Rise Of The Infinite Sovereign-Chapter 424: Fifth Step Nascent

Amidst the cheers and fervent murmurs of the audience, Ezra’s gaze was focused on the marble beneath his feet.

Surprisingly, despite the heat from Ezra’s wave of fire, the marble podium lay mostly intact, proof of its quality.

’What is it made of?’ Ezra wonders, tapping it with his feet a few times before raising his head towards the audience.

With Transcendents defeated, all that remained was whether or not a nascent was going to challenge him.

If one did, the ceremony would continue and if they didn’t, the ceremony would end and Ezra would be admitted as an Elder.

A minute passes with the distinct murmuring dying down as the audience awaited what came next.

For the majority, such displays of power were rare sights, so even without much context as to who Ezra was, his show of power turned many of them to fans.

Looking towards the section where the other Elders sat, the audience murmurs rise once again as they begin guessing which Elder would challenge Ezra.

Another passes by and the challenger is revealed.

An old man, draped in pure white robes laced with deep green stripes rose from his seat with a staff in hand and began walking towards the podium.

Seeing this, the audience bursts into a frenzy, with surprise, shock and amazement being the overall theme of the reactions.

’Who is this guy again?’

Noting this, Ezra tries recalling the identity of the old man from the files he had read.

’Kovar Venakred’

Apart from remembering his name, there wasn’t anything else stated about him.

While the clan leader wanted Ezra to know about the clan elders, he had no intention of leaking their combat abilities or position to Ezra as there was no need for him to know.

With no real information to go on, Ezra simply raises his guard.

Judging from the crowd’s reaction, this old man was no simple individual. He couldn’t afford to be careless.

His aged face exuded dignity and wisdom, while his calm stride demonstrated elegance.

Attached to his chin was a good portion of hair, coloured in patches of light black, while his head held a large patch of white hair, but it held a vibrant luster that gave the man a look of vigour, rather than weakness.

From the looks alone, Ezra deciphers that Kovar is human, or half human, judging by the horn sticking out the left side of his forehead and the patches of radiant red scales at different parts of his body.

Apart from all this, wasn’t Ezra didn’t know that this man was known to be second strongest after the clan leader and a bonafide fifth step nascent.

Normally, such a duel would not occur since there was no way a first step would beat a fifth step nascent.

But because Ezra didn’t know this, and the battle wasn’t one to the death, no one intervened.

With slow steps, the aged man walked atop the podium, gazing softly at Ezra with his brown eyes.

Now at close proximity, Ezra got a better look at Kovar’s staff.

Made of metal, the staff is coloured a deep blue teal.

The body of the staff is lean, but it stretches to a good height, ending with the metal curved into a circle at the top, which holds a number of sharp spikes.

Contrasting the staff’s colour, an orb of deep yellow teal lay suspended in the middle of the metal circle, rotating ever so slowly.

Both men take a moment, staring at one another.

"Young one" Kovar addresses Ezra with a smile.

"It warms my heart to see someone with such prowess become the newest elder of our clan"

Ezra blinked.

At other times one would suspect foul play, but how would Ezra put it...? He could somehow feel the sincerity of those words.

Thus, not to be rude, Ezra replies.

"Thank you"

Kovar makes a light nod, lightly tapping the ground with his staff.

"I see the potential for greatness in you" he comments, when suddenly his eyes shift from a human to that of a dragon, lava red with a black slit in between.

"But you still have a long way to go"

Making a large stomp in the ground with his staff, Kovar points it to Ezra.

"Start the duel"

With both sides being Nascents, any one of them could decide to start the duel.

Ezra rapidly makes distance, taking a battle stance with Skyfall in hand.

Facing a Nascent of a higher level than himself, Ezra dare not hold back.

Once done with preparations, Ezra takes a deep breath and speaks.

"Let’s begin" with this, the duel commenced.

Immediately, Ezra let off a large wave of fire at Kovar, to which Kovar responds by putting up a large curtain of water.

’Water affinity’ Ezra noted, he heads straight for Kovar, swinging Skyfall once in appropriate distance aiming for Kovar’s neck.

