"Begin!" as the signal sounded Crowley did not initiate any incantation, in fact he did not yet bother to gather any mana, however, neither did his opponent. Instead they smiled at each other.

"I has been a while since we last fought, Solmyr," Crowley looked at the boy opposite of him, his eyes burning with immense hunger for battle, yet there was not even a splinter of malicious intent within that gaze.

"It has indeed, Crowley," the boy returned that same expression "may the better of us reign supreme,"

"Firebolt"

"Tear"

The first spells were flung simultaneously; a small projectile of flames and a minuscule bullet-like mirage met in the middle of the stage, and nullified each other. There was no majestic explosion as the spells were far too weak for that, but it was impressive how exactly in the middle they met. The moment that the nullification happened Crowley was already dashing towards his opponents location.

"Dispersion"

"Flame ring"

Both moved up to slightly higher spells, however, it was unlikely they would have the opportunity to use something really powerful. In duels like these there was no time to pronounce lengthy chants, so instead they would rely almost exclusively on magic for which they could shorten the evocation. The spells they cast were both classified as 1st circle, so it was not too difficult for them to accomplish. Solmyr's spell was identical to the one his teammate used previously: His body distorted and created an illusion of covering a wide area, however the area covered by Solmyr was significantly larger than what his teammate could previously accomplish. Yet Crowley’s spell was no too shabby either as a 20 centimetre ring of flames with 2 metre diameter appeared with Crowley at its centre; it churned with furious flames, yearning for destruction.

“Fireball”

“Rupture”

By this time Crowley already arrived in front of the mirage of Solmyr. Perhaps the boy expected him to slow down as the area in front of Crowley suddenly began to just crumble, minuscule spacial cracks appeared, and grew bigger. However, contrary to expectation Crowley did not slow down and instead jumped right through the manifesting spell. In fact he somersaulted to the left, reaching a position where the edge of his ring of fire aligned with the edge of the distortion spell. Before he even landed he also let loose of a powerful ball of flames to the other half of the distortion spell. Before the fireball could land the previously crumbling space flashed in a way not similar to any sort of light magic and then returned to normal.

"Tear"

"Firebolt"

Crowley did not mind his limited vision and kept rushing through the distortion spell. His opponent naturally used that in order to launch a quick sneak attack. He chose only the lowest level spell so that Crowley could not predict the direction based on the bursting mana, however, that effort was futile. Albeit it was a close call, Crowley managed to accurately shoot down the spell coming from his front left with a spell of his own. If the two spells held enough of a punch to explode Crowley would without a doubt be immediately knocked away by that explosion, that is how close to their collision he was.

"Tear"

"Firebolt"

Crowley quickly dashed towards the origin of that spell. When another Tear appeared in point blank he did not even attempt to dodge, instead he blocked it with his hand. That was a slight abuse of the Bracelets, as he did not feel any pain nor recoil that would normally occur when a spell landed on him, and the change in the gem’s colour was minimal as his hand was nowhere near a vital spot. And for that bit of damage Crowley accomplished his goal. In a single instant the dispersion spell just vanished. What it revealed was a flustered Solmyr, in a middle of dodge, however, his hand was barely in contact with Crowley’s ring of fire just for a single instant before he got out of the way. That was the main disadvantage of the dispersion spell. Any direct contact with foreign magic, no matter how small, would instantly scatter dispersion. And that is exactly what Crowley had aimed to achieve from the very beginning. From experience he knew that the only way to defeat a spacial mage of equal skill was to interrupt the spell that basically all spacial mages used. He was not yet skilled enough to cast spells which could obliterate everything within the area, so he came up with a different solution: To corner the enemy. First he would rush into one side of the fray with a flame ring active, his opponent would naturally become weary of touching the ring and would withdraw to the other side from Crowley, however, then Crowley would cast a fireball, his most potent area magic, to where the opponent wanted to retreat. That forced the opponent into the area around the centre of the spell, and at moment Crowley would already be running to where his opponent was. It would seem that Crowley took damage by tanking the tear, but just cancelling dispersion grated Crowley a massive advantage. Moreover now they were in point blank range and crowley’s firebolt had still not fired. Solmyr abused the same trick by blocking the small blast of fire with his hand, but as fire was far more destructive in nature, and the accumulated damage from the moment he touched the flame ring his bracelet already lost its vibrant green colour and instead obtained a yellowish tinge, threatening to turn orange.

