“Alright then… it’s time for the inner class battle. Your results will be logged to change your rankings and you will each face the person one rank below you, and afterwards fighting the person ranked above you.” Jonathan was surprisingly serious, but given the occasion it was understandable.

Today was the last day of the first term tests, all the theoretical things having been done before… today was the day the battling began in earnest.

In three months of training, the S-Class students felt that it was a good time to test themselves against each other.

“For the first battle, we’ll be having Tony face Leah.” Jonathan’s statement was met with the other five students stepping away from the arena.

The arena was one of three, a public place between the school and the nearby Mystic Zone, no one was allowed in the arenas without reason and a teacher watching.

The S-Class students had the arena to themselves on this day, with the other classes getting their chance to use the Arena over the rest of the week.

After moving to the seats, Tony and Leah were left in the arena facing each other down, Leah raising her baton in preparation while Tony instead stared at his own hands.

“How do you think this battle will go?” Jade asked Kazuya who was looking towards the two with approval in his eyes.

“I don’t know. The two of them are the shiest people in our class, but… insecure people don’t get as strong they do.” Kazuya was nearly ignored for Jonathan signalling the start of the match.

Immediately after the words registered, Tony was moving, sparks shooting off of his form as he augmented himself with Lightning to increase his speed.

Leah was not idle; moving backwards as she conducted her Elements, having witnessed Jonathan’s example of pure water, Leah now had a defensive advantage against Tony’s most used Element…

Tony snapped off shots of Lightning by flicking his arms, the sparks landing harmlessly on the semi-spherical shield created by Leah, and the other S-Class students were watching with fascination.

Liza wasn’t as interested given her lazy nature, but even she cared for the two and their fight.

“This is impressive.” Edward’s words got a nod from Kazuya, and Vince was smiling in glee watching the results of his training with Tony.

“It’s more impressive than it first seems though.” Vince said as he pointed to Leah’s movements.

“Leah didn’t get a chance to train with Tony like I did, so she doesn’t know what he’s doing… but he’s basically boxing her in.” it was a bit more obvious now that it was stated, but that was indeed what was happening.

No matter how good of an insulator pure water was, it cost Essence to maintain, and thus would tire out a Sage if they used it continuously.

Knowing this, Leah was creating as thin a film as possible whenever necessary, and if she could dodge the attack she would.

But some were slightly easier to dodge than others, and it was those bolts of lightning used as bait to lure Leah into moving progressively into the corner of the arena…

Moments after making this observation, it seemed that Leah realized the issue herself, frowning upon noticing that she was just next to the corner of the arena.

“It’s like I mentioned, my family specializes in hunting Mystic Beasts… so I taught Tony how to hunt.” Vince’s smirk said a lot, and given by the surprise on Tony’s face, even he was surprised the tactic worked.

“Hunters have numerous methods to getting their prey, from traps, to assassination, use of tools, and occasionally, herding.” Vince explained as Leah snapped off a few blades of Wind, Tony backing off slightly as he summoned a wall of Darkness to block the attacks, his eyes glowing with the ability to ‘see’ Elements like Jonathan taught them.

“It’s something most animals do, but when fleeing from a predator, they move across the path of least resistance… so if you know what that path is, or better yet, made the path yourself…” Vince lead off as Edward smirked with a nod.

“You lure them into a position you want. That’s pretty smart.” Edward admitted wondering if he should reconsider his opinion of Vince’s intelligence…

Then again, their entire class was in the top ten percent academically, so there were no dumb people in their class.

This was made worse because Liza scored the highest in class without even studying, and it had everyone else glaring at her when she proudly held out her results uncaring of any of their opinions… except Kazuya of course.

He just nodded, patted her head, and everyone was moving on from the incident.

“It is smart… but I wouldn’t count Leah out so easily.” Jade warned, thinking to the female half of the shy duo battling in front of them.

“You’re right… strong.” Liza added in with a glance to Leah who was in the corner of the arena with her shield of pure water.

And yet for all that she was in a disadvantageous position, Leah was suddenly rooted in place, blasting off water and wind in an attempt to dominate Tony who was struggling to get closer.

“Vince, it seems that you forgot to tell Tony about the cornered rat which bites the cat.” Kazuya warned to Vince who was frowning as Tony focused on using his Darkness to defend while charging forward.

Vince and Tony were surprisingly good friends despite their vastly different personalities, especially after training with each other for so long, and Vince had come to a realization.

