Bastian had a unique perspective in this world, in regard to what magic and martial arts were. To him, science was attempting to understand the laws of nature and using them to your advantage. Whereas, cultivation was attempting to bend these laws, or perhaps even break them.

Things like creating water, compressing it to no end, being immune to fire, flying and many more. All things that earthen science hand deemed impossible. Bastian himself knew that his body was unusually strong and steady. Yet at the same time, it was not heavy. His skin was much tougher than usual, yet it was soft to the touch.

Countless contradictions made Bastian come up with one conclusion, that he could never truly understand everything. Thus, he would do the next best thing, which was, to use what he understood and just go with it.

An example of this was pressure magic itself. Normally, if one wanted to create a tornado, a sufficient amount of mana would be needed. A Novice could not create a tornado that could harm a castle. And if the Novice tried, the result would be a spell that would be too small and weak to be even called a tornado.

Mana quantity and quality were important factors in magic. Most spells needed a constant supply of mana to keep them going. For example. If a mage, who was powerful enough, created a tornado that could destroy a castle, then not only must he or she have enough mana to create the tornado but that mage would also need to have enough mana to sustain it.

If the said mage were to stop the supply of mana, then the tornado would only last for as long as the amount of mana it had, would allow it to. It was this aspect of magic that Bastian had succeeded in changing.

Given enough time, Bastian had no doubt that he could create a spell that could be far more powerful than what a Novice, or an Acolyte for that matter, was capable off. Bastian's pressure magic was a good way to do this.

Bastian did not use mana to forcefully guide wind. He only skillfully manipulated heat and water molecules in certain areas. He did this on a small scale over a very large area, stimulating the conditions required for whatever he wanted to achieve. In other words, Bastian did not create the tornado, he simply created a situation where one must be formed.

With some mana here and there, he would be fully able to manipulate whatever he created. That had many advantages. For example, it allowed Bastian's spells to contend with spells from a far more powerful mage. It also allowed him to have a more manual control of his magic.

There was a major drawback however, the stronger he needed the spell to be, the more time he needed to create the necessary environment for it. Which is why he had needed to stall for some time in front of Mark. When the moment arrived, the stalling was no longer necessary.

Bastian's plan was, first he would create a water arrow, then he use wind to make it more powerful than it looked. Bastian knew that, although Mark was at that time a Teacher, his mind was still in essence like that of a Fighter. Bastian was confident of his observational skills and he was on point in this respect.

So he induced Mark into a situation where he brought all of his mana to his chest. Bastian's goal was to get Mark high up in the sky. So he needed Mark to jump off the ground. Being an earth attribute warrior, there was no way Bastian could make him budge, if Mark's feet were in contact with the ground.

As Bastian calculated, Mark jumped back. The moment the arrow hit, Bastian changed it to vapour and made it explode. Bastian had already set up his intended attack earlier. Initiato had been activated before Bastian had revealed himself to Mark. In fact, Bastian had activated four Initiato zones.

Over time, they had been slowly gathering strength. Shrinking, compressing, and rotating. Gaining more power and momentum by the second. At that point, the zones had enough pressure to blast hundreds, if not thousands of men to kingdom come.

Bastian did not take qi, especially the qi of a Teacher lightly, so he forced Mark into a situation where his back had no protective qi on it.

The last problem was noise, Bastian was not able to prevent the noise made from the Initiato zones, thus he had to cover the noise when it approached, another reason why he had to make the winds around the arrow intense.

The Initiato zone was placed high in the sky, and the moment Bastian decided to hit Mark, the zone started to rapidly descend. By the time Mark realized the noise, it was too late. Being wind, the zone was incredibly fast. It had arrived onto the target within mere seconds.

"Crescendo."

The zone exploded on contact with Mark's back. Bastian had made sure that the blast would be directed straight toward Mark. Not only have that but the Initiato zone was filled with water attributed mana. To Mark, this was not much but coupled with the momentum and energy the zone had gained, it was more than enough to do damage.

Mark's body plummeted to the ground with so much ferocity, that a blast wave which continued for hundreds of meters was formed when he crashed into the ground. There was no qi on Mark's back or in his body to protect him. That was the moment that particularly showed the weakness of a quasi-Teacher.

Mark's body had strengthened by quite a bit but it was a far cry from the body of a true Teacher, because qi needs time to change one's body. His spine instantly broke into two, ending Mark's life there. Bones inside his body shattered, muscles were torn and blood splattered everywhere.

...

Ruka waited nervously for Marks triumphant return. She bit her nail as she carefully looked around for signs of her companion. At that moment, she knew nothing and that lack of knowledge had done a lot of damage to her mentally. A few seconds before that, she had felt the earth shake and heard a loud noise.

She had assumed that it was caused by the fight between Bastian and Mark, and hoped that it was Mark's victory. She looked around anxiously looking for any signs, till she finally saw it.

Bastian came walking holding what was supposed to be a corpse in his hand. His face was calm and he was limping. His body was covered in dirt and blood from head to toe but that only served to make him look more savage. Ruka did not need to be told anything. She knew at that point that Mark was dead, and that unless she did something, she was the next.