The Mage of Primordial Chaos

(Feng Mian's Perspective)

The final battle of the tournament. We were facing Xuan Kai's brother - Xuan Kun. Since the two of them both wanted to settle things by themselves, this was less of a teamfight and more of just a solo duel between the two of them. That being said, it wasn't like the rest of us were just idling around doing nothing either. We each had our respective opponents, and by chance, I was facing the other team's assassin, a girl named Meng Fei, alias Girl of the Shadows.

I had heard about this girl before. She was a student of Class 2-A, and quite high in up in the Magus Rankings of our school for a 2nd Year. Granted, she was a strong opponent. She was the second person I've faced who doesn't have a single opening to be found. The first, of course, was Xuan Kai.

I didn't think she was quite on Xuan Kai's level, but nevertheless she was still a troublesome enemy. Being an assassin herself, she knows all the tactics an assassin would use, and also their thought processes. That's why, when it came down to a duel between two people of the same specialty, it became a battle of pure skill, while in other fights, one person may have an advantage over the other simply because their specialty counters that of their opponent's. For example, a support versus an assassin. Unless the support was insanely powerful and could hold her own even against a skilled assassin, he or she would most likely lose this fight.

Between two assassins in a teamfight, however, we weren't actually fighting each other. Instead, we were each trying to get across to the other side in order to launch an attack on their support. As a result, neither of us were firing any offensive magic at the other. We were both closely inspecting the other, at the ready to take advantage of any split second opening.

Eventually, however, the Girl of the Shadows got impatient of staring each other down like this. She cast Vanishing Shadows on herself and quickly sliced into the depths of darkness. As expected of her alias, Meng Fei was an expert in Shadow Magic. There were barely any shadows in the area, yet she was able to still use this technique by moving through the however small shadows of the Arena rim that separated us from the audience.

I wasn't about to let her get past to our precious support, however. I hurriedly turned around and called to Qing Yue.

"Qing Yue! Use Light Magic, quick!" I yelled. "Their assassin is using the shadows from the walls!"

"Huh?! Got it!" Qing Yue was surprised at this sudden callout at first, but quickly composed herself and got her thoughts straight. "Level One Light Magic - Illumination!"

A bright orb of brilliant white light formed above Qing Yue, which she then redirected towards the wall Feng Mian was signaling at. All shadows in the area disappeared, and Meng Fei was forced out of the shadow realm.

"Tch...!" Meng Fei muttered angrily, seeing her plan obstructed. She was now trapped within enemy territory with nowhere to go. Her own strategy ended up backfiring on her. 

She glared at Qing Yue. "To think you had Light Magic as well...I wasn't informed of this."

"Oh? Then I guess your information source just isn't very reliable~" Qing Yue replied casually.

This only served to make Meng Fei even more annoyed, however. "Well, so be it. I'll remove you from this fight right here and now."

"Hold it," I interrupted, standing in between Qing Yue and Meng Fei. "Your opponent, is me."

She narrowed her eyes at me, but I didn't back down. Instead, I glanced back at Qing Yue and gave a reassuring smile. "Focus on supporting the others, Qing Yue. I won't let this girl touch a hair on your head."

"Okay~I believe in you, Feng Mian!!" Qing Yue replied happily, and went back to casting Blessing Magic on Xuan Kai and the Yu sisters to help them in their respective fights. I smiled and turned back to face Meng Fei.

"This is fair, don't you think?" I asked. "A proper duel - between two assassins."

"Hmph," she snorted. "I'll quickly end you and go after the white-haired one next."

"Let's see if you have the ability to do that first," I taunted, making a beckoning gesture with my hand as if saying 'come'. I wonder where I learned that action from...ah, right. It was Xuan Kai, obviously. He rubs off on me, seriously...

I shook my head to clear my mind, and focused on the battle at hand. Meng Fei, taking the taunt, dashed straight towards me at inhuman speeds. However, my reaction times as an assassin who specialized in speed was nothing to laugh at either. I jumped to the right and dodged out of the way by a hair's breadth.

"Ho...you managed to dodge that," Meng Fei remarked, genuinely surprised. "Looks like you aren't all talk after all."

"Heh...likewise," I replied. "I never expected you to be that fast."

"If you can barely handle this, you won't last," she scoffed. "This isn't even half my full speed."

It was an audacious claim, but at the same time it also didn't seem like just a bluff or baseless boast. I could tell; she was strong - strong enough to live up to that statement. I glanced at her as I was inspecting her, which caused her to raise an eyebrow.

"What? You don't believe me?"