The two of them, along with Jade, were remarkably similar in the ‘types’ of Elements they had received.

Vince used Wood and Light, the first of which was usually defensive or supportive, and the latter of which dominated the majority of the other Elements through sheer speed and power.

Jade used Metal and Light, the latter like Vince, she had the speed of Light with the support of a defensively powerful Element like Metal.

Tony had Darkness and Lightning, the latter was known as the rampaging Element when it came to power, and the former was the one Element that properly countered light.

Darkness, as an Element, was in fact amongst the most conditional, only being powerful under certain conditions as every Element had something which it could use against Darkness…

And yet Darkness was considered one of the two Higher Elements along with Light.

Darkness and Light were opposites in almost every aspect.

Light was versatile with a focus on offence and a slight lack of defence.

On the other end, Darkness was amazing in defence but subpar for straight forward attacks, and could be used for debilitating effects.

Long explanation aside, Vince and Tony were similar in Elements and their capabilities… and yet Vince couldn’t help but feel that Tony should be the stronger between the two.

Vince was all too aware of Tony’s ability after sparring with him for almost two months straight, and Vince was determined to get Tony to reach his potential.

This culminated in a relationship in which Vince tried to include Tony in everything to get him out of his shell, and Tony followed along trying to keep Vince from getting too loud.

So Vince was personally hoping for Tony to win this match…

“They’re stalemating, Leah’s too good at defence for Tony to edge closer, and Leah doesn’t have the firepower to defeat Tony… This match will be decided in one move.” Kazuya determined as he watched, with Liza speaking up.

“Subtle… overt won’t work.” Deciphering the meaning, Liza was saying that what the two were doing currently wasn’t going to get them a win, and instead of a flashy attack, it would be some subtle movements which would decide the battle.

“Leah wins for now.” Edward determined after a moment of watching the stalemate, getting the other four to look closely.

“She does, doesn’t she… impressive distraction.” It wasn’t quite visible unless you were looking at Leah from behind her shield, but the lower part of it was not there…

Wind was slowly passing through there, pressurizing itself around the floor, like a snake coiling to strike.

“Tony’s own attack is taking too long to get ready in comparison; she’ll strike first and win because of it.” Edward explained as they noticed a thin strand of shadow attempting to connect itself to Leah, but before it could do so, Leah struck.

Slashing upwards with her baton had a wall of air pressure shoot up from the floor, Tony not seeing it due to the blasts of water hiding the glow of the Wind energy when using Essence to see, and with that attack he was sent flying out of the arena.

“Victor, Leah Marx. Leah, you retain your sixth ranking… I also noted that you are impressive defensively, this will also be considered.” Jonathan being serious was an oddity most days, but his presence demanded attention when he acted as such.

After checking on Tony, Jonathan kept Leah where she was, raising his hand.

On the side of the arena were Principal Oren and Vice-principal Porter, watching the events with interest.

Given his Element of Light, the vice-principal began to heal Leah of her exhaustion, keeping her at her peak performance for her next match.

Light was one of the best Elements for pure healing purposes but not everyone could do it even if they had the Light Element.

Following Leah getting healed, Vince stepped into the arena, a grin on his face as he held his two pistols at the ready.

“Well… this is a clear-cut match…” Edward and Kazuya both looked a bit awkward at the match up…

Indeed, Leah had proven that she had improved, but Vince…

He was surprisingly strong, especially over a range. And given that Leah fought at roughly the same range, the advantage was more for Vince.

The match was depressing.

The moment the match began Vince began to attack, uncaring of his defence, instead rooting himself to the floor using his Wood Element while blasting at Leah, who was unable to dodge and forced to block the barrage of lasers.

By forcing her to block, Vince forced her back bit by bit by turning himself into an impromptu turret, a strategy that only worked on those incapable of shrugging off his shots in some manner.

Granted, Leah fought as best as she could by attempting counters, counters which fell short of truly harming Vince

Not only were her counters not working so well, but Vince had both greater combat experience and the advantage of range and attack between the two combatants.

His defence was almost non-existent due to his weapon choice, but with how he attacked, Leah had next to no chance to try and counter.

The match ended with Vince tossing Leah out of the ring using blunted bamboo spears bursting from the ground after surprising her with a flash-bang attack.

“Victor, Vince Makarov… I will have both of you training in up close fighting eventually as any weakness will be exploited by the enemy, regardless of who or what they are.” Jonathan warned as Vince and Leah were healed by the Vice-Principal.

