The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

The true battle began, starting now.

Jackal and Otto stared at each other from ten meters apart.

A vortex of fiery wind encircled the two of them.

It raged wildly as the two prepared to fight in earnest.

For one, the vortex was a way for Otto to separate his own fight with Jackal from his enemies' interruption.

For another, it allowed him to 'cull the herd' and thin out their numbers.

As he had no doubt that as soon as the vortex died down, they would come for him.

And it wasn't to give him a warm, friendly hug, either.

Otto took the opportunity while neither made the first move to buff himself to the best possible state.

He was not intending to fight solely from afar, blasting Jackal with spell after spell.

No.

Here, the faster he could kill Jackal, the better.

For this, he needed to be up close and personal.

[Greater Body Enhance]

With such a strong body to begin with, the effects of Otto's [Greater Body Enhance], which enhanced all of his physical attributes by 70%, were even more exceptional.

His body filled with power. His muscles contracted and expanded in turn to get used to Otto's new strength.

He felt as if he could lift the whole world in his palms.

[Greater Mind Enhance]

Otto's mind cleared up as plans and schemes seemed to naturally fall into place.

His calculation abilities were suddenly enhanced as well.

So when Jackal lunged at Otto with a raging ferocity that belied his speed, and leapt out with a punch aimed directly at Otto's head, Otto was easily able to predict the move from a tiny twitch of Jackal's muscles.

Jackal was no slowpoke, as a naturally strong member of the Throskart race enhanced many times over by the points he'd gathered.

What he truly excelled in, though, was his strength.

Otto could guarantee that he'd bruise or break his skull even with his own strengthened body should he get hit by Jackal's slice.

It was Otto's newfound power, more than anything, that allowed him to react in time.

With not a single change his expression, Otto sidestepped Jackal's grab, and smoothly evaded the hidden sword swipe behind with a firm kick of his leg.

He'd even calculated it so that his foot would slam down on to Jackal's wrist, affecting his grip on the weapon, even potentially disarming him.

Unfortunately, Jackal was still, by rights, the former 1st ranked contestant.

Without skipping a beat, his wrist curled slightly so that Otto's foot hit the blade of the sword.

Thankfully, Otto's famed boots were not cut so easily.

Both men jumped back and stared at each other.

Otto took the opportunity to cast a few additional spells in succession.

[Enfeebling Darkness]

Dark Element

Level 10

Creates a circle with 20m radius of pure, perfect darkness. Enemies are blinded, weakened, and will experience constant damage within this radius. Power escalates with proximity to caster.

Mana Cost: 525

Duration: 10 minutes

Cast Time: Instant

No Cooldown

Darkness wreathed the battlefield and smothered the golden light shining through the tree tops.

The darkness even seemed to add a vague silencing effect, where the sound of the vortex was also swallowed within.

[Haste: Unlimited]

Wind Element

Level 13

Enhances the caster's movement speed by 20%.

Mana Cost: 520

Duration: 150 seconds

Cast Time: Instant

No Cooldown

He also cast a rather infrequently used spell along with it.

[Rock Armor: Unlimited]

Earth Element

Level 15

Forms a layer of light rock over the caster's body, increasing defense by 800.

Mana Cost: 88

Duration: 8 minutes

Cast Time: Instant

No Cooldown

Otto was not particularly worried over his defense.

However, in a circumstance where he was fighting up close and had at least a bit of additional time, it was considerably wiser to prepare for a few not-so-savory eventualities, too.

Jackal also didn't let Otto get too comfortable.

Despite the suffocating darkness in front of him and the slow but steady draining of his mental strength, physical strength, and willpower, Jackal didn't seem to be affected.

Otto felt it was slightly admirable, for an enemy.

Jackal sliced at him with his sword, using his senses to detect Otto's exact position in the darkness.

As he approached, he also became more comfortable in the darkness.

Jackal's eyes shone grimly as he ran forward, learning to calculate Otto's exact position by the precise level of weakness he felt in his body.

Otto didn't hide from him either.

He capitalized on his own vision advantage by adding [Night Vision] to his list of active spells.

Otto snuck up on Jackal from the side, and shot two supercharged [Wind Blades] at him.

Jackal nimbly dodged the first after sensing the threat from his right side.

He also began to dodge the second, only to discover his body wouldn't move as fast as he'd wanted it to.

Jackal inwardly cursed his serious injury and the darkness that slowed him down as he did his best to minimize the damage.

But the blade still struck squarely into his side, eliciting another round of purple rivulets of blood that fell from his abdomen.

He glared at where he believed Otto was located.

Otto was unfazed.

He also didn't retreat.

A mana weapon appeared in his hands.

It was a simple longsword.

Only, after the modifications from Otto's spell, its edge was even sharper than Jackal's sword.

To finish the boy off fast, Otto decided to fight in close combat with Jackal, to manually lock him in position.

His sword swung down directly at Jackal's head.

CLANG

It was easily blocked.

Jackal was no pushover, no matter his current physical weaknesses.

His technique was even slightly ahead of Otto's, and his strength was, surprisingly, on par with Otto.

But Otto wasn't finished.

