The Lustful Villain: Every Milfs and Gilfs are Mine!-Chapter 299. Let’s Use Druid’s Magic! (Making Sure That The Druid Herself Sees It)
Rex took note of this and filed it away because it was important information about the size of what he was dealing with and because the filing told him that the second exchange would need more of the catalog than the first one had.
"Like I just said... you went into the ground," Alexander said. His voice was flat, like someone who wasn’t angry yet but was getting ready to be. "That’s a cheap trick for what monsters do!"
’I am one, but eh...’ he paused, a smirk creeping onto his face as he added, ’I prefer to think of myself as a sophisticated predator.’
"I used the subsurface layer." Rex said, "The soil at the training ground has a certain texture at depth, and reading it helped me get around it."
"How?" Alexander said. "That’s not a function of standard elemental control."
"No," Rex said. "It isn’t."
Alexander knew he had to reassess his approach. The subtle nuances of Rex’s abilities could offer insights into strategies he had never considered before, and that realization sparked a flicker of curiosity in his mind.
Alexander looked at him with the evaluating expression, and then he released the work he had been building. "I’ll force you to take this rematch...!"
It was not one element. It was three, running simultaneously at the output level he had been holding in reserve: fire, wind, and compressed earth, all launched from different points of origin around the training ground’s perimeter in a coordinated convergence that gave Rex approximately one second of Foresight margin.
Rex turned around.
Since walking off the field, Rex had been watching the academy’s side courtyard, and in the far corner, Talyra and Aisella arrived, moving through the entrance gate like people who had come from somewhere with a specific intention but were now recalibrating because the scene before them was not what they had expected.
’They are here, huh...?’
Talyra had her bow with her. She had it, but it wasn’t drawn; it was slung.
Her face changed dramatically in a brief period of time when she saw Rex. It ended with the expression she wore when she assessed a situation and recognized that it was ongoing, indicating that she would need to continue observing it.
Aisella wore a similar diagnostic expression, aware that Rex likely had the upper hand in this situation.
’Good... after this encounter I can discuss with them about Nerith and Mireya...’
Rex had about half a second to do his counter against Alexander’s attack.
’Let’s kick this up a notch by using plant magic...’ Rex thought while looking at Nerith. ’I need to get her attention because I know she’s being neglected by that fool.’
He employed the quickest technique available through Elemental Mastery. This counter-strategy was simple: a wide-area plant growth effect, which was a specific method from the elemental catalog used by druids to quickly change the land.
Nerith was surprised seeing that. "E-Ehh...? He can do that...?’
Rex had never used this particular application before.
However, it was entirely due to his Elemental Mastery that he could wield any form of magic he desired. And druid magic is one of those forms.
The training ground’s soil, loosened by his emergence and Alexander’s third-wave earth working, was highly receptive.
The vine growth that emerged was not merely decorative. It was a rapid-emergence variant, the type a druid would produce at maximum output for defensive purposes. Thick stems burst forth from the loosened soil, reaching upward at a speed achievable only when the elemental channel behind them was fully activated.
The fire magic hit the vine wall first. And the vines took in the heat from the outside and sent it inside through their cellular structure.
The way plant-based materials responded to fire while the elemental magic sustaining them was active was not through stopping the heat but by transforming it. The water within the cells converted into steam, which then moved outward rather than inward. This transformation altered the fire’s thermal payload, directing it away from Rex’s position.
The wind magic followed, causing the vines to sway in harmony rather than resist. They bent at their stems, creating a gap that allowed the wind to flow around the defensive perimeter instead of cutting through it.
The earth magic presented a greater challenge because applying compressed earth forcefully to plant material typically yielded the anticipated outcome. However, this was not the case if the plant material was utilizing an elemental channel that temporarily altered the structural properties of the organic matter, rendering it incompatible with the compression force.
Rex held the channel.
The earth magic spread out along the outside of the vine wall instead of going through it.
Alexander looked at the wall of vines that had grown up between them.
"What the—" he said, sounding like someone who had just finished a full review and needed to make sure the data was correct. "What the hell is that?"
"Plant growth," Rex said, from behind the wall. "One of nature’s types of magic."
A part of the vines moved, not because the wind had caught them, but because Rex had used the work to guide them. The part that moved made a space where Rex could see Alexander and Alexander could see Rex.
Alexander looked through the hole and saw Rex.
Alexander said, "You’re using druid magic."
"I’m using elemental plant growth." Rex said, "The druid tradition came up with specific uses for it, but the basic catalogue is elemental."
He kept his voice at the same level as when he was telling the truth and wanted it to stay that way instead of getting heavier as he spoke.
"And it has defensive deployment applications that aren’t in the standard academy curriculum," Rex said. "That’s because the theoretical text that covers them is in the restricted archive."
He stopped.
"You should read it." Rex said, "When you have the time, that is."
’Well, he shouldn’t because all I’m saying was pure bullshit that came up from the full potential of my Elemental Mastery.’
The vein at Alexander’s temple came back.
He unleashed a torrent of fire at the vine wall, far more intense than the measured flames of their earlier exchange. The vine wall managed to withstand this onslaught for roughly four seconds before the sustained intensity overwhelmed the elemental channel, rendering it incapable of managing the thermal transformation.
The outer layer of the vines started to lose its shape.
Rex placed additional vines behind the layer that was deteriorating.
He repeated this process three times, with each layer enduring the fire for as long as the channel could sustain it. Each new layer utilized the loosened soil as a growing medium, relying on the elemental channel’s output to facilitate rapid growth as necessary.
Alexander’s face had changed from being in a state of preparation to being fully present. He couldn’t handle his anger anymore. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
Around the second layer, he stopped taking care of it. And then he made the distance shorter.
This was, Rex noted, the correct tactical decision. The vine wall worked better when it was farther away from its source, and by getting closer, Rex made it weak enough to break.
Alexander charged at the wall with full force, executing the close-range technique that initiated the third exchange. This maneuver involved fire concentrated in his palm and wind directed through his forearm, a specific combination that allowed him to penetrate physical barriers at point-blank range.
The vines broke apart where they touched.
Rex stepped sideways through the gap he had left open in the wall’s interior. This gap was not visible from the outside, but he could read through the elemental channel at that level.
Alexander crawled through the hole he had created and discovered that the other side was vacant.
Suddenly, Rex appeared behind him.
He had exploited the gap and the moment when Alexander advanced, positioning himself where a quick defense could not reach him. This tactic exemplified the very principle that the vine wall was designed to enforce.
In this instance, he refrained from using martial arts.
He seized three vines from the ground and coiled them around Alexander’s forearms at the points that prevented close-range magic from functioning. The vines moved with the precision of someone directing them, rather than growing organically.
Not painfully, but with precision.
Alexander fought the vines with all his strength, as if he had really trained for it and had been running at full speed for several minutes. He didn’t break them, though, because the elemental channel made the vines structural instead of just botanical.
He stopped fighting after about four seconds because it wasn’t working, and he was the kind of person who stopped doing things that weren’t working.
"Let go," Alexander said.
Rex thought about it.
"Nah," Rex said. "I don’t think I will."
