Cæ's expression grew grave as his stormy gray eyes sharpened.

He hadn't expected Virlyd to sweep up the rest of the mages that easily. The fact that he could overwhelm Kyrell's and Miranda's defenses that easily and that quickly was proof that he was much stronger than they were.

'Damn… President Mileila was right,' Cæ huffed inwardly even as he continued chanting an incantation. 'There was no need to even conduct a tournament in the first place. He is clearly the strongest among us. Still…'

Cæ's eyes sharpened.

'I have no intention of losing.'

He strengthened the darkness magic, spreading darkness across the entire combat arena as an even greater amount of the arena and the airspace became consumed by darkness despite the bright light of the morning Sun illuminating the vertir. In particular, he was eager to avoid a direct confrontation with Virlyd. They had tried that route, and it simply didn't work. His magic was perfectly compatible and even built for direct confrontation.

If Cæ had any hope of winning, it would undoubtedly be through asymmetric battle.

'My incantation doesn't have much more time needed. As long as I can just get it off, I will be able to launch a powerful spell comprising five elements.'

The reason it was taking so long was that he had his hands absolutely busy using his mana-motive force with other spells. After all, he needed to keep some passive defenses on at all times while also using his maneuvering spell to ensure that he could dart in and around the entire combat arena.

These three spells together tapped most of his mana-motive force, making it so that the time needed to charge his incantation spell with mana was much longer than normal.

"You're using the same trick you used in the fourth round of the preliminary tournaments."

Virlyd's voice reached his ears from somewhere in the center of the combat arena.

His tone was unamused.

"If you think that this will be enough to protect you, then I'm afraid you may have underestimated me." Virlyd's eyes narrowed.

Cæ felt chills crawling down his spine as Virlyd began mobilizing his tremendous magical power, casting powerful offensive and defensive spells.

His defensive spells made him as strong as a large boulder, one that would be extremely difficult to even scratch, while his offensive spells began ravaging the combat arena like devastating cannonball shots.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

RUMBLE

Tremors passed through the vertir from the sheer power that Vilryd unleashed at random across the entire combat arena, spreading his power far and wide in hopes of randomly attacking her.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!

Cæ gritted his teeth as he felt a tremendous onslaught of concentrated shockwaves that guided the power of his fists throughout the entirety of the battlefield, spreading great destruction across the arena.

WHOOSH

His eyes widened as he felt a shockwave narrowly miss his head, flying right above him. Shivers crawled across his skin. He began spending more mana on defense, ensuring that if the attack struck him, he would not be blown out of the combat arena in the blink of an eye.

Because Virlyd used shockwaves to permeate his power through the combat arena, the attacks traveled at the speed of sound.

'However, conversely, that also means that each spell costs more energy.' Cæ realized. 'Faster-moving attacks are more valuable and thus will consume more mana.'

It was Merlin's Law of Magic, one that he had studied last year in the fundamentals of magic. The amount of mana consumed by a spell was directly proportional to the value of the magical outcome.

Additionally, mana was equalized in this battle, thus their energy as cultivators did not matter.

It meant that Virlyd was definitely consuming more energy than Cæ at the moment, putting the pressure on him to avoid a drawn-out battle. The fact that he had already consumed more energy than Cæ did due to facing all those attacks and defeating all the other contenders was also something that worked in his favor.

He took his time with his incantation even as he maneuvered around the battlefield, enjoying the advantage to its highest degree.

'Maneuvering was also an area where I have a huge advantage,' Cæ sharpened his gaze as he circled around the battlefield. 'He can't maneuver because he can't see anything, but I have no need to.'

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Ever since his Acquired Savant Syndrome, his imagination had become rich, allowing him to visualize things with great detail, consistency, and in three dimensions. He could even plot out change with remarkable accuracy, allowing him to estimate how his position in the combat arena changed each step.

He could simulate everything in his mind and know exactly where the boundaries of the combat arena were, whether he was midair or not.

Unfortunately, he couldn't see Virlyd's attacks.

And that meant that he was bound to get hit by them eventually.

BANG!

"Rgh!" Cæ gritted his teeth as a destructively heavy attack blasted into his chest.

CRACK!

It shattered a rib bone despite his defenses, leaving him feeling intense pain. Cæ gritted his teeth as he hardened his expression, never once letting his incantation or his spells falter. His disadvantage lay in not knowing automation magic, which meant that he couldn't keep his spells active even if he was in pain or rendered momentarily incapacitated by any means.

BOOM!

Another attack struck him, this time on his leg, leaving him feeling like his bone had broken.

And yet, he persevered.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!

