Mailey stared at Willard with expressions of complete shock. It had been a while he had fought anyone who could do that to him. Even within the blue dragon academy, there was only one person who had ever put him in such a state before.

“With your capabilities, you should be someone famous. Tell me, who are you?” Mailey’s comment had hit the mark on everyone’s thoughts. Someone capable of doing such a thing had to have been famous. They all eagerly awaited Willard’s response.

“I am Willard, a friend of Sebastian Gerret,” Willard said and took a slight pause. Seeing everyone’s expectant gaze, he smirked and continued. “Do I need to be in an academy before I have the qualifications to win against you?”

“Hahaha. No, you don’t. I just figured someone with your level of skill should be in an academy making a name for himself.” Mailey responded.

“Isn’t this Willard fellow a little too over confident just because he won one exchange?” The crowd began with their commentary.

“He barely won that exchange. Can’t you See Mailey is just fine.”

“It only happened because Mailey wasn’t taking the fight seriously.”

To the spectating noble watching the fight, Willard’s upper hand in that exchange was just a simple fluke. There was no way he could repeat that feat now that Mailey was aware of his strength. Although they could admit that Willard wasn’t a pushover, they still believed he wasn’t a true match for Mailey.

“Are you a mage or warrior?” Willard asked not paying much attention to the on-going conversation the spectators were having. “No mage should be able to withstand that attack just now.” Although Willard’s comment had sounded conceited, Mailey understood exactly what he meant. After all, he was the one that experienced the brunt of Willard’s attack.

“You can think of me as a special case. I specialize in vitality magic.”

The green flame was exactly what Mailey was referring to when he mentioned the vitality magic. It was a special application of the water and fire elements, which Mailey showed great talents in. This wasn’t something Mailey could be taught, but rather he had to be innate born with an aptitude for it. This was what made Mailey a young genius. Although he wasn’t at the elemental level yet, he could still manipulate some elemental forces. He had learned to use this magic to enhance his physical attributes and give himself a good fighting chance even against the best of warriors. He could also affect the growth of plants and had the ability to heal people. The application of vitality magic was considered limitless and truly unique if it could be properly trained.

“I see. Why don’t you go ahead and start your incantations.” Others might have thought that Willard was acting too high and mighty, but Mailey knew that wasn’t the case because he was strong.

“Get ready, I am going to use a rank-B spell, this time around.”

Mailey clasped his hand one more time and began his incantations. This time, only the green flame appeared around his forehead. The incantations did not end there, but rather it grew louder. Slowly, water started pouring out from Mailey’s clasped palm. From a slow downpour, it greatly increased in intensity. Within a minute,the entire terret was filled with water. Thanks to the runes that surrounded the terret, the water was just contained within the terret. The imagery of the terret was like that of a giant fishbowl containing Willard and Mailey.

As the torrential downpour of water from Mailey’s hands stopped, Willard discovered that his movements were heavily constricted by the water. His speed and control had declined by fifty percent. ‘This spell perfectly counters all my advantages. Not bad.’ Willard silently thought to himself. Willard knew how difficult it was for the average person to manipulate natural energy to the extent of creating pseudo-elements ⌈¹⌋.

The green flame that was in front of Mailey slowly descended to the floor. As it made contact, sprawlings of what seemed like a branch of a plant mysteriously started growing out. It stretched out and coiled heading towards Willard. Willard used the movement technique to evade the attack. Although Willard’s speed was mitigated, it was slightly faster than the branch of the strange plant that Mailey controlled. The exchange went on for a couple of minutes, and every time Willard barely managed to escape the plants grip.

“By now you should know this fight is over. It’s just a matter of time before you are bounded by my magic.” Mailey said as continued attacking Willard.

Willard remained silent and continued evading Mailey’s attack. Each time Willard used the martial movement technique to evade, a deep contemplative expression would appear on his face. Some seedling of an idea seemed to have spurred a thought in Willard’s mind. Throughout the entire fight, Willard had been wondering how it was possible for Mailey to have created a domain with natural energy. Although the water seemed real, it was actually just a form of natural energy. That was why Willard could freely breath and Mailey could talk without drowning.

The branch quickly approached Willard again, and this time, Willard stood still. The branched continued to wrap around him, enforcing its grip on Willard.

“What did I say earlier? That Willard fellow cannot measure up to Mailey.” One of the spectating nobles said.

“After all that lofty talk, he still lost.”

“We have to give this fellow some credit, he was able to hold out against Mailey for some time.”

Conversations like these erupted within the crowd of nobles who were spectating the fight. To a desolate corner, Asyut stood, his face was wrinkled from the strain of his frown. He was utterly infuriated. He had managed to enlist the services of Mailey true some scrupulous means this time and had thought this would be a simple thrashing. To his complete surprise, not only was Willard completely trashed, he had given a great fight as well. This wasn’t the result he had wanted at all.

Sebastian, on the other hand, was ecstatic. Before he had thought Willard was a diamond in the rough, but now he realized Willard a dazzling jewel. He couldn’t help but imagine Willard’s future accomplishment. He had just reaffirmed his previous judgment of maintaining a great relationship with Willard.

As Willard was continually being bounded by the branch, he was in a deep trance like state. For some reason, he felt something was familiar about Mailey’s domain and technique. Suddenly, a more concrete memory passed through his mind. He remembered the last time he was undergoing seclusion training at the Garret household. He noticed and felt a strange red energy within his core. Mailey’s domain and technique gave him a vague sense of that energy. “That’s very strange. Why am I sensing that strange energy from him?” Willard questioned.

“Give up, this battle is over.” Mailey said, jolting Willard back to reality.

As Willard’s eyes opened back up, he willed his natural energy from his core to create an explosive ring of natural energy emanating from his body. This explosive natural energy destroyed the strange branch that had entangled him earlier, the force did not dissipate there, it further destroyed Mailey’s water domain and even attacked the runes that surrounded the terret.

As that happened, the curly brown haired woman turned and stared at the terret. She immediately disappeared from her table and appeared much closer to the terret. Nobody had noticed what the curly brown haired woman had done, as everyone’s attention, including the second in command of the Marquis city guard, were on Willard and Mailey.

“This duckling is indeed interesting.” The curly brown haired woman said before she had disappeared entirely from Minya mansion. She appeared miles away from the mansion, covered in a brilliant smile. Her curly brown hair slowly straightened up and turned black as she walked. If the manager of the restaurant, who was stripped naked and spanked by his server were there, he would have recognized this woman as the singer that mysteriously vanished with all the money in the restaurant.