The students remained silent and dumbstruck, Finn had lost miserably to Clifford. They didn't expect Finn to lose so quickly, they duel was completely one sided, even the dark skinned mage knew he couldn't beat Finn so easily.
"Hmmmmph....! He used the shadow element, Finn isn't familiar with the shadow element else he would have beaten him." One of the students snorted.
"Yes..yes!!! The others agreed with contemptuous expressions on their face.
Clifford didn't care what they think, he turned to the master and said. "I've won the duel, let me fight him." He pointed provocatively at the dark skinned man.
The master thought about it, if Clifford used his shadow element, there was no doubt he would beat the dark skinned man. He couldn't let his students lose face.
"Let's make things fair, you duel him without your shadow element. He would duel you with only his fire element too." The master proposed.
"Hmmmm..! Let's battle fire with fire." Clifford accepted the proposal, he has never fought a fire element mage before.
The dark skinned man and Clifford got into the dueling ring, Clifford took a dueling stance this time around, he wouldn't joke with the duel because he was fighting without his shadow element and he was facing a strong opponent of the third stage of basic rank, the same rank as Clifford.
The dark skinned man also took a dueling stance, the master declared the start of the duel and the two went head on.
The dark skinned man formed fire balls, four on each palm, eight in total. They were almost the size of a bowling ball and they were burning vehemently while making cracking sounds.
Clifford didn't waste anytime, he quickly conjured his own fire balls too about the same size of the dark skinned man. The dark skinned man threw two of the balls at Clifford which prompted Clifford to raise his mana shield. The two balls hit the mana shield and were blocked successfully but they made dents on it which surprised Clifford. This was the first time his mana shield had been dented by someone's spell. The dark skinned man was surely strong.
The dark skinned man, the master and the students were surprised again, it is very uncommon to see basic rank mages blocking attacks with mana shields. Only mages with high and proficient control over mana could do that and basic rank mages are not considered proficient at controlling mana. Besides, the mage must have a crazy amount of mana to do that. Clifford being able to do that at the basic rank meant that he was highly talented in magic. The master was already thinking of recruiting him to his group if he wasn't in a group yet.
The dark skinned man wasn't dazed for long, even though he knew Clifford could block his attacks, he could break the mana shield by attacking it with his fire balls continuously which would later make Clifford to be vulnerable. He started to attack the mana shield crazily and the shield looked like it would collapse any moment.
Clifford wasn't going to sit there while he was being suppressed, he left his position and started running towards the dark skinned man with fire balls on his palms, when a fire ball of the dark skinned man approached him, he would cancel it with his own fire balls. The dark skinned man left his position too, he started moving around randomly to prevent Clifford from getting to him while he continued to make the attacks. This went on for a while, neither of them has had a duel as tough as this duel. Beads of sweat could be seen on their faces.
The duel had attracted quite a huge number of spectators, the dark skinned man was pretty popular in the academy. He was the strongest second year student and he had even defeated some third year student, it was rare to see someone going toe to toe with him. The duel was very balanced, both Clifford and the dark skinned man were very careful not to make any error, a slight error from one would give the other a great advantage which could define the outcome of the duel.
The spectators were kept on the edges of their seats. Could the dark skinned man be defeated today? They thought.
Clifford was enjoying the duel, he loved the adrenaline that was running through his body. It seemed like the winner of the duel would be defined by mana depletion, the first person to get his mana depleted would lose the duel.
The dark skinned man was starting to get worried, his mana would soon be depleted and he noticed Clifford had abundant mana which wouldn't be depleted anytime soon. He wouldn't sit back and let that happen, he decided to switch to brute strength, he approached Clifford quickly while he kept suppressing him with fire ball attacks.
The spectators noticed the change of tactics from the dark skinned man, they knew the duel would be coming to an end soon.
Clifford wasn't afraid of fighting the dark skinned man with brute strength.
The dark skinned man stopped attacking Clifford with fire balls when he got within punching range, his fists turned fiery and he started to punch at Clifford. Clifford also stopped conjuring fire balls, he started deflecting the dark skinned man's fist attacks.
Clifford was suppressed but he wasn't worried, they kept exchanging punches for a while. Clifford intentionally suppressed himself in order to let the dark skinned man let his guard down but the dark skinned man was extra careful, despite attacking vigorously, he didn't leave any weak opening for Clifford to take advantage. Clifford immediately switched from defending to attacking, he started attacking the dark skinned man with brute strength.
He punched harder and harder which was making it difficult for the dark skinned man. He had enhanced his fists with his mana, it gave him advantage over the dark skinned man. The dark skinned man arms started shaking, he couldn't keep up with the strength and speed of Clifford's punches. He decided to back off.
When the dark skinned man backed off, Clifford immediately conjured blazing red fire balls, he wouldn't let the dark skinned man rest.
The dark skinned man arm's were already swollen and his mana was almost depleted, he had no chance of winning this duel.
He then said the words that shocked the spectators and his fellow mates.
"I concede." The dark skinned man said.
The whole dueling ground went silent, the dark skinned man had just conceded a fight!!
The master announced Clifford the winner and spectators gave a loud cheer, they finally had a new champion. But nobody knew Clifford. "Has he been keeping a low profile all this while?" They thought.
The dark skinned man walked up to Clifford and bowed respectfully to him. This surprised Clifford, he was expecting hostility from him. The fellow mates of the dark skinned man also walked up to Clifford and bowed respectfully, the way they looked at Clifford had changed. They now respected him, it was a doctrine of their group to always respect whoever defeated their strongest mage.
The master also walked up to Clifford. He was intending to enroll Clifford in to his group, but he also saw masters of other groups coming to Clifford, he was immediately displeased by this. He knew they were there to sweet talk Clifford into joining their groups. His group was not exactly the strongest group, they only had a good reputation because of the dark skinned man. He would be furious if he Clifford didn't join his group.
The masters all tried to enroll Clifford but he respectfully declined their proposal. The master of the dark skinned man's group approached Clifford, he politely proposed to Clifford to join his group.
Clifford wasn't ready to join any group right now. "I would love to join your group but I'm not enrolled yet into the academy." Clifford said.
The words was a bombshell in the ears of those who heard it.
The mage who defeated the dark skinned wasn't even enrolled into the academy yet. The news travelled like wild fire.