'The First Dawn Academy really is the academy of geniuses and talented folks.' Asher sighed internally.
Based on what he knew, in the Great Dawn kingdom or even the other nine kingdoms, it was rare to find someone with a superior derivative element. However, in this contest alone, Asher had faced two of them; Mischael and now Ezra.
Superior derivatives couldn't be treated as the common version of the element. Whereas the Wind element in its most common state was an 'alright' element, the Azure Wind was entirely different and could enable one claim the title of 'genius'. One could even say that a superior derivative is equivalent to a secondary element or on some cases, stronger.
"If you're going to be moving so slowly, I doubt you'd be able to land a hit on me." Ezra taunted with a smile.
"Don't count your chickens before they hatch." Asher responded.
Ezra was confused by the meaning of those words as the phrase was not something common in this world, but Asher didn't bother replying.
Once again, Asher made his move but as before Ezra dodged at the last moment. Regardless, Asher went on and kept pushing for a hit, but Ezra was able to read all his movements and dodge them.
The battle between the two was fierce and fast-paced, attracting the attention and praise of the spectators. Even the other students, who weren't on any of the stages, couldn't help but applaud the duo and admit that they were inferior in terms of speed.
"Ezra's speed is self-explanatory. He's a Wind mage and one with an Azure Wind physique. However, I recall that Asher's dual elements are Ice and Wood. Why is he able to keep up with Ezra?" One of the students who was watching the battle couldn't help but comment.
The question sparked confusion amongst the students. In the past battles, they had simply presumed that Asher was merely faster than most students. However, with a precedent to now measure with, they realized that he was much faster than they had estimated. Keeping up with a Wind mage was one thing, but keeping up with one with an Azure Wind physique was something else.
Ethan, who was overhearing all of this scoffed. Having witnessed Asher's battle against Aurora first hand, he wasn't surprised that Asher could keep up with Ezra. On the contrary, he was similarly questioning how Asher could do such.
'An artefact?' Ethan glanced at Asher's legs but was disappointed when he noticed that Asher's shoes were just regular ones.
'Wait a minute, regular?' Ethan widened his eyes in shock.
The students, especially those from rich and powerful families, were fitted with various equipment to boost their strength and give their all on this tournament. This was because the tournament's effect would go far beyond the gates of the academies. Victory or defeat could influence a family's popularity amongst not just the commoners but even fellow nobles. At the same time, a good performance would attract the attention of higher powers like the military, the royals, the five great families or even the Purple Sun sacred land. Hence, all students did their best in this tournament, even going so far as to carry the limit of artefacts allowed.
Ethan, for example, had an artefact (boots to be precise) that improved his speed and he wasn't the only one who had such, after all, Wind mages were somewhat common in the academy, so it was natural to make preparations like this to counter them.
Despite this obvious fact, Asher made no such preparations.
'Regular boots, accessory-free arms, the typical academy battle gear, and from the looks of things, I doubt he has any underarmour. What the heck is this guy?' Ethan sucked in a cold breath of air.
The young marquis [1] was already astounded that Asher could keep up with opponents like Aurora and Ezra without having an element that favoured speed, but finding out that Asher did so without utilizing any artefact whatsoever was even more shocking.
. . .
Ethan wasn't the only one shocked by Asher's current state. Aurora, a former opponent and one who considered Asher as her number one enemy, had also noticed what was different about him.
Just like Ethan, Aurora recalled how Asher was able to keep up with her and wasn't shocked that he could do so against Ezra. Instead, her surprise was due to the fact that Asher had no special artefact on him. The absence of an artefact on Asher made Aurora began to develop a slight fear towards him. A thought had even crossed her mind at that point: if Asher could face Ezra without any speed-boosting artefact, who was to say that he didn't do the same when he faced her back at the Manchurian forest?
During the Manchurian forest test, the students were allowed to bring their personal gears and outfits, so it was much harder to identify whether a student had an artefact on or no since each artefact could have a different appearance from the other. However, during this tournament, the students all wore the same academy combat uniforms so it was easy to spot an artefact since any accessory or clothing separate from the combat uniform would be one.
To understand this better, unless it was an artefact, no one would wear a bracelet or a boot different from the academy's uniform. This wasn't an official rule by the academy but an unofficial tradition amongst the students. However, with their personal gear on, it was possible for students to wear various accessories that may or may not have a special effect on them. As such, it was hard for Aurora to discover of Asher had an artefact on during the test at the Manchurian forest. But since he was now in his academy combat gear, it was easy to differentiate and from what she could see, Asher had none; whether artefact or fashion accessory, he was clean.
'You could try this with your other opponents, but if you face me like this, I will most definitely kill you no matter the cost.' Aurora glared at Asher, her pride hurt from the fact that she couldn't beat him back then.
Aurora hoped dearly that after this mini tournament, she would get paired up with Asher in the next round of the tournament. That way, it would be possible for Aurora to enact her revenge.
[1] 'Young marquis' is a title used to address