“What the fuck was that! Did he just fuse two laws together!”

“He jumped to level 3 without destroying his weapon! How is that possible!”

“Forget that! Did you see how easily he was defeated!”

“Yeah! That girl is a monster!”

“She defeated someone who just achieved level 3 in law comprehension. It isn’t that impressive.”

“Are you an idiot! Its not that she defeated him. Its that she did it with her eyes closed! And she isn’t even out of breath!”

Among the audience various conversations about the fight were being discussed. It was mostly about how strange it was for someone who was only at level 2 (applying a law onto a weapon) mage knight somehow jumped to level 4 by not only fusing two laws together, but also applying it to his body and weapon.

There were also various discussions related to Maeve’s performance. Mostly shock and speculation about her level. Her swordsmanship also came into question as some thought that she’d already achieved the ‘one with the sword’ state.

…

“Well she defeated me, so it’s only natural that she would beat him.” Standing at the side lines watching the fight, Elaria commented.

Standing next to her was Chasianna who’s fists were currently clenched.

Dammit! He’s widened the gap between us again!

Feeling irritated she couldn’t help but scoff at Elaria’s comment.

“Got something to say.” Seeing Chasianna scoff at her, left her feeling like she being looked down upon.

“Yeah, you’re the weakest of the team so you losing to her is understandable. Even Daeharice lost to her. But don’t you dare compare yourself to him again! Your unworthy.” A chilling light flashed across her eyes as she stared at her teammate.

Not willing to be intimidated by Chasianna, Elaria let some of her aura slip out.

As if responding to her, Chasianna’s aura rose to meet Elaria’s.

“Girls!” Before the two had a chance to go at it, Daeharice’s voice sounded out in both of their ears.

Reining in their aura’s both girls turned to smile at him. Seeing them both act like they hadn’t been just seconds away from tearing each other apart, Daeharice shrugged his shoulders and joined his team.

“You okay?” Getting in close, Elaria wrapped her arm around his as she lead him to a chair.

Seeing the smug look on her face when she linked arms with him, Chasianna felt like she was going to explode.

While Daeharice was focused on talking about his match, Elaria subtlety stuck her tongue out at Chasianna.

Suck it bitch!

Grabbing Daeharice’s other arm, Chasianna dragged him over to her side and openly stuck her middle finger up at Elaria.

What the hell is going on!

Not understanding why he was being dragged around by both girls. Daeharice decided to just enjoy the feeling of two girls fighting over him. For the first time in his 207 years of life Daeharice knew what it meant to be popular.

…

“Well that was amusing.”

“Which part? The part where she effortlessly beat a level 4 mage knight, or the part where he said he wanted to defeat all bloodline elves I.E me?”

“Too soon?”

“Too soon” Nodding her head, Rhina turned to look at their instructor. “So any idea what level she’s at?”

“No. But that just makes our problems a lot more difficult.”

“How so?”

“There’s three of them and two of you. Besides Maeve I have full confidence that you two will be able to defeat Zara and Azariah. But what happens if one of you meet Maeve in the first match and somehow end up losing?”

“Oh? SHIT!”

“What?” Looking around the room confused, Daisha directed her attention to Rhina hoping that she would explain.

“Say I beat Zara or Azariah in the first round, but then you lose to Maeve in the second, what would happen?”

“Our third member wou- OH SHIT!!”

“Exactly, we’d be forced into the third round without having the third member of our team present. They’d win by default.”

“Shit!, What do we do?”

“…Hope Maeve isn’t as powerful as she seems.”

…

“Ladies and gentlemen, thanks to that hour long break where we left our contestants to relax and heal up. We will now be entering the final match of the first year tournament! On this side we have the mysterious Class 4 with their third member still not showing his face, maybe this third match will force him to reveal himself and enter the ring!”

I wish. Standing to the right of the announcer, both Rhina and Daisha waved to the audience and received their praise.

“And in this corner we have the powerful Class 5 with their leader Azariah standing at the forefront leading them to the centre. With their current record, they’re a fan favourite and are currently the most likely to win according to the polls.”

What polls?

“Candidates, send your first fighter forward!”

