Okay. Deep breath. Let's look at the situation objectively and—

"Boo! That's the wrong look!"

I was momentarily taken aback by the complaints coming from the dome, and when I glanced over, I found Angie being held back by her boyfriend. However, before I could even properly comprehend what was going on over there, my danger sense blared at me again, and I instinctively revved up the output of the physical enhancements on the armour.

A split-second later, another ruby-red beam of light cut through the space where I was standing just a moment ago. With my enchantments working at full capacity, dodging the sweeping heat rays was considerably easier than the first time. I had no idea why the old man was using them like this instead of just aiming directly at me, but I wasn't going to complain about it.

"{Status Report: Arrays fully connected. Mana circulation is stable.}"

That was nice to hear but kind of unnecessary, as I could already feel that in my muscles and bones. Following the guidance of my sixth sense, I planted my feet hard and came to a stop to avoid a vertically sweeping ray of light. One thing was for sure; Lord Ambrose was just as irresponsible with his attacks as Endymonion. When I sparred with the latter, he nearly took my arm off with a wind-blade right off the bat, and the former wasn't much better with his laser show either.

But speaking of which, now that I could take a closer look, I found that he wasn't actively casting spells at me. Instead, he was rapidly chanting, and every few seconds, he produced a small, dense ball of colourless light that proceeded to float over his head and—

"{Look out, young knight!}"

"I see it," I barked back and swiftly manoeuvred between two beams coming at me from odd angles. By this point, Ambrose was in the process of creating a third one, with two glowy balls circling over his head.

"Great," I groaned as I adjusted my grip on Cal. "He has magical attack drones with lasers."

"{Drone? Are you referring to the way the arch-mage chants?}"

"{Affirmation: Obviously.}"

Cal let out a soft huff.

"{Oh, really? If it's so obvious, then what is a 'lae-sa'?}"

"{Conjecture: It must refer to the way they are lasing.}"

"{Lasing?}"

"{Further Conjecture: Most likely a reference to their accurate targeting, and Polemos is comparing it to the precision of lace-work.}"

"{That… actually makes a lot of sense.}"

"No, it doesn't, and hush, you two," I growled as I was staring down three beam-spewing magic drone things at the same time.

Luckily, their firing patterns weren't synchronized, and since they were always attacking by drawing a straight line with their beam attack, once I got used to the pattern, they weren't that hard to avoid. Of course, that didn't mean it couldn't have been just a ploy to get me complacent, only to change up their pattern at the last moment, so I remained vigilant.

"You really are slippery, aren't you?" Ambrose called out to me, with an impatient frown on his face. By the looks of it, he didn't expect that I would be able to dodge in time, which made me question what he was thinking firing those things at me without any consideration. I mean, those frickin' laser beams were powerful enough to gouge visible, smouldering scars into the ground!

…

Though again, considering that all the supernatural folks had some kind of magical defence, from barriers to wards, maybe they weren't as dangerous as they looked. I wasn't going to test the idea though, and I slipped through the crossfire of the three beams one more time and only answered after I came to a stop.

"And this spell of yours is kind of bullshit."

"Why, thank you!" Ambrose responded with a wolfish grin and then started muttering under his breath again.

I immediately braced myself, just in time for him to point at the ground with his cane. With the impact at the epicenter, a wave of light roiled across the field, and when it reached me, I reflexively switched Teeny into spear mode and leapt into the air, using them kind of like a vaulting pole. My danger sense gave me no warning though, and to my sincerest shock, the entire field let out a sound reminiscent of a dozen trucks speeding by. Even more staggering was the fact that the grassy ground under me suddenly lurched about half a meter in the direction of the old man, as if it was a giant carpet yanked on by an invisible giant.

Since I had Teeny planted in said ground, I was also yanked along, but by a small miracle, I still managed to land on my feet. Speaking of feet, the only spot that remained stationary was a circle around the old man, and just as I landed, he pointed his cane at me again. This time, the three magical laser drones were synchronized and fired at me at once. They were too late though; by the time the sweeping beams came at me, I already regained my balance and ducked under the first one, swerved to avoid the second, while the third was completely off-target, probably trying to catch me flat-footed if I dodged that way.

"Hah!" Ambrose let out a satisfied laugh and tapped his feet. "I thought you would be using one of your famous illusions by now. I didn't think you would get caught up in my applied transverse terrain translation spell!"

I really wanted to tell him that his naming scheme sucked, but I had more important things to care about. Such as closing the distance with him and putting an end to this farce. As always, Phasing right next to him was an option, but I wanted to keep that card hidden in my sleeve as long as possible. For now, I considered a more straightforward alternative, and returned Teeny to their sword form.

