Chapter 329 The Essence of Combat Magic 1
Two minutes later, walking back to the contingent of Eldinor, Kendra had a very unsettled expression on her face even though the crowds were cheering for her behind her back for having won the first duel after a fantastic performance.
In fact, even her teammates asked her what's wrong as she looked more like she had lost.
Shaking her head to indicate that there was no answer to give, she walked to the back of the line and reflected on what had happened during the fight.
The strategy that the elves were using was simple: they would first conjure a barrier around themselves to protect against simple attacks, before casting a complex spell in their specialty to defeat their opponent.
Although the tactic was simple, it worked because the average level of an elf was almost always higher than the competitor.
This had clearly been the case in the fight against the black-robed Lanthanorian, as had been evidenced by the power of the fireballs that had been shot at her when she had begun the casting of her own spell.
The one surprising thing to notice was that the casting speed of her opponent was very fast, as if he or she was quite well-versed in basic spells even while having the power of an Amateur Human Mage.
The surprising fact was that the speed of spellcasting differed from the power level, which meant that a lot of practice had gone into mastering the simple spells.
This didn't make a lot of sense to the elf, who just thought that this mage might have been unlucky to not be in possession of more complex spells to master.
Hence, Kendra hadn't put more thought into it and just completely focused on casting her signature spell, which was an arrow made of metal that had lightning surrounding it.
As a talented mage since her birth, she had mastered both metal and lightning elemental particles to a very high level that allowed her to cast this highly difficult spell that had the dual powers of piercing and destruction.
At the point of impact, the spell was designed so that the arrow would condense all the lighting around it at its tip, lending it superior power that would decimate anybody that it came into contact with.
Everything seemed to be going well, as had opponent seemed to be getting more and more desperate because he had apparently switched over to more complex spells that still weren't very powerful because of the lower power level.
Still, the barrier that she had put up started to consume more and more power, making her stop her spell casting and shoot her attack even though she knew that she could make a better one if she was given more time.
Yet, she didn't want take the chance of giving a split second time where she would be without any protection which could be used by the other party who seemed to be looking for such an opportunity.
The thing that had unsettled her so much had happened the moment before she had released her attack.
The way that all spells worked was that elementary particles were arranged into certain patterns that resulted in certain effects that were used to create what are mage wanted.
This was something taught to all mages as soon as they begun on their path, and it was even known by general people who didn't have mageroots to embark on the path of magic themselves.
What wasn't taught was that each of these patterns had some very important elementary particles which had to be kept in control by the mageroot if the mage didn't want the entire spell to fall apart.
Yet, doing this was something that every mage learnt at the beginning itself, as each pattern was like a building that was constructed from a single point or foundation.
If this foundation was removed, the entire spell might collapse, and this was also something that frustrated most new mages when they began their training.
Again, this was another known fact, but what had just happened completely overturned everything she knew about combat magic.
These base elementary particles were among the thousands and even hundreds of thousands of other particles that were used to cast a spell, but her opponent had somehow managed to find them and make an attack on the link she had with them with her mageroot.
If it weren't for the fact that there was such a disparity in power between them, she knew that it would have been her loss because she would have lost control of those particles, making the entire spell that she had spent minutes to cast fall part.
Had it been a fluke that had resulted from a desperate attack? Or was it something that had been done intentionally?
The elves had a saying that only idiots chose the easy questions to answer, so she decided to try and answer the second question.
If it had been done intentionally, what would have been required to make it happen?
For one thing, the mage would have to have had intense training in the aspect of analyzing the spells of others.
This was always required in cases where mages worked together to cast spells, like the situation where multiple mages were right now keeping the huge rooms floating in the air.
For a mage to join in on a spell, they had to be able to visualize the elementary particles that were acting as a base of the other person's spell. Hence, they had to have trained with identifying this base and also keeping track of it even if they weren't the ones controlling them.
To make it simpler to understand, it was like a cook who had started on a complex dish while being watched by another one who had as much experience as himself.
Such expert cooks had years of practice where they knew just how much seasoning and quantities of each ingredient that each dish needed. It came to them by instinct; instinct born from hours and hours spent practicing their art over and over again.
Now, the second cook would only be able to watch the first while they used their own method of cooking a dish. The exact amount of seasonings added to the dish at different stages and the amounts of ingredients would be different, as each cook would have their own unique style.
Yet, this second cook would have to take over the cooking midway, making it so that they had to have had a lot of practice keeping track of the first one's movements while also having the ability to adjust their own actions to result in the final dish that would taste the same.
This skill of identification had to be inculcated in someone with countless hours of practice if they wanted to do what her opponent had just done.
Mages were like the cooks with years of practice, and that instinct was the link they made with elementary particles that allowed them to control them at their whim to make spells appear.
Also, it would be simple for the second cook to keep track for a simple dish, in the same way that this method would also not work on simple spells such as the barrier spell as it was easy for a mage to keep very firm control of the base elemental particles.
Only, in the case of complex spells, the mage would be occupied with the control of many, many particles, making it so that the grip they had on the base might not be as strong.
So, for someone to be a to do what her opponent had done intentionally, they would have had to have cast numerous spells with teamwork that was on a different level from what she had seen in the usual soldiers of the Lanthanor Kingdom.
She had even fought against the famous mage formations of Lanthanor, so she was well aware of the fact that their teamwork level came nowhere close to what was needed for this.
It would require a radical training method that had never been seen before on the continent, as the result would also be something that would cause tumultuous waves in all those who thought they understood magic.
Hence, she was actually afraid, and she hoped that she was wrong.
However, in the very next fight that a black-robed Lanthanorian had with a 'new' mage of the Axelor Kingdom, the same thing happened again.
Yet, this time, it worked.
A complex spell that was being cast by the other party was disrupted at the last moment, and the match ended with the victory of the black-robed man as he had managed to overpower the barrier before the end of the time period.
That mage from Axelor also had a very unsettled expression on his face, almost mirroring the one that Kendra had had after her match.
Also, other expert mages had begun to notice something, as they were now whispering among themselves while the masses who had no knowledge about magic started to become more and more surprised at what looked to be another unexpected performance from Lanthanor.