Gavin of Nocrain

For her final match, the one to decide who becomes the A rank champion in this tournament, Leona needs to duel someone from high nobility. The heir of the duchy of Nocrain, Gavin of Nocrain. It is a duchy that lies to the south and is at the border of the kingdom of the beastkind. I have seen his duel from yesterday and he is a very skilled mage. The duel starts with Leona and Gavin entering the arena and everyone anticipates the start of the match.

As soon as the gong goes off, both duelists get into action. Leona rushes towards Gavin while Gavin uses his magic to cast [Smoke Screen] a few meters in front of himself. Dark grey smoke rises from the ground and takes on the shape of a wall. This makes Leona hesitate. Suppose Gavin creates a trap for her behind all that smoke. But Leona can quickly make the decision to try and run around the [Smoke Screen].

In the meantime, Gavin casts the [Smoke Clone] spell. It is a spell that creates a copy of himself made entirely of black smoke. He quickly casts it another 4 times so by the time Leona gets around the [Smoke Screen], there are 5 smokey versions of Gavin walking around. Leona ignores the smoke versions and goes straight for the real one. But just before she gets to him, he casts [Hide in Smoke] on himself. Black smoke covers Gavin and makes him look like another one of the smoke clones. Leona casts [Divine Chains] on Gavin just before he is completely covered in smoke. Yet when he is completely covered, suddenly Leona’s chains of light disappear. She slashes with her sword at the smoke covered Gavin anyways, yet her sword passed straight through it as if nobody was hiding behind it and the smoke quickly dissipated into nothing.

“[Smoke Teleportation].” Kiara tells me. “It is a skill similar to my [Shadow Teleportation]. All that Gavin needs to do is completely engulf himself in smoke and then teleport to a place where he again is completely engulfed in smoke.”

Well, that is a very good way to disappear. Or even confuse your opponent. If I were in Leona’s place, I would have no idea which [Smoke Clone] to attack now. He could be any one of them.

Leona decides to run up to each and every single one of the smoke clones one at a time and get rid of them. But when she dispatches of the second, I see some skeletons that were left in the arena for necromancers to start moving. Eventually, four of them get up and start walking towards Leona, moving quite fast as well.

In the meantime, Leona has dispatched of nearly all the smoke clones. There is only one left. Yet suddenly, five black tendrils jump out of her own shadow and wrap around her. One on each of her limbs and the last one around her throat. They make it so she can’t move any more while the skeletons are closing in on her. That must be the [Bondage] spell. It is a spell in the magic element of binding, formed thought the combination of dark and **** magic.

Even though the [Bondage] spell restricts Leona in her movements, she is able to use her [Iron Will] skill to grant her the strength she needs to simply pull out of the tendrils. Ripping them as she pulls herself free. Ripping through them just in time to dispatch the skeletons and send their bones flying. After that, Leona chases after the last smoke clone of Gavin and strikes it down. But it too disappears with no Gavin hiding inside it. Where did Gavin disappear to?

All of a sudden, the [Smoke Screen] Gavin cast at the very beginning splits in half and reveals where he has been hiding all along. When Leona sees him, she starts running for him. Gavin is making good use of Leona’s limitation of being a melee fighter. While Leona is heading to him, he casts a spell which causes a transparent green wind to travel in Leona’s direction. This is another spell I don’t get. Fortunately, I have Kiara here to explain it to me.

Since Gavin has already shown the ability to cast smoke spells, it means he controls Air and Darkness as basic magic elements. The [Bondage] spell with the tendrils is from the school of binding magic, which is a combination of Darkness and ****. So, when Gavin combines Air with ****, that forms Plague magic. So, this green wind is likely a spell which carries some disease.

Leona, unaware that the green wind is carrying a disease, simply lets it pass through her. But soon, she slows her advance and reaches for her head. She seems to be dizzy?

“That green wind was probably [Fever Plague].” Kiara tells me. “Relatively harmless to the body. She won’t suffer lasting effects from it. But it does create a massive fever, so it’s incredibly distracting.”

Oh no. I remember the last time I had a fever. I would hate to be in combat while that is happening.

Not only that, but Gavin also uses some [Smoke Manipulation] skill to cause the remaining pieces of smoke from his [Smoke Screen] to transform into three large birds and fly towards Leona to circle her. While she is suffering from a fever? That is a dick move, Gavin.