"Cal, Teeny? Do you think you can deflect those beams?" My weapons remained suspiciously silent, so I gripped them hard and added. "Just take one for the team."

Following those words, I lowered my center of gravity and lunged forward. By my count, there was about a five-second delay between each firing cycle of the magical drones, so I had to move while they were on cooldown. Unfortunately, there was a catch to that: because they were attacking me in sweeps, it meant the closer I got, the smaller the arcs became, and the harder to dodge them. As such, my plan was simple: while the laser beams couldn't be dispelled by my phantom limbs, I doubted the same applied to the drones themselves, so as long as I was able to get in range to swat them down, I could get out of the old mage's pace and force him into my own.

Of course, doing so required me to act fast. I reallocated the physical enhancements to focus on speed, and diverted some extra juice to the wards embedded in the Leoformer's systems, just to be safe. I covered the distance between the two of us in just the blink of an eye, and when Ambrose saw what I was doing, he started casting another spell. Still, I was faster, and I was sure I would get there before he could finish or the three drones could fire again. That is, if there were only three drones.

The blood froze in my veins for a moment when I noticed yet another magical sphere floating up from behind the old man's back, and it immediately opened fire on me. I only had a fraction of a second to decide what to do, but I was already committed to the assault, so I swerved hard to the right and then jumped over the beam. My momentum caused me to slide for a second, so with a split-second judgment, I triggered one of the kinetic wards on my back.

It was the same kind I put on all of the gang's Magiformers way back when, as an anti-grapple countermeasure, and by forcefully triggering it, the small blast pushed me forward and allowed me to resume my rush without tumbling.

"Holy shit! Leo has rocket boosters!" a distant voice exclaimed, and it was followed by a still dissatisfied 'Boo! He doesn't need those, he has wings!' from a certain Celestial girl.

Putting the childhood friend couple's commentary aside, I closed in on the arch-mage fast. Dangerously fast, even. Yet, it wasn't good enough, and the small delay the surprise drone caused gave enough time for the others to recharge, and their intensifying glow said they were ready to fire. At this point, it was sink-or-swim, so I brandished my swords, ignored my sixth sense's warning, and instead of dodging, I focused on parrying. At least as much as such a concept could be applied to heat rays.

The first beam fired almost horizontally, so I swept Cal in the way, and by keeping the flat of its blade between me and the drone, I somehow managed to block the beam.

"{H-Hey! Young knight! You're going to ruin my tempering!}"

While Cal complained, the second beam was also coming, and this time, I only partially managed to block it with Teeny, and my shoulder plate was singed in the process. It didn't hurt, so I figured the wards kept me safe.

"{Report: Superficial damage detected. Engaging repair protocols.}"

Ignoring how much my short sword sounded like an AI from a mecha anime, I focused my attention on the third drone ball. This time, I wasn't on the defensive though. I was already in phantom limb range, so before it even had a chance to fire, I lashed out and pierced right through its core with one of my ethereal tendrils. To my surprise, the small ball contained an enormous amount of mana, and once I cracked it, the whole thing exploded.

Of course, it wasn't a 'real' explosion, just all that mana getting released at once, so the onlookers probably didn't even notice it. For me though, it was like I was staring into a welding arc, and it made me momentarily stumble. Luckily for me, the sudden failure of one of his drones made Ambrose freeze up with an expression of shocked disbelief. Unluckily for me, it only lasted for a blink of an eye, and then he finished casting his spell.

With another roaring noise, the terrain under my feet started moving again. However, this time it was like a pair of enormous, invisible fingers pinched the spot between us, and pulled it up like a tablecloth, forming an odd, lumpy wall made of the grass and the top layer of the soil under our feet. Then, while I was still getting my bearings, the middle of this fold in the landscape flashed with the faint image of a complex magical circle, and a roughly half-meter-wide cylinder exploded out of it like an enormous shotgun slug.

In a split-second, about half a dozen ideas rushed through my head, going down the list from dodging and dropping prone to cutting and disintegrating the loose projectile by various means, but in the end, my impatience won over, and I planted my feet before leaping up. The moment my foot left the ground, and just as the soil bullet was about to hit me, I Phased up so that I would land directly on the other side of the earthen rampart.

It should've been the end of the match, with me appearing right on top of Lord Ambrose… except he was nowhere to be found. He wasn't the only thing missing: the round patch of undisturbed grass where he stood was also gone, and when I finally found him, my jaw nearly hit the ground.

"You cheeky bastard!" I yelled after him, and the old man crossed his arms with a haughty smirk. While rapidly moving backwards on top of the missing piece of the turf.

It looked like he was firmly anchored to the patch of grass, and as he shifted his posture, he moved in a circle around me, as if casually surfing. And then, the stupid lasers started firing again.

