Jenius gathered Principal Georg and Professor Tenzin while all the students were ushered out of the training hall. It was clear that they were gossiping among one another as they walked past us out of the building. When everyone was cleared out, Sylphy and I both stepped through the protective barrier into one of the combat circles.
"We have training wands if you would like to borrow one", Jenuis offered me. I left my trusted staff at home and he must have noticed I was unarmed.
"No, I'm fine. Thank you though."
With that out of the way, Jenius stood just outside the barrier and began announcing the start of the test. "This mock battle is meant to test the magical abilities of special student applicant Rudeus Greyrat. Please ready yourselves. At my mark. Three... Two... One... Begin!"
Sylphiette immediately fired a Sonic Boom spell at me and dashed off to her right. I countered with my own Sonic Boom, causing a strong wind to burst out in all directions when the two spells collided.
Not wasting any time, Sylphy repeatedly fired Rock Bullet six times my way as she continued running. Rather than using any magic to counter, I simply moved to evade each shot. The last shot, however, moved at a blazing fast speed, far faster than the first five. Sylphy had used combined magic, shaping her Rock Bullet into a hollow conical shape and firing a condensed Wind Blast spell into the back of it, propelling it at a far faster speed than she would normally be capable.
Rather than simply evading that last shot, I was forced to create a shockwave in the air to change the bullet's directory, causing it to narrowly miss its mark. While I was busy doing that, Sylphy had slid to a stop while reaching one hand to the ground. I could immediately tell she was using a favorite spell of mine: Quagmire.
The ground beneath my feet softened momentarily before hardening again to trap me in place. Fortunately, I saw this coming and jumped back a couple feet to avoid the muddy trap and fired a small but quick fireball Sylphy's way.
Sylphy looked a bit surprised that I managed to both evade her attack and counter at the same time, but she managed to react in time using the Water Shield spell, summoning a spout of water in front of her to block the fireball. The moment the two spells collided they released a burst of steamy mist, flooding the entire combat circle.
Using my Magic Power Eye, I could see mana forming into a spell through the mist where Sylphy had been kneeling. I summoned an Earth wall to block any projectiles coming my way and followed up with a miniature version of the Saint-Tier violent storm spell to fire a strong gust in all directions, blowing away the mist.
Sylphy had been running through the mist towards her original starting position and was in the process of firing off another rock bullet, but the strong gust of wind knocked her off balance causing her to miss wide with her spell. I pointed towards her with the intention to blast her out of the combat circle to finish the match, but I was startled by a loud crash right behind me.
I turned back and saw a huge clump of ice embedded into the ground, with several small shards scattered around it.
When I saw Sylphy cast a spell through the mist, she must have lobbed a ball of ice into the air before running to the side with the intention of timing her rock bullet to strike me at the same time. The ball of ice flew right over the earth wall I had summoned as a shield.
I was lucky. The only reason I didn't get smacked in the head by that ice ball is that I unintentionally blew it slightly off course when I was dispersing the mist.
Sylphiette and I now both stood back in our original starting positions. She was bent forwards with her hands on her knees panting to catch her breath while I simply stared at her in shock.
'She almost beat me... True, I wasn't taking this match very seriously, but still... she really almost won.'
I wondered whether or not winning a sparring match like this would count towards transferring my rank in the Seven Great Powers to her. Thinking about losing my title like that I couldn't help but start laughing out loud.
As I was laughing, Sylphy stood back up straight and puffed her cheeks out in annoyance.
"Don't laugh at me! I thought you were going to take this seriously!"
"Haha. Ha...ha... I'm sorry. I'm laughing at myself. You really have been working hard, haven't you?"
A proud grin appeared on Sylphy's face.
"Yep! Just like I promised. I've been practicing every single day since you left Buena Village. If you don't try your best I'll make you regret it!"
Meanwhile Jenius was facing an internal dilemma. He was just about to call out to stop the test. Truth be told, I've already shown far more than enough to prove myself. As he reached out his hand and opened his mouth to call for an end to the match, he couldn't manage to squeeze out the words. This was the most excited he's been in many years. The level of magical combat prowess these two are putting on display was beyond anything he's ever seen.
'Is this really a battle between two pre-teen children?'
While these thoughts occupied his mind, Georg and Tenzin both watched in silence, mouths agape. Georg didn't even notice that his wig had blown off.
"I apologize, Sylphy. I shouldn't have underestimated you. From here on out, I will give it my all."
Sylphiette gave a confirming nod as she bent her knees to get into a combat ready stance. She pointed her wand at me and cast a Frost Nova spell at me. Only... nothing happened?
