"Just you know this is a physical strength subject so any usage of mana is forbidden," Alex said to the students with a serious expression.

"But teacher we're a mage..." A girl from the mage class said. If they didn't use mana then they were bound to lose in this fight. A mage without mana was pretty much a trash.

Alex raised his eyebrows at the words of the girl. He opened his mouth and said, "Huh? What are you saying? I just said that this is physical strength subject so it's natural that all of you will use your physical strength, not magical strength." He paused and looked at everyone's face before he continued, "This is not a magic subject. This is physical strength subject. Did you get it? Just from the name of the subject, one would understand what we'll do so why ask such a question."

Souta smirked inwardly. Physical strength was not a problem for him as his strength stats were even higher than his intelligence stats.

"A mage should at least have some physical power. What will you do once you drained your mana? Wait for your opponent to kill you? or wait for someone to rescue you? You should've at least have the physical strength to run away so that you wouldn't become a burden to your comrades... if you have some." Alex said in a loud voice.

"Well, that's true..." Souta said in a low voice. If the mage doesn't know how to defend himself when he runs out of mana then he/she was going to become a burden to his/her comrades.

Alex clasped both of his hands and said, "Okay, we will start the battle so be prepared." He then turned around and placed a blackboard in front of the class. He listed the matches of the tournament on the blackboard.

Souta, Bryan, Alice, and the rest of the students looked at the list on the blackboard.

"My battle..." Souta turned his head and looked at the class rep, Lumilia. "Is with a class rep and it is the first match."

Bryan also looked at the class rep. He saw that Souta will fight Lumilia in the first match.

"What about you, Bryan?" Souta asked Bryan who was looking at Lumilia.

"Hmm... How to say this... It's not from our class." Bryan said. He doesn't know who's the one he's gonna fight. The name was unfamiliar to him so he could guess that it came from the shield class.

Souta then turned his head to Alice and asked, "What about you Alice?"

"Hmmph! The same as him." Alice closed her eyes. She seemed that she's not going to answer if he asked another question.

Souta smiled wryly at her response. He then shook his head and looked at the students of shield class. He knew that they have an advantage among the people of his class as he knew that shield class was tackling physical strength than magical. They were focused on strengthening their body.

If a mage was going to fight without mana then he/she was bound to have a hard time. It was because they were not trained that way. Fighting close combat wasn't easy for a mage who preferred to fight long range.

While Souta was thinking about this thing, Lumilia was observing him. After all, she was going to fight him in the first match.

She was the third daughter of the Asvares family. Asvares family was a noble family of the Gripin city, the neighboring city of Ladros City. She inherited some of the sword skills of her family so she knew how to fight in close range despite being a mage.

'Just what is that guy thinking? Looking at other class when he knows that he's going to fight me.' Lumilia thought.

Most of the students in the mage class were nervous. It was especially to the students who were going to fight the student of the shield class. It was easy to understand why they were nervous. After all, they were going to fight the people who trained physically in a physical battle when they were a mage.

...

"I will not meet you in battle," Bryan said to Souta.

"Yeah, I'm from a different bracket." Souta nodded as he looked at the list of matches. "If we somehow meet then it's going to be the final battle."

"Yeah, I will fight you and show you my strength," Bryan said with an excited expression.

"But before that, you have to defeat Alice first. You know that..." Souta smiled at Bryan.

It's true that Bryan will meet Alice if they both win their upcoming matches. They were in the same bracket after all.

But Souta knew that it's not easy to win as they were going to fight without using mana. It's a big disadvantage for the mage.

Souta looked at Alice. He saw her fight with the instructor in the entrance examination and he knew her fighting style. If that's all, then she's not going to win in this mini-tournament.

...

The students went to the side as the match was going to start. This place was the training ground so there's a wide space here than could be occupied by thousands of people.

It's natural that a training ground was huge. It was because they need a wide space, especially for the mage if they wanted a mock battle or spar.

They also placed the equipments for training at the side, such as a dummy, shooting targets, and weights.

Before they knew it, some of the teachers and students of other courses of the institute came here to watch the battles.

"Oho~ it seems that Alex is doing it again." A man with fox ears and tail said while looking at the students. He was wearing a simple white shirt and black pants. His black coat was wrapped around his waist.

He was the teacher of the sword class 2-C, Kanda Yulong.

"It's not that bad to check the skills of his students." A woman with long green hair nodded at his words. She was wearing a navy blue coat and skirt. On top of her coat was a robe with the same color as her coat. She was the teacher of the mage class 3-A.

Both of them knew that Alex always does this in his class. It became famous in the whole institute and a lot of people came just to watch this mini-tournament.

"Sadly, it's the student shield and mage class."

"Yeah, the mage is at a disadvantage in this kind of fight."

"What was it before? A brawler and lancer?"

"Yeah."

The two talked while waiting for the battle to start. The other teachers came forward and joined their conversation.

...

The battle between Souta and Lumilia was going to start.

"It's time..." Souta stretched his arms as he stepped forward. He removed the bandage wrap in his left arm and moved his arm, familiarising himself to the feeling that he could use his left arm in a battle.

"I can use this but I shouldn't overdo or else the wounds will open again," Souta muttered while looking at his left arm.

"Good luck, Souta! Beat the crap out of that class rep!" Bryan shouted as he cheered for Souta.

"Eh...?"

Souta turned his head to looked at Bryan. Not just him but the other students also looked at Bryan. Even Lumilia looked at Bryan with a frown on her face.

"...Did I say something wrong?" Bryan looked at everyone and was wondering why they were looking at him.

Souta shook his head and walked to the center. He looked at the approaching Lumilia and he smiled at her.

Alex looked at the two of them before he stepped forward and said, "You do anything to knock down your opponent as long as you do not use your mana. Any of you can surrender if you felt that you can't fight anymore. I will be your judge and referee at the same time so I will give you five minutes to fight. Do you understand?"

"Yes, teacher." Lumilia nodded her head with a serious expression.

"Yeah." Souta grinned as he cracked his knuckles.

Lumilia looked at the sword that was hanging on Souta's waist and asked, "Teacher, can we use a weapon?"

"Yeah, as I said before you can do anything as long as you don't use your mana." Alex nodded his head.

"Okay." Lumilia nodded and she walked to the side and picked up her sword. It was a beautiful sword with a blue gem on its handle.

Souta thought that her sword wasn't meant battle but instead it was meant for display. Though, it was more beautiful than his sword he knew that it was just a blue grade sword.

"Let the battle start! You can fight to your heart's content." Alex said as he started the battle.

Lumilia readied herself and she exudes a fierce aura like a lion looking at its prey.

"Good, let's finish this quickly!" Souta grinned and he charged towards Lumilia while using the skill [Dash].

He opened his palm attempting to grab Lumilia's face.

...

Yuko was in the ranch. She was looking outside with a dazed expression.

Lately, master didn't bring me out to play. He seems very busy with something that I can't understand. He only came here when he's going to give me a meat or fruit.

Ah~ master where are you? I want to play outside.