Chapter 59 All-Out
While tightly holding the Viper spear, Nial was calmly standing inside the combat ring.
He was ready to fight Melvin, who looked at him with determination.
After perceiving the mana fluctuations of his friend, Nial found that they had stabilized which was great.
They were still far from perfect, and Nial knew that his friend was sleep-deprived and lacked nutrition but before dragging him to the combat ring he had been given three different types of serums and highly nutritious food in order to allow Melvin to fight without holding back.
From the looks of it, the butler and Serl Tyr felt that Melvin's fight against Nial was extremely important, which they showed by not just caring about Melvin but also him.
He was handed two vials, and Nial quickly noticed that they were a stamina replenisher and a mana replenishing potion.
Both the potions accelerated the speed at which he replenished his stamina and mana, allowing Nial to reach his highest combat prowess by taking them.
They were worth quite a bit, and Nial gulped them down without hesitation, knowing that he needed them.
Now that both were ready to fight and boosted by the serums they had gulped down, they went into their respective combat stance before awaiting the start of the battle.
This happened only seconds later as the butler of the Tyr family initiated a countdown.
Thus, once the battle started, the Viper spear's tip with a retracted blade pointed towards Melvin, who was wielding a set of daggers.
A moment later, both shots towards each other as Melvin's body was enveloped in faint lightning currents, while Nial was circulating mana through his body in order to increase the speed at which he could move.
In fact, the amount of mana both the opponents possessed had a huge difference because Melvin had enlarged his mana core two times already.
His mana control, martial art proficiency, and combat experience were much higher, in addition to the fact that Melvin had already acquired an ability of which he made use right now.
However, all of this didn't matter to Nial, who was rushing toward Melvin with an eerily calm demeanor, knowing that he had only one chance to defeat his friend.
Owing to the numerous disadvantages, and Nial's rather low combat experience, there shouldn't be a way for him to win against Melvin.
This was only obvious in ordinary conditions!
But owing to the circumstance, Nial was confident that he could deliver a great battle as long as he gave everything.
Having planned to do so, he could also feel the remnants of the darkness lingering around the Odyssey seed.
Nial had no idea what exactly this darkness was, or how the Odyssey seed created it.
But what he knew was that it had extremely destructive properties, including that it could devour mana!
Even though Nial didn't want to use it, he was certain that it was his only way to emerge victorious in the spar which he wanted to win by all means.
This was not only necessary for him, but even more so Melvin…that he knew Nial was not as weak as before!
Holding back was not something Nial would do in this spar, otherwise, he would only betray his own feelings and that of his friend.
With that in mind, Nial didn't hesitate to release the darkness lingering around the Odyssey seed.
As he tried to control it precisely, Nial's head began to hurt.
But he kept trying and slowly led it through the Viper spear that began to emanate the darkness of his Odyssey seed from its entirety.
This made the Viper spear with its retracted blade look more dangerous and lethal than it truly was…or so Nial initially believed.
Yet, the moment he brandished the Viper spear in its rod form towards Melvin, Nial perceived something he didn't expect to happen.
A replica of his first attack seemed to form out of the darkness that the Viper rod emanated, following his first attack closely.
He was not able to see anything but owing to his mana perception, he could clearly feel that the first attack was blocked by Melvin's lightning enveloped daggers, only for a second impact to follow suit, surprising both him and Melvin.
This caused Melvin's defense to break apart, allowing the rod to advance forward, and hit his shoulder.
Only a moment later, Melvin's body slumped to the ground, astonishing everyone around.
In fact, even Nial hadn't expected his attack amplified by the darkness of the Odyssey seed to be so impactful.
Without any expectations, he had just exerted his strength, and everything seemed to have worked out on its own.
However, the spar was far from over, and Nial quickly changed his stance, pulling the rod back before he thrust out with it once again.
He had yet to release the blade of the spear, and Serl Tyr presumed this to be a precaution taken by Nial to prevent accidentally injuring Melvin.
This was something Serl thought to be useless, but little did the Master of the Tyr family know that Nial was not afraid of injuring Melvin.
That was the least of his worries because neither of the two were currently afraid of injuring each other as Melvin's desire to win this spar surfaced from the depths of his heart.
With a loud shout, he lifted one of his hands holding a dagger before a bolt of lightning manifested in his palm.
Shooting out the ball of lightning, the dagger Melvin had held a moment earlier was flung towards Nial with a shocking pace that exceeded the ball of lightning he had fired towards him.
Considering that he had manifested and fired the lightning within a second, it was not strong enough to severely injure Nial.
However, that was not the case for the dagger that was flung toward him.
Barely fast enough to twist his body the moment Melvin gathered lightning transmuted mana in his hand, Nial was able to evade the attack by a hair's breadth…or so he thought.
