Ceaseless Horizons [A LitRPG Progression Fantasy]

To call the clashing slashes a tiny calamity wouldn't even be wrong. Lev expected the attacks to push against each other, except that didn't happen.

Out of the caster's control, they fueled each other, and within seconds, he was hidden behind several layers of walls as his bubble's middle layer was swiftly enchanted with temperature resistance runes.

The shockwave reached him first, manageable despite the intensity of the blast. Lev ascended quickly above the fiery blast, making sure that none of it reached any of the spectators. Thankfully, they were all on top of the wall, though the tents might've gotten a bit wrecked.

Isabella and her team were hovering mid-air too in the distance, dangling from fiery whips that handled their combined weight without a problem. She was looking at his bubble smugly, because technically, her slash hadn't lost. It was a draw.

Is that so? He grinned to himself, the competitive spirit within now thoroughly stoked. It was unfortunate that he couldn't face her during the tournament, but now he had a vastly better opportunity.

Rolling his shoulders, he blunted Stargazer's edges and only let a small amount of lightning trickle into its blade. Most of his regeneration was channeled into his armor, keeping all of the enchantments powered at half their strength.

Zack was let go first, the brawler closing the distance in a few impressive leaps. His hand shot towards the glaive, which was intentionally swung wide, and Lev was delighted to notice himself losing out in strength. Regardless of how strong his mind and armor combo was, a Master warrior's physical strength was no joke. The glaive was slapped away with ease.

Immediately, his mana expenditure shot up, and only now did Zack use his body enhancement. A slash was dodged, and the enhancer elbowed to deflect Stargazer's blade with admirable agility and jumped into Lev's guard.

His knee was already rising in the warrior's path. Zack stopped himself almost completely, even at that speed, as the ground exploded underneath his feet, unable to absorb most of the force.

Lev was far from caught unprepared. The loss of ground to stand on didn't even register as his counter missed, giving way to a fiery punch that landed on his chest. It overloaded the plating on his front, absorbing a significant portion of the impact, and let him survive the punch without any cracks or dents in his armor.

That was apparently enough for Zack as he motioned for Isabella to join in.

Already realizing that I would eventually win in melee? Lev smiled at the warrior, who understood exactly what the barrier mage was aiming for. The taunt failed without accomplishing anything, and Zack rushed ahead amidst a storm of fire blades.

Time for me to take this seriously, too, I suppose.

The first thing he did was push his armor to the maximum. A massive amount of lightning was converted and continuously streamed into it as he took a single step. Distance vanished in a blink, yet the warrior was still prepared.

Zack's body glowed with fire, almost ablaze from the amount of fire mana coursing through it. His legs tensed, audibly coiling in preparation, before he exploded forward.

This time, Lev faced the kick with a heavy blade. Both of them clashed amidst a storm of flames from Isabella's attacks, one favoring his adversary. He felt more than saw Stargazer still lose the exchange, just barely pushed back.

That wasn't to say he lost the exchange overall. Zack was sent flying due to the vastly lower weight; his leg bleeding profusely. Luna's healing reached him in the same instant as their ranged attacks began in earnest.

Walls flew out of his secondary bubbles, invisible thus far. Enchantments were overloaded as a deluge of slashes landed on them, and it wasn't surprising to feel multiple of them crack and shatter in the first barrage.

No longer holding back already?

Lev called forth half of his defensive construct reserves, letting them fly around him in a chaotic maelstrom. Isabella's eyes were wide as saucers as her teammates pushed their skills to the limit. Fire was generated in obscene amounts, and multiple fire slashes were prepared in a split second.

Behind him, dozens of arrows were being powered up. Five lances floated amidst them, receiving a steady input of fire and lightning.

As if through an unspoken agreement, their waves started at the same time. Three dozen arrows were launched to oppose the similar wave of small slashes. It was far from the strongest they could conjure, except neither wanted to accidentally hurt the other.

