Chapter 217: Duel.

Alex was stunned to find out that Eric was the same age as Emily; his sister would be 16 this year as well, and that was the age of awakening.He could only imagine how young Eric was when he awakened to have already reached the Core mage rank, this level of talent was enough to put all the arrogant teenagers of Balon City to shame.

’Yep, he’s definitely from no ordinary background.’ Alex thought, recalling how many of the kids during the admission test had reacted after hearing Eric’s family name. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ ????????????????????※????????????????※????????????

Since he had nothing else to do, he agreed to help Eric train. The boy was excited and pulled Alex toward the duelling platforms. After finding out how old the kid was, Alex no longer found his behaviour to be strange; it even made him feel like he got a junior brother out of nowhere.

The duelling platforms were different from what Alex had imagined; it seemed like he had missed them during his tour around the place.

He had originally thought that it was an open field, like an arena, where they would face each other. Instead, it was a large hall with formations.

After they entered, Eric asked Alex to wait in the middle of the hall while he got the place ready. This puzzled Alex, fighting in an enclosed ring was already strange enough, what did the kid want to prepare for again?

"Umm, you don’t mind if I set the platform to fit my element, right?" Eric called out to Alex with a shameless grin on his face.

Alex still didn’t understand what was going on but nodded regardless. It didn’t matter what the boy did, he could never be at a disadvantage.

"Great, you’re the best!" Eric laughed before turning back to face a part of the wall and began to touch something shiny, which looked like a formation to Alex.

"He knows formatting? Well, it shouldn’t be surprising if he’s from a big family." Alex muttered to himself.

Some seconds later, the scenario around them changed, shocking Alex.

The hall transformed into a ruined city with lots of collapsed buildings and a setting sun that caused tall shadows to litter the city.

Alex was further fascinated by how much formations could do, he reminded himself to learn as much as he could.

After he finished the place, Eric returned and stood in front of Alex.

"Should we begin?" He asked with an anticipating look.

"Sure," Alex replied. He didn’t immediately summon his stars as he wanted Eric to make the first move.

Right after getting Alex’s approval, Eric’s eyes turned pitch black as black stars appeared around him and quickly formed two star patterns.

"Shadow blades!" Eric called out softly.

Alex continued to watch. He was familiar with this spell since Eric had used it during the test, he saw as the two short daggers appeared in both Eric’s hands.

They were currently in the shadow of a tall building, which further amplified the effect of the shadow element; the two shadow blades were almost invisible in the shadow, but Alex was able to see them clearly.

After gripping his daggers, Eric summoned another set of black stars before dashing toward Alex.

Alex wasn’t too concerned about the daggers, he was more interested in what the kid was going to pull next with those stars.

The distance between them was sharply reduced to just a few meters. Eric suddenly jumped into the air and the stars above him connected at a shocking speed and formed a star pattern.

"Shadow dive!"Eric’s voice sounded as he dove toward Alex, as if he was about to crash into him.

Alex raised an eyebrow and lifted one hand, stars formed around him and formed at an even faster speed.

"Telekinesis," he mumbled.

But just after he finished speaking, Eric’s body exploded into a puff of black mist that flew past him and entered his shadow. Immediately after that, something moved within Alex’s shadow as Eric emerged from it and slashed his daggers at Alex’s back.

But Alex was even faster and had already moved the moment he felt something move inside his shadow, he immediately created a distance of twenty meters with a single jump and left the shadow of the building.

Eric’s daggers sliced through the air after Alex dodged, and the boy just stood there, staring at Alex with a shocked look that lasted for ten seconds.

"You, you dodged it!" He exclaimed with a voice filled with excitement.

Alex didn’t reply as he stared at the kid with a rather interesting expression.

"So that’s what shadow dive does, he can dive into the shadows," Alex mumbled under his breath. Eric was able to dodge his telekinesis by turning into a shadow, which was surprising.

He was becoming more impressed with the shadow element, an actual Core mage would have lost just now if they were in Alex’s position.

After Alex dodged, Eric didn’t stop and attacked again. He rarely met anyone in his level of strength who was able to last more than five seconds against him, seeing Alex dodge his finishing combo made him very excited.

Black stars formed around him again and linked into two star patterns.

"Shadow teleportation," Eric whispered.

The next moment, he vanished from the shadow of the building and Alex felt movement behind him.

He didn’t turn around and immediately moved to the side.

The next moment, a shadowy dagger sliced through the place where Alex was standing just a moment ago; it was Eric!

After shifting, Alex sent a kick while turning around. Eric quickly crossed his arms and blocked the kick but he still ended up pushing Eric back by several meters.

Alex had made sure to control the strength of his kick, he didn’t want to accidentally kill Eric.

’So he can teleport between shadows too,’ Alex thought to himself, feeling even more interested after Eric teleported to his shadow.

Meanwhile, Eric made a painful expression while rubbing his arms after blocking Alex’s kick.

"Are your legs made of iron? I feel like my arms almost broke," Eric complained jokingly. But seriously though, that kid just now hurt a lot!

"Sorry about that, you shouldn’t appear behind others so suddenly either," Alex said with a chuckle.

"Hehe, that’s the whole thing about the shadow element." Eric laughed before summoning his stars again.

"Shadow blend," Eric whispered before dissolving into the shadow of a nearby building.

Alex’s eyes narrowed. He was able to see the changes in the surrounding shadows as Eric moved closer to him, but this was only because he was a Saint; any other Core or even Expert and Master rank mage would be in serious trouble.

After all, the changes after Eric moved were so little and difficult to spot if one didn’t outrank him by a huge gap; who could possibly keep track of the shades of the surrounding shadows?!

’The shadow element, truly, is interesting.’ Alex thought, a smirk forming on his face.

.....

Some time later, Alex and Eric came out of the training area and walked back to the dorm section together.

In the end, Alex had come to the conclusion that the shadow element was very dangerous and scary, even more dangerous than his lightning element under certain circumstances.

He wished he had it as well, it would make him the greatest assassin in history!

He could only imagine how much difference the shadow element would cause at a higher rank. But for now, it was still manageable because even though Eric was able to hide and change locations easily, he still needed to show himself to deal damage.

However, this wasn’t a serious issue as most mages at the same rank would not be able to react as quickly as Alex. So it was still overpowered under the right circumstances.

It might be a totally different story if the location of the fight were an open space, though.

"That was awesome, Alex. To be honest, you’re the first person who didn’t lose to me immediately and was able to fight for a long time." Eric said as they walked, his eyes staring at Alex with admiration.

"You say so like you won," Alex glanced at Eric with a grin.

"Yeah, yeah, we weren’t able to decide on a winner but you did great!" Eric chuckled.

Alex laughed as well, he didn’t bother telling the kid that he could have easily blasted a hole through him with a space bullet if he wanted to.

"Hey, want to stop by at my place?" Eric suddenly asked.

"Why?" Alex asked.

"No reason, it’s just pretty boring sitting alone in my room all day. Or do you have anything else to do today, can I come with you?!" Eric blinked at Alex with sparkling eyes.

Alex "..."

That look felt familiar, it was the same look that Emily used to give him when she wanted something.

"I’ll pass, and I have nothing else to do today," Alex said and increased his walking pace.

"Then let me just follow you!" Eric shouted and ran after Alex.

’Good God!’