Chapter 74. Dagmar vs Silas
Blindness gripped him. Not just visually but mana blindness, his spatial senses were off, distorted and twisted. His mana couldn't sense the world around him, his body felt like it was in a void. For a split second, that is. Before he teleported away from that spot, a shiver going down his spine. That was new.
He reappeared near the door and watched Dagmar stand there with a neutral expression.
"Congratulations, you dodged the passive field. Now let's see how long you can keep dodging," she said, her eyes never leaving him.
With a wave of her hand, she tried to cast the spell again but Silas warped space and created a wall between them, blocking her mana from reaching him. A frown appeared on her face.
"I've fought Anna but this is interesting," she said, her eyes scanning the air in front of him. Her hands were raised as she was trying to cast something else. A black, swirling orb of mana formed above her palm.
She fought his mom? He never heard about this. His eyes narrowed.
"Did she win?"
The orb of mana was getting bigger.
"Of course not."
Her expression was blank.
Silas chuckled. Then the orb was launched at the wall and it broke through the space wall like a hammer through ice. He dodged it again but the orb followed him, sticking to him like a magnet.
And then it hit him.
His senses were gone. The room was pitch black again, the sounds around him muted and distorted, the floor under his feet felt like nothing. With another teleportation he escaped it and looked at Dagmar.
Finally he remembered her magic. Electromagnetism.
"You are quite troublesome," he sighed and snapped his fingers, creating a small singularity in front of him, a black hole that sucked in the mana around them, preventing hers from reaching him.
A grin appeared on her face and she started running towards him. Electricity crackled around her body, her muscles tensing as she blurred into a streak of lightning.
He was caught off-guard by her speed.
She reached him in a blinding instant. Her first strike smashed into his hurried block, but her second buried itself ruthlessly into his ribs. The concussive impact cratered the air, forcing him to stumble back as the breath was ripped from his lungs.
A small smile was on her lips.
"Too slow," she said, her voice low and rough.
The electricity around her intensified. She moved with a speed he had only seen in Lysandra, which was as fast as time magic.
His space magic didn't allow for instant reaction and her electromagnetism was interfering with his senses, creating a lag between his thoughts and actions.
He took a deep breath. It had been so long since he was in a real fight that he had to remember how it felt to be on the back foot.
Dagmar attacked again, her movements were a blur and her fists hit him multiple times before he could react, teleporting away to create some distance.
His ribs hurt. The room felt hot and his heartbeat was loud in his ears.
Dagmar blurred again. Her electric-dense fists pounded relentlessly into his flesh, a rapid succession of meat-on-meat impacts that cracked before he could warp away. His ribs throbbed as his heart hammered against his chest.
She was fast, strong and her magic was a counter to his when he wasn't allowed to use it at full power.
Silas looked at her, his breathing heavy. Her eyes were still blank, watching him calmly.
"Old fossils should not be fighting young ones." She shook her head.
With a chuckle, he stood up straight and the floor beneath his feet cracked. She was a good opponent.
The air around him felt heavy with static electricity, making his hair stand on end and the smell of ozone was sharp in his nose.
He stretched out his hand and copied Ogan's move. Creating his own needles. They were made out of pure space mana, invisible and sharp.
Except they were everywhere, cutting Dagmar as she sped through the room to reach him. Blood appeared on her skin. She didn't even flinch.
The needles were not enough to slow her down. She reached him instantly and her fist aimed for his stomach but this time he didn't dodge, instead letting her hit him.
The punch phased through him, passing through his body like he was a ghost. Her eyes widened and he grinned. She was not the only one who could mess with senses.
Space rippled violently around his arm. His fist detonated against her jaw, the impact cracking like a gunshot as it sent her flying into the metal wall. She slammed hard, but bounced back instantly, a savage bolt of lightning tearing back toward him.
Relentlessly she kept on attacking. Her speed and strength were monstrous. But it didn't matter when she couldn't hit him.
The needles were cutting her skin, slowly, in small cuts that eventually compounded, becoming bigger and bigger as her entire face was covered in blood, her grey tracksuit torn and her own blood soaking the pieces scattered on the floor.
"Enough!" Dagmar screamed and the electricity in the room intensified, making Silas feel the static in his heart. The pain made him falter for a second and in that second she was on him again, her fist colliding with his cheek and making him stumble.
His head was ringing from the hit but he teleported again, creating distance between them. And she closed it again.
He was impressed by her determination. Even if she was bleeding from the thousands of cuts on her body, she kept coming at him.
Dagmar's face was bloody but her eyes were still focused, trying to break through his spatial illusion.
Silas chuckled. This was good exercise but the fight was over.
With a flick of his wrist, space collapsed around her and the needles merged into one big sphere of space, trapping her in place. She struggled and the sphere contracted around her, making it harder to move.
"Dagmar, every needle that cut you had my spatial mana in it. If I'd wanted you dead, I would have expanded that mana inside your wounds twenty cuts ago. You lost the moment you let yourself get hit by one — you just didn't know it yet," he explained.
She gritted her teeth. Then sighed, her body relaxed and the electricity in the room disappeared. He let her go.
Dagmar stumbled to the floor, breathing heavily and looking at him with a mix of respect and frustration.
"I have not lost to anyone except Isaac since I reached S-rank. Space magic deserves the number one spot." She wiped the blood off of her face with her hand.
Silas hummed and went to pick up his shirt and jacket. "Well Electromagnetism is terrifying. You almost had my heart with that attack."
The sharp, coppery tang of her blood saturated the air, mixing with the scorched scent of ozone. She collapsed onto her knees, panting heavily, her soaked blonde hair plastered to a face streaked with sweat and raw, bleeding cuts.
"Thanks," she said quietly, a small smile on her lips. It felt like he was talking to Berlin again and it brought back memories. A nostalgic feeling in his chest.
"Thank you for the training." He put on his shirt and fixed his hair. "If you ever want to fight again, give me a call."
He wrote down his number on a piece of paper and left it on the floor before teleporting away, leaving her alone in the room, already planning her next strategy against him as her blood dripped on the cold floor.
Back in the lobby of the facility, a group of S-rank hunters was staring at the big screens on the walls. They were showing Silas and Dagmar's fight and their faces were pale.
He walked past them and ignored their whispers. It was nice to remind the new generation who was at the top of the food chain.
His body was sore but he was smiling, his heart felt full as he teleported home. Liz and the girls would definitely pamper him when he arrived. The thought of it made his heart beat faster.