Chapter 552: Edgar’s Match

Julius watched with bated breath as Edgar ran across the field. His large friend had been matched up against a young woman who happened to be a skilled mage. To be honest, it was a bad matchup for his friend.

Edgar specialized in close combat, and for as long as Julius knew him, had problems dealing with mages or long-range attacks. Edgar had been trying his best to deal with this weakness, but there was only so much he could do.

There was a reason why most people joined a team. Not everyone could be skilled in all areas, so they needed teammates to cover their weaknesses. Julius was a bit of an anomaly in this sense. He had a varied kit of abilities that allowed him to stand on equal footing with any opponent. While he wasn’t the most skilled in each area compared to geniuses such as Riven or Isaac, he had so many options at his disposal.

Still, Edgar had worked hard to limit the advantage mages had over him. He wasn’t as vulnerable as he used to be, and it showed. The fact that he was able to withstand this mage’s attacks was proof of his hard work. A year ago, Edgar wouldn’t have had a chance against his opponent.

Julius leaned forward, elbows placed on his knees. He didn’t blink as he watched Edgar either sidestep or bash his fists against the flood of attacks.

His opponent was clearly trying to wear Edgar down. She was hovering high in the air, standing on a platform of mana, shooting simple bolts of mana down at Edgar. While she didn’t have a flying skill, this height advantage was annoying for Edgar, who was limited in long-range attacks.

Edgar did shoot several blasts of concentrated fire and earth magic at her, but several powerful barriers protected her. Edgar had certainly improved his long-range attacks, but against a mage of this caliber, they weren’t enough to punch through.

However, just as Edgar wasn’t able to hit her, she wasn’t able to hit him, or at least hit him for any meaningful damage.

Edgar’s body glowed a deep red as his enhancement skill protected him against these attacks. These mana bolts were strong, definitely an advanced version of what Julius usually saw from mages, but against Edgar’s defenses, they weren’t able to do much.

At first glance, it looked like the mage had the upper hand. However, Julius was able to tell that the mage was using a lot more mana than Edgar was. While Edgar was expending stamina running around, she was forced to use her mana pool. Julius knew that Edgar’s skills and body enhancement skills were very mana efficient relative to their output.

It was why Edgar always drew Aubrey into battles of attrition. So when he saw the fight going in this direction, he couldn’t help but smile to himself. He saw that Aubrey had the same smile on her face as she watched Edgar.

A couple of minutes later, after the most recent salvo of mana bolts cleared up, Julius spotted the mage looking a little weary. She hadn’t just been trying to rain down projectiles on Edgar, but she had also been trying to contain his movements.

She tried to trap him in barriers, but Edgar was either too fast or too strong, and broke out of them whenever she managed to catch him. She had also tried to lock him down with some kind of skill that used thick ropes of mana. They had twisted around Edgar’s limbs and did their best to restrain him. However, Edgar burned them until they vanished into particles of mana.

Julius smiled when he saw that she didn’t go for this again. He knew from fighting Edgar that the skill his friend used to burn these bindings consumed a relatively large amount of mana and stamina. He made it a point during their spars to force Edgar to use this skill as often as possible.

However, she must not have recognized this, and instead of continuing to use these ropes of mana, she kept on using her barriers to trap him or limit the angles he could dodge her mana bolts.

Or maybe she did recognize this and chose not to pursue it. The ropes did seem like they contained a lot of mana, so perhaps she was more worried about running out of her own mana.

The fight had been going on for a while at this point. The crowd wasn’t the most enthused about the slow, drawn-out battle, but Julius had placed all of his attention on the fight.

He sat up, and his eyes sparkled when he finally spotted an opening that Edgar could take. He wanted to shout at Edgar, but knowing that Edgar wouldn’t be able to hear him prevented him from doing so.

Stolen novel; please report.

Thankfully, Edgar must have seen this opening as well, because for the first time during the fight, he flared brightly with fire and earth mana.

Julius grinned, and Aubrey cheered beside him, yelling at her friend to finish it.

Sure, Edgar was talented in fire and earth mana. But Julius had quickly learned that the fourth year had an even better talent.

Edgar was a genius at understanding opportunities and capitalizing on them. It was why he was such a monster in close combat. Edgar had such an instinctual understanding of these things, and it was on full display.

The mage, who had been slowing down, finally let her foot off the gas, and this was when Edgar made his move. Julius felt a surge of mana from Edgar, and the mage must have sensed it as well because she reacted as quickly as she could.