HP: The Arcane Thief
chapter-207

A huge amount of water was coming down from the sky. To quantify, it could fill a standard swimming pool 10 times.

Tronis quickly looked up, and his eyes almost popped out. As revealed, Tronis is a walking radar. So when a huge amount of water would suddenly fall from the sky, there is no way he'd miss it. He quickly prepared his energy fields and even reversed the gravitational force in order to defend.

But, instead of hitting him, the water simply changed direction and came towards Axel merging with the small water bubble he was already under.

'Dumbass.' Axel smirked, his eyes now glowing due to the overwhelming amount of water he had under his command. His goal wasn't to attack. There is little chance of it succeeding when Tronis was even able to defend against that last attack of Ender.

As long as those tattoos are glowing, Tronis temporarily has an unlimited amount of energy. He could kill Axel with a snap of his fingers.

That's why, Axel's first priority was increasing his attack and defense and leveling the playing field.

!!!

...

Tronis's surprise could be imagined. He had just thought someone was spying on him. Since he was preoccupied with dealing with his Rival, he thought it would be best to pretend not to notice. It worked out well, and he won the fight.

Exhilarated, he turned his attention back on the bug who had bothered him in the most dangerous fight he had had so far.

He put a huge force on the target in order to immobilize him and force him to reveal himself. But instead of buckling down like he had imagined, the person instead covered themselves in water.

'What the—?' One of the ways of countering his gravitational field is water. The downward force is somewhat lessened due to the buoyant force naturally exerted by the water.

There was only one person he knew who would do this. "Arslot, is that you?" What is that madman doing spying on him?

But he quickly rejected the thought. It couldn't be him due to various reasons.

But then, who else could it be? Spellcasting usually takes some time. But this person was able to mobilize the water almost instantaneously. Not to mention… the control was too precise.

"Who are you?"

"Who am I? Who are YOU?"

???? This person doesn't know who Tronis is? Is that even possible? Is he someone who came from the outside world?

That seemed like a possibility. This place had multiple entrances in the outer world. So the case of someone coming from the outside world won't be anything new.

Usually, if they are natives, they are just sent to the lab or used as slaves or food for their monsters. But if they have aether, then they are put into the trainee system to be 'enlightened' and recruited.

That's why, Tronis refrained from instantly crushing the person. But, in the next moment, his radar detected a huge amount of water coming down with an incredible momentum.

?!?!?!

The first thing that came to his mind was to protect himself. He deployed maximum protection. But, instead of hitting him, the water came to revolve around the intruder instead.

Now, Tronis was serious. "Who in the world are you?"

There was no answer. All he could see was a pair of glowing blue eyes.

!

Seeing those eyes, despite the extreme protection surrounding him, Tronis involuntarily took a step back.

Those eyes.

He was all too familiar with them. Combined with this unreasonable control over water…

Shivers ran down Tronis's spine. No… this can't be possible. He couldn't understand how that was possible. Has the Princess actually come down herself? No, the silhouette he can see is definitely masculine.

Then, who could it be?!

No matter what, Tronis was now sure of one fact: He needs to eliminate this threat. As quickly as possible.

The Gravitation around Axel suddenly increased many folds, causing him to start sinking at a rapid pace.

'Holy shit.' Despite in water, Axel began sinking down at an extremely high speed. He didn't expect for the man to be this strong. He felt a huge strain of his body due to the extreme gravitation.

Ender could easily resist this by turning into Lightning. But Axel didn't know if he could turn into water.

That's why, he used another method. Closing his eyes, he concentrated. The first thing he did was to enclose him whole body inside a hardened water crystal. But this wasn't enough. He had eliminated the strain on his body, but he was still falling at a high speed. If he falls like this, his body would break apart.

Axel concentrated on the water that was surrounding him.

The speed of descent of his body, which seemed as fast as a falling meteor, gradually slowed down, until he completely stopped sinking before he touched the ground.

Then, his body, which was wrapped up in a giant water crystal, slowly rose back up, until he was in the middle of his huge water sphere.

Tronis was left scratching his bald head, unable to understand how this was possible. "How… are you doing that?!"

Inside the water crystal, the corner of Axel's mouth lifted upward. 'It worked out better than expected.' He thought.

What he did was simple. He had built his own Gravitation to counter it. He made the water around him flow upwards. After going up, it would travel down in an arc and once again flow up, creating an endless loop. This is generating an upward force strong enough to counter the Gravitational force that Tronis is generating.

