Free and Unfettered 13 The Beating Of A Lifetime

Nine turned around with slightly excited eyes.

"Then, please go easy on me, elder brother."

Deltan hid his devious grin as his eyes glinted. "Of course," he said, but thought to himself otherwise. He would thoroughly wreck his younger brother today and make sure that he wouldn't ever dare to act so impudently in front of him ever again.

Deltan made a loose stance and casually gestured to his brother. "You can make the first move," he said, a look on his face that screamed his superiority to everyone around him.

"Then, I won't be polite," Nine said. Her dark blue eyes seemed to grow a shade lighter as magic built up in her, a sign that a magician was going to use a higher tier magic. Nine wasn't yet able to control this phenomenon, so she couldn't stop it from happening, but it was subtle enough that inexperienced magicians would overlook it.

Unfortunately, Destan was such an inexperienced magician.

Silently, she built up tier six magic, the six layers of runes floating within her mind.

Slowly, water gathered in the air. Drop by drop, it formed, floating in the air as commanded by magic. The blue water droplets hung in the sky, reflecting the light. As the sun rays hit each individual water droplet, it created a stunning visual.

Deltan, who had crossed his arms as a show of superiority, uncrossed his arms in great shock. A bad feeling welled up within him.

"Wait-!"

Nine smirked as she ignored his words, firing off the magic she had built up.

The sun rays gathered and concentrated on the water droplets, almost as if they had been attracted. The beam of light intensified, and would have blinded any onlookers had they been watching.

Deltan paled at this sight. The bad feelings he had previously were practically about to drown him under how much he was feeling. But alas, it was too late for regrets now.

Shining brilliantly, sun rays had never looked so menacing before. Twitching her fingers, the blue crystal droplets rotated. They sparkled like the shiniest diamond under the brightest light, sending the rays of intensified red light shooting towards the eldest prince.

Deltan paled further, instinctively crafting the highest of third tier magic he could manage as he tried in vain to resist.

"Cover the light, envelop the world in darkness. Dark Shield!" he cried out, trying in vain to block whatever magic he could. Everything would be fine as long as he managed to block this shot. He poured almost all of his magic into this one shield. After this, his younger brother probably wouldn't have enough magic left to be able to do much damage. He didn't know what tier magic he was using, but it was probably high end third tier or fourth tier.

Deltan didn't know how wrong he was. Being able to use sixth circle magic when she was only thirteen, Nine would have been considered a monster no matter where she was placed. Not to mention up to the tenth tier, even sixth circle magic could be counted on two hands. If Nine claimed she was second, then no one would be able to claim they were first.

Deltan trembled under the cover of the shield, sweating bullets as he waited for the light magic to either penetrate or get blocked. His heart was beating a loud staccato in his chest. He had never been this terrified before. He didn't know hlw strong the magic being used was, but his instincts screamed at him that it was bad news. His instincts had never failed him before, so he would listen to them. He knew he couldn't dodge it in time, so his only hope at surviving was to tank this out and hope for the best.

Even as he was terrified, he felt a burning anger at the fact that he was put in this disadvantageous and dangerous situation by his younger brother. He felt both unwilling and unaccepting that he was not as talented as him. When had he ever suffered this much? Since young, he had always been lauded as a genius for being able to use third tier magic even before he hit twenty. He could feel that he was about to advance into fourth tier soon, but today he felt like he had his pride trampled on by his younger brother. Why? Why?! He was unwilling. Even Imperial Father loved his younger brother more. Why did he get to have everything?

Outside of his shield, Nine's eyes seemed to glow as she looked at the shield of darkness that was composed of shadows, covering Deltan's surroundings in the form of a circle. She could sense from the magic sight the he was feeling terrified and helpless inside. The jealousy-hate that he felt, as well as despair. She could practically taste the deep, negative emotions that he was experiencing. She swallowed heavily as her heartbeat sped up. Her eyes deepened a couple of shades. Her throat felt dry as she stared at the beautiful fluctuation emotions.

Nine shook her head, baffled. She felt such joy tormenting her eldest brother. Was she opening a new door? His deep, despairing emotions had been utterly delicious. Maybe she had always been a sadist but she never realized. She never had a chance to explore, with how she had been on clean cut missions of gathering information. Everything messy had been left to her subordinates. She had training in these kind of things, but never had an interest in trying it outside of her training.

She shrugged, putting the problem aside for the time being. She cast the magic lightly, only using roughly barely any of its power, just lightly grazing the Dark Shield, shattering it akin to porcelain breaking. The rest of the rays penetrated the ground so densely that it appeared more like she had taken a shovel and dug all around, using the shield as a radius.

Dazed, Deltan looked at the damage in his surrounding area. He was already shocked beyond belief. There was no way fourth circle magic itself would break a third circle shield where he poured almost all of his magic.

"W-what tier magic was that?" Deltan asked shakily. He felt like his entire worldview was being overturned.

Nine raised a brow. Silently, she crafted the magic outside for him to see.

"Ray from the heavens, water from the sky. Seven shades of light as the finest crystals to wear. Drop From The Heavens." Her voice was low and melodious. Horrifyingly, the circles of magic formed at a rapid pace, rune after rune flew into the air. Layer by layer, six circles of magic floated in the air before him.

Deltan took a step back as all colour left his face as all will to fight left him. This way far beyond the ranks of a genius. He was already so far ahead that Deltan could never hope to even touch the corner of his coat.

Nine pointed at him and fired the magic, leaving Destan to reflexively throw up his hands even though it was useless. He shut his eyes, waiting for the pain.

Moments passed before he cracked open an eye to see what was happening.

Nine let out a low laugh. She had intentionally fired it just around him, missing him with barely a centimeter to spare.

He collapsed to the ground, his feet giving out from under him as he panted, the high tension released.

"Ah, turns out elder imperial brother is such a weakling. Sorry, I should have used less power."

Deltan immediately exploded in rage, all previous fear gone. Besides, after using two spells of sixth circle magic, all his magic should be gone. He still had the upper hand in a fist fight!

Launching himself at the crown prince, Deltan threw a fist at his younger brother's pretty face. With a black eye, he would go back and hide in his residence, right?

Strictly speaking, when a twenty-year-old got into a fist fight with a thirteen-year-old, the older one would be the clear winner. But of course, Nine loved to defy expectations.

She wasn't out of magic yet. She swiftly dodged the fist her brother threw, slamming a fist of her own into his solar plexus.

Deltan flew back, rolling unsightly on thr ground a few times before getting up. That HURT! He clutched the area that had been hit, barely managing to pull himself up and keep his dignity as a prince.

Nine pulled back a fist and successively hit him without him being able to react, using healing magic as she hit. A grin threatened to break out on her face as she hit him to her heart's content. She didn't have to worry about him dying on her, since she was technically healing him instead of causing damage. Just that, well, it was rather painful, that's all.

Hiding her grin, Nine cocked her fist.

Chapter end