I stared at the three people watching me. It had to be him. After a few moments, Master Xela turned towards another man with a white and long beard. He told him something, then turned his attention towards me.
I couldn't believe that the old man was going to be one of the people that would judge my performance. Then, I had a thought. 'Even if I fail, he might put in a good word for me and get me accepted.' Still, I needed to try as hard as I could.
The man with the beard spoke. Despite him being so far away, I could clearly hear him as if he was standing right next to me. "Welcome, Akira Kurogane. Just a reminder that even if you do defeat your opponent, it doesn't guarantee your admission. With that, let the fight begin."
As soon as he finished speaking, a guy entered the arena from below the place where the three men were standing. He was a little taller than me and about the same age as me. He had his eyes covered almost completely by his blonde, messy hair. He was lean and dressed casually.
After studying my opponent, I heard the bearded man speak again.
"Uhm... Sorry for the interruption, but I forgot to mention that you are allowed to use only the first stage of your echo, both of you."
I was confused, as I obviously had no idea what he was talking about. I had no idea echos had multiple stages, as I had just discovered that echos exist a couple of days before. However, this was a great opportunity to learn about them through fighting. A wide grin appeared on my face.
I was ready.
The blonde guy looked me in the eyes. He looked bored, as if he was waiting for me to entertain him. 'Tsk, he's one of those guys that think they are superior beings.'
After about five seconds of staring at each other, I suddenly felt a strange chill. My eyes widened. My opponent became surrounded by a kind of grey aura. Possibly caused by whatever that aura was, it felt like the air was drawn out of my lungs, slowly suffocating me.
I started to panic as I couldn't do anything. Just as I was about to faint, I stopped feeling that pressure, and I couldn't see that guy's aura either. His face didn't betray any emotions he might have had at that point.
'This guy is a real problem.' I thought, thinking about my next move.
I decided to take him by surprise, so I used mana to dash towards him with the intention to land a punch. In less than a second, he moved with tremendous speed and punched me in the stomach.
The punch was very fast and powerful, and the fact that he hit while I was dashing made the impact worse for me. I also felt a sharp pain as if I got electrocuted. I looked at the boy in front of me, and I saw that he was about to throw a spear of electricity at me.
"Oh shit."
I tried to dodge, but the spear was too fast and hit my arm. I felt like all my insides were burned, healed, and burned again. However, I could still use my arm, and it didn't seem that damaged, except for a black spot where the spear hit me. 'This guy can use electricity that easily?'
I was trying to think, maybe Master Xela hasn't told me everything about how mana works. 'But why?' I shook off that thought and focused on my opponent. I could see sparks of electricity at his feet.
Knowing there was no way I could dodge, I tried to predict where he would dash. And it worked. His punch barely missed me, but to my surprise, he instantly turned around and punched me again. Except this time, on top of electricity, he strengthened his punch with water.
This made the pain I felt from the electro spear feel like rainbows compared to what I felt at that point. Before the blonde boy dashed, I covered myself in protective earth armor, and it just happened to save my life.
I managed to stand up. I was not used to that level of pain. I wiped the blood from my face and got ready for round two. I already had an idea to help me deal with the guy. From the way he moved to attack me, I could tell that despite his lean body helping him speed up, he wasn't as skilled in slowing down. I was going to exploit that.
I remembered how I used to escape from anyone who was chasing me back in my hometown, by leading them into an alley filled with different dumpsters and trash bags on the ground, making it hard for them to keep up with me. I started running. I was expecting him to instantly catch up.
I gathered outer mana in my legs. While I was in the forest, I practiced my outer mana control a little. I figured that If i was near some trees, I could easily create wood by drawing the mana particles from the tree. To test my theory I tried the same thing with a diamond. As I obviously wasn't close to any diamond, I failed to create one.
I hoped that I could transfer the mana from my legs the same way I could from my arms. It turned out that I was right. I created a small stone block behind me. As I expected, my opponent sped up and tripped over the stone block.
I was already prepared, so as he fell down, I managed to kick him in the face.
A moment later, he got up. His nose was bleeding. I tried to punch him, but this time, the earth mana that was covering my fist simply broke apart after I made contact. I looked at him with a dumb face.
"You sure like to use earth a lot, don't you?" he said, as if he was trying to provoke me.
"Wh..."
I couldn't finish as I got punched again and sent flying over half of the arena. Everything inside me was hurting. I was bleeding all over. But I needed to win this. I needed to get stronger.
He was walking towards me slowly. I used that time to think. I figured using earth was useless and probably water as well, given what happened earlier. That left me with only fire and air, which I wasn't really sure how to use yet.
Suddenly, I had an idea.
'This might work. It's my last chance.'