Lord of Charm

The convoy slipped into chaos almost instantly. There were screams of people getting injured or killed, whimpers of wolves that got hit by spells, and endless spells were cast in all directions by magicians and wolves alike.

Nina and Leo stood back-to-back, each facing 2 wolves in front of them. They used this tactic to prevent the wolves from coming at them from behind but also forced them to have each other's backs.

Because they were both geniuses who got higher recognition from the world, making them stronger than other Expert Magicians, the other Expert Magicians were depending on them to finish their fights soon and come to support them.

Gale lured the strongest wolves away from the rest of the envoys to prevent their fight from dealing too much damage to people and property. A few hundred meters away from the rest of the battles, the two wolves started circling him, forcing him to keep his guard up the whole time.

Gale was patient, he had trained his timing and spells to the highest degree under his mother's tutorage. The wolves tested him by aiming wind blades and fireballs against him, which he had blocked with simple stone shields.

After a few minutes of probing, the wolves lost their patience and attacked. One wolf created two wolf clones made of fire and charged at Gale while the other stayed in the distance and gathered strong winds around it.

When the fire wolves came closer to Gale, the wolf that used wind spells charged with a powerful gale behind him, making him close the distance almost instantly in an attempt to catch Gale off-guard with a two-sided coordinated attack.

Gale, however, was ready. He cast two large cages made of stones, catching inside the two wolves. The cages' restraining properties weakened all spells, making the fire wolves unstable and slowing down the wind wolf.

Unfortunately, the wolves weren't fourth-rank beasts for nothing. The two fire clones crushed against the cage and exploded, breaking it down and freeing their caster. The other wolf simply coated himself with wind and fire before attacking the cage with its sharp claws, making a hole large enough for himself to get out.

Gale's attacks didn't end there; he rapidly cast 4 restraining rings and placed them all on the wolf that use its sub-element since it was slower. The wolf quickly jumped out of the way and used a wind spell to dodge the rings, yet could only dodge 2 of them. Two extremely heavy rings of stone were formed around two of its legs, slowing down the wolf by half and weakening any spells he'd try to use.

The wolf howled with anger, it felt humiliated to have those rings on itself. The other wolf took a second longer to break the cage and was late to the action, so it only saw the aftermath. It dashed toward Gale to keep him busy and allow the other wolf to break the restraints.

Gale knew he only had a few seconds before the situation will revert back to its starting point, but he would lose the surprise effect in the next round, so he had to injure or kill a wolf before the next round started.

Right in front of the dashing wolf, he summoned an arm of stone from the ground with its fingers ready to clutch their target. The fingers closed on the incoming wolf and Gale immediately turned it a few times heavier to slow down the wolf.

The air wolf shot a few air blades it had prepared in advance and opened a hole in the palm in front of it, allowing it to continue dashing in Gale's direction. Gale kept retreating toward the restrained wolf, but the air wolf was too fast. Its jaws were only a few centimeters away from Gale's right leg, ready to tear it off.

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5 months ago:

This time Celty stood by Elizabeth's side in the training area; it was time for Gale to train his shadow spells.

"Your shadow affinity is indeed lacking. However, your connection to magic is far superior to the average mage's, thus allowing you to still cast mage-ranked shadow spells efficiently as long as you do it at the right time."

Elizabeth explained the reason she decided to make him train in an element he was weaker at instead of only training his earth magic.

"I don't know much about shadow spells, so Celty will instruct you on this topic according to her knowledge. Although she isn't a mage, she trained it for a long time and should be knowledgeable about it."

"Yes, Lady Elizabeth. I researched my main spells which I've already taught Lord Gale; noise cancellation and shadow assimilation. In the Mage Phase, the noise cancellation can dim the noise by 99%, making it nearly impossible for anyone to hear you. Shadow assimilation can make you assimilate with shadow completely now, letting you enter it and pop out a few meters away."

Happily, Celty had already found the spells and passed them to Gale to train in. He kept trying to ambush his mother with a knife in the next few days using those spells. It never worked, but he did manage to master the spells.

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The wolf believed victory was his as his jaws closed on Gale's leg, only to feel its jaws clench against each other, biting nothing.

Shadow Assimilation!

Gale assimilated into the shadows and popped right next to the restrained wolf which was a second away from breaking free of its restraints. Gale held above his head a large heavy sword made by earth magic in his two hands. He pulled down his hands and the sword followed, straight to the wolf's neck.

The wolf had no defensive skills, but it tried its best to dodge with a wind spell that made it dash forward, however, the restraints slowed it down too much. Gale's sword descended on it just before the back legs, cutting the body in two.

*HOWL!*

The wolf howled with pain and terror as it lost two legs and could only collapse and bleed to death. The air wolf's dash took it too far away from them and it could only watch its friend getting severely injured.

Now it was one vs one, making Gale feel much more confident in winning although he had revealed his trump cards; he could direct all his spells on one target. Gale cast a stone barrage against the wolf, narrowing its path, and forcing it to slow down to dodge the bullets as it tried to approach Gale.

Because the barrage made its speed ineffective, the wolf removed its speed buff and cast air blades instead. It instantly turned slower, but it could still dodge all of the bullets without much effort. Three blades flew toward Gale, who stepped aside to dodge them.

But fourth-rank beasts' spells weren't that simple to dodge; the blades did a U-turn and chased him. He double-cast and summoned a heavy wall in front of him, which the blades had cut through at the cost of half of their charged mana.

Gale took the chance to create an opening in his wall and entered through it, forcing the blades to take another U-turn to chase him. The walls had already closed behind him and stopped the wind blades again, this time completely blocking them.

The wolf had used this opportunity to get close during the time its spell kept Gale busy, despite dodging all the bullets Gale fired at him nonstop. Now, they were only 5 meters apart from each other, looking into each other's eyes.