"As men, I'm sure he will be easier to talk to."

"-I'm sure he will be easier to talk to."

"-he will be easier to talk to."

"-easier to talk to."

A certain student, let's call him A, is not upset at all. He is completely not upset. He is completely not upset that his teacher's son in trying to court his niece and is already putting move on his little sister while he is busy in a life or death battle with a superior Archmage.

He is not upset at all as his sister genuinely blushes as the young elf kisses her hand.

He is not upset at all as a magical bolt whizzes over his head, barely missing him and destroying a hill outside of the city limit.

"Iachrim... kill..." His senior disciple whispers ominously. A certain Student A is not scared at all. He is completely fearless. You can only deprive a man too much until he can't take it anymore.

Finally, the elf that a certain Student, let's call him A, decided to be the judge finally got into position between the two mages. For some reason, the elf looks horrible. Poor kid, he must be worried about being caught in the crossfire between the two archmages, but there is nothing Student A can do.

As the two Archmages get into position, Student A starts contemplating the decision that leads to this.

"Start."

"If you back down from this and let me kill that bastard, I can let you leave Iachrim." His senior disciple says.

As if he can back down from this with this many people witnessing and his sister being in the audience, even though currently she is busy flirting with a young, handsome elf.

"I am sorry, but I can't."

"So, you are with that bastard too... I am disappointed Iachrim. I thought you were better. You have always been the most sensible of all of us."

'You are even aware of that. I am the only thing holding the academy's undergrad mages together. You and the junior disciple who constantly covets my position is no help at all.'

Student A starts stepping forward into position. Suddenly, he trips and falls down. A certain Student, let's call her B is still watching. The judge is also watching him.

"Wait a minute, I just drop something." Student A said.

Everyone waits for him to get up.

Student A stands up and start moving into position. Suddenly, something drops out of his pocket. Student A raises his hand in the air again.

"Wait a minute, let me put those away."

Student A picks the item up and starts walking slowly over to the judge to hand it to him for safekeeping.

Suddenly, while he is walking, it drops out of his hand again.

"Wait a minute for me to pick it up again."

Everyone was waiting for him. In the crowd, there was boos however, Student A did not care about that at all. It is not them who is risking their life.

Finally, after stalling for time, he is finally prepared mentally.

"Are you done?" The certain troublesome female student asks him.

"Yes."

A super fast bolt made out of eldritch matter hone in on him before he could react. That is, if he did not cast time stop on himself.

How did it go so wrong? He only wants to learn magic in peace, if he could he would have stayed in the academy for the rest of his life, just how did it go so wrong?

The duration of the timestop passes and Student A blinks in surprise as the honing bolt was still coming after him and has not disappeared.

Immediately, Student A uses his agility to dodge. The eldritch bolt was moving more slowly than Student B's normal attack. Knowing that it was special, Student A was wary of it. However, even though he is wary of it, even he did not not expect the slowly moving ball of eldritch energy to start discharging miniature lightning bolt on its own. A few bolts zap him, causing Student A to flinch.

He stares back at his Student B who was still glaring at him.

Okay, here is the plan. Let her beat him up a bit until she is satisfied and does not go on a rampage anymore.

While he was thinking that, Student B conjures another one of her normal destructive magic bolt. Again, it hones in on him with horrendous speed as Student A times his timestop with the explosion. The next time when he blinks, except for the area around him, in a wide radius, the earth has been gouged out. The judge has already ran away to a safe distance. It also give Student A a hard time as the terrain around him is hundred of meter deep, and he can't move as he likes. Then there is still the homing lightning discharging ball of purple eldritch energy heading for him. It is checkmate.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Momentarily, the archmage disciple Student A is wrapped in purple energy. Everyone thought that he has stopped time for himself again, however, in the next moment, the purple statue in the shape of an elf disappears and Student A reappears hundred of meters away.

That was close.

He did not want for any of these things to happen. Even his old maiden senior disciple. He did not want to make fun of her "old" maiden status. They were colleagues after all.

"So you are Iachrim, our master's second disciple. I am Erisaale, your senior. I am specialized in the area of mana research, if you have any problems with lacking magical energy, you can consult me."

Suddenly, 4 bolts of energy appear from the void, and all of them was headed for Student A. Again, he is wrapped in a sheet of purplish energy and then disappear. Of the 4 bolts of energy, 3 explode, the last start discharging energy endlessly and starts heading for him.

'So two is her limit.'

The balls of eldritch energy keeps on discharging energy endlessly. And they seem to move with a mind of their own, albeit slower than her normal attack. Normally something like that consumes a lot of concentration and energy. However, as expected of his senior sister, she doesn't run out of energy, however, the limit of concentration is still something that she can't over come.

"I will give you one last chance. Surrender now and stop defending that man."

'I want to! I want to do that! However, I am a prince of the High Elves, I have my duties to uphold my image. As a member of the royal family, I have duties to protect the family.'

"So that is your answer then."

Suddenly, the two eldritch orb of energy start speeding up, it revolves around Student B, and rotates. It goes so fast, Student A can swear it is multiplying. It is not an illusion, two multiply into 4, 4 multiply into 8, 8 multiplies into 16. Each of them can explode with the power to destroy a small hill, they all discharge energy endlessly.

And then it all heads for him.

Student B expects him to stop time to protect himself, then she will use the destruction around him as threat to force him to surrender. However, Student A has a better plan.

He lets them hit him head on.

"The magic of time consumes a lot of mana. I don't really understand it, how can something like the flow of time be stopped. It is a hard path to walk but I can show you how to draw energy from the plain of time. Perhaps you can be a better mage than me." -And then Hirrim, Iachrim's cousin appears in her life.

At the last moment, Student B realizes too late that something was off. She tries to stop the momentum of her attack, however it was too late. Her junior did not move to defend himself at all. He lets them hit him head on. There was no hint of energy usage from him. He just lets it be and stand perfectly still. Afraid of accidentally hurting him, she calls out

"Wait!"

However, it was too late. The 16 orbs of power crash into the former prince at the same time, in her panic, Student B causes the orb to fly into the sky.

But it was still too late.

When the smoke clear, the only thing left was Student A's lower half. His two legs were still standing after the attack overtakes him.

"Iachrim..." She was about to say something, when, in place of the disappeared upper half, a familiar re-manifested into reality, rejoining with his lower half and casts an extremely high speed spell of immobilization.

Student B realizes right then that it was a trick.

Somehow, Student A managed to remove just the upper half of his body from reality all together yet his lower body left behind was still connected despite the dematerialization. He realizes that the only way for him to win was for he to let her guard down.

With her magic resistance, she could shrug off the immobilization effect really quickly, and there was still the 16 orb- oh, 12 orbs. It seems that to keep his operation a secret, instead of using his own reserve, he chose to leech it off of her spell. It is an extremely complicated technique, unlike her raw power.

Leeching energy from his opponent attack, then turning it into that kind of freak show half dematerialization magic, she could beat him like a step child afterward, however, instead she chose to acknowledge him this time.

"I am Iachrim. I may be a prince, but in here I'm just like you."

"I have lost."

She says, to the disbelief of Student A. Student B has calmed down considerably after the small scare of her junior dying by her own hand.