While the Two Star Sages were battling in the first stadium, Liza was thinking in the second stadium.

She was the only first year, so clearly the second years were a bit confused on her placement, but they at least accepted that she would not claim any of their positions if she won, she was essentially an obstacle in their paths…

Much like they were mere obstacles to her.

She had the luck of facing a D-Class second year in the first round, showing that she deserved placement amongst the second-years when she competed equally and defeated her opponent…

But Liza was well aware that stamina was her weak point, and unlike the rest of the groups, she would never get a teammate.

Thus, she expected to be knocked out in the second round, maybe the third if she somehow defeated her B-Class opponent.

But she wasn’t truly here to see how far she could get, she knew her own limits…

What she was here to see was the second-year S-Class.

And seeing that guy who glared at her a few months ago about to fight, Liza began to pay attention.

There was some valuable lessons to be learnt here.

Back in the first stadium, the third round was starting, Jade frowning as she looked upon her opponents.

Yes, plural, as she was facing two A-Class students at the same time. By the start of the third round of the Inter Class Tournament, out of thirty six remaining students, sixteen of them were A-Class students, with five from C and B, four from D and six from the S-Class.

Of course, there were only six people in the S-Class, so technically they had the best ratio of ‘people in class’ to ‘people still in tournament’.

“She’s going to have to break out the Blade Bomb for this fight, regardless of how strong she is in a one on one fight.” Vince knew this well, though he also had to consider if the A-Class students knew how to work together.

If they couldn’t, it could actually lower their total strength, but if they worked well together it could multiply their strength, such was the nature of working in a team instead of alone.

“Yes, not to mention I heard she has a few more ideas for that technique.” Edward mentioned as he watched, Bobby also interested.

“Hm, I might consider that technique… with my Lightning Element I can even boost it.” Bobby admitted, and they could tell that it was simply the attitude of someone who had to constantly work to win.

Anything that could boost his power was worth learning.

The match began, and Jade was immediately on the defensive as a burst of Fire shot at her, accompanied by a gust of Wind.

“Well, that’s bad luck, her opponents have complementary Elements.” Kazuya admitted, though they all knew there were very few Elements that couldn’t work with another.

Darkness, for example, was the perfect partner Element, as it could be used with everything else, even Light, as one could increase or decrease the strength of Darkness by using Light in the opposite manner.

Take away Light, and Darkness is stronger. Give Light, and weaken Darkness, by alternating, the enemy could be off guard.

Anyway, as the fight was continuing, Jade vanished to the side, using her Light to increase her linear movement speed, aiming her rapier at her opponents as she stabbed out, copying Kazuya’s opponent that used Lightning, throwing out lasers of Light.

The only reason they could be dodged was that Jade’s Light was ‘imperfect’ due to her only being a Two Star Sage.

Were it to be the King of Light, he could probably make the distance between himself and his opponents vanish and widen at will with how fast he would be.

Another part of gaining Stars was that their Elements would lose their imperfections, Metal would strengthen, Ice would be colder, and so on and so forth.

So considering this, the imperfection in Light was its speed and properties, the Light of a one Star Sage of Light would be much slower than a three Star Sage of Light.

As such, Jade’s lasers could actually be dodged, appearing like spears of light bursting from her weapon as she sniped her opponents.

“Yes, long-range for the win!” Vince was joyful at seeing someone else in his class use long-range tactics, other than Leah of course.

Jade’s opponents couldn’t block her Light, as neither of them had an Element which could properly stop Light, such as Earth or even Wood.

Wood could even eat Light if the user was good enough…

But Light shone through Wind and Fire even released Light, they were not suitable for blocking Jade’s attacks…

So instead, the two used their weapons, a staff and axe respectively for the Wind and Fire users, to block the Light as they launched their own attacks.

“She’s prepping.” Kazuya, having taught himself how to use the Blade Bomb through watching Jade do it, could see the signs of an impending Blade Bomb.

And it happened right in-between her two opponents, only slightly surprising them as they had seen the blender of sharp objects in Kazuya’s match.

The two immediately stepped away from each other, showing Jade’s tactic of ‘divide and conquer’ as she dashed after the Wind Sage, who was only now seeing what was about to happen.

Jade stabbed forward, using Light to boost her speed as her rapier punched straight through the staff, then using Metal to create hook-like extensions along the rapier to pry the staff from the hands of the boy.

