Vampire System- The Last Mystic Swordsman
Chapter 23 Ben Carter Vs Tom Dink! [2]

After awakening mystic energy, how strong a basic mystic warrior became depends on his mystic ability and how proficient he is at controlling his mystic ability to channel his mystic energy.

Mystic energy was like magic, just with some differences with the most prominent being that magic was fictional while mystic energy was real.

Once a student awakens mystic energy, just like magic, the mystic warrior is expected to train his control over it.

You needed control to create fireballs, deadly windstorms, and floods in the case of mystic warriors with water abilities.

Skills of every known mystic ability were readily available in the academy, but after learning them, without a good enough control, you cannot use them.

This was why the first battle between Quinn Dame and Olivia Beryl was so generic. Without the required control to activate the powerful skills of their respective mystic abilities, they could only resort to basic mystic energy fighting.

Training control over mystic energy was essential because, alongside the quality of mystic energy, it decided the amount of strength that a mystic warrior could exert in a battle.

The difference between mystic warriors depended on the quality of their mystic energy and how good they were at controlling it.

Clearly, Tom Dink kept his secret tight from everyone and was already pretty good at the control aspect. The water surrounding his body was proof.

While he fell backward from Ben's kick, and could only roll pathetically on the ground backward under Ben's sword attack barrage, he seemed helpless but it was on seeing the water armor that Ben knew that he was played.

For basic mystic warriors, they needed catalysts for them to fight at their full strength. For a mystic warrior with a water ability, he needed to be in an environment filled with water to fight at full power.

Ben never thought in this direction because he did not expect Tom to be able to manipulate the water in the pool despite how far below it was from the arena.

Getting to the edge of the arena to have better access to the water was what made Tom retreat, not because of his attack.

Now, Ben's sword was caught by the water that was already frozen into ice. He needed to act fast to free his sword before his opponent could attack.

He didn't have the luxury though, Tom already attacked.

"White Lotus: Water Blade!"

On hearing this name, Ben was shocked.

Of the water skills available in the Obedin Mystic Ability, this one was the most famous, strongest, and was rumored to be the hardest to control since it was created by the previous principal of the academy.

Once Tom activated this ability skill, the water surrounding his body started revolving fast like they were under the influence of a raging storm.

The next moment, still inside the water, Tom squatted slightly to lower his center of gravity and grabbed his knives tighter as he started swiping rapidly in the direction of his opponent.

This was his energy channeling stance, and it enabled him to channel his mystic energy into the revolving water as a change took place the next moment.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The signature skill of the White Lotus skill was unleashed. Following Tom's swiping actions, the water froze, turning into tiny ice blades that shot out rapidly in the direction of Ben who was still trying to retrieve his trapped sword.

Ben immediately fell into a dilemma. Should he abandon his sword and save his life first or should he stick with it, and continue trying to drag it out?

Neither of the options sounded appealing enough to him, the ice blades were coming his way fast and would cut him open in less than a second.

Ben had no time to think, but one thing was ingrained in his mind by his friend. It was like he could hear Rex's voice. "Ben, my father always told me this, a swordsman should never lose his sword in a battle".

"I will not lose my sword!" Ben growled as he made a tough decision.

Apart from basic wind manipulation to increase his speed and other such minor stuff, like Tom, Ben also already learned skills of the wind mystic ability but he could not use them proficiently due to his lacking control over his mystic energy.

Of all the skills that he learned; he had only succeeded in activating one of them once but it was due to luck. At this moment though, Ben decided to gamble and try activating the skill rather than losing his sword.

Ben closed his eyes to get his best concentration.

"Wind Skill: Storm Push!"

For more than a nanosecond, nothing happened, but the next moment, the air stirred as a fierce green storm erupted the next moment before pushing in the direction of the incoming water blades.

Whoosh!

Most of the water blades were pushed away, leaving only a few. Ben could only resort to dodging, but 3 still cut him.

His left cheek bled as the pain affected his concentration a bit, making the wind attack dissipate but Ben already retrieved his sword by this time.

