the beginning after the end perfect duo

CHAPTER 20

Cynthia started the fight with her wind spells, sending two well-crafted tornadoes towards us.

Using my mana barriers, I blocked the worst of it, but some wind still escaped.

Arthur's dodging skills, though, were pretty impressive, fortunately.

He avoided the last of it and landed a clean hit on her with his fire-augmented fist.

With his lightning-fast reaction speed, he was able to put up a fight with her.

A blow was able to reach him,

or was going to,

because before it happened I distracted her by using my own rasengan, a water-based one since she cannot really manipulate it.

When she turned in my direction, Arthur had already hit her again with an electrified fist.

Then we both got some meters away from her, one on each side of her.

I sent a bolt of lightning towards her, which Arthur understood the reason behind because he sent as well a huge amount of water.

She jumped out of her place to land a bit far away from the original spot, clearly losing focus on our positions.

Using that exact moment, I manipulated the ground around us to make her sink in.

Arthur got to use his fire attacks again, combined with wind to make the fire hotter while she was locked in the ground.

I also helped him in close range while maintaining a set of shields around both of us.

We were having a clear advantage.

Until she basically got up from there with ease and got the shit out of us with her wind again,

though seemingly using more mana than the first time.

My mana-conjured barriers weren't able to stop it this time around, so we got blown up far away.

But before she could get near us, we got up again,

Arthur heading towards her, manipulating the ground to use it as a wall for both defensive use and as an attack by sending pieces of it jolting towards her.

I used long-range water spells to attack.

A piece of this and a piece of that, and our combined attacks were very hard to dodge.

But then she used her sound spell, which caused Arthur a problem because his spells were stopped but not mine.

I was able to handle it and still sent towards her a few ice shards. Then lightning as well.

With the shards becoming liquid upon contact, and the lightning touching it, she was more than electrified.

But that didn't actually happen because they never touched her.

The lightning ended up being easily avoided for some reason.

I guess that's what fighting an experienced Silver Core is like. Come on, it seems like she's not injured at all.

She easily escaped my ground cage, electrocution skill, and neither our close-range skills seemed to harm her in the minimum.

I didn't use gravity though because it consumes too much mana, and I don't want to be treated that special.

Cynthia seemed to be surprised, shocked, or I don't know how to describe the look on her face.

"I can't believe my eyes, two quadra-elemental prodigies at this age," she seemed to stop talking for a second. As mom got her a glass of water, she drank it quickly, continuing her speech:

"You are more than invited to come to my school, starting from tomorrow if you want to, and you know it's fully funded ."

She stopped talking, turning to both mom and dad watching the whole show.

"Well, you really have to be feeling proud of your kids now, isn't it?"

"Of course, Miss Goodsky, proud and anxious about it," they said in response.

And to think about the whole thing that happened to Arthur in the novel, they really have the whole right to be anxious about it.

"So what do you say, kids?" she then asked us.

"Can we get some time to think about it? We'll respond tomorrow," we both said.

"Tomorrow it is, hope you join the fun to be honest," she said.

"Well, Vincent, if you find such talents again, make sure to call me all right?" she said jokingly, heading towards the exit.

"Of course, Miss Goodsky, have a good day," Uncle Vincent said.

And just like that, she left, leaving us in a mess of a state,

the backyard in ruins,

us totally tired.

Uncle Vincent then turned to face my father.

"You are really lucky, Rey, you should be proud of your kids," he said.

"You as well, mate, you have got your own jewel,"
my father said in his silly voice.

Tabitha spoke with mom as well:

"Xyrus is really the best academy out there, it has produced the best mages Sapin has ever had, and she's offering a fully funded opportunity, this kind of stuff is not something to mess with," she said.

While Arthur and I saw the state of the garden,
Mi

Thought about how much time it would take to bring it back to its usual state,

and the fact that we would have to clean it as well. So we slowly started retreating to our room, hoping that no one would see us.

"It's only up to them, I would respect whatever decision they take, it's all up to the kids, right kids?" mom said, turning to look for us. She kept looking, and we started running for it.

"Oh, you thought you wouldn't clean this mess now, isn't it?" mom said loudly so we could hear her, but we kept running for it. And just like that, I saw another version of mom, a version that I never wanted to see.

She started chasing after us, and we both knew we fucked up. There was no point in running now, so we just stopped trying to. "You clean that part," mom said, taking me by the wrist. "You that part," mom said, holding Arthur's hand. "No dinner for you if you're not done by its time," she said.

Oh man, Alice is a lovely mother, a nice one at that, but the kindest hearts are always the most dangerous when angry.