Chapter 573 - 573: Ah, the Thrill of Physical Combat!

"I must admit, my magic is quite versatile," August noted, observing the shimmering golden barrier protecting Noah. "However, it seems you have already deduced the specific parameters of my Copy Magic."

"I'd like to think so," Noah nodded, dispelling his Absolute Defense sphere.

"Ever since I first heard about your ability to copy any spell, a singular question has bothered me: does that include Celestial Spirit Magic?

"Based on my understanding of arcane theory, it shouldn't be possible. Celestial Spirit Magic relies on a binding, mutual contract between the mage and a specific Spirit. The mage channels Ethernano through a physical conduit—the celestial key—to bridge the gap between dimensions. Without the key, the magic cannot function.

"Furthermore, the contracts themselves are bound by the absolute laws of the Celestial Spirit Realm. You cannot simply 'copy' a multi-dimensional contract forged by the Celestial Spirit King. Therefore, I concluded you cannot copy Celestial Spirit Magic.

"Expanding upon that logic, Celestial Spirit Magic is a branch of Holder-Type Magic. Therefore, I hypothesized that your Copy Magic is entirely ineffective against all forms of Holder-Type Magic, as those spells explicitly require specialized, physical conduits to function."

Noah offered a small, knowing smile. "And based on our exchange just now... I'm confident my hypothesis was correct."

"Brilliant," August smiled, nodding in genuine appreciation. "You deduced my single greatest weakness perfectly. I cannot copy Holder-Type Magic."

August wasn't surprised that Noah had figured it out. Given Noah's profound mastery of magical theory and his razor-sharp analytical mind, identifying a structural limitation in a spell was child's play.

"However," August continued, his eyes glinting with respect. "I never expected you to circumvent my immunity using that specific method. It was incredibly creative. Only a mage with a profound understanding of multiple, disparate magical disciplines could have executed it seamlessly in the middle of combat.

"You essentially used Ice-Make Magic to instantly sculpt a functioning, physical magical conduit—the dragon's head—and then channeled your Ethernano through it, temporarily transforming an inherent elemental spell into a Holder-Type spell."

When Noah had burst from the frozen pillar, August had intended to simply copy whatever spell Noah threw at him. But the moment the Ice Dragon formed, August realized the spell's fundamental architecture had shifted. The ice wasn't just a projectile; it was a physical conduit. It had become Holder-Type Magic. His Copy Magic was rendered useless, forcing him to manually counter the blast with his own raw Ethernano.

"It's a handy trick," Noah shrugged casually, downplaying the sheer absurdity of instantly hybridizing two entirely different schools of magic mid-fight. "Ice-Make is incredibly versatile, and fighting over the ocean provides unlimited raw material."

"Your deductions didn't stop there, did they?" August asked, leaning on his staff. "You didn't just realize I couldn't copy Holder-Type Magic. You deduced the secondary function of my magic as well.

"The ability to completely nullify the spells I copy."

Noah nodded. "It wasn't that difficult to piece together. Whenever I cast an inherent spell, you didn't bother dodging or shielding yourself. You simply copied it, and my magic washed over you harmlessly. But the moment I cast the Holder-Type spell, you immediately countered it. You only react defensively to magic you cannot copy, which proves that copying a spell simultaneously grants you absolute immunity to its effects."

"Your observational skills are truly terrifying," August sighed, shaking his head.

While identifying the Holder-Type weakness was impressive, deducing the absolute nullification effect mid-combat required a terrifying level of processing power. August had never explicitly revealed that function; Noah had just quietly observed his micro-reactions and reverse-engineered the entire truth.

"Honestly, your magic is ridiculously unfair," Noah sighed, staring at the Magic King with profound envy. "If an opponent relies entirely on inherent Caster-Type Magic, you basically win by default. You instantly learn their strongest spells, become completely immune to their attacks, and then kill them using their own magic. It's the ultimate trump card."

"Perhaps," August conceded. "But your own growth rate is equally terrifying, Noah. When I was your age, my power was a mere fraction of what you possess now. If you maintain this trajectory, the heights you will reach in a few years are unimaginable."

"Alright, we've sufficiently flattered each other's abilities," Noah laughed, cracking his knuckles. "Let's stop talking and get back to the fight."

"Agreed," August smiled, rolling his broad shoulders. "The warmup is over. My blood is finally boiling."

August planted his feet, assuming a grounded martial arts stance. His eyes burned with an intense, revitalized battle lust.

Seeing the Magic King drop his staff and adopt a brawler's stance, Noah grinned wildly. He bent his knees, lowering his center of gravity.

CRACK!

Noah aggressively launched himself forward. The sheer explosive force of his leap instantly shattered the massive ice floe beneath his boots, reducing it to pulverized slush.

He crossed the distance in a blur, generating a massive sonic boom as he rocketed toward August.

August didn't flinch. He raised his left hand, firing a rapid barrage of highly compressed crimson Ethernano spheres to intercept the incoming blur.

Noah didn't slow down. He fluidly bobbed and wove through the barrage, planting his feet on the shattered chunks of ice floating in the air to violently change his trajectory, instantly closing the gap.

As Noah arrived in striking range, August dropped his stance, pulled his right arm back, and threw a devastating straight punch directly at Noah's face.

Noah mirrored the motion, throwing his own right cross.

KABOOOOOOOM!

The two fists collided in mid-air. The sheer kinetic impact generated a localized shockwave that instantly atomized the ice floes floating around them. The ocean below them violently parted, forming a massive, temporary crater in the water.

