I Was Exiled to Die, Now I’m the God of Sickness and Salvation

"I see you are able to deal with the three elements quite nicely, but how about ALL OF THEM TOGETHER!?"

The first combination spell Ben shot towards Ash was none other than his favorite kind of combo.

The wind and fire attack.

But instead of a fire tornado, this time, the wind blades were the carrier of the flames.

Turning the barely visible wind blades into fiery blades of flame.

The fire blades moved as fast as the original wind blade, not a second slower.

Other than being able to cut flesh, the fiery wind blade now also carried a fireball's worth of flames within it.

Ash tried to dissipate the fiery wind blade just like the normal wind blades using a vine whip, but he should have known that the two were different just from the names.

If the ordinary wind blades dissipated after their structure was destroyed, the fiery wind blades exploded.

Without the wind blades as their shell, the flames were unrestricted as they unleashed their heat onto the world.

The wind did scatter, but the forward momentum carried the flames forward, aiming straight towards Ash's face.

Ash was once again forced to use the cape to dissipate the flames safely.

His life wasn't in actual danger. Even if the flames hit his face, Ash got his titanroot skin armor that hid and protected his real skin.

But people would surely find something weird with him if his face remained flawless after being hit by a furiously burning flame.

The cape came in clutch as it easily defended against the scattered flames flying towards him.

And with Ben's shout earlier complaining about cheat-like equipment, Ash was able to abuse the cape easier without having to find more excuses to make himself more durable.

He could just use the cape as the scapegoat as to why he could defend against stronger attacks easily.

'It is a very strong piece of equipment.' He could say this to anyone who asked him questions about his cape.

But the fiery wind blades weren't the end of Ben's attacks.

As if waiting for their turn, the lightning bolts appeared once more, forcing Ash to use his shield to once again dissipate the electricity to the ground.

The lightning barely did anything to Ash, but the one thing it managed to do successfully was to keep Ash in place.

As if waiting for this moment, the patches of flames scattered around the arena ground flared up.

Instead of sending fireballs towards Ash, the stronger flames formed whips. Each of the patches had grown a man-sized whip that extended a dozen meters long.

A distance that was more than enough to reach Ash that were standing in the middle of the wind wall cage and the patches of flames.

The whips started swinging. Aiming their fiery bodies towards Ash.

Different from the fireballs that were uncontrollable after it was released to attack, the whips were still under Ben's control even after he commanded them to swing.

When Ash tried dodging by moving to the side, the whip bent and followed after Ash just a beat later.

And with several whips moving at once, it was starting to be impossible for Ash to continue dodging left and right.

He couldn't even go too far because of the sharp wall of wind around him.

And whenever Ash tried to get close to Ben to limit his area of attack, the lightning bolts would act up. Sending two lightnings at the same time to force Ash into a defensive mode.

The whips and even more fiery wind blades would then do the job of sending Ash away from Ben.

The only thing that Ash could do now was to put up a shield right above his head and jump up whenever the whips were twisting and bending to get him.

The whips were much slower than him and it was easier to dodge their pointy ends when they were trying to catch him up in the air.

Ash didn't need to worry about their fiery bodies when he was in the air after all.

It was a temporary solution, one that Ash used while he thought about whether he should just say fuck it for the second time and just blast Ben with Verdania's Energy Beam.

But even the temporary solution he had come up with didn't last long.

As if he was done warming up and testing Ash's limits, Ben finally cast another spell that took up another 5 seconds to chant.

In those short five seconds, Ash realized that no more whips, fiery wind blades, or lightning blades were coming his way.

'This is my chance!'

Using his vines as a catapult to launch himself, Ash yanked himself straight towards Ben.

The vines weren't as flexible as rubber, so their capability to launch someone wasn't as good as a real catapult.

But they still packed strength nonetheless.

When Ben finished his chant, Ash was already upon him.

The two of them were only separated by about 3 feet.

Ash had cocked his fists, covering them in thorny vines to make sure Ben felt and received as much pain as possible.