"Movement Skill: Steps of the Nightingale!"

Ben stepped up his game!

He knew that staying in one place would only leave him as a practice target to his opponent now, to win, his best chance was by closing the distance and taking things close and personal.

More water blades were already shooting his way, but with his movement skill active, and with the green wind swirling around him, his speed increased exponentially as he evaded the attacks like he was the wind itself.

Whoosh!

Pu! Pu! Pu! Pu!

More water blades kept coming, but Ben evaded them all.

His chubby skin shook with his maneuvers as the wind blasted at his skin due to his astonishing movement speed at the moment as he took detours to evade while also trying to close the distance to his opponent.

The spectators watching this battle were already stoked. The cheers were groundbreaking as they yelled excitedly at the battle performance.

As Ben closed the distance, the fact that Tom did not use another water skill to counter him told him all that he needed to know.

Clearly, Tom sacrificed the time that he would have used to learn other skills just to focus on this one. The skill was indeed terrifyingly strong, but against a strong wind ability wielder like Ben, he was going against his natural counter.

Pu! Pu!

More water blades came, but with time, Ben grew more proficient at dodging them as he finally got close enough to his opponent.

With a powerful swing of his sword, he finally attacked.

Clang!

To his shock though, the sword could not power through as the part of the water that he attacked immediately froze into a sturdy ice barrier.

Whoosh!

Before Ben could pull out, a water blade was shot at point-blank range as the blade ruthlessly cut through his abdomen.

Ben finally pulled his sword away, but he gasped in pain as the hole now on his abdomen bled. The blood stained his green uniform.

Ben was in pain, but he was unresigned to give up. He did not retreat, he pressed even harder, increasing his speed as his sword rapidly cut at his opponent from various angles only to be blocked while Tom also attacked him.

The more Ben tried, the more injuries he got instead as the point-blank range water blade attacks inflicted terrible injuries on his body.

The blood loss was already making him feel dizzy, but he did not give up.

"I can't give up now!"

"Losing in the first battle is too disgraceful!"

The more the scenario of losing became more prominent in his head, the more Ben was triggered as he resisted it fiercely in his mind.

He may not be a genius like Rex in swordsmanship, nor did he have a tyrannical inherited mystic ability like Turan, but he was Ben, he was his own person and he was his own genius.

He would not succumb now!

With no options left, Ben could only resort to attempting a breakthrough in control. He closed his eyes entirely, giving 80% focus to inside his mind while leaving only 20% to follow the still ongoing battle.

The risks of this move became clear as he sustained injuries from the water blades countless times faster, his whole body was now filled with blood.

The blades directly cut his body so much that he now looked like a sieve.

Despite all this, Ben's focus was on his mind. He tried to access his consciousness, that part of his brain where mystic energy was rumored to settle in.

"Respond for me!"

He urged his brain repeatedly but got no response.

In his desperation, Ben simply blasted every part of his brain with his roaming consciousness. He groped around like a barbarian, not caring if he was perhaps damaging his brain or anything of the sort.

In this barbaric rampage was when he discovered something.

Ben only saw a thick concentrated green ball of light, that was all he saw before he was yanked out of his brain.

He was yanked out, but when he opened his eyes, his eyes glowed green.

"Wind Skill: Storm Blade!"

Whoosh!

Ben slashed with his sword again with all his strength.

This time, a green wind form materialized and enveloped the sword. The sword suddenly seemed countless times more menacing.

Tom instinctively tightened his defense, turning the whole water shield into an ice shield but it didn't matter much.

BOOM!

The sword cut through the ice shield, tearing it apart before going after the target that was hidden inside it. Before it could cut Tom into 2 though, another wind blade arrived from nowhere and countered the attack.

Everything finally died down, silence descended on the stands.

"And our winner is Ben Carter!"

It was only when the commentator spoke that the spectators finally woke up, and they started cheering, yelling Ben's name at the top of their voices.

"I won". Ben laughed as medical personnel came to take him out of the arena.