—Emilia Merwin's point of view.
Emilia, being a mage of three elements: air, lightning and fire, innate elements she was born with, had a great advantage as the next matriarch of the Merwin family.
Of that, Emilia was always proud of herself.
A child with great talent and with three elements at her disposal, what else could she expect? She has basically everything at her fingertips: both status and power, which in the future will make her a great three-element mage and, who knows, also the matriarch of the Merwin family.
Continuing her journey through the deserted test area, Emilia crossed paths with several cadets on her way, but each of them was defeated with great ease.
When a mage has more than two elements, in a confrontation against an enemy, he has a great advantage. Why? It's simple: the opponent may think he only has one element and believe it would be easy, but what if the enemy learns that he is fighting a three-element mage? He simply could not know what magic he will use and it would be impossible for him to defeat him.
Emilia used this tactic of confusing her enemies about the elements she could use. This made the enemy think that it would be easy to defeat her, but by using different elements at the same time, she managed to confuse him. It was a no-brainer for Emilia.
"That doesn't apply to stronger opponents though."
It was of no use if the opponent was stronger, as would be the case with her friends, who for Emilia were very powerful mages, but there was someone in particular....
"Asher, for sure he will be the one who will take first place in the test," Emilia thought to herself.
No, rather, Emilia was more than sure that Asher would be the winner.
"I guess I shouldn't expect first place..."
"Starburst!"
At that moment, as Emilia muttered, several attacks came from the distance. She was very close to entering the forest when she saw a cadet fighting someone Emilia knew very well.
"Grey Elaris."
Grey was fighting a cadet right in the woods.
Emilia entered the forest and waited for the right moment.
Strong waves of flames were spreading everywhere as Grey counterattacked with torrents of water, arrows and water spheres. Large columns and pillars of earth emerged from the ground.
Emilia looked at the cadet, with black hair and gray eyes. He was fighting with all his might, his gaze was tense and his teeth gnashed as his attacks failed to reach Grey. The cadet was clearly very frustrated; after all, Grey was his opponent. Emilia knew that Grey was no pushover, even though she had never seen him fight, but she knew that members of the Big Ten families were not easy to beat.
Beating a member of the big ten families is difficult, but those who succeed are highly regarded.
"It looks like they will be finished soon."
At that moment, the cadet's flames spread throughout the surrounding battlefield. Fireballs erupted out of nowhere and darted in Grey's direction.
Grey raised his hand and a wall of earth appeared, also covered by a layer of water.
"Burst!"
Each attack was stopped by the wall of earth.
Grey raised his hand, gesturing, and pillars of earth emerged from the ground. Then Emilia knew who the winner was.
"They're done."
Falling to the ground, the cadet was covered in bruises, with a dirty face and a few scratches as he looked up at the sky.
At that precise moment, Professor Bridget appeared, lifted the cadet up and then disappeared. The cadet, who was on the ground before, was no longer there, as he was taken to the healers that the teacher had mentioned before the test began.
"You seem to have defeated a lot of cadets, Grey."
Emerging from her hiding place, Emilia walked toward Grey, who was standing, looking straight ahead.
Turning his head, Grey looked at Emilia.
"Great, it had to be you."
"O-hey, what does that mean?"
"Nothing."
Looking at Grey, Emilia spoke up once more.
"Who do you think will win?"
"I don't know, but I'm guessing one of us will be in the finals of the trial."
Emilia knew better than anyone who would be the winner of the test. After all, she had seen firsthand Asher's skills and how he fights in combat with the strongest.
"You shouldn't have shown up at this time," Grey said, as he raised his hand and a water arrow appeared in his hand.
"So you're saying it was a mistake?" retorted Emilia, as blue sparks flew from her hands and legs, and spheres of fire and air around her mingled, making the spheres larger.
"I didn't mean that."
"Then how about we try it and see who's stronger between the two of us?"
"Same here, sometimes you're really annoying, you know?"
"We'll see about that."
Throwing the fire spheres towards Grey as she began to run quickly, Emilia began to attack.
Grey raised a very thick wall of earth, while several water arrows and larger pillars of earth emerged from the ground, causing a small tremor.
"Rumble."
"Boom!"
Raising a column of lightning from the air, Emilia destroyed the earthen pillars as her fire attacks collided with Grey's earthen wall. Running in a zigzag pattern, Emilia launched a lightning spear in the direction of Grey, who raised an earthen pillar, followed by several more.
Both attacks collided as a curtain of dust rose. Emilia then launched a flare of fire toward the dust curtain, but more pillars of earth shot toward her as the fire mixed with the dust. Sparks flew from her legs, allowing her to run much faster; she jumped as she readied a flaming arrow in her hand and launched it.
"Burst!"
Unfortunately, the arrow collided with an earthen hand that caught Emilia's attack. At that moment, Grey raised more earth hands that headed towards Emilia, one after another gigantic earth hands appeared.
The wind around Emilia threw her forward, managing to dodge the earth hand that was about to catch her.
"You're so sneaky," Grey shouted as arrows of water appeared in front of Emilia.
Two pillars of lightning struck the ground, managing to dispel the arrows, but one made it through.
"Strike!"
The water arrow struck Emilia, knocking her to the ground. As Grey raised his hand, pillars of earth emerged and spiked spheres of water appeared.