Stepping forward, Daisha entered the battling area while Rhina stood on the side lines. Opposite her stood her first opponent, Azariah.

Good! I should be able to beat her.

“BEGIN!”

Before the announcer could even finish, Azariah had already readied her sword and shot towards Daisha as the law of air enhanced her speed.

I’ll end this quickly!

Azariah exploded forth with great speed, accelerating to the point that the air around her went into disarray as she became nothing more than a blur .

*FWOOSH!!*

In response to her mad dash, Daisha covered her body in dim golden light as she waited patiently. Seeing her opponent come closer and closer, with her sword drowned in an aggressive looking flame, Daisha revealed a bored expression.

I wonder what I should eat after this? Maybe green fish? But its my cheat day so maybe I should treat myself? Then again I know Rhina’s going to join me and she might fight me over a piece of cake. Oh! I know, I’ll have something to eat with Rhina first and when we separate later I’ll buy a cake for myself and eat it at home.

Drawing her sword back, Azariah arrived in front of Daisha and swung her sword down on her head.

*BOOM!!*

Dust filled the courtyard as it covered both figures, leaving the audience wondering where the dust came from.

As the dust cloud settled the audience was shocked to see an uninjured Daisha stand where she had previously and an unconscious Azariah laying at her feet.

The crowd went dead silent, all wondering the same thing. What the fuck just happened!

While everybody else was watching in silence, trying to figure what just happened. Rhina stood at the side lines with a slight smile on her face.

From the minute that golden light covered her body, her victory was assured. During their months of training with Kira, Rhina had focused on upping the damage output she could deliver, on the other hand, Daisha went a completely different route. Instead of focusing on pure destructive power like Rhina, she chose to find ways to utilize he law of light to a greater degree. In doing so she came up with many different uses and tricks that would allow her to beat an enemy in a short amount of time.

Her favourite ability and the one she used during the match was called light mirage. She bent the light around her body to create a clone of herself, and with Azariah’s focus on her clone she bent the light around her physical body and turned invisible. When Azariah struck the clone’s body, he sword naturally went through it. but at that moment, Daisha used her minor mastery in the laws of earth to create a dust cloud while she removed her invisibility and struck the confused Azariah unconscious.

“Winner! Class 4!”

Walking towards Rhina, she high fived the girl and went to take her place at the side lines.

As Rhina made her way to the fighting area she took a deep look at her opponent. “I thought it would be you.” Standing opposite her was the one person she wished she wouldn’t have to fight.

“Fighting you should be a good warm up until I reach Arhel Beldroth.”

BELDROTH!

Clenching her fists tightly, a sliver of raged flashed across her eyes.

“Oh?” Taking note of it, Maeve felt that the match could entertain her more than she initially thought.

“BEGIN!!”

Instead of following her usual strategy where she spars with her opponent to get a feel for how strong they were. She chose to directly go into her elf king form. Coating her body in that red fiery aura, her golden hair transformed into a hot crimson as her orange pupils flashed with an intense light. On her skin orange symbols appeared on her skin as if they were burnt on. They slow turned black like a tattoo as steam escaped from them as the orange died down.

“Aren’t you just full of surprises.”

Focusing on Maeve, Rhina got drew her twin swords and got into a fighting stance. Letting her aura explode out, she calmed her breathing and charged towards her opponent.

Seeing this, Maeve smiled and readied her sword. Rhina drew back her flame covered swords and slashed towards her utilizing all the power the transformation gave her.

*CLANG!!*

A sharp sound echoed out as her swords made contact with Maeve’s blade.

“I know you can do better than that right?”

“?!”

Rhina was horrified to see Maeve block her full powered swing while only holding her sword with one hand.

“Grr!”

She pulled her other sword arm back and slashed at her again! Instead of blocking it like she did the earlier one. Maeve chose to dodge this one and then slammed her wind enhanced fist into her stomach.

*Bam!*

Rhina was sent flying backwards with her body spinning through the air causing her to feel like she was about to vomit. She then used the law of air to slow down her momentum and planted her feet into the ground, leaving a long scar on the courtyard floor.

“Ugh!”

She felt an intense pain coming from her stomach as she struggled to breathe.

