Within the arena, the mad mage and Ning the dragonewt were about to face off. The two were staring at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move.
Suddenly, feeling something strange in the air, the mad mage briefly glanced in Aiko's direction, shortly pondering why she had opened her eyes to spectate instead of focusing on her task. However, the moment he got distracted, Ning suddenly bolted towards him with her arm raised as she balled her hand into a fist so she could slam it into his face. However, before the fist could connect, Alex manifested his necrosis scythe which he reflexively used to block her strike with. The impact from the fist still sent him sliding backwards on his feet even though he managed to block the attack in time.
After defending against the first strike and seeing his opponent had not immediately closed the distance for a follow-up, Alex immediately retracted his weapon into his soul and started multicasting, one green and red spell circle facing towards Ning and another green spell circle hidden behind his back. Meanwhile, Ning was constructing her giant floating rock arms.
Now, when comparing a spellcaster to a cultivator, in terms of a quickdraw, the general assumption is that the cultivator's qi technique will always strike first. However, most cultivators mistakenly believe this is purely because spellcasting is just a naturally slower process, but that is not entirely correct. If one were to compare the average casting time a magician needs for the different tiers of spells with the average for the equivalent in qi-techniques, one would find that the gap shortens significantly the lower you go. In fact, most 1st tier spells need less time than the most basic of qi techniques. The reason why spellcasters are famously known for being terrible on the quickdraw compared to cultivators isn't so much because spells are naturally more time consuming as it is because of a skill and safety issue.
Spell circles become exponentially more intricate and complex with each tier. However, it is because of this complex structure that spellcasters have an undeniable advantage over their cultivator counterparts in terms of pure firepower, but that firepower is a double-edged sword. If a magician makes a single mistake while casting a high tier spell, the outcome could be disastrous, and unlike cultivators, magicians are usually a lot more fragile physically by comparison. That is why whenever a spellcaster casts a spell above tier 2, it's pretty standard procedure to take their time to repeatedly check their spell structure or prepare some precautionary defensive measures before fully activating their spells. However, occasionally, one might run into a magician who'll forgo such standard procedures in favor of a shorter casting time, either because they do not fear death, or …
*SWOOSH**BANG**BOOM*
Because they have practiced zed spell to a point where casting it becomes second nature. That is why the very second Ning finished creating her rock arms, a small red projectile moving at blurring speeds flew out of Alex's magic circle and directly into her chest, sending her flying backwards for several meters before erupting into a massive explosion.
However, in spite of this, the rock arms did not crumble away or follow after Ning, instead, they moved to attack Alex. Because in spite of a broken rib and the giant burn mark on her torso from the attack, Ning was grinning ear to ear, using her 6th sense to view past the lingering smoke from the explosion as she controlled her giant earth limbs from a distance.
Alex jumped out of the way from the first arm, but as the second one came swinging down at him, he activated the second spell he had been hiding behind his back.
*Boom**Swoosh*
It was the 3rd tier wind spell 'Air Boom', which is essentially just a much stronger and louder version of the 2nd tier spell Air Burst, which creates a slow-moving ball of condensed air who's only saving grace is the knockback from the shockwave it creates upon collision. Alex had flipped the direction of the spell to make it hit his back at point blank range, instantly propelling him forwards, under the rock arms, and towards the crater where Ning was shadow boxing. While flying towards her, he was already preparing another spell mid-flight. However, right before Alex got within range, he immediately felt something was off and made a split-second decision.
Having seen Alex's approach, Ning had taken a combat stance as if ready to face him head on while secretly laying down a trap. The moment Alex stepped in front of her she would manipulate the ground to have a surprise earth pillar spring out from under him. With how fast the pillar would move in addition to being fired at close range, no matter how fast a spellcaster Alex may be, he would not have the time to start casting anything new from scratch.
*Swish**BANG**BANG*
However, Alex had noticed something was up last second and abandoned the ice spell he had nearly completed, enduring the frozen shrapnel digging into his right arm as a consequence in favor of bringing out his soul weapon. The moment he did this, the earth pillar suddenly shot towards him, and he used his necrosis scythe to split it down the middle like a hot knife through butter, resulting in the two bisected blocks of dirt flying past the sides of his head.
Ning immediately followed up her failed surprise attack by getting up close, grabbing his scythe with one hand to stop him from swinging it again, while using her other to deliver a haymaker to the side of his head. However, before Ning's fist could make contact, a slight crackle of electricity moved across the elf's body as he activated his body enchantments, drastically increasing his maneuverability allowing him to dodge her strike by a hair's breadth, grab her arm and throw her over his shoulder, before following up with a heel stomp to the face reinforced and strengthened with body enchantments.
*BANG*
Which was swiftly followed by another stomp.
*BANG*
"UGH!"
*Rumble**Swoosh*
Right, as Alex was about to try and deliver a third stomp to Ning's face, from around a patch of dirt where Ning had dug her nails into, a bunch of tiny pellets started shooting out like bullets towards the mad mage. Though the attacks failed to pierce through his robe, and frankly the defensive body enchantments that are currently active would have been enough to prevent any of these projectiles from piercing his skin too, he had reflexively taken a step back to avoid the ones aimed at his face, giving Ning an opening.
*Bang*
Noticing a second too late a giant floating fist sent him tumbling off to the side. As Alex was getting back on his feet while clutching his side in pain, he could see Ning getting back up as well.
A thing to note about stomping with the heel is that it is an incredibly simple maneuver for something that packs as much of a punch as it does. It easily allows you to put your full weight into the attack, further strengthened by the downwards acceleration of your leg which can result in a force several times your bodyweight all being concentrated and unleashed through the surface area of the back of your foot. Landing an attack like this directly to the head, even a small child could knock out a fully grown man with relative ease, so how would this fair when performed by the magically enhanced mad magician upon Ning?
"*Huff**Puff* hehehe! HAHAHAHA!"
The answer is, not much.
Had this happened to any regular green core nascent soul, they'd at least be a little concussed right about now. Even if Alex was a mortal mage and not a cultivator, he had still been physically strengthened by his body enchantments while doing this, but Ning is an earth element cultivator, whose elemental typing make them prone to be a little more resistant to blunt force as compared to other element type cultivators. On top of that, she is a dragonewt which in and of itself would make her supernaturally strong and durable even without her cultivation. Truth be told, so far, the only real damage Ning suffered throughout this fight was when Alex hit her with that high-speed explosive spell at the beginning. Aside from that, the most Alex has accomplished was disorienting her a bit with that shoulder throw.
"Hehe! Okay, I think that's about enough so how about we call it for today!" Alex said, only for Ning to charge towards him at full speed intending to punch him in the gut.
"HELL NA-!"
*Crackle*
"Thought you might say that!" Alex said to the frozen block of ice that was Ning.
While tumbling from the rock arms attack, Alex started casting illusion spells, one to create a mirage of himself and another to turn his real body invisible. He had made a bet based off a hunch regarding Ning's next course of action and planned to ambush her with a 5th tier ice spell called Instant-Icecap, a spell that encases a large area in ice instantaneously upon activation. Had Ning stayed levelheaded and checked her surroundings using her 6th sense instead of blindly rushing in, she'd most definitively seen Alex's illusions, but she didn't and it resulted in her being encased in ice along with half the arena.