Humanity's Hero Of Despair

SMASH!

The ground next to me is crushed as one of the stone titans smashes their fist into the ground, narrowly missing me. I am too busy dodging all of the stone titans' punches to notice the entire audience gasping at the sheer display of power.

Not many mages can use tenth-affinity level magic, and it must be an honor to see it being used by their Emperor.

I feel myself getting more tired, with my forehead becoming hotter as I struggle to stay alive from the fists of death from the titans. They move in unison, which actually makes it easier to predict their attacks.

The ground continues to shake continuously as I weave in between them, shooting off rays of dark and light magic to keep them at bay.

Dust erupts from the ground as another stone titan gets close to hitting me. I can't keep dodging forever, I tell myself as I silently move around the room while the dust builds up. I use the moment to gather myself and think of a quick plan.

"Tenth-affinity magic, Gaia's Spear!"

Massive spikes of stone shoot up all underneath me. I backflip to avoid all of them, even though that reveals my location. The stone titans turn to look at me. The earth spikes from the ground levitate in the air, ready to attack me.

"Ninth-affinity magic, Shadow Summoning!"

I summon four large shadow giants from the ground along with casting a shield of darkness spell. The shadow giants protect me from the Emperor's stone titans. My shield of darkness manages to block all the spikes. Even though I manage to block all his offensive magic, I fall to one knee, gasping for more air.

My mana is starting to reach its limits. I look at the Emperor.

He is starting to breathe hard as well. He has been using a lot of high-level affinity magic spells continuously. He has a large mana reserve, I can tell. Thank goodness over time I have managed to expand my mana conservation. I find myself smiling at him as I notice him smiling as well. It's been a while since I could duel someone like this.

The Emperor, after all, is one of the strongest mages on the continent in general.

We watch as my shadow giants and his stone titans duke it out. One by one, each of our giants is taken down. Soon, there are only two on each side. My shadow giants manage to pick one of the stone giants up into the air and throw him into the ground, causing the stone giant to crumble into pieces of rock.

The last stone titan takes advantage of one of the off-guard shadow giants and punches him into the wall until he dissolves. One versus one. I use a flashbang spell to blind the stone titan long enough for my shadow giant to destroy it. The Emperor's expression, for a moment, looks worried as he no longer has any protection.

My shadow giant is about to attack him when it dissolves. The mana required to sustain the spell breaks. We both look at each other, exhausted. Both of us raise our wands again. It will come down to a duel of endurance now.

We exchange more back-and-forth spells. I stick to simple light spells, as deflecting and redirecting his attacks uses up less mana than directly blocking them. If this keeps up, I can win in a battle of endurance, which I am starting to think the Oriventh Emperor knows, as his attacks start becoming even tougher to redirect with light.

"I am done with these endurance games, Viscount. It's now or never!"

He points his wand at me for a final time while saying, "Tenth-affinity level magic, Punch of the Earth God!" I quickly point my wand at him as he says his spell. I know this will be both of our last spells, so we have to make it count. I have to make this count. I have to win.

The flowing sparks of energy burst through me, all the elements flowing at the tip of my wand. I speak in a loud, commanding voice, "Eleventh-affinity origin magic, Fist of Elementia!"

An extremely massive fist of earth quickly comes out of the Emperor's spell circle, barreling at me. My own spell circle launches a fist of flames, water, wind, light, and darkness all into one. The speed and raw power of my magic overwhelm the Earth God spell very quickly. My spell smashes into the Emperor full force, making everybody gasp.

The announcer declares the duel over as the dust settles and the Emperor raises his hand in defeat as very high-level mage doctors heal him. He notices my worried look and smiles.

"My uniform is heavily enchanted with some of the best magic defenses known to society. Don't worry, I will be okay. I am happy to have been able to go all out on someone before, Viscount. You have my respect."

"Thank you, Your Imperial Highness. It is my pleasure and honor to have a duel with you."

The Oriventh Emperor stands up and reaches his hand out to me.

"Please, call me Hadrian the III."

The entire audience gasps, as they and I know he only allows people he extremely respects to call him by his first name. "That is such an honor, sir. I do not know how to respond."

He smiles and announces to the whole audience that the duel is over and to go enjoy themselves for the rest of the night doing other things in the palace. He tells me to follow him and to bring my trusted friends with me, but not the party.

I wait for all my friends to meet up with me before we head to wherever the Emperor wants to lead us.

"That was amazing, Nico! I had no idea you had that in you," Matteo says to me while grinning.

"You beat the Emperor as well! That's badass," Zephyr says while high-fiving me.

My other friends all congratulate me and give me pats on the back, etc. Once the Emperor sees we are all gathered, he starts walking down the long, mysterious hall. We keep walking for a bit until we turn a corner and walk down some stairs. We then turn another corner and walk down some more stairs.

There are a lot of security gadgets and puzzles to solve. Wherever we are going that is hiding my surprise, it must be extremely important.

I wonder what it is.