The next morning...

Felix and Selphie could be seen standing in opposite areas on a circular white s.p.a.cious arena...While Selphie had an easy-going chirpy smile, Felix looked like he was going into war for the first time.

"Three, two, one...Fight."

The instant Queen Ai kicked off the battle, Felix's antlers s.h.i.+mmered brilliantly before a golden hex appeared in the center.

When the hex was completed, countless hardened sand arrows emerged from the hex before getting launched rapidly towards Selphie!

Whoosh whoosh...!

"Leaves Barrier." Selphie waved her wand a bit, causing a green hex to manifest almost instantaneously. It was followed by a spherical barrier made out of toughened leaves.

The barrier was created so fast, the arrows had barely crossed half their distance!

'As expected, she has an even faster casting speed with lesser spells.' Felix thought with a stern expression as he watched his sand arrows break into sand particles after landing on her barrier.

"Let's see how you perform under pressure." Selphie smiled charmingly as she tapped her barrier with her wand.

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The instant she did so, the barrier broke into thousands of sharp leaves that were hurled in direction of Felix!

's.h.i.+t, I can't evade them in time with my limitations!' Knowing that dodging wasn't an option against this shower of sharp leaves, Felix was forced to go on defense.

"Sand Wall!" He called out loud as he eyed the approaching leaves.

Unfortunately, the nearer they got, the more his instincts screamed at him to move out of the way. This had caused his focus to be split in half.

When it came to runes, this was a grave mistake...

'G.o.d d.a.m.n it!'

Felix could only curse in irritation as he guarded his face against the leaves' rain...As for the sand wall? He completely gave up on it as he knew that by the time the hex come online, he would already be a walking hedgehog.

"Are you alright?" Selphie asked from a distance as she eyed Felix, who was bleeding from everywhere.

"Still breathing." Felix spat a bloodied mouthful of saliva and started pulling out the sharp leaves from his body. Alas, he had no idea that Selphie wasn't done yet.

"I am sorry for this." Selphie covered her eyes and waved her wand one more time.

'Well, just f*cking gre...'

BOOM BOOM BOOM!!

Before Felix could finish his tirade, the leaves blown out into a much smaller sharp fragments!

Since most of them were still inside his body, his entire internal system was turned into a mush...Not a single heart managed to survive the blow, killing him instantly...

"Round One goes to Selphie." Queen Ai announced as she revived the annoyed Felix.

He wasn't annoyed at Selphie but at himself for going down so easily when his greatest a.s.sets were taken away from him.

He realized that he stopped being mindful of every small thing when he had gotten so strong...If it was the old Felix, he would have instantly considered that the leaves could be blown.

Sure, he might not have done anything to stop it with his limitations, but at least he would have known about it.

"Are you wondering about how I managed to extract three spells from just one?" Selphie asked from afar.

"Isn't it something similar to ability modification that normal elementalists utilize?" Felix answered.

"Kinda of." Selphie clarified, "What I used is an advanced technique called Derivation. As long as I have the original first hex online, it allows me to change the runic sentence while the spell is still active...This results in the spell's effect being changed."

"I see..." Felix wasn't too amazed by this technique since normal elementalists were capable of doing the same with their abilities much easier and simpler.

"Based on your expression, I can tell that you aren't too impressed." Selphie said.

"It's nothing new."

"That's where you are mistaken." Selphie smiled, "Sure, normal elementalists can do the same and much easier, but can they do this?"

Under Felix's stunned eyes, a flower emerged in Selphie's hand before getting turned into a tree in the blink of an eye!

She wasn't done yet.

She kept changing the form of the spell to something thoroughly different from the original spell with one hex online!

"The h.e.l.l? How is that possible?"

This was enough to amaze Felix as he knew that even normal elementalists weren't capable of doing so!

Well, to be exact, they could change an ability to another.

However, it required them to manually break off the first ability into elemental energy before using it to create a new ability.

This would take at least a second or two to pull it off compared to how instantaneous Selphie made it seem.

"This is the beauty of having runes a.s.sisting you in your manipulation." Selphie explained, "You guys are free to control chaotic particles as you pleased, but at the same time, it puts a considerable toll on you to do everything manually."

"Meanwhile, runes helps us automate the process as long as we have mastered both desired spells." Selphie concluded.

"Obviously, this is only possible for high ranked spellcasters as it took great amount of focus and runic understanding."

"Does spell complexity play a role as well?"