“Vice-Principal Porter is pretty quiet huh?” Jade noted before she walked into the ring, getting nods from the other students…

They had barely heard the man speak more than a sentence at a time, making one wonder if he was related to Liza with how they both spoke haltingly at times.

“Okay, so now it’s Jade and Vince… any prediction?” Leah asked the two ‘combat specialists’ of the class, Kazuya and Edward who seemed more interested in fighting than most of the other students.

They were all Sages, they all learnt about fighting, but these two truly enjoyed it compared to the others.

“…Vince.” Kazuya admitted with an awkward smile, surprising Tony and Leah, but getting nods from both Edward and Liza.

“Yeah, if you look at his ability Vince is not as silly as he seems. He is truly strong, and should he erase his only two weaknesses, he’d be about the same level as Kazuya and I.” Edward admitted, and he and Kazuya shared a glance.

They truly expected Vince to win, the reason was more than just combat experience, but between the two, Jade just didn’t have the same skills as Vince.

“I mean, Jade does have a chance, but only if she pulls something surprising.” All talking paused as Jonathan started the fight, and suddenly there was silence.

It was a blur, even to the enhanced senses of two-Star Sages, a streak of light piercing towards Vince, who only survived out of pure instinct as he fell into a reverse roll, just barely dodging the stab to where his head was.

“Okay, she did something surprising.” Kazuya added as Jade flicked her rapier causing blades of Light to shoot out.

Vince, knowing the attack was coming given the range difference, raised a wall of vines to block.

Vince moved away from the wall he had just created, despite being able to use it defensively, this was the correct choice as the wall of vines were suddenly shredded by a large amount of moving blades, created from Jade’s use of the Metal Element.

Jade originally was a powerful combatant, she had to be to rank fourth in a class where her only superiors were those with ‘unique’ elements and one guy with three.

But her shortcoming was quite obvious, if she didn’t block with her Metal Element she would be hurt easily, and she had low endurance.

Knowing this, Edward, Kazuya, and Liza could defeat her due to their strength. Leah didn’t have enough power to defeat Jade and Tony might not land a hit as he currently was, despite Tony having Elements perfectly suited to defeating Jade.

The only person with a shot in the lower ranks was Vince due to possessing the same element of Light, and given his improvements, they had expected him to be better than Jade by now.

“… She must have been training outside of our spars.” Kazuya admitted, not seeing any other plausible explanation for why Jade was stronger than expected…

None of them blamed her for hiding her strength, as annoying as it might be to Vince at current, as it was a natural thing to want to have a trump card, something to secure victory.

And the best trump cards were those that no one expected to be used.

“Right, she h-has increased e-endurance and s-s-stamina t-thanks t-t-to your s-spars.” Tony’s statement was met with nods and a sympathetic pat on the back once he realized he spoke aloud and reverted to shy.

Slowly but surely, he’d get confidence, the other S-class members were determined to see that happen.

Jade was indeed proving that her own training was paying off, moving too fast for Vince to keep away from for long, and even with using vines and thorns as deterrents Jade just powered through by using her Metal Element offensively instead of defensively.

Jade was the only Metal user in the class, so she couldn’t trade advice with anyone except Kazuya due to his own ability to use every Element equally.

And Kazuya said something that really got Jade thinking.

‘I can use every element, and because of that, I’ve realized something… stereotypes are a load of shit.’

It was a bit crude for Jade’s tastes from the usually calm Kazuya, but Jade eventually managed to figure out what he was trying to say from his words.

Elements all had their own stereotypes about their usability, how Lightning couldn’t be used for defence, or Water was a sub-par element or Darkness being slow.

Those were stereotypes. And if Kazuya was to be believed, stereotypes were, as he said, a load of shit.

And following this idea, Jade actually began to research her own Elements, finding their stereotypes and then working out why they began to be perpetuated.

Light had many relations to religion and ‘holiness’ and while that was debateable, the King of Light was a devout believer of the One God and he was known to have been raised in a rural church.

Honestly his story was like one of those Chinese Wuxia novels Jade liked reading…

But the truth was that Light wasn’t ‘holy’ or anything like that, it was just a preconceived notion as to the nature of Light.

Light was ever-present.

Light did not discriminate.

Light was the fastest thing in existence until stopped by Darkness.

Strong enough Light could pierce through anything.

These were the beliefs that Jade began to hold during her investigations, and she put into use.

