The moment he was done, he took a look at the other semi-final match with the other two contestants. Merun the alchemist. And Serulia Vritra

The moment he was done, he took a look at the other semi-final match with the other two contestants.

Merun the alchemist.

And Serulia Vritra, the invisible mage.

Their battle had yet to end. While Cæ's battle with Hyoken boiled to a all-in-one clash upon which Hyoken staked the match and lost, the battle between Merun and Serulia proved to last much longer.

The piercings sprawled across the face of the alchemist lit up with power as several magic circles emerged before him, allowing him to cast several alchemical mages that spread a poisonous gas across the entire battlefield.

Meanwhile, his opponent deployed all her power to utilize wind magic to disrupt his attempts to poison her. Given that she was invisible, he couldn't actually see her, but he could feel her magical power impacting the environment.

This time, she had gone as far as to make even her magic circles invisible, making it difficult to know exactly what kind of magic she was using.

It made her offensive inscrutable, something that had left most of her opponents entirely incapacitated in their reactions. After all, even if they could sense the magic emerging from her attack after it was released, that still made it too late to react voluntarily in time.

And yet, her opponent didn't need to.

BANG BANG BANG!

Several wind blades blasted upon Merun's skin.

And yet, they didn't leave so much as a scratch on his body.

"…He used alchemy to harden his body to a great extent," Cæ realized. "This way, he doesn't need to react to her attacks, not when his outer skin is made of a super hard substance."

BAM BAM BAM!

Several boulders emerged midair with conjuration, flying towards him with great momentum and power.

And yet, he barely stumbled.

"Tsk," Merun gritted his teeth as several magic circles emerged be him as he activated an alchemical spell on the air around him.

Its effects were visible in the next round of attacks from the invisible mage.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Several blasts of light surged towards the alchemist, threatening to pierce him.

And yet, the moment they passed through the air around him, they slowed down.

They dimmed.

BANG BANG BANG!

This time, the impact was visibly even less.

"He changed the air around him to slow down and weaken the attacks as they approached him to ensure that he dealt with a lesser version of the attack," Cæ realized.

He didn't know that alchemy could be used in such a manner defensively.

His time with Seliphaz had made him slightly more biased towards how he perceived alchemy. However, watching Merun fight against the invisible Serulia dispelled any preconceived notions that he might have had.

The way that he used alchemy for defense was splendid and extremely difficult to bypass. His quicksand spell, as well as his poisonous gas, allowed him to cast an extremely effective, wide-scale attack.

"However…" Cæ's eyes lit up with a hint of interest. "The fact that the match is still ongoing is proof that these two offensive magic spells are not effective in and of themselves. She has likely seen those spells in the previous rounds and has developed some tactics to counter them."

It was interesting to ponder how she had overcome the poisonous gas, considering that it was everywhere within the combat arena. However, he suspected that it likely had to do with the mechanics of the barrier and the enchantments covering the entire combat arena.

She had likely speculated that the barrier had some way of replenishing fresh air so that students didn't suffocate in it.

This was a real problem considering that large amounts of fire magic could easily consume all available oxygen within the combat arena, which would lead to the suffocation of both students.

This meant that as long as her manipulation of wind magic was good enough, she could theoretically siphon fresh air from the mechanism of the spell to give herself breathable air in a cocoon around herself.

"Another possibility is that she's conjuring air for herself to breathe," Cæ speculated. "But given that illusion magic calls for manipulation of the heaven element as opposed to its conjuration, I highly doubt that she has something like that at her disposal."

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However, the color of the poison gas was green, and as far as Cæ could see, there was no pocket of air that was not green in color, the way it was around Merun.

"Maybe it's hidden within the opaque poison cloud or perhaps…" Cæ's eyes lit up an epiphany lit up in his eyes. "Ah…I see. That's a genius strategy."

If she were using invisibility magic, then she would have been spotted in a cloud of poison with a bubble of clear air around her.

And yet, the fact that she wasn't spotted despite being pointed out to a certain fact.

'She isn't just an invisibility mage,' Cæ grew engrossed in the battle. 'She's an illusionist. An illusionist who tricked everybody into thinking that she was just an invisibility mage.'

'It makes sense. It would explain how she's able to get access to fresh air in the middle of a cloud of poison, and how it's so difficult to notice her,' Cæ came to have an appreciation for her strategy. 'Her illusions are likely highly vital, but also likely very subtle. She can't go too far with the illusions or the gig will be up. At the same time, she can't under-use them because invisibility alone will not be enough for her to defeat Merun.'

Cæ's attention shifted to Merun, whose frustration became more and more apparent. It was clear that he didn't quite understand how she was immune to his poison, even though it was everywhere within the combat arena.

Regardless, one didn't need to know exactly what the enemy's strategy was to find a way to counter it.

Seeing that his poisonous gas was simply not effective, he quickly halted the magic, dispelling the magic circles before casting a different magic on the air within the combat arena.

