A depressed Stella was slowly walking back to the group that I had just gotten to, consisting of me, Caroline, Akane, and Tomas. Just as I was about to cheer her up, her inner fire lit up once again, "Argh! Next time! I will get him next time!"
"Y-y-yes, you... can do it...!"
With the two idiots joining together, I had a hard time finding a window to intervene in the conversation, but in the end, I didn't have to. "Zero, you also think so, right? That I will win next time!"
"Of course! You can do it, Stella!"
"T-Thank you..."
I had no idea how she could suddenly get embarrassed when she was the one who dragged me into the conversation, but I could only guess that my shining expression was too much for her.
"That's it for the freshmen duels! Now, it's time for the real fun to begin! Sophomores versus freshmen! First up, Gomerick Ritter facing off against Adriana Aldon!"
Almost as if it was to be expected, no one said anything about the fact that there would be only one duel held at a time from now on, with Mr. Brown clearly showing some favoritism towards his students.
Not that I honestly cared, even more so because this first match was one I was somewhat excited to see.
A multi-elemental mage. Though most pure mages could manipulate different elements, I assumed that his way of presenting himself meant that he literally had an affinity for more than one element. Although it might sound simple, it turns out that if you used an element that you didn't have an affinity for, the results would almost always be incredibly weak.
For this reason, there was barely anyone who practiced using another element, as not only did it take a lot of time, the potency just wasn't worth it. From what I had read, some people had taken the time to learn to use another element as a way to increase the one they had an affinity for, but they were extremely rare.
So seeing the man with the peculiar hair stretch a bit, staff in hand, it would be a lie to say I wasn't excited to see what he could pull off. At the same time, I doubted that he stood any sort of chance at all against the woman who was now patiently waiting with her rapier ready to strike.
The silver-haired princess, Adriana Aldon, daughter of a certain king that I still had some unfinished business with. There was still a certain tear that I needed to get ahold of. But right now, I had a match to witness.
With his loud booming voice, Mr. Brown started the countdown, "5,4,3,2,1, fight!"
Both of them instantly started moving their mana as soon as the countdown was finished, with Gomerick opting to use a larger spell right at the start and Adriana just getting a bit of a feel for her opponent.
"[Ice Lance]."
"[Raging Tempest]!"
A big whirlwind made of fire came out from Gomerick's staff, quickly moving towards the teeny, tiny spike of ice that Adriana had launched. Naturally, the outcome was obvious.
*Bom!*
"Ah!"
The fiery tornado dissipated into nothingness as it met the higher-ranked Adriana's [Ice Lance], with her spell continuing to move towards her target that quickly rolled to the side to dodge it. Now, it might have looked silly that her tiny spike not only penetrated the flashy spell but also made it disperse, but it was a matter of quality.
Not only was Adriana's mana a lot more potent than Gomerick, but it also appeared that he was using a spell that was too much for him to fully use. I did like the way he thought about it, but it was way above his level right now, so much so that it was mostly just a flashy spectacle for the masses.
There was no quality in his design as he lacked the necessary control and mana to make it powerful enough.
Now, with Gomerick having to try and regain his footing, Adriana ran forward, while at the same time conjuring three more spikes around her that she launched in quick succession toward poor Gomerick.
"Argh!"
The poor mage tried his best to dodge all the spikes, but it ended up with both his shoulder getting scratched and his thigh getting penetrated, making his blood freely flow down to the ground. Of course, Adriana wasn't one to let an opening like this go, now dashing the last little bit of distance as she readied her rapier.
"[Wall of Stone]!"
A big wall of earth came up from the ground, a desperate attempt from Gomerick to try and protect himself from the princess. Yet it was all for naught. *BOM!*
Bits of stone and debris flew from the air as Adriana pierced right through it with her rapier which was now coated in ice, something I assumed was some kind of application of weapon enhancement, like I did with my scythe and mist.
The next second, the match was over, with Adriana holding the tip of her rapier against Gomerick's throat, "Adriana is the winner!"
"Good match."
"Thank you."
Showing the pride of a royal, she helped the freshman up from the ground. Now, it had to be said that Gomerick himself probably didn't think he would be able to win either, so he didn't look all too disappointed.
For a freshman, I thought he was honestly incredibly talented, but he was trying too hard to do things that he was not ready for yet. Still, even if I didn't get to see all too much, it was clear that the way he thought about magic was on the right track.
Not wanting to waste any time, as things had been dragged out quite a lot already, sadly mostly because of me, the sophomore's teacher continued, "Next up, Akane versus Suzan!"
The eccentric samurai girl versus the beast tamer. Another match that would be quite interesting to watch, and also the first time I would get to see what a beast tamer could really do.
Because I had missed the fight Akane had against Caroline, I had no idea how her Manual even worked. So when two portals suddenly opened on her side inside the ring, my heartbeat increased. 'She can summon her beasts?! That's so cool!'
And out from the two portals, two big beasts stepped out. On her right was a huge, brown bear, and on her left was a black panther, both of the animals looking ready for a fight. 'Come to think of it, who even won when Caroline and Akane fought?'
No matter how much I thought about it, I knew the answer wouldn't come to me. Because I literally didn't know. Instead, I set my sights on the arena, watching intently so I wouldn't miss anything. Just like me, there was another person that was also quite excited to see the beasts coming out to the arena.
"Oh! They are so cute! Can I pet them after the match?!"
The eccentric girl had started again, reminding me of the time when she 'attacked' Bobby at the Monastery office. However, Akane just stood there while looking a bit embarrassed. After a couple of seconds, she turned her head away and finally gave an answer, "Sure."
Needless to say, the yellow-haired samurai exploded in excitement, "Waah! Thank you!", jumping up and down in happiness. While this was happening, Mr. Brown finally started the countdown, not even waiting for them to shake hands. 'Seems like he doesn't want his student to make a fool out of herself more than this...'
"5,4,3,2,1, fight!"
Due to the fact that both of the fighters were caught a bit off guard, it took a moment before they fixed their postures, both showing respect by waiting until they saw that their opponent was ready.
Sadly, for Akane, this wasn't necessarily a good thing. "Stephanie, Uldrich, go!"
*Rooaaar!*
While Akane was sending her beasts to do her bidding, Suzan just took a deep breath while lowering her stance, holding the handle of her katana that was still stuck in the sheath tightly. Even from a distance, I could sense a huge amount of mana moving inside of her, as she closed her eyes.
*Crrzzt!*
Then, when the beasts were about to lunge at the samurai, electricity started dancing around her body. 'Doesn't she know how to hold back?'
*Click*
The next second, Suzan's body blurred, and in an instant, she had not only moved over twenty meters, but her katana was also just inches from Akane's neck. Noticing what had just happened, the freshman's face paled, and her legs started shaking.
This time, it was Ms. Turner, who also had been the one who stopped Suzan's attack, who declared the winner, "Winner, Suzan!"
Putting her weapon back into its sheath, the stupid girl just scratched her head and laughed, "Haha! Even though it was short, it was a good match!"
'Moron...'
In response to her words, Akane finally fell to her knees, her legs too weak to hold her up after she had witnessed death.