Her ability to boost herself with Light had jumped by a huge amount, though it did come with one singular drawback in that she did not defend herself while doing this.

As for Metal, it had its own stereotypes as being the ‘strongest defensive element’ and its users all being people who were extremely powerful physically.

Principal Oren was indeed amongst the greatest defensive Sages in existence, probably the greatest…

But he wouldn’t have become a King on just blocking attacks.

Metal was dangerous. Metal could be used to create, and so often it was used to destroy.

In this case, Jade was beginning to figure out that she should not neglect destruction for creation or vice-versa. The result of this thought were her new ‘blade bombs’ as she called them.

Focusing her energy a suitable distance away from herself, she created a ball of serrated blades chopping out at everything in its radius, leaving behind the blades to act as a shield or ammunition for further attacks.

“She’s… becoming a crowd-controller.” Liza remarked, watching as Vince was forced to pull himself back with vines grown from the grown when one of the left over blade bombs stretched out to cut at him.

“Right, she’s creating pockets of space where her enemies cannot enter, more than that, it would take time to get rid of those things unless you can use Authority to wrest control over them.” Edward added, and Kazuya smirked.

“But that’s just it… during the time spent making those blades unusable, she’d already be attacking you herself with her new and improved speed.” Kazuya wasn’t aware of this, but Jade’s blade bombs were not originally like this.

Originally they were just set to take up a small amount of space as a projectile, a ball of blades that would hurt you in some way sent hurtling towards you, which she’d have hover around her.

The reason for their current form was in fact Vince himself who was struggling against them.

Jade was strict, if not on other people, then on herself. She considered herself as needing to put in more effort to keep up with true genii like Liza, Kazuya and Edward.

This train of thought was what got Jade into the habit of trying to find hints and advice in any place she could, one of which was Vince.

She couldn’t stand Vince’s casual disregard for calm mannerisms, but in the same breath she couldn’t help but admire his ability to be positive about everything.

Vince was a bit of an oxymoron to Jade, in that he was a slacker, but also someone who showed nuggets of hidden wisdom from time to time.

His latest one about hunting got Jade thinking, about ‘controlling which path is taken’ and she worked from there.

“The only issue here… is that those can’t be cheap to create Essence-wise.” Leah spoke out, knowing about the issues with Essence expenditure.

Leah used Water as a Sage, and while there were indeed components of Water in the air, it still cost quite a bit of Essence to create any meaningful impact in an area without much water.

“She’s using a l-l-lot of energy m-making t-those...” Tony added, both of the two shy ones trying to ignore the urge to keep quiet and blush.

There was a bet going on between the other members of the S-Class onto whether or not those two would end up together, and if so, when.

The most outlandish bet was Liza who bet they’d end up together in eight to ten years. It was up there with Kazuya betting that they wouldn’t end up together at all.

Funny enough, Jonathan was the bookkeeper for that bet, having taken the bet money and put it into a bank account to gain interest if Tony and Leah got together.

This meant the longer it took, the more money the winner would earn…

Ignoring the insanity of that bet, their statements were true, Metal was amongst the most costly of Elements in places like the current arena which was made of compact dirt.

Perfect for an Earth Sage, not so great for a Metal Sage.

“She should be fine… then again, who knows what Vince might do.” Kazuya was taking note of the expression on Vince’s face as he fought.

Jade’s was a neutral gaze, her base facial expression looking stern though, whereas Vince’s gaze in the current fight was that of someone who was struggling, but had not given up.

If anything, Vince’s eyes did not align with his expression, which was grinning widely at the challenge.

The rest of the fight was pretty much a rinse and repeat of what was happening before, with Jade creating blade bombs to block off Vince before herding him into getting closer to her, and Vince somehow escaping.

It was pretty standard after Vince ‘narrowly’ escaped four times.

It was then that Kazuya began to shake his head.

“Jade… Jade almost had it, but Vince wins. It’s just a matter of how at this point, but Jade couldn’t do a conclusive final blow, she’s too tired to do so at this point.” Kazuya trained with Jade himself, so he was well aware of her limits.

Granted, the blade bomb was a surprise, but techniques did not truly contribute when it came to basic energy count, and Jade’s limit was fast approaching.

In comparison, Vince who was firing shots only occasionally with one of his two light pistols was doing fine. Sweating of physical exertion and stress from having to narrowly dodge blade bombs and ripping them away with vines, but fine.

