“I deliberately walked behind you, just so I could be alone with you in a single scene.” Caron propped himself on his sword.

“Caron, this young master used to think you were a petty villain. Turns out this young master still overestimated your moral bottom line.” Vinny lifted his eyes and looked at Caron calmly. “You’re a thoroughly rotten bastard—human scum who’ll bring the knife down on classmates and even your own kin.”

“Vinny, the real rotten bastard is going to rot here forever today. No one else will ever know.” Caron said viciously.

“Heh.” Vinny laughed without a ripple of emotion. “I’m really curious. Why?”

“This young master has already tried as hard as possible to deviate from the track—to be a normal person.”

“So why is it that you people still treat me like a thorn in your eye and a nail in your flesh, and no matter what, you refuse to get along with me??”

“A normal person? Vinny, you’re actually still deluding yourself that you can be a normal person?” Caron mocked coldly. “Don’t think I don’t know. The first person that evil sword—currently running rampant in the academy—went looking for was you. You were the one who lured it into the academy, weren’t you??”

“Don’t just slap labels on people. And about that, I want to know even more who told you, and what your information channel is.” Vinny raised an eyebrow.

“Vinny, if you don’t want people to know, then don’t do it. You don’t really think the bad things you’ve done can stay unknown for a lifetime, do you?”

“And like this, you still think you can be a normal person??”

“Caron, whether that sword looked for me first or not, what does that have to do with me? In your eyes, if a victim gets stabbed, you still have to blame the victim??” Vinny frowned.

“Flies don’t land on seamless eggs. Vinny, you should be reflecting on why that infamous evil sword—reeking for ten thousand years—doesn’t look for anyone else and only looks for you??” Caron demanded. “All I can say is: birds of a feather flock together. Infamous things only go looking for infamous things.”

“What the fuck kind of bullshit is that??” Getting attacked for no reason again, and getting slapped with this kind of baseless hat, Vinny finally couldn’t hold it in. Had it been too long since he cursed that people started thinking he was some refined gentleman?? “Because some evil thing came looking for me, that means I’m the problem? Is this dogshit logic something your never-seen-before wooden zither taught you??”

With the complete awakening of the Facilis bloodline, his temper really had gotten a bit better than before. If you asked why... maybe it was because Vanessa was just too damn big. But that didn’t mean the number-one flamethrower of Camella had retired from the scene.

“With your dogshit logic, who knows how many good people you’d wrongfully convict.” Vinny said coldly.

“Don’t worry. No matter how many good people get wronged, you won’t be one of them. Vinny, what kind of person you are—I know perfectly well.” Caron raised his sword, the tip pointing straight at Vinny. “Today, I’ll pull out the root of disaster that is you, for the Camella Kingdom.”

“What crime did I commit? You can just say it with your mouth and that makes it true?”

“You deceived and bewitched Her Highness the Princess. Is there any crime more serious than that??” Caron said righteously.

“Pfft.” Vinny suddenly laughed like something had been lifted from him. “I think I get it now. Caron, deep down you know it too—you’re just finding yourself an excuse and a ‘legitimate reason’ to kill, so you can lie to yourself and tell yourself you had no choice for the kingdom, for the kingdom’s people, and for Her Highness Mirexia’s future.”

“Caron, you’re not only rotten—you’re the kind of rotten bastard who doesn’t dare admit he’s rotten. A rotten bastard who dares to do it but doesn’t dare to own it. Even if your heart’s completely rotted through, you still have to put on that sanctimonious face on the outside, make everyone believe it—make even yourself believe it—that you’re a partner of justice, a hero of the Camella Kingdom.”

“Is it because if you don’t do that, even you would look down on yourself? A maggot in a toilet, dressing himself up like he’s some noble saint—disgusting.” Vinny sneered.

Killing intent surged in Caron’s eyes. In just a few breaths, that exquisite gold-handled greatsword stabbed straight up to Vinny’s brow.

Vinny lifted his arm to block.

A suit of luxurious armor clung over Vinny’s body, and the bracer stopped the chopping greatsword.

KADAK KADAK...

The greatsword slammed into Vinny’s arm-plate, throwing off a violent spray of sparks. You could see just how much force Caron had put into it.

