System vs Rebirth

The enemy planned to stop him from using all his abilities, so Noel placed his hand on the ground to confuse him.

"!!!" The guy became wary of this ability, wondering if he channeled either element inside.

However, the fluctuation of Spiritual Energy was weak, making him think there was no way an attack that small would harm him.

So, he chased after Noel while forming a shield with his second blade just in case.

As he expected, Noel leaped back to get away from him.

He lowered his shield to block everything from below while chasing after Noel.

The Spiritual Energy fluctuated violently the moment he stepped near the ground Noel put his hand on earlier. However, this amount of Spiritual Energy wasn't enough to harm him, so he focused on going after Noel.

This was his mistake because what Noel left behind was the Softening Rune.

As soon as he stepped on the ground, the soil became so soft that it felt like it absorbed his foot.

"!!!" The guy lost his balance immediately. Although he managed to use his other foot to support him, his left leg was already on its knee.

Before Noel attacked him, he actually used his Ice Control and froze the ground. The ice reached his opponent's knee and made it stick. This way, the enemy wouldn't be able to get into his stance.

Noel took this opportunity to jump back to strike the guy's head. He wanted to hit him from the back, but the guy would have already broken free. So, he had no choice but to attack head-on.

*Clink!*

The guy managed to raise his sword at the last second, blocking Noel's attack. But because of his stance, he could only muster sixty percent of his power.

On the other hand, Noel came to him with all that momentum and power, knocking him down to the ground.

He ended up in an awkward position, with one knee stuck on the ground while the rest of his body was lying on the ground.

He gritted his teeth as he tried his best to recover from such a situation.

On the other hand, Noel had turned around and summoned three giant swords on top of him.

Sword Fall.

"!!!" The guy was shocked because he didn't think he would be able to block these huge swords. But as expected from a Spirit Master, he joined his blades together and spread the Spiritual Energy to form a sturdier shield.

Instead of blocking this Sword Fall, he chose to let the three swords slide on the shield's surface.

Still, the Sword Fall was one of the strongest attacks Noel had. His hands felt numb just by deflecting three of them.

Noel even had another package for him behind those swords.

"!!!" The guy widened his eyes in shock, seeing a snowflake above him. That snowflake was giving a dangerous vibe along with a vast amount of Spiritual Energy.

He instinctively changed the shape of his shield.

Freezing Crystal.

The snowflake burst, freezing the entire area. But when the mist was gone, Noel could see dome-shaped ice that followed the shape beneath it.

The Spirit Master managed to form a dome to block the Freezing Crystal.

Noel wanted to take this opportunity where his vision was blocked by the ice. He had concentrated his Spiritual Energy to use his next ability.

But the Spirit Master managed to react before him.

The ice was shattered with a single swing.

"Ha… Ha…" The guy was panting as he had used a lot of energy to block the last two attacks. He glared at Noel, wondering if he could take down this guy by himself.

He was sure that Noel couldn't win against him, but capturing Noel was a different case. Capturing needed him to control his strength since he couldn't harm Noel, while killing him only required him to go all out. That was why he believed his team could finish their battles first before helping him to take down Noel.

Even if the mission failed, as long as they got Noel, they would surely be rewarded.

Hence, the guy changed his approach. Instead of capturing Noel, he would just buy time from him until his teammates finished their fight.

Even if they were Spirit Masters, they still outnumbered them by two to one. So, they should be able to win somehow.

With that thought in mind, the guy came out of the broken ice dome and walked to Noel as if he wasn't planning to attack him anymore.

"…" Noel frowned because an enemy like this was more troublesome to him. Since he had used both elements, he had to kill the enemy if he didn't want his secret to be leaked.

But because the enemy did his best to buy time, it would be hard to kill him.

Noel wanted to use the Spiritual Energy he had just gathered for the Flame Conjuring, but it seemed he had to use all his Spiritual Energy in order to kill him.

The Spiritual Energy soon gathered on his palm. He waved his hand and formed a black-colored phoenix.

Undying Fire.

The phoenix let out a cry as it flew toward the enemy. The guy jumped to the side to avoid the phoenix, but the latter actually turned around, matching his direction.

The Spirit Master had no way to escape other than crushing the phoenix. Hence, he extended his blade as far as possible while swinging downwards, afraid that this phoenix would explode like the snowflake crystal.

The phoenix went straight to the blade and got slashed. The phoenix might get slashed just like that, but the Undying Fire remained on the sword's extension and began to spread by using the Spiritual Energy as its fuel.

"!!!" The guy was startled because the fire was approaching him. The blade extension was made of Spiritual Energy, so it only took like two seconds before it reached his handle.

Luckily, his reaction speed was fast enough as he cut off the Spiritual Energy with his other sword, making the blade extension break apart.

The blade extension fell to the ground and kept burning until nothing remained.

'What a dangerous fire…'