"Pathetic challenge? Don't you think that's a bit rude for your senior magic guild member?" Max asked with a smirk, his lips curling into a mocking expression as his eyes gleamed with condescension.
"Don't you think undermining or not believing the captain's words is a sign of insubordination?" Damien responded with a smile that held dangerous undertones. Max's smirk completely vanished as he glanced at Damien with unfiltered hatred, his face darkening like storm clouds gathering.
'Damn, to challenge Max like that, this kid sure has guts,' Iris thought as she smiled in excitement, her emerald eyes sparkling with anticipation. 'Let's see what a Phoenix can really do when its feathers are ruffled..' She relaxed deeper into the plush couch as she sipped her amber booze.
"I hope you can back up those words of yours with your actions," Max said as he immediately drew open his ornate Grimoire, its ancient pages fluttering with mystical energy, while simultaneously gripping his enchanted guitar that hummed with magical resonance.
'Let's see what you can do, boy,' Damien's mind raced as he just stood perfectly still, his crimson eyes studying every movement with predatory focus.
"Sound magic, surface pressure!" Max's voice echoed through the whole room as he struck a powerful chord on his guitar. Suddenly, an invisible pressure descended upon Damien like the weight of mountains—pressure so crushing and intense that the solid stone ground beneath Damien's feet began to crack and splinter in jagged patterns.
'What an incredible pressure. He must be a fourth cycle mage,' Damien noted as he gazed around the guild hall, observing how the other members were completely unaffected by the devastating force, as if they existed in a different world entirely.
'Interesting. He also has magnificent control over it too. It would surely slam me into the ground—that is, if it was the old me. But unfortunately for you Max, it won't work on me now,' Damien thought internally, feeling the familiar stir of power deep within his core.
Then suddenly, a system notification chimed with crystal clarity.
DING!
[Notice: A Sound magic skill is being used on the you.]
Then, almost immediately, another message chimed.
[Notice: A mysterious energy has completely nullified the skill]
The moment the last notification faded, Damien felt the crushing pressure completely lifted, as if invisible chains had been shattered. His body began to glow with an ominous red mana that pulsed like a heartbeat, casting dancing shadows across the guild hall's weathered stone walls. The crimson aura wrapped around him like liquid fire, beautiful yet terrifying in its raw intensity.
'What the hell—my skill, it was completely nullified. That has never happened before!' Max's mind raced in confusion, sweat beading on his forehead as disbelief warred with rising panic. Then with desperate determination, he flipped a page of his grimoire, the ancient parchment crackling.
"Sound magic, Cry of the Banshee!" Max declared as he rapidly strummed his enchanted guitar, his fingers moving in a blur of motion. The instrument unleashed a massive, otherworldly cry that shook the very foundation of the guild like an earthquake.
Ancient wooden beams began to crack and splinter, their groans echoing through the hall. Window glasses burst into thousands of glittering fragments that rained down like deadly diamonds, and even the bottle of premium booze Iris was holding shattered instantly, the amber liquid splashing across her startled face.
All the guild members instinctively shielded their ears, their faces contorting in agony as the devastating sound waves assaulted their senses. Even Captain Steffen groaned in frustration, his face twisting into an expression of annoyed familiarity—he'd always found Max's magic unbearably noisy and damn irritating. This particular technique was impossible to control, a destructive force that respected no boundaries.
'Haha, how's that, Phoenix?' Max smirked with sadistic satisfaction, his voice dripping with mockery as he surveyed the chaos he'd wrought. But as soon as his triumphant gaze landed on Damien, his expression of victory completely vanished like smoke in wind.
Damien just stood there in the eye of the sonic storm, completely motionless and serene. He wasn't covering his ears, wasn't showing any sign of pain from the intense sound waves that were driving everyone else insane. He simply stood there, his eyes lowered in what appeared to be complete nonchalance, as if the devastating attack was nothing more than background noise.
'Surely you can do better than just loud noises,' Damien thought in complete disappointment, his internal voice tinged with boredom.