Flinging her off hand to the side towards the Blade Bomb, Jade flicked the staff away as she pulled back stabbing as quickly as she could towards her opponents chest.

Jade was forced back by a large gust of wind knocking her backwards, noting from the corner of her vision that her Blade Bomb was keeping the Fire Sage busy.

When she pushed out her off hand, she was willing her Blade Bomb to untangle itself and become a flurry of blades attacking the other opponent, keeping him busy while she’d handle the Wind Sage.

Of course, focusing on two things at once is insanely difficult unless it was instinct, and while doing this Jade could barely use any other Metal Element techniques.

“She was close to finishing there, but while keeping the Fire Sage off her back she attacked another… She should have decisively used all her power to eliminate one, as any injury gained from the other would likely have been negligent.” Bobby critiqued harshly, knowing that a firm mindset was important to a Sage.

The man that hunts two rabbits catches none, or so the saying went.

“Yes, but Jade is the cautious sort, even with a clear advantage she won’t do anything until she is certain of victory… it’s both a good thing, and occasionally a bad.” Tony added.

Jade refused to lose, despite having to dedicate one Element to each of her opponents, and at practically half strength at that, as she dashed forward, attacking the Wind Sage.

The Wind Sage was clearly trying to push Jade out of the ring with a blast of wind, or somehow break her bracelet with wind blades as they fought, but Jade was having none of that, being too used to watching Leah in action to get hit even by the near invisible attacks.

The Wind Sage was a bit cocky though, thinking that Jade’s use of Metal was being stymied by his comrade, Jade wouldn’t be able to properly blast him out with just Light.

He was definitely wrong, as the Blade Bomb suddenly stopped attacking the Fire Sage, crawling at a worrying speed towards the Wind Sage.

Swapping targets, Jade dashed towards the Fire Sage with her rapier at the ready, the blades now attacking the Wind Sage.

“Okay, there’s some strategy there, Wind rarely if ever defeats Metal when the two meet head-on, and Fire generates Light, empowering her own attacks.” Bobby said, blinking a bit in surprise at how quickly Jade moved on from her first plan.

“If it doesn’t work, try something else, again and again until something sticks. It’s a brute force method, but Jade does put thought behind what she does.” Leah defended her fellow female from Bobby’s judgement, getting Bobby’s palms raised in surrender.

Jade’s new approach was clearly working as she finally managed to land decisive blows, cutting into the Wind Sage’s stomach, and a laser slash slamming the Fire Sage out of the ring.

Coming back from her victory, Jade fell into her seat with a sigh of relief.

“That was tiring… I’ve noticed, but why are our fights so quick?” Jade’s question wasn’t exactly wrong, many of their fights ended in one or two hits at most.

“Stars. Remember how they affect your physical ability as well? Normal humans would die getting hit by some of your attacks, and as two Star Sages you have much more durability than them, but not as much as you will have someday.” Bobby said, picking up a knife and handing it to Kazuya.

“Stab my hand.” Kazuya didn’t even hesitate as the blade blurred to stab his senior in the hand.

The blade broke, leaving the group surprised.

“That’s the gap between a low class Sage and a middle class Sage. Of course, if that knife were a special metal you would have harmed me, but I think that’s proof enough that someday you’ll find your fights stretching in length.” Bobby’s explanation made sense, two Star Sages were certainly above normal humans, almost one hundred times better…

But even as one Star Sages they would have been able to injure a human with one hundred times the average durability, if not outright killing them.

With the newly acknowledged information, the S-Class watched as Vince went down to the stadium, two A-Classes teaming up in the gap between Jade’s match and his.

“Oh I’m going to have to fight two again…” Jade sighed in horror even as Leah fussed over her friend.

Vince’s fight was kind of depressing, his opponent was a user of the Fire Element from the A-Class, and while his opponent could combat Vince’s vine attacks, the lasers he shot ended the fight when one hit his opponent in the throat.

That was a horrible image, but Vince was showing off his new rank as the fourth strongest in their Class.

Jade was glaring at Vince though, not out of dislike but out of rivalry, knowing she had to up her game if she wanted to get her old spot back.

He relished in the challenge, given by his joking grin.

Then three whole matches were skipped, two due to A-Class students meeting up, making the first group of three students, and Kazuya and Leah teaming up.