I had countered her spell with disturb magic.
Sylphy stared at her wand in confusion as I pointed my finger towards her and fired a stone cannon above her head. I made sure to aim significantly above her to avoid any chance of hitting her by accident. The stone cannon was made to have a rounded tip and had maximum hardness. I also fired it at top velocity.
Simply the wind pressure of the stone flying past her was enough to send her flying a short distance backward landing on her butt. The stone cannon burst through the barrier with a satisfying crash and continued on straight through the magic resistant bricks that the training hall was built from. Several bricks burst into small debris as the stone continued on far off into the horizon.
Silence.
Nobody in the room could mutter a word. Everyone was too busy trying to comprehend what just happened.
After a long pause, Sylphy eventually broke the silence.
"H-how did you do that?"
"It's called disturb magic. You can use it to cancel another's spells. It's quite handy when facing a fellow mage."
"I see..."
Another round of awkward silence filled the room for a couple seconds until Jenius broke it with a loud clap.
"I think that's enough of a demonstration. Rudeus, you are more than qualified for the position of special student. We would love to have you here at Ranoa Magic University!
I turned towards Sylphy and bowed to thank her for our match. Still a bit shocked, it took her a moment to process what was going on before she quickly got up and gave a quick bow in return.
"Vice Principal Jenius."
"Yes, Rudeus?"
"There is one more thing I would like to discuss with you. Do you have a couple more minutes to spare if I were to meet you back in your office?"
"Of course! Of course! Please, follow me. I'll show you the way back."
Before leaving, I turned back to Sylphy to say goodbye.
"Thanks again for helping me with my exam Sylphy! I'll see you when you get home!"
"Uh, Yeah. See you later", she said as she waved goodbye.
I followed Jenius back out the front door to the training hall only to be greeted by a huge wave of students standing just outside.
"Who is that!?"
"Is he the one who blew that hole in the training hall?"
"Don't be absurd! That had to have been Sylphiette!"
"Yeah! We've just never got to see Master Sylphiette go all out before!"
"I wish I could have seen it. That other guy must be pretty good too to make her try so hard!"
Apparently I caused quite the stir with that little stunt. Maybe I should have held back a bit after all. It's good to see they think so highly of my Sylphy though!
"Back! Everyone stand back! Professor Gueta, clear these students away for now, they are blocking our path."
Jenius chased some of the students off as he forged his way through the crowd guiding me back to his office.
"So sorry about that, Rudeus. It's not usually like this here. The students were just drawn by the damage your match had caused to the training hall. It's not every day someone manages to blow a hole through a wall built with magic resistant bricks you see."
"Yes, I understand. Sorry about the damage to the training hall, I guess I should have held back a bit more."
"Think nothing of it! The training hall is meant for magical dueling. It's not your fault our facility wasn't up to your caliber. Now what was it you wanted to talk about?"
"I know I don't technically start school until the new year, but I was hoping I could use some of your resources in the meantime."
"Is that all? That won't be a problem at all! Feel free to tour our facilities whenever you like."
"Specifically, I was hoping to use one of your rooms in the research building. I have a project I would like to get started working on."
"I will speak to the building manager and reserve a room for you today. It will be ready for you by tomorrow morning."
"Thank you. I appreciate it. There's one more thing. I happen to have a prototype of a magic tool I created. I want to set up a business venture with the Magic Guild. You have close ties with them, right? Would you be able to schedule a meeting for me with an appropriate Guild member to discuss purchasing these tools from me?"
"That's definitely possible. May I see the magic tool then? It would help if I knew what it was you are trying to sell."
I showed Jenius the lithograph stone and demonstrated how it works. He was thoroughly impressed as I expected. The usefulness of instant communication over long distances can't be overstated. It can take a full year to send a letter from here to Milis, after all.
Hopefully once I get in contact with a higher up in the Magic Guild, they can help me find wealthy buyers. Perhaps I can just sell a bulk amount to them and they can handle selling to royals and nobles themselves. Either way, this should hopefully take care of money issues for quite some time.
This felt like the perfect thing to sell for profit. The man god can communicate information across the world to his apostles already. If anything, this will simply put everyone else on an even playing field.
After finishing my business with Jenius, I made my way back home. Surprisingly there was almost nobody home. Hope and Laws were the only two people there.
"Where is everyone?", I asked Hope.
"Zenith and Lilia are out shopping with Norn and Aisha, Paul left to stop by the Adventurer's Guild, and Miss Eris is visiting Sylphy at school."
'How strange... I was just there with Sylphy and I didn't see her there.'