The matches were flying through and two people had qualified through knockout for the C rank promotion. With both Leonard Hollowhound and Ashae Haldia winning their opponents.
"What are your thoughts on this next match?" Vaneer asked Yuki.
"I actually have first-hand experience with the Kilforhlm clan, had one in my squad for years." Yuki was tall, taller than most. Her hair was purple and she wore it long, it matched her purple clothes and high dark boots. "They fell from grace or at least that's what everyone says, and the people from the Kilforhlm that were responsible for their fall."
"Were the parents of Emma." Emirus completed.
"Did your research huh, sometimes I think you actually love your students."
"Sometimes your thoughts are incorrect," Emirus said while watching the two students prepare.
"She didn't bring it," Yuki said as she looked at the sword Emma brought to the battle. "She's still running away from it."
"Leave her be." Liric chimed in before Emirus could. "She's still a kid, and that's a burden."
"She'll learn to live with it someday." Yuki leaned onto the rails of the side-by-side perches. "She'll have to confront it."
[Support magic act three: Mud pool], Willow created a pool of mud underneath Emma and the Kilforhlm didn't do anything. "You're not gonna defend against it? or at least try to dodge?"
"You're not worthy of witnessing me dodge your attack." Emma replied subtly, her voice melodramatic, her eyes dull and emotionless.
"Suit yourself." [Battle magic act five: Steel rain], giant steel shards were created over Emma who was stuck in mud and it fell onto her with pace.
Val readied himself to save Emma if she needed it but it would seem she didn't.
[Battle magic act five: Wind barrier], [Battle magic act four: Serenading wind: A thousand cuts], using a barrier to dodge the previous attacks Emma also attacked simultaneously using the surrounding wind around Willow to attack her directly.
"Shit." Willow said as she put her hands up trying to stop damage to her eyes and face.
[Battle magic act five: Lightning blitz], using the lightning spell Emma easily burst out of the mud pool and using that same amount of speed slashed at Willow. "Crap" Willow said as she hastily dodged, casting healing magic on herself while defending attacks from Emma.
[Battle magic act three: Metal Shard barrage], In close range Willow shot out shards of metal at Emma but the Kilforhlm didn't find it hard to deal with using her blade to parry most of the attacks before proceeding to slash Willow albeit this time actually hurting her.
[Battle magic act three: Serenading wind: Violent-], Val stopped the match before Emma could get her last spell off and the Kilforhlm was deemed the winner by anyone who watched the match.
"Well, that's more clear cut than the first match." Vaneer yawned.
"The next bout is one between a clan, should be quite interesting." Raizel resisted the urge to yawn in the presence of Yuki.
"He's strong," Igor said while massaging Sven's arms. "So are you buddy, remember just don't get hit."
"Yeah it's easy, just don't get hit by Mael. Can't be the hardest task in the world." Sven said sarcastically.
"Next match, fighters come up." Val who stood a little ways away from the fighting area said.
Both fighters stepped onto the stage and one of them apparently found something funny.
"My next opponent is Sven?." Mael burst out laughing. "That failure?"
Everyone looked at Mael, sound bounced off the walls of the zenloft and into every corner of it. The people who thought they knew Mael were being shown a different side of the genius. "Mael." Ashae looked at him.
"Let's have a good match, Mael." Sven said as he readied his cards.
"A good match?" Sven used the Kozaku Honojiri to fight, since he couldn't use enhancement magic he couldn't utilize its full potential but the sword itself was still a magnificent weapon.
"..." Sven threw four cards near him then threw one at Mael. [Battle magic act three: Searing dragon], Sven didn't have any type of magic and had a ridiculously low mana pool however the reason he could cast magic or it seemed like he could was because of the cards. The cards named the "Hollow deck." have three uses. (1) Someone can cast a spell and seal the spell into the card, when Sven uses the card he puts a little bit of mana into it and throws it thereby unveiling the act that was sealed in it, (2) If Sven doesn't put mana into the card. When thrown on contact with something it'll explode, he can also control the delay time of the explosion or manually set it off himself. (3) The card's ability to seal spells only works as long as the card's mana pool is directly equivalent to or higher than the spell it's trying to seal.
A giant head of a dragon was sent at Mael and the genius dodged swiftly before then proceeded to charge Sven with the Kozaku in hand. [Battle magic act four: Gaelstrom: Furious slashes], Mael sent a barrage of wind slashes at Sven which the less fortunate Ianbris evaded with pace throwing more cards at Mael as he ran past the slashes.
[Battle magic act three: Collapsing tides], [Battle magic act four: Spark field], [Battle magic act three: Ravaging flames]. Sven sent a barrage of spells, each sent to Mael.
Moving across the battle area Mael jammed his sword into the ground and stood on top of the handle of it getting away from the waves of water then he cast the support spell. [Support magic act two: Wind and sky], using it effectively to avoid the electricity and fire spells. "So you're the one that stole the clan heirloom, well it doesn't matter. Your father was killed for it anyway."
