Marcus at first thought he was hearing things when Lilia said that she and ric were going to have a fight.


    Yet as she stared at him waiting for his answer, he realized that his mind had not been ying tricks on him.


    “Wait! Why are the two of you going to fight?”


    Naturally he was befuddled by this sudden deration and wanted to know the reasoning behind it.


    “ric said he was going to get strong enough to fight beside and protect me. I want to see how far he hase. Just like the matches you and Mrazivy have.”


    Turning her head back around, Lilia shed ric a dazzling smile. But the young half elf boy did not seem as enthusiastic at battling it out.


    Seeing this, Marcus connected to ric with telepathy and asked him what he wanted to do.


    ‘ric, you know that if you do not want to you don’t have to fight my little sister. I can tell her that we have more pressing things to do right now.’


    Marcus was prepared to give the young boy an out for the battle he did not look thrilled to be a part of.


    However, it turned out that while Marcus thought ric did not want to fight against Lilia at all, that was not the case.


    ‘Irene, what if I am not strong enough? I put in all that effort, but I am still a lower level than her. She might not ept me to watch her back right now.’


    Hearing this it was clear that ric’s worries were not about the fight itself, but that he might disappoint Lilia.


    ‘Do you think so little of me? I trained you up as well as I could the same way I did Lilia. True you might be a few levels lower than her, but I can guarantee you can put up a good fight. Now go show her how far your unyielding determination has brought you.’


    With Marcus’ words of encouragement ric’s expression changed from one of anxiety to one of resolution.


    “Okay if you both want to, I have no reason to stop you from sparring. This will be a good chance for all of us to see how far the both of you havee.”


    Changing up their ns, everyone headed outside to watch the fight between ric and Lilia.


    “Before the two of you get started though, I have not made ric any adamantine equipment. So Lilia, you should use your old mithril gear instead.” Marcus said once they had all stepped out into the wide-openwn on the property.


    Nodding her head, Lilia agreed to this rule since it would be an unfair advantage for her to use far superior equipment.


    Soon the two of them had activated their mithril armor and weapons and were posed for a battle.


    Standing thirty meters apart, they both waited for the start signal from Marcus who was acting as a referee.


    “When this coin hits the ground it will be your signal to begin.”


    In the next instance he flipped a gold coin high into the air and watched as it began falling down.


    ric and Lilia though never took their eyes off each other. As they waited for the coin to drop.


    The second it hit the ground they both started their first moves. With Lilia rushing towards ric, and ric jumping away to create some more distance.


    ‘Ice Floor.’


    Casting a tier three spell ric froze over the area in between him and Lilia in order to slow her down.


    He knew that in close quarter’sbat he would be wholly outmatched and wanted to keep some distance to bombard Lilia with spells.


    Lilia, however, did not even slow down. Easily stepping over the ice using a force magic spell that could control friction to keep herself stable over the slick ice.


    ‘Frozen bulwark.’


    Seeing Lilia rapidly approaching him, ric used one of his defensive spells and created a long and tall spiked wall of ice by casting a tier four spell.


    This managed to slow Lilia down a bit, as she had to stop or be impaled by the spikes of iceing out of the wall.


    “Force wave.”


    Sending a palm thrust forward, Lilia unleashed her own tier four spell, and the powerful force magic spell impacted the wall of ice in front of her and shattered it.


    ‘What the?!’


    Once she had demolished the wall, Lilia was expecting to catch sight of ric again, but instead all she could see was a huge cloud of smoke.


    In the time she had stopped to destroy his frozen bulwark spell ric had set up arge smokescreen to hide his location.


    ‘He may have surprised me with this. But I have some tricks of my own up my sleeves.’


    Throwing her left hand onto the ground, Lilia charged arge amount of magical energy into her palm and prepared to cast another spell.


    “Kic Search.”


    Waves of force working simr to sonar began expanding outward from her, and in just a manner of moments she had the information on the area three hundred meters around her.


    With this new knowledge, she turned her head to the left away from therge smokescreen and found that a part of the air around a hundred feet away was shimmering.


    Using his wind and smoke magic in conjunction, ric had managed to discretely obscure his presence andunched an attack towards Lilia from her blind spot.


    ‘Gale wyvern.’


    A torrent of wind began swirling around ric’s staff as he cast this spell and soon took the shape of a massive, winged beast.


    Then, when the tier four wind magic spell was ready, ricunched it towards Lilia who he figured he had caught off guard.


    But right as he was firing it, she turned around and looked towards him. Already having found him with her previous spell.


    “Impact control.”


    ‘Adrenaline rush, and mighty blow.’


    Casting her first ever spell along with activating two of her skills, Lilia punched forward with a first full of mana.


    When her attack connected with ric’s spell the two fought for supremacy for a moment. Before Lilia’s powerful strike broke through and dissipated the spell.


    Then with the way open and her target reaffirmed, Lilia kicked off the ground with all the power she could muster and shot toward ric.


    In her wake the earth caved in from how heavy her steps were, and in only a second she appeared in front of ric.


    ‘Deadly rush.’


    Using another attack skill, she began rapidly swinging both her arms and pummeling what was in front of her. Which was currently ric.


    Yet right before she connected, he unnaturally jerked to the left.


    Going wide eyed Lilia never expected ric to be able to avoid her from the position he was in.


    However, as she looked more closely, she could see that there was a chain made of smoke connected to his back, with the other end affixed to a nearby tree.


    ‘I got her.’


    Jabbing his staff forward ric sent his freezing touch spell through it as he struck towards Lilia.


    “Force bar-“


    Trying to cast a spell, Lilia who only had chant shortening came up slightly behind ric who could cast his spells with saying anything.


    His staff impacted against her crossed arms that she had put in front of her to defend, and a thick sheet of ice quickly formed around Lilia. Turning her into a frozen statue.