Emilia got up, but was hit by one of the earthen hands.
"Burst!"
"Coff... Coff..."
Coughing, Emilia watched the spheres of water coming towards her. At that moment, a thin wall of electricity wrapped in fire appeared in front of her; the spheres collided against the wall Emilia created.
Rising from the ground, Emilia made several spheres of fire wrapped in lightning appear.
Throwing them towards Grey, they fell around her as an explosion of fire and lightning spread.
"Coff..."
Grey had covered himself with a layer of earth all over his body, but some attacks managed to reach him.
The fight was close to being over, so Emilia ran towards Grey as fast as she could, while her fists were engulfed in fire and lightning. Gritting her teeth, she approached Grey, but at that moment, a smile appeared on Grey's face.
"You fell."
He spoke, and then a giant hand appeared behind Emilia, grabbing her and rendering her immobile.
"And I'm the winner."
"That's cheating."
"Why would it be?"
"Because..."
Emilia couldn't say anything else.
"Well, it's time for you to go."
At that moment, the hand began to jerk and threw Emilia towards a nearby tree, crashing into it in the process. Emilia fell to the ground and muttered:
"I shouldn't have fought him..."
At that instant, Professor Bridget appeared carrying Emilia away, while Grey fell backwards.
"Well, I don't care if I lose now. I think there are only less than ten cadets left now."
Those words meant that the ten cadets who were still fighting were guaranteed a place in class one.
***
—Scene Change.
—Asher Frostblade's point of view.
Asher was defeating each cadet with only minimal effort, and the cadets were falling to the ground in less than ten seconds.
On his way, he had seen Luna and Gloriana fight Julian and Freddy.
Of course, Gloriana didn't use light magic. Encrid had told Asher that, most likely, Gloriana would not be able to use light magic until she found spells and methods of manipulating light mana; only then would she be able to use her abilities related to that magic.
In the case of Luna, who lost to Julian, she managed to fight as hard as she could, but in the end they both fell at the same time, resulting in a draw, or so Asher thought.
Although Gloriana and Freddy's fight was over in about five minutes, they both gave it their all, and even though Gloriana lost, she was guaranteed a spot in class one.
"I think they should be in the bottom ten."
In fact, Asher knew that only members of the ten families were left. Grey and Freddy were the only members of the ten families left as finalists in the test. Knowing that, Asher was more than excited to wrestle with them.
"Although I would have liked Julian to be there too..."
Of course, after all, at the start of the trial, Asher and Julian wanted to fight each other. But since Luna fought Julian first and they both tied, Asher couldn't fight him. However, Grey and Freddy were left.
"Burst!"
At that moment, several water arrows appeared in front of Asher.
Raising his hand, the shadows around him took shape and a wall of shadows appeared, completely consuming the cadet's attack.
"What the hell is that?"
"It's darkness," Asher replied.
At that moment, dark spheres appeared above the cadet and fell to the ground.
"Burst!"
A torrent of dark flames appeared and rushed toward the cadet.
"That was faster," Encrid spoke.
"I guess so."
Looking at the cadet on the ground with scratches and no bruises on his body, Asher spoke.
"Why is that happening?"
"I had told you to block the damage. Dark magic consumes the life of living things as well, and since you're in this place, it's best to avoid deaths."
"Makes sense."
Basically, darkness magic can consume the life of every living thing. Fortunately, Encrid blocked the damage and everything else, with the exception of the blows they can inflict on opponents.
Asher continued walking; right now there should only be Grey and Freddy left.
Asher then rushed to look for them.
"Even though I can't do damage, then how can I leave scratches?"
"I didn't block the impact and I didn't completely block the damage either, so you can basically cause some damage."
Asher asked and Encrid answered him.
Even knowing that and how limited Asher was, it was more than enough to defeat Grey and Freddy by himself.
"You should advance to the second circle; it will be quicker to finish."
"No, I'll finish the test in the first circle first. For the moment I want to test the strength of those two."
At that moment, Asher looked at Freddy and Grey, who were talking to each other before they started fighting.
Then, a bolt of darkness shot right to the center of where Grey and Freddy were standing.
"Starburst!"
An explosion echoed, and the two cadets jumped back, barely managing to block Asher's attack as they both put up a wall.
"I tell you what: how about the two of you fight me?"
"..."
"..."
There was silence, but Grey spoke up.
"That's against the rules."
"That's true."
Grey and Freddy spoke.
Then Asher spoke up.
"It's just the three of us, so there shouldn't be a problem."
"But what if there isn't?"
"Then we can fight one on one."
Grey and Freddy looked at each other and then back at Asher.
"Let's call Professor Bridget; maybe she can help us."
Grey spoke as he looked at Asher. On the other hand, Freddy looked at Asher and then asked a question.
"What was that earlier? It was like lightning, but dark. I've never seen that before."
"About that, I call it 'dark lightning.' That's a good name."
"That doesn't explain anything."
In fact, it didn't explain anything; Asher knew that more than anyone else.
"Swhoss."
At that moment, Professor Bridget appeared out of nowhere, standing between the three cadets, right in the middle.
"What's going on, why aren't they fighting?"
"I made a proposal that the two of them fight with me."
At that moment, Professor Bridget looked me straight in the eye. She seemed to be trying to guess my words, and then her lips opened and she said...