Eon left the house in a hurry. He was never the type of guy who would run late for any appointments, but the excitement of today's tournament kept the boy up all night, and resulted in him oversleeping. "Eon don't rush like that! You could seriously injure yourself!" his mother yelled as he sprinted past her in full force.

"As long as you are aware of your surroundings, you can always dash without running into anything!"

Eon remembered Leonhart's quote.

Eon reached the town square just in time, where the tournament was supposed to be held. As he walked through the streets he could not help but stare at the cracked walls of most of the houses. It always fascinated him how the bigger buildings of the town were largely unharmed by the Apocalypse Dragon's strike, while most of the smaller buildings were reduced to dust. It's been four years since the attack and the town has been steadily recovering since then, but the mental scar that was left in its people was not going to heal in a long shot.

The battleground was nothing too fancy. A wooden platform in the center of the town square that has multipurpose usage. From festivals to ritual dances, the platform was truly the heart of the town.

"Good thing you finally came. I almost thought you wouldn't." Darryl said as he let out a laughter. He was apparently in charge of the matchmaking. "Just because we are buddies doesn't mean I'm gonna give you any unfair advantage", he whispered to his friend desperately trying to catch his breath.

"Didn't expect any less from you", Eon smiled. It was kind of amusing for him to imagine how a referee could even think about showing biased opinion in a public spar like this one.

Every year Aeria holds a battle tournament to see who's the strongest fighter in the town. Whoever makes it to the top is allowed to challenge the champion, Brute, to an exhibition match. His tough physique and muscular figure itself is intimidating to most fighters, and knowing he is one of the most capable hunters in the town didn't help. No one so far has been able to even so much so lay a finger on Brute in five years. So he had been successfully defending his title without any competition so far.

Eon was matched against a rookie warrior in my first round. It was slightly rare to see swordmasters or any other melee combatants in their mage-focused town. But it wasn't really that uncommon. Eon knew there were some non-mage fighters in the Hunter's council of the town as well. And it would be a mistake to take them any lightly.

"So what kind of skills do you specialize in?" He asked."

"Don't reveal your cards to your opponent as long as you don't have to."

Leonhart's words echoed in Eon's mind.

"Why don't you observe rather than asking me about them?" Eon replied. As the warrior made the first move and charged at him with his mighty sword, Eon swiftly dodged the sword and landed a swift kick on his shoulder from behind.

"You won't get away with this!" The challenger's rage was followed by a howl, increasing his power even further. He charged at Eon with an all-out sweep but ended up being knocked out as Eon landed another kick horizontally on his head.

Eon swept his way through the next matches and was able to finish the final round with little to no difficulty. It was his first time participating in this tournament, unlike most of the challegers whom he was clearly superior in terms of battle skills. It felt good to finally be able to test his skills against real fighters instead of dummies and monsters in all his years of training in the wilderness. And he still did not reveal any of his spells and solely depended on his non-magical combat capabilities.

"You probably can even face Brute with your skill level", the final challenger said as he fell on the ground, accepting his defeat.

"And the winner of the tournament is Eon! With this win he is now eligible for facing none other than the mighty Brute himself! Let Goddess Cogna shower her blessings to Eon in his upcoming battle!" Darryl announced as the crowd went wild.

Champion Brute liked to stay unaware of his opponent's skills and such till he faced them, as it made the battle slightly more challenging for him. He didn't bother to reach the town square before the tournament has already ended and the winner had been decided.

It took around half an hour for the champion to appear. Watching him stand against Eon on the opposite side of the ring was enough to sent a chill down Eon's spines. His intimidating bulk and the pitiful look on his face didn't help Eon either. Though Eon did realize he was kind of bored and sick of all this competition stuff as well. And he probably wanted to end this as soon as he can and go home.

"I'll try to make this as less painful as possible", Brute charged towards Eon and before the later could even make a move, his hand was holding Eon's head. Without wasting a moment he smashed the boy against the floor. At that point Eon started to realize what the difference of power level was between the tournament winner and the champion. And with his current condition he had no chance of winning against this behemoth.

Eon finally decided it was the right time to use his skills. "Vampette magic: smokescreen!" He chanted and created a cloud of black smoke around himself, making him undetectable for a short period.

He sneaked behind Brute and unleased his next skill, "Starwolf magic: Claws of Fury!"

"What's this?" A rather amused Brute grabbed Eon's wrists and nullified the Claws of Fury. The constructed bright blue mana in shape of claws that veiled Eon's hand quickly diffused in thin air. He lift Eon off the ground as the creepiest smile one had ever seen appeared on his face. "Now this is interesting. Is that a Blue Mage I see? Are you telling me the standards of this tournament has steeped so low that a Blue Mage has managed to win the tournament?"

Brute threw Eon at the other side of the platform. Being pretty athletic himself, Eon somehow managed to recover and land on his feet.

"Why are you even here, boy? Go show your magic tricks to some circus or something." Brute laughed. "Blue Magic is not suited for battles anyway".

"You clearly don't know a thing about Blue Magic", Eon finally opened his mouth, "It's way more than just simple party tricks." He rushed towards Brute with another Claws of Fury, but got deflected back and landed on the same spot he started from.

"Here we go again", Darryl let out a sigh.

"You have a high affinity for magic. Why would you waste your potential on something trivial like that?" Brute questioned, "you should reconsider your life decisions."

"Never, ever doubt yourself. Whatever you believe in is the path that you are destined to take."

Leonhart appeared in Eon's mind again.

"Arachnid magic: Sticky Web!" Eon casted a tiny magic circle in front of his palm and projected whitish strings at Brute, binding and immobilizing him.

"Why are you guys this persistent? You're almost as stubborn as the other Blue Mage I knew back in the day." Brute struggled to tear the strings apart. "His foolishness ended up being his demise during the Apocalypse Dragon's strike. He didn't accomplish a thing, and was killed like a street rat that he was. What was his name again? Leonhart?"

The last sentence caused Eon's facial expressions to disappear in a snap. "Leonhart didn't die in vein.." He mumbled. "You don't know anything, do you? At least he fought the dragon till his last breath.. where were you when the Dragon attacked?" Eon's voice as calm as it was cold. He could feel some form of pent up anger consuming him slowly.

"We were in the safehouse. We took the right decision and lived to see another day." Brute laughed, "That idiot tried to be a hero and look how that worked out for him."

"Nature's power comes from its instincts. Animals solely rely on their rage for their power. Blue Magic's true potential recides in the caster's emotions. In easier words, the angrier you are, the stronger you get." Draconic magic: Saurian Slash!

Eon leaped towards Brute, before his thoughts could register, his body started charging against the mighty champion. His right arm engulfed in an arcane violet aura taking a claw like form on the extremitiy. Eon slashed through Brute's face as the latter screamed in pain. But the shockwave caused by the spell allowed him to tear through Eon's Sticky Webs as he landed a direct blow on the young boy's face. It was a powerful hit, enough to knock Eon out. Against brute strength of that level the tournament winner couldn't really imagine this battle going any other way.

Eon felt his body hit the ground as he slowly lost his consciousness.