A system notification chimed with the same emotionless tone.
DING!
[Notice: A Sound wave skill is being used on the you.]
Then, again, another message chimed with mechanical indifference.
[Notice: A mysterious energy has completely nullified the skill]
'Damn it, why the hell aren't my skills working on him?!' Max's thoughts spiraled into chaos, his teeth grinding together in fury so intense that veins bulged on his forehead.
"Hmmm… I guess you're a Phoenix for a reason. But I'd like to see you defend against my last attack," Max said, his voice taking on a deadly edge as he flipped another page of his Grimoire. The ancient tome seemed to pulse with malevolent energy, its pages glowing with an ominous light that cast eerie shadows across his determined face.
'Wait, by last attack, does he mean—' Iris's eyes widened in genuine shock, her face paling as the implications hit her.
"Look Max, we get it now, so why don't you just stop this duel? You're his senior mage for fuck's sake!" Iris said, genuine worry creeping into her voice as she rose from her seat. Her concern wasn't for Max's pride—it was for whether Damien would survive what was coming.
"No, let them continue," Captain Steffen commanded, his voice husky and calm, carrying absolute authority. His steel-gray eyes remained fixed on the combatants with hawk-like intensity, as if he desperately wanted to see how Damien would react against this ultimate test.
"But captain…" Iris lamented, her voice carrying a note of genuine desperation. 'He won't even be able to see the attack coming. Just what the hell is the captain thinking?' she thought internally, her hands clenching into fists of frustration.
"Sound magic…" Max began his incantation, his voice dropping to a whisper that somehow carried more menace than his previous shouts.
"Sound Slash" he finally declared as he struck his guitar with deliberate precision. This time, the instrument produced a sound so soft and sweet it was like angels singing—if only the heavenly melody wasn't a perfect deception masking pure destruction.
'Huh, nothing happened,' Damien thought with a raised brow in confusion, as his keen eyes rolled from side to side, searching for any sign of a sneak attack, but he could see nothing visible. Then a sudden realization struck him like lightning.
'No wait, don't tell me…' Damien thought as he immediately channeled a portion of his Mana reserves to flow into his eyes, the crimson energy swirling through his optical nerves.
'Mana Observation,' Damien muttered under his breath as his eyes began to glow with an intense red light that seemed to peer into the very fabric of reality.
The space around him shifted and turned gray. Then his eyes widened in genuine shock as the true nature of the attack revealed itself—a translucent blue mana slash projectile racing towards him through the air, sharp and powerful enough to cleave him cleanly in half.
Damien let out a slow smile as he stretched his right hand forward, red mana coating it that crackled with barely contained power. Then, with movements that seemed to defy physics, he caught the ethereal slash projectile with his bare hand.
The moment their opposing energies made contact, a massive shockwave erupted through the entire guild hall like a bomb detonating. Ancient stone walls trembled, dust cascaded from the ceiling, and their clashing mana began to battle for dominance in a spectacular display of raw magical force.
The collision produced a screeching sound like a thousand swords crashing together, a noise so intense it seemed to tear at the very air.
An Immense pressure overwhelmed the entire room, making it difficult to breathe as Damien was forced to slide several meters backwards across the stone floor. His boots left smoking trails on the ancient stones as he fought to maintain his footing. But then he planted his feet and stood his ground, muscles tensing with determination as he clenched the slash projectile tight in his grip. Then, with a sound like breaking crystal, the attack shattered like fragile glass, its fragments dissolving into harmless sparkles of dissipating mana.
'Hah, that was way too close,' Damien sighed internally, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple. If he hadn't mastered mana observation, he would be lying in two pieces on the guild floor right now. His gaze drifted across the faces of all the assembled guild members, drinking in their expressions of absolute amazement.
Their faces were filled with surprise and shock so profound it seemed to have frozen them in place, jaws dropped in perfect synchronization like a chorus of disbelief. Meanwhile, Max looked even more furious than before, his face flushed red with humiliation.
