Merlin’s thought process was rather simple and yet complicated.

  Park Yuri was having a hard time fighting Nora because of two things. Her fire and the fact that she couldn’t do really well against someone so high up in the sky.

  From what Merlin had deduced as he watched her fight against Nora and compared it to her fight with him, the farther away her opponent was, the more mana she expended when she attacked. Mana was an extension of a Mage; to send that extension out required energy, it was like projecting oneself.

  Mana itself could not be expended, in truth, what was actually being used was their energy. When mana got tired, so did the Mage. They were two sides of the same coin, after all.

  Merlin felt like that same logic applied with Reader Mage, and it expined why using it in its entirety differed completely to just channeling his mana to his fist and keeping it close.

  But the specifics didn’t matter now. He was the only one who could take on Nora, it seemed. And that was his pn.

  “Really?” Park Yuri asked, her brows arched. Merlin nodded. “I can still fight,” she added.

  “I know,” said Merlin. “Fight Nikoi instead. I’ll do better against Nora and you’ll do better against him.”

  Kim Yiseo slid across the ground and appeared at his side at that moment. “You said the same thing about Yuri and me. How are things looking to you?”

  “Sorry that I’m not omnipotent,” said Merlin with a sigh.

  But he knew what he was talking about this time. Since Nikoi was ground-based, Yuri would be able to take him on, even if she was exhausted. Merlin, on the other hand, knew more about the concept of air magic than any other magic because it was one of the most frequently mentioned magic in Singurity Mage. And, also, Nora was his sister. He could find a way to break through, and, perhaps, nd a hit. But more importantly, the reason he had asked to switch was that unlike Kim Yiseo and Park Yuri, he had fought in the sky once. He definitely had a shot.

  On the other hand… Merlin gnced around the mess Kim Yiseo had made. Webs spread out over the scenery like it was a giant spider’s cave, and his nose twitched. That might end up being troublesome for him, considering that webs were sticky. But it didn’t matter. He would have to find a way around things.

  He turned his attention back to Nora, who was shooting him an appraising stare and stepped forward.

  Park Yuri said nothing more and switched with him, and Merlin stood in defiance of his sister’s presence.

  They stared at each other for a brief second, then Merlin stretched forth his hand. Instantly, a ball of air made visible by blue mana, shot at him from above. He rolled out of the way just in time to dodge it.

  Reader Mage was obviously out of it.

  Merlin then moved on to what had actually put him on equal footings with the Ice Wyverns. He summoned his Perk: Reader’s Bookmark and activated [Mana Spring]. Nora readied herself.

  Merlin and Nora were never far from bickering at every interaction, but they had never used their fists against each other. They were quite the close knitted twins, and people often got the wrong impression concerning their retionship from just a quick gnce at them.

  However, they had no choice but to fight now, and Nora was not loving it. After all, she didn’t wear her usual smile.

  Merlin, obviously, wasn’t too. But it had to be done. Cohort Spearhead and Cohort Dragon Eye were breathing on each other’s necks in the rankings; even though they were both siblings, none wanted to get expelled. Nora, in particur, would prefer it if she dropped out instead of being branded a failure.

  What a peculiar way of thinking.

  And that was why she didn’t hesitate to bst air at Merlin as he flew towards her.

  Merlin was quick, far too quick than even he had expected, and focused as well. He didn’t let the battles of Park Yuri and Kim Yiseo against Nikoi and Lee Jaehyun distract him, and made sure Nora had all of his attention. Otherwise, he would lose. And that was why he was able to see through Nora’s attacks and evade them just in time.

  Kim Yiseo was the web slinger, but Merlin was the one acting like a spider.

  He channeled his mana to his finger tips, creating whips from them, and whenever Nora attacked, he would catch the branch of a tree with them, and pull himself away from the line of attack.

  It was efficient, but still daunting.

  Merlin nded on the trunk of a tree, channeled his mana to his feet and propelled himself upward with a bst towards Nora using [Mana Spring]. A crater embedded itself in the tree and splinters scattered into the air as Merlin appeared before his sister.

  Nora didn’t flinch. She immediately set up a perimeter of air around herself, preventing Merlin from having direct contact with her.

  Merlin, though, had other pns. He exposed a splinter he’d hidden in his palms and cloaked it with his mana. Nora’s eyebrows arched as she understood what he was about to do. Punching air was good and all, but ripping through it like it was made of fabric, was a far better choice.

  Merlin drew a line over the perimeter of air Nora had raised around herself, and it tore apart. She immediately tried to repair the torn part, but was slow. Merlin revealed a stone he had hidden sometime during the start of their battle, and he hurled it at her midsection with as much restraint he could muster. It connected, and Nora gasped, hunching over in the air like she was about to retch.

  Merlin gnced at her Grimoire then as it hovered quite close to her. For a moment, he thought about deciding the battle by ripping it to shreds, but he immediately discarded that line of thought. He couldn’t be that wicked to his own sister now, could he? And, besides, his work in the sky at the moment was done. Unlike Nora and Lee Jaehyun, he didn’t have the ability to float in the air, and neither had Kieran, which was why he wasn’t surprised when he began to plummet to the ground.

  He quickly used [Mana Whip] to reach for a tree and swung towards it to prevent his inevitable death if he crashed to the ground from such a height.

  Nora regained her composure then.

  “Did you have to hit so hard?” she grumbled with a cough.

  Merlin frowned. “You are bsting magic at me. What do you think will happen when they make contact?”

  “You’ll be fine.” She shrugged.

  “Yeah, you too.”

  Nora paused. “Just give up, Merlin. You know you can’t win.”

  “Tough talk for someone who was just hit,” Merlin said with a retort.