“High five!” Kazuya hyped up his perpetually shy partner, who had to almost stand on the tip of her toes to reach his hands.

Just to mess with her…

Kazuya was occasionally sadistic with how he messed with his friends.

Then there was the match between June and Dean’s team against a B-Class team… the two closest to S-Class defeated their opponents handily, cementing their place against Kazuya and Leah in the fourth round.

Then, for Kevin’s team of two, they faced a C-Class opponent and won by a near instant victory, surprising many and giving both Kevin and his partner places in C-Class, as he and the blushing girl hugged out of joy for their progress.

Kazuya already shipped them.

Kazuya would only later learn the irony of a person who enjoys romance not noticing the romance around him.

The next matches were sadly predictable as the highest ranked of the matches kept winning one after the other, including Tony against an A-Class opponent and Edward against his poor C-Class opponent.

The fourth round began with Jade going onto the stage with a sigh…

Only to find that her opponents both used Earth.

Yeah… this fight was actually a bit easier than her previous one, given that Metal was considered a stronger version of Earth (with the drawback of being weak to Lightning) and Light being way too fast for Earth to block correctly unless they read her attacks ahead of time.

They could only do that occasionally, and after a minute or two the two lost, one being tossed out the ring and the other having their bracelet broken.

“You’re lucky you were fighting novices in Earth usage…” Bobby warned Jade as she sat down after her fight, confusing some of the group.

“One of the core lessons all Sages learn is that no Element is weak. Fire is considered the strongest of the basic four Elements, and yet all three other basic Elements possess a method to erase Fire.” Bobby gave an example they understood before he looked to the two opponents who were being taken away.

“Not to mention that a true master of the Earth Element would give you little to no chance to do anything…” Bobby seemed to be speaking from experience, given the way his eyes seemed to glaze over.

The very next fight was Vince against two opponents as well, one with the Lightning Element and the other with the Wind Element.

The battle would have been much more difficult had his opponents not both been long-range fighters using a bow and arrow each.

Vince’s fighting seemed a bit… vindictive, after he realized what weapons his opponents used as he aimed for their weapons, breaking them before launching his opponents out of the ring, using his plants to disturb them.

He seemed to be mumbling something under his breath as he approached, his characteristic smile missing from his face as Vince contemplated something.

Whatever it was, his classmates wouldn’t bother him, only if he wanted to talk would they bring it up.

The third match of the fourth round featured the most Sages in the tournament, three A-Class students against the team of Kazuya and Leah.

“Ooh… I feel sorry for them… their enemies I mean.” Edward mumbled, Tony nodding in agreement.

“Leah… is brilliant at support… and Kazuya is good at reading his teammates.” Tony’s words got nods from everyone, having practiced team fights for the future…

Everyone fought with everyone at least once, and there was a time where the six of them fought Liza alone.

Liza lost that fight, but they all understood that it was because her Element cost too much to use on others at current…

Were she to be able to use Time against her opponents, the result would have probably been much different.

The three best people to have on your team were definitely Leah, Kazuya and Vince.

Tony, Jade and Edward were good, but their fighting styles involved letting them do as they pleased and working around them.

The trio of Leah, Kazuya and Vince was considered the best so far, given all three were good at visualizing the movements of their teammates and offering necessary support.

“Not to mention that Leah and Kazuya are especially good in a team…” yeah, having sparred with each other so much, they understood the fighting style of the other, so Jade was already making a prediction.

“Kazuya will likely be the rampaging melee fighter, while Leah adds subtle defences and attacks from afar.” It was a simple, and sound strategy.

Simple is best.

When on the stage, Kazuya removed his katana from its sheathe, Leah holding up her baton as Kazuya stood in front of her, slightly to the right so she could see her opponents better.

Their opponents had two weapon users and one bare-hand fighter, the two weapons being a sickle and chain and the other using a scimitar.

Kazuya was interested for but a moment before the match began.

Rushing forward, Kazuya worried not for his opponents Elements, as one fired a burst of fire and another had bamboo shoots growing from the ground to spear Kazuya while the bare-fisted fighter ran forward.

Kazuya could counter them all on his own, though he would struggle.

With Leah on his side, he didn’t place them in his eyes anymore, focusing raw Essence into his being.

