Dragis glances at the five with a faint smile “So who is first?”

The young woman dressed in a red robe with exposed arms walks forward first with a confident smile “I will play with you first so you four men can just be lazy.” She says with a smile directed at Aquila turning so all her beauty was on display.

“I seem to be at a disadvantage my lady you know who I am but I have yet to catch your name if you would like to play with a man you should at least introduce yourself to them first.”

Rage filled the ladies’ eyes “You branch scum you dare talk to me like that I am Thia Aesir granddaughter to the Financial Elder Razel. I am a rank one magical fire king.”

Dragis laughs loudly holding his sides “Fire magic for a hot-headed woman now that is a perfect combination.”

Thia yells turning red with anger not noticing two of the men behind her start to laugh. Then she does a quick sigh and fires a fire dart out of her palm towards Dragis.

“Trying to use a quick dart to heat up another’s passion; don’t you know without time to build the true fire can never burn,” Dragis says with a laugh as he does a quick sign with his left hand and waves his hand upwards causing a heat wave that sends the fire dart up and into the protective shield. Then with his other hand, he makes a three-phase sign and then points his index finger down causing the air around him to distort with heat and areas at distance from him to grow cold.

“Fool, doing an ability that requires charging in the middle of a duel. Does he think someone will hold her and give him the time he needs? Once you start one of those spells you cannot even move or the charging will be lost.” Aquila says with a sneer of disgust.

Thia screaming “You want to see the true power of fire your dog!” While yelling she performs a double handed sign and held her hand in front of her forming a fireball yet as fast as it starts to form the fire was pulled out if it towards Dragis’ heat wave and starts to circle around him.

With a wicked smile “While it is true I cannot charge my spell while moving but if I am fighting a fire mage any spells they do will be drawn to the fire adding to the power of my fire vacuum arrow and if you want to approach me in hand to hand combat the heat wall around me may not burn a fire mage it would almost certainly cause some minor discomfort.”

Thia’s eyes yet again filled with rage. “You really think your spell can keep me away if I choose to attack you?!”

She then does several signs in a row then throws her hands open causing ten fireballs to quickly form causing a spike in heat in her area. Just as the impressive sight appeared the fire and heat were yet again drawn towards the wall of fire being caught in the heat vacuum causing the spell to go out and the fire around Dragis to yet again grow in strength.

With rage and a quick hand sign fire burst from Thia’s feet sending her flying towards Dragis and a ball of fire forming around her hand flying into the heat wall trying to punch him. As the fire around her was drawn into my wall the heat wave sent her flying upwards and backward landing a few feet away with barely any of her clothes left but enough to cling to her and cover the important private parts.

“What was that you said about I could not keep you away.” Dragis laughed as he said, “And look you experience the discomfort I mentioned and you are even more fit for the play you promised earlier.”

“You mongrel how dare you do this to me?” She raged holding what was little left of her clothes.

“I did nothing to you I even warned you about what would happen. You were the one who attacked now but now I am about to do something though.” As he spoke his eyes suddenly focused in on her. Dragis then raised his left hand and drew a portion of the heat and flame from the wall of flame around him to his hand causing a flaming bow to appear in his hand. Then raised the other hand to the bowstring drawing the remainder of the flame swords the bowstring causing a flaming arrow to appear. As Thia looked at Dragis and the flaming arrow she felt her body freeze with fear as a great pressure pushed down on her. Pulling the arrow back even more heat rushed into it from the surrounding area causing the flame to turn blue.

Dragis let the arrow fly straight towards Thia. As it leaves the edge of the bow the flame from the bow get drawn into the arrow as well causing it to grow even larger. As the arrow passes through the air heat waves distort the air and burn anything it can as it flies on its path causing smoke to fill the area distorting everyone’s vision. As they see the bright light from the arrow pass where Thia was and hit the side of the arenas barrier causing a loud explosion as it hit and sending waves of heat and flame along the protective wall till it dissipated and the heat equaled out in the arena. Fear filled the eyes of the people watching as waited for the smoke to clear so they could see the outcome.

“Is he trying to kill her?” The large man yelled standing up as he was about to jump into the arena.

As he was about to jump in the smoke cleared enough for everyone to see Thia kneeling with eyes full of fear and a left shoulder that was fully exposed and the hair on that side singed and skin burned red. As they saw their friend was alive everyone but Aquila let out a sigh of relief.

“I hope you understand I could have killed you with that spell had I wanted to.” Dragis say in a serious tone and as the others looked at him they no longer saw the relaxed-looking man but someone that reminded them of a sword that had just been drawn and was ready for use.