Virlyd's attacks only grew denser, frequent, and wider as several minutes passed. Cæ could feel the pressure his opponent was facing under the current circumstances. Had they been fighting one-on-one from the very start, Cæ was certain that he wouldn't have been able to push him to this extent.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

As the shockwaves grew larger and less dense and more widespread, Cæ began suffering greater and greater damage across his entire body. His defenses ensured that he was never knocked out, but his body grew bruised with wounds even as he struggled to defend against everything Virlyd unleashed in all directions.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Virlyd, on the other hand, began growing more and more tense as he struggled to detect any trace of Cæ's presence. He didn't have any light magic to dispel the darkness that Cæ had drowned the entire combat arena in.

His domain magic was exclusively combat-oriented and didn't have any divination elements to it, making it impossible for him to smoke Cæ out using the technique. He was forced to rely on the crude tactic of simply widespread destruction, something that ticked him off.

'I will need to resolve that weakness this year.'

One of the reasons he was so strong was that he had dedicated himself to nothing other than pure combat magic in the past ten years. Because he wasn't particularly talented out of all the students in the Elendir Institute of Magic, he made his greatest strengths his time and super-specialization, as well as the background of his family in combat magic, to elevate him to the top.

'On the other hand, my opponent has barely learned magic for one year.'

Virlyd envied Cæ in that regard.

Of course, he wasn't entitled or ungrateful.

He understood that his situation was still quite enviable compared to the overwhelming majority of people. He was born into a powerful, affluent family with a rich heritage of combat magic, and he was talented enough, along with the supplementing resources that increased his magic aptitude, to get into the Elendir Institute of Magic.

In comparison, Cæ was from the slums and had undoubtedly gone through tribulations and hardships the likes of which Virlyd couldn't even imagine; he was sure.

Still, he couldn't help but feel rather lackluster before people he had defeated.

Cæ and even Silian… they shone much brighter than he did.

Even the other talents in the magicacademy would likely be stronger than he was when they reached his age. In fact, they would be out of the Elendir Institute of Magic, and many would likely have already hit the rank of senior.

He knew better than anybody else that the reason he was the strongest in the magicademy was largely because he was the oldest, more than anything else.

Thus, when the younger students praised him for being the strongest, he was simply unable to bring himself to feel proud about it.

When people then praised him for being humble, he couldn't help but feel a little pathetic.

It was not humility, but closer to humiliation.

He was already twenty-five and still in the magicademy since the age of sixteen.

That was an excessive amount of time.

His eyes blazed with determination as he unleashed the tremendous power that he had cultivated over a decade against his opponent.

He refused to lose here.

He did not wish to become a man whose life peaked in magicademy.

'My dreams are far too big for me to remain in this magicademy any longer.'

His expression grew intense.

'I will elevate my family to the status of the thirteen great families.'

His fist coiled back as he unleashed a powerful swing forward, body-casting Martial Magic.

WHOOSH!!!

A perfectly executed straight punch with devastating speed and power, blasting apart air that stood in its way.

His domain magic was of the heaven element, using the air to absorb the power of the impact and seamlessly transmit it beyond the range of his fists.

BOOM!!

RUMBLE

The sheer impact of the attack was so high that it sent tremors across the entirety of the combat arena.

By then, the next attack had already come.

BOOM!

And then the next, less than a split second later.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

His fists moved with furious intensity and vigorous speed, causing them to launch destructive attacks of great power.

He didn't know where his opponent was.

He didn't know whether he had hit him.

He only knew that the battle was still ongoing because the arbiter had not declared his victory.

And then, it came.

"AAARGGHHH!!!" A painful howl from his front as his darkness magic dispelled.

One moment, he was drowned in darkness.

The very next moment, the combat arena returned to his view in blinding brightness. The students in the audience gasped as he closed his eyes in pain, blinded by the bright light of the morning Sun.

He reflexively unleashed all his power in front of him from where he had heard Cæ's howl.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!

He hadn't been able to confirm with his eyes whether Cæ had actually been there or not because he was blinded by the Sun's Light

And that was what Cæ had been counting on.

Behind him, Cæ finally finished his incantation.

His body was battered with bruises, wounds, cuts, and broken bones.

And yet, he had achieved what he wanted to.

His eyes flared with ferocity as he unleashed the power that he had been accumulating.

"Penta-elemental Spear."

Before him, a giant spear made up of light, darkness, earth, heaven, and fire was unleashed against Virlyd in the blink of an eye, coursing through the combat arena with extremely high speeds and crashing into Virlyd with tremendous speed.

BOOOM!

An extraordinary attack blasted into Virlyd, standing at the center of the combat arena, ravaging his defenses as it threatened to launch him out of the combat arena!

RUMBLE

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