The next day, after classes, Cadmus and Oliver made their way to duelling ground one, where the duel between Rex Optime and his opponent was being held.

“I think it’s really nice of Rex to give you two tickets so that I could come as well,” Oliver remarked.

“I don’t think he gave me two tickets because of you,” Cadmus said with some thought, “I think he gave me an extra ticket for Alice, even though she doesn’t really need one.”

To be honest, Cadmus had never seen anyone treat Alice like a human as much as Rex Optime had. He had to admit that it was a little bit impressive.

And if he was being even more honest, then Rex Optime probably thought of Alice as more of a human than even Cadmus himself did. Alice was important to him, yes, but she was important because of what she represented to him in terms of magic. And yes, he had grown to care deeply for her after all the time they had spent together, and because he had created her, however…

He couldn’t really be sure where his care for her as a homunculus began and where his care for her as a friend/family member ended.

Cadmus shook his head, releasing himself of these thoughts. There was no point in thinking about this.

They made their way to the ticket collector, and after he verified their tickets, they entered the stands. Taking a seat on their assigned seats, Cadmus looked around.

Almost every single seat was full—even more than when Cadmus had fought Randall—and there was an air of tremendous excitement all around them.

“Who’s Rex’s opponent?” Cadmus asked curiously.

Oliver palmed his face, “Honestly… how can you be so smart and so unaware at the same time? He’s facing the one and only Dragon Princess! The whole school’s been crazy excited for this match for a few days now!”

Cadmus’ eyebrows climbed in surprise. Ardea Regis was about to face Rex Optime? Well now, even he had to admit that he was a little excited to see this match.

Suddenly, Professor Mackenzie, with her well-groomed black hair tied up into her usual neat bun, came wading through the crowd. She spotted Cadmus as she was taking a seat beside him,

“Oho, here’s a familiar face,” She said by way of a greeting.

Cadmus nodded, “I see that you’ve come to watch this match as well.”

“Of course!” Professor Mackenzie huffed, “There’s no way I’m missing a spectacle like this! I heard you challenged Mr. Optime as well, but he turned you down.”

Cadmus scowled. He didn’t need to be reminded of that. Hopefully, if he watched this match like Rex wanted, then Rex would finally accept his challenge.

Professor Mackenzie laughed, “Don’t pout. There’re plenty of other people to challenge.”

He was most certainly not pouting.

Professor Mackenzie’s smile faded a bit, “I also saw your fight with Mr. Crawford. It really wasn’t pretty… he’s been holed up inside his room ever since.”

Cadmus shrugged, “I simply used the title the public granted me to my advantage. I know no other way to fight after all.”

Professor Mackenzie raised an eyebrow, “Title? You mean your title of ‘the Necromancer’?”

Cadmus nodded.

“Ha! That didn’t come from the public, I gave you that title!” Professor Mackenzie said.

Cadmus blinked, “…What?”

Professor Mackenzie nodded, “Yeah, a few of the staff overheard me talking to the other faculty members about your goal to bring back the dead, and they spread it around, but they didn’t really have a name for you yet. I was the one who started calling you ‘the Necromancer’, and then I encouraged others to do the same.” She grinned proudly, “It’s a cool title, isn’t it?”

Huh? So that terribly gaudy title had come from her all along?

Cadmus suppressed a sigh. Oh well, what was done was done. There was no point in complaining about it. Besides, he had managed to use it to his advantage, so perhaps he should thank her instead…

“And how’re you doing, Alice?” Professor Mackenzie asked, looking at Cadmus’ breast pocket, “Adjusting well so far?”

Alice popped her head out, “Hello, Professor. Yes, I’m doing well. I was just relaxing until the match started.”

Professor Mackenzie nodded, looking satisfied.

A loud voice made itself known throughout the whole duelling ring,

“WELCOME EVERYONE! THE DUEL WILL BEGIN NOW! INTRODUCING ARDEA REGIS AND REX OPTIME!”

The crowd broke out in wild cheers as Ardea and Rex walked out from opposite sides. They stood there, their red hair shining under the setting sun, staring resolutely at each other as their referee explained the rules. They were the same rules as Cadmus’ duel with Randall, except for one additional rule.

Duelling ground one, unlike duelling ground three, had a concrete platform with grassy ground surrounding it. As such, there was an additional rule stating that if either party stepped outside of the concrete platform, they would automatically lose.