She looked up at Dragis with a mixture of fear and respect then lowered her head “I admit my defeat you have a much deeper understanding of fire even if we are in the same realm of power I cannot beat you.”

Dragis smiles at her appearing to become relaxed again “Good you have some sense and can admit your wrongs that means you are not a bad person through and through just a spoiled one.” Dragis glances at the other four with a relaxed smile “So, who is next?”

A short man with spikey hair walks up and bows to Dragis in a very respectful manner a pleasant change from their behavior before.

“My name is Nepa Aesir and I am a water mage and though I am slightly stronger than Thia I admit that that fire arrow of yours would have easily ended my life had you hit me with it thusly I admit defeat.”

Dragis nods his head with a slight smile thinking “This one is probably the humblest of the lot his ability to move with the flow will make it easy for him to grasp many a water spell.”

Nepa then straightens up and walks to Thia lending her a hand and helping her up. The pair then moves to the observation area behind Dragis and sit down showing that they had both acknowledged Dragis’ strength and were willing to follow him.

“You traitors!” The larger man yelled at the two who had just walked behind Dragis with a face filled rage and confusion “How could you betray the young master that easily!”

“Maxum calm down! You felt the power that came off that flame arrow it is only natural for the weaker to recognize the stronger at their level it could have easily killed them.” The tall skinny man beside Maxum said calmly.

“Icor you would not be thinking of changing sides now as well?” Aquila said from behind the other two his voice as cold as ice and a slight murderous aura coming off him.

“No! my young lord it is just that I know I would lose horribly if I was to face him in a duel but I will not acknowledge him unless he beats you,” Icor said bowing fear showing clearly on his face

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“You are just a coward I cannot believe that the Punishment Elder gave birth to such a spineless person!” Maxum yelled at Icor

“If you are going to call another a coward then why don’t you step up and face me?” Dragis asked with an indifferent tone.

“Fine if you think you can take me on then I will gladly help you to your death bed!” Maxum yelled as he jumped out onto the battle area landing and causing dirt to fly up. “I am Maxum son of Druthor the Guardian Elder, and I am a rank 3 earth king!”

“O! Just like the hot-headed girl having fire magic a large block head has earth magic is all of you perfect matches for your magic?” Dragis asks while holding his sides and laughing.

“You little piece of branch family trash you dare make fun of us and insult even or magic?” Maxum asked in a rage.

“Calm down Maxum he is trying to rile you up to cause you to make a mistake!” Aquila yelled from the back voice still cold as if he cared little for his companion.

Maxum closes his eyes and breathes causing his body to relax and the rage to leave his face “What a vile trick from a vile person.” He says with disdain feeling his voice.

“Aww, no fun the owner calmed his poor dog down,” Dragis say with a frown but slight anger in his eyes as he looks at Aquila.

Maxum eyes flash open rage feeling his face again as he does a quick two-handed sign and forms a war-hammer made from rock and starts a full run charge.

“I should have called you a bull instead of a dog,” Dragis says as he does two one-handed signs that form a sword and shield from rock and sidestepping the hammer.

“Wait he can use earth as well as fire and water?” Thia says with disbelief from behind me.

Maxum quickly tries to change the direction of his hammer but before he can Dragis uses his shield to hit Maxum’s back knocking him off balance and causing him to fall face first.

“The rock headed man meets the ground. Right where a rock should be.” Dragis says with a mocking laugh.

Maxum pushes himself up causing him to completely leave the ground as rage filling his eyes.

“You branch mongrel dare to mock and perform such tricks on me?!”

Maxum performs a quick chain of hand signs with his full power to create stone armor that glitters as if a few diamonds are in key spots on it and a halberd with a similar glitter on the point of it. He then causes spikes to form out of his armor and float around him.

“This is my strongest chain of spells that I can currently use. I will enjoy seeing it cripple you if not kill you!” Maxum yells with a sense of pride and confidence.

He then points a finger towards Dragis causing the spikes to shoot towards Dragis. As the spikes start to rapidly fly towards Dragis he does a few quick hand signs and kneels placing a stone wall spell on the ground forming a wall in front of him blocking all the spikes.

“This is why I hate earth magicians sometimes, they are all brute force, and no thought goes into it just smash and bash.” Dragis thinks to himself then yells out “Enough.”

Before the echo from the yell even fades Dragis performs a quick hand sign with his hand still on the ground then another quick set of signs with the other hand and then places it on the ground as well. Maxum suddenly feels himself sinking as the stone beneath him becomes quicksand sinking up to his ankles before he can even act. As he struggles to try and get out he sinks even faster till he is up to his knees in the sand.

“He changed the stone to sand then added a water spell into the mix to make quicksand all within seconds” Elder Josha praised from the judge stand Then rubs his beard as he contemplates “Has he found a way to fuse earth and water just like he did fire and water?”