In the same vein, none of the projectiles were aimed at each other. All of them were flying a few meters away from the combatants, on track to hit the ground instead.

Like fireflies flying in the rain, blue arrows pierced through the slashes one after another. A chain reaction took place, and the explosive reactions diverted his arrows or outright blew them up, leaving only three of them passing through the explosive zone.

The second wave began before they even landed on the dirt ground. This time, two lances joined in to counteract the massive fireballs, the matchup in his favor. Isabella recognized that too, not putting too much hope into the exchange.

Being extra careful, Lev made sure his lances were going to miss the opposing team by a long distance. The lances and fireballs collided, and the fire mage's first major advantage made itself known when the balls morphed. They shrank on themselves, turning into long whips that coiled around his approaching lances.

A portion of the whips was sacrificed as fuel for itself, cut off from the rest. The parts constraining his lances shone brightly for a brief instant, shattering the heart of the constructs and making one of them explode. Before the second could, Lev detonated it first with a burst of more destructive mana, effectively negating the projectiles from both sides through the blast.

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That one's a draw, I guess, he noted from his distant location. Isabella was also squinting at him, silently taunting him to do more. Alright, don't blame me later.

Taking a deep breath, he crouched and primed Stargazer. Her weight increased sharply, the maximum he was willing to go in the spar, and a torrent of mana left her core. It was converted into fire and lightning equally, both of which imbued his armor selectively to give him an explosive increase in strength and speed.

His new suit was already making its usefulness known. Lev could stress the armor's imbuement capacity without feeling himself burning alive, which was great already, and the shock absorption hadn't even come into play yet.

The other side had accurately felt the change. A big stream of fire was constantly being channeled into Zack, similarly powering up his skills and body to handle Lev's increased might.

I don't think I'm gonna lose this one, Lev thought, unable to hold back a small smirk. That was definitely effective, as Zack's expression also became challenging.

They moved at the same time. Two large shockwaves were left in their wake as both of them collided in the middle. Stargazer's blunt blade dug deep into the approaching fist, breaking several fingers and drawing blood. Lev's eyebrows rose as the wound healed at a visible rate, and even more so when Zack completely ignored the injury.

Ducking a kick, a wave of lightning from his armor negated the wave of fire from the move. Finding a small opening despite the bent state, Lev thrust Stargazer at the warrior's throat. A backhand slapped it away, just in time for a fireball to fly at his face.

Two invisible shields were already there, surprising Zack with their sudden appearance. The explosion clouded the fire enhancer's vision for long enough that Lev dashed past him, rushing the backline.

Isabella was tracking his position like a hawk the entire time, and it was gratifying to see Zack unable to keep up with his speed. Lev's path was blocked by fire whips as thick as him, each packing enough mana to make him wary.

Stargazer's elongated blade cut through one as a test as he stayed at range, now flying in a circle. Predictably, the whip exploded, the shockwave not catching him.

Tricky, he noted each whip's position. Isabella was holding back a lot of fire mana behind her in giant spheres, ready to be shaped at a moment's notice. Going close is just asking to get burned, but…

Throwing caution to the wind, he launched a lightning slash at Zack to keep the warrior away. The slash landed a few meters ahead of Zack, exploding with enough energy to give him pause.

With more time to prepare, Lev did one final take of dozens of whips for him and lunged. In a straight line, he was almost too fast for them to intercept. Four of them tried to capture him in a net from all sides, only to falter when well-placed arrows blew up two of them.

Hidden by the sudden explosion, he had to sidestep another larger whip that tried to squash him from above, finding himself in the way of an overloaded fireball. Several walls were already flying towards it. Isabella noticed them too, intercepting all but two of them with her whips.

That was enough. Both of the walls shattered and blocked the fireball, but the mages had already created more distance. Zack was also moments away from reaching him again, and Lev's serious gear was kicking in a bit too rapidly.

Jovial thoughts slowly vanished, leaving behind a cold and calculating battle-trance that noted every single danger in the vicinity. Memories tried to resurface, ones he forcefully pushed back down to focus better. There was no chance he would hurt Isabella, but showing her the difference between a survivor and a non-survivor was in order.

