Years passed.
Now Jayce is 17 years old. Just a few days back he brokethrough to the Expert realm. The journey hadn't been 'hard' except for the bone crushing training that he experienced which upsets his stomach even after all this time.
The day of the competition has been decided. A week from now, he will fight against the chosens of the other families.
'sigh'
Jayce sighed as now he is alone. He has been given some alone time to prepare his mind for the battle that is to come.
'My life and death is going to be decided in a week yet I feel no nervousness.'
Jayce have went through training which made him feel the pain of living, infact there were instances where he thought of just giving up yet couldn't.
Everytime his mana was depleted, he had to train physically, drink concoctions that were slimy/scrubby or even sometimes squirming.
He can't even puke as his trainer had sealed him as soon as he tried. He asked them to cutoff his taste buds only to receive a reply,
"No it cannot be done as you're entire body will have to get number from it, if we cut of your tastebuds how will you get used to such things?"
'..what a dumb answer. That faggot just wanted me to suffer.'
The one who overlooked his physical training is a, if well put a masochist. So, he just wanted Jayce to suffer and get used to it. His ideology is 'Pain is like alcohol, first it will taste like shit... Then you will get addicteded, leaving you wanting more.'
Anyways, Jayce has reached Expert rank in magic but only at Advanced rank in terms of martial arts as it requires more physical growth.
A week passed by,
A vast ground but no spectators other than the family members of the competitors.
Jayce have to fight against 3 people who have reached the same expert ranked but for obvious reasons they are older than Jayce by a few years.
First match began, it was against a blue haired young man. A knight from the Royal family of the Asper empire.
Jayce has had a lot of spars equally against the knight, martial artists and Magicians.
The young man's name is Kronos. He wielded a silver spear which was sparkling under the sun. It had a finely engraved the wolf on the spear head.
"Beigin"
No words were needed. Kronos pounced towards Jayce at incredible speed. Jayce can only use Magic as he is yet to become a master in his other choosing.
Jayce waves his hand casted the wind spell 'wave'. A gale swept towards Kronos causing his advance to slow down albeit a little. Then at the next moment, Jayce slammed the ground.
Earth spell 'Pointed Gravel'
The floor of the arena cracked and the pieces became sharp as it pointed towards his enemy. Both spells had been cast within a fraction of a second causing the watchers to raise an eyebrow.
Kronos simply ignored the gravel, in the battle no equipment other than the necessary ones to be used. That said, both were wearing just ordinary boots, Kronos's shoes were impaled but it couldn't get through his tough skin even at the force that he is using to advance despite the gale, showcasing the toughness of an 'Expert'.
Jayce still had his hands on the platform, the next moment another Earth spell was cast or rather two spells.
Earth spell 'Tremor' and 'Bounce'
Tremor as it name implies causes an effect equals to that of an earthquake although the effectiveness is limited to the amount of mana and proficiency.
Bounce is wierd Earth spell that makes the ground around a certain radius acts like a spring. It's a single use spell that cannot used again on the same land without fixing it.
As the tremor shook the gravels bounce made them lift off the ground.
Seeing that Kronos stopped the advance, even though all he had done so far is to have crossed a few dozen meters.
As he was defending against the gravels which were coming towards him at a considerable speed while expecting a wind spell to be cast to improve the momentum.
Jayce took his hands off the ground.
'Thought so'
Kronos scoffed in his mind. Although he was confident he still hadn't let his gaurd down. But when the spell he waited for arrived, something was off it wasn't powerful enough. It's power was not even enough to kill a normal human let alone and Expert like him.
Instead the gravels coming towards him shattered and turned into dust, half expecting this he closed his eyes as he backed down.
Jayce cast another wind spell 'swirl' causing the dust to swirl around Kronos. Whenever he moved it followed him controlled by Jayce.
'It cannot go for long.'
Controlling magic like this cost more mana. He still had a few fights left, knowing it Jayce manifested lightning in his palm.
Feeling the lightning energy, Kronos rushed there even with his eyes closed he's still keeping his guard up while utilising his family's sensing technique.
Kronos before his spear could reach Jayce performed his family's spear arts,
First form, Shawdow Thrust.
A shadow of spear reached Jayce before his material spear. Jayce tried to move while using light magic to change the shawdow's position and thrust the lightning palm forward towards his opponent's head.
Lightning streaked through but did not hit his opponent it disappeared as if it was never there. At the same time, Kronos's eyes widened as his spear hit but Jayce too disappeared from the spot.
"JAYCE RODERICK WINS."
The next moment, the winner of the duel was announced.
"Illusion.. but how? Elemental illusion should not emit energy like that.."
It's as Kronos stated, elemental illusion is still illusion. It shouldn't emit the energy that can only be felt while that element is used. Otherwise, the illusion magic will unrivaled.
People from other family also had the same thought. Jayce is now few dozen meters away standing at the very end of the arena like he had done the entire time of the duel.
His gaze didn't contain happiness of victory even after seeing all those shocked faces. But a distant look which also contains a trace of fear deep in his eyes, as if reminiscing the past suffering he went through in the name of training.
--