“Stop these vile tricks and face me like a man!” Maxum yells while he struggles trying to break out of the quicksand causing him to sink about to his waist.

Dragis stands up allowing the stone wall to sink back into the ground and then performs a simple hand sign turning the sand back to stone “Tricks? This is a magic battle and in a magic battle, all that matters are immobilizing the opponent to where they cannot fight back. I could have killed you by making the quicksand much deeper or add spikes to stick through you beneath the sand.”

All the blood left Maxum’s face as he realizes how helpless he currently really was. “Fine, I surrender you win.” He said as he lowered his head

Doing a few quick hand signs Dragis again changes the stone to sand and then sends the sand up to press Maxum back up and on his feet before it turns back to stone.

“Remember it is not a dishonor to lose if you gain something from it that helps you in the future. Also, every magic has its strengths and where yes earth magic is known for its upfront and brutish ways does not mean a smart person can’t use it in other ways. People have long since quit using their imagination when using their magic and just trained in ways people of the past used their magic. As much as people put faith in magic power alone the use of magic laws and how to manipulate them are just important and if all of you can learn that it will help you down the road.”

As Dragis spoke these words floated within the minds of Maxum, Thia, Nepa, and Icor making them think and their eyes to fill with admiration. As Dragis spoke words that normally only the weak would speak since the pursuit of magic power and understanding laws many did not think was worth the split of time. For knowledge in magical laws would allow for one to beat even possibly easily conquer even people one or two levels above them but each law you comprehended increased the difficulty in going from one realm of power to the other especially to the Lord rank.

“Though many believe the increase of understanding makes it more difficult to increase from one realm to the other I say it is more for every law you start a path on but do not complete causes an anchor to hold you back when trying to go to the next realm,” Dragis says as he places both his hands behind him as if teaching a class.

The four that had all been defeated or surrendered knelt to Dragis in respect.

“Senior Dragis would you please take me as a disciple?”

“Please teach me more senior Dragis.”

“I will follow you if you will have me senior Dragis.”

All three of the male disciples said in unison

“My senior Dragis I, Thia, will do anything you wish as long as you will take me as your disciple,” Thia said as she respectfully bowed.

These four showed that no matter the time or place, strength, and knowledge would gain respect.

“You four honor me with your words but I still have one more to beat before the bet is done. Once I beat Aquila there will be time to talk about these things and more so, for now, please stand.” Dragis says with a smile and understanding that at least these four could have a chance to become true powerhouses in the future.

The four all look at each other than with a smile they stood up and gathered in Dragis’ side of the arena.

With a slight grin, Dragis looks at Aquila “So young lord shall we continue with our bet or will you just surrender now? If you give up now I will not hold it against you,” I say with sarcasm.

“You beat four minor characters and think you can beat me. I give you that you know more about the laws than most in our generation but your power and skills are not more powerful than I and I do have many tricks that the others do not.” A wicked grin flashed on Aquila’s face with a mixture of anger and pride.

The other four stare at each other as an angry look shows on their faces as they realize the place they had in their young lord's heart.

Dragis lowers his head “So you are the type to use people and throw them away even if they consider you their friend.” As I speak these words I partially lose control of my magical power causing the wind to kick up and blow my hair around and start to cause the dirt to kick up.

“That Aquila does not understand how much troubles he has just caused for himself. The ones born and raised in the main family do not understand what it is like to have their treasures at constant risk of being taken from them or to be used by other people. The main family has long suppressed the branch families due to the fact that many see them as embarrassment while others see the few strong ones as a threat.” Elder Josha said as he stroked his beard. “I hope Dragis will be able to calm himself and not do something he should not.”

After a few seconds, Dragis takes a deep breath to calm down and regain control over his anger. The wind starts to calm down as Dragis opens his eyes and smiles. “What a great and brave young lord we have here. He has definitely learned how to use people and throw them away after they no longer serve a purpose. The main family must be so proud that you have learned so much from your elders, but if you ask me you are nothing but a spoiled rotten child in need of a lesson.”

As the last sentence was spoken the four that had already been defeated stared at Dragis with shock as Aquila’s face was turned red from anger.

“Your words will be the death of you branch family scum!” As he said these words a light flashed from Aquila’s eyes and shot toward's Dragis almost faster than the others could see. As the light entered Dragis’s eyes he stumbled back holding his head.

“What was that just now?”

“Why the great scholar Dragis does not know a spirit cage spell?” Aquila asked contempt and joy written on his face.

In a split second, Dragis made a gesture to summon a rock dome around him to protect him from whatever may come next.