages seemed to be gasping for air. Ericka has exhausted her energy by freezing time, while Vincent was exhausted from being blitzed by those strikes during the Time Freeze. Since they are about 500 meters away from each other, they had a couple of seconds to rest.

"That was amazing, Prez! I mean, Useless Prez!" I cheered through the mic to lift her mood.

"How do you like that, Coach? That is my Time Freeze Blitz." Ericka proudly clapped her chest. "Even The Teleporter can be helpless if I freeze time."

"If you keep that up, we may be able to win!" I said.

"Maybe. But I can only cast one more of that spell right now. That is why I have to use the next Time Freeze Blitz at the right moment." Ericka said.