Ardea and Rex both nodded, both looking intensely focused.

“We should probably make sure to watch Rex carefully,” Oliver said, “If we can figure out what magic he specializes in, you might stand a chance at defeating him.”

“Should we not watch Ardea carefully as well?” Cadmus asked curiously.

“Well, yeah, but everyone already knows what magic she specializes in. It’s fire.” Oliver said, “But no matter how deep I dig, I just can’t find Rex’s speciality. Which is strange, as he’s, you know, in first place.”

“Speciality huh…?” Professor Mackenzie repeated with a small smirk on her face, “Well, you’re in for a surprise.”

Cadmus raised an eyebrow at her, but she refused to elaborate.

The crowd finally went silent, and the match between Ardea and Rex began. Rex started drawing his magic circle, but Ardea merely shot her hand forward, and a fully formed magic circle shined into existence.

The magic circle was fairly complicated, and it had appeared so fast… just how well-trained was her mind to be able to envision a magic circle like that so quickly?

Tigers made of flames leaped out of the magic circle and pounced at Rex, but Rex calmly sidestepped them and finished his extremely simple magic circle. A blade of white light grew out of his magic circle.

The fiery tigers instantly switched directions and pounced at Rex again. That was their main strength after all, having the ability to quickly switch directions like a living animal. Why else would anyone design a spell to give fire a tiger’s shape?

However, they also had a fatal weakness, and apparently Rex knew that as well. He swung his blade with perfect precision at the tigers and cut right through them. The mana holding them in that shape was punctured, and the spell collapsed into itself, the flame flaring wildly, but directionless.

Ardea remained undeterred, and, showing off her amazing mana reserves, she cast twelve more [flame tigers]. Rex dodged well, and cut through a tiger when he could, his other hand quickly drawing a simple spell to create projectiles of water.

While Rex was dealing with the [flame tigers], Ardea raised her hand to the sky, and another, even more complicated, magic circle shined into existence. A brilliant phoenix made completely of flames burst out of the other end. It flew high, and then dived at Rex.

Rex aimed his [waterball] spell at the phoenix and fired. However, it was useless. [flame phoenix] was a far more durable spell than [flame tiger] and a [waterball] of that size simply wouldn’t be enough.

As if to prove Cadmus wrong, Rex’s [waterball] flew straight and true, and as soon as it struck the [flame phoenix], both spells exploded into white-hot steam.

Cadmus blinked. Why had [waterball] been able to…?

As the steam cleared, the crowd realized that the battle was still going, and cheered heartily. Rex quickly drew another spell, [rock spike], and fired it in rapid succession at Ardea. The spikes of rock flew with great speed towards Ardea, but she brought her hand in front of her, and instantly created a basic physical shield spell.

[Rock spike] wasn’t supposed to be powerful enough to penetrate Ardea’s [basic physical shield], but somehow, Rex’s first [rock spike] punctured through slightly. It wasn’t able to make it all the way through, but Ardea instantly realized that multiple rock spikes would easily shatter her [basic physical shield], so she dove out of the way, her arm already raised to create her next spell.

This new magic circle took a few seconds to create, unlike her previous ones, which had been created instantly, but when the magic circle finally came into existence, Cadmus understood why. The magic circle was so complex, that it would have taken even Cadmus a few minutes to draw all that.

A mighty snake-like dragon of flame erupted from the other end of her magic circle, and Cadmus could feel the heat from even here in the stands. The dragon rushed at Rex, and Rex quickly modified his [waterball] magic circle into a [water shield]. [Water shield] shouldn’t have stood a chance, and yet, [flame dragon] crashed against it, and his advance was halted in a powerful explosion of steam.

Unlike [flame phoenix] though, [flame dragon] did not disappear. It was simply too powerful a spell. Rex must have known this however, because as soon as [flame dragon] had struck his [water shield], he had taken off running towards Ardea, making sure to keep drawing a line connected to [water shield] as he ran so that he could still supply it with mana and keep it activated.

[flame dragon] turned, but it was too late. Rex had already reached Ardea, and was poised to slice right through her. And still, Ardea looked unfazed. She simply raised her hand, and simply created her own [magic sword] to block Rex’s.