The end to the fight approached when Jade lunged forward for another light speed stab at Vince, only to be met with a wall of interlocking vines.

Cutting through, Jade stumbled due to her exhaustion, giving Vince the opening to place one of his pistols at the back of her skull.

“Match over, the winner is Vince Makarov, the newly appointed fourth ranked.” Jonathan didn’t seem too surprised, though the Principal was looking at Jade with contemplation in his eyes.

It was gone before anyone could see it, and Vince had his arms in the air in glee at having won the fight, only to get a glare from Jade.

“Take the ranking for now… I’ll be back for it later.” Jade huffed as she walked away after being healed by Vice-Principal Porter, leaving Vince to stare at her back as she walked away.

Smirking, Vince turned back to the opposite side of the stage to see his next opponent, worry in his eyes.

No wonder, given that it was Edward standing across from him, the powerful third ranked of the S-Class students.

“This… might be a close match, but Edward is just too strong.” Kazuya frowned as Jade entered the stands with the rest of the S-Class students.

“Ah… I g-get your point… as a-annoying as it is t-t-to admit, you, Edward and Liza a-a-are all on a d-different skill level compared t-to the rest of us.” Tony admitted looking away with a frown, managing to get through the sentence slowly but surely.

His words were sadly true. The lower four members of the S-Class were powerful in their own right, but the top three members of their Class were abnormally powerful, which might have been due to their Elements.

Rank one, Liza von Krown, with the Element of Time she was the only three-Star Sage amongst their year, her only real weakness being that using her Element was exhausting.

And seeing as there was a rule against competing between Stars unless in training, her position as Rank one was secure until one of the other S-Class students reached three Stars.

It was because of this that Kazuya would not get a chance to fight Liza unless he became a three Star Sage, something that irritated him surprisingly…

Speaking of, the rank two of their class, Hiiro Kazuya (who preferred to be called by his surname), with the Element of Essence, he was the most versatile combatant around due to being able to use each Element equally…

Kazuya’s only true weakness in regards to Elements was ironically time.

He needed time to train, learn, and adjust each Element to his use, where everyone else only had to study an element or two, he was forced to study all ten if he wished to succeed as a Sage.

Clearly he was a good study considering his power.

And now in the ring, rank three, Edward Valzard, middle child of the three Princes of the Empire, and possessing three elements, Fire, Earth and Ice.

Compared to the above two, Edward had a much more glaring weakness in his lack of range and that he was only as powerful as his body/armour.

Edward didn’t let that stop him as he smirked at Vince who prepared his guns for the battle.

“Just looking at battle-type, Vince would have the advantage… but unfortunately, Edward knows exactly what his weaknesses are, and he plans around his enemies taking advantage of that.”

Kazuya’s words would have summed up the following fight very simply actually.

The moment Jonathan started the fight, Vince moved back, firing as many ‘bullets’ of Light as possible.

Kazuya considered them lasers, but according to Vince they were not the same, as Light bullets had mass to them… somehow.

The problem with Vince’s bullets were that they were admittedly dangerous and had to be blocked… and Edward was powerful enough to easily block it with a shield of solid earth wrapped around his arms, using said arms as shields to block the lasers.

Each shot would erase a part of the arm guards, but Edward easily just gathered more rock to make up for the difference.

Of course, while blocking, Edward was rushing forward, revealing one of the primary weaknesses of Light Element…

It had very little to no weight behind it naturally.

Every Element with the exception of Light, the ‘Strongest Element’ had an actual weight to their attacks… Light didn’t.

Light had force, Light had speed, but it didn’t have any proper weight to its attacks so as to stagger an enemy.

Hit someone with a sword of Light and they’d get cut, but they wouldn’t be forced back because the sword would have the effective weight of a balloon unless the Sage using the sword altered the properties of their Light.

It’s one of the reasons why Kazuya supported Jade’s choice of weapon in the rapier. It matched the type of Element she used, including her other Element of Metal.

So despite being capable of dealing very real damage… Vince’s attacks had little to no way of breaking through Edward’s tank-like charge as he renewed his armour while doing so.

Vince’s smirk momentarily turned into a frown, as he moved back, driving his foot into the ground in an attempt to use his Wood Element to bind or slow down Edward…

It was not to be, given that another of Edward’s Elements was Fire. Utilizing simultaneous control of two different Elements, Edward coated his lower half in flames to incinerate all the roots attempting to grapple or spear into him.

