Chapter 263

The moment the electric spheres collided with the water blade, a violent burst of steam exploded outward and swallowed the entire arena in an instant. Before the fog could even settle, the steam began to twist into a raging vortex.

Kraus had already pulled the scattered moisture back together, reconstructing the shattered water blade by dragging in the surrounding vapor at terrifying speed. He swung it down without hesitation.

「Ah! The steam is being pulled toward Kraus in an instant! He doesn’t lose any momentum at all and continues pressuring Do-Jin! It looks like he’s grabbing a cloud and slashing with it!」

The Water Giant swept across the battlefield with a cloud-shaped blade. The long white trail that followed the swing bore down on everyone watching. It looked as if the attack would crush the much smaller figure of Do-Jin standing in front of it without mercy.

While Kraus had been busy rebuilding his weapon, though, Do-Jin completed his spell. A Wind Barrier rose between him and Kraus, a roaring wall of stormwinds drawn along an invisible boundary. The moment Kraus’s water blade came down, the swirling gale caught it head-on and hurled it back into the sky.

「This is insane! It’s a waterspout! Just like a tornado pulling seawater into the sky, Do-Jin’s wind is sucking in Kraus’s attack!」

Kraus pulled his attack back at the last second. Some instinct screamed at him that if he tried to force his way through with brute strength, the “water” wrapped around him might get completely sucked dry.

A defensive spell at this level... even for him, that has to strain his circuits.

Powerful magic overloaded a mage’s Magic Circuits, and that would inevitably lead to a forced cooldown. Even if the one standing across from him was Do-Jin, whose limits were on a completely different level, this was still a moment worth capitalizing on.

Now’s the time to push, Kraus thought, not wanting to give Do-Jin a single inch of breathing room.

He would drive him back, force him onto defense, and make him burn resources and time until his circuits were strained to hell.

“Lexia!” Kraus called out the true name of the spirit bound to him.

The moment its name rang out, the contracted spirit awakened. The eyes of the Water Giant wrapped around him flared with brilliant blue light. At the same time, the sword and shield it carried condensed even further and froze solid, becoming denser, harder, and more cohesive.

“I’ll freeze you solid!” With that shout, Kraus thrust his blade forward.

At that exact moment, the roaring vortex that had been swirling between them scattered like an illusion, and Do-Jin emerged from within it.

The instant Kraus saw Do-Jin’s eyes, he knew something was wrong.

He set something up!

His instincts were right. Ever since the fight began, Do-Jin had been trying to shape the battlefield beneath their feet. What had started as a dry, clean, boring arena before the match was now saturated with wind and water.

Perfect weather to burn some mana, Do-Jin thought as he flooded the field with basic elemental magic.

Spells of this level no longer required any casting time for him, so he poured mana into them without hesitation, forming three, four, five, then finally ten at once. A cluster of Wind Arrows and Frozen Arrows rained down toward the frozen blade Kraus drove forward.

It is already too late. I need to commit!

Kraus refused to stop and thrust straight at Do-Jin. Explosive bursts of compressed wind cracked through the air with violent pops, while shards of ice collided with sharp, grinding shrieks that echoed across the arena. One side drove the frozen blade forward while the other tried to shatter it, and neither was willing to give an inch.

「Do-Jin is going to be pierced if this keeps up!」

At the last possible moment, with barely any distance left before it pierced Do-Jin, Kraus’s ice blade shattered with a violent crack that echoed across the arena.

That was close as fuck without the Rune Gauntlet!

The absence of the relic weapon that guaranteed one hundred percent critical hits left a very real gap in damage. He could feel the difference, and it wasn’t subtle. A clean chunk of his damage output was missing, and it nagged at Do-Jin just enough for him to notice.

However, he had made up for that shortfall by drowning the blade with relentless firepower. As the shattered ice exploded right in front of him, he let the freezing air wash past his body and kept building more magic without hesitation.

