Combat Demonstration

Valerie was both humiliated and embarrassed by Xander's action, who was right now standing a few meters away from both the girls. On the other hand, Maryann was gritting her teeth as she attempted to stand up from her injuries.

Seeing her stand, Valerie sucked up the pain and stood as well, albeit wobbling, but managed to stand. Both of them had pride in being geniuses. However, they both were short on experience especially in terms of combat experience. Training? They had plenty of within the clan. However, mock and live combat training...they were currently lacking, like most of their classmates.

In fact, if Ms. Amelia was to judge their fight, it looked like they were playing house with how they attacked with respect and in turns. Hence, even Xander did not want to join in, given that he had been training with his servants every day since the start of school.

Seeing them stand, Xander nodded, acknowledging their pride and determination, before saying,

"Good that you don't give up easily. Let's heal your injuries first to make sure you are in tip-top shape!" Xander waved his hand and a glow surrounded the two girls, and in less than a second, all their external and internal injuries, as well as magic energy, were restored.

"Let's have at it again, shall we?" Xander this time didn't move, but rather raised one of his arms, pointing at the two girls, and suddenly ten magic circles appeared around Xander, both at the back and front of Xander. This caused the girls, the other students, and even Ms. Amelia to narrow their eyes in surprise, confusion, and fear.

There were too many concentric circles in each magic circle! Although it was a brief moment, Ms. Amelia managed to count the number of concentric circles on each magic circle and reached a terrifying value: 80! A total of 80 concentric circles for each magic circle!

What was more terrifying was that Xander did not even utter any incantation to cast such spells.

She immediately prepared her own magic barrier, allowing her to launch it as soon as she could see the two girls and the other students unable to handle the spells.

Although she didn't know if the barrier spell she cast was enough to hinder the spells, it would give enough time for her to get the girls and the other students out of the spell's way.

Xander, on the other hand, flicked the spells that finished forming towards the girls, before muttering,

"Lesson two. If you see you can't beat your enemy, run. Don't be a hero. Live to fight for another day. Don't face the enemy head-on, unless you have a final trump card."

The spells were each from the elements of Light, Darkness, Water, Fire, Air, Earth/Metal, Wood, Ice, Lightning, and Poison elements. Each spell was special in a way that they contained parts of other elements in their spell structure, so they aren't completely Light-based, completely Darkness-based, etc..

They were roughly at the level of a Master-9 spell in terms of strength due to the concentric ring augmentation, roughly at the 80th class. If he forced them to reach 81st class, the spells would transform to have the power of spell arrays, reaching Legendary-1 standard of power.

Ms. Amelia can block the spells, however, ensuring the safety of the students anyways, so Xander decided with these spells' power being sufficient enough for the demonstration.

Seeing the incoming spells, both Maryann and Valerie had a split second to react; first and foremost, they focused on creating the thickest, strongest magic barrier they could create, and then attempted to launch their own spells.

Maryann also managed to cast one defensive spell, [Ice Curtain Shower] to further fortify her defense when the spells had reached her defense. It was momentarily stopped in a small fraction of time before shattering the magic barrier and the spell she had cast, reaching her body. Maryann didn't close her eyes in fear, but rather in regret that she was still weak.

Valerie, on the other hand, opted to launch a kamikaze attack by using an offensive spell, [Corroding Arrow], allowing her to summon two arrows within that split second, and launched them towards Xander, rather than the spells.

Xander raised his eyebrow at this move and simply raised the palm of his right hand, causing the poison arrow to slow down to a stop, before evaporating into thin air, dropping a small metal needle from each arrow.

"Interesting spell, utilizing a material base to launch out the two elements infused within towards unsuspecting magicians. If the magician did not prepare sufficient protective barriers, they might be in for some trouble with the power of the metal needle, however, this also added a weakness, which was kinetic force can be reduced by air elements or its derivatives, or simply erecting a magic barrier thick enough to disperse the force within"

As he said this, the spells he launched towards them easily broke through the barrier she had placed and Valerie didn't close her eyes at all, defiant and still full of fighting spirit.

Of course, Xander didn't plan to kill them to smithereens; after all, it would be tiring to reconstruct using time magic and life magic, as he would also modify everyone's memories and the time that had passed by.

The moment the very first elemental particle of the magic spell touched their bodies, they stopped and began to circle around their bodies like halo lights. This caused the students, especially the two girls, to be surprised at the development.

"Lesson three: Although escaping to fight another day is accepted, it is important not to escape and leave behind your humanity and convictions. You did this very well. Rather than escape and prolong the situation, in which case, more variables would pop out and harm the other students, you stood your ground with your convictions still with you. As a magician this is important."

As Xander was speaking, Valerie could help but be in a daze and attempted to touch one of the spells hovering around her, before hearing a voice that woke her up from her actions.

