Returning to tribunes, Theo threw his glance at Leonardo before patting him on his shoulder.

"It's your turn," said Theo, sitting on his seat.

Leonardo nodded and smiled before leaving for the arena.

***

Several moments later, he was standing in the arena in front of the new training puppet.

When he just stepped into the arena, he had already started chanting his spell, and when the signal to start resounded across the arena, "Wind slash" appeared, aiming at the puppet.

The blue flames flickered, and the puppet quickly evaded Leonardo's attack, but he continued to attack, sending one water or wind spell after another. In short, the puppet was forced to dodge or evade without any chances for a counterattack while Leonardo used his dual-elemental affinity to the brim. Even his basic spells were enough to inflict serious damage to the puppet, while water-orientated spells to which he had the biggest affinity were fatal to his opponent.

As a result, several minutes later, the puppet failed to dodge one of the icicles that pierced its body, slowing and disturbing its movements. That was enough for Leonardo to send several more icicles to finish with his opponent by piercing its head, body, and hands.

Finishing with the puppet, Leonardo nodded to himself before leaving and returning to the tribunes.

***

When he returned, the first who congratulated him was Calypso.

"That was amazing, I have just seen a training sparring of future dual-elemental mage," said Calypso with a wide smile on his lips, "Hey, don't you want to fight against stronger opponents? We can make quite a sum of merit points if we use your battle capabilities wisely,"

"I noticed that your wind spells were weaker than water spells, you know it's possible to get affinity improving resources in exchange for the merit points here in the camp," said Calypso with a clear clue in his words.

Leonardo smiled when he heard his proposal, but shook his head.

"Not yet. Let's talk about several days before the big tournament," said Leonardo, approaching his seat.

"I see," said Calypso with an understanding expression on his face, "Then, I will visit you right before the next tournament,"

Leonardo didn't say anything and just turned and looked at Theo with a smile on his lips.

He was in good mood and was delighted that he showed his progress to his friend.

Theo also didn't say anything, and just smiled, looking at his friend. The short showdown on the arena reminded him about several distant events from the past when Leonardo didn't abandon his wind affinity, concentrating solely on water affinity.

"Not bad," said Nora, nodding her head, and moving her glance at 3 other guys that came with them.

Feeling her gaze, landing at him, Robin sighed before standing from his seat.

"It's my turn now," said the youth with black hair. He looked like he was around 17-years old, was tall, thin, and muscled. The water porter uniform fitted him so much that others might have thought that it was created for him.

He made several steps before turning and looking at Nora.

"Can I use another weapon than a sword that they would give me?"

"Yes, just ask people near the entrance and they would give you the training version of the weapon you would ask," said Nora, nodding to him.

The youth nodded before continuing his path further.

***

Several moments later, Robin entered into the arena with a light bow in his hand and a quiver of bows on his back. Standing near the edge of the arena, he stopped, taking one of the arrows and looking at the puppet that appeared on the other edge of the arena.

He pulled the string, aiming at the puppet and waiting for the start of the sparring.

It didn't take long and a moment later, when the sound of the bell resounded across the arena, his arrow started the battle.

The puppet has long ago noticed that it is fighting against the archer, and was ready for his 1st attack. So it wasn't surprising that it easily evaded from it before moving out, increasing its speed towards Robin.

The whole time when the puppet was approaching him, Robin continued to our it with arrows, distracting it in the process. However, the puppet dodged or evaded and continued to slowly approach him.

When the puppet passed through half of the distance between them, Robing started gathering his battle energy and imprinted the portion of his energy at the next arrow.

A moment later, the arrow, covered with battle energy left the string and flew towards the puppet. It was much faster than the previous arrows. Though the puppet noticed it, it didn't have enough time to evade or dodge it without suffering any damage. As a result, the bullet-like arrow hit its left hand, detaching it from the puppet's body.

That mistake was enough for the Robin, and moments later more battle-energy-covered arrows appeared flying at the puppet. So, it didn't take long for one of them to hit the puppet into the head, destroying it in the process.

