The school Taro used was called Resonant Hand Style.
Mages of this school advocated dispensing with incantations, relying purely on hand gestures to gather magical elements and launch attacks.
The earliest magic had required incantations, gestures, and various special tools such as spices, along with strict conditions of place and timing, before it could be cast.
Later, these requirements were gradually revised and discarded. Locations and environmental conditions slowly became magic circles, while incantations, gestures, and special materials became the main subjects of study.
Later still, even special materials began to be abandoned, replaced more often by magical equipment and single-use items.
The choice between gestures and incantations had always been a subject of debate.
That was right. Many mages encouraged using both together, as it could greatly shorten casting time. But soon, some particularly nimble-fingered mages discovered that by moving their hands at extreme speed, they could cast magic at astonishing rates.
Moreover, by moving both hands at once, they could begin casting two spells simultaneously even at relatively low levels.
Later on, once mages reached a certain level, they could even cast low-level magic with a snap of their fingers. Such mages eventually became the mainstream in duels, suppressing incantation-based mages so thoroughly that they could barely raise their heads.
Li looked at Taro's clear, precise gestures and the surging magical fluctuations in the air, then let out a soft sigh. Even an idiot could tell that Taro was using Arcane Missile.
This low-level spell could not deal enough damage to Li, but it could suppress him, because Li had roughly guessed from the magical fluctuations that Taro was definitely casting multiple Arcane Missiles.
A first-level spell was practically nothing to Taro. In this world, there was a certain rule governing the level of spells a mage could