DRAGONBORN SORCERER-Chapter 25: Fate of The Mockery

"Maybe I am. Maybe I am not. Why bother knowing that?" Skyler told Sato, dipping his tone with arrogance, "I wanted to avoid fighting you people. But your incessant bragging got on my nerves. As for the answer to your question, think this as a small demonstration to prove that you’re not the only one with superior strength."

Adventurers stood still under the pressure of his voice. Thinking back that they didn’t provoked him, they got relieved. If they had opposed back when Leonardo introduced him, their fate might not be different afar from the fate of the golems.

Sato stood firm. Sweat dropped from his face. Clearly, he knew his limitations, and Skyler wasn’t within it. Rumi joined in, leaping gracefully from the back of the wyvern. Walking slowly towards Sato, she said, "If you’re a sorcerer, you must be on the same level as we . There’s no way you can take both of us at once."

’She’s certainly has a point.’ Sato thought, as Rumi stopped next him, ’If we join our strength, we can definitely take him down. But how to convince him to fight only us?’

Before Sato could act, Rumi took the first move, unleashing a massive fire spell towards him. Skyler remained unfazed— didn’t even bother attempting as to dodge the attack. However, the intense flame collided with an invisible shield before touching him.

"Divine Protection! "

Rose, standing before him, used her protective barrier that could counter or block any kind of attacks. She was a guardian class for nothing after all.

"I won’t allow you to direct your lowly flames towards Sir Skyler?" She shouted, her tone infused with disgust, "My body shall serve as a shield as long as I’m alive." Her eyes burned with determination though.

Skyler chuckled behind he mask, looking such devotion towards him. ’Man! The cards played accordingly.’ He thought as he stepped forwards.

"Don’t worry, Rose." He exclaimed, removing his mask off his face, "Your faith was never in question. Your devotion is cherished by the goddess."

Hearing such remark from him, Rose’s eyes sparkled in happiness. She believed her repentance had redeemed her from the sin she unintentionally committed.

"However..." Skyler hesitated briefly before shaking his hair, "Never mind. Just focus on the battle for now."

Rose couldn’t quite grasp the reason for his hesitation, but she refrained from questioning it. She had doubted his judgment once before, and doing it twice— she wasn’t that foolish.

"Haa-Haa-Haa." Sato laughed mockingly, "I thought you were strong, sorcerer. But look at you. Hiding behind woman, how pathetic."

The insult boiled Skyler’s blood to an extreme level. His face darkened. The other adventurers stood back as the dark-purple aura emitting from him was oppressively strong— even hard as to breath in its presence.

"I’ll show you what pathetic looks like." He said, his tone unimaginably heavy. "Inventory!"

The system interface appeared, showing a variety of materials in it. He pulled one of them out— an orb, and crushed it. The faint crimson glow covered his body, releasing from the orb.

[Scorching Orb has been used. Fire elemental attack increased by 20%]

"You are flame sorcerers, right." He raised his hand, "Let’s see how much heat you can endure."

A massive flame magic circle appeared above him, radiating intense heat. From it, an inferno shuriken emerged, larger and more menacing than before. The molten, fang-like blades had doubled in number, spinning rapidly and increasing the surrounding temperature to scorching levels. Even someone as strong as Leonardo, felt his throat drying out rapidly.

"Hell-Inferno Shuriken!" he roared, unleashing the attack at them. The wyverns fell back. The adventurers nearly cried out, "What the hell is that thing?"

[Hell-Inferno Shuriken has been used. MP cost: 2000. Remaining MP: 5300/13800]

Sato and Rumi, however, stood unfazed. They exchanged confident glances as the attack neared. Much to Skyler’s surprise, Sato stopped the attack using his bear hands. The shuriken was massive and highly effective, and was spinning even after making contact with Sato’s hand, creating a massive friction against his palm.

"What do you take us for, huh?" Sato replied, still holding the spinning shuriken, "We’re flame sorcerers of the Xions. Controlling flames and fire is child’s play for us." The shuriken gradually lost its motion. Loosing its rotation motion, it dropped at Sato’s foot— still radiating intense heat. "Though I must say, this was an impressive attack. Let’s see, how you can handle your own attack."

Sato held the massive shuriken above his head, using all of his strength. He infused his own mana with the shuriken. It started rotating again. However, this time, it was tremendous— even more than Skyler’s own creation.

He launched it back at Skyler with the speed of sound, creating a sonic boom.

Skyler stood composed, knowing how to counter that. He swiftly stretched his hand towards to coming attack, smirked, and commanded gently, "Disintegrate!"

The shuriken within an instant dissolve into glowing particles, floating gently in the air before him.

"Scavenge!" he followed up. The particles gathered into his palm as the system interface notified him of the result.

[+1000 MP restored. Current MP: 6300/13800]

The adventurers and sorcerers stared in disbelief. Even Rose was impressed. Her admiration for Skyler deepened. To her, he was the very embodiment of divinity, and such feats were nothing less than miracles. She kept looking at him as though he was no less than a god himself.

"What?" Sato and Rumi gasped in unison, "That’s impossible even for a sorcerer like him. Who is thus guy?"

"Now I understand why Rose was respecting him that much." One of the adventurers whispered, "No wonder why he’s so powerful." 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"Indeed." His fellow adventurer whispered back, "Even the leader seems impressed. But what exactly did he do?"

The murmur reached Skyler’s ears. He thought, smiling to himself, ’I don’t blame them for underestimating me. I was also surprised when I discovered those commands last night.’

Last night after upgrading his skills, Skyler was checking through all of his sub-skills under the effects of his active skills. It was then when he discovered an additional side skill called ’Mana Manipulation’.

By using the commands Disintegrate and Scavenge consecutively, he could neutralize any mana-based attack and absorb its energy. However, there were some drawbacks.

First, this ability was limited to fire-based spells, as his only got the full access over his fire elemental powers. He still needed full access of the other elements to master the new sub-skill.

Second, the amount of received mana after using his skill, was somewhat less than the actual mana used to unleash the attack as using those two commands consecutively drained the rest.

Choosing to keep his abilities a secret, Skyler slid his hands into his pockets and smirked arrogantly. "What’s the matter? Did you see a nightmare?"

His grin continued mocking them.