“Ready to go again?”

Like a ghost, Maeve appeared in front of her, swinging down her wind enhanced sword. Sensing the looming threat Rhina quickly jumped out of the way, causing her to miss.

Tighten her grip on her swords, she leapt at her hoping to land a critical strike.

“Heh.”

Seeing her attempt, Maeve sneered and suddenly vanished from where she was. A second later she reappeared behind Rhina and slashed her sword across her back.

“A competent warrior always watches their back.”

*BOOM!*

As her sword made contact with her back, a sudden surge of heat erupted out and forced the sword back while jetting Rhina into the distance and slamming her into the ground.

*Bam!*

“Urgh?!” I guess I still need to work on the landing.

She released a sigh as the sensation of pain wracked her body.

“I guess you were watching your back.”

Stretching out her palm she slowly formed a fist.

*RUMBLE!!*

Around the area where Rhina was, the ground started to shake as the ground started to liquify.

“This isn’t fast enough!”

Focusing her attention on the ground around Rhina, the liquification process sped up, sinking Rhina to her waist and trapping her arms and swords in the process.

Shit! I can’t move?!

Thoughts raced across her brain as she thought of several ways to escape her current predicament.

“You know, not a lot of people know this about me, but my highest affinity is actually water.”

As she walked towards the distant Rhina, Maeve spoke quietly and used the law of air to carry her voice directly into Rhina’s ears.

“Fusing earth and water is actually quite hard as both elements are so different from the other. Earth is firm a solid, water is free and everchanging.”

She smiled.

“Y-You’re a level 3 mage knight!”

“Yup, if it wasn’t for the low quality of my weapon I’m sure I’d be at level 4.” Arriving in front of Rhina, she bent down slightly. “And since you have an elf king bloodline with fire being your highest affinity, what I’m about to do next is going to hurt a lot.”

Summoning a ball of water on her palm she forced it to rotate at an alarming speed as she wrapped it in a ball of air and condensed both of them into a ball the size of a pebble.

Seeing what Maeve was about to do, Rhina’s eyes widened in panic as she tried to raise the temperature around her in order to melt the earth and free herself. Or at the very least evaporate the condensed air/water ball.

Unfortunately for her, Maeve was already done. Placing the ball on her chest, a gentle whisper escaped her lips.

“Explode.”

*Boom!*

Rhina’s body was suddenly devoured by a huge explosion, that sent shockwaves echoing out into the audience despite the barrier that was set up to stop it. When the steam in front of her cleared Maeve saw Rhina wound ridden body laying limply on the ground.

“Still conscious after all that?! I gotta give it to you, your quite resilient. Too bad our fight is over.”

She sighed.

“I...”

Rhina spoke with her body still in pain.

“I can still fight!”

Hahaha I wanted to use this against that guy, but I guess I don’t have a choice right now.

Her orange pupils suddenly flashed with a blue light as she felt a surge of energy coarse through her body.

*Bam!*

A bright blue erupted out of her body causing everyone to close their eyes. When the light finally died down, standing in place of the fallen Rhina was a blue haired woman. Apart from her obvious elven features such as incredible beauty and long, pointy ears, she had glowing blue hair that seemed to shift between blue and white so fast it caused her hair to look like a glowing pale blue. Her skin was covered in black tattoo like symbols that had sparks of electricity zap across them. Her eyes were a beautiful blue, similar to her hair her eyes shifted from blue to white before balancing out at a glowing pale blue.

“R-RHINA!!” From the side lines, Daisha couldn’t believe what she was seeing. After all the months of training and sparring together, this was the first time she’d ever seen then transformation.

Not only Daisha, but even the audience was in a state of shock, as no one expected such a transformation to occur. Only the instructors had a calm look on their faces as they stared at the young girl who had achieved what many elves could only dream of: Element sub evolution (ESE)

When an element has another branch connecting to it but is not directly related, it is known as sub evolution.

When an element has a branch that grows directly from the main branch, it is known as direct evolution.

An example of direct evolution is using the law of water to create ice. Whereas lightning is considered a sub evolution because although it has abilities that are somewhat similar to fire, it does not directly come from it.