It was fine. He had grown enough to overcome the absence of every single item he had once relied on. Amid the hot rush of excitement that came from feeling that growth in his bones, his thoughts remained cold and sharp.

Kraus’s weakness is simple. The weapon he forges for attack is still part of the spirit.

When Kraus strengthened a weapon for a heavy strike, more Spirit Power concentrated into it. The stronger the attack, the more of that power was focused there. If that weapon was targeted, the core that unified offense and defense, the very spirit forming his armor, would stall for a brief moment.

「This is insane! Absolutely insane nerve from Do-Jin! Kraus’s massive Ice Blade has been shattered by his magic assault! Is that why the Aqua Knight surrounding Kraus looked momentarily stiff, almost frozen in place?!」

Despite that, it didn’t leave Kraus completely defenseless. That would have been too easy, and Kraus wasn’t weak enough to fall apart that easily. But breaking his momentum for even a split second and forcing him onto the back foot was more than enough.

「Do-Jin’s offensive pressure is getting even sharper! Frozen arrows are pouring in from every direction, and Kraus is steadily being pushed back! He keeps generating shields to defend, but each time lightning detonates and shatters his defenses!」

Do-Jin’s relentless magic barrage left Kraus no time to shift his stance. Every sliver of breathing room had to be spent purely on defense.

「This has become a battle of endurance! One side attacks without a moment to breathe while the other digs in and holds firm! Which one will collapse first?!」

The clash between Do-Jin and Kraus was far flashier than the ones before them. Wind and water collided and detonated in violent bursts. Torrents of spinning water clashed with incoming Frozen Arrows in midair and crushed them to pieces. Lightning cracked and roared, sending sheets of mist and broken water blasting across the arena. The entire place felt as if it were being torn apart by raw elemental forces.

If I just hold out here, a chance will come. Kraus clenched his teeth and endured.

He prepared to unleash his trump card while stubbornly waiting for the moment Do-Jin’s Magic Circuits would finally hit their limit. He told himself that even someone like Do-Jin had a ceiling, and that ceiling would crack eventually.

After what felt like forever, Kraus finally shouted, “Fuck me! Lexia!”

Against his expectations, Kraus’s barrier, which had held under relentless pressure, shattered before Do-Jin’s circuits gave out. With a thunderous boom, the Water Giant surged upward and then collapsed in on itself, bursting apart as the condensed water lost cohesion.

Even then, Kraus didn’t give up. When he noticed that Do-Jin’s spell flow was thinning out, he knew Do-Jin had poured everything into that last offensive wave.

「No way! Wind is surging around Kraus! Another giant! A new suit of armor forged from a spirit is wrapping around him!」

Kraus cloaked himself in Wind. The raging gusts that had filled the battlefield suddenly quieted as if they were bowing before him.

“It’s my victory!” Kraus declared with absolute conviction.

At that exact moment, Do-Jin’s presence shifted completely. The mana that was fading ignited once more thanks to Limited Reversion. A towering Flame Wall erupted upward, colliding head-on with the spear of wind Kraus thrust forward.

Kraus pushed even harder, pouring more power into his attack to extinguish the flames that stood in his way. But before he could carve through the burning barrier and press the assault, Do-Jin’s Radiant Flame Cannon completed first. A beam of light wrapped in roaring fire struck Kraus directly, burning through the surrounding wind and tearing straight through him.

「Kraus, who had not allowed a single clean hit until now, finally collapses under Do-Jin’s relentless assault! He is down! Kraus is down!」

As Do-Jin was declared the winner, the comment section was flooded once again.

└ So this is what real scale looks like.

└ Mages are trash, right? Still saying mages are trash after that? Go ahead and say it again.

└ Stop spamming the same shit.

└ Holy fuck. Every single exchange felt like a highlight clip.

└ The part where he shut down Kraus’s water blade with that vortex. That was where it flipped.