"Oh, no. In fact, quite the opposite," I replied with a quick shake of my head. "But y'know...aren't you looking down on me a little?"

"Huh? How so?"

"I mean, how can you be so sure I won't be able to handle your full speed?"

"..." Meng Fei narrowed her eyes and glared at me with venom. After a while, however, she closed her eyes - and smiled. It wasn't a bright, happy smile, but instead a confident, challenging one that thirsted for battle.

"Fine...just don't come crying to me later," she said. Then, closing her eyes, she chanted. "Potentia Excitant: Celeritas - Mark Two!"

A Potentia spell, huh? Xuan Kai had used this very same spell in the Magic Training Room around a month ago when we were testing to see which elements he could use. It was also one of the few spell families that didn't need a spell specification before the spell name to cast. Thus, the casting time was inevitably shorter, since you didn't have to say the 'Level One Blessing Magic' part.

In any case, I knew exactly how this spell functioned, having witnessed Xuan Kai using it before. It wasn't a really hard concept - all it did was boost the user's speed and agility for a short period of time. However, since Meng Fei upgraded hers to Mark Two, it would be significantly more powerful.

I smiled in response to her casting, and prepared myself. I kept my eyes fixed on her the entire time, but even then, she then just suddenly - vanished.

"Wha-Ngh!" Before I knew it, I felt a fist sink into my stomach, and was sent flying backwards by the impact.

I quickly stood back up, knowing that the second I let down my defenses was the second I would be eliminated. I glanced around to see where the perpretrator was, but could not see anyone. Suddenly, I felt a wind rush behind me, and whipped around, but once again saw no one.

"What, that all you got?" I felt a voice coming from behind me - the direction I had been facing just moments before. It was condescending and clearly a taunt, which I had no intention of falling for. But then, I received a kick from behind me, straight into my back.

"Ugh..." I struggled to my feet once more, but the moment I did I was struck once again, from the exact same spot as where she had just kicked me moments before. This time, however, instead of a kick, it felt more like a punch.

This process repeated several more times, and each time was more painful than the last. However...that aside, I've pretty figured out what she was doing and why I could never catch even a glimpse of her, despite knowing she was somewhere close to me. Therefore, it was worth it. She would pay the price for not directly going for my school crest or my head to knock me unconscious.

Basically, what is going on is she always remained behind me - or rather, directly away from where my eyes were facing. Whenever I looked behind me, she would be at my original front in a split second, and move back once I turned back around to always avoid being seen. From an outsider's perspective, it would seem as if Meng Fei was blinking from location to location, always remaining in the blind spot of my vision.

It was a brilliant strategy, to be honest. With this, she could not only deal physical damage on her opponent, but also cause effective mental damage - making her enemies overthink things, and cast overcomplicated spells to counter the powerful magic that they thought she was using, such as illusions or invisibility. This will cause her opponents to waste mana and lead their thoughts astray, bringing down their logical thinking skills.

However - there was just one flaw to this strategy. It was heavily reliant on it not being found out. There were some tactics that still function perfectly fine even if your opponent finds out about them and how they work, but Meng Fei's was not one of them. Once her opponent discovers what she is really doing, it would spell defeat for her - just like in this case.

For the fifteenth time (not that I was really keeping count), I rose to my feet once more after being struck to the ground by Meng Fei. However, this time was the last. Discretely, I began chanting an Ice Element spell...

I felt the familiar rushing of wind behind me which I had experienced numerous times already, and I knew exactly what was going to happen next. But this time was different. I was prepared.

Instead of being helplessly struck, I instead shot open my eyes and mentally controlled the icicle that I had discretely created earlier. It was a very tiny and weak ice spike generated from the Level One spell family Generate - usually used for daily life purposes instead of a fight. However, in this case, such a weak attack was enough.

I felt the blow of Meng Fei's kick sink into my back once more, and I fell onto the floor in pain. But this time, I didn't try to get up once more. This time, I was smiling.

Seeing my actions as a sign I had given up, Meng Fei finally showed herself where I could see. "Have you admitted defeat?" she asked.

"No..." I replied softly.

"Hmph. You don't even have enough energy to stand up anymore, do you?" she scoffed, folding her arms.

"That may be so..." I began, smiling mischievously. Meng Fei raised an eyebrow, seeing my expression unfitting with my current, defeated state. I paid her no mind, and continued my sentence. "...But I win this one."

And then, as if on cue, the mechanical voice belonging to the automated speaker system rang out across the entire arena.

"What the hell-" Meng Fei glanced down at where her school crest used to be, and realized her mistake-

"Attention: Meng Fei - Eliminated."