Two competitors wearing the sa black uniform and white-gold representative capelet, bearing the insignia of the Grand Magic Academy and a different number of stars on the chest area of their attire, ascended the stage.
Both were equally calm and collected, though Vyse had a slight smile on his face, while Hal remained mostly deadpan.
The two rely locked eyes with each other after arriving at the center.
No words were exchanged, which basically confird that the earlier deal was still on.
Soon, a tir appeared above them, counting down as the audience held their breath in anticipation.
As the number hit "five," though, everyone suddenly began counting down with it, widening the smile on Vyse’s face.
Even he could feel the excitent of the mont.
"Zero!!"
Almost imdiately, a [Glacial Shard] and a Dark Orb clashed as both young wizards tested each other’s raw spell power, with neither spell overpowering the other.
This was a shocking result, considering Vyse had a whopping 90% boost in dark elental magic and had been training for almost two years.
The pride of Hal’s [Common]-tier arsenal hadn’t failed him.
"Hoh, not bad. I can see why you’re confident." praised Vyse, a crafty smile appearing on his face. "It would be hard to predict what you would do, so I shall change my approach."
The next mont, a black magic circle appeared on the ground, from which a two-and-a-half-ter-tall, ebony, caped humanoid holding a dark, glowing chakram erged.
"Midnight Specter!" exclaid the majority in shock.
This was the first ti Vyse had used a summon/darkness-type spell in the entire tournant, making even Felix and the others in the top four narrow their eyes.
It seed they had been sleeping on the Grand Magic Academy’s top representative.
The sophomore then extended his purple-glove-wearing right hand, prompting another smaller black magic circle to erge, from which translucent, dark-blue snakes sharing a single body slithered out, striking at Hal like a net while the specter dashed forward.
anwhile, Hal had just finished enhancing himself with [Swift] and [Enduring], yet oddly enough, even the VIPs didn’t notice.
Just like the monsters he had previously ambushed, they were unable to sense the mana ripples when he cast his spells.
Their instincts still picked up on the danger, but without the usual magical cues, their reactions were often slightly delayed compared to when mana ripples could be detected.
With his physical boosts, Hal was able to dodge the specter’s first attack by stepping back, sending the dark summon flying with a rocky pillar the next mont.
The snakes were upon him.
However, Hal calmly defended with a [Mana Barrier], thwarting Vyse’s unusual aggressiveness before going on the counter-offensive.
’My turn!’
Without dwelling too much on his opponent’s sudden change in fighting style, Hal launched a counter-offensive.
He conjured chains beneath Vyse to force him to move, then followed up with a barrage of freezing and flaming projectiles, further shocking the crowd with his unexpected use of the fire elent.
It was hard for them to believe that a re freshman like Hal could wield such a wide array of spells, especially ones from different elents.
Even Korvus felt slightly unnerved by yet another revelation.
Vyse, however, rely smiled even wider, calmly defending with a plate of darkness that absorbed both spells before shooting them back to Hal, who wasn’t too shocked.
He had gotten a sowhat decent grip on what the darkness elent is all about: deceptive, controlling, yet also overwhelming.
Hal calmly bypassed the two projectiles with a decisive [Blink] in front of his opponent, punching with a thundering fist.
"Whoa, whoa..."
Instead of engaging in lee, the academy’s top sophomore chose to fade into the darkness behind him and reappear so distance away, revealing a few things—one being that Vyse likely lacked lee combat skills, or at least wasn’t confident in his current prowess.
Perhaps he could use this...
Unfortunately, Hal had to stop his attacks for now, as the chilling chakram of the Midnight Specter was already right behind his neck.
He [Licht Step]ped to the side to dodge, his breathing slightly ragged after the exchange.
"Brother, what the hell? Specialize in sothing!" said Vyse, masking his disbelief and inner turmoil with composed, clever-sounding words.
Spatial, Ice, Summon, Conjure, Fire, Light, and now Thunder...
The sheer number of spells Hal had mastered in such a short ti was alarming enough that even the second-seeded Donner began to take him a bit more seriously.
They were in the middle of an intense battle, so there wasn’t much room for thought, or one might lose.
After a few deep breaths and a brief locking of gazes, the battle resud.
The Midnight Specter rushed at Hal once more.
This ti, Hal chose to target the summon, planning to eliminate it before shifting his focus to Vyse.
He montarily delayed its movents with a well-tid [Conjure Chains], while simultaneously raining ice shards upon it and firing a piercing ray of light from the front.
The mont the dark summon managed to destroy its shackles, the ice and light elental spells were already upon it.
However, how could the top sophomore allow one of his trump cards—crucial to defeating Hal—to be destroyed so easily?
The Midnight Specter briefly turned into a dark orb and floated out of the [Glacial Shower]’s range, dodging the [Piercing Light] in the process.
It returned to its original form a mont later, having survived the lethal onslaught of ice and light.
The dark summon then counterattacked with a series of black slash marks that flew toward Hal.
Just a ter behind the slashes were two dark orbs, and another ter behind them were the translucent black snakes.
It was a vicious counterattack from Vyse.
Hal didn’t panic, however, and stopped the black slash marks with a [Mana Barrier], though it shattered after blocking the second slash, allowing the third strike, the dark orbs, and the snake net to pass through.
It seed as though Vyse would at least be able to deal so damage, if not outright defeat his adversary, when suddenly, a thick, reinforced earthen wall erged from the ground, stopping everything in its path.
The wall then reached its limit, crumbling into re rubbles and dispersing into brown-colored mana particles that scattered into the wind.
"What a fearso high-level battle!" roared Akari in excitent. "Just when one seems to have no option but to take their opponent’s attacks, they not only manage to defend but even mount a counterattack the very next mont! What an otherworldly performance from the Grand Magic Academy! Everyone, are you not entertained?!"
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