Instead of doing one versus one sparring, I decided that having them fight as a team would be more effective, as the academy tournament, too, was held in a team fight form.
After all, in such a fight, not only the individual's abilities played an important part, but also their ability to work together with their other teammates.
Especially when they are faced with an unmoving wall.
I've given my students five minutes to coordinate themselves and create a plan, while I was looking away and trapped in a soundproof barrier.
After the five minutes were done and the barrier was gone, the first thing I noticed was the sound of flickering fire singing through the air.
Judging by the sound, I measured that it was coming to my right, thus I dodged it by turning to the left.
It was one of Luke's favorite opening attacks, the low-tier 'fire arrow'.
While its damage wasn't very high, it could take one by surprise due to the short casting speed and the burning effect would be an annoying factor.
Trying to turn my head around, I was greeted by Knagh, who was advancing with his greatsword in his hands.
"RAAARGH!"
As he arrived right in front of me, he struck from below, trying to catch me off guard.
Summoning a wooden dagger, I redirected the force of Knagh's strike slightly, making him miss me by mere inches.
I could feel the wind that was generated from the strike brushing against my face-
"That was a great coordinated attack," I remarked as I disarmed Knagh by striking against his elbow. "My students are scary."
With a pained moan, Knagh let his weapon fall.
"URGH."
I caught it in the air and spun the greatsword around, hitting him with the pommel and knocking him into a nearby wall.
CRASH!
Knagh's incapacitated body dented the wall with its impact.
However, I couldn't relax, as right when I turned around, I was greeted with dozens of different magic circles emerging around me.
A combined attack from the mages of my class.
I narrowed my eyes, materializing multiple daggers and throwing them at the magic circles before they could finish their spell, destroying them.
"You're a monster, teach," Raum yelled from the front lines, preparing another spell.
I watched as the elite of my class stayed behind, doing their preparations, while the other students of the class rushed forward, stalling for time.
"Get him!" Ellen commanded as she raised her arms, aiming at me with a finger pistol. "Wind gun barrage!"
A barrage of wind bullets shot directly at me. Its count was too high for me to accurately estimate.
I tried to move to the side, dodging them, as I was stopped by the other students rushing forward.
I see.
While the other students attacked me, acting as cannon fodder, they restricted my movements, thus making it easier for Ellen's wind bullets to hit me.
I smirked, amused by their plan.
Although it wasn't the best thing they could have come up with, it was impressive enough for five minutes.
"I have to admit." I ducked, dashing right into the crowd of students, using them as a shield. "It is quite the impressive plan."
Ellen couldn't control the course of her bullets after she had already shot them, and thus knocked out her own teammates one by one, finishing them.
"Wowies, can't you even aim, princess?" Raum teased her, as he finished the casting of the spell, compressing the magic circle into a single point and creating a yellow mana ball.
"Shut up, you damn fly." Ellen rolled her eyes as she lightly punched him in his arm. "Are you done yet?"
Raum nodded, throwing the yellow mana ball at me.
However, as I stepped forward, I noticed something strange in the atmosphere. For some reason, it seemed to feel very..wrong..?
My eyes widened in realization as I took a step back, unleashing a little ether to disperse the illusion.
It was one of Celine's strong points. Illusion magic.
As the illusion slowly faded, revealing the reality, I discovered that neither Luke, Celine, Seraphir, nor Lixie were in their previous spots.
Instead, they all stood in my immediate proximity.
Lixie, the Siren, was in the front.
She opened her mouth, releasing a magic-powered scream that created a shockwave, damaging the environment and disorienting me for a while.
The loud sound upset my balance, giving the other students more opportunities to attack.
I stumbled, trying to find my balance again, however, my students didn't give me a chance to.
"Take this. " In the corner of my view, I could see the other mages in the back line preparing a spell, as Luke jumped behind Raum's yellow mana ball, doing a motion of drawing an arrow.
"Overcharge!"
Simultaneously, with the release of his overcharged fire arrow, dozens of different magic circles appeared, surrounding me and restricting all my movements.
The fire arrow charged through the levitating yellow mana ball, detonating it.
Restricted by the spells coming out of the different magic circles, I had no room to dodge the yellow flame wall coming toward me.
A sure hit strategy.
I smirked as a feeling of pride welled up inside me.
However, that wasn't good enough.
Materializing a wooden sword, I narrowed my eyes.
"Time to take this a bit more seriously," I whispered as I charged ether into the sword.
While a wooden sword could survive the ether for mere seconds, at best, it was enough for now.
Watching the incoming magic projectiles, I minimized my movements, carefully manipulating the trajectory of the projectiles.
BOOM!
As the magic projectiles collided, an enormous explosion came to life, creating a cloud of smoke as a result.
"Do we have him?" Luke asked, wiping the sweat off his forehead.
"I guess so." Raum approached Luke, observing the smoke cloud to be able to react to any suspicious movement. "Our 'gluttonous fire explosion' really was something else, wasn't it?"
The two boys gave each other a handshake before relaxing again, thinking that everything was over.
Raum turned over to Seraphir, who was still sweating, as she kept preparing her new spell. "You can stop now. We won."
"Don't be stupid." Seraphir hissed, without even bothering to give him a glance. "It's Mr. Voidwalker."
She then furrowed her eyebrows, noticing something strange. "By the way, has anyone seen Lixie or Celine?"
