Blade Over Magic

Time Skip

The Royal Family’s Ball was easily the most high profile event in all Solvaren.

Getting invited alone was considered a huge honor, as it meant that anyone worthy enough to get invited was in fact someone with immense power, status, wealth, or multiple of the above.

After all, even though Solvaren was only one Kingdom, it was more akin to an Empire as it was the main hub of human activity on the continent. So the other races couldn’t just ignore it. Hence, delegates and nobles from these races would also attend more often than not.

It was so high profile that even the Archmages attended frequently. While not all of them most of the time, it was rare if they didn’t make an appearance.

And with just a few hours left until it commenced, the air in the Kingdom was practically vibrating as this event prepared to take place.

That said, only those with enough status new that this event wouldn’t just be some fun time for those of high statuses. No, underneath all the celebration, it was no different from a large forest filled with powerful predators, and anyone who showed the slightest bit of weakness would be devoured without mercy.

That was the reality behind the Ball, and that was the stage Xander and co would make their debut.

***

Xander and Falael stood opposite each other in the middle of the training field. Xander, as usual, wore a simple shirt and pants, and in his hands was the projection of his black longsword.

He more or less looked the same compared to when they began training. If there was any change, it was that his black hair had grown to reach his shoulders.

Opposite him, Falael was the one who looked quite a bit more different.

She wore a set of fitting leather pants and a sleeveless shirt which revealed her toned midriff, displaying a set of abs.

It wasn’t just that, though. If one looked past her lovely figure, they would be able to see that she was actually covered in lean muscles that didn’t quite match your standard Mage. Her hair had been braided so as to stop getting in her eyes, and a telling change was that her wand was nowhere to be seen.

Rather, a pair of metal gauntlets covered her fists, and she she currently entered a stance. It would have looked strange to anyone else, but if that someone was from earth, they’d have realized that the stance she held resembled standard boxing quite strongly.

By the side, Mia snapped her fingers, and an invisible dome surrounded the two. Then she spoke.

"Alright, you can start." As soon as she did, Falael took a step and jabbed her fist forward. The punch was cleanly executed, and within her body, her raging starlight mana moved along the paths of the punch, amplifying its power exponentially.

Just like when Xander did it with his sword, Falael made use of true channeling with her fists.

A beam of starlight shot out from her fist straight at Xander’s head, but rather than blocking or evading, the tip of his blade met the beam, and started to guide it.

Xander guided the attack around his body with elegant movements, the oppressive power behind it rapidly dispersing until it disappeared into nothing.

By the time he did, though, Falael had already appeared in front of him, her fist already arriving in front of him.

’Core Fusion.’

In an instant, dozens of spheres of energy erupted from their position, each one extending to the size of about a dozen meters before rapidly shrinking, leaving behind large craters.

An inexperienced person might see this and think that compared to the past where Falael’s explosions were utterly massive, these spheres were weaker, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

Not only were they not any weaker, a single one of these spheres carried almost as much energy that fueled the spell Falael used to decimate the Azure Tree’s body. They were only smaller due to an impressive level of mana control, which made it even more dangerous to be caught up within the explosions.

And that’s not even talking about the ionizing radiation that accompanied these spheres. No longer erupting haphazardly. Rather, their range was kept strictly within the explosions. Meaning that when they faded, every crater left behind was essentially a death zone, and even if you somehow managed to endure the explosions, you would find your body rapidly deteriorating as your very cells got decimated.

However...

In the center of it all, an unnaturally untouched area could be seen, and in it, Xander stood, completely unscathed by the previous attack.

Instead, Falael was the one who saw numerous cuts on her arms, making her click her tongue.

"You’re actually so frustrating to fight." She grumbled, and Xander shrugged.

"Means I’m doing something right." With that said, he once more entered a stance just as Falael charged at him again, and the powerful blasts continued to ring out across the dome without ceasing.

Anyone else would have worried about Falael either drying up her Mana pool in second or facing extreme Mana burnout, but she was at risk of neither.

In fact, right now, she was using the lower ends of the output she can unleash now.

The biggest reason Mana burnout was such an issue for her before was due to her body being unable to handle her own output. Meaning any somewhat large spell would take her out of the fight immediately.

However, she had been subjected to an intense level of physical tempering by Xander. He first let her learn the basics of martial arts to let her learn Mana Breathing, and just like how he was on the first day, using it basically destroyed her body rapidly, but after she recovered from some high quality food, her body became stronger.

This process was repeated countless times until now, the frail mage that was pretty much a glass cannon no longer existed, and the amount of power she could draw from her star was simply obscene.

Raising her foot, Falael smashed it hard into the ground.

’Blooming Solar Flower!’ The ground caved inwards, and streams of starlight flowed through it before coming back out, resembling a blooming flower as Xander had to avoid getting torn apart. Each thin beam as powerful as a past Stellar Ray.

However, he rapidly noticed that evading all of them, so he changed his strategy.

Fusing Flowing Tide and Tempest Stream, streams of water mixed with rampaging winds flowed along his blade. He swung it around him, and once again, the surrounding attacks were drawn into the attack, their power rapidly getting assimilated into it as Xander did a full circle and sent the attack at Falael, the fusion attack barreling straight at her.

Falael didn’t back down. Instead, she exhaled and lowered her stance, a magic circle blooming at her feet as her dark hair blazed like the sun.

’Starlight Magic: Solar Flare.’ Xander made a face, and his figure promptly vanished as Falael’s fist struck his attack, utterly blasting through it as energy akin to that of a solar flare erupted out, completely vaporizing that entire portion of their makeshift arena and bathing it in radiation.

Falael may have learned channeling, but she never forgot how to cast, either.

But Falael wasn’t satisfied, because at some point, Xander had appeared behind her, his longsword having been swapped with a katana.

’Incandescent Haze.’ A haze of heat surrounded the blade with his swing, causing its length to shimmer unpredictably, its true trajectory hard to predict, but even then, it seemed to be going for Falael’s neck.

She knew better, though, and rather that attempting to block, she threw a punch, another sphere of heat erupting to bathe the area.

When it shrank down, though, Xander and Falael could still be seen. Xander’s sword pressed against her ribcage while her fist had missed his head entirely.

There was a moment of silence, then she clicked her tongue and dropped her stance, her expression irritated.

"Come on! I’ve seen you use that move so many times, but I can never seem to predict its trajectory no matter what. Not to mention you can somehow negate the power of my attacks despite never actually cutting through them. It’s frustrating." She grumbled, and Xander just smiled.

"It’s called technique. Also there’s no way I wouldn’t know the weakness of my own move, so naturally I improve it each time." He sounded smug, which just irritated her more.

Still, seeing her sulking face, Xander couldn’t stop himself. Taking a step forward, he closed the distance between them, paused, then asked carefully.

"... Can I?" Falael blinked, then she huffed and rolled her eyes.

"You’re always asking... Sure, go ahead. Even though, as usual, I’ll tell you asking isn’t necessary." Hearing this, Xander’s eyes lit up, and he stepped forward to press a brief kiss on Falael’s lips. It was quick, but that seemed to satisfy them as when he stepped back, a comfortable silence fell over the two of them.

"Hey, you two." Just then, Mia dispersed the invisible barrier and called put to them.

"Xavier is calling y’all over." Hearing this, Xander and Falael shared a look. They had a guess as to why he was suddenly looking for them.

The followed Mia out of the decimated area, and as they walked out, the ground began fixing itself, as if someone had hit some large rewind button.

They soon saw everyone else, and in front of them, Xavier stood, waiting.

Xander exhaled inwardly.

’Alright, let’s see what it’s about this time.’ And he stepped forward.