An odd point would be that the Fire didn’t burn the uniform Edward wore, but the uniform was surprisingly sturdy… and resisted the effects of most Elements, made by Sages for Sages.

That was when the ‘effects’ weren’t focused on breaking through said uniforms of course, as they were resistant, not immune.

“This is a sad match up.” Liza added as she watched Edward close the gap, a feat attributed to his overall extreme physical ability…

It was something that annoyed Kazuya, but Edward’s physical ability was the peak of what was possible for his amount of Stars, when looking at just that, Edward was the strongest in the class.

The moment he was close enough to attack Vince, Vince gave up without even trying further, getting a frown from Edward who hadn’t even gotten a chance to punch his opponent.

No one caught Vince’s lack of expression as he walked away in thought, as by the time Vince got to the stands he was back to grinning.

“Winner, Edward Valzard, retaining his third rank. Vince, while it is indeed smart to know when to throw in the towel, I find it disappointing that you didn’t even try fighting up close. Fix it.” Jonathan warned as Vince saluted the teacher.

“Good luck.” Liza patted Kazuya as he sighed nodding to her before walking towards the stage…

Given that no one would be allowed to fight Liza right now, this was the final match of the day, and also the most anticipated.

“Hm… this is a tough match to determine…” Jade wondered as Edward and Kazuya smirked at each other, taking a moment to bump fists before walking to their starting positions.

“It is. The two of them are good friends and the two strongest members of our class not counting Liza…” Leah added, oddly serious as she watched the match up.

“We never really get a chance to analyse those two… they’re usually the ones helping us out.” Vince admitted, not having noticed another audience member appearing.

“Allow me to shed some light on the matter before the match begins.” Everyone but Liza jumped at the sudden voice of Principal Oren joining their conversation, then realizing what the man was talking about.

“You see, Edward and Kazuya were invited to attend this school the moment they became Sages due to their uniqueness, and were monitored since then. I’ve seen both grow into powerful warriors in their own right.” The King of Metal smiled as he watched the two in the fighting ring prepare.

“Edward was trained by his elder brother Gregory and he possesses amazing instinct and combat growth, as well as a powerful physique which is a weapon in its own right.” The Principal patted his own arm jokingly, reminding the students that this man was a ‘no-weapon’ fighter like Edward himself, the strongest known fighter of such a type too.

If there was an expert on the matter, Donovan Oren was definitely one to listen to.

“On the other hand… Kazuya was trained in an odd-manner…” The Principal himself seemed a bit lost on how to explain this bit, but then shrugged in decision.

“Kazuya was not really trained… more like he was limited.” The Principal’s words got everyone to look at Kazuya as Vince recalled Kazuya’s words about the katana… it was a secondary weapon.

“Kazuya is talented in only one sense, which is that he is constantly training to increase his strength without losing enthusiasm. In base combat sense and physical ability, Edward is admittedly better, but Kazuya has more experience in combat.” The Principal looked from the students to the stage.

“I do not know who will win, but both of them have something over the other.” With that being said Jonathan signalled for the match to begin.

It was an explosive start, literally in Edward’s case as he used fire to propel himself forward with a heavy haymaker towards Kazuya.

Kazuya reacted quickly to the attack by back-stepping, spinning as he did so, dodging the attack and countering in one move as he swung out with the suddenly unsheathed blade.

Edward blocked the attack with his arms coated in ice, confusing some, until Jade nodded, fixing her glasses as she stared at the ice.

“Ah, it makes sense that Edward used Ice to block the blade, as Ice is difficult to cut through without sawing through it. Given that Kazuya is using a cutting edge, Edward would want to use ice… he didn’t use it against Vince because light can reflect off of ice at times.” Jade explained Edward’s use of the Ice Element in his defence as Edward was forced back by the force of Kazuya’s swing.

“Yeah, now that you mention it… but compared to Earth, Ice is brittle, so it’s easier to break with blunt force, isn’t it? Wouldn’t Kazuya know this?” Tony’s question was being answered even as he asked it as Kazuya swung the scabbard of his katana at Edward’s arms, knocking him back and shattering a large part of the ice.

“…I think he has a blunt weapon.” Leah pointed, a dull voice echoing from her which was pretty much what everyone was thinking…

“He reinforced it by the way as obviously hitting someone like Edward with that scabbard would normally break it.” The Principal offered, having not moved away after arriving.

From that moment, the battle became a short range blur of motions, each dodging and blocking, no true hits landed between the two as they kept forcing themselves into their optimal range.