“Vinny, I won’t take advantage of you. I’ll fight you openly—fair and square—and see how many exchanges you can last.” Caron knitted his brows. As he spoke, he lifted his foot and kicked Vinny hard in the abdomen, sending him stumbling back several steps.

Vinny felt his gut churn.

And of course, Caron wasn’t going to give him time to steady himself.

“That was just a warm-up, Vinny.” As he spoke, the greatsword Caron swung again and again became wrapped in raging flames. Just from the way it moved in his hand, Vinny’s face could already feel the searing heat.

[Flame Slash]

A plain, unadorned warrior-type spell, and also one of the more basic warrior-type spells—an upgraded version of [Lesser Flame Slash].

Metal doesn’t insulate heat.

And [Armor Fortress] can’t defend against magic.

The moment magic came into play, Vinny—wearing [Armor Fortress]—was a fragile tofu man. One touch and he shattered.

A fair duel??

He didn’t even have a weapon. His mana was almost gone. This was the “fair duel” coming out of that mouth??

Vinny watched the flaming blade cleave toward him. With his limited agility and nowhere to dodge, he could only counter by the principle of magic clashing against magic.

Every plate of [Armor Fortress] became coated in frost, as if he’d armed himself with a layer of ice-sculpted scales.

[Ice Skin]

With a violent tremor, the flaming blade chopped heavily into Vinny’s shoulder, shaking every sheet of ice off his body. At the same time, the ice element erupting from an Exceptional-grade elemental affinity snuffed out the flames on Caron’s greatsword.

A trace of gravity flashed through Caron’s eyes.

In his original plan, Vinny’s magic absolutely shouldn’t have been able to stop that strike.

This brat... looks like he actually has something.

Caron didn’t stop the assault. [Flame Slash] had been neutralized, and he knew the sword in his hand couldn’t break through Vinny’s [Armor Fortress]. He could only use magic.

Even if it had fallen behind by who knows how many versions, [Armor Fortress] still had its uses—like forcing the enemy to attack with magic, breaking their combo flow. After all, normal physical attacks didn’t do much against [Armor Fortress].

Caron raised the gold-handled greatsword again. A storm of flames swept up and coiled around the blade.

This move is...?

Before the elemental condensation could even finish forming, Vinny already felt that terrifying temperature.

Looks like Caron’s strongest element—just like Aesphyra’s—is fire.

That’s bad.

Fire happens to counter his best element: ice.

And most importantly, Caron’s realm was higher than his.

Once you stepped into the Magus realm, every tier was a hurdle, and the gap in strength was enormous—mainly reflected in spell power and mana capacity.

Put simply, raising your realm was raising your stats. If someone only had stats and no mechanics or technique, then they would definitely get crushed by someone at a higher realm, because the other person’s stats were far higher.

How was he this unlucky? He ran into someone who countered him perfectly.

No—something was off. His bad luck hadn’t stopped at all lately.

In that instant, the greatsword in Caron’s hand surged with violent fire-element power. A flaming cyclone wrapped the blade and cleaved down toward Vinny’s head.

This is... [Explosive-Flame Hurricane Slash].

If Vinny remembered right, this was the high-advanced version of [Flame Slash].

Because a single spell couldn’t be released continuously, but spells of the same type could be chained.

Caron had clearly learned a lot of slash-type fire spells—every swing was a blazing inferno.

At this moment, Vinny only had two choices: keep clashing magic head-on, or dodge.

But armor affected his flexibility, even if a perfect synchronization rate reduced that effect to the minimum.

So Vinny made a bold decision.

He released [Armor Fortress]—and rolled hard to the side.

The explosive flame hurricane rampaged wildly, carving a python-like scorch mark into the earth. The tremendous force drove waves of heat to spread outward on both sides.

Vinny knew that even if he avoided the cleave itself, he still wouldn’t get off unscathed. If he didn’t take measures, the aftershock alone could roast him into charcoal.

At the critical moment, Vinny pulled out a pendant that emitted a faint red glow. One hand shielded his face; the other pointed the pendant toward the direction the heat wave was blasting in.

“BOOM BOOM!!” Vinny was blown flying by the scorching blast. But the area with the highest central temperature was partially offset by the stone in his hand—and maybe his luck in this regard was actually decent, because the elemental resistance on his Carillian Academy uniform happened to be fire.

