When the bell rang, the fight started instantly. The girl brought the hammer down, smashing the earth. It shook and from the ground several spikes shot to the surface, heading toward her opponent.
Her opponent waved his hand. The barrel he put earlier opened, sprouting a water column crashing toward the spikes, melting the earth into mud. He then pulled his right hand, and the water turned into a long whip that cracked and tore a skin on the girl.
She screamed, stomped her foot, and punched floating rocks hurtling toward the guy. He blocked them and turned them into bricks. The girl smiled and twisted her hand, turning the dust into smaller particles of needles, and stabbed the guy's skin.
He bled from some spots and summoned another water, turning them into ice, aiming toward the girl. With a smash of the hammer, she created an earthen wall covering her.
Before the ice spikes crashed into the earth wall, the guy turned the ice back into the water, drenching the girl. The girl moved forward but fell face-first on the ground. She then looked to her feet, which were now trapped under the ice. When she looked back, the guy smiled, holding a spinning ice spear in the air.
"I concede!"
The pressure from the judges came pressing down, extinguishing the magic in their hands. Master Grondor then screamed, "Azul won!"
The fight between high-level apprentices went over for a short time. Everyone tried to use their most powerful spells to stop the fight before their mana ran out. Vega thought something different. Because of the difference in his level compared to the older apprentices, he would use the simplest spells that barely require him to use any many to make his opponents waste their mana.
Vega heard the whisper from his mentor. "They didn't use their control over the elements, but they still used the basic spells and used them cleverly to fight each other."
"How did you know that?"
"All the spikes, needles, and spear were all the same size. No one, even someone with the best control, is capable enough to turn several ice needles at the exact same size. The free classes never taught anyone how to use the basic spells; they shaped them creatively. You are the first apprentice who is willing to teach the new generation to be creative with their spells."
Vega nodded. "So the sigil didn't offer much flexibility to control the elements?"
Professor Addilyn was quiet for a moment. She stared at the stone platform and answered. "Our sigils were much more versatile back then. Whatever you heard about Mernoralin is not that good. I was there during his ascension. Yes, he became powerful pretty quickly. But in turn, he changed the adept world into what we know today. He even created a huge, invisible, traceless dome around the islands and outside."
Vega gasped upon hearing the term again after so long.
She continued pretending to not hear the gasps. "But then he did bring a lot of new knowledge, making us advance and learn spells easily. But as you can see, we can only advance until the second level and stop there. But I can't blame everything on him; the war was also the cause of the disappearance of any oral knowledge from the high-level adepts. But Mernoralin did simplify our writing system. Compared with the practitioners, we had worse understanding toward the old tongues while they had many talismans on their hands."
Vega felt something getting hotter around his waist. When he took it out, his medal blinked in intense heat.
"It's my turn," he whispered, looking at his mentor.
Professor Addilyn smiled. "Good luck! Don't use your flute, just your elements."
Vega nodded and jumped down. He condensed some air under him to cushion his fall.
At the stage, he bowed toward his opponent. Glancing at the board, he looked at the name listed. 'Silas.'
The bell rang, and Vega jumped out of the way right away. Most of the time, the opponent would attack right away to gain the advantage.
Consistent with his thoughts, a huge rock crashed on the spot where he had been before. He did his own attack, whistling several slashing sounds toward his opponent.
Silas erected his barrier to defend against the attack, but none came.
Vega smiled. Being the most newly advanced, he had the least amount of mana compared with the older apprentices. His strategy would be using several simple spells to make them waste their mana.
Silas didn't use any barriers when the next slashing sound came, and the air blade cut his sleeve. Silas crouched down with an excellent reaction, opened his palm, and hurtled a fire toward him.
Vega crouched down to avoid the fire, using his left hand to open his water pouch. The fire chased him but stopped in midair, turning into smoke after meeting a water barrier.
Silas clapped his hand, summoning a huge floating rock, and took something from his pouch, coating the rock with oil. It shot into the air, and he used the friction in the air to make the rock burn. The fire made the rock shoot faster than usual.
Vega scowled and summoned a compressed air barrier to stop the rocks from hitting him. The high pressure in the air extinguished the fire on the rock and cooled it down. Summoning the fake air blade, Vega lounged forward, using his other focus to create ten tiny ice needles.
While Silas tried to block the imaginary blade behind him, he felt a prick from tiny needles attacking his exposed skin. Luckily, none of the needles hit his neck. Using a fire to melt the ice needles, he stomped his feet, creating a huge crack on the ground, trying to trip the tricky opponent.
Noticing the mana rippling under his feet, Vega jumped and summoned a spinning ice spear aimed at Silas.
Silas summoned a barrier of fire, but before it was fully shaped, the fire died. After noticing that he didn't have enough mana, he raised his hand and screamed, "I concede!"
Vega felt the pressure descend and broke his control over his spear. After hearing the shout of his name being called a winner, he went back toward his mentor.
"Good choice choosing the low-level spells. You did really well using your mind before your feelings when fighting. Let's go; nothing else seems interesting here." Professor Addilyn praised him after he arrived at his seat.
The competition went on. Vega learned many different spells but focused mostly on the air elements. One of the oldest apprentices seemed to walk fast, approaching her opponent, and created a gust of wind to blow her opponent back behind the platform.
He watched it intensely, trying to figure out how she could channel enough wind to propel her forward. But from the constant speed, Vega knew that was the effect of one of the spells listed as wind step' in the library.
The other apprentice summoned a water torrent and sliced the top column, instantly turning it into ice disks that shot really fast, almost splitting his opponent in two. But after watching more, the mana needed to cast the spell was more than he could handle as an unpolished.
The ink on the board changed and showed a noble name. It took up most of the space on the board compared to his opponent. Philippus Goldenheart wore a tight garter covering his torso that still showed the bulging muscle on his arms from being one of the crafters.
Vega missed his broken sword from scrapping the stalintines in the cave. He hoped Philip would give him a better sword at a discounted price.
But when he sat straighter, leaning forward to watch the competition better, Professor Addilyn stood up while the bell rang. Vega had the chance to look at the names listed there and smile. Knowing Philip, the noble guy would win the competition quickly. He wanted to watch more to figure out the spells Philip used but felt the tug on his wrist.
His mentor smiled, lifting her eyebrows. "It's more fun to fight someone without any preparation. It challenges you to figure out your limit."
While his mentor went back to her place, Vega visited the library. The air gathered around his feet, and Vega tried stepping on the condensed air to walk faster. But the air was too solid for him to step on; instead, he tripped over and fell face first on the ground.
He tried several times to change the density of the air surrounding his feet, but to no avail. After his mana started to drop, he gave up and walked to the library.