As soon as the swords were locked in struggle with each other, Otto made expert use of his [Multitask] trait to the maximum, and began peppering Jackal with spells.

He couldn't use his high damage space element spells as the spatial stabilizer was still currently active.

Otto chose the next best thing.

Of course, it was fire.

[Exploding Fireball: Unlimited]

Fire Element

Level 12

Shoots a fireball that explodes upon contact with an enemy. Deals (264 +18% magic power) damage.

Mana Cost: 228

Cast Time: Instant

No Cooldown

He also channeled [Scorching Touch] so that Jackal would burn whenever their swords touched.

[Scorching Touch]

Fire Element

Level 10

Adds fire damage to the enemy upon physical contact. Deals 50 damage per hit.

Mana Cost (channeled): 75/minute

Cast Time: Instant

No Cooldown

Jackal felt a burning sensation come from the hand holding his sword.

He almost let go subconsciously.

His intuition only saved him at the last moment, realizing that should he discharge his weapon, the sword of mana Otto held would come slicing into his head.

Yes, he was hard-headed.

Yes, he probably wouldn't directly die.

No, he didn't want to die so easily.

But before he could move to disengage, a second deadly threat came from his other side.

Jackal was alarmed and subconsciously twisted to avoid, but the distance between the two was too close.

He wasn't able to escape.

A supercharged [Lesser Fireball] smashed into Jackal.

It was a testament to the power and defense of his body that he wasn't instantly burned into ashes.

But the right half of his body still began to melt quickly.

Otto didn't let up, either, and fed the flame with [Blaze], and peppered in a few [Air Bullets] and [Gale Pushes] for good measure.

Jackal knew this was a moment of life or death. So even in death, he needed to make it count.

His eyes flecked with determination.

Jackal roused the energy in his body to stave off the encroaching flame for a few seconds.

Then, his body moved like lightning even as his skin began to slowly melt on his bones.

Jackal aimed his sword directly into Otto's ribs, and thrust as fast as he could.

Otto was slightly caught off guard by this seemingly suicidal move until he realized…Jackal wouldn't really die here.

He wanted to complete his mission at all costs!

Otto's mind worked at lightning speed while his body moved instinctively to dodge Jackal's thrust.

But before he completed the dodge, Otto halted in his tracks.

Instead of dodging, he dual cast an instant [Fiery Deflection] combined with [Dark Bind].

[Fiery Deflection: Unlimited]

Fire Element

Level 15

Fire encircles the caster to block and return two attacks up to 15,000 damage in their entirety.

Mana Cost: 375

Duration: 10 seconds

Cast Time: Instant

No Cooldown

[Dark Bind: Unlimited]

Dark Element

Level 10

Bind a target with shadow and immobilize their limbs. Requires ((200 +19% magic power)/5) Strength to escape.

Mana Cost: 114

Duration: 10 seconds

Cast Time: Instant

No Cooldown

Except this time, Otto wasn't binding Jackal's limbs with his spell.

He was using his dark tendrils to slow down the sword.

As soon as the sword was about to hit, a silvery glow flashed at Otto's left.

It shot past where Otto had just been about to dodge.

Otto felt a shiver run up his spine as he felt the sheer density of that energy.

Jackal had almost used his own well honed combat instincts against him!

If it weren't for his mind becoming clearer…Otto might have fallen for it, and taken a serious injury right before Jackal died.

Seeing that his hidden shot still missed, a helpless smile crossed Jackal's face.

Otto was really too difficult to trick.

Purple blood bubbled out from Jackal's mouth.

Combined with his light skin, it made him look like a dying, malicious, ghoul.

Just before he 'died,' he croaked out five words even as his body turned to ashes.

Otto could barely make them out.

"I won't forget you, ne…me…sis."

Then, he was gone.

An enormous stream of points rolled into Otto's body, inflating him with a renewed sense of strength.

Jackal's death was confirmed.

Otto looked outside of the darkness that still blanketed the now empty dirt below.

His [Night Vision] was still active, so he didn't have any trouble seeing through the depths of the dark.

The firestorm was slowly dying down.

Thousands of bodies littered the dirt.

Such that for as far as Otto could see, the ground was dyed in a vague dark purple hue, the dark earth soaked through many centimeters below.

As Otto walked through, he created a squish-squish sound with his footsteps.

Yet even with this mass firestorm, only a third of the Throskarts had died.

The rest were either too far away, too strong, or boasted powerful protection magic tools that hadn't completely run out of uses.

Otto cancelled his cast of [Enfeebling Darkness].

Upon catching sight of Otto, a select few Throskarts instinctively charged.

They were instantly killed by a quick barrage of spells.

Of course, there was a reason for Otto to take down the darkness.

He wanted to speak to the watchers directly.

As he emerged fully into the light, the attention of every single Throskart in the area shifted.

Their eyes were red with rage and pain.

Pain from the firestorm Otto had conjured.

Pain from the thousands of bodies that littered the ground under Otto's feet.

Pain from knowing the human who did this was still alive.

And fear of the terrible human that was stronger than they could even imagine.

Otto took a second to gaze at the surrounding Throskarts and the watchers behind them.

He made sure everyone's attention was on him.

Then, he began to speak.