To achieve either sub and direct evolution the main element that they’re branching from has to be pushed to limit of the person’s comprehension.

And Rhina has already broken through that limit.

Looking at the transformed Rhina a flash of seriousness crossed her eyes as she tightened her grip on he sword.

The aura being released off of Rhina could be said to be almost non-existent. If it wasn’t for the sparks zapping across the tattoos, Maeve wouldn’t even be able to tell that such a transformation held such power.

If her previous transformation was that of a raging volcano, then this one was akin to a snake moving through tall grass preparing itself for the split second it was about to strike. Only the sound of the grass swaying proved it’s existence to be there.

And the thought of not knowing how powerful opponent was until she struck sowed a seed of terror in her heart.

“A transformation that is quieter than the first one but holds more power…..Impressive.”

Maeve said. The sound of the lightning crackling from Rhina’s body proved that she was more than ready to go up for round two.

“I never thought I’d be using this transformation so early!”

Her body suddenly flashed as blue lightning slithered across her body before she disappeared from sight.

*ZAPP*

It took a second for Maeve to realise that her opponent was standing next her shoulder by shoulder.

*Bam!*

The ground suddenly started moving like it was alive, as liquified earth started to attack Rhina with spikes and pillars.

“Dust!”

*ZAP!* *ZAP!* *ZAP!*

Rhina wasn’t bothered by them at all as she sent out currents of lighting from her swords which effortlessly broke apart the earth made attacks.

Watching Rhina destroy her attacks didn’t make Maeve panic. On the contrary, she felt pleased.

“To think that you could force me into a corner like this.”

She said quietly.

“Unfortunately….”

She held out her hand and as if space was being twisted large amounts of water started to gather out of nowhere. “Do you know why the water element is looked down upon? It’s because most people think that without ice the ability itself is weak compared to the others. And to an extent I have to agree. But the way in which we invoke the law of water is much more dangerous than anything non elf king bloodline elves can do! If you were in your fire form this would probably be useless. But as you are now…well you’ll see.” Drawing in more water from the atmosphere, Rhina suddenly felt it was getting harder for her to breathe as the air started to thin out.

“I see that you have yet to master that form and currently its putting a lot of stress on your body. Not to mention your previous injuries and your current lack of air. Sooner or later your body will collapse. And for me, sooner is more preferable than later.”

Taking the opportunity to attack while Rhina was struggling, she charged towards her opponent and appeared in front of her like a evil spirt.

“?!”

Unable to fight due to the lack of air and her body slowly collapsing, Rhina could only watch as Maeve dealt with her.

Feeling like it was overkill to use her sword in the current situation, Maeve lifted her foot high and dropped it down on Rhina’s head.

*Bam!*

“Argh” due to the lack of air this squeal was the best way to show how much pain she was in.

This time Maeve resorted to using her fists as she rained down multiple blows on her face.

*BAM!* *BAM!* *BAM!*

Rhina was forced to her knees as her transformation timed out and her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

Finally over

Wiping off the beads of sweat on her forehead, Maeve felt like the first years of this generation were truly astonishing compared to those of the older generation she fought against.

Seeing Rhina pass out the announcer looked between her unconscious body and the tired Maeve, before staring at the audience who were just as quiet as he was.

“Winner Class 5! Will the next member of the team approach the fighting area.”

…

Inside the strategy room, Kira was biting on her finger nails as the worst possible outcome had occurred. The third round.

…

Daisha watched Zara approach the fighting area with a smug smile on her face.

“It seems that class 4’s third member isn’t here! Doesn’t that mean I win? Announcer?” Blinking her eyes at him, she put on the cutest display of an innocent schoolgirl that she could.

Feeling is face heat up a bit, the announcer coughed a couple times to clear his mind.

Why are men so weak to beautiful women?

Feeling that this was the end of the line for them, Daisha let out a sigh and just let things proceed as fate willed it.

“Unfortunately it seems that class 4’s third member is unavailable, and I must therefore give the win to clas-

“WAIT!!”

From the audience a man in a black hood leapt out from his seat and landed in the courtyard.

“Erm? Sir? Ma’am? Only participants are allowed here.”