Finishing with the puppet, Robin spent several moments gathering his arrows before leaving back to tribunes.

***

Returning to the tribunes, Calypso was once again the 1st to congratulate him.

"Amazing marksmanship, especially when you started to shoot one arrow after another with second or less interval between them," said Calypso, raising his thumb, "Hey, you should participate in the next tournament among the archers, you have chances to win."

Robin didn't say anything and just smiled before returning to his seat.

When Robin returned to his seat, another youth stood up and moved out towards the arena. He looked like 16-years old boy, had a muscled body, was average in height, and had black hair and brown eyes.

Ryan didn't say anything and quickly moved towards the arena. However, it wasn't a problem for Calypso who seemed to have fun. So, he patted him on the shoulder and smiled when he was passing by.

***

Several minutes later, Ryan appeared in the arena, holding a long training spear in his hand. He expected to see the same type of training puppets that fought before and raised his brows when he saw an armored type of puppet with a long wooden sword, standing against him.

He wasn't the only one who was surprised, spectators on the tribunes also became active when they saw that puppet in the arena.

"Hey, it is an armored type, that guy is an unlucky one," said one of the spectators.

"When was the last time when armored puppet entered into the sparring against the newbie?"

"He can only blame his bad luck,"

"It will be interesting to watch how that boy tries to stop that thing,"

Even Calypso raised his brows.

"Seems like someone wanted to evaluate his skills," muttered the youth to himself, "Interesting,"

Following after initial surprise, Ryan quickly came to his senses, adjusting his posture in the process. Though he didn't expect to meet a puppet with iron armor, protecting its weak areas, he didn't think that he couldn't win over this opponent.

So, following the signal to start, Ryan jerked in the direction of the puppet, imprinting a portion of his battle energy to his legs to increase the speed.

Several moments later, he was already a meter away from the puppet and started attacking it with his spear.

He continued to move and attack, move and attack, dodging or evading the puppet's sword in the process. The armored puppet was strong, and small bangs resounded each time it hit the earth with its sword, but it couldn't get into the Ryan that continued to evade its attacks.

Ryan also concentrated his attention on certain areas of the puppet's body which the armor couldn't protect.

As a result, ten minutes later after the start of their dance, Ryan evaded the puppet's sword and hit it in the armpit, detaching its right hand from its body.

When the armored puppet lost its hand, its eyes became red, and it entered into the berserk mode. Its speed and strength increased, and it was Ryan's turn to defend now.

Evading from another attack, Ryan imprinted even more battle energy into his legs and arms and continued to evade and dodge the puppet's counter-attack. In short, he was moving like a snake, evading puppet's attacks in the last moments.

Such battle continued for another ten minutes when Ryan didn't fail to evade one of the puppet's attacks and was sent to the flight.

Though he was a 4th rank squire, the active usage of battle energy for his "Red viper" battle style exhausted his battle energy. As a result, his attacks became weaker and speed slower. However, right before he was sent to the flight he succeeded in landing his spear at a certain place on the puppet. As a result several moments after his flight, the armor the upper armor that protected the puppet fell apart, opening its body to the view of the whole arena.

Coming back to his senses, Ryan noticed the puppet's sword that stopped in front of his neck. He smiled bitterly before patting the sand below him to signal his defeat.

Noticing his gesture, the puppet released its sword and stretched its only hand to help Ryan to stand up.

Though he lost, spectators clapped and cheered for him when he looked at them. They didn't do that just to cheer him but did that as a sign of respect for his skills and battle prowess. It was quite rare when they could watch such a skillful battle.

Even Theo clapped to that youth and threw his glance to memorize his face. He knew the true potential of the "Red viper" battle style and mentally noted that youth as a talented seed.

***

Returning to the tribunes, Ryan passed through several people that came to talk or cheer him up. Just single sparring was enough for him to become quite famous here.

