I rolled my eyes.
"Don't be ridiculous," I said. "Wasn't the battle royale enough for you? Besides, ranking challenges don't start for another two weeks, after the first Academy tournament."
"Don't you know who you're talking to?" he yelled, slamming me against the wall.
That seemed to be happening to me a lot recently. I saw the eyes of all the student body in the cafeteria turn their way towards us.
"I don't," I said, easily brushing him off. "Care to enlighten me?"
"That's Prince Philips for you," he said arrogantly. "You don't even know who's in charge around here?"
I saw the eyes of the upperclassmen in the A-class roll their eyes and turn their attention away.
"I don't care," I said dismissively. "You charge in like an idiot, I wouldn't acknowledge a man like that ruling my country."
I walked away to prove my point.
"Wait!" he yelled, chasing after me again. I could tell he was using the fire element to propel his movement forward.
Great elemental control, probably better than mine.
There's just one slight problem...
At the last second before he could ram himself carelessly into me, I extinguished the fire element he had been using and dodge just barely out of the way. He ended up stumbling to the ground, right in front of a girl.
"Ah, if it isn't the infamous Blyke Philips," the girl in front mocked. "Not only did you recklessly lose to someone who had cheated their way in, you're the talk of the upperclassmen since the noble Prince of Tervas ended up in the lowest D-class."
So he really was the Prince of this country.
"So, is this the girl that knocked you in one hit?" she asked him, nodding at me.
He didn't answer.
She walked up to me. "Garcia Arvras, Ace," she introduced herself.
She was probably the strongest member of the so-called "Elite Four."
"Candace Mendoza," I said, introducing myself unhurriedly.
"You're quite famous," she said.
I've been told.
"If you improve a bit, I've no doubt you'll be part of the Elite Four in the future," she said, smiling.
Her eyes weren't smiling. She clearly felt threatened.
"I've no interest," I said curtly. Her eyes calmed down ever so slightly, though not enough to show complacency. She still looked at me rather sharply.
I simply smiled in reply.
"I approve of this duel, override usual freshmen regulations," she said suddenly.
I turned around.
"Please come around in half an hour, to the fifth arena," she announced.
I turned around and kept walking. It didn't matter if I didn't show up.
"This is an official ranking match," she added. "Failure to show will result in an automatic forfeit and loss of class position."
I sighed.
Maybe it would still be better if I were in the D-class.
"Don't get cocky because you managed to catch me off guard once," Blyke yelled after me, a clear provocation.
Really, did they not teach him how to speak properly? What were the royal tutors, deaf and mute?
Now was probably not the time to back down. It was bad, but against my judgement, I took the provocation.
Idiot, didn't anyone teach you that water beats fire?
I arrived at the arena five minutes earlier than the agreed time. I was dressed in the clothes I had shown up to this world in yesterday, everything else packed away neatly in my bag.
I was still woefully underprepared when we consider combat. I didn't have any scrolls to speed my casting, nor material components for my most powerful spells. He wouldn't give me enough time to channel an aria, nor did I have magic circles prepared on parchment to transcribe into the world.
I had no weapons, no spellcasting focus.
And even then, I was confident. As an A-rank mage of the Society, I didn't need those things, except on the most difficult mission that required careful preparation. Simple, low-level spells like the ones I had been using previously had long become so familiar that I could utilize them with just a thought.
Garcia showed up on time, as the referee for the match.
Blyke was still nowhere to be found. Until five minutes later, when he came dressed in the most superfluous robe I had ever seen.
From just a glance, he may have seemed smug about it, but I could tell there were the smallest threads of chiatine woven in between.
Chiatine is a metal that displays low-level magic inhibition against certain magics, and it worked by vibrating at a certain frequency that would distort the effects of incoming magics on the user. The distortion effect could reduce the efficacy of certain magics by anywhere between 20-40%, though it as only helpful on spells that were physical in nature.
In such small quantities, however, it might as well not exist. A simple antivibrational spell could bypass that reduction percentage entirely and was not difficult to tack on, though it wouldn't exactly be necessary if the user just employed nonphysical methods of attack. Arias would be the most effective since the more difficult ones could simultaneously attack the soul, mental, and physical parts of a person, but were extremely taxing and required a length of time to channel.
My clothing, plain as it looks, is actually woven with layers of chiatine and extra refined agratium. Agratium had the dual purpose of being an extremely efficient strengthener—it would stop most blades that hadn't been sharpened with high-level sharpening magics, and it would additionally provide another layer of antimagic protection through a special process that increased its durability. Combined with the chiatine, most physical-based magic attacks would have their efficacy lowered by 70-90%.