That was something Kazuya had discovered he could do recently, wondering if he could boost himself without shifting his internal Essence into some other Element.

The result was that he could, and it acted… weirdly.

For other Elements, when they boosted the physical body of a Sage, the Sage would have some things happen based on the Element.

For the Wood Element, they would gain much better stability on the ground and fight better in sunlight, for the Light Element they would gain extreme speed in straight lines and weaken in the dark, so on and so forth.

For Essence, Kazuya found the world itself around him to be more… malleable.

While boosting himself with purely Essence, the rest of the world could be changed slightly at his will. Only slight changes given that he was a two Star Sage, but if he were to do this as a King he might be capable of controlling the world around him easily…

Even things that didn’t quite fit into Elements, such as synthetic materials could be controlled a bit when he was like this.

Liza called it Essence Mode.

Kazuya called her silly and ignored the name.

Much like Liza’s Time Element, it was tiring, it was difficult to focus on as well given that Kazuya had to learn to change his Element into others all his life until now…

But he’d do what he had to do.

While using this ability, Kazuya’s own purplish blue eyes shifted to a shining purple, his hair leaving wisps of purple as he moved.

It was quite obvious to those who were watching that his ability had activated, but his opponents didn’t understand what was happening…

Not to mention that Kazuya was only keeping the ability activated for a moment so as to better maintain his endurance for the next fight.

In that one moment, Kazuya focused on his opponents, and suddenly their own Elements were attacking them, just for a moment before they got it back under control, but it was enough time for Kazuya to launch his first attack.

The bare-handed fighter attempted to jump back, the Earth moving to assist her, only to find her leg held captive by a ball of water.

They had almost forgotten about Leah… Kazuya was sure they’d regret that.

Leah hit better when her attacks were unexpected after all.

Capitalizing on her hold on the girl, Kazuya swung his blade, hitting a stomach covered in Earth to cushion the blow, the girl was blown off to the edge of the arena while the Earth crumbled, leaving the girl heaving for a moment.

On a side note, Sages could have equal strength whether they were male or female, and Kazuya didn’t care to give his enemies special treatment for their gender in the middle of the fight.

To help this mentality, most Sages are taught to simply refer to each other by designations or, if you knew them personally, by name.

Calling the girl a bare-handed fighter made one think ‘male’ which was wrong, but it did help in the fight at least.

Mentality was important in a fight, if one goes in half-assed, they usually falter before a person who is giving their all to a fight.

Continuing the fight, the person with the chain and scythe launched an attack towards Leah in an attempt to keep her out of the fight, only to be met with Kazuya’s sword in the way.

The two of them had their setup already, and Kazuya was well aware of how most people considered the rear of a formation to be the weakness.

In this case, it was unfortunately true given that Leah wasn’t used to close range fighting, but eventually she’d be used to it.

Until then, Kazuya just had to make sure to keep enemies a certain distance from her while she made sure he didn’t lose against his three opponents.

Kazuya was still outnumbered though, facing two people at close range with a third on the way…

At least he had support.

The scimitar user rushed him, and Kazuya could feel the smile coming unbidden.

The weapon user of his class, he felt it funny when people tried to fight him using weapons he used, and a scimitar was close enough to something he was used to using.

His opponent slashed forward, and Kazuya stepped back, batting the blade at the side to parry, and his opponent rolled with the sudden redirection.

A smart move, as Kazuya would have stabbed the boy had he not moved in time.

The battle blurred a moment for Kazuya as he neglected his Element control entirely in exchange for attacking with his blade, the Earth Sage girl attacking him once more while they occasionally attacked Leah…

The fight came to an abrupt end when Leah managed to create the equivalent of a sudden monsoon, blasting water into the area above the arena, controlling wind to cover everyone in Water.

The enemies were still confused… until they saw Kazuya’s literal electric smirk.

A burst of Lightning later, and the fight was over for the S-Class’s victory.

“Okay… I’ve been ignoring it for a while, but what is his Element? I’ve seen Lightning, Metal, Earth, and Fire. That is way too many, so the only option I see is that he’s using Elements that he is not a Sage for, in which case, how can he afford to?” Bobby asked, staring as the two S-Class students left their place on the arena.

