He knew a businessman like Alex was driven by immediate gains, and whether those benefits came was entirely up to Alex himself.
Suddenly, Pete pointed his wand at Alex and unleashed a powerful suction spell, creating a strong pull in a cone-shaped area ahead.
Even Alex, skilled in control magic, struggled to resist the force pulling him back.
But instead of panicking, he stopped fighting the pull and charged straight at Pete.
Adjusting his stance mid-rush, he swung his sword with momentum.
"Thunder Sword, Storm Blade!" he shouted.
Blessed by thundris tempest, his extinction sword flashed with dazzling thunderlight.
Each swing carved silver blades tinged with faint
Blue, spinning around him in a controlled whirlwind of lightning and sword light.
Edmund, watching from below, could even see the shadow of Alex's blade storm raging like a thunderstorm. Clearly, Alex had learned this technique from Andre's experience.
Facing the charging storm, Pete didn't hesitate and pointed his wand upward.
"Lift!"
The gravitational force shifted under Pete's control, from pulling Alex back to pushing him upward.
Caught mid-charge, Alex lost his balance and was suddenly pushed up and off to the side, his momentum disrupted by the unexpected change.
Despite the sudden shift in the situation, Alex stayed calm.
He quickly boosted the magic power of his flying cloak and pushed downward, using a floating spell to steady himself instead of crashing into the ceiling above.
When he glanced back at Pete, he noticed something surprising.
Although his Storm Blade sword attack was affected by gravity, the deviation was minimal, and the blade still moved swiftly toward Pete's position.
Pete managed to dodge the attack with a quick step down, but that gave Alex a valuable insight into his opponent's weakness.
It seemed that Pete's control over gravity had little effect on the barren mines around them.
This made sense. Gravity's impact on electric potential was negligible.
The real challenge was how gravity interfered with Alex's own body.
Meanwhile, Pete was also taken aback.
'Could the lightning-based sword energy really bypass his gravity manipulation and strike Alex directly?'
Both fighters quickly adjusted their tactics.
"Fall!" Pete shouted, decisively swinging his wand from top to bottom.
Suddenly, Alex started plummeting at an incredible speed.
He had been pushing downward to maintain balance just moments before, so when Pete reversed the direction of gravity, Alex's upward motion instantly flipped into a rapid fall.
With gravity working against him, he dropped several times faster than a normal free fall.
To an outside observer, it looked like Alex was willingly diving downward, as if trying to escape.
The sudden shift caught Alex off guard, but thanks to his Overload state, his senses and magical control were heightened.
In less than a second, he reacted by casting the floating spell again to stop his fall.
Still, he was only a meter or two above the ground, nearly face-planting in what felt like a near-suicide move.
"This is really troublesome," Alex muttered, frustrated.
Pete's direct gravity manipulation was completely different from his own method, which relied on controlling others through the magic system in the air.
This new approach was harder to counter, and it made the fight far more challenging.
When magic like "Mage Hand" takes control of you, you can use your own magical power to break free, and the controlling force weakens over time.
In Alex's case, since Pete was manipulating gravity directly, the only way to resist was to keep moving against the force.
But Pete didn't just keep gravity steady; he constantly shifted its direction, making it impossible for Alex to maintain his balance.
No matter how quick Alex's reflexes were, he needed time to adjust each time gravity flipped.
It was like being in a desperate tug of war where your opponent suddenly let's go and then kicks you unexpectedly.
If Pete kept pushing Alex up and down, back and forth, left and right, without even casting attack spells, Alex would be overwhelmed in no time.
Realizing this, Alex knew he couldn't keep up this stalemate or he'd be worn down eventually.
Gritting his teeth, he gathered the crackling plasma energy around him, shrinking it rapidly until the blue-silver plasma clung tightly to his body like a suit of armor.
"Overload - Phantom is invisible!" he declared.
Pete, having failed to finish him off directly, was ready to try again, but suddenly, Alex's speed surged multiple times.
He darted to the side in a flash, moving so fast it was like watching a meteor streak across the sky.
Circling Pete in a blur, Alex left behind afterimages that made it nearly impossible to track his movements.
"Reject!" Pete shouted, launching a repulsive force to throw Alex off balance.
But even with his preparations, the attack missed.
At that moment, Alex vanished from Pete's sight entirely, replaced only by a blur of electric afterimages.
Taking advantage of Pete's confusion, Alex unleashed his own attack.
"Thunder Sword - Knife Whirlwind!"
Dozens of lightning daggers, like falling meteors, bombarded Pete from every direction, surrounding him as if enemies were closing in on all sides.
The meteor-like stabs came rapidly and relentlessly, with Alex constantly shifting directions so the attacks didn't all come from the same angle. Some slashed down from above, others thrust up from below.
For a moment, Pete felt like he was standing alone in the middle of a battlefield, caught in a storm of attacks.
The sudden barrage left him a bit rattled.
Since these "Wild Thunders" seemed to ignore gravity, blocking them all at once was nearly impossible.
Pete had no choice but to keep dodging midair, casting the Iron Armor Curse to parry where he could.
Sometimes, several "Desolate Thunder Meteors" would come at him simultaneously, and when escape wasn't an option, he had to brace himself with the Protego, which felt awkward and desperate.
'Using ultra-fast movements to stay untargetable, then waiting for the right moment to strike... not a bad tactic,' Pete thought, struggling to regain control.
He considered breaking the rhythm with a wide-range repulsion or gravity spell to throw Alex off balance.
But if the range was too broad, the force would weaken, and Alex, keeping his distance, probably anticipated that.
So Pete made a decision.
"Get up!" he shouted.
His voice shook the entire courtroom.
Suddenly, tables, chairs, benches, and chunks of broken stone from the earlier fight lifted off the ground, as if weightless.
They swirled around Pete, forming a nebula-like shield with him at the center, a protective barrier to block Alex's relentless sword attacks.
The wizards hiding below watched in awe and terror.
They crouched on the floor, trembling.
This was no ordinary duel. It felt like a battle straight out of an apocalypse.
"This is insane. Is this really a fight between wizards? I feel like it's the end of the world. Mom, I want to go home!" one whispered.