Though there was not much need, but to eliminate the strain on his body for being in the middle of these two forces, Axel covered himself in hardened water crystals.

[Water Monarch

Proficiency: 10.23%]

Axel rarely had the chance to properly train his water affinity. That's why, his proficiency was quickly increasing the more he learned how to use water. The more he used it, the more comfortable he felt using it. Right now, even though he was in a crystal, he didn't feel suffocated. He didn't need to breathe. Oxygen was automatically being transmitted to his body through water. And his awareness of his surroundings was increasing.

How to say it? It felt like he could gain control over every drop of the water surrounding him.

If he concentrated, he could feel every minute change taking place in the flow of water. Despite being so deep in water, he could even make out what Tronis was saying through the vibrations on the boundaries of the water body.

A word naturally popped up in Axel's head: Domain.

Even though it was quite small, Axel felt that this was definitely a domain. He was the ruler in this space.

'Is this how Kyrin does it?' He thought, enjoying the feeling.

On the other hand, Tronis was getting more and more agitated. Such precise control over water… and those eyes… this is definitely someone from the Royal Family. But… how is that possible?

At this moment, the glow of the markings on his body started to fade. Tronis's sense of urgency increased. He did not have much time left. In order to defeat Ender, he had decided to activate the markings. The amount of power he could use right now was obscene, but it was only temporary. As soon as it ends, he would be in an extremely weakened state.

That's why, he decided to end things now. No matter who this person was, Tronis did not have the luxury to satisfy his curiosity, or spare their life.

He raised both of his hands and pinpointed Axel's exact location through the radar. Then, he attacked. "Concentrated…Gravitation." Instead of changing the gravitation of the whole area, he focused on only changing the gravitation of a single extremely small area.

?!

A chunk of the crystal surrounding Axel was broken.

Axel quickly shifted his position, thus avoiding death by a narrow margin.

'Fuck! I almost died.' The attack gave Axel the chills. It was only because his senses were heightened due to the domain that he was able to react in time. Axel replaced the broken water crystals with thicker, more durable ones.

'Not enough.' Still not satisfied, Axel employed another safety measure. He filled the water with vapour, making it difficult to see through, and made crystal shells blend in with water. So what if the opponent has radar? At high level, the Stealth magic he has gotten from the system can even fool the radar. It requires a lot of concentration though, so Axel usually doesn't go that far when using stealth.

'He survived?!' Tronis couldn't believe it. He tried attacking again, but…

'What the—?!' Tronis could no longer pinpoint his location, meaning he can't snipe him using concentrated gravity. He concentrated, trying to locate him in the murky water, but couldn't see anything, and the energy he sent into the water couldn't find anything.

Tronis was really pitiful at this moment. He defeated his rival after an intense and extremely lucky fight, but then he ended up getting entangled in another fight. What's worse, this opponent seems to be able to defend against all of his attacks. Now he was really regretting not crushing this person when he still had the chance.

"Give up, man. You're just embarrassing yourself." Axel's voice sounded at this moment, clearly audible despite the water.

Tronis's knees buckled. He had almost run out of time. 'I have to do it.' He couldn't believe he was using his final resort against an opponent he barely knew.

Tronis closed his eyes, and energy started gathering around him.

'What is he doing now?' Thought Axel, feeling ominous. A huge amount of force began gathering in one place.

He tried attacking, but as expected, the water couldn't breach through the ginormous amount of energy. Same with his mental attack.

Multiple kinds of force gathered together. The ground began vibrating due to the clash of energy fields.

'Fuck… fuckfuckfuckfuck.' A strong force began pulling away the water. The water started escaping his control, getting hit by multiple forces. Axel tried to pull away, but realized that he couldn't. It was similar to how he couldn't fly above a certain point in this gravity field due to the sheer amount of downward force.

Soon, the concentration had reached the point that even the space started to distort. Tronis's body was already in shambles due to the mobilization of such energy. Seeing the enemy vainly trying to escape, a laugh escaped his lips. This was his hidden card, only usable due to the increased amount of power through the markings.

Tronis was confident to win against anyone with this. The only reason he hadn't used it was because it damages his body to an unhealable extent.

"Farewell... stranger." Tronis muttered, using up everything. "Energy storm."

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"