"They are probably inside of the smoke cloud." Ellen approached Seraphir, letting out a tired breath. "We just can't see them right now. Right, Celine? Lixie?"
However, no answer came.
"..What the-?!"
"..Teach?!"
The voices of Luke and Raum echoed through the room, vanishing inside the smoke.
"Hey, Sera." Ellen took a step back, trembling, as the smoke cleared itself. "Isn't Mr.Voidwalker a little bit too scary now..?"
All around the arena were the unconscious bodies of the students, but the perpetrator was nowhere to be seen.
"He always was." Seraphir narrowed her eyes, trying to sense every little movement that was happening inside the room. "Don't ever underestimate such monsters. I've learned that from my sister."
Suddenly, Seraphir turned around, making direct eye contact with me.
I didn't know whether it was because of her instincts, or my own inability, but she seemed to have noticed me.
Letting the cover behind me, I dashed toward them.
"Stay back, Ellen!" Seraphir yelled as she finished her spells. One in each hand.
My eyes widened as I watched her casting the spells, pausing for a moment to admire her talent.
Dual casting..?
She had already found out how to do it..?
"Thunderous Ice flower!" She clasped her hands together, combining the magic circles — something which I had never seen before — and creating a completely new spell.
The blue and yellow magic circles merged with each other, rotating at an immense speed, as another gigantic magic circle appeared beneath my feet.
While I had enough time to destroy that magic circle, my curiosity got the best of me, and thus, I just let the magic come to life.
SHATTER!
RUMBLE!
In the middle of the arena, a large Ice flower with the thunder attribute appeared, engulfing itself in an electric mana aura and shocking everything in immediate proximity of it.
***
***
"You're unfairly strong," Ellen complained after she drank up the whole water bottle I gave her.
After beating the last two remaining students, I woke up the other students, giving each one a water bottle from my dimensional storage as refreshment.
It was even extra cooled too.
"Yeah!" Seraphir chimed in, sulking, as she put her bottle to the side. "How did you even endure the last attack?"
I adverted my gaze, not wanting to crush her hopes and telling her that it barely tickled. "I got lucky."
"Haaah.." Seraphir sighed, as she frustratedly put her face into her hands. "And I thought it was enough!"
"Naww, come on Sera," Ellen laughed, hitting her lightly on the back. "You'll get Mr.Monsterwalker next time!"
"Teach really is a monster." Raum agreed from the side and all the other students agreed. "Like seriously, how did he not even get a single scratch?"
"Exactly!" Seraphir nodded her head aggressively, her expression showing one of disbelief. "He's even worse than my sister."
Celine shuddered at the mention of Seraphir's sister, seemingly recalling some very interesting memories of her. "Even worse than the head..? How scary..."
I assumed that the sister Seraphir was speaking of was Acedia, due to her use of Hellwater and the fact that Celine called her the head.
More importantly, though, I turned my attention to Seraphir, observing her with a curious gaze.
"It seemed like you mastered dual casting and even created a completely new magic."
While my voice sounded nonchalant, I was truly impressed by that feat.
"Wait she did?!" Raum turned his head to her, looking at Seraphir with an impressed gaze.
Ellen nodded excitedly while showcasing everything with her hands. "Yeah! You should've seen that! Seraphir was like 'thunderous ice flower' and then rumble and then shatter!"
"Nobody understands your explanation, Ellen." Celine deadpanned before also turning her attention to Seraphir.
Almost everyone in the room watched Seraphir with utmost curiosity.
"Well..it's not really my achievement.." Seraphir scratched her cheek in embarrassment.
I raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? Where did you learn that from, then?"
She chuckled lightly, before putting a finger on her lip, adverting her gaze. "Well...I read the diary of someone.."
"A diary?"
"Yeah." She nodded. "Do you still remember the first depths incident we experienced together?"
"Ah." I crossed my arms, recalling the incident.
If I remembered right, the second floor of the potion shop had books in there, didn't it?
"Yeah, and that's where I found the book." She cracked a wide smile, excited and grateful about her discovery on that day. "It's a diary from someone called Serena Knightwalker."
"She really was a genius and..."
I froze up, as I heard her mentioning the name, spacing out, as I could feel the beat of my heart accelerating.
Even though she kept talking, her words drowned in the background in my ears.
Have I heard her right?
Serena Knightwalker..?
"Miss Leviathan." I called out to her, trying to ignore the loud beating of my heart. It almost felt like my heart was trying to jump out of my chest. "Did I hear you right..?"
"Uhm.." Seraphir tilted her head in confusion, not knowing what exactly I meant.
"The name." I said with a weak voice, feeling like my throat tightened, unable to talk. "..was it Serena Knightwalker..?"
Seraphir nodded slowly, as she watched my expression carefully. "Yes, that was her name. Are you alright, Mr. Voidwalker?"
"Oh!" Celine chimed in, seemingly realizing something. "Wasn't the last head of the mage tower a Serena?"
"Ahhh." Seraphir released a sound of realization. "That explains why I have never heard of a Serena Knightwalker. As the head of the mage tower, she was probably removed from the family register."
I nodded, slowly. "Yes, she was."
Seraphir then turned her head to me, flashing me a small, confused smile. "Why are you acting like this, professor? Did you know her?"
Again, I nodded, before releasing a heavy breath, trying to calm myself down.
"Yes, I did." I began, closing my eyes, and recalling nostalgic memories of her. "Serena is..."
"..she is my mother."