I finished the final preparations with Jerome and could finally relax. Everything was in place to start the first official C-rank assessment of this year. I took my VIP seat next to Jerome and looked at how the people that were interested in watching trickled into the spectator seats. I looked at the files in front of me. We are not only looking for skills in battle but flexibility in combat and the overall usefulness of their arsenal.

This is why Agnis already passed because the usefulness of his kit already outweighs everything, we will grade him on, if he is strong and adaptable that is only a plus. We have 8 participants today and we will hold a tournament-style bracket. They will be out of it after 2 losses but a loss doesn't mean they fail to get into C rank. Winners could fail to get into C-rank and losers could meet the requirements. We made sure to make this clear to all participants. Although, I forgot to tell Agnis but he already realized that there is no way he will fail this. My daughter kept pressuring me to put her against him first and I told her no but… I looked at the roster that was randomly generated and the first match was Agnis versus my daughter… She will get the wrong idea and think I arranged this for her. I sighed.

“Sighing already Terrence? We didn't even start yet.” I looked at my good friend and the president of the Adventurers Association, Jerome.

“It is nothing, it’s just that this randomly generated roster is going to give my daughter the wrong idea.”

“Hahaha, that’s not a big deal, I will be happy if we can get at least 3 people that pass.”

“We already have one.”

“Ah the water user, I see he’s the first one up against your daughter, you seem to hold him in high regard, unfortunately, he is up against your daughter. Water is weak against lightning.”

“Hmm, I don’t know about that one, of course, I’m rooting for my little girl but…”

“But?”

“He has fought her before and overwhelmingly beat her…”

“What? A water user? Now you piqued my interest! “The announcer called up the first participants and the screen showed their adventurer details. “He hasn't been assigned a role yet?”

“Well, his fighting style involves crowd control, he is quite a rare addition to the Association.” “IIIIN THE BLUE CORNER!!!”

“Jerome, can you tell Jerry to stop that obnoxious announcer act of his?”

“Jerry! Shut the fuck up and start the match already!”

“Yessir!”

“Very president like…”

“My Association my rules!”

“Fair.” The first match started and my daughter instantly started provoking and taunting Agnis. I facepalmed. I will have to talk to her after all this is done. Agnis didn't seem to respond to the taunts I sometimes forget that he is only 13 years old. I saw his blonde-haired friend yelling to get her, yes that’s how I expect 13-year-olds to respond. I’m not sure if my daughter understood what is supposed to happen here because she is attacking him with her words. Meanwhile, Agnis is doing nothing. Wait is that correct? Slowly but surely, I see the water from the oceanic and tundra parts of the arena disappear. Where is it going? I have a bad feeling about this. If my daughter doesn't hurry, she will be in for an unpleasant surprise.

“Hey Terrence, did you notice? All the water in the arena disappeared, I think your daughter is in deep trouble!”

“Yeah, I think so too…” My daughter lost her cool and started attacking. Agnis evaded the lightning bolts with ease and caught some in water bubbles.

“Hey, Jerome, do you think you can dodge lightning bolts from that distance?”

“I have no idea, but let me tell you I can’t do it with the ease this young man does.” He tried to slip Tania and freeze her leggings to the floor but unfortunately, she was wearing freeze-resistant leggings. Is this why she wanted them so badly? I slowly get the feeling I’m failing as a father. She started sending out lightning balls that discharged randomly and Agnis protected himself with an ice wall and moved some water on her head. He tried to defeat her like the last time. She took her magic item and sucked the water up.

“Ha! With this magic item, you can’t do that!” You chose to get a magic item that countered me and me only? I can’t say that’s a wise move. I agreed with Agnis’ assessment. Only one magic item could be used so once you use it you have to use it for all the other matches.

“I only recognize you as my rival! I’m confident I can beat the others without a magic tool!” I was hoping that a rival would make her stronger not petty… Ok, you got me can I surrender now?

“Ehh, you want to surrender? No Daddy! Don’t let him surrender!”

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“I’m sorry Agnis, try to do your best to either knock her out or until you get knocked out. We are also interested in what you can do.” Meh fine, just don't regret it. The moment he said that his demeanour changed. I must be imagining things but it looked like his eyes briefly changed color. I was still wondering where all that water went but I wouldn't have to wait long to find out. Water came out of the ground and covered the ground to shin height. Agnis was just standing on the water and Tania used [Electromagnetic Levitate] to not get stuck in the water. Agnis created a spear of water. Tania shot more lightning bolts at him but he evaded them and dashed toward Tania. I now realize how he could dodge those lightning bolts; his speed was comparable to a lightning bolt. He closed into Tania and launched her into the air and… he disappeared. I saw some ripples on the water but something was keeping Tania airborne.