Carillian Academy uniforms all had elemental resistance—but only one element. Most students chose common elements like fire, lightning, or wind.

Vinny had happened to choose fire.

So even though he was shaken by the aftershock and thrown, he was only burned—he wasn’t killed outright.

You had to understand: this was a full-force Magus-tier spell release, and it was a spell that actually belonged on the stage. The aftershock alone could have shaken an entire small field of ordinary people to death.

Vinny rolled to the side. Ignoring the scorching pain from his burns, he glanced at that low-grade fire-resistance pendant in his charred palm.

This newbie-village item he’d dug out of a goblin cave had saved his life again.

Last time it was against that out-of-control Dragon-Knights retainer.

This time it was against Caron.

But this time, it wasn’t so lucky. Struck by the aftershock of Caron’s magic, the low-grade fire-resistance pendant cracked into several charred fragments.

The places on Vinny’s body not covered by the uniform were burned. He clenched his fist, nails biting into his palm—yet he still couldn’t hold back the pain. Even so, though he staggered, he stubbornly forced himself upright.

Caron’s realm should be... an Intermediate Magus.

Vinny grit his teeth and analyzed while enduring the pain.

“So that’s it. Your uniform just happens to have fire resistance.” Caron looked at Vinny’s miserable state and said coldly. “What dogshit luck. If it weren’t for fire resistance, you’d already be dead.”

“But it’s only a dying struggle.” As he spoke, Caron hid the sword behind him, and the temperature in this area suddenly became terrifyingly high.

A scorching wind howled.

With one pull of Caron’s sword, a massive fireball—like a blazing sun—formed beneath his blade.

[Heavenfire Punishment]

“To force me to use this, I’ll generously count your strength as ‘qualified.’” A gigantic spiked fireball the size of a carriage charged at Vinny. Wherever it passed, it burned out a melted path.

The huge fireball was rolling, too. The flaming spikes on it were enough to make your scalp go numb just from looking.

Vinny knew he couldn’t dodge this one. Caron had thrown out his big finisher—this [Heavenfire Punishment] was absolutely one of the strongest spells he could currently cast.

Vinny didn’t know if he could stop it. He could only try—using his strongest ultimate besides [Icefang’s Roar].

An ice demon mask formed over his face. Those ghostly eyes, spilling cold, flared with chilling light as endless frost-and-snow flame poured from his mouth.

[Frost and Snow Engulfing Flame]

The spiked, carriage-sized fireball collided with the freezing flame. On one side, the ground was roasted into melting sludge; on the other, it was the exact opposite—sealed in ice everywhere by extreme cold. Two vast torrents of mana crashed together, and for a moment, neither could overwhelm the other.

Caron’s brows couldn’t help but tighten.

This was one of the strongest spells an Intermediate Magus like him could release. In his plan, this should absolutely have ended Vinny.

Fire countered ice, and he was a minor realm step higher than Vinny—his spell power was far above Vinny’s.

With Vinny’s “Very Good” grade ice-element affinity, he shouldn’t have been able to hold [Heavenfire Punishment] at all.

For it to deadlock like this, there were only two possibilities.

Either Vinny’s ice-element affinity had increased again, and he also had enchanted gear on him that massively amplified ice-element affinity...

Or this ice spell of Vinny’s was extremely high-tier—maybe it even had an elemental-affinity threshold.

The harder the requirements and the higher the learning conditions for a spell, the more its power surpassed same-tier spells. That was common sense.

In fact, every one of Caron’s guesses was right.

Vinny had them all.

He was wearing the jewelry the Camella King had given him—an accessory used to amplify the ice-element magic he was best at. It was even Exceptional-grade ice. On top of that, [Frost and Snow Engulfing Flame] itself was an Exceptional-grade ice spell with a high fire-element affinity learning requirement. That was the only reason he could fight Caron—one tier above him—to a standstill.

But even if neither side gave way, mana would run out in the end.

Caron could afford it. In the earlier fighting he’d relied mostly on swordsmanship, so he hadn’t consumed much mana to begin with. And he was a tier above Vinny—his mana capacity was far larger.

Vinny was different. After fighting his way here, his mana was already low. And with the terrifying mana consumption of [Frost and Snow Engulfing Flame], he couldn’t afford to «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» drag it out.