“Wilsin Djage, come onto the stage for the second match!” said the Vice Dean as Clyde went back to his seat.

As soon as his name was called, the remaining students grew nervous, because they knew that Wilsin was just as difficult to deal with as Clyde. As the third child of the Royal Duke Wishlam, he had been practicing magic ever since he was a child.

Wilsin entered the stage and stood in the center with a calm expression on his face. He leisurely looked around the audience, as if he was an ancient beast searching for his prey. He was very tall for his age and had black hair with green eyes, a very common set of features within the Imperial Family.

“Kylie, come let me test your ice magic,” said Wilsin with a predatory glint in his eyes and an evil smile on his face.

Kylie Kalel was the younger cousin of Clyde Kalel, and one of the rising stars of House Kalel. She was another of the top ten scorers from the written exam. However, even though she was in the top ten, there was no rule that said she couldn’t be called out by another of the top scorers.

Even though the Djage family competed fiercely internally, they all agreed that it was best to curb the Imperial Nobles if they tried to overstep their bounds. Wilsin wanted to score free points by defeating one of the younger Imperial Nobles, and also get back at Clyde for defeating Brandon, who was one his own followers. He was able to kill two birds with one stone.

Unlike the other royal and imperial families throughout the continent, the Djage family had a very strange way of choosing their future ruler. Even though Sander was currently the Crown Prince of the Empire, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he would become the Emperor after his father abdicated or died. The future Emperor would be whichever of the Princes had the most achievements at the end of the current Emperor’s reign. In order to maintain this system, the Djage family had a system of achievements to allocate missions to the princes in order to earn achievement points. Currently, there were seven princes who were eligible between the sons of the current Emperor and his brothers including the Royal Duke Wishlam

As she was called, Kylie casually left her seat with a fierce expression on her face. She did not plan on losing this match. She moved onto the stage and stood in front of Wilsin, staring at him as though this was a blinking contest. Her resemblance to Clyde was striking.

“You may start as soon as you are ready,” said the Vice Dean.

“Ladies first,” Wilsin said with a sly smile. He looked at Kylie as if she was a fun ____ rather than a true opponent.

Instantly, Kylie began to chant her magic spells. She knew that Wilsin was stronger than her. She had only broken through to a 3rd class mage about three months ago, while Wilsin had broken through a little over a year. He had both more experience and mana than her, but if he was going to give her a head start then she would not waste it. She had to give her all in this fight, otherwise she would meet an embarrassing defeat.

“Ice Creation magic, Ice Blades!” Kylie yelled after she finished chanting her spells.

A pure white magic circle appeared in front of her palm. Three long blades made of ice appeared from it and flew toward Wilsin at a terrifying pace. Ice Blade was a 3rd tier ice magic spell, and a very strong one at that.

"Flame Creation magic, Aegis Flame," Wilsin said casually as he summoned his 2nd tier fire magic. He looked at the three blades of ice headed towards him with a bored expression on his face.

A huge wall of fire instantly rose in front of Wilsin, causing the temperature around the arena to quickly rise. The three ice blades struck the wall of fire before losing their momentum and quickly melting away.

Aegis Flame was a lower tier spell than Ice Blades, and should have lost in a direct confrontation between the two. However, Kylie was a new 3rd class mage, and lacked sufficient mana as well as mana manipulation to use the spell to its full potential. Wilsin already knew this, which is why he used a weaker spell to block her attack. If he were to face Clyde, he would never have used a weaker spell, as Clyde broke through to 3rd rank even before him, and his mana and manipulation were extraordinary. His spell would easily be twice as strong as the one that Kylie produced.

“Oh, I can’t believe a 3rd tier Ice Mage such as yourself could not even break through a puny 2nd tier spell,” taunted Wilsin with a crooked smile on his face. He glanced at Clyde and winked, who narrowed his eyes in anger. Clyde knew that Kylie had been chosen because of the way he had humiliated Brandon and his fire magic. However, he could not do or say anything about the current situation.

“Miss Kylie, I advise you to get serious and give it your all,” said Wilsin with a yawn. He acted as though he was extremely bored while in the middle of the fight.

His reactions to the fight infuriated Kylie, and her pretty face started to twist as though she would explode with anger. She couldn’t believe that someone would dare to treat her like this in front of a crowd of people. She was an Imperial Noble! If it wasn’t for the fact that Wilsin was part of the imperial family, she would have sought retaliation against his family after the fight. Unfortunately for her, there was nothing she could do against Wilsin, as he was both a member of the Imperial Family and a contender for the throne.

“Let’s put an end to this, there are plenty of fights left,” said Wilsin as he began to chant a new spell.