“It’s amazing to watch…” Vince added, staring at the battle, watching as Edward managed to deflect a slash, countering with a short jab followed by a roundhouse kick, Kazuya leaning back to dodge the first and then rolling forwards, bringing his leg up to try and axe kick Edward after Edward’s round house missed.

Kazuya’s axe kick was dodged by Edward side stepping, Edward retaliating with a right upper cut from a low position, cutting past Kazuya’s face while Kazuya jumped back, both snapping back into their starting positions.

“Yes, the both of them are extremely skilled in close quarters combat, though one of them has the advantage.” Jade answered, getting nods from everyone…

Wincing slightly as he held his wrist, Kazuya was clearly the one who was losing out in the close-range battle, though they had limited it to just enhancing and pure physical ability.

“Edward has greater physical strength and instinctual usage of that strength. Compared to him, Kazuya falls slightly short.” The Principal said with a small smile.

“However we are Sages. We are defined by our control over elements… and neither of them really used that ability much.” The Principal smirked as Kazuya and Edward both began to smirk…

They could both tell the turning point of the battle was approaching, as Edward focused, changing his stance.

Originally Edward had something similar to a boxing stance, though with one foot stretched out behind him. Now, he swapped to a different stance where his legs were spread further apart, his chest perpendicular to Kazuya, his right fist brought near his face while his left was facing Kazuya, similar in appearance to a stereotypical Kenpo stance.

Kazuya on the other hand, dropped his sheathe that he was originally holding in his left hand, taking a similar stance to Edward, only stretching his right hand far behind him, still holding the katana.

As they both did this, a subtle shift began to occur, it was instinct that got the students to swap to the Essence Sight which allowed them to see how an Element was being controlled.

On a side note, it made the world appear in a black and white setting, but continued use would eventually have one able to use it constantly, while retaining the ‘colour’ of the world.

“Whoa… they both have really large amounts of Essence huh?” Vince spoke out, witnessing the Essence leaking from the two, not taking shape or controlling anything yet, but clearly preparing to.

The colour Essence took was a strange light purple/blue, and around Edward it stuck closely to his body. In contrast, with Kazuya, he appeared almost like a sun with how much Essence flowed from his form.

That was a given since it was his Element and thus he had about ten times the average amount for someone on the verge of reaching 3-Stars.

“Everyone, how does one achieve growth as a Sage with regards to the amount of power one possesses?” the Principal asked quickly, getting an equally quick response from Jade.

“The body of a Sage is a container for their power, which we now know as Essence. To grow in power, one must either condense their Essence to allow room for more, or increase the size of the container. To condense the Essence is to show great control, to increase the size of the container shows great physical strength.” Jade’s answer was textbook perfect as the Principal nodded.

“Indeed. We know by now that Edward is the strongest in your class in pure physical ability, relatively, meaning that his ‘container’ is large. On the other hand, Kazuya is slightly weaker in that regard, but shows greater control, thus his Essence would possess greater density.” The Principal warned, and thus the fight began once more.

In a surprise move, instead of slashing out with his sword, Kazuya swept around in a rising round-house kick, a visible blade of green Wind extending as Edward flicked his arm, a barrier of Earth dispersing the blade as it washed over the wall.

Edward began stepping forward while bringing his fists together, then extending them forward, turning the barrier into a bullet while Kazuya completed his spin, grasping the handle of the katana with both hands as he used a upwards slash, a burst of Ice flowing from his blade and encasing the stone as it flew.

Changing from clenched fists to claw-hands, Edward flicked downward with his right hand, taking control over the Ice Kazuya had created and forcing it to move downwards, before Edward’s left arm came up in a large clawing motion.

The result was a wave of ice coming to stab/engulf Kazuya, who took a deep breath before breathing out flames, melting the Ice where it was.

Using the sudden supply of water, Kazuya raised his left arm as if backhanding someone taller than him, the water following his motions to actually cut into the last boulder left over from Edward’s barrier, turning it into chunks.

While readying his next attack, Kazuya actually dropped his sword, bringing both fists to his sides before punching out, turning the large boulder into a metaphorical shotgun blast.

Edward spread his palms creating a sphere of flames between his hands, adding a bit of his control over Earth to attract the stones into the spinning vortex of flames in his hands, spinning right around and tossing the ball of lava at Kazuya.