"Oh, for the love of…!"

I groaned and gave chase, weaving between the incoming beams. While I was getting frustrated, the old man was grinning like a kid on Christmas morning and soon began to cast another spell.

It was only at this point that it finally dawned on me that he was showing off, and it made me determined to take him down a peg. As soon as I could get closer to him, which was easier said than done when he was slipping and sliding around on the field. In fact, his movements kind of reminded me of some of those modern mechas that, instead of walking or flying, would move around by skating on the ground. Why did this magic duel keep reminding me of mecha tropes, I wondered as I deflected another beam with Cal's flat.

"I didn't plan to use this, but there's no better opportunity to test it out!" Ambrose yelled out to me, and with a wave of his cane, he yanked a basketball-sized piece of soil out of the ground.

I stalled for a moment, expecting that he would throw it at me, but instead, he began weaving a complex spell around it. Normally this would've been the perfect opportunity to get closer to him, but it wasn't so simple. Because he was in constant motion, and the drones followed after him, it meant their sweeping beam trajectories were also in motion, making them much harder to predict and avoid. As such, despite my best efforts, I only managed to narrow the distance, but couldn't quite catch up to him in time.

"Behold! My applied material condenser and accelerator Invocation!" he exclaimed and presented the ball of soil… except now it had a weird, glowing magical apparatus around in, kind of like a wireframe scaffolding with a pair of long, flat, parallel pieced jutting forward, kind of like a—

Before I could finish that thought, my danger sense yelled at me again, and I instinctively lashed out with Teeny. There was an impact on my hand, the shock travelling all the way up to my shoulder, and only after that did my brain acknowledge the metallic bang accompanying it.

"Marvelous reflexes!" Ambrose… praised me, I think. Either that, or his sarcasm was so ascended it was impossible to differentiate it from the genuine article. "What do you think? I specifically invented this Invocation for the sole purpose of countering Chimeras and other mystic creatures resistant to mana. What say you?"

"It's a freaking gun!" I yelled back, gripping Teeny even harder in my numb left hand. "You made a bloody overcomplicated railgun, you melon! At this point, just buy a hunting rifle!"

"Bah! What use is there in comparing my invention to such mundane weapons? Can a hunting rifle do this?"

Before I could even ask what he meant by that, the magical wireframe construct began glowing, and this time, I could catch a glimpse of its mechanism. First, it shaved off a piece of dirt from the ball, then a series of arrays formed and compressed it into a round bullet before feeding it into the elongated bits that flung it in my direction. Except this time, it wasn't firing just one.

"For fuck's sake…" I exhaled and gave up on the pretences, Phasing out of the way as a hail of bullets followed after me.

"Hahah! Can a rifle do this?"

"Yes!" I yelled back between short teleports. "It's called a machinegun, you muppet!"

He yelled something back, but I didn't pay his words any heed and focused on closing the distance. I was using my fake 'flash step' move, meaning I had to mime the motions and pretend that I was only moving really-really fast instead of teleporting. While I originally invented it just to serve as a cover in case I ever needed to phase in an emergency, I diligently practised it with Brang during Domination training, so I was getting pretty good at it if I say so myself.

More importantly, since the old man was still surfing on a patch of grass (note to self: tell Judy to add this to the list of rare sentences I never thought I would have to say), and we were both moving erratically, his magical bullet-hose was about as accurate as a survey on social media. Of course, the beamers were still a pain in the neck, but this time I decided to do something about them.

First, I kept up the back-and-forth for a solid minute, phasing out of the way and occasionally deflecting a bullet or two while observing the old man's movement pattern. It didn't take long to realize that he was limited in his range, as he stayed within the rumpled zone created by that terrain layering or whatever spell of his. Realizing this, I made sure to kite him around, pretending that I couldn't get closer to him, and I waited for him to get close to the edge of the zone.

As expected, he swerved around, and it gave me the opportunity to act. Once more, I assumed the 'flash step' pose, but this time, instead of zig-zagging around to avoid the incoming fire, I Phased right in the direction where he was heading. He wasn't expecting that to happen and was desperately trying to change his trajectory, but I didn't let him, and after a well-timed beat, I Phased right behind him.

Now, here's where the theatrics come into the picture. In particular, I was trying to invoke a classic trope called 'single-stroke battle'. In this case, the name wasn't entirely appropriate, but let's ignore that; the point was that it involved two combatants rushing towards each other, passing the other the moment their weapons were drawn, and then after a dramatic beat, one of them fell. It usually involved samurai, giant robots, or giant robot samurai, but I digress.

