Even before he announced his name, everyone knew who he was. It wasn't his appearance that gave him away, for spirits could change shape and volume as easily as gas. Rather it was the concentrated natural mana that he was composed of that proved his identity as a spirit king, the most superior type of otherworldly spirit that had the most influence over its element. Their elemental authority was so great in fact, that there was a tale in which a god had faced a spirit king but was easily defeated as that god was unable to wrest control of the spirit king's element and had no other methods of attack.
As I examined Ryzen, he didn't seem to possess such power, but that was likely because his strength was limited by the ability of his contractor. Even so, I was certain that he could wield might at the peak of the limit.
I was interested in talking with him more, but we had something else planned so I moved my gaze from Ryzen back to Kaili. Even if she needed the help of a grimoire, I was still very proud of Kaili for summoning a spirit king, so I looked forward to seeing how far my student had come.
"Kaili, I'm ready when you are."
"Okay, I'll do my best."
I was glad that she reached out for Lily without a second thought, but honestly facing a spirit king commanded by a grimoire user would be impossible for majority of demons even if they were at the limit, so my sentimental side would have liked it if she hesitated a little more.
If this was a real battle I would have attacked already, but since it was just practice I patiently waited for the transformation to be complete. In under three seconds, I saw Lily turn into a book and Kaili began looking at me with a sharp and firm gaze. Her aura felt different from usual, so I assumed that it was the effect of the grimoire. Since Kaili lacked battle experience, I wondered if she could probably utilise her abilities, but when I looked at those eyes I realised that I didn't need to worry.
Like I had announced, I stayed in place and waited for her first move. Kaili raised her hand and pointed at me with her index and middle finger.
"Spear."
Almost simultaneously, a gigantic emerald spear appeared beside her and shot towards me. I knew the spear was made of wind controlled by the wind spirit king, so as a test I attempted to block it with earth magic, but I quickly discovered a shocking fact.
'I can't use the magic.'
I was sure I only needed a few seconds to deduce why, but this was a battle so I had to switch tactics swiftly. Instead of earth magic, I relied on my bloodline and summoned a wall of trees from this barren land. This time, my magic activated and the trees acted as perfect windbreakers. Additionally, I figured out why my earth magic didn't activate.
I had underestimated the range of control of a spirit king. I thought that I would only be unable to use wind magic, but it was actually every magic that I hadn't mastered because not only could the spirit king control the wind, it could suppress the other elements as well. With this ability, Kaili would be able to fight with an advantage no matter where she was.
'Unless it's in space, I'm not sure how mana works up there.'
I was already satisfied by Kaili's power and potential so far, but neither of us thought about stopping here.
"Lift."
As I pondered if I should make the next move, I felt a circle of wind around me and my trees that quickly grew into a column of air before trying to raise us into the sky.
I hoped that the trees I summoned would have strong enough roots to stay rooted, but the sandy soil just wasn't up to the challenge.
The savage gale was about to uproot me along with the trees, but then I pushed past the suppression of the spirit king and used the Poltergeist to keep my feet planted to the ground. No pun intended.
I managed to get through this time, but without a moment of wavering Kaili used her next move.
"Void."
First, the trees and dust that was in the air scattered, and suddenly, I felt short of breath. However, there was no way it was because I was tired. I could literally feel air leaving my lungs through my orifices. I tried to suck it back in, but there was no way I could beat the wind spirit king in tug-of-war of air. Due to my race, I would be fine holding my breath though I wasn't sure for how long, but that was all I could do, hold it. I didn't have the ability to live without oxygen like my familiars could.
As air rapidly left my body, I lost the energy to run before I knew what was happening. Blink would be perfect for getting out of this, but I didn't have enough proficiency in spatial magic. Using my Dragon Form might solve the problem, but that was still a secret to keep from Lia. Therefore, I had to raise my hands in defeat. I acknowledged the fact that I couldn't keep going without fighting back.
I glanced at Kaili and at the same time a column of air appeared to defend her, but it was no match for my spell.
A tiny spot in space that you would mistake for an illusion if you saw it, popped into existence beside the column of wind and quickly devoured it. However, it stopped before it did Kaili any damage since she stopped her spell and surrendered.
"It's my loss."
The spectators gave a short round of applause, which was well deserved since she was the youngest one here. Well, youngest by appearance, wait no, uh, never mind.
While she held Lily in grimoire form, she had a cold expression, but there was a faint smile when Lily assumed her human form again.
Kaili then bowed and said, "Thank you for the lesson, Professor."
"You're welcome. Keep up with your training."
Although the vacuum technique she used put me in a dangerous situation, my immortality would have ensured that I stayed alive, just in immense pain. Since I wasn't in that position for too long, neither of us had any major injuries so we quickly moved on to the next fight.
Because of the souls that it was composed of, Alma had a strong affinity for necromancy and dark magic, possibly superior to my affinity for nature magic. Additionally, he still retained his relevant memories so his combat experience wasn't lacking either. I wasn't sure if I could beat him without using my Dragon Form, but it would be a good test.
As we faced each other, Alma summoned the chilling black sword that previously belonged to the death knight, Dain, while I used the reinforcement technique on my fists. After my battle with Ryan, I realised that relying on the weapon skills I absorbed wouldn't be enough to face higher level enemies, and similar to sigils, I had a feeling that I wouldn't be able to copy weapon skills above level 6. Therefore, I needed to become better at unarmed combat since it suited me best.
"Shall we begin, creator?"
"Of course."
Unlike in my battle against Kaili, we both started at the same time with an exchange of lightning fast blows. As a result of reinforcing my fists with mana, they could go head to head with Alma's sword, but I couldn't take this risk in the future so I tried to parry his blade as much as possible. Once we were finished warming up our bodies, we started using magic.
I wrapped my fists in holy-imbued flames while it summoned mini-black holes using the Abyss ability from Dark Magic. The moment after I used Blink to get behind it, there was already a vortex in my path, but as I had used this tactic before, I knew the way to get past it. I summoned a stone wall in front of me and then leaped over it while it was sucked in by the vortex. Then, I threw of ball of holy fire at Alma while I was in the air. As I expected, it dodged the flame, but the moment it touched the ground the flame exploded, knocking both of us away.
If it was an undead, even one on the level of a death knight there would be a scream of agony, but if Alma had a face there would only be a grimace as his weakness to holy magic was only slightly above the average person.
'That's one thing checked, next up is...'
I had many more combat-related checks so as soon as I touched the ground, I pounced at Alma.
"Don't disappoint me."
"I'll try my best, creator."