“Well… Kazuya, Liza and myself are outliers, even among the S-Class Sages. Most S-Class Sages have two elements while I have three, and Liza and Kazuya, while only having one element, each have a unique element.” Edward added, as Kazuya walked closer, trailed by a blushing and smiling Leah.

“Oh, are we talking about how my Element is Essence?” Kazuya asked as Bobby just blinked at Kazuya in confusion.

While the S-Class tried to break the news about the unique information to Bobby, they found another person in their midst, looking at the shortest of their group, Liza.

“Liza, I take it you finally lost?” Kazuya asked as if Liza was there the entire time, getting a nod from the quiet girl.

“Well, how far did you get?” Jade asked her fellow girl, getting a peace sign from Liza.

“Round two… who beat you?” Tony asked getting a sigh from Liza.

“S-Class, second year, First Rank, Julian Benjamin, Light and Earth Sage.” The group nodded, understanding her loss keenly…

The group as a whole might be able to fight above their year, as long as they had the same amount of Stars, but the experience of those at the top were much too different to bridge the gap.

The idea of defeating Julian was nice, but even Bobby, who was heralded as the strongest Student Sage of Elem High for the past decade, only managed to win the school-wide tourney when he was in his second year.

Winning it in your first year was an impossibility.

Some would argue ‘with the power of *insert friendship, will, or whatever else* you can win’ but that just wasn’t normal.

An ant killing an elephant was an impossibility in much the same way.

Even knowing Julian’s Elements was a benefit though, given that they’d be facing the guy eventually…

The fight after Kazuya and Leah’s were June and Dean versus Kevin and his partner…

It was as expected, and many of the D-Class students cheered for them even as they left the arena in loss…

They, considered the weakest in the school, managed to get to the fourth round of a five to seven round tournament.

It was definitely worth cheering for.

Then it was Tony versus an A-Class student, one of the stronger ones.

Tony prepared got in his stance, claws at the ready as his opponent covered himself in some armour of ice.

“Eh, it’s no Clad but it works.” Bobby shrugged, knowing that the armour was in no way a Clad, just pure Ice manipulation and generation.

No two Star Sage had one of the other Six Arts, and Ice had a low voltage carrying ability, meaning the A-Class student would be much less likely to shock from Tony’s attacks.

“Would it though…” Edward mumbled to himself, with one of his own elements being Ice, he was well acquainted with Tony’s countermeasures against that Element.

The fight began, and Tony did not activate his Blitz ability (dropping the Beast, the other S-Class members could accept it) instead moving forward with only a slight boost to his own body using the Lightning Element instead of a full on Blitz.

His opponent moved forward, much slower in comparison, holding his great axe to the side lick a white juggernaut approaching Tony.

Tony was undeterred, charging at Edward when he was charging in return was much more terrifying.

The axe swung, and Tony moved, ducking under as one hand came up to grab the appendage, the other stabbing forward while covered in the deep black of Darkness.

Tony’s opponent clearly thought it would do little, as he shifted a leg to send a spike of Ice towards Tony in retaliation, a double-suicide attempt.

The Ice never reached its target, instead curling back towards the black blades on Tony’s claws, making his opponent widen his eyes as Tony’s blades finally reached.

To the A-Class student, it felt as if someone was simultaneously digging into his side while at the same time pulling all that he was along with the damaged parts.

“Ah, a black-hole effect… not too powerful though.” Bobby noted, and the S-Class students were all surprised…

Tony never showed any ability to do something like this in their spars, or training…

“Ah.” The realization hit Vince first, as Tony’s best friend…

“Tony’s a nice guy… like really nice. He’d never want to hurt friends.” Vince explained aloud, and immediately the rest understood.

Tony was stronger than his rank suggested, they all knew this to some extent, but now knowing that he was forced to keep himself from hurting his friends…

“And now with the bracelets, his opponents would definitely survive his attacks… for the first time, Tony can go at full strength without worrying about the safety of another.”

It was a sobering thought as the Ice Sage screamed in pain, swinging his axe at Tony to try and dislodge the S-Class Sage.

Tony allowed it, ripping his claws out from the icy armour, dying the once white/blue material red with the life force of his opponent.

As Tony did this, he dropped to the floor, placing a palm on the ground as the axe went over his head.

The A-Class Sage switched angles, aiming downwards to hit Tony, who rolled to the side as he spun into a handstand, a foot coming for the side of his opponents head.