So, the plan was simple: I mime the trope by Phasing right behind the man, while using my Phantom limbs to disrupt all of his spells, and…

"Ack!"

Presto! With his magical soil surfboard disabled, Lord Ambrose stumbled forward. Simultaneously, three of my phantom limbs pierced out at the same time, skewering the laser drones, while two others roughly dismantled the magical scaffolding around the lump of soil floating in the air. Without its support, the ball of dirt wobbled and then landed right next to Ambrose, just when he finally got back to his feet and faced me again.

"What did you do?" he asked, sounding more intrigued than shocked by this development.

"I cut your magic, faster than the eye could see," I told him not-at-all smugly and flourished by blades for added effect. My rather befuddled blades, if I may add.

"{What are you talking about, young knight? You didn't even swing us!}"

"{Affirmation: There was no acceleration or impact detected. Interface:Teeny requests Archon Polemos to clarify his previous statement.}"

I did no such thing, but I faced the arch-mage instead and waited to see what he would do next.

"So, you really could cut mystical phenomena! I thought Amadeus was only trying to save face!" the bearded man exclaimed, sounding unusually jovial.

Yet, in a moment, his demeanour took an abrupt turn and he suddenly raised his cane. I was expecting a last-ditch effort, and was ready to take him down… but I wasn't expecting to be flash-banged in the face.

The crystal ball at the end of the cane let out a blinding flash of light, followed by a boom so loud it made my teeth rattle. By the time I reoriented myself, Ambrose took a couple of steps back and raised his magical focus over his head.

"I'm not done yet! Did you think I was only joyriding around all this time? Ha!"

Still a tad disoriented, I thought my vision was still clouded by his last trick, but as I regained focus, I realized it wasn't the case. Not only was the whole field glowing under our feet, resembling an enormous magic circle, but over the crystal head of the arch-mage's cane, hovering in the air, was a great vortex, with an oppressive red light in its center growing brighter with passing every second.

"Witness the pinnacle of Invocation! The power of the sun itself, about to ignite into atomic fusion of—!"

"No," I stated maybe just a wee bit too flatly, considering the dramatic circumstances, but I swear I was seriously freaked out for a moment, and I swung Cal with every fibre of my being.

Following my strike, there was an odd sense of tension in the air, and then it suddenly snapped, like a wire stressed to its very limit, and with a low boom and something of a shock-wave, the vortex overhead dissipated in a matter of seconds. Then, as per the rules of dramatic timing, the crystal head of the cane slowly slid apart, as if it was diagonally bisected.

"Well…" Lord Ambrose spoke morosely as he let his hands down and stared at his ruined staff. "Let's call this a draw."

Breathing a sigh of mixed relief and exasperation, I let my weapons down and undid my Leoformer.

"I have to say, you were the biggest pain in the ass I ever had the misfortune to fight."

"You weren't half shabby yourself," the usually grumpy old man noted with a grin that looked wholly alien on his face. "You could have at least let me finish casting."

"I'm not a fan of gamma radiation and mushroom clouds," I told him in a deadpan voice, and he shrugged.

"But I was curious how you would deal with it. You didn't use all your tricks even at the very end."

"Did you?"

"Of course not!" Ambrose scoffed, but the smile remained on his face. "I have to keep some surprises for the rematch, right?"

"The what?" I blurted out, but before I could press him, I was nearly tackled off my feet.

"Brother! You were amazing!" Looking down, I found Penny clinging to me, her face flushed and her eyes open as wide as saucers. "How did you move so fast at the end? You avoided everything so easily! Can you teach me?"

"He would've had an easier time if he flew," Angie grumbled in the background, pouting and looking annoyed even as Josh was casually patting her head to keep her in check.

Meanwhile, Lord Gulliver also arrived, along with the rest of the audience, and he slowly shook his head.

"I told you not to overdo it, but you never listen."

"Silence, lout! I do whatever I want!" Ambrose responded to him in his usual tone, as if a switch was flipped.

In the meantime, the rest of the gang also clustered around me, with my girlfriends in the forefront, and even as I graciously accepted their praise and congratulations, I couldn't help but glance down at the sword in my hand.

During the last strike, I was planning to use my phantom limb to disrupt the spell before it could take full effect, with the swing only existing as a cover-up. Yet, the crystal was cut, even though I was absolutely certain I didn't make contact. Then, as if to punctuate my turbulent thoughts, there was a loud, rumbling sound, and as we glanced up, the upper-left corner of the main school building's flat roof began to slide down, following a straight, diagonal line.

The Praetorian Guards moved first, forming a thin, translucent barrier to keep the dust and debris away from us, but even as everyone backed away, I couldn't help but stare at the missing corner of the building, and mutter, "Do I… actually have a beam attack?"