  “I see…” Nora sighed. “Have it your way then.”

  The air around the atmosphere changed at that moment. And it was not because the heat of Park Yuri’s fmes were burning the air itself as she pushed Nikoi to his limits, nor because Lee Jaehyun had finally decided to use his Hex in all its glory—which he hadn’t. It was because Nora’s demeanor had changed.

  Merlin had never seen her so serious before.

  The fg…

  Merlin grit his teeth and jumped to the ground, making haste towards the fg that had been assigned to them. After all, Nora was flying straight at it, and she was almost as fast as an eagle swooning in to steal its prey.

  Merlin, though, was faster. He arrived at the fg before Nora could.

  But that didn’t stop her.

  Gusts of wind immediately swirled around Merlin, forming a couple of tornadoes whose ferocity shook the trees and threatened to put out Park Yuri’s fmes. And they were making their way towards Merlin from all sides.

  Merlin clenched his jaw. He knew at that moment that Reader Mage was his best bet here, but using it could result in two outcomes. One, Nora wouldn’t let him. She would bst air at him like she’d done when he’d been about to use it against Nikoi, and render him useless until the tornadoes hit him.

  But Merlin could not picture his sister as heartless as that. Which was why he was more inclined towards the second outcome, which was her making a beeline for the fg as soon as he used Reader Mage. In other words, he was trapped.

  Merlin’s mind whirled, countless thoughts breezing into his head in a matter of seconds as he watched Nora approaching with a gaze as hard as stone. How could he get past the tornadoes? There had to be something he could do. He gnced at Kim Yiseo and Park Yuri’s ways and they were both preoccupied, which was to be expected. He would have to solve his dilemma on his own, he realized. And that realization gave him an idea of what to do, his eyebrows twitching upwards subsequently.

  Merlin’s eyes immediately fyed over the tornadoes surrounding him, studying their spins, until he found the one that rotated in a manner where its outlet led towards the fg. He stole one more look at Nora, and as he had expected, she was rushing towards the fg, not bothering with him or his dilemma.

  He bit his lower lip. He must be out of his mind, but this was his only choice now.

  Merlin covered his soles with his mana and slid into the tornado he had singled out. The wind bit at his skin, and sand spped at his face. He would have been blinded by the dust had he not immediately channeled mana to his eyes to create something simir to gsses.

  Just like back during the physical assessment test, the particur tornado he had jumped into was moving in a counter clockwise direction, and all he had to do was repeat the same thing as Nora had done during the test.

  But it was hard.

  His act of channeling mana to his feet kept him on the ground as he pushed through the wind, but the rest of his upper body screamed in mild agony as they were pulled upwards by the force of the tornado. If he didn’t get out of it soon enough, he might as well be split in half. And, for a moment there, he wondered how exactly Nora and Kim Yiseo had endured this during the physical assessment test without being able to channel mana.

  His eyes narrowed; he came to an inference as he burst out through the tornado.

  Had they used mana back then—without their Grimoires?

  Merlin didn’t stop to come up with an answer to his question, nor take a moment to catch his breath. Nora was well ahead of him now, shutting down every interference as she fshed through the air towards the fg. Merlin could think of only one way to catch up to her.

  He lowered his body, his bones creaking like an old man’s as he did, and unched himself forward with [Mana Spring].

  His ears cried out as a boom bsted into them, but he had no one to bme but himself. At least, though, he managed to catch up to Nora in an instant. But catching up was a different thing in its entirety to stopping her. Nora swerved out of the way as he reached for her, and Merlin found himself rolling onto the ground.

  But he wasn’t giving up. All he had to do was prevent her from touching the fg until his own teammates could win. He hoped they could win, because he was running out of ideas.

  Merlin turned to [Mana Whip] for help and unched them at Nora. Since her focus was entirely pced on the fg, she had not been aware of Merlin’s st resort, and the whips caught her by her legs. Merlin held on tight and pulled. Nora froze in mid air.

  “Yuri! Yiseo!” Merlin shouted. “Some help here?”

  He knew calling to them was selfish of him, but even though he was pulling, Nora was still forcing herself forward. It was like trying to pull back a flying generator that was insistent on moving forward. And, besides, the fg was more important.

  “We’re coming!” they both replied. However, they never came.

  Merlin was tempted to gnce over his shoulder to get a glimpse of what had happened, but the rumbles and groans that followed after those words of theirs gave him all the answers in the world. He was on his own.

  Nora had enough then. She released her weight, and Merlin’s pulling paid off. Her body was dragged towards him forcefully, but Merlin was well aware that the victory was not his to cim, after all, that action of hers left him unbanced.

  At that moment, Nora twirled around in the air and held herself back, then she stretched out her hands at him, and shot bsts of air in his direction.

  Merlin had one leg up, and his hands filing like he had been shot; as a result, he couldn’t find the bance he needed to use [Fsh Step] to escape the attack hurled his way. The bsts of air hit him square in his stomach, taking the wind out of his sail. Merlin dropped to the ground, clutching his belly the same way Nora had clutched hers a moment ago.

  Merlin gred at Nora as she gave him a brief sneer, turned around, and sped off towards the fg. He wanted to try something again, but he was completely exhausted.

  His pn had failed.

  Although, as soon as Nora touched his party’s fg, so did his watch beep…

  Cohort Spearhead, Party 1, has taken hold of the opponent’s fg…

  Merlin’s eyes widened, his heart unable to bear the variables of emotions he was feeling. For a moment, he thought he was seeing wrongly. But there was no mistake about it. He had managed to hold Nora from touching the fg until his teammates did.

  Merlin let himself drop rexedly to the ground and chuckled. “Haha… We did it…”