What he had failed to realize was that the dagger that had brushed past him had actually hit him, causing a deep gash on his upper arm.
Yet, Nial didn't notice anything because the adrenaline coursing through his body was suppressing any kind of pain he was currently feeling.
Because of that, Nial was able to give his best, and exceed his limitations without being forced to rely on the first pulse of the Odyssey seed.
Thus, the moment he lifted his body, he thrust the Viper spear towards Melvin with only one hand.
In the end, by twisting his body, he had lost his balance, which his now free hand had fixed.
Unfortunately, this prevented him from attacking with a powerful thrust as the attack lacked the necessary stability.
However, Nial had already prepared himself for a similar scenario, whcih was why his mind was calmer than one might expect.
He had predicted a different scenario, but the actual case didn't really matter because it served as a leeway to get himself out of trouble.
This was exactly what was currently happening as he thrust the Viper rod forward aiming at Melvin's chest.
Yet, just a fraction of a second before he hit Melvin's chest, he heard a metallic clang of the dagger hitting his rod as the remaining dagger Melvin was wielding changed the trajectory of his attack.
Through this and the instability of Nial's thrust, the attack was bound to narrowly brush past Melvin's right shoulder, revealing an opportunity for the young Original.
But it was at this moment that the corners of Nial's lips curled upwards, clearly indicating to Melvin and the two spectators that something was wrong.
'Did I mess up?' Melvin wondered for a moment.
Despite knowing that something was bound to happen, the butler, Serl Tyr, and even more so Melvin, couldn't help but stare at what happened just a fraction of a second later as the Viper spear's blade shot out of its tip, piercing into Melvin's right shoulder.
This could only happen owing to Melvin's underestimation of the spearblade's length and the fact that he had never expected Nial to release the Viper spear's blade at this moment and to actually hurt him.
It was truly baffling because Nial's determination to win was clearly perceived with that attack.
However, Melvin could only grit his teeth and tell himself that the battle was not yet over.
Twisting his body instinctively the way he had done in the numerous hellish training sessions he had undergone with Master Junades, he was able to evade a severe injury.
Nial's attack might have been a surprise but Melvin had much more experience!
Nonetheless, it was crystal clear that Melvin was at a disadvantage right now because his shoulder was injured, preventing him from moving his entire right arm as smoothly as before.
This caused Melvin to frown, wondering how Nial had been able to learn how to wield his weapon and how to fight as good as him in a matter of a few days.
After all, he had been unconscious for several days.
As such, there had to be something else, which made him wonder if Nial's natural talent was at a monstrously high level or if Nial was giving his utmost efforts to defeat his opponent for the first time in his life…or it had always been the case and it was only Melvin who was experiencing this for the first time.
Unfortunately, before Melvin could come to a conclusion, Nial's free hand had already reached the Viper spear, allowing him to regain better control over the Viper spear followed by much better stability, and fierceness in the attacks he dealt.
Most of his attacks were simple slashes and thrusts, but these attacks were more than enough to annoy Melvin, to the extent that he was unable to hold back anymore.
Exerting a technique he had begun to learn only a short while before his re-encounter with Nial, Melvin gritted his teeth as lightning transmuted mana coursed through his entire body.
Through this, his speed increased tremendously, but owing to his weak command of the technique, it caused his body to ache severely.
But that was perfectly fine with Melvin, who saw nothing but victory in front of him as he smoothly evaded the spear thrust that was aimed towards the center of his chest.
As if Nial knew that Melvin would evade or block his attacks, he attacked fiercely while gritting his teeth.
Unfortunately, the last fierce attack caused him to lose his balance because Nial was certain that his spear-thrust would be blocked or the trajectory would get changed instead of getting entirely evaded.
Because of this miscalculation, he almost lost the fight against his friend.
Yet, instead of thinking about giving up, Nial twisted his body once again until he felt the uncomfortable sensation creeping up his spine that something extremely bad would happen if he were to continue.
As such, he knew that he had reached his limit, which allowed him to let go of his right hand in order to brandish the Viper spear in the direction Melvin was moving.
Through this, Nial attempted to hit his side, which didn't work as Melvin's entire body was clad in lightning for a fraction of a second, blocking the attack.
Leaning his body forward, Melvin used the wide-open area to jump towards his blind friend, thrusting his dagger out that sent Nial flying towards the ground.
"You're dead!" Melvin said in between heavy breaths, with a faint grin on his face as he held his dagger on Nial's neck.
It was the first grin that had appeared on his face since the day he had made the huge mistake.
This caused Serl and the butler to smile, only to see how Melvin stiffened as he felt something sharp sticking into his abdomen.
Looking down, he saw how a perfectly normal dagger, held in Nial's hand was piercing through his clothes, faintly cutting into his skin.
"So are you!"