“Dispersion”

“Fireball”

Since Crowley waited with releasing his spell, Solmyr now had the edge of evoking his spell first and tried to use that moment to re-obtain his advantage, and indeed the spell activated and Solmyr’s form once again dispersed. However, Crowley did something that made him look like a madman: He fired a fireball right at the ground in front of his feet. The spell instantly exploded on contact with the ground and struck Crowley who was right next to it, however, it also damaged Solmyr who didn’t have time to get out of the spell’s area of effect. This once again cancelled dispersion, just as Crowley had planned when he evoked that spell. Now both their wristbands turned orange, signifying they both would’ve already taken grievous wounds was it not for the bracelets. On closer inspection it would be possible to see that the orange colour was significantly more distinct on Solmyr’s. Although Crowley took the full brunt of the fireball, unlike Solmyr, the bracelet calculated things based on roughly estimated resistance’s of the body. As a flame mage Crowley’s resistance to fire was far superior to a spacial mage like Solmyr, and it could not be neglected that Solmyr’s accumulated damage was previously greater. If another fireball struck both of them then Solmyr would be eliminated without any doubt, however, Crowley might just very barely tank through the damage. That was an unacceptable result for Solmyr even under his clear disadvantage.

“Blaze burst”

“Impale”

Perhaps because Solmyr was shocked by the reckless use of fireball or because he was simply thinking, Crowley finished his spell very slightly faster. A fiery power gather on his palm before it burst forth like a violent gale of wind. On the other hand Solmyr’s spell was as intangible as ever: A 40 centimetres long distortion in space appeared above his shoulder and instantly rushed forward in an attempt to strike Crowley’s chest. Both of the participant’s dodged backwards. And both were struck by the opponent’s spell. Now that they had some distance created between them they both tried to cast again.

“Dispe…”

“Fireb...”

However they were both stopped by a loud beep coming from their individual wristbands. A simple function of the item that would emit a sound in a specific situation: When the participant’s attempted to use magic despite already being eliminated. Looking down on their wrists they both were welcomed by the same spectacle: The gem was shining with brilliant vermillion. Their intense match ended in a draw.

Despite the result, the people in the audience who were holding their breaths until now began to cheer loudly. Perhaps their battle was not that long, but it was definitely glorious. It was easy to forget, but these two were both disciples of great mages who intended to lay claim to the title of Elemental lord. Although they were overshinned by the unfathomable talent of Elizabeth before, they had now both shown everyone that there is more required to win a battle than just talent. After the embarrassing spectacle of Elizabeth falling for an ambush these two reclaimed the title of ‘geniuses’ in the audience’s eyes.

And now it was time for the grand finale: The last two participants stepped forward onto the stage. Most of the people present did not expect much sustenance to be involved in the upcoming match. It was only a nameless girl facing off against the infamous Irwyn von Blackburg. The people were absolutely certain that Irwyn could easily overwhelm her, and moreover absolutely wouldn’t fall for a simple trick like Elizabeth did before him.

However, the mood on the stage was far different. While the referee waited for the crowd to calm down Irwyn had the opportunity to speak to the girl who was still mysteriously smiling.

“You saw what I am capable off earlier in the day, yet you stand before me, smiling confidently,” then Irwyn grinned, mirroring every bid of confidence she had “I can’t wait to crush whatever you think will defeat me.”

The girls expression didn’t change, and she remained silent, however, Irwyn noticed her eyes contract slightly. It was at that moment that the referee’s voice finally sounded.

“Final round, begin!”