Chapter 126 - The Lord of the Heavens

The next fight among the third-year students was expected by many because it would decide who was the best Adept of their batch.

Julieth and Cindy ascended the stairs to the Main Arena with poise and looked at each other coldly. Both were beautiful girls in their own right, however, Julieth had a more developed figure compared to Cindy, a fact that caused some jealousy to appear on the latter's heart.

Add to that the fact that both were considered veritable goddesses by most of the male student population, their nobility, and both were deemed talented Adepts. All of this had caused no small amount of friction to appear between both, and during the time that these girls had been members of the Lyceum they had fought countless times the one against the other. Cindy also knew that although Vega didn't show it outwardly, he was actually very interested in Julieth, only that his pride forbade him from openly pursuing her like Hernani, whom Vega considered a small piece of dung deep inside. Since Cindy was completely infatuated with Vega, this fact only increased her displeasure with her rival.

All in all, Cindy had a small sense of inferiority towards Julieth and this feeling made her angry towards herself, and even angrier towards Julieth, to whom she wanted to prove she was superior.

Once the both of them were 30 meters apart, Anastasia, who was the judge assigned to them quickly announced the beginning of the match.

This time Julieth didn't fly immediately at the start of the match as was her custom, since her opponent this time was an Adept, and she could easily attack her in the air with long-distance attacks and her agility up in the air was not that better than being on the ground for now, since she was still a lower-realm expert. Moreover, she would use a lot of mana to stay floating in the air, so it was not mana-efficient to do so. This being said, if Julieth managed to become an Emperor then she couldn't only fly in the air, her speed and movement at that time would make her a force to be reckoned with.

Cindy quickly prepared her attacks, and immediately decided to attack with low-level spells. Not to be misled by the term low-level spells, these attacks were quite fast to cast for an experienced adept, their mana cost was low, and as the Adept becomes more powerful, each spell can be as strong as a powerful attack by a warrior on the same level. So most Adepts use so-called low-level spells to test the waters and to get the momentum in their favour to later use more powerful spells to end it once and for all.

There are generally two recognized ways an Adept usually fights. The so-called Attack Turret, where an adept stays still and bombards the enemy with one attack after another. This way they only had to concentrate on using their spells to strike the enemy in the fastest way possible. However, this also means the adept usually stays in the same position, a fact that makes them easy targets for long-ranged enemies and techniques. So this way of fighting can only be used by people confident that their casting is uninterrupted and guarantees to eliminate all the opposing forces before they get close enough to threaten them. It is also the main way of attack by those with powerful companions that can protect them and allow them to go all out. This way is actually the most popular strategy among most Adepts. The reason for that is that Adepts gain a certain power after they ascend to the middle realm of cultivation that allows them a certain freedom to employ this tactic, in a similar fashion to the Warriors developing their Voluntas as a manifestation of their Will and TAO. However, neither Julieth nor Cindy had access to this power since both were Mana Scholars for now.

The second way is where an Adept moves and adapts to the fight, using guerilla tactics to approach and eliminate the enemy using their spells to destroy enemies and avoid being targeted with ease. This so-called Moving Artillery is the preferred way for those adepts that are confident in their use of movement spells, and the specialized focus that allows them to keep casting spells while in motion. This requires a great amount of mental power from the Adept, and most of them wouldn't be able to use this type of combat strategy even if they wanted. This was the preferred way of fighting Dragon General Rafal, The Titan, uses. In a way it's somewhat similar to the way Nerun fights, however, the latter takes this to the extreme, since he is ultimately a close-range combatant.

"Νεροπίστολο" - /Neropístolo/

Cindy's Water Gun was much stronger than the one used by Mirna during her fight against Nerun. Not only that, she could summon them really wast, and barely a second went between casts, a fact that allowed her to fire quickly over and over. Adepts' powerful minds allowed them to do several things at the same time. If they managed to open some of their Head auxiliary meridians it could even allow them to easily multi-cast different spells at the same time, or pummel an opponent with low-level spells while preparing a more powerful attack on the side. Cindy was currently using this very fact to attack Julieth not giving her any respite and preparing her final attack.

- WHOOOOOSH

Several high-pressured water jets went towards Julieth, each of them capable of cutting stone as if it was tofu. Julieth, however, didn't cower and while extending her hands forward, a powerful energy barrier made of air and the atmospheric elements formed in front of her.

"Ουράνιο φράγμα" - /Ouránio frágma/

Cindy's attacks couldn't do much when faced by Julieth's shield and a sort of water barrier and humid environment started forming in front of her, a fact that made Julieth's figure sort of hazy in Cindy's eyes.

However, Cindy didn't stop her attacks but instead intensified them. Meanwhile, she extended an arm upwards and water drop after water drop formed a long and thin line that ascended close to a hundred meters into the sky. Then she lowered her arm as if it was a sword and the water line descended as if it was long whip towards the barrier in front of Julieth.

"Νερό μαστίγιο" - /Neró mastígio/

Without waiting to see if the attack had succeeded or not, she started casting another spell and taking advantage of the humid environment her attacks had caused she was trying to summon her speciality, the Magickal Seahorse she had used to guarantee her victory in the Battle Royale and one of her most powerful spells. She didn't want to give Julieth any chance to answer with her spells.