He was exactly the type of person who desperately wanted to appear cool and show off his superior abilities—having Damien effortlessly disperse his greatest technique in front of his fellow guild members made him look weak and pathetic, and Damien knew it too.
'Ah crap, what a hassle,' Damien thought as he suddenly pressed his right fist into his left palm with a sharp slap and immediately bowed deeply, his posture radiating respect.
"It was a pleasure to witness such incredible power from you, Sir Max. As expected from my senior guild member — if I hadn't used every ounce of my power just now, I would surely be dead," Damien said with a smile so genuine it could have fooled a saint. He understood people like Max perfectly well—they lived and breathed on feeling superior to others, and the right words of praise would work like magic every single time.
Max's burning anger suddenly vanished into thin air like morning mist, replaced by a pleased grin that stretched from ear to ear. The idea that a legendary Phoenix had been forced to use his absolute full power just to defend against his ultimate spell was a tremendous achievement in his mind—even though Damien had barely exerted a tiny fraction of what he could actually unleash.
"Don't worry about it, my friend! Oh, and just call me Max from now on—we're comrades now, after all," Max said with genuine warmth as he draped his arm over Damien's shoulder in a gesture of newfound camaraderie.
"Come on, you must be exhausted from that intense battle. Let me show you to your room so you can rest," Max said with an easy smile as they both started walking up the creaking wooden stairs.
Just midway up the staircase, Damien's sharp eyes caught sight of a girl sitting alone on the worn steps. Judging by her shocked expression and the way she was trying her absolute best to appear nonchalant, she had definitely witnessed that entire intense magical clash but was desperately attempting to hide her amazement.
"Oh, we forgot—of course, this is Daisy Orleanda," Max said casually, gesturing toward the girl. "She's also a newbie just like you—joined recently. She's a wind attribute mage with some serious potential." He leaned closer to Damien, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.
"Hey, be careful around her. She's got quite the arrogant streak—comes from noble blood, if you know what I mean," Max warned with a knowing smirk that spoke of previous encounters.
'Of course, how could I forget? The first girl who called me a little insect in this lifetime, back in the first magic knight entrance exam. People were worried when she suddenly disappeared. So this is where she ended up,' Damien thought as a slow, predatory smirk crept across his lips.
"So you're the other newbie. Just great. More commoners," Daisy said with an exaggerated sigh as she shrugged her delicate shoulders. She flipped her lustrous hair with practiced arrogance, the silken strands catching torchlight like spun gold as she stared at Damien with barely concealed disgust.
"Oh, enough with your noble crap already. How about you guys shake hands as newbies?" Max suggested with good-natured exasperation.
Damien simply extended his hand in a gesture of polite courtesy, though he already knew with absolute certainty that the proud noble girl wouldn't lower herself to shake hands with someone she considered beneath her station.
"Ah!" Max suddenly exclaimed, his mouth falling open wide with shock so profound it drained color from his face.
Damien felt surprised by Max's reaction—there was absolutely nothing happening that should warrant such dramatic shock. Then he felt it—his outstretched hand suddenly felt incredibly warm, as if he were touching something soft and yielding like a perfectly formed bubble. For some inexplicable reason, he found himself loving the way whatever he was touching felt absolutely wonderful in his hands, the sensation sending pleasant warmth shooting up his arm.
Then his gaze slowly drifted to the hand he had extended for what should have been a simple handshake. But immediately, his eyes widened in absolute, soul-crushing horror as the impossible reality became crystal clear.
His hand was somehow, through some cruel twist of magical fate, positioned directly underneath Daisy's elegant dress and pressing firmly against her soft, warm breasts. His gaze slowly, almost reluctantly, shifted upward to meet Daisy's face, dreading what he would find there.
Her cheeks were flushed a brilliant crimson that rivaled the finest roses, but her beautiful face was contorted into an expression that promised unimaginable pain.
'Ah, you've got to be fucking kidding me,' Damien thought as the full magnitude of this catastrophic misunderstanding crashed down on him.