Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1465: The Hardest Lesson

Raze’s hand was wrapped in lightning, the crackling glow coating his skin like living chains of energy. Just like before, his flawless control allowed him to neutralize Kayzel’s attack completely, snuffing out its destructive force. But this time, it wasn’t just the control that was impressive.

It was the fact that he had blocked the strike at all.

Even with Kayzel’s super speed, even when attacking faster than the human eye could track, Raze had still managed to catch the blow.

’This makes no sense,’ Kayzel thought frantically, disbelief flickering across his face. ’Even if he got lucky, if he just happened to raise his hand at the right spot at the right moment, the sheer force of my speed should have blown his arm back. But it hasn’t. His grip... it’s solid. It’s like he physically stopped my hand itself! How is that possible?’

Kayzel ripped himself free before Raze could counter. He zipped away in a blur, only to reappear from another angle, lightning coursing down his leg as he unleashed a vicious kick.

But Raze was already moving. His own leg shot out, shrouded in crackling lightning, and the two collided with a thunderous snap, sparks exploding outward.

Kayzel skidded back, his teeth gritted. He wasn’t finished. Mana surged through his veins as he cast in rapid succession, not only lightning this time, but fire as well. Flames curled around his limbs, his strikes glowing red-hot as he charged in again.

And every time, Raze blocked. His hand intercepted a burning fist. His arm deflected a scorching elbow. His body twisted, parrying kicks and redirecting blows with clinical precision.

The arena roared. The crowd could hardly contain themselves at what they were witnessing. This wasn’t the image of two mages hurling spells at one another from a distance. This was something entirely different. To the spectators, it looked like hand-to-hand combat, infused with the raw power of elemental magic. The speed, the clash of fire and lightning, the sheer variety of the fight, it was unlike anything they had seen before.

Excitement boiled over.

"I told you," Liam said calmly, leaning back in his chair as if he had predicted it all from the beginning. His voice carried a trace of amusement. "Kayzel is actually quite slow. Raze isn’t going to have any trouble handling this."

The other mages in the room exchanged baffled looks. None of them could even process the idea. Kayzel’s movements were so fast they looked like blurs, faster than any mage they had ever seen before. Who could call that slow?

But Liam wasn’t looking with their eyes. He came from Pagna, where speed was measured differently. There were assassins who could vanish and reappear before a target could even draw breath. There were warriors like Zon, whose sheer velocity made them into living shadows. Compared to them, Kayzel’s super speed was impressive... but not extraordinary.

Even Liam himself could have intercepted Kayzel’s strikes, though perhaps not with Raze’s effortless precision. To the mages, Kayzel’s power was unbelievable. To the Pagna warriors, it was only a familiar kind of fast.

Finally, Kayzel came to a stop. His chest heaved as he glared across the field, his confident grin gone at last. For the first time, his face was shadowed with frustration.

"I don’t understand!" Kayzel shouted, his voice raw, carrying over the arena. "How can you move just as fast as me? You’re reacting to everything, I can see it! Do you have the same unique trait as me?!"

The question echoed in the sudden silence, the crowd waiting with baited breath for Raze’s answer.

For the first time since the fight began, Raze moved from his position. His steps echoed lightly across the arena floor as he began to walk forward, each step deliberate, each step carrying a quiet finality.

"I told you before, didn’t I?" Raze’s voice cut through the noise of the stadium. Lightning sparked to life at the soles of his feet, arcs of electricity racing up his legs, trailing behind him like snapping chains. "That you’re not anything special."

And then, just like Kayzel had done at the start of the match, Raze vanished.

But this was different.

Kayzel’s power allowed him to process information at incredible speeds, his mind able to follow even the quickest of spells and the blur of fast-moving bodies. Yet when it came to Raze, he saw nothing. His brain, trained to track the impossible, failed him completely.

The only thing he felt was the sudden grip of a hand on the back of his head.

And then the world spun.

With brutal force, Raze hurled him across the ground. Kayzel’s body skidded and crashed, dirt spraying as he dropped hard into the floor.

Snarling, Kayzel scrambled to his feet, mana surging, his body blurring again as he activated his super speed to flee and reposition. But before he could even blink, before his body could fully accelerate, Raze was already there.

Another hand gripped the back of his head. His skull slammed into the ground, the impact resounding like a hammer blow.

Gasps spread across the arena.

"What’s happening?! How is the student from Wilton able to keep up?!"

"Keep up? You fool!" another spectator shouted back. "Don’t you see? He’s not keeping up, he’s faster! Faster than Kayzel himself!"

Kayzel groaned, the world spinning as Raze hauled him upright with one arm before tossing him effortlessly across the field. His body bounced, skidding violently before coming to a halt.

And it wasn’t over.

Time and again, Kayzel tried to use his trait to escape, to gain distance, to mount an attack. And time and again, Raze was there first, grabbing him, dodging every desperate spell, and slamming him into the ground or hurling him across the arena.

Five times in total, Kayzel was thrown like a ragdoll. The crowd’s cheers dimmed into murmurs of confusion. None of them understood. What was Raze doing? Why wasn’t he finishing the fight?

At last, Raze stood over his battered opponent, his crimson eyes calm, his tone even.

"You know," Raze said, his voice carrying clearly through the mist of dust and smoke, "I’m going to teach you something today. A lesson, one you won’t forget. For someone like you, being knocked unconscious, or having the fight stopped for you, that would be too easy."

He leaned closer, his words sharp as a blade.

"The worst loss for you... will be admitting defeat yourself. Giving up, with your own mouth. That’s how you’ll lose. And whether it comes easily or whether I make it very, very hard, that’s your choice."

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