“And that’s why I’m here.” Removing the black hood, Daelos’s face was revealed to the rest of the audience send out a wave a gasps.

“A human!”

“Impossible!”

“Humans have never joined the tournament before!”

“Disgusting!”

As various whisper made their way into Daelos’s ear, he couldn’t help but smile at the comments. Turning his attention away from the audience and back to the announcer he said. “Since I’m here we can go through with the next fight right? Good!”

Not waiting for the man to answer, Daelos jumped into the fighting area that he saw from when he observed the matches in the audience seat.

“Hey Wait!! How do we know your really a member of class 4?” Feeling like he needed proof and feeling slightly uncomfortable that a human was taking him so lightly, the announcer questioned Daelos with a stern look on his face.

Not bothering to look at him, he pointed to Daisha and said. “Ask Daisha, ask Rhina in the infirmary or go ask my instructor who’s probably on her way here.”

“DAELOS!!!”

“Speak of the devil and she will come.” Chuckling to himself, he turned his head to the side only to see a furious Kira storming towards him.

“Kira before you get mad and start lecturing me” As if a failure of teacher like you could even get that right. “Just remember if you do, I won’t be able to get us through to the next round quickly.”

Hearing his words, Kira stopped what she was about to say and turned her attention to the announcer.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!! Killer Kira is looking at me. Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me.

Sweating bullets, the announcer dropped his gaze.

“He’s a student of mine let him fight.”

“YES MISS KIRA!!” Saluting, he stood at attention and tried his best not to shake.

“Miss? Whatever. Oi Daelos, I saw that black hood several times today during the earlier matches. After your done here we’ll have a nice long talk about reporting to your instructor.

“Sure, sure, now shoo I’ve got a match to win.” Shooing her away with his hand he turned his attention back on Zara. “I’m Daelos Barrigan nice to meet you, I’m going to break your arm.”

“BEGIN!!”

Daelos’s body flashed in front of Zara and before she could even react, his left hand found its way to her shoulder and gripped it tightly enough to make her wince. He then formed his right hand into a fist and slammed it into her stomach with a thunderous clap! The blood drained from her face as she threw up a disgustingly large amount of blood and small pieces of crushed up organs.

"Urghhhlll!"

Everyone watched in horror as the next thing he did could be seen as going too far.

Holding onto her slim porcelain like arm, he made sure both of his hands were opposite each other and confirmed that he elbow was in the right place. “You elves sure do have thin arms.”

Realising what he was about to do Maeve yelled out “Wait Don’-

*CRACK!*

"ARGHHHH!"

Despite hearing the obvious yells from Maeve and the announcer he broke Zara’s arm simply bending it in a way an arm shouldn’t be bent. Much to the shock of the audience and Maeve, Daelos then kicked her body towards the announcer.

“She’s unconscious, I win right?”

“I-I”

“Good, don’t forget to put us in the second year tournament now that we’ve won the first year one.” Not waiting for him to finish his sentence, Daelos began strolling towards the distant Daisha, but was interrupted when the figure of Maeve appeared in front of him.

“I challenge you to a duel!” Although she didn’t like Zara and even thought of her as pampered dead weight. By breaking her arm in front her, he insulted her pride.

“I decline.” Pushing her out of the way he continued with her journey.

What!

Snapping out of stupor she rushed back in front of him. “Why won’t you accept?”

“Because I’m not 100% sure I’ll win, now if you’ll excuse me.”

“Hey, I’m not done with you.” Placing her hand on his shoulder, she felt a intense amount of killing intent wash over her body causing all the blood in her face to drain and her knees to shake.

Removing her hand from his shoulder, Daelos smiled at her and said. “Miss Maeve, while I’m asking you nicely, Leave Me Alone Or I Will Break You Okay. Bye” Walking off into the distance Maeve stared at him still frozen in shock over the horrifying amount of killing intent that seeped out of him. What horrified her even more was that she realised, when he broke Zara’s arms, not a hint of killing intent was released.

He didn’t break her arm out of malicious intent! He did it because he thought it was natural! Oh God! What kind of mentally sound person considers breaking a person's arm natural!