I used clairvoyance to locate a certain individual. I teleported there and said, "I'm going to use you as a training dummy." Without hesitation, he threw a fireball at me.

  The fireball stopped.

  "Hmm, your Fireball spell isn't being used incorrectly, although I will admit that talent and skill in magic determine efficiency to a certain extent. For example, teleportation magic—spatial magic—wastes a lot of energy. I definitely can't teleport off-world," I said. "Trust me, trying to world-hop is an entirely different ballgame. Using teleportation magic takes way too much energy. It's actually more efficient if you have a specialized ability for it. Jumping across dimensions is even worse. You can do it with regular teleportation spells, but it takes an immense amount of energy—more than it would take to jump to the moon."

  "In other words, it's about practice, talent, and efficiency," I continued. "You have the talent for it but lack practice. Also, I suspect the spells you're using aren't refined enough. They're wasting a ton of mana, making them less viable."

  "Well, let's get serious." Snapping my fingers, music started playing.

  He looked at me. "Really? Using magic to create your own soundtrack?"

  "Why not?" I smirked.

  "Oh, snapping your fingers for dramatic effect?" He chuckled. "Great battle music, though. I have to admit, you have excellent taste."

  "Let's take this up a notch."

  I fired a lightning ball, followed by icicles, barraging him with spell after spell. Our magic collided, barriers blocked, dodges and weaves intertwined with teleportation as we clashed.

  I smiled, blasting fireballs, lightning, wind blades, and icicles. A tsunami surged forth, but it wasn't as effective as I expected. It seemed more suited for devastating the terrain than hitting an opponent.

  "Really? A tsunami?" He looked around. "It seems more destructive to the environment than useful in battle."

  "Yeah, I thought it would be cool. Then I realized it's not a single-target spell—it's more of an AoE attack."

  "Video game terms?"

  "They're easy to understand and not overly complicated or long," I replied. "Though, to be honest, they can be conveniently misunderstood by others, especially if they're meant to be secret."

  "Well, I'm not going to be secretive, but I'll create the illusion of it for now—at least until I decide to take on those government lackeys. The weakest of the four factions, if I'm not mistaken."

  He smiled. "Yes. Though neither of us has engaged in close combat yet, I notice we both specialize in long-range magic. Neither of us holds the edge in melee. But if I had to guess, you're like me—you have some close-quarters combat skills."

  I shrugged. "I might not be good with weapons, but I’m at least proficient in hand-to-hand combat. I wouldn't call myself an expert, but I can handle the basics. With magical buffs and proper technique, I'm sure I could hold my own against most opponents in close quarters—or at least survive long enough to regain distance and unleash more spells."

  He laughed. "Let's take this up again—Reality Splitter!"

  I smirked. "Absolute Barrier!"

  My barrier shattered, but it managed to block his attack. "Impressive," He admitted. "Your version of the Gate of Babylon really overshadows mine.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Mine is the normal one. But yours instead of throwing swords, spears and Noble Phantasms, yours launches destructo disks. And unlike Krillin, who has to manually control them, these are all auto-tracking. Unless you destroy each one individually, you’re going to get sliced."

  "I'll hand it to Krillin, though—his attack is probably the most deadly-to-efficiency spell I’ve ever seen. It barely uses energy, yet it’s absurdly lethal. If Krillin could actually hit someone with this, he’d be one of the strongest in Dragon Ball. That’s how broken it is. Just condense a massive amount of energy, shape it into a buzzsaw, and make it vibrate at hypersonic frequencies to cut through anything—boom, an incredibly lethal yet low-cost attack."

  I smirked. "Of course, I modified mine to have an auto-tracking function and included a countermeasure to prevent the classic 'redirect my own attack at me' trick."

  From an outsider’s perspective, our battle was probably too fast to follow. I effortlessly dodged and weaved through his attacks, retaliating with a barrage of spells, teleporting mid-combat. However, I quickly noticed my teleports were too obvious. I wasn’t good at concealing them, making it easy for him to predict where I'd appear—and usually, an explosion greeted me.

  Deciding to up my game, I summoned a Lightning Dragon. Expecting him to use a barrier, I was surprised when he erected a wall of sand. The Lightning Dragon struck, turning the sand to glass, which he then threw back at me.

  I snapped my fingers. "Really? Throwing an attack laced with my own mana? You think I'd struggle to dispel it? Not gonna lie—that was way cooler in my head."

  I flash-stepped to his side, barraging him with punches and kicks, enhancing myself with buffs and newly acquired techniques. A magic circle appeared beneath me as I grinned.

  "Holy Demonic Cannon!"

  A beam of light and dark energy surged forth. In the next instant, I collapsed, coughing up blood.

  "Motherfucker, how do you like my damage reflection spell?" he taunted.

  "Son of a bitch." I erected a barrier, fending off his attacks as I healed. "Damn, that healing is overpowered. Now I know how it feels to fight Wolverine. He isn’t even that strong, but damn if he isn’t relentless."

  He smirked. "Try this."

  His attacks pierced my barrier. I managed with a Hunter x Hunter technique, though I had not yet mastered it to the point of using it instinctively. Deploying 100% of my spirit energy into a single body part in an instant was hard. But after mastering it, adding a two-layer barrier was easy. That is what Flare said after being able to do it, after learning the spells.

  "Damn, that technique is annoying. I’ve seen a similar one in Hunter x Hunter, but you haven’t left the rest of yourself exposed. Ah, you're using it in the last fraction of a second before attacking or defending. It compensates for weaknesses, but it’s not second nature to you. All I have to do is keep attacking."

  I tried countering, but his speed was overwhelming. I was on the defensive, and my barriers were failing. His attacks came too fast to dodge. I noticed my wounds weren’t healing properly.

  "Goddamn it—anti-healing magic?"

  Though it couldn’t fully negate my healing, it drastically slowed it. Worse, my magic was weakening—sealing magic, too? Suddenly, I couldn’t maintain magical defenses or attacks. I tried to retaliate, but it was futile.

  He smirked. "Now you can’t use magic. True death—"

  "Oh, fuck" I paused. "I forgot. spiritual-lifeforms are immune to instant death magic so it doesn’t work on me."

  He frowned. "Right. The lowest-grade instant death magic targets internal organs, but you don’t have any. Then there's the kind that drains lifespan, but as an immortal species, you don’t have a fixed lifespan. And since you’re a spiritual being, you have no life force to drain."

  I grinned. "Exactly. And that’s why—" I snapped my fingers, my spiritual energy surging. "Absolute Annihilation."

  A red chaotic energy erupted, consuming his arrow and canceling it out.

  "My turn. Gates of Babylon."

  "Seriously? Using that spell?"

  "Oh, it’s far more than that. These destructo disks have soul destruction properties."

  His expression darkened. "Not bad. But my soul isn’t weak. Even magic of this level won’t scratch it."

  "I know. But while you’re fending them off, I can strike with an attack that destroys your body. It’s only a matter of time before one gets through."

  He laughed maniacally—until my Holy Demonic Cannon vaporized his body. But it was just one of his clones.

  "This fight is over see you next time."