Kazuya responded by slamming a palm on the ground, Darkness spreading from that point, and when the ball of lava crossed the boundary of the ink-coloured ground it suddenly changed direction, slamming into the ground and sinking into the shadow.

Both Kazuya and Edward were staring at each other, smirks still in place, only breathing heavily now.

“Whoa… I can see now why people say a battle between Sages of roughly equal power is a thing of beauty.” Jade whispered, as if speaking louder would break the moment.

“Yes… a battle between Sages of vastly different skill levels shows little to no brilliance. True brilliance comes from technique, skill, and ingenuity shown in the heat of battle.” The Principal knew of a person or two who would disagree, but he would stick to his own views…

“Unfortunately, this match will not continue for much longer… the next exchange should be the last one.” The Principal shook his head with a sigh, even if the two fighting were much weaker than he was, he enjoyed watching close fights like this one.

And as if Principal Oren was a prophet, it came to be.

Edward charged forward, tucking his body as if turning himself into a cannonball, gathering rock in front of him to block any attack Kazuya could send.

Kazuya responded in kind with flicking both arms up, sending many newly created daggers of metal at Edward’s shield, sinking up to the equally metal hilts.

Barely deterred at all by the impacts, Edward arrived at Kazuya, swinging in a massive haymaker as his shield dropped to the floor, his fist aflame.

Kazuya’s smirk had been maintained through the majority of the fight, as had Edward’s… but it was the widening of that smirk that let Edward know something was wrong.

Leaning back and slightly stamping onto the floor, the ground itself lifted slightly and brought Kazuya’s previously forgotten katana into his awaiting hand.

Seeing the re-emergence of Kazuya’s weapon, Edward didn’t stop his attack, instead switching from Fire to Ice as quickly as possible…

This only made Kazuya smirk more as he lifted his left hand raising the bits of dirt that previously existed as Edward’s shield…

Still containing the metallic daggers… all hovering in a circle around Edward…

All while Kazuya’s sword began to spark with blue light…

“Oh crap.” Edward’s eloquent words were followed by a flash of blue light before Edward shocked into paralysis, unable to control his movements as Kazuya raised his sword, no longer sparking, to Edward’s neck, cutting off the flow of electricity, leaving Edward breathing heavily and twitching.

“As Edward can’t move without getting stabbed, the winner is Kazuya Hiiro, who maintains his second place.” Jonathan voiced out, Kazuya dropping his blade while raising his left hand towards Edward, removing the left over electricity.

“Ooh… that stung…” Edward complained as he fell to the floor, not wanting to stand anymore after being hit with the equivalent of a Taser net.

“Course it did, my dad did it to me more than once, and with less metal involved.” Kazuya joked as he extended a hand to help Edward up.

“Well once was enough for me, I’ll leave getting electrocuted to you next time, eh?” Edward joked back as he held out his arm, getting pulled up as he and Kazuya shook hands over the fight.

“Given that Liza possesses three Stars, and Kazuya possesses two, the fight is a given at Liza’s victory, fighting across Stars is something that doesn’t happen in a one on one setting. Thus, Liza maintains her first rank, and Kazuya his second.” Jonathan addressed the class, speaking aloud for the benefit of the Principal and his Vice-Principal.

“As a result of the Inner Class Battle, the rankings are now as follows! Liza von Krown, rank one! Hiiro Kazuya, rank two! Edward Valzard, rank three! Vince Makarov, rank four! Jade Gardenia, rank five! Leah Marx, rank six! And Tony Valdez, rank seven! Of course, we hope that none of you slack off or you will have your rank stolen from you.” Jonathan added towards the end as the S-class nodded…

They had fought each other, and now knew more about the strength the others possessed…

A few minutes later, they were all gone, leaving the Principal, Vice-Principal and Jonathan to talk.

“So, how are they doing, really?” the Principal asked as Jonathan looked to the entrance.

“Quite frankly this class can be split into two groups, the top three, and the other four each make a group. The top three are much stronger in comparison to the others. Talent wise they are all roughly equal, but those three are currently leagues ahead of the others right now… as for their power, I’ll be able to draw up personal plans now that I’ve seen them fight each other.” Jonathan admitted, getting a nod from his two seniors.

“Good… one can only hope they all reach three Stars before the third term… otherwise they’d have no chance at all… the school-wide tournament doesn’t have the same distinctions as the other battles, at that one, you must battle regardless of differences in Stars.” The Principal walked away, thinking about the S-class… the future strongest.