└ That scene mattered. Mages rely heavily on the environment, and with that one move he turned the whole arena into perfect conditions for elemental magic. Wind, water, lightning. All of it lined up. That was calculated.

└ That recovery skill is disgusting. It was like time rolled back. Wounds gone. Mana back. I thought it was some relic item effect, but maybe it’s not. That’s ridiculous.

└ Kraus was insane too. He pushed that far and still lost. That hurts to watch.

└ There is always someone above the peak. All the idiots who said Do-Jin was going to get crushed are real quiet now.

└ When Kraus rebuilt the giant with the wind spirit and stood back up, it looked like momentum shifted. And then Do-Jin burned straight through it. Brutal.

└ Other mages are talking about reaching Tier 7, but this guy is operating on a completely different level. He is just ahead of everyone.

└ It’s not over until it’s over. Do-Jin showed a lot this round. Kraus might adjust and come back harder next match.

└ Ohh right. They’re doing best of three! Shit. That first round was so intense it felt like the whole match ended there.

The viewers who had watched the fight live soaked in the afterglow of the first round while waiting for the next one.

└ This round’s actually hard to call. Can’t even tell who’s taking the next one.

└ Hard my ass. Do-Jin kept pressing the whole time and Kraus was getting beaten down. What match were you watching?

└ You’re clueless as shit. Do-Jin was sweating while suppressing Kraus. One tiny slip and Kraus would’ve ripped him in half on the counter. It was that tight.

└ And yet he controlled all of it, didn’t he? Every exchange stayed under Do-Jin’s control. That’s the scary part.

└ Kraus didn’t factor in the rewind. That’s what cost him. If he builds the next round with that bullshit in mind, Do-Jin might actually struggle.

└ Please let Do-Jin lose just once. If he wins again, then whatever god’s running this world needs to be sued for not doing their fucking job.

└ Pretty sure that God has already checked out. The fact that this guy’s still breathing and wrecking everyone like this says enough. What the fuck even is this?

Because the match had been so close, opinions about the second round were split down the middle. Although more people believed Do-Jin would win, there were plenty who thought Kraus could turn things around. Some viewers argued that if Kraus used his newly revealed wind power aggressively from the start, he would have a solid chance.

Then, like a bolt from the blue, an announcement shattered the tension.

「We have some unfortunate news for everyone waiting for the next match. Kraus is unable to continue due to circumstances on his side. As a result, Kraus has forfeited, and today’s opening match ends with Do-Jin’s victory.」

The second match between Do-Jin and Kraus was canceled.

└ What? A forfeit? What kind of bullshit is that?

The audience exploded in anger. The massive spectacle they had been waiting for had just been ripped away right in front of them.

└ Explain the reason! What the fuck’s going on?

└ Even if you’re gonna lose, at least fight and lose. Running because you’re scared makes no damn sense.

└ It’s an instance PvP zone anyway, so all cooldowns reset and spirits get fully restored. What possible excuse is there to not continue the match?

└ Kraus just went live!

The viewers who had been screaming for answers from the organizers rushed over to Kraus’s stream the moment they heard he had turned it on. A few minutes later, most of them came back looking completely drained.

└ Wow... just wow.

└ This is ridiculous. What the hell is this.

└ Wait, spirits can go on strike now?

└ He forfeited because the spirit said it didn’t want to fight? What kind of bullshit excuse is that?

└ Honestly though, I kind of get it. If I was a spirit and someone told me to fight a monster like Do-Jin, I would’ve dipped immediately too. Fuck that.

Kraus’s official reason for forfeiting was that his spirit had refused to continue fighting. Behind the scenes, however, these spirits who cared deeply about Kraus were simply too stunned after watching him get injured like that. To everyone else, it looked like they had simply gotten scared and refused to continue.

└ So magic was raining down like a fucking storm and the spirit just said, “Nope, I’m not fighting that shit.” Huh???

Thanks to that, Do-Jin ended up earning a new title: A Monster So Terrifying Even Spirits Ran Away.