Rex and Ardea were using the same spell of the same size, so it came as a complete surprise when Rex’s [magic sword] sliced through Ardea’s. For the first time in this match, she showed a hint of surprise with the widening of her eyes, and barely managed to physically block Rex’s kick that came right after.

Realization came swiftly to Cadmus after witnessing that.

“I see…” He examined, “Rex has no speciality…”

Oliver gave him a confused look, “Huh? What are you talking about? Every mage has one thing or another that they prefer to use.”

“To be more specific, his speciality doesn’t lie in the type of magic he uses,” Cadmus explained, “His speciality… it’s best described as ‘risking the limit’.”

Professor Mackenzie shot him a proud grin, “Good eye! You’re exactly right!”

Oliver looked even more confused, “I… don’t understand…”

“Let’s have a pop quiz, Mr. Vinari,” Professor Mackenzie said. Oliver grimaced slightly, “What happens if you don’t push enough mana through a magic circle?”

Oliver took a moment to remember, “The spell… won’t activate?”

Professor Mackenzie nodded, “Correct. And what happens if you push too much mana through a magic circle?”

“It’ll… break, right? The magic circle will crack and then disappear.”

Professor Mackenzie nodded, “Correct again. I’m glad to see you’ve been paying attention in class, unlike a certain someone—” She glared at Cadmus. Cadmus averted his eyes. So she had noticed… “—in any case, that’s why most mages tend to use just enough mana to activate a magic circle. There’s really no way to feel when you’re hitting the limit of a magic circle, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

She looked back down at the battle, “Not Mr. Optime though. He tested the limit of every magic circle that he knew through meticulous trial and error, and memorized just how much mana each magic circle of his could take. This way, every single one of his spells has a far higher power output than the spells of other mages.”

This kind of thing was easy to say, but ridiculously hard to do. When it came to drawing magic circles, every single factor had an effect on determining its limit. The thickness of the lines drawn, the size of the magic circle, the types of symbols used…

To be able to test and memorize all of his magic circles’ limits with so many factors mixed in was, quite frankly, beyond incredible. And to be able to use this knowledge so well in battle without hesitating was even more so.

So, this was the most powerful student of the greatest academy of magic on the continent… his position was well won.

Back in the fight, Ardea had started pulling out more and more powerful spells. [Heat ray], [flame hydra], more [flame dragons], [exploding fireballs]… It was clear to see that, as Rex managed to barely survive from one attack to the next, Ardea was gradually becoming more and more frustrated.

Rex wasn’t having that easy of a time either. Ardea didn’t possess his finesse, but her raw reserves, spellcasting speed, and knowledge of astonishingly powerful spells was more than enough to put him on the back foot.

“Enough!” Ardea declared, “I acknowledge your ability, Optime, however, there are none more powerful than me!”

She raised her hands to the heavens, and, after about fifteen seconds, a tremendously complex magic circle appeared out of thin air. It was so complex, that even Cadmus could barely understand what it was supposed to do. This was the longest it had taken for Ardea to create a magic circle, but Rex had been too preoccupied with dodging the remnants of Ardea’s previous spells to do anything.

And now, it was too late.

Rex fired a last-ditch effort of [rock spike], but Ardea easily sidestepped it. She took aim with her spell, and—

“Victor, Rex Optime!”

The world seemed to freeze. Then, slowly, Ardea looked down at her left foot, and saw that she had accidentally stepped out of bounds.

Rex let out a huge a sigh and flopped onto the ground.

“Oh thank god that worked…” He muttered, but due to the sound-enhancing magic circle built into the duelling field, everyone heard it all the same. A few people chuckled, but the crowd remained largely silent. That had been a really underwhelming ending after all, and people were still a little disoriented.

Ardea, on the other hand…

Rage, like nothing Cadmus had ever seen before, seemed to be consuming her. She aimed her spell at the sky, and with a frustrated grunt, she fired.

The first thing Cadmus noticed was that it was a single-use spell, with the magic-circle fading away as soon as she used it.

The second, and more important thing that he noticed was that a powerful beam of pure heat left her magic circle, faster than the eye could follow, and it pierced through the clouds, creating a small, but noticeable hole within.

Rex and the audience paled. If that had even grazed Rex…

And once again, Cadmus witnessed a crowd that did not cheer after a duel.