The Challenger's Return: Rebirth of the Rainbow Mage

The challenger that beckoned to Otto was a human man whose appearance placed his age in the mid sixties.

In the [Tower], that meant he was more likely pushing 100.

From his aura, he was also by far the strongest of the six.

Otto cast [Analyze] on him as his brain spun with thoughts on how to deal with this challenge.

Mostly, he had to decide what he would expose and what he must keep hidden.

The man's details appeared in front of him.

Otto's heart sunk as he read through the screen.

It wasn't that the man was too strong.

It was the opposite.

He was too weak.

In other words, this man wore yet another disguise that Otto could not see through.

Otto idly wondered just what kind of concealment this organization possessed that even [Analyze] had been foiled on so many consecutive occasions.

Well, he supposed it wouldn't be such a 'secret' organization if his [Analyze] could scan the attendees without a hitch.

Otto walked over to the chosen arena.

What to hide? What to show?

Since he had already revealed a portion of his wealth, Otto did not want to reveal much of his combat prowess.

There were too many potential enemies in this very room, likely all with status and position in Area 1.

If they saw all of Otto's strengths and weaknesses in combat and planned accordingly, he doubted even he would be able to survive.

He had also not forgotten about the woman in the government office who was almost petrified before he had the chance to save her.

Otto grimaced.

Safe zones may not actually be 'safe' for him any longer.

For this, Otto decided to 'expose' himself as a reasonably strong dual-element mage with a breadth of experience and extreme reflexes.

He might have to lose this fight in order to do so.

It rankled a little, sure.

But it was better than exposing his real strength to a room full of strangers that might decide to ambush him at a moment's notice.

As for his 'dual elements,' this was not particularly risky.

Dual elements were still considered extremely rare throughout the entirety of Area 1, but among upper elites, they likely numbered between 1 and 2 in 100 mages.

More than two elements, meanwhile, was unheard of.

He would under no circumstances expose more than two elements, his ability to dual cast even the same spell, his instant cast times, or lack of cooldowns.

Since Otto could also not trust the organization itself just yet, one of the elements he used had to be the earth element after he sold the spell tome for [Tunnel] at the auction.

Moreover, Otto would need to stick to using mostly basic spells combined with no more than a few he'd received from his class.

Selecting his second element was trickier.

Otto's mind flashed with scenarios as he sauntered slowly over to the arena.

Earth was decent for defense and attack, so he needed to pair it with an element that was stealthy and added control.

Otto decided to showcase his talents with the wind element.

He quickly reached the arena, sparing an indifferent glance for his opponent.

The two men squared off against each other.

"It is nice to meet you, challenger. I am Rufus. Let us go over the rules before we start."

"One: no external help. This includes potions, pills, arrays, equipment, and weapons. This match is purely intended to test your raw skills, barehanded, in combat."

As Rufus spoke, Otto felt his body grow slightly weaker.

He looked at his status screen, and discovered that most of the buffs from his equipment were gone.

However, Otto was also pleased to note that [Ofrand's Boots] were unaffected.

Those buffs remained.

He wouldn't take the initiative to remove them, either.

Since in the case of an actual ambush, [Teleportation] would be a trump card he could use to escape back to his rented home in the safe zone.

"Two: the conditions of loss include if you are 'knocked out' of the arena, or if your health reaches the minimum, here set at a single point."

A screen appeared in front of Otto, indicating the minimum health setting of one.

"Are you prepared?"

Otto's body tensed as he mentally ran through exactly what he could and couldn't show.

There was a small crowd surrounding his arena; the others were largely ignored.

Who asked him to be so flamboyant with his money?

Rufus made the first move.

In the eyes of a normal person, he seemed to disappear from his spot, reappearing in front of Otto a mere instant later, arm raised to throw out a testing punch.

Thankfully, Otto was anything but normal.

He estimated Rufus's speed attribute to be just over 110 points. A ridiculously huge number for a challenger in Area 1.

Otto's own agility attribute sat at 85 points with the boost from [Ofrand's Boots].

Yet the two were on par in speed. Agility was a superior attribute, after all...

Otto tilted his head almost a full meter to the left to dodge both the punch and the follow up shockwave.

Rufus's strength was much higher than Otto's.

Otto took the opportunity to retaliate even while he was inwardly screaming,

'Where do they find these terrifying challengers!?'