"What?" Sven said as he dropped a few cards on the floor.
"Oh, you didn't hear? after your disappearance the clan assumed you took the heirloom and as such your father paid the price." Mael yanked his blade out of the ground.
"Are you gonna allow that?" Vaneer looked at Emirus.
"Just say the word and I'll shut him up for good." Raizel joined.
"It'll aid in the boy's development." Emirus dismissed their attempts to help and watched the fight even more intently. "Show me what you can do, oh-so immortal trapmaster."
"I can't get close to you with all those cards on the ground, why don't you take them out let's have a real match." Mael circled Sven.
"You know what's good about these cards?" Sven showed Mael a card that had a yin symbol on its top. "As long as you trap it inside the card, you can use any spell imaginable!"
[Support magic act six: Swap states], in an instant Sven and Mael switched positions. Sven was circling Mael who was trapped in a circle of cards which Sven did not hesitate to make use of. "Explode!" Sven shouted and each card on the floor exploded, creating a dust cloud that shielded Mael away from sight.
"You know the weakness of the Hollow deck?" Mael popped up behind Sven and slashed at him, he had a feeling that one of the cards would teleport them so he used wind and sky to fly into the air before the explosions could catch him. "If you know the abilities of the weapon you can easily tell a card's effect, cards that land on the floor can't create spells and the cards that do create spells are thrown at you. Simply knowing this makes your weapon useless!"
[Battle magic act four: Raindrop], still in the air from the wind and sky support act Mael glided toward Sven and became a drop of water that fell onto him. On getting inches closer to the card-wielding Ianbris he transformed back to his normal body and slashed at him using the Kozaku.
[Battle magic act six: Swap states], during the earlier fight with Fritz. Sven had brought only half of his cards, with the way the Hollow deck works he would not have had enough cards to use and fight Mael during the mock exams.
"After each card is used they reappear in the pack of the hollow deck a few days later, with the same spell that it had before it used." Sven smiled at Mael who was currently below him. "IN THIS MATCH I CAN GO ALL OUT, are you ready for me Mael? FOR THE IMMORTAL TRAPMASTER!"
[Battle magic act four: Ravaging flames], close range the spell could not be evaded by Mael but the genius used a water spell to cool off the flames burning him.
"It seems you don't care about the death of your father." Mael had a smug look on his face and laughed.
"Your bluff won't work Mael, if my father is dead then all the cards he sealed his spells into won't be usable anymore." Mael looked him in the eye. "Getting me riled up won't work."
"The FAILURE wants to fight back!?" Mael back-stepped. "You can never beat a genius! so why try!"
"You are a genius," Sven placed a card on the floor. "I would never be able to beat you in a thousand years."
"So why are you fighting!"
"Because you're a genius," Sven spoke and Mael looked into his eyes, the look on the card-wielding Ianbris was devilishly coupled with his smile. "It's because you're a genius that you couldn't see through a failure's attacks."
"What?"
[Battle magic act six: Swap states], again their positions were switched and Mael cast wind and sky to dodge the explosion of the thrown card.
"One thing," Sven shuffled three cards. "Who told you that I can't control grounded cards?"
"What?"
[Battle magic act five: Flash spread], in the air Mael got shocked by an electricity spell and fell to the floor. Finally he was down, Sven took a breath of relief until Mael transformed into air.
[Support magic act four: Wind clone], Mael had put the wind clone inside the gust provided by wind and sky and ran toward the flanks to attack Sven. "Crap" Sven reacted but it was too late, Mael was already behind him.
[Battle magic act three: Tide slash], Mael slashed at Sven's chest and blood gushed out as the card using Ianbris fell to the floor.
[Battle magic act three: Tide slash], Mael slashed at a helpless Sven again and immediately he brought his sword back up to cast the spell again.
[Battle magic act four: Frozen blood], Liric stopped the Ianbris before he could even concentrate his mana to create the spell.
[Battle magic act three: Full burn], Emirus defrosted Mael and the D rank dropped his weapon holding his body due to cold. "Frozen blood doesn't just freeze your skin Liric. He could've suffered from pneumonia or worse."
"Full burn doesn't just defrost ice, the flames boil the blood and can cause third-degree burns."
"Well shut up."
"I had that Liric, Emirus." Val said as he walked over.
"I know," Liric said as he walked back to the stands. "Mael, be careful around Igor."
"What?" Mael looked at Liric before turning to the side and seeing Igor staring at him from perches. His stare was so hard that he wanted to look away, he felt like he was staring at a daemon and he hated that feeling. He felt weak, powerless. "Igor Dragonstead."
"Mael Ianbris," Igor said still looking at him.
"I'll take you down." Both of them said in unison.