The semi-finals had a lot of participants, but after the process of elimination, only a few familiar faces of the students remained. They were mostly the top students in their grades, who had already chosen the Demon Gods whose power they would borrow. The longer they matched their power with the Demon Gods, the stronger the control of this power they gained. It could be said that none of them were pushovers.
However, since there weren't many people in this group, it was inevitable that friends would end up fighting against each other during the drawing of opponents. Barry was considered unlucky in everyone's eyes because his opponent was Helen Stark.
Most of the students interpreted the school attack incident as a power struggle within the Asgard royal family. Those students born and raised in Asia particularly understood the dangers of royal family infighting. Most people wanted to avoid it and very few wanted to get involved.
This was indeed a very awkward situation. Everyone knew that Helen came from a privileged background and that her father was a professor at the school. Winning would bring shame, losing would offend people, it was a lose-lose situation. Hence, when Barry's opponent was confirmed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Doctor Strange in Barry's brain, however, was somewhat dissatisfied. He snorted and said in a mocking tone, "So, it's this little girl? She looks weak. Don't you want to fight a stronger opponent to demonstrate your academic progress?"
"I just want to end all this quickly and go home to sleep," Barry responded, sounding weary. Making him fight was like forcing a duck up a tree, and his words and actions clearly reflected this attitude.
However, Doctor Strange persisted. He believed that nobody could retain such a weak personality after acquiring great power. Soon, he would be able to gain even more powerful strength in another vast world, amongst countless cosmos.
The first two students to fight didn't perform well, causing the fight to end prematurely. The professors sitting in the stands were somewhat dissatisfactoried, and the Demon God floating in mid-air also lost interest, feeling his mood had been dampened.
When Barry and Helen entered the arena, they didn't attract much attention. Barry wasn't the competitive type, his usual training regimen involving quietly hitting wooden stakes and never seeking out opponents. He didn't have much of a reputation among the students. Helen, on the other hand, was seen as the troublemaker. What could come from a battle between an unfortunate person and a god's child?
When both sides entered the arena, they bowed to each other as a formality. Helen's opening move was to unleash her divine power, radiating with electric light. Barry held the magic wand between his index and middle finger, his arm surging with the power projected by Doctor Strange in his soul.
With a "whoosh," a protective curtain was deployed. Arcs of electricity arrived instantly, but were deflected by the shield. Doctor Strange sneered contemptuously, "An Asgardian? There's no need to quibble with a pitiful creature that is doomed. Show her your power! Use Spatial Slash!"
"No, that's not right, that might hurt her." Barry argued, "She's just a little girl. We can't use aggressive magic."
"But you're in the middle of a competition!"
"So what? I've already said that I don't like fighting. I'll defend against her moves as much as I can, and if I can't, then so be it. After all, it's just taking a hit. I was mainly here to keep an eye on Bruce and Harley."
Doctor Strange took a deep breath, suppressing his rage. He chanted in his heart a thousand times that "this idiot is still useful to me," before snorting and choosing not to speak.
Saying that Barry hit wooden stakes in the training ground wasn't quite accurate, it was more like he allowed the stakes to hit him. He practiced defensive and evasive moves diligently, and as Charles and Doctor Strange had realized, Barry had a remarkable talent in certain areas.
Being in Marvel's world, Barry wasn't expected to have superhuman speed. However, when he concentrated, he felt as if time was slowing down, similar to the so-called bullet time, or perhaps because his extreme reaction speed made him perceive the flow of time differently from others, making him appear to move much faster.
So far, this change was very slight, far from the effect of infinite time in superhuman speed. However, if he returned to the DC world and continued practicing, it's very likely that Barry could unlock the threshold to superhuman speed sooner.
This seemed inevitable, considering the Barry from the future who had returned looked very young, only appearing as a college student, but his mastery of superhuman speed was already very proficient. It suggested that he might have become the Flash by the age of fifteen or even younger.
In a calm and concentrated state, Barry stared at Helen's movements intently. The moment she lifted her hand, Barry dodged the leaping arc of electricity with an extremely rapid lateral movement. He then lunged forward, flicking his magic wand upwards, releasing a red light arc imbued with a strange power flying towards Helen.
Loki abruptly narrowed his eyes. He wasn't worried about Helen, but the power Barry used felt familiar to him.
Strange? No, that's not right. Strange is the Supreme Magician, but he is still human. His existence precluded him from lending power to humans like a Demon God.
If a mage could directly transfer power to his apprentice, there would be no need for magic wands. The life form of humans dictated that they couldn't inherit energy in such a way, which is why they needed to use magical artifacts like wands.