Then I see Leona get briefly surrounded by some light, and here fever seems to be all gone. This one I do get. She must have used her [Divine Blessing] skill. That skill cancels out magical effects, in a same way that Wendy’s skill does. Except Wendy’s [Null Field] is always active, even when she doesn’t want to while Leona’s [Divine Blessing] is only active when she wants it to. And now she used it to cancel out the effects of a magical disease.

With Leona free from the [Fever Plague], I expect Leona to charge at Gavin again. Except Gavin doesn’t stop casting spells on her. I see him move his hands and Leona seems to be confused for no reason and she starts focusing on the smoke birds circling around her.

“That’s the [Forget] spell.” Kiara informs me again. “It makes Leona forget what’s going on right now. Like that she’s fighting a duel right now.”

I try to imagine myself in Leona’s position and I feel I might just give up from the sheer amount of confusion. Gavin has not tried to damage Leona even once, yet he has had the upper hand since the very beginning. But Leona is not an easy person to defeat. If only she could get close to Gavin.

After Leona dispatches the shadow birds, so can get her bearings again and we are basically at the same position as when the duel started. Except Gavin now has less mana, and Leona, although being closer to him, is now more tired.

It is at this time that Gavin finally takes a mana potion to drink. But after he uncorks the potion, Leona uses her [Battle Cry]. Her scream is so loud that it is enough to surprise Gavin in such a way that he drops his mana potion and spills it all over the ground. Then Leona charges at Gavin again, as fast as she can. This time Gavin casts the [Levitate spell], an air magic spell which pushes him off the ground and makes him float a bit. He is now out of Leona’s reach and pulls out another mana potion and drinks it. Leona responds by casting a [Flare] spell at Gavin, similar as she did to Thialha in her previous battle. This blinds Gavin enough that he needs to cast a darkness spell to counteract the [Flare]. A smiple spell called [Shades] which covers his eyes with a black layer. He is however distracted enough that he starts levitating closer to the ground. Low enough that Leona can cast her [Divine Chains] on him again and pull him back down to earth.

Gavin is not yet without defense, though. He quickly casts [Gust] to create a powerful air current that makes Leona fall to the ground. Once she is down, Gavin casts the [Bondage] spell again and five tendrils wrap around Leona once more. Still under the effects of [Iron Will], Leona pulls free from those quickly. But not fast before Gavin has cast a [Vacuum] spell and creates a vacuum bubble between the two of them.

“Now that’s a rare spell.” Kiara tells me. “It is a spell from the school of Void magic. A magic element so advanced that you need to combine the elements air, darkness and **** together to get it. The [Vacuum] spell too is interesting. It creates a place of true emptiness. If Leona walks in there, the lack of air in that bubble will **** any air inside her body to be expelled.”

That surprises me. I had no idea vacuums can do that. I really hope that Leona goes around it like she did to the [Smoke Screen] at the beginning. But no. As soon as she gets up, she rushes forward, straight into the [Vacuum] spell. She is in there for but a second, but it is enough to make her drop to her knees and gasp for air. For the Vacuum she had just passed through had **** the air out of her lungs. This gives Gavin the time to another binding spell on Leona. A single blue tendril now coming out of her shadow and wrapping around her leg. The color of the tendril here is important. It reveals what effect the tendril has. Simple black tendrils just hold a person. A blue tendril like this is a sign Gavin has just cast [Binding Rest] and will make Leona tired for as long as it is wrapped around her. Fortunately, Leona’s [Divine Blessing] is still active and the blue tendril quickly withers away and disappears.

Leona is now close enough to attack Gavin, which she does with the back of her sword. The pummel hits him in the side of the head. He uses [Gust] again to push Leona away, but the [Divine Chains] had become so short that the two are kept together. Leona responds by grabbing Gavin by the shirt and headbutting him. Then she forces him around and pulls him close to her. This way she can **** his arms close to his chest while also keeping her own sword under his chin. She has Gavin face the Judges and then we wait. Gavin doesn’t accept his defeat immediately, but after a few seconds he does indeed yell it. The gong goes off and the Judges declare Leona to be this year’s A rank champion.

Many people in the crowd, especially at the Dark Dragon guild, cheer for Leona’s victory. But there is also a good number of people who jeer at her. I would assume they do this because she is half beastkind and just won in a human tournament. Gavin at least seems to respect her and shakes her hand after she lets him go.

When Leona gets back to the rest of the guild members, she receives praise from everyone. She returns every one’s compliment with a smile, except for Merlara. I can’t hear what the helmet-wearing lady says, but it makes Leona blush. What’s up with that?

I am unable to go ask her however, because the judges have called my name. It is time for me to face my final duel in this tournament.