A small bullet made of condensed stone shot at Rufus's shoulder and made contact, knocking the man back around half a meter.

[Rock Bullet: Unlimited]

Earth Element

Level 10

Conjures a bullet made of rock that hits an enemy for (240 + 5% magic power) damage.

Mana Cost: 117

Cast Time: Instant

No Cooldown

But Otto's expression darkened.

He had taken the opportunity to add almost 100 additional mana points into that rock bullet.

With Otto's attributes, it should have dealt somewhere around 1,100 damage.

Even taking Rufus's defense into account, no lower than 500.

But Otto's experienced eye told him that Rufus was barely scratched by the hit.

Either he had a trait or something that increased his defense, or his sturdiness was much higher than Otto had anticipated.

Otto rapidly analyzed as Rufus rushed at him once more.

Just as Rufus's right fist was about to collide with Otto's face (this was no mere testing punch, anymore), Otto gazed at him coldly and twisted his body to the right.

The shockwave blasted in to the platform behind Otto and created a large dent.

Some of the audience members inhaled sharply as they witnessed the force of Rufus's fist in person.

They knew. They wouldn't survive a single hit.

Otto was unfazed.

He used the spare one and a half seconds in between attacks to cast one of the two advanced spells he intended to reveal.

[Wind Jump]

Wind Element

Level 10

Create sturdy platforms on the air to step on.

Mana Cost (cast): 50

Duration (cast): 5 seconds

Mana Cost (channeled): 10/second

Cast Time: Instant

No Cooldown

Otto stepped on the platform of wind and used the full might of his agility to revert his momentum and soar towards the other side of the arena.

The audience gasped as they saw him using a wind element spell in addition to what had clearly been a rock bullet.

"Dual elements!"

The eyes of the spectators sparkled.

This Toto was definitely a talent!

Thankfully for Otto, the arena was specifically created for fast and strong challengers.

It was space enchanted to fit inside the ballroom, but on the inside it spanned a full 10 square kilometers in area.

Meaning that if he wanted to catch up to Otto after he changed directions in the air with the agility of a housefly, Rufus would need to take a few seconds.

Precious seconds that Otto could use to prepare his next spell.

Rufus was not infuriated as he watched Otto fly away from him.

He simply chased with all his speed. The scene reminded Otto a bit of a bull pursuing a red flag in all its angry might.

Otto took the chance to prepare his next spell while Rufus accelerated his charge.

3…2…1…

Rufus was barely ten meters away from Otto, when...

SHOOT!

Four sparkling rings of wind blasted towards Rufus at the speed of a bullet.

Otto also used his mental power to speed up his cast.

There was no time to evade, and Rufus didn't possess Otto's extreme reflexes.

He was hit dead on by [Winding Restrictions].

But at the last second, Otto clicked his tongue in frustration.

A dull energy barrier surrounded Rufus and intercepted Otto's spell, weakening the mana before it hit Rufus directly.

Otto recognized it at a glance. He felt like he understood why they paired him with Rufus.

It was a relatively strong, uncommon personal trait related to the old man's energy.

[Mana Bane]

Passive:

Reduces effect and duration of all spells targeting the trait owner by 20%.

Active:

Spend energy to intercept a spell and further reduce its effect and duration by 50%. Energy expenditure determined by the power and duration of the spell.

However, Otto also possessed a related trait.

It was a racial trait he'd inherited after he evolved.

[Immersive Magic]

Your magic is resistant to penetration and interruption.

Of course, resistant didn't mean 'immune.'

[Winding Restrictions] was still weakened by 20%, and would only last for two minutes instead of the usual three.

Rufus's speed slowed significantly after being hit by the spell.

Still, he didn't miss the opportunity to charge once again.

A barrage of fists, feet, projectile rock and wind collided in the arena.

Both men came together and separated alternately in a flurry of movement, leaving the spectators outside of the arena watching with bated breath to determine the winner.

Rufus was beginning to breath roughly; his strong point was never his stamina.

Otto, meanwhile, almost exclusively used mana, and his powerful regeneration never left him high and dry in that regard.

He continued to rain down spells on the slowed Rufus.

His eyes lit up as he saw that they were finally drawing some blood, doing some damage to the man.

But contrary to the defeat he'd hoped to find, Rufus's eyes were brimming with fighting spirit.

He wasn't out of tricks quite yet.