Marouce stood up from his throne as he slowly made his way down the small set of stairs, facing Clad straight forward.
"Kill me? You?"
Marouce loudly laughs at his claim, referring to it as a good joke, and adds that he hasn't had a good laugh in a while, but Clad's face didn't change expression at all, as he looked at him with a mix of anger and disgust in his eyes.
"..."
He ran towards the king with great speed, swinging his blade swiftly as it connected with what seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, a light blue defence barrier surrounding him, making his attack ineffective.
"Mana barrier, magic taught to new magies to avoid getting hit by attacks they could deem lethal or dangerous in general," Marouce said as he quickly prepared a spell by channeling mana into his left hand, shooting fire from it almost instantly.
[FIRE BULLET]!
!!!
Clad jumps away from the attack by jumping off the sphere-shaped barrier and lands a few feet away from him before he raises his blade in the air and concentrates his energy into a single attack, a single strike to break his defensive spell.
[MANA SLASH]!
!?
"This looks dangerous, I should move out of the way!" Marouce thought as Clad's sword came down towards the barrier.
The rat king teleported away from the threat using a spell, letting the barrier get split open by his sword. Clad, surprised by the fact that he vanished into thin air, said:
"Teleportation?"
"Shit, this will be annoying to deal with..."
Marouce pulled out a gun from his pocket and started shooting at Clad.
BANG BANG BANG!
Clad parried the incoming bullets as he quickly shortened the distance between the two when, unexpectedly, Marouce quickly chanted something. Unaware of what it was, Clad stopped his chase and prepared for whatever was about to come his way.
[WIND BLAST]!
The rat king's magic spell sent Clad flying into the hall's wall with unnatural speed, so much so that he couldn't react in time to his attack and was hurt in the back on impact. He let out a sound of pain as Marouce slowly walked towards him, spinning his pistol with his index finger.
"To send someone like you, they must be quite desperate." He said as he looked at him being stuck in the wall.
Clad stared at the man as his bearded face became clearer. He forced himself out of the damaged wall, spat out blood, then walked towards him menacingly as his eyes whitened and his energy became greater.
"I underestimated his abilities."
"This time, I'll make sure I don't get hit by his spells," Clad thought as he tightly gripped his blade.