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CHAPTER START---
Gildarts's fist crashes against Avsala's staff while Oberon and Fulmer begin their duel. The woman's expression is unimpressed, even while leaning forward and completely halting his push to the fortress.
"I expected more from you," she says, pushing harder, making him slide back and down into the coral street.
Gildarts grits his teeth, leaping back to make space between them. "And you're everything I expected. All that power, it's not too late. You can quit this guild, and when Master Makarov is done with Coral, there'll be a spot open in the Wizard Saints."
"Powerful, but young…and foolish. I don't have much growing left to do, my power will never reach the heights of a Wizard Saint, not at my age. But you…you could leave now, and replace your master as Wizard Saint, after a few more years of training."
"You think I'm not qualified?"
"I think you're human, only human, and that's not enough. Especially since you don't seem the type to use politics to get the position."
Gildarts frowns, taking a lower stance, ready to charge in. "We'll see about that."
Avsala raises a brow as he rushes in, expecting Crash Magic, but instead, he only uses his fists to clash with her staff. She uses her superior experience to dance around his strikes, landing many hits before pushing him away with a palm strike to the chest.
Gildarts slides back, cracking his knuckles while narrowing his eyes at the woman. "Master Makarov is far enough now, let's get the real fight started."
Avsala aims her staff forward, and Gildarts punches the air between them, unleashing his famous Crash Magic. To most Wizards, he simply breaks apart everything he touches or launches the Magic Energy toward. But Avsala clearly sees the grid pattern his Magic forms, and can easily read where it'll hit.
She creates a wall of thick blue crystal with her Shimmering Crystal Magic, colliding it with the Crash Magic. The wall explodes on impact, invaded by the Crash Magic, but both attacks cancel each other.
'So his Crash Magic can be countered by matching the volume of Magic Energy. That should be easy enough once it doesn't hit my body.'
She fires a fist-sized shard of sharp crystal at him, and Gildarts waves his hand while rushing her, shattering it with Crash Magic in the air. Avsala sees the attack coming and decides to match his charge.
She swings her staff with full force against his fist. Seeing the Crash Magic in his attack, she forms a layer of Shimmering Crystal around her staff, forcing the Crash Magic to constantly break it as she reforms it.
Gildarts narrows his eyes at her and releases an omnidirectional surge of Crash Magic, breaking apart the ground and buildings around them and shattering the woman. Her body falls apart as crystal shards, annoying him.
But he instantly leaps to the side, feeling a searing pain in his left shoulder as the crystal he avoided slashes across the skin. He turns while leaping away from more attacks, meeting Avsala's gaze while she stands on a nearby rooftop.
"Scared of a little fist fight?" he asks.
"Your Magic is obnoxious. Powerful and simple, but obnoxious. I'll be keeping my distance from now on," she raises her staff and manifests dozens of crystals beside her, then points at Gildarts.
'Gods damn it!' he darts to the side, smashing through a building to take cover, only for the crystals to perfectly navigate the doors, windows, and corridors at extreme speeds, homing in on him. "Seriously?!"
He fires a blast of Crash Magic, destroying the left side of the house and shattering the crystals, only for the wall behind him to shatter and a crystal to stab him behind his left shoulder. He releases Crash Magic reflexively, stopping it from piercing much beyond the skin, but the force sends him tumbling forward out of the building.
He flips and lands on his feet, eyes widening as he senses two dozen more identical attacks incoming. Gildarts doesn't bother looking toward Avsala. Instead, he simply turns and runs south, away from where he could sense anyone.
He smashes through buildings with crystals on his tail, eventually breaking into a large training courtyard with no cover, where he's forced to spin and shatter all the crystals with his Magic, meeting Avsala's gaze as she waves her staff.
Five Magic Circles form above her, and thousands of crystal bullets form, moving faster than even Gildarts could hope to track. He thrusts both hands forward at her, and the woman leaps to a different rooftop before the Crash Magic obliterates the rooftop she was on, including all the crystal bullets and Magic Circles.
Gildarts turns to her, only to see the woman tap her staff on the ground. He senses Magic Energy below and stomps on the ground, shattering the plaza with Crash Magic. But while distracted by the underground attack, a boulder-sized blunt crystal slams into his right side, grinding him against the coral plaza before exploding against him.
The explosions shake the nearby buildings, creating a dust cloud that fails to hide either of these powerful Wizards due to their volume of Magic Energy and finely tuned ability to sense it.
Avsala senses Gildarts rushing toward her, and with another tap of her staff, she forms a wall of jagged crystal in front of her, then kicks it forward, sliding it toward him, shredding anything it touches.
He prepares to send Crash Magic forward, then senses another Spell emerging below his feet, leaping into the sky above both. A spike of crystal rises from his previous location before the jagged wall slams into it, and Gildarts immediately launches Crash Magic at Avsala.
The woman gives a disappointed sigh, sending a torrent of crystal shards at him while he's two stories in the air, then, with thought, calls the four crystals hidden in nearby buildings to the battle.
They smash through the buildings and rush toward Gildarts, forcing him to change tactics and release another omnidirectional attack.
Avsala leaps away, avoiding the attack as it dices the entire plaza, but the instant it ends, another crystal shard rockets in from one street away, smashing through everything and impaling Gildarts's left shoulder.
Searing pain flows through him as the crystal begins to grow inside his flesh, and in the same instant, Avsala leaps up and smashes her staff across his face, sending him crashing through buildings across the plaza.
Gildarts slams through the walls while placing his right hand on the left shoulder, using Crash Magic internally to stop the horrifyingly painful Spell from disabling him.
Avsala waits atop a nearby rooftop, carefully aiming her staff at his obvious Magic Energy signature as the dust cloud settles. 'Powerful Magic, but there is a clear delay and buildup for his more powerful attacks. I need to end this quickly and go finish off Oberon, after that we can go deal with Mak—'
A massive beam of Magic Energy draws her attention to the north, sensing Fulmer pouring a great effort into his shield and seeing him block the coral fortress from Caelum's attack.
"That boy…"
Her gaze shifts back to Gildarts, and the man is already leaping out of the dust toward her.
"I can't let the kid show me this soon!" he yells while launching a directed blast of Crash Magic at her.
Avsala raises her staff to cancel it by making crystals, but sensing the immense Magic Energy of this attack, she elects to leap out of the way, allowing it to level a collection of buildings in her stead.
'So that's her limit,' Gildarts thinks as he's hit by a few crystals before landing, using the momentum to reach a nearby building sooner, smashing through it, then turning and running south. 'That much Magic Energy is too much for her to immediately counter. Now I just need space.'
As he's crashing through many buildings, crossing streets, and bolting down alleyways in a straight line, Avsala is constantly releasing more and more crystals at him. Firing them like bullets, homing attacks, and forming walls to skewer him.
But he trusts his sense of Magic Energy, firing concentrated blasts of Crash Magic without ever looking back, stopping most of the attacks before they reach him.
While fighting and moving south, they both sense an absurd surge of Magic Energy, feeling the winds and weather change and warp as golden and green arcs of Magic Energy dance across the sky like chaotic lightning.
They both smile, sensing the Magic Energy of their guildmaster rising as the battle rages on. The boost to morale for both sides is notable, and both Gildarts and Avsala redouble their efforts to end the fight quickly and help their allies.
CHAPTER END---
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