“…” the majority of students were simply staring with wide eyes and dropped jaws as the Ice Sage had his entire body spin in the air from the force of the kick, only a few catching the Darkness covering Tony’s foot.

Even while his opponent was in the air, Tony created a ball of Darkness behind his opponent, pulling his body into the direction of said ball.

Then before his opponent even had time to reorient himself the ball disappeared, another ball appearing, this time on the opposite side, pushing the A-Class Sage.

He landed outside the arena, the fight over.

There were no cheers, no claps, just silence.

Some were thinking that the B-Class student that forfeited immediately against Tony might have been the smart one…

“…They’re scared of me again, aren’t they?” Tony asked as he sat down in the stands, watching an A-Class and B-Class student fight.

“Yeah… well, a scary reputation helps a bit?” Leah tried to offer and Tony just sighed.

Bobby on the other hand felt sorry for the two fighting, knowing that they followed that display…

It was like watching in HD and then changing the channel to a black and white movie.

Not only that... but the winner would have to face Tony in the fifth round…

The A-Class guy won, and it was the first time the winner looked sad in the entire ICT.

Edward went down for his match against an A-Class student frowning as he walked onto the stage.

“What’s his problem?” Liza asked as Kazuya shrugged.

“He didn’t really have much of a showing in the ICT…” Kazuya got the idea, Edward enjoyed fighting much more than Kazuya did, and yet Edward hadn’t had much of a showing…

He just railroaded all his opponents until they flew out the ring.

The same was probably going to happen here, and it was kind of obvious.

Edward’s opponent just looked tired himself as the match started.

Edward dashed forward, boosting himself with Fire to move forward, appearing before his opponent.

The man attempted to slash Edward, only to find his blade blocked by gauntlets of Ice.

The clashes happened for a few moments, Edward finding it interesting that his opponent used two short swords.

His opponent didn’t find this as interesting, as even using Light to boost the speed of the slashes Edward was still blocking very well.

After making everyone stare at how fast the attacks were flying, Edward decided to try and end the fight, reaching out and punching his opponent in the sternum, making the boy lose all his oxygen.

While his opponent was trying to draw in air, Edward reached forward and grabbed him by the shirt, tossing him into the air for a moment.

While his opponent was airborne, Edward stretched out his leg, and then spun into a splits, one leg stretching out above his own head.

And as Edward did this, his opponent’s back reached Edward’s foot. The bracelet broke nigh instantly from the force which probably would have snapped the spine of the guy.

“Well, it was a showy ending… probably augmented by pushing himself up with Earth.” Bobby noted with a roll of the eyes, the first years nodding in agreement.

Had Edward not pushed himself further up with the Earth, his enemy probably would have not had his bracelet break after all.

It was showy, and Edward was likely to get a few beatings from Jonathan for it.

With that, the fourth round ended… Now there were only three A-Class Sages, and six S-Class Sages.

Two fights left, one for Tony, and one for Leah and Kazuya against Dean and June.

Skipping Jade and Vince teaming up, it was now Leah and Kazuya’s fight…

The two against two fight had the arena silent, knowing that this was the ‘final’ battle.

The guy who was to fight Tony was clearly reluctant… the less said about that, the better.

“I said we’d be fighting you.” June said, pointing her own rapier at Kazuya, her dagger at her side.

“It won’t be as simple as the other fights…” Dean warned, glaring at Kazuya as well…

Though Dean’s issue with Kazuya was probably that he was a prude and Liza often sat on his lap.

“I-I’m also here!” Leah shouted out, glaring at June and Dean, surprising the two who looked to the often soft-spoken girl.

Kazuya sent a glance to Leah, a small smile on his face as he nodded.

“I…I am a Sage of the S-Class just like Kazuya. I deserve the same respect.” Leah said clenching her fist around her wand.

“…That you do. Leah, was it? I will face you with everything I got.” June said, nodding at their opponents.

Everyone got into a stance, and the fight began.

Dean dashed forward, his weapon being two thicker sticks as he approached, Kazuya moving forward to meet June as she dashed forward first.

June’s Element was Wood, and it was difficult to find a truly strong user of the Element.

It was a saying among Sages that Wood was the most difficult Element to master.

All other Elements had simple applications to use, but Wood had next to no simple uses beyond the creation of roots to stab or grab enemies.