"I see you've prepared well," Garcia said to Blyke.
He nodded arrogantly. "I'll win this time, Mendoza," he said.
"I'm ready as well," I said to Garcia, ignoring him.
She nodded, opening the area. I walked through after her, while Blyke followed with his posse.
I could feel the menacing glares behind me.
In the arena, I was led across to the West side, while Blyke would start on the East side. The audience was rather large, since ranking matches hadn't officially started yet, lunch break was still ongoing, and there wasn't much excitement to be had elsewhere.
From the corner of my eye, I spotted the hostile glares of my battle royale group, most of which I had sent flying straight to the C-class. A few of them were unhappy since they had managed to get into the B-class with their test scores, and would have been placed into the A-class if I hadn't taken them out.
I ignored them to focus on the obstacle in front of me.
Since he was the one who challenged me first, it was up to me to deliver a satisfying battle.
Garcia stood to the side, watching the two of us.
I stood staring at the ground, planning my opening attack. Since I could only use water-like attacks, I was limited when considering my arsenal.
There was a water version of the Entaglement spell I could use, but it was nowhere as effective as the grass-type version. It required an exact grasp of the water elements and timing to freeze properly.
However, there was no need to create such a complex environment. Simpler spells could get the job done without necessitating more complex tactics.
From the pocket in my pants, I pulled a small scrap of parchment and a pen. If I didn't have magic circles prepared beforehand, my only choice would be to prepare them now.
The moment that Garcia announced the beginning of the match, I drew with quick strokes on my sheet of parchment, dodging the first fire attack Blyke sent my way.
It was just a simple fireball, nothing to be scared about, though if I could hold off revealing the secret of my clothing, that would be ideal.
I couldn't break my concentration when drawing this circle, or it would fail and I would need to restart. Blyke seemed to notice that I was preparing a spell, something I hadn't done in the battle royale, so he was extremely set on attacking me before I finished.
It would work if he knew any other instantaneous cast spells, but it seemed that he could only use fireballs.
What a waste, fireballs would hardly be useful against weak opponents.
Five dodged fireballs later, I finally finished my drawing. I slapped the piece of the paper into the ground and chanted.
"Ex imagination rem, haec veritas est. (From my mind, become my reality.)"
The moment I finished speaking those words, the ink flew off the paper and the magic circle imprinted itself on the ground.
Instantly upon activation, the temperature in the fighting area became extremely cold, and the sky darkened immensely.
Niflheim, the barren, frozen wasteland. Eternal cold and darkness, I simply channeled a portion of the power into the present world. As I was the spell activator, I was unaffected by the cold, but Blyke almost collapsed and would have without his cloak. Garcia was shivering and I could spot the audience feeling rather chilly as well, but I paid it no mind.
This spell required my concentration to maintain, meaning I could only cast instantaneous-casting spells that wouldn't require my concentration, and I couldn't take too much damage, as that would break my concentration as well.
Blyke reacted faster than I had anticipated, surrounding himself with the fire element to keep warm. On the side, Garcia had done the same.
Ah, what a simple mindset, to counter cold with heat.
I could have destroyed his flames with a simple spell, but that would simply be too easy a victory. He clearly wanted to show the world that he was superior, so why should I hold back so much?
Immediately, I summoned one of my favorite spells, a simple ice knife. Normally it would be a two step process, to gather the water and then freeze it, but under the effects of Niflheim, freezing it became quicker and more efficient.
Blyke saw the knife in my hand, and relaxed a bit.
Idiot, didn't anyone ever teach you, that type effectiveness was useless if you were simply overpowered?
The ice knife in my hand didn't stop at crystallizing into a blue mass of ice, but turned black after I froze it further.
The second effect of Niflheim, the ability to freeze ice further, into dark ice, ice that would never be melted outside the depths of Muspelheim.
I let the knife simply fly from my fingers, in a straight vector towards him. He tried to dodge, but didn't notice that as he surrounded himself in the fire element, he sunk deeper and deeper into the ice layers and could do nothing but fall over.
As I didn't wish to kill him, I simply exploded the knife into shards that lightly grazed wounds into him as he fainted.
Garcia, standing on the side, was shivering as she announced the winner. I immediately dispelled the effects of Niflheim, returning the temperature and sky to normal.
Those in the audience were shocked as Blyke was dragged out by the infirmary team.
I simply walked out.
Niflheim was one of my favorite spells, though I rarely got to use it as it was useless in group battles, impeding your teammates as well as your opponents. Additionally, it requires almost absolute concentration, and the smallest flicker can, at best, cause the spell to subside, and at worst, completely rebound on the user, slowing movements and lowering temperatures.