'Fool.'

I had already experienced this spell so I knew exactly how to counter it. Not to mention, your version is much smaller and weaker compared to Melissa's Fire Blast.

"Woah! Marvin does not hesitate to throw a Fire Blast immediately! How will Hiro react?"

Before, I was trapped in a hallway so I had no choice but to face it directly head on. Now that I was in an open area, all I had to do was run to evade it. Only a dumb ass would waste their time and energy on confronting a blast-type spell.

The Fire Blast covered the area of a radian with Marvin at the center. The height of the flames only reached my neck so I could probably jump over it if I utilized my tremendous leg strength.

I rolled over to the left and using the ground like a diving board, I propelled myself forward toward Marvin.

"Hiro dodges the flames by a hair and is proceeding to tackle Marvin. What could he have in mind?"

As expected from someone proclaiming they were the "Strongest Fire Magician." Even though he was 13 at most, his reaction time was still passable.

When he saw me evade the Fire Blast, he sent a Fire Ball followed by another Fire Blast to keep me at bay.

"Marvin reacts immediately and throws a Fire Ball to stop Hiro from getting closer! He follows up with another Fire Blast! Will Hiro be able to dodge it this time?"

He had his priorities right...for a magician at least.

For a magician fighting against a fighter, it made perfect sense to keep the distance.

Though he forgot a crucial detail, this was a Magic Tournament.

Instead of evading like I did last time, I jumped over the Fire Blast and sent three consecutive Fire Balls at him.

"What was that? Hiro jumped over the Fire Blast!?! Just like that?" Crankenstein started questioning.

He rolled over to the side like me but that was his second major mistake. Him rolling on the ground restricted his ability to cast spells which allowed me to close the distance easily with my monstrous agility stat. Placing my hand on his head just as he was getting up from the roll, I cast the Blinding Curse.

"What's this? I seriously though he was going in for a punch! But I suppose he would have long been disqualified for that."

A dark mist radiated from my hands and penetrated through his eyes rendering him blind.

"Ah yes, a magician of the Darkness element. They were quite rare these days since many of their spells were a bit...unorthodox."

But even then, he still managed to cast the level 2 Flare spell while I was busy casting the Blinding Curse.

I reacted to the burn on my abdomen but jumping back a couple metres.

"What an amazing interaction! Hiro takes a Flare straight to the stomach while Marvin was blinded! As expected from an amazing fire magician!"

It was only a level 2 spell but it hurt like the fires of f*cking h*ll.

Looking down, the hoodie I was wearing sustained no damage, but I could tell that I was harmed since I could feel the scorching pain underneath. Was this a hidden function of the hoodie? Magic attacks could penetrate through the hoodie and hit me but wouldn't damage the hoodie's durability in any way? Looks like I won't need to worry too much about the hoodie breaking.

[Life Force: 70/110]

If I got hit by two more of those, it looked like I was done for.

Even if this tactic was a bit suicidal, I couldn't deny its effectiveness against these battle noobs.

Now that he was blinded, it would be an easy game from now on. He only had two options after all. It was either to remove the Blinding Curse or continue casting spells randomly; it was obvious he wouldn't be removing it anytime soon with me around.

—3 minutes later—

He was still keeping up some how.

I could only say quietly under my breath, "Not bad." I seriously meant it. Any normal fool would have A: ran out of mana, or B: perished from my attacks.

His mana capacity could be said to be on par with mine and he was only able to last so long because of it. Whenever I got close to cast a Fire Ball, he was somehow able to tell and would shoot a Flare. Did he have super hearing or something? That would explain how he knew my position from hearing my shoes tap the ground. It looked like I would have to practice my footwork a lot more.

Either way, he was done for now.

'Appraise.'

~~~~~~~~~~

Strength: 31

Agility: 42

Mana: 0/230

~~~~~~~~~~

Right about when I was closing in, he did something I didn't see anyone else do before.

He took his card out and ripped it saying, "I, Marvin Scone, concede to Hiro of the Magic Knight Academy."

I stopped moving and looked at him with a serious gaze, though he probably couldn't tell since my face wasn't visible.

A bubble appeared and wrapped around him, disappearing shortly after.

It looked like this Marvin fella was pretty intelligent as well. He knew his limits. That was a sign that he was going to become a successful magician one day.

"With this, the Semi-finals are concluded! The match will be with the very princess of our Wizardry Kingdom, and the mysterious Hiro of the Magic Knight Academy!"

...

—Headmaster Warren's PoV—

"How preposterous! I do not recall sending anyone by the name of Hiro to participate in the Magic Tournament! What happened to Steve? Wasn't he supposed to be our Magic Knight Academy's representative? He's one of our strongest junior students! How did he not reach the Semi-finals at least?" I yelled at my trusty secretary.

Looking at his stoic face, he was probably thinking about retiring after this year. I would understand since I have been a bit moody this year with all these strange incidents happening. Just the other day, I had news of the academy's greatest trashcan thrashing all the guys who offended him. It hurt my head just thinking about how to go about these situations.

'Should I reprimand Dray? No, he's already a senior. I should just let him graduate and be rid of him.'

As I thought about that, I was reminded of the mysterious guy who was representing our academy at the Wizardry Kingdom's annual Magic Tournament. If he didn't win the tournament in our name and made us a laughing stock, I would personally find him and feed him to that group of old women... Just thinking about that bunch of child predators made me want to vomit.

'Hiro... I don't know who you are, but you better win.'