This made sense, given that Wood was practically creating life…

June stabbed forward, while simultaneously raising a wall of thorns behind Kazuya, blocking off his retreat…

Or it would, if Leah hadn’t cut the thorns at the root, creating an updraft to knock the pile of thorns over the two melee fighters, sending the brambles towards Dean who was preparing his own support.

Without even breaking his concentration, Dean moved to the side, and while Kazuya wasn’t a spell-caster and didn’t realize how good that was, Leah could, moving while casting a spell was difficult.

Dean’s spell completed, sending a shotgun blast of light forward, the light curving around June as it blasted towards Kazuya and Leah.

Kazuya in return raised his katana, coating it with darkness as he spun the blade, creating a black hole effect, though his was weaker than Tony’s he compensated with the spinning of the blade, not to mention that Light was weak to gravitational forces.

The bullets impacted Kazuya’s blade, sending him stumbling back, giving an opening for June to dash forward, stabbing at Kazuya with her rapier, and blocking a counter with her off-hand dagger.

It was the same fighting style Liza used when hunting Mystic Beasts, the use of a parrying dagger along with a rapier/sword was considered a fighting style used by Empire Nobility most often, though others also tried, such as Liza and June.

During this exchange, Leah had finished a spell of her own, as a green glow went over Kazuya, boosting his previously high speed even higher using Wind.

“Interesting, rather than attacking Dean she’d rather boost Kazuya…” Bobby murmured as Dean launched another attack similar to his previous, only this time it was a single spear like shot, once more drawn to Kazuya, who angled himself to make the lance go towards June.

June spun slightly, dodging the light spear as it was absorbed by Kazuya’s Darkness covered sword, continuing her attack as a large flower grew between her and Kazuya, releasing spores as Kazuya widened his eyes.

Swiping his off hand, Kazuya released a gust of wind, neutralizing the spores, but giving June an opening to attack.

“Ah. Leah is boosting Kazuya so much that June has no chance of really winning, so Dean is attacking her to stop her from boosting Kazuya. However Kazuya is aware of Leah being attacked, and defends her…” Dean apparently noticed this at the same time as Bobby, sending his next spell at Leah instead of Kazuya.

Leah dodged out of the way, this time sending a counter attack of a highly pressurized stream of water, causing Dean to roll out of the way lest his upper body be separated from his lower body.

“She’s picking up on the fact that she can afford to hurt her enemies too.” Bobby noticed with a pleased expression, not seeing the green faces of the first year S-Class, realizing what would have happened had her attack hit.

Realizing the absurdity of Leah’s attack pattern, Dean began to clench his teeth in anger.

If he attacked Kazuya, she’d boost him since she wasn’t being attacked, but Kazuya was essentially immune to Light attacks at current, unless Dean overpowered the innate advantage Darkness had over Light.

If he attacked Leah, Kazuya would defend her while allowing her to return fire, causing Dean to dodge.

Both were horrible, and the only counter Dean could really muster would be to start boosting June much like Kazuya was being boosted by Leah.

The problem with doing this was that Dean was an offensive spell-caster, he wasn’t used to boosting partners, though he could do so.

Leah, despite the power of her offence and defence, was better as a supportive Sage, this was the advantage she possessed due to having two Elements, one offensive/supportive in Wind, and the other defensive/supportive in Water.

As such, Leah would theoretically have no real weakness if she could learn to fight in close quarters… and in a team, her power would only multiply.

“She’s forcing a stalemate without even really fighting…” Edward realized, seeing it in truth, Leah, without even properly attacking, was affecting the battle this much.

“That’s the strength of a powerful supporter… Su-Li is a good one as well, and while she’s good, whatever team she’s on usually wins in our spars…” Bobby seemed annoyed at that, no doubt remembering some horrible spars he went through.

Even a team of Bobby, Vera and Kim together couldn’t beat Su-Li and Yusuf if those two worked together, heck, even Su-Li and Kim could defeat the other three together.

One should remember that Yusuf held the lowest rank in the third year S-Class only because he had one Element, and his actual power was a near rival for Bobby.

A good supporter didn’t even need to fight, they just maximized the performance of their teammates until their teammates fought like they were somehow multiplied while looking away.

Leah was an example of this.

June was unfortunately going up against Kazuya in close quarters combat, there was no way she had the time to do anything with Kazuya attacking with as many Elements as he could muster, though it took a bit of concentration for each Element.

