The Winner Is...

After a brief chant, a crimson mist spread outward with Alicia at the center, swallowing the entire field like a living thing. The aroma of wine filled the entire colosseum almost at the same instant. However, the spectators found that this mist did not obscure their vision; the sunlight shining in dyed the entire field in an ambiguous crimson hue.

It was beautiful, but beautiful things were often the most dangerous.

Erich sniffed the air. The aroma of wine was too strong, unnaturally so.

He raised his hand, and a fireball popped out of his palm, hurtling forward. The fireball rolled through the mist, then quietly went out.

Watching this, Alicia let out a contemptuous smile.

The Wayne family's inherited magic, "Wine Mist," which could be mastered at the Maceration stage—if it could really be ignited so easily by a single fireball, then the Wayne family wouldn't have been worthy of standing in the empire for so many years.

The principle was actually not complicated. Although this wine mist looked like mist, it was entirely different from real mist. The Wayne family's unique wine mana was enveloped by water-attribute mana into tiny liquid droplets suspended in the air, forming a liquid aerosol bound by water mana. Every droplet was a miniature double-layered capsule, with water on the outside and wine on the inside. Billions of them floated in the air, invisible to the naked eye but omnipresent.

The heat of the fireball had to first penetrate the outer layer of water mana, then vaporize the inner layer of wine mana to ignite it. However, most of the heat was consumed in the first step. The water mana absorbed the heat, and before the wine mana could vaporize, the fireball itself cooled down completely.

Even if one could continuously output mana to ignite the wine mist, they would be the first to get hurt. Igniting the wine mist wrapping around oneself was no different from setting oneself on fire.

Erich had probably realized this too. He cast another fireball, this time throwing it directly at Alicia. The fireball was larger and brighter than the previous one.

But after flying halfway, the fireball visibly shrank and dimmed, finally turning into a wisp of green smoke and dispersing in the wind without even touching the hem of Alicia's robe.

Alicia sneered.

She had seen Erich's chantless fireballs. If he were really allowed to keep casting this kind of instant spell, it would be incredibly annoying. It would interrupt her chanting, disrupt her rhythm, and force her to split her attention to defend, dragging an elegant magical duel down to the level of a street brawl.

But so what? Her Wine Mist had already spread. Within the Wayne family's domain, any magic would have a layer of its skin peeled off by this mist. Fire magic was countered the hardest, and Erich's physical fitness—which he was most proud of—was completely worthless before he could even reach her.

She began to chant her second incantation. Dark red water blades condensed out of thin air, shooting toward Erich one after another.

Erich sidestepped several water blades, but was forced to keep retreating by even more incoming ones. The water blades smashed into the ground in front of him, making a hissing sound. The ground was corroded into dark red patches, with bubbles foaming at the edges.

Alicia stood in place, her staff pointing steadily in Erich's direction as water blades shot out one after another. She even had the spare energy to maintain the density of the Wine Mist. Guided by her will, the mist slowly swirled, keeping Erich constantly enveloped in its core area.

There was almost half a colosseum's distance between them. This was a mage's favorite distance. No matter how strong Erich's close-combat ability was, he couldn't reach her at this distance. What she had to do was much simpler: stand in a safe spot and slowly wear him down to death with an endless stream of water blades.

Erich dodged in a rather disheveled manner. He constantly shifted his position, occasionally forced to use his staff to block one or two unavoidable water blades. Several charred marks quickly appeared on that cheap staff.

He occasionally shot out a few ice spikes, but they were blocked by the oncoming water blades. Ice and water exploded in the air, sending shards flying. However, a few ice spikes still slipped through the gaps in the water blades, heading straight for Alicia, only to crash into a pale red membrane in front of her.

The membrane was nearly shattered by the ice spikes, rippling outward, but it ultimately managed to block them.

Alicia actually breathed a sigh of relief in her heart. The power and accuracy of those ice spikes proved that Erich was far from as terrifying as she had initially anticipated. Before coming, she had prepared for the worst and envisioned countless response plans—what if his close combat was truly strong enough to charge through the water blades to her face, or what if he still hid some trump card of the Edmond family? But now, it seemed she had overestimated him. At this distance, Erich was nothing more than this.

As time passed, Erich's ice spikes began to veer off course. His accuracy was much worse compared to the beginning. Although they were clearly shot in her direction, they strayed several paces to her side. Meanwhile, the dodging figure in the distance began to look unsteady on his feet. He stumbled, then barely managed to steady himself, looking like someone who was drunk.

Alicia's eyes lit up.

The Wine Mist was working. She had stalled for so long, testing and suppressing him, all for this very moment. The wine mana in the mist would seep into the body through breathing, gradually paralyzing the mind. She had originally worried that Erich's Constitution might be abnormal and his resistance stronger, perhaps requiring more time to take effect. But now, it seemed no one could withstand the Wayne family's wine.

The time had come.

Alicia raised her staff high and began to chant the final incantation: “O spirit of aged wine sleeping within the bloodline, with mana as bone and years as guide, boil at this moment—【Wine Explosion】!”

The deep blue gemstone at the tip of the staff flashed frantically. As if hearing a summon, the Wine Mist in the air began to gather above Erich's head, and a dark red vortex formed above him.

The vortex spun, growing larger and heavier, carrying a sense of oppression completely disproportionate to its size. Heat poured down from the center of the vortex, warping the very air. Even through the protective barrier, the spectators in the front rows could feel the heatwave washing over them.

Alicia herself was startled by the scale of this strike. Her original plan was to finish with a standard Wine Explosion, but at this moment, the mana in her body was boiling, and the concentration of the Wine Mist was much higher than she had anticipated. The power of this strike rose accordingly, far exceeding the level of what a first-tier spell should be.

The vortex pressed down.

Under Alicia's watch, and before the shocked eyes of the tens of thousands of spectators in the arena, the dark red vortex carrying scorching heat and sweeping up all the Wine Mist accumulated on the field slowly descended over Erich's head. Meanwhile, Erich stood in place, his steps unsteady, as if he had already lost the strength to dodge.

In other words, Alicia had won.