The Truth of Magic

Chapter 41: Real Magic

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Antonya didn’t even move a single inch. It was as if she hadn’t seen Zhao Xu swing his arms at her at all.

Zhao Xu knew that something wasn’t right. Something was off.

Antonya wasn’t even bothering to dodge his attack.

Not moving at all didn’t mean that her armor class was zero. There were other factors like armor proficiency and deflection bonuses.

But if she didn’t move to avoid his attack, then her Dexterity would be 0 and her modifier score would be -5 to match.

Nobody could just shrug off a -5 to their armor class, not even Antonya.

But Zhao Xu couldn’t stop now. He had gone too far and he couldn’t take this attack back, no matter what happened.

But, just as Zhao Xu was about to touch Antonya, when he was about as close as his Magic Missle attack earlier, Zhao Xu’s eyes widened in disbelief.

A pair of huge, translucent wings suddenly sprouted from Antonya’s back, making her look like some kind of a half-dragon, half-human creature.

Zhao Xu was already in motion. He couldn’t stop his attack. He had to land this punch even if Antonya morphed into a dragon completely and started breathing fire all over the arena.

A Fighter kept going forward, no matter what.

Zhao Xu’s fist was swinging at her with all his might, but Antonya’s translucent wings weren’t just for decoration. They folded downward around her to cover her, and they became an invisible force field in the shape of dragon wings.

Zhao Xu immediately realized that his punch wasn’t going to land. The momentum of his attack had disappeared without a trace.

The pale blue gleam in his hands that represented the Touch of Fatigue spell had faded completely.

His attack had been countered, and his spell was no longer effective.

“Level 2 spell. Wings of Cover. It provides immunity against one special attack. I will give up using this spell from now on, so continue.”

Antonya said these words slowly to Zhao Xu as she watched how he barely managed to stand up properly.

This was too hard. Even though Zhao Xu had plenty of determination in his heart, he felt that the road ahead of him was just a dead end.

There were countless walls all around. Even if he broke through one, there was another one behind it. There was no way through.

Even though the spell Antonya used was just a Level 2 spell, it was able to completely protect against one attack, making it quite powerful for its level. Zhao Xu wanted it for himself.

But there was no anger or fury in Zhao Xu’s heart right now.

His eyes were wide as he looked up at Antonya as if she was a whetstone.

Zhao Xu knew that only one spell per round was too slow.

He would need to cast two spells in a single round if he had a chance of winning.

That way, at least, Antonya might actually break a sweat while defending against him.

But he couldn’t do anything about that, because the large majority of spells took up a standard action worth of time.

The type of spell that could be released with a swift action was very rare, and he hadn’t learned any of them at the moment.

So, Zhao Xu could only release one spell per round, and Antonya was acting like she was playing chess by countering each of his moves with a single spell of her own.

But right now, Zhao Xu was left with his final cantrip.

Even if he wanted to cast two spells at the same time, it was impossible. He only had one left.

“If you just stand there, then I’m going to say that you’ve lost,” Antonya said with a laugh.

Zhao Xu wasn’t the type to let anyone just step all over him, but when it came to the mocking he received during a battle, he was very patient.

In the battles of his previous life, he had seen too many people just dash forward because they had been agitated by harsh words from a monster.

In the end, before they could even reach the monster, they were immediately slapped away and killed.

In a casino, the ones who lost so badly that they eventually went bankrupt were those people who lost all their rationality after losing too much and ended up adding to their bets without thinking.

If Zhao Xu weren’t rational, he would have just cast the final spell he had on hand.

Then it would prove to be completely useless, and that would be the time Antonya would mock him to death.

Zhao Xu continued to walk around Antonya.

He didn’t like to gamble.

But since things had come to this, he had no other choice.

Antonya said that she wouldn’t use any of the spells that she had used earlier.

When wizards studied spells, they probably wouldn’t study spells that overlapped, right?

If that was true, then it was possible that Antonya didn’t have any more spells that could protect her against ray attacks anymore.

Zhao Xu had determination in his eyes as he started to chant incantations while he stared at Antonya.

This time, his spellcasting time was longer than before.

Zhao Xu’s wizard robe started to flap wildly even without a breeze.

Ray of Frost!

Cold air and a ray made from crushed ice bits shot out from Zhao Xu’s hands and headed straight for Antonya.

It was very similar to Acid Splash, but it would only cause icy damage to the target.

But the moment Zhao Xu released this spell, Antonya snorted and started laughing.

Zhao Xu knew by this laughter that he had failed again.

But he had used up his last spell slot.

His brain froze. He stared at the dirt.

He went numb, as if nothing could touch him.

The little bit of consciousness Zhao Xu had left told him that he needed to hurry.

He had to cast another spell right now, because if he didn’t have two spells that could reach Antonya at the same time, it would be impossible to break through the force field that Antonya had already placed in front of her.

But he couldn’t do this!

He didn’t have any swift action spells.

And he didn’t have any more spell slots left.

Unless he could make a standard action spell go as quickly as a swift action spell.

And unless he could restore the spell slots he had just used.

Zhao Xu’s eye color shifted, became a bit ashen, like a high and mighty deity looking down on the rest of the world.

The cold air of his Ray of Frost had reached the front of Antonya.

Tragedies were often alike.

It was as if Antonya had some immense repulsive force around her. Before the cold air could even reach the corners of her robe, it was instantly repelled away.

There was an invisible force that covered all of Antonya’s body.

“Level 4 spell. Friendly Fire. It can...”

Before Antonya could finish her sentence.

A Ray of Frost appeared again!

A second beam of cold air and ice crystals formed Ray of Frost, without her realizing it, drew close to Antonya’s body.

Zhao Xu had cast Ray of Frost twice in a row!

Zhao Xu had felt like something was spilling out from his brain but he hadn’t noticed it himself.

A row of words appeared on his character stats:

Action Points: 5

The Ray of Frost could never go fast enough to become a swift action spell no matter what Zhao Xu did, but he had just cast it in an instant without adhering to any logic at all.

So, just like that, the second Ray of Frost smashed against Antonya’s body.

It melted on the spot and water droplets covered the floor.

Antonya’s armor class had successfully blocked the ray.

But she had also been hit by Zhao Xu’s spell attack.

Zhao Xu had succeeded, by defying all known rules and logic!

Hadn’t Zhao Xu already run out of spell slots?

He didn’t know the metamagic feat Quicken Spell, either.

The second Ray of Frost was able to hit Antonya at the same time as the first one because it had been cast in an instant.

By using the metamagic spell Quicken Spell, any standard action spell could become a swift action spell.

It would reduce the few seconds of incantation to a single instant.

That was the battling value of having Quicken Spell.

So even though Quicken Spell required a Level 4 spell slot, many people really wanted it.

But Zhao Xu’s Ray of Frost was a cantrip, so if he wanted to cast it instantly, he would need to give up a Level 4 spell slot.

And even if he had spell slots left, they were Level 1 spell slots at best, so how could it suddenly go up by three levels to enable this to happen?

And of course, he didn’t have the metamagic feat Quicken Spell at all.

“How did he do that?”

A wizard in a black robe stepped out from a dark corner of the arena and stared right at Zhao Xu, but he had directed his question at Antonya.

Why was Zhao Xu able to defy logic like this?

How?

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