One moment Kazuya would launch a spear of earth, only for June to cut through the mound of dirt and launch an entire trunk of a tree upwards, launching Kazuya into the air.

Kazuya responded by rolling off said tree, while sending a burst of fire while slashing forward with his sword.

June countered by summoning a cactus of all plants, and it was actually a brilliant choice, as cacti were full of water, making them difficult to burn away.

Kazuya instead created a platform of Ice underneath his feet to crush the plant as he swung at June, aiming to snap her blade in half.

All while this was happening Dean was beginning his boosts for June, however his had much less efficiency than Leah’s boosts, let alone that she could launch three boosts every time he sent off one.

The result would likely be that…

June attempted to block, and as Kazuya hoped, he cleaved through the blade, his strength increased to the point that he was just touching on the start of three Star Sage strength.

June, was unfortunately not there yet, not even mentioning that Kazuya’s katana was made of a much stronger metal.

During that moment of surprise that her weapon was broke, Kazuya turned his katana, taking another slash upwards, focusing Wind into his attack, increasing the sharpness as he slashed.

June was left almost bisected diagonally as her bracelet broke, leaving her uninjured as she appeared outside the arena…

Notably vice-principal Porter was at her side, meaning he likely entered and left with her…

Light Element Sages were fast.

Dean was frowning heavily as Kazuya dashed forward, attacking the left behind second ranked A-Class student.

Dean raised his staff, ready to block, only for Kazuya to grab the staff.

“Let me borrow this.” Kazuya said as he dropped his katana and twisted, removing the focus from the hands of his opponent, turning and holding it in the manner one might a spear, thrusting forward.

Given that Dean’s bracelet broke, one could assume that Kazuya somehow broke Dean’s sternum…

And the staff itself was broken.

“Hey, hey, that hit was way too hard for a two Star Sage, even boosted…” Bobby stared for a moment as Kazuya looked at the exploded stick with a bit of confusion in his own eyes.

The winner was clear though, the S-Class won once more.

Leaving the arena, Kazuya and Leah came face to face with June and Dean.

“That was a brilliant match, thank you for the chance… and you, Leah… you are much stronger than you first appear.” June said peacefully to Leah with a smile, getting a nod from Leah… even if she was shivering in shyness…

But it wasn’t as bad as it used to be at least. Kazuya was glad that she took a step forward in her confidence.

“…Good match, though I won’t stop trying to win.” Dean said, and Kazuya smirked, stretching out a hand.

“I welcome the challenge.” Dean stared at the hand for a moment before taking it, and nodding to Kazuya in agreement.

As for the last match… well, the A-Class guy was destroyed by Tony, as expected…

Maybe if he had help he’d win, but Tony was clearly too strong.

With that, there would be no sixth round, as there were only S-Class students left.

“Students, the Inter-Class Tourney is over, with our winners, the S-Class!” Jonathan shouted, having returned at some unknown time while vice-principal Porter left to the second stadium.

Apparently Jonathan was the third highest ranked person in Elem High, second to vice-principal Porter who was below Headmaster Oren… who knew?

“Those of you who defeated a person in a higher Class will be called to the office at a later date to officially move you upwards in ranking, congratulations for you have improved.”

No one in the S-Class could believe it was Jonathan though, somehow between the start and end of the tournament Jonathan had swapped between his usually strange clothes into a respectable suit of all things.

It was like staring into the twilight zone where wrong was right and right was wrong.

“Classes are a way for we teachers to divide the students into achievers and average students… but know this, Elem does not accept sub-par students. If you are here, you are worthy, and you have potential. Today, some of you have not lived up to that potential, while others exceeded expectations… that is life.” Jonathan stared across at all the students, pausing for a moment at his own first years.

“Some will go far, some will not. The goal is to constantly improve yourself at your own pace. So what if someone gains results faster than you, so long as you eventually get there. With that being said, good afternoon to you all, we teachers will see you again in the third term.” Jonathan’s speech ended as students alternatively cheered or let loose complaints of loss…

That was the life of Sages. Some succeeded and moved on… some didn’t and were walked over.

It was a tough world… and this tournament was just a test run for the real thing, the S-Class knew…

Three months until the School-wide tourney… they had to make the time count.