But it was all for nought, since when the water whip attacked the energy shield summoned by Juieth, the shield was completely destroyed and mist exploded outwards of the attack epicentre, creating a foggy environment. Moreover, and much to Cindy's dismay, Julieth was nowhere to be seen.

Cindy started looking everywhere a bit frantic and several water balls ready to fire surrounded and orbited around her in the hope to defend against her invisible enemy.

"Where the hell is she?" Cindy asked herself.

"You haven't understood it, have you Cindy?" A voice that came from up high sounded in the arena.

Cindy got scared and quickly raised her head looking for the voice's origin, but she could see nothing due to the foggy environment.

"I do have to thank you though. Without you, I would not have been able to create the perfect environment for this spell. You still fail to see that in order for your spells to become stronger you need to understand the nature behind them. So quick question? What is the sky made of?" asked Julieth.

"The sky? What are you talking about? Get down here and fight me like a woman instead of asking some stupid question!" said Cindy with anger in her voice.

"Sigh... Ignorance may be a bliss, but in your case, it could be your doom. Let me tell you then. The sky is made of air which is composed of several gases and of course... water."

As Julieth said these words, all of the foggy environment started to gather up in the sky in a powerful whirlwind. The environment finally cleared up, and Julieth could be seen floating high in the sky while the multiple water droplets in the environment as well as the air in the atmosphere combined in front of her. The amount of Natural Energy being gathered was astonishing and soon it started to take shape.

An imponent horse made of clouds with a height of 3 metres and two magnificent wings of 5 metres each on its back appeared in front of Julieth. Lightning could be seen in its eyes as it watched coldly towards Cindy. The power it exuded was quite high, such that if any of the students present were to receive the hit directly, probably none could withstand it.

"Άρχοντας των ουρανών - Πήγασος" - /Árchontas ton ouranón - Pígasos/

"Do you like it? This is my most powerful spell so far," said Julieth with pride in her voice.

Everyone watching the scene was astonished at Julieth's resourcefulness. Nerun was seeing the pegasus with stars in his eyes, this was the most magnificent spells he had ever seen.

Cindy was shivering from head to toe. She knew that even if she did her best to try to defend herself from the spell it would not be enough. She did not have enough time to produce a spell powerful enough to defeat the pegasus before she was defeated. With great reluctance and anger, she could only concede. This was supremely humiliating for her, however, Julieth had bested her by using her very own spell and powers to make a beautiful counterattack.

"I give up," said Cindy and immediately stepped down from the arena.

The audience cheered and clapped loudly. This was a thrilling fight among Adepts, a spectacle that was quite rare in Ansem since Adepts were quite rare in the Kingdom, so today they were quite happy to have been able to feast their eyes on this Magick duel.

Meanwhile, the other fight had already finished but barely anyone paid much attention to it. Hernani fought Mathew and defeated him without much difficulty. The latter had lost all of his fights, so his morale was on the ground. He could not muster much courage to keep fighting, and for him, these fights were but a formality he wished ended as soon as possible.

Next, it was the turn of the second-year students. This time Marcos did not have to fight and Albert easily defeated his opponent. So far Marcos and Albert had won two matches each, and it was clear to all that the top student among the second years would probably be chosen between the two of them.

The third battle started for the first years. This time Nerun was the one to rest, and the others fought instead.

Gonzo faced Reina, while Karles faced Marcia. Nerun paid close attention to both battles, but in the end, focused more on Gonzo's fight. After all, due to the current results, it was quite likely that the top student of the first year would be decided between them, and due to his own battles, he had not been able to check Gonzo's battle style.

Reina fought elegantly and fiercely against Gonzo. However, the advantage the latter had over her wasn't easily overcome. With his stronger cultivation and fierce fighting style, not even Reina managed to follow his movements, not even with her clones or her lightning kicks. In the end, she could only be defeated without making Gonzo show his full power to Nerun.

'It's good like this as well. It's not like he knows the full extent of my prowess as well,' thought Nerun to himself.

Karles also used his full power and fought Marcia in a grand spectacle of a fight. However, Marcia managed to stay away from Karles and bombarded him with multiple lightning balls that eventually numbed him silly. This allowed Marcia to use a grand lightning spear that managed to break all of Karles' defences and defeated him. Professor Samuel who was the referee for the battle had to intervene and stopped the Magick Spell before it could cause great harm to Karles.

So far Karles had had a bit of bad luck, and he had lost all of his battles. He wasn't that concerned though, he had accomplished most of the things he wanted to do while on the battle royale, and his attitude was completely different from Mathew's. He was happy for both Reina and Nerun and was sure that he would be able to soar higher with time, especially now that their group would be promoted and obtain more resources. Being in the top 5 of the group was good as well since all of them would get some rewards from the school, which would boost his power. He was sure that in the next ranking, he would be much more powerful.

And so, the fourth battle was approaching.

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Άρχοντας των ουρανών - Πήγασος: Lord of the heavens - Pegasus

Νερό μαστίγιο: Water Whip

Ουράνιο φράγμα: Sky barrier