Rise Of The Infinite Sovereign-Chapter 425: A Favour

Caught with that surprise attack, Ezra suffered a good amount of damage, but nullified the rest of the water lances with the miniture firestorm.

Apart from those, a set of water lances missed him completely and slammed into the podium, leaving small puddles to form.

Ezra took no notice of this, as his full attention was on Kovar.

Taking on Kovar’s attack, Ezra determined that his battle plan would be much more difficult to implement than he had estimated.

He reduces the intestity of the fire curtain around him as an attempt to converse energy, while thinking up another strategy.

Giving him no time, Kovar waves his wand, creating a massive magic circle-no, magic square?

The magic symbol was of a large size and unlike the previous attack, was square shaped, but it maintained the same vibrant blue teal.

Before Ezra could think much, a large wave, synonymous to a tsunami, pours out of the magic circle!

Falling straight towards Ezra, it resembles a waterfall in its enormity.

To block this, Ezra would have to use a large chunk of his remaining energy.

With Kovar still at the top of his game, it would automatically mean his defeat.

There was no way Ezra didn’t know this, so Kovar was eager to see what he would do.

Half expecting a fire slash attack to split the wave, Ezra defies expectations by simply using his impressive speed to run over the wave as fell as though walking up a wall.

Seeing this, Kovar smirks and snaps his finger, freezing the tsunami into a massive iceberg.

At this development, Ezra slips, surprised.

’He had ice affinity?’

Following up, Kovar claps, detonating the massive iceberg.

*Boom!*

To this, Ezra is blown back but ejects fire from his feet to quickly reposition himself, weaving the hail of ice blocks falling towards him with little difficulty.

But utilizing his reducing range of movement, Kovar launches another batch of water lances.

At fast speeds, they were inches away before Ezra took notice.

Ezra creates a large ice wall as an impromptu effort to block the attack.

In response, Kovar simply freezes the water lance, turning it to ice.

With that, the frozen lance left greater impact, digging into the ice wall with a section of them getting their heads out the other side despite Ezra reinforcing the ice wall with more energy.

Just as he stops the attack, Kovar snaps his fingers, detonating the frozen lances all at once.

*Boom!*

The combined explosion destroys the ice wall, but having expected it, Ezra cuts apart the blocks that flew at him with Skyfall.

He gazes at Kovar with an annoyed expression, thinking of someway to get past his barrier.

His plan to stall for time wasn’t going to work.

Kovar’s continuous attacks had forced him to use more and more of his energy, shaving away at another thirty percent, leaving him with just a bit before hitting bottom.

Ezra had to find another way to win, but Kovar was certainly not giving him time to think.

’Do I have to use it?’

He was thinking to use <universal concealment>.

Having reached Nascent rank, Ezra was looking to win without relying on the system skills.

While he contemplates the act, Kovar nods lightly, observing him.

Satisfied, Kovar decides to bring the duel to a close.

Without further ado, he exposes a big magic circle, from which comes a massive palm made of water.

Right on, the palm slams it down on Ezra, swatting him to the ground onto the podium.

Bitterly resisting against the crushing pressure, Ezra clenches his teeth as the marble below his feet cracked.

Suddenly, the palm unravels and converges around Ezra, encasing him in a barrier full of water.

To this, Ezra tries to turn it into ice using the last of his energy, but it doesn’t work.

Only the water touching his skin directly turned to ice.

His energy couldn’t penetrate into the water molecules beyond that.

Beyond that, he couldn’t even move, making him no more than a statue.

Tired and out of energy, Ezra sees Kovar approaching whilst still maintaining his barrier.

"Let’s end this here" says Kovar, releasing Ezra from the barrier.

Landing on his feet, Ezra heaves in heavy breaths, putting Skyfall into the sovereign universe as he looked up to Kovar, who had finally released his barrier.

Floating to stand right in front of Ezra, Kovar caresses his beard with a a smile on his lips, staring Ezra in the eye.