“Flame Creation magic, Fireball!” Wilsin declared with triumph written on his face. A total of 14 fireballs shot from his magic circle and flew towards Kylie. She was not idle during his chant, and finished her own not long after him.

“Ice Creation magic, Ice Coffin!” she yelled, slamming her arms on the ground in front of her. Suddenly, her entire body was encased in thick layers of ice, like a cocoon.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As the fireballs hit their target, the perfectly formed ice coffin began to shatter bit by bit.

“How is this possible?!” shouted Kylie as her coffin began to crumble away. This was a 3rd tier magic spell, and as such should not have lost a 2nd tier magic spell. Her eyes were filled with surprise and hatred as she looked at Wilsin’s smiling face.

“I give up!” shouted Kylie unwillingly as her ice coffin was nearly destroyed by the fireballs. She was not a match for Wilsin yet. He had beat two of her strongest 3rd tier magic spells with nothing but 2nd tier spells, toying with her throughout the fight. Her hatred for Wilsin intensified based on his actions today.

After the winner was announced, and Kylie and Wilsin returned to their seats, the Vice Dean went up on stage again the call out the third top scorer of the written exam. He paused briefly to think about the fight he just witnessed. While the new students could not understand why a 2nd tier magic spell was able to break through the 3rd tier Ice Coffin, the Vice Dean and teachers, as well as some experienced students, knew the answer.

In general, a low tier magic spell is more powerful when used by a more powerful mage, due to their increase in mana. For example, a 3rd tier mage using a 2nd tier spell would be more powerful than a 2nd tier mage using the same spell. However, the results should not have been so heavily in favor of Wilsin in the final exchange. The disparity between the baseline strength of the two spells was too great to overcome when both contestants were both 3rd tier mages. Instead, he had concentrated each fireball to repeatedly strike the same point of impact, instead of hitting the ice coffin randomly. This required excellent mana manipulation as well as either good instincts for battle or large amounts of experience with battle. Wilsin had these qualities in abundance.

‘Interesting’ thought the Vice Dean as he looked at both Wilsin and Clyde. He shook off his thoughts to call out the next person.

“Albert, come onto the stage for the third match!”

Albert was a member of a powerful noble family, though not as powerful as the Imperial Nobles, much less the Imperial Family. However, his father was a Marquis and had close ties with several Imperial Noble houses. Just like Shad, Albert had a strong affinity for lightning, one of the strongest and most destructive elements. .

As he reached the stage, he called out Shad as his opponent without a second thought. Everybody got a look of anticipation in their eyes as they heard Shad’s name called out, even the Dean. It had been two years since Shad left the academy, and nobody knew what he had been doing for the past two years. He was a mystery for the entire academy.

“Start!” yelled the Vice Dean once Shad was on the stage and ready to begin.

Albert quickly began to chant his strongest spell. Just like Kylie, he was a new 3rd tier mage.

“Oh spirit of lightning and thunder that sleeps in the sky, you who make the heavens and earth tremble with your voice, your servant calls upon your power, become the thunderbolt in my hand, Lightning Creation ma-”

Albert suddenly stopped chanting, confusion written plainly on his face. So far, Shad had not made a move or started a chant of his own, but as Albert neared the end of his chant, Shad suddenly vanished into thin air.

Suddenly, he felt a hand grab him his neck, and he heard the soft voice of Shad in his ear.

“Bye bye,” said Shad softly before tossing Albert into the air without any apparent effort.

The audience watched the fight had their mouths wide open as they watched Albert fly into the air, higher and higher, his cries quickly growing too faint for the crowd to hear. What kind of fight was that!? They were all waiting for a great fight between two lightning mages, but instead he simply threw him out of the ring? They were waiting for the Fourth Prince to show his awesome magic, but all they got was a look at his throwing skill.

“Too slow,” murmured Shad as he dusted off his hands as though he just took out the trash. Albert was a new 3rd class mage that had not learned to shorten his incantations yet, which is why it took him nearly ten seconds just to cast a spell. If this were a real fight, he would have died ten times already. Shad didn’t want to waste mana on people like that, preferring to throw them out of the ring instead.

Shad covered his eyes with his hands and looked up, presumably waiting for Albert to come back down. Suddenly he launched himself into the air and caught the falling Albert, landing with a grunt of effort. He softly put him down and the allowed the medics on duty to inspect him.

“This boy,” whispered the Dean as he looked at Shad exit the stage. Another way to win the fight was forcing your opponent out of bounds, so Shad shamelessly won the fight on a technicality without using a single spell.

Edited by Eljako98

proofreaded by truffleshuffle