In the blink of an eye, the air within the combat arena returned to normal breathable air.

All except for one bubble floating in the air that retained its green color.

Merun's confusion lasted only a moment before his eyes widened with realization. "There!"

Because Serulia had used illusion magic to make the normal fresh air within her little bubble look like the green of his poisonous gas, it didn't turn to normal when he dispelled the alchemical spell and made the air in the atmosphere around him normal.

That gave away her location.

By the time she realized and altered her magic, it was too late. Almost seven magic circles emerged before Merun as he cast a powerful magic spell on all the air once more, causing bolts of electricity to spark in the air with great brightness.

CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE!

He had used alchemy to turn air into plasma.

One of his trump cards that he had kept in reserve until he had no choice but to use it.

"Raaahhh!" he snarled, waving his wand as he launched the lightning against her, threatening to fry her alive.

VMMM!!!

BOOM!

It lasted a single moment.

Thunder crackled in the combat arena as the students grew absolutely thrilled with the phenomenal display of magic.

And yet, there was no sign of Serulia even then.

Merun gritted his teeth.

The fact that the invisibility was still on was proof that he had yet to get rid of her; otherwise, she would be visible.

Regardless, he had found a winning strategy by fluke.

He could smoke her out by changing the color of the air by changing its composition with something poisonous, within the combat arena, with his wide-scale alchemy.

Even if she could use illusion magic to blend in, she would likely not be able to do so in the blink of an eye upon his change, leaving precious few moments where her location was clearly visible.

That gave him ample chance to attack her at that moment.

The worst part was that there truly was no strategic counter to this tactic.

In order not to be caught, she would need to foresee what her opponent was doing ahead of time, which was possible if she were a divination mage, but she clearly wasn't. Cæ could do it because his Acquired Savant Syndrome allowed him to instantly imagine the spell the moment he saw the runes, but other mages were that quick.

Several magic circles appeared before Merun as the color of the air shifted.

It left a vacant spot of transparent air.

"There!" he had already prepared a magic circle ahead of time, allowing him to launch the spell with great speed.

A single bolt of lightning surged towards the invisible Serulia.

WHOOSH

It barely missed.

"Tsk!" Merun tutted with frustration as he executed the strategy once more, over and over, trying to tag her. The dynamics of the battle shifted entirely as he even boldly abandoned some of his defense, focusing everything on gassing her out and then taking her down.

He had gone from being the one on the defense to becoming the hunter.

Meanwhile, Serulia became the prey, dashing around invisibly in the battlefield at great speeds. Her hopes were clear: the faster she could move around in the battlefield, the greater the chance that he would miss. It was much harder to aim at a moving target than it was at a stationary one.

It proved to be somewhat of a panacea.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

The air began shifting at remarkable frequencies and speeds as Merun aggressively did everything to flush her out and then blast her with his plasma alchemical attacks.

Cæ could tell that it was extremely taxing on his mana reserves, which were undoubtedly being drained at a great rate.

However, he would be lying if he said that this wasn't a viable strategy. Although he could think of better ones, like using wind and light instead of something as taxing as alchemy, he couldn't blame an alchemist for relying on their specialty.

Regardless, it was partially effective.

SPLAT!

…DRIP DRIP DRIP

Blood began dripping out of thin air, falling on the floor.

Merun's eyes lit up with optimism.

His invisible opponent had suffered a serious wound from one of his attacks.

This taste of success only spurred him on.

He pushed his mana-motive force to the limit as countless magic circles emerged before him. The rate of change of the atmosphere grew even faster as it allowed him to track her in real time, with how frequent the changes, serving as frames of a film that plotted the trajectory of her attacks.

She was no longer invisible to him.

BANG!

A bolt of thunder struck an invisible impediment midair, stopping abruptly.

The very next moment, Serulia finally became visible once more to everyone.

Her body was burned red as it went limp, collapsing from the air down like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Her illusion magic had been dispelled by virtue of her losing consciousness.

THUD

She landed on the ground with a gruesome impact.

"Huff… huff…" Merun staggered unsteadily as pure relief and gallant triump emerged on his piercing-laden face, before directing a smug smile at his opponent while the students erupted in amazement at the stunning outcome of the battle. Merun raised his fist in the air as his magic circles disappeared along with his interference field.

Cæ simply shook his head.

"Fool."

He turned, walking away.

"The arbiter never declared your victory."

The unconscious, burned Serulia faded away in front of everyone.

Merun's eyes widened with shock.

And yet, before he could even react, he had already lost consciousness.

THUD

He fell to the ground as the student body was shocked into silence.

Behind his collapsed, unconscious body was none other than the real Serulia herself, gasping for air with exhaustion, wincing at the wounds that she had suffered.

Yet, victory was hers nonetheless.

"Winner: Serulia Vritra!"

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