"More than you can imagine." Selphie smiled wryly, "I am barely capable pulling this technique with omnipotent spells from my other elements. As for my Time element? I can't do it even with lesser spells."

"That's tough."

Although it wasn't ideal, Felix was still interested to learn the technique since it would add variety to his sand spells in the future.

"Alright, enough chitchatting, let's go again." Selphie canceled her spells and prepared for the second round.

Without an ounce of hesitation, Felix kicked off the second round by manifesting two giant hardened sand swords...Then, he dashed in Selphie's direction while protecting himself in a set of armor.

"Two spells at once, you are really improving at a crazy rate." Selphie smiled happily while creating a wide leaf and sitting on it.

The leaf started hovering in the air and flew her away from Felix...At the same time, Selphie kept using other nature spells to either catch Felix or harm him.

This time, Felix had learned his lesson and focused on every single little detail, allowing him to avoid the emerging vines from the ground and even the flying explosive seeds.

They were being fired by a small squad of flowers on top of Selphie's leaf.

Slice! Boom!

If he couldn't avoid everything, Felix used his giant sand swords to open a path forcefully...Unfortunately, this slowed him down, making him incapable of catching up to Selphie.

"Are you planning to run forever?!" Felix remarked in vexation.

"Yep!" Selphie giggled, "I am not a fool to get close to you."

Selphie knew that Felix had an insane level of battle experience compared to a greenhorn like her...If she ever fought him up close, he would most defintely teach her a lesson with just those two swords.

'I need to find a way to get near.' Felix looked around him for anything to use to his advantage like in the old times...Too bad, the arena was as an empty as my wallet.

'If it's like this, then I will make her come to me.' Felix narrowed his eyes as he whiffed a sword swing, causing him to have his arm get caught by a vine.

Just like moths drawing to fire, the rest of the vines immediately extended in his direction and caught the rest of his limbs.

Naturally, Felix kept struggling against them to not drew any suspicious off him.

"Use your spells, I have thought you twenty, and you barely used four by now." Selphie chided as she watched Felix attempting to cut the vines with his sword, but to no avail.

"It's not easy, d.a.m.n it." Felix cursed in annoyance while showing her that he was indeed giving it his best.

Alas, the golden hexes kept breaking in the middle of their creation.

"Well, if you don't master them quickly, this test might last months." Selphie halted tens of meters away from Felix while waving her wand at him, manifesting a giant tree with blue chilling leaves.

"Freeze him to death." Selphie ordered while looking in the other side, knowing that Felix wasn't going to surrender peacefully.

'Now!'

There was no way Felix wouldn't take advantage of her behavior!

Boom!

Giant sand hands emerged from underneath Selphie and smashed her between their palms! The sand wasn't hardened but had a much worse effect!

Dehydration!

It absorbed the water content of anything it touched, causing the tree and the plants around Selphie to shrivel and die almost instantly!

As for Selphie? She wasn't spared from this nasty effect as well as her l.u.s.trous skin and hair began to turn drier and drier!

With her losing focus like this, the vines holding down Felix went soft, allowing Felix to get freed.

The moment Felix was given his freedom back, he tightened his grasp on the swords and charged towards Selphie with ill intentions.

'Kill her!' Asna cheered happily.

Whooshh!!

Without hesitation, he swung his sword inside the sand, splitting it in half...However, before he could feel joyous, Felix glimpsed at his sword and realized that it didn't have a single blood drop!

"You are really mean to use such a cursed spell on a girl." Selphie complained from within the sand palms, causing Felix to flinch a bit.

Just as he decided to pull away from her, Felix realized that he was surrounded by more than a hundred green hexes!

"I never thought I will say this, but you deserve to be punished."

Whoosh Whoosh Whoos.h.!.+

The green hexes all turned bright for a second before countless brown wooden spears were launched from them! They came from every single direction, not giving Felix even a second to think of a way out.

"This is cheating!" Felix could only shout out his grievance one last time before getting impaled to the ground by hundreds of spears...

"It's not cheating, it's a technique called spell multiplication." Selphie walked out of the sand akin to an undead fairy covered completely in dried out leaves and flowers.

As for her skin and hair? They were restored back to their original shape after she killed Felix, not allowing him to see her in such a bad state.

"This isn't over yet!" Felix immediately declared for the third round to start after he got revived!

Those two losses hadn't set him back at all, but instead made him even more motivated to beat Selphie under her own turf and rules!