"Lesson number 4: Do not touch anything your enemy had used against you; you do not know if it contains any spells, protective measures, or actually just a trap," Xander said, rolling his eyes at Valerie for her stupidity.

"What I had cast was an example of a Subconscious control of a spell, but up to four layers.

The first layer is to form the magic conformation, creating the spell.

The next layer is being launched towards the target, with a lock-on function, never missing its target.

The third layer is what you can see now; upon reaching the target, it transforms into a form of hovering spell.

The fourth layer is, well, if you touched it again, you would have reached the fourth layer. Your body parts would then be splattered across the floor with scorch marks and bits of elemental physical manifestation around your body parts, and I won't be able to restore you back to normal."

Xander explained concisely and calmly, using his spells and the example to teach the two girls about subconscious control. This caused the listeners to feel another chill up their spines. However, for Valerie and Maryann, it served as a life lesson for them.

"For now, try subconscious control of 1 layer, which is to establish magic conformation, and launch the spell to the target. You can try the 2nd layer once you have a deeper understanding of the spell and the element you are controlling, in which case you add functions to the original magic spell that it didn't have in the first place.

Most opt for up to the 3rd layer, as additional layers are kind of moot unless you are playing and not fighting for the kill." Xander snapped his fingers, and the hovering orbs of light visibly shook, before disintegrating one by one, as if they never existed in the first place.

"Now, I'll use a simple AoE spell. It's a personal spell of mine; I named it [Garden of Eden]. It's a simple spell, it just keeps growing in size and area, as well as the organisms present in the garden continue to grow and strengthen."

"I want you to destroy the spell structure before it consumes you. Use every spell at your disposal. Heck, ask the others to join as well in destroying the spell. Ask Ms. Wineheart to help as well, if things seem to go south. I have to warn you though, you might be consumed by the spell and released by it as one of its creations. Do you want to do this challenge? This is a good way to push your control of the subconscious type deeper and more profoundly, because you are, well, pushed to the depths of survival as well."

Valerie and Maryann were feeling conflicted. On one hand, they want to grow stronger. At the same time, they don't want their lives to end prematurely because they were rash. The other students also shared their opinions as well, and even Ms. Amelia didn't like too much risk for the students, in fear of causing them to breakdown from the pressure.

After a minute, both Valerie and Maryann rejected the offer, causing Xander to nod at their practicality of recognizing their limits, and shaking his head in disappointment because he wanted to test out the spell in a real scenario.

Seeing his crestfallen face that looked like a pouting cherub, one of the girls in the class said, in an attempt to cheer him up, "Xander, how about you demonstrate to us what the spell can do? So we can see if we can think of possible countermeasures." Upon hearing this, he looked ecstatic, and looked at Ms. Amelia, with a look of "can I? can I really?"

Upon seeing his face and the looks the students were giving her, Ms. Amelia could help but agree, and decided to do it outside of the building.

So, they headed outside and went to the nearest open field. While on the way there, Ms. Wineheart had gotten the necessary permissions and signatures required for the activity.

Upon reaching an open field, Xander's face turned serious, and turned back to look at the students, before solemnly saying,

"Please step back 3 meters from my current position. I will set the area of the spell to be 3 meters in diameter. It would rapidly grow, so please retreat if necessary. Ms. Amelia, I might need you to use your flying artifact to target the garden from above if it gets out of control, specifically the biological organisms that you can see."

After hearing his instructions, his fellow students moved back, with Valerie, Carly, and Maryann being the closest to him. Ms. Amelia was on standby, her magic power ready to be unleashed.

Xander then pointed at the spot in front of him for two seconds, around 5 meters away from him, and uttered several words: "Let life bloom, the innocent shall be saved. [Garden of Eden]!".

Immediately, the winds began howling in the area, with the elemental concentration rapidly increasing in the field, going towards the point where Xander had pointed. From that point a small seed appeared, growing rapidly into a small tree in a matter of seconds, before becoming a 20-meter tree with a diameter of 1 meter.

Rapidly, shrubs, vines, small trees and even all kinds of organisms began to grow around the tree, as if appearing out of nowhere. The elemental energy and the elemental particles all over the campus were raging, moving towards the field where the Garden of Eden was placed.

From the initial 3 meters in area, it rapidly grew to 4, 5, 8, 16, to 32 meters in diameter in less than a minute. The students had already retreated far away from the field, and more students were also appearing from the other buildings, because their professors all left the classroom, heading towards the field. All of them could feel the elemental fluctuations as Xander did not purposely hid it, to avoid arousing suspicion. After all, it was a large-scale AOE spell, yet there was little to no elemental disturbance in the area?

It was still growing, albeit slower this time, because Xander had already gained control of the spell, allowing him to dictate the speed of absorption of elements, matter, and biological material.