“Wow this kid is fast, I can hardly see him, he is using his spear to keep your daughter airborne, he also seems to be hitting her in her blind spots so it seems unlikely that she will break out of this if it continues like this, impressive!” This was indeed impressive, it seemed like she was floating but according to Jerome, he was keeping her in the air. Tania seemed annoyed so I assume it didn't do much damage to her. Suddenly water blasts started shooting from underneath her adding some damage to the move. Tania broke out by creating a large electric blast. Agnis seemed to evade it and didn't take any damage from it. Tania broke free from whatever that skill was. If he had an ally Tania would have instantly lost there, she was a sitting duck in that move. She used one of her strongest skills [Thunder Warrior]. It is one of the skills she is very proud of. It is like a summon but made out of lightning, it is fast and has high offensive capabilities. She started shooting [Lightning beams] at Agnis while the [Thunder warrior] went at him. He actually fought it off well with his spear. This guy was extremely fast, he was faster than the thunder warrior and his skills with the spear were impressive. He pushed the thunder warrior back and Tania and the warrior continued shooting lightning beams. Agnis created 4 [Water snakes] and attached one to each of his limbs and he… caught the lightning in the water snakes and made them swirl around him. He was now in the middle of swirls of electrified water. Is this how water users fight? I spotted Sally in the spectator seats and she was paying close attention.

“I really thought that water was weak against lightning… this kid handles it like it’s nothing…”

“It certainly requires an insane amount of mana control... I knew he could deal with what my daughter can throw at him but I didn't know he could do this much…”

”A very creative way to use [water snake], instead of sending them to his opponent he uses it like whips to catch attacks and he can probably also attack with them.”

“He is so young too... How many fights and quests did he need to do to come up with this…”

“You told me he already made it to C-rank, right? I wholeheartedly agree, this is what we need from C-ranks!” Agnis kept catching lightning and there was so much water swirling around him that we couldn't see him anymore It looked like the water snakes multiplied but I can't tell.

“Is your daughter going to be alright? If he sends that back…” At that moment he did exactly what Jerome said, he sent the electrified water back in an enormous water blast. She evaded it but I already saw that that wasn't a good thing. Agnis turned his spear into 2 swords and approached them with blinding speed. He went at the thunder warrior. A thunder warrior ranks very high in its weapon mastery but this guy… He gave the warrior a run for his money but… He got cut in half. Although…

“A water clone!” Agnis jumped out of the water reflection and got rid of one of the warrior's right arms. He also shortly got rid of one of the warrior's left arms so it only had 1 left arm and 1 right arm left.

“Hey, Terrence… that is a clone too…” Jerome was right, Agnis got cut in half again but fell apart like water. Out of nowhere he appeared and cut off the warrior's head. The area had a lot of tall waves so it was hard to see the whole arena from any point of view so he was probably hiding in the waves. Tania had a hard time making anything out between all those waves and this is the scary part. Suddenly all the waves stopped but Agnis was nowhere to be seen. Tania floated up and narrowly dodged a spear flying out of the water from below her. He got out of the water and stared up at her. He still had that different aura about him. My daughter looks quite worn out, she got hit by some waves, while Agnis seemed like he didn’t get hit at all. He still had the water snakes on his limbs. He used them as whips and tried to hit Tania.

Wait? was he really trying to hit her? He didn't seem to put much effort into it. He got her to swap positions with him, all the time he was more in the middle of the arena and she to the sides. Is this what he wants? From what I know from how he fights, that combat wise it’s a bad idea to let him get what he wants. Tania's levitate wore off.

“Agnis won, your daughter's levitate ran out.” Agnis rode the water snake at her. It looked like he was surfing. Tania electrified the water but only a small part around her got electrified. Tania was confused and Agnis reminded her about the properties of pure water.

“This guy is scary; he makes lightning users useless.” He whipped up some waves and this part of the arena looked like it was a stormy sea. He was controlling 2 columns of water which were the sea snakes with ease. Tania used [Thunder] but Agnis caught it with another [water snake]. He kept making water snakes and they closed into Tania. Tania used her magic tool and made [Lightning walls] to create a waterless cube where she could stand. It seemed futile but it looked like she was fighting against the sea. And what came next turned the quite noisy arena silent. Agnis used [Tsunami].

“This… I’m sorry for your daughter…”

“Yeoh me too…” The only ones making noise were his friends. I guess they knew he could use [Tsunami]. Personally, I don’t see how anyone can win against him, he was skilled yes but if he can use [Tsunami] this makes it even more unfair towards his opponents. At no point in this match did I feel Tania was in control of the fight

“One of the 10 most powerful water moves ever cast... It is hard to win against that… do you think we should just bump him up to B-rank? I don’t know many B-ranks that have a skillset as exotic as his…”

“Let’s not give him too much preferential treatment…” We looked down and Jerry was still flabbergasted.

“Jerry do your damn job and announce the results!” Jerry jumped up and announced the winner. I saw how Agnis made a couch of ice, placed Tania on it, and pulled the water out of her lungs. She got sent to the medical room we had set up for these assessments. Jerome gave me permission to see my daughter so I got up and followed her to the medical room.