Again, a shimmering blue barrier appears to block the attack, holding Ezra at bay.

Putting more effort into it, Ezra presses harder, creating a crack in the barrier.

"It seems I underestimated you" said Kovar.

Twisting his staff, the barrier suddenly expands, pushing Ezra back a few meters.

In that short time, Kovar rises into the air all while maintaining his barrier.

Although, he could only fly as high as the barrier encasing the podium allowed, which wasn’t much.

Still.

Having analyzed Ezra during the last two duels, Kovar was certain in his assessment.

’I have the advantage in the air’

Following this development, Ezra takes to the air as well, letting off two ice slashes at Kovar, only to be thwarted by his barrier once again.

But this time, the ice slashes were noticeably smaller than before.

"Tch" Ezra clicked his tongue in distaste.

As one would expect, thanks to the consecutive use of massive attacks, he was running low on energy, down to forty percent of his energy capacity.

Flying around Kovar who lay stationary in the air, Ezra’s brain begins to formulate an answer to his current problem.

’That barrier won’t be broken by random attacks. I’ll have to pour in a lot of energy’ he notes.

’But I can’t do that right now because there’s no telling what tricks he has up his sleeves’

Going all in at this stage of the duel would be synonymous to forfeiting.

Ezra was sure there was no way a predictable last ditch attack would take down Kovar.

Not to mention, Kovar hadn’t even made any attacks yet!

Therefore, the logical action was to recover energy first and foremost.

But since he couldn’t just start meditating in the middle of battle, Ezra has to rely on his energy recovery speed to bring his energy reserves to a point good enough to fuel an attack massive enough to do serious damage.

Therefore,

’I’ll have to keep him busy till then’

Having outlined a plan of attack, Ezra begins to conserve his use of energy to hasten the recovery process, whilst relying on his natural physical ability to keep Kovar busy.

Therefore, Ezra increased his flight speed as much as possible, hitting the barrier multiple times as a ploy to keep up the pressure.

But being the experienced elder he was, Kovar senses the difference almost immediately.

Let out a chuckle, leaving a few words, his voice soft but booming.

"Anyone can see what you’re trying to do"

Ezra’s brows darkened. Caught, it was stupid for him to continue, else he would be caught in some unsuspecting spell.

To avoid this, Ezra descends to the podium.

The ball was in Kovar’s court at the moment, all Ezra had to do was buy time.

And as such, it only made sense that he returned to the ground where he held a better advantage.

Ezra hadn’t made cognitive notice of it before, but his usage of elements till now leveraged the use of solid surroundings.

Therefore, his elemental attacks were less effective in the air.

Whilst Ezra new discoveries, Kovar launched his attack.

Multiple beams of blue light are let out of the orb at the top of Kovar’s staff, each one spreading in a different direction to expand into a blue magic circle, letting off a shimmer.

There was no suspense regarding its use.

Big lances made of water exited each circle, and upon their complete exit, they shot towards Ezra like a bullet.

Numbering almost forty, it was like a hail of spears raining down.

In the face of this massive volley, Ezra tightens his holds on Skyfall, brandishing it.

He concentrates energy onto his body, amplifying all his physical abilities, from his eyes to his feet.

Swinging his scythe, Ezra confronts the water lances evenly.

Unfortunately.

*Break!*

Kovar had already expected that.

Upon heavy contact with his scythe, the water lance shatters as though exploding, letting bathing Ezra in water.

’That’s a bad idea’

Before he could understand what was going on, the water suddenly lit up.

Lit up with a golden glow, Ezra is temporarily blinded because of the close proximity, making him helpless for a moment.

With other water lances right on his heels, that one moment was enough for six more water lances to smash right into him.

Upon contact, they explode, transmitting massive force that blows him away.

Sliding away on the marble, Ezra’s grip does not ease a single bit around Skyfall.

Quick to recover, Ezra spins, releasing fire from his body as he did.

At his speed, within seconds, a firestorm was created, but unlike before, this one was contained to reach just a bit beyond his height.

Kovar smiles seeing this.

’He learns fast’

That made Kovar even more eager to teach him.

’Shall we test him some more then?’