Calypso once again started advising him to participate in the tournament while Nora nodded with recognition to Ryan before turning and looking at the last youth with white hair and red eyes.

Bell was the smallest among all 5 newbies that joined the "Red horses", he looked like a 15-years old boy, had a thin body, and was relatively short.

However, when Nora looked at him, he smiled and threw a despising glance at Ryan before moving to the arena.

***

Entering into the arena, Bell adjusted his 2 short swords in the direction of the other armored puppet that appeared in front of him.

Hearing the signal, he imparted a significant portion of battle energy into his legs and jerked in the direction of the puppet. At the same time as he started moving, his 2 short swords started glowing and instantly got covered by the battle energy.

Just a glance was enough for the spectators and Theo to notice that that boy was 5th rank squire!

"He is,"

"What!"

While spectators were getting surprised, Bell finished imparting his battle energy on his swords, covering them with grey-colored energy.

When Theo noticed that, his brows rose in surprise while Calypso jumped from his seat.

"Unique battle energy!" cried Calypso, falling to his enthusiasm.

Some other spectators also showed similar reactions.

At the same time as they continued to reevaluate Bell in their minds, he finally approached the puppet and started attacking it with his two swords.

At first, the puppet tried to dodge or block his attacks, but the more it got hit by Bell's attacks, the slower it became till the moment when it couldn't do anything against his attacks.

Several moments later, Bell finished the puppet, by piercing its helmet with one of his swords, destroying the puppet, and finishing the sparring in the process.

Finishing with the puppet, Bell turned around before returning to the tribunes while spectators were still shocked because of his performance.

***

Returning to the tribunes, Bell ignored all the people who approached him in the same manner as he ignored Calypso and stopped only in front of Nora before looking at her.

"How long would we waste our time in here? Since you have already evaluated all our battle capabilities, isn't it the right time to show us the rest of the territory of the "Red horses"?" asked Bell, looking at Nora.

Nora spent several moments looking at the small youth in front of her before nodding.

"You are right, follow me," said Nora, standing and leaving the tribunes.

Theo and others didn't need any more words and were quick to follow after her.

***

Several moments later, when they left the small arena, Nora continued to move and cleared her throat at a certain moment.

"At first let me show you our bathhouses that you can use without wasting any merit points," said Nora, pointing in a certain direction.

Moving their glances, boys quickly noticed the three-floored building made of basic materials.

"Take a look at it after I show you all the territory," said Nora, continuing her way.

A short time later, they approached several fields and platforms in the center of the "Red horses" territory.

Many people were meditating or training there.

"This is our training field, you can also use it without spending any merit points," said Nora without any enthusiasm in her voice, and continued to move forward.

Several moments later, many barracks appeared before them, and they continued to follow after Nora till the moment she stopped in front of one barrack.

She turned and looked at the newbies.

"This is your barracks, you should have got your own numbers, go and find rooms with the same numbers as in your registration badge," said Nora, "By the way, you have been enlisted into group #15, under my command. Come to the gathering field tomorrow in the morning."

Nora thought that she finished explaining everything that they might have needed and wanted to leave when the question didn't stop her.

"Where can we get training resources in exchange for the merit points," asked Theo, stopping her from leaving.

Nora moved her glance at black-haired youth.

"You can find several shops in the rear camp, and exchange your merit points in there," said Nora, looking at him, "If you have a significant number of merit points, I suggest you spend several weeks on the training field first, saving your merit points in the process. And then you would know on what to spend your merit points."

Theo nodded to Nora before moving his glance at the barracks.

Nora also moved her glance back at other newbies with a question in her eyes. However, nobody seemed to have questions.

So, a moment later, she turned and moved in the opposite direction from the barracks, stopping several meters away from them.

"By the way, you would better wash and have some rest, tomorrow would be your 1st official sally after the water, and you would spend hours outside," said Nora before continuing her way.

Bell ignored her warning and entered into the barracks, while the and others exchanged glances among each other before moving in the direction of the bathhouses.