That's not right… he breathed out and let out a large wave of lightning from his armor, blowing away the nearby whips, approaching fire slashes, and stopping Zack in his tracks once again. Fuck, maybe agreeing to this spar was a bad idea. I don't want to take this too far.

Isabella didn't seem to share the same opinion. Her whips trembled before retracting, all of them combining into seven long, heavy fire constructs. Lev immediately uncoiled the ropes surrounding his secondary bubbles, combining the hundred into twenty and imbuing them with a burst of lightning.

Half of them rushed forward like blue snakes, their length increasing to compensate for the drastically less mass. Isabella's whips tore through his ropes with laughable ease, melting and shredding them as the whips suddenly started spinning at high speed.

Waves of hot air slammed into him, hard enough to disrupt his flight as he flew back. Going near those whips was extremely dangerous, but he wasn't willing to back out. Pulling out all the stops, he let Stargazer's core bottom out and be converted entirely into lightning.

Zack was already at a distance, concern and worry bleeding into his aura, yet still unwilling to be caught in what was about to go down. Lev spared him a single glance, silently telling him that he wasn't going to go overboard, and turned back to the source of the whips.

Incredible. The thought echoed in the back of his mind. She's manipulating more things and mana than me right now, even if she's wasting quite a bit.

Lev took a moment to marvel at the absurdity of it, even if the fire mage was supported by two other mages. His speed picked up, lightning overtaking fire in terms of imbued quantity of mana, before he rushed straight to Isabella.

She reacted instantly, two of her whips flying down diagonally to squash him. Lev was prepared for that and took a deep breath, steadying his wildly beating heart for what he was about to do.

Here goes nothing.

Around him, on both sides, barrier walls rose. Formed in a blink, they were pristine and devoid of any enchantments, though he quickly changed that by carving a massive, lone durability rune on each of them.

His skills and willpower pulled their weight, accomplishing the task before the whips could finish descending. Three walls on each side, the two sets brought him precious moments as they shattered one by one. Lev flew ahead unscathed, holding Stargazer's haft tightly as its blade trembled due to the amount of lightning mana packed inside.

The fire mage was prepared for him coming out unscathed. Above him, five massive whips were descending like the hand of a god about to eviscerate a bug. Stargazer answered with matching fury, her blade moving in a wide arc that left a condensed river of lightning in its path. Cresecent Decimation was pushed to its limits and then tore past them as a sharp lightning slash finished forming, shooting up faster than he could track.

Like a hot knife cutting through butter, it slashed through all of the whips, only for Isabella to once again shatter his expectations with her prodigious talent and willpower. Before the whips could explode, she brought the trembling remnants back under control in a masterful display of manipulation, combining the already big whips into something much larger.

Her aura was clear to observe, sure of its triumph. He wasn't that easy to beat, was he? Surely she was just unaware that he still had more than half of his own pool remaining.

I shouldn't…

But Lev was ticked off now. From the start, he had been considerate, something Isabella should've reciprocated. Now, though, that consideration was gone. He had a point to prove.

Restoration mana coursed through his intact body in anticipation. A large amount of pure mana exited through his left arm, leaving behind a bleeding, mangled limb. All of it was channeled through the converters, more lightning than not, as a massive lance took form behind him.

It was enchanted in a moment, its insides similar to an artillery shell. From memory and training, runes were carved in a blink. A core was filled with fire, connected to a lightning input that would chain the explosions. The rest was enchanted with a combination of acceleration and kinetic empowerment formations, providing the lance with unparalleled speed.

Even when it was ready, and as the massive whip descended, Lev still hesitated. Drakys was watching over them, of that he had no doubt, but things could still end badly.

Then he looked at Isabella at the end of the whip, completely lost to the excitement and ecstasy of going all-out, and sighed. There really was no helping it.

With a mental command, he let the lance fly.