Nobody expected the preliminaries to start and end in seconds, so Oeser had to resort to entertaining the audience to fill the time. He did a rather good job, jumping on what a spectator blurted out and debating whether Sol’s instant victory counted as the new fastest victory.

By engaging the audience, he was able to understand the general consensus. After a full ten minutes of debating, it was decided that it didn’t count. Even those who rooted for Sol had to agree that while it was technically the fastest victory, it wasn’t because of his strength but because his opponent surrendered without a fight. Some argued it could be attributed to Sol’s strength, suggesting Henral didn’t believe he could win, which was why he surrendered. However, others argued it would set a bad precedent to count it.

It wasn’t until Zaman gave the signal to start the finals that Oeser breathed a sigh of relief. Stalling an entire crowd for an extended period of time without any preparation was an exhausting endeavor, but at least he had a new story to brag about to his friends in the entertainment industry.

“Enough stalling! Let’s get on with the match you’ve all been waiting for! On one side, we have Victor!”

Victor walked onto the stage, waving at the audience. Unlike other introductions, Oeser went more in-depth this time.

“Ranking first among all who took the test, standing above the rest since the very beginning! With his advanced mastery over fire magic, he has defeated all his opponents in a single move! The one who will face off against this seemingly unbeatable foe is Sol!”

Sol appeared, waving at the crowd while trying to see if he recognized anyone.

‘Commander Zaman… a few other knights… I don’t see Amber. Is she hiding somewhere? Wait, is that Fabio?’

He spotted Fabio within the crowd, waving two fake Lipons in the air with extreme vigor. At first, Fabio didn’t think much of his agreement with Sol. As long as his invention appeared on stage and drew some attention, he would have been happy. Imagine the tinkerer’s surprise when his shop was flooded the first day of the tournament with merchants and adventurers alike who were in search of the creator of the Lipon. The day after that, even more appeared, and he got the opportunity to sign multiple lucrative deals and create connections he could only previously dream of.

As Sol watched Fabio wave his fake Lipons in amazement, Oeser continued with his introduction.

“Sol ranked second, apparently only losing to Victor in terms of how fast they completed the test! A skilled swordsman, water mage, and earth manipulator, what can’t he do?! Everyone who has fought him has surrendered, clearly understanding the difference between them and him! I dare say that if anyone could stand a chance against Victor, it's Sol!”

With both men in the arena, Oeser asked for the final confirmation.

“Are both of you ready?! Also, don’t say yes if you're just gonna surrender the moment it starts!”

Laughter rang through the colosseum at Oeser’s jab at Henral’s actions.

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Sol nodded, “Ready.”

Victor simply nodded while internally wondering to himself, ‘Should I convince him to surrender? Would be more impactful that way… Nah, it wouldn't be any fun if that happened.’

Oeser raised his wand. “Well, without any delay! Let the battle begin!”

Sol brandished his Lipon and activated it, unleashing his elemental water sword.

“A new element appears! My sources informed me that it's a new weapon called a Lipon and it was created right here in this city!”

Victor didn’t show any reaction to the elemental sword. He had already done his own investigation utilizing Lord Sigurd's resources and found it was an interesting but useless weapon for him. It functioned poorly as a wand or conduit for casting, and once he heard that, he stopped caring for it altogether.

Stifling a yawn, Victor thought to himself, ‘Let's end this quick.’

“[Fire Bolt].”

A massive ball of fire barreled towards Sol, stronger than most intermediate-level spells. Prepared for this sort of attack, Sol chanted a spell of his own.

“[Water Cannon]!”

A blast of water collided against the ball of fire, creating a thick cloud of steam covering the entire arena. While Sol’s [Water Cannon] was slightly weaker in terms of pure power compared to Victor’s [Fire Bolt], the two spells perfectly canceled each other out. There was no trick behind this, water simply triumphed over fire. This elemental advantage was one of the reasons why Sol believed he had hope in this fight.

“Wow! The steam created from their spells colliding has covered the entire arena!”

“[Hot Air].”

A blast of hot air pushed all the steam upwards, once again revealing the arena. While Victor didn’t need to rely on sight and could perfectly see Sol within the smoke, he needed the spectators to witness the fight.

‘Why is he wasting time clearing the steam instead of attacking?’ Sol thought to himself.

He wasn’t surprised at losing the cover the steam provided, as of the few skills he knew Victor had, one of them was [Mana Perception]. He didn’t bother moving from where he was as he channeled mana into his next spell and into the ground as another [Water Cannon] and earth spikes were sent towards Victor.

“[Flame Barrier].”

A veil of fire covered Victor, hot enough that the water evaporated and the earth spikes were blasted away by the air pressure.

With an audible yawn, Victor tauntingly asked, “Is that all?”

Sol chuckled, “I’m just getting started. [Downpour]!”

From above, a powerful deluge of water shot down like arrows towards Victor, while underneath the ground shook as spikes rose with the intent to impale him.

The rain above did nothing but pester Victor, while the spikes that appeared within the [Flame Barrier] snapped upon making contact with a thin layer of mana that covered his body.

“Sol got past Victor’s barrier, but the earth spikes broke against another barrier! Could it be Victor has another defense skill active at all times?!”

Oeser needed more information to pinpoint exactly what skill was doing that, but regardless, he had to keep the spectators informed.

Thinking this had dragged on for long enough, Victor spoke. “Time to end this. [Fire Bolt].”

A large sphere of flame appeared, then another, and another. More continued to appear around Victor until the ambient mana became thinner as a result. Eventually, 25 flaming spheres floated in the air, waiting for his command.

“Go,” Victor commanded.

All at once, the 25 flaming spheres launched towards Sol, who had to abort his current spell chant and take evasive actions. The 25 spheres landed throughout the arena, resulting in multiple explosions that shook the foundation.

The shockwaves of the explosion caused even Oeser on his floating platform to almost fall off.

“Woah! Over 20 enhanced [Fire Bolt] spells at once!” Oeser then stealthily whispered into a small communication gem with a worried tone, “Wasn’t that a bit overkill? Can we verify Sol is fine?”

Oeser played it off to the audience like it was fine, but he and some spectators began to also worry if Victor’s attack was too much. As the dust from the explosions settled, people searched, but to their surprise, Sol was nowhere to be found.

“Where did he go?!” Oeser exclaimed.