He lets off a chuckle, murmuring.

"Where did a monster like you come from?"

It was simply unbelievable that a first step nascent was able to hold his own against a fifth step after having used large scale techniques earlier as well.

’It seems things are looking up for the sect’

Without preamble, Kovar turns to the audience, arms spread out as his voice booms.

"I introduce to you the eleventh Elder of the Red Dragon Clan! Sylvester!"

The audience burst into an uproar, yelling out cheers over the wonderful spectacle they had just witnessed.

At this point, Ezra’s breathing had returned to normal and was standing upright.

The ceremony ends some time later and the audience leaves in an orderly manner, each one cheerful and newly motivated to become stronger.

Well, almost everyone.

Evanol as well as the other red dragons that had gone with him to confront Ezra over the astral beast corpse just a year ago felt their mind spin as they tried to come to terms with the situation.

Only when the crowd fully dispersed did the elders follow suit, each one heading back to their respective offices wearing all sorts of expressions.

But everyone could feel in their bones.

Whether for better or worse, things were about to change.

Kovar on the order hand stuck to Ezra’s side even after all the other Elders left.

The clan leader himself simply greeted Ezra, congratulated him and left.

Apparently, the clan head and vice clan head weren’t at odds.

Once everyone else has left, Kovar turns to Ezra.

"Come" he says, taking flight. "You only just arrived, didn’t you? Let me take you for a tour"

Ezra complies, tagging along.

They cross over multiple facilities in the red dragon clan, with Kovar giving a detailed review on each one and their functions.

They eventually end up at the vice heads house, where he sits Ezra down to talk, with his wife serving them tea.

Taking a sip, Kovar initiates the conversation.

"What are you?" he blurts out the question lodged at the forefront of his thoughts.

"Huh?"

"Pardon me" he excuses himself. "What race are you from?"

"I’m a Human"

Kovar chuckles. "You certainly have the look of a human, but I have never heard nor seen any human with such energy reserves at the first step nascent realm"

He lets off a little secret, "Your energy reserves are bigger mine-a red dragon’s-when I was at first step, and such a thing is simply unheard off"

Ezra shrugs. "We were all born different, and about my past, I would appreciate if you did not try to pry into it"

Kovar takes a sip. "Alright. I hadn’t called you here for that anyway"

"But...are you really a first step nascent?"

"...Yes I am"

Gazing at him with eyes of scrutiny, Kovar eventually returns to his normal expression.

Though, he still couldn’t believe it.

"I recognize your potential for growth to be greatest amongst all the higher beings I’ve come across"

"I estimate that out of all of the elders, you have the greatest chance of becoming a constellation"

’I already know that’ Ezra remarks, while his face remains impassive.

"But you have much to improve on" Kovar emphasizes. "You have massive energy reserves, but your degree of control is far too lacking, it lacks accuracy and precision, resulting into the wastage of excess energy each time you attack"

He suddenly stop. "You would have stood a far better chance against me had you known to control your energy properly. So, would you like to learn?"

"You intend to teach me?" Ezra replies, raising a brow.

"Yes"

"I didn’t expect Sir Kovar to be so generous"

"This mentorship is not for free" he says straightforwardly.

"What it is going to cost me?"

"A favour"

"A favour?" Ezra restates, wondering if he had heard it right.

"You have the biggest potential out of all the Elders. So it won’t be long before you head to higher places as you progress to greater heights" he says. "I want you to grant one favour for me when you become a constellation"

"I see..." Ezra rubs his chin. He hadn’t thought that far. "Alright, it’s a deal"

"Good" Kovar nods. "We don’t have much time left till the expedition, so I won’t teach you slowly"

"I have no complaints"

Kovar faces lights up. "Then, meet me near Planet Venasar tomorrow morning"

Getting some shut eye, the day passes and at the start of the next, two individuals lay floating beside a barren planet.