It was a moment Ash had been waiting for.

His fist longed for Ben's crumpled face.

Alas, his fist's wish would have to be postponed.

Despite a huge, thorny fist descending upon him, Ben regained his composure.

He had finished the last part of his strongest spell.

A spell that he had planned to keep hidden and saved up for later when he fought the top 10 fighters in the underground arena.

He had painstakingly studied and created this spell just for the sake of fighting the tier 3s in the top 10 ranking underground fighters.

Just to make sure that he would be able to secure that top 10 spot to prove his point that a person could succeed even without special privileges and powerful backings.

But now, he was forced to reveal it on his debut fight against some random guy who got in with nepotism.

"You're done now," Ben said as a matter of fact.

No anger laced his words as he spoke. Just the feeling of his years of hard work manifesting into that single spell made him resolute.

He was the one who designed and created this spell, he knew how powerful it was.

He wanted to see it manifest in real life.

The thorns wrapping around Ash's fist had already scraped the edge of Ben's nose.

But before it could stab even deeper, a lightning bolt descended from above.

The magical lightning bolt pushed Ash's body downward, mitigating the forward momentum as Ash was forced to plant his feet deep into the ground.

Ash received the full force of the strike without a steelbark shield to dissipate the momentum.

Ben used this chance to walk away.

Not even using a wind spell to quicken himself, as he had spent all his mana on this certain spell.

Ash quickly recovered from the strike as he saw the running Ben.

His vines were already planted onto the ground, ready to once again pull Ash forward, sending him flying straight towards his target.

But Ash was forced to stop.

No, it wasn't because he realized that the current Ben was so weak that even a tier 1 awakened was stronger than him.

And also no. It wasn't because Ben suddenly dropped to the ground and begged Ash for forgiveness with crying eyes and a snotty nose.

It was because chaos had descended on him.

The lightning bolts that used to come occasionally, at most 2 at a time, suddenly went into overcharge as several of them continuously struck down straight towards Ash.

He was forced to keep the shield up to continue defending against them.

And it wasn't only the lightning bolts.

The fire whips danced and came to life once more, whipping left and right to try and get Ash.

Even the wind blades continuously fired from all sides. Sometimes colliding with the whips as they carried some of the flames from the whips to turn themselves into the fiery wind blades.

The strange thing about all this was the fact that Ben didn't do anything.

No, he didn't chant or cast any spells to command the elements all around him.

Ash could clearly feel the absence of mana from Ben.

Even his presence felt thinner than before.

This could only mean that the three elements, the wind, fire, and lightning elements were moving on their own without Ben's manipulation.

All of them moved in tandem to torture Ash with their attacks.

The attacks kept coming, forcing Ash to ball himself up in another steelbark dome.

Even the strong steelbark covered vines couldn't indefinitely stand against constant attacks from the three elements.

A lightning bolt even managed to slip past a small opening that a fiery wind blade managed to create after hitting the exact same spot as several flame whips earlier.

The only saving grace was that the steelbark was impossibly hard to burn for weaker fires, such as the flames that Ben used.

But other than that single fact that Ash could be grateful for, the rest was just plainly shit.

Ash couldn't do anything other than hole himself up in this situation.

He couldn't even try to get close to Ben to end the fight because the second he got out of his protective dome, wind blades, flame whips, and lightning bolts would welcome him with glee.

It was starting to get on his nerves.

The attacks themselves didn't threaten him or make him feel scared.

If he wanted, Ash could just turn into a vine monster and tank all of these attacks without a problem.

But due to the limitation he had put on himself, Ash was reduced to this situation.

Forced to stay still, receiving attacks without the means to fight back.

While the person who had mocked him even when they had just first met was happily smiling and enjoying the show.

Another lightning bolt slipped past another hole, forcing Ash to keep his knees from buckling from the sheer force of the magical lightning pushing him down.

Ash took a deep breath.

He finally made his decision and spoke out loud.

"Fuck this."