Neither man backed down. Pushing off the invisible kinetic pressure created by their clashing fists, they both retracted their right arms and simultaneously launched devastating left hooks.

CRUNCH!

Their fists collided again, sending another massive shockwave ripping across the ocean surface.

Using the recoil of the impact, Noah spun his hips, rapidly chaining a vicious sequence of strikes aimed at August's torso. August effortlessly parried the blows, seamlessly transitioning from defense to offense, throwing a brutal uppercut aimed at Noah's jaw.

Noah leaned back, feeling the wind pressure of the punch slice past his chin. He instantly countered, launching a heavy roundhouse kick at August's ribs. August checked the kick with his shin, stepping inside Noah's guard to deliver a crushing elbow strike.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The two men engaged in a terrifying, high-speed martial arts brawl.

Every single punch, kick, and parry generated deafening shockwaves that churned the ocean and shattered the surrounding ice floes.

By unspoken mutual agreement, neither of them used offensive magic. This was purely a test of physical strength and martial arts technique.

And yet, the sheer scale of destruction they were causing using nothing but their physical bodies vastly eclipsed the devastating output of most high-tier mages.

The ice beneath their feet couldn't handle the strain. Every time they clashed, the floes they stood on violently shattered. They were forced to continuously leap between the drifting chunks of ice, fighting a high-speed, acrobatic brawl over the freezing ocean.

BANG!

Noah threw a heavy cross. August fluidly slipped the punch and hopped backward onto a large, stable iceberg.

Noah didn't stop his momentum. He channeled the missed punch into a devastating downward hammer-strike, slamming his fist directly into the iceberg August had just landed on.

KRR-CRACK!

The colossal iceberg instantly split in two, violently shattering into dozens of smaller chunks.

BOOM!

The kinetic shockwave of Noah's punch slammed into the ocean, generating a massive tidal wave that crashed over the shattered ice.

Using the recoil of the strike, Noah backflipped onto a nearby floe. August was already there, throwing a heavy punch.

Noah met the strike head-on.

BANG!

The floe beneath their boots instantly exploded. Stripped of their footing, both men plummeted toward the freezing ocean below, their fists still locked in a stalemate.

In mid-air, Noah violently twisted his hips, throwing a heavy kick that forced August to break the grapple and retreat.

The moment Noah's boots touched the churning seawater, he released a pulse of Ice-Make magic. The ocean instantly flash-froze beneath him, creating a solid platform. He absorbed his downward momentum by bending his knees, cratering the newly formed ice.

Instantly, he pushed off, shattering the ice completely as he rocketed toward August.

August had mirrored the maneuver, freezing the ocean to catch his fall. Seeing Noah charging him, August realized he had a problem.

August's baseline physical strength was immense, and his crimson battle form amplified it significantly. Against a normal opponent, his martial arts were flawless and overwhelmingly powerful.

But Noah wasn't normal.

Noah's physical strength was utterly monstrous, and his stamina was completely bottomless. In a pure, un-enhanced brawl, August was slowly but steadily losing ground. He couldn't match Noah's sheer, explosive kinetic output for much longer.

He needed to incorporate magic to level the playing field.

August channeled a massive surge of dense crimson Ethernano directly into his right fist, amplifying the kinetic force of his strike exponentially. He planted his feet and threw the magically enhanced punch directly at the incoming Noah.

Noah immediately sensed the massive magical concentration in August's fist.

Instead of countering with his own magic, Noah grinned wildly. He tightened his core, flexed every muscle in his arm to its absolute limit, and threw a purely physical punch to meet August's magically enhanced strike.

He wanted to see exactly how far his un-enhanced physical body could push the Magic King.

Seeing Noah refuse to use magic, August smirked, pouring even more Ethernano into his strike.

KABOOOOOOOOOOM!

The two fists collided with catastrophic force.

The colossal sheet of ice beneath them—spanning nearly a kilometer in diameter—violently shattered into a million pieces. A terrifying, hurricane-force shockwave erupted from the point of impact, violently blasting the shattered ice outward and tearing a massive, dry chasm into the ocean.

The sheer recoil forced both men to disengage.

They plummeted toward the exposed seabed, completely unrestrained, their eyes locked on each other.

The moment they neared the water rushing back into the chasm, they simultaneously cast Ice-Make magic, flash-freezing the ocean into a new battlefield.

They landed, instantly shattered the ice, and charged each other again.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The cycle repeated. They clashed, shattered a massive kilometer-wide glacier, plummeted toward the ocean, froze the water, and clashed again.

The scale of the destruction steadily expanded. The ocean was completely covered in a chaotic, churning mass of pulverized ice floes and towering tidal waves, stretching for miles in every direction.

KABOOOOOM!

Another massive, kilometer-wide glacier shattered beneath their combined might. The two men vaulted backward, landing on separate floes, both panting slightly.

"Ah! This is incredible! There's nothing quite like the sheer thrill of a pure physical brawl!" Noah cheered, his eyes burning with intense, unadulterated excitement.

It had been so long since he had been able to genuinely let loose in a physical fight.

His brief brawl with Acnologia didn't count. During that fight, Noah had been completely terrified. The power gap was so massive that he had been hyper-focused on survival, constantly bracing for Acnologia to unleash his true apocalyptic power.

But fighting August was different. This was a true, high-stakes spar between equals. He could finally enjoy the fight.

~~~

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