"Where's Cayden?" A guard in the two star flawless Caster stage asked a messy looking Lapsa,

Lapsa gashed his teeth, he couldn't tell the guard where Cayden was if he wanted to, he truly didn't know where Cayden was and even if he did, he wouldn't tell him.

But the fact that the guard knew that messing with him would get Cayden's attention infuriated him.

"Whatever, it's fine if you don't tell me, this will get his attention."

The guard gathered the earth elements around his hand creating an earthly aura, "I wonder how loud your screams have to be for him to hear you..."

He formed a palm and sent it towards Lapsa, the earth elements kept the shape of the palm as it hurled towards him.

Lapsa tried forming a defense gathering the elements of air, but he didn't have enough time to do anything with them before the earth palm hit him.

The palm sent Lapsa flying through the air, and he screamed while blood splattered out of his mouth. His scream spread out into the entire area, gathering the attention of all the surrounding demi-humans.

"Lapsa!" A yell from a familiar voice made Lapsa's eyebrows shift from a hurt expression to a worried one.

Cayden ran full speed to where Lapsa was lying down, with Cronix in tow. When Cayden saw how beat up Lapsa was, the earth elements around him became chaotic.

"Antony, did you do this?" Cayden's voice wasn't loud, but it caused a strange aura to rise from his body.

Both Cronix and Lapsa shivered because of this aura, the guard, or Antony, frowned, when he felt Cayden's bloodlust, but in the end he didn't care.

"So what if I did? I needed your attention. I want more magic crys..." Cayden didn't let Antony finish, he sent an earth lance his way.

Antony didn't worry about the earth lance in the slightest, he simply reached out his hand, and when the lance collided with his hand, it instantly dispersed.

This was the problem when fighting with someone whose talent is in the same element and they're stronger, they could simply manipulate the elements that the other used.

This problem is mainly in the Caster and Core Creation stages where they use the magic created by the planet, but it isn't unheard of to appear in the upper stages.

"Cayden, I didn't come here to fight you, but I don't mind beating you down." The earth elements surrounded Antony's palm again, and he created a barrage of earth palms, but compared to the one he used on Lapsa these were several times stronger

Cayden created several lances to match up with the palms, but they couldn't hold up, and collapsed under the onslaught.

Cronix grabbed Lapsa, who was still on the floor, right now the best thing to do was to get out of the way and try not get in Cayden's way.

Cayden couldn't keep up with the rock palms and was continuously being forced to take several steps back. It didn't take long for him to be completely overtaken and be launched a few feet back.

"He's only a four star Caster, there's no way he'll be able to beat a flawless two star." Lapsa didn't carry much hope for Cayden.

"It's even worse since he's fighting someone using the same element..." Cronix said with a sigh. He then brought the tip of his tail to his left arm

Cronix began gathering his mental energy. The surrounding demi-humans in the field watched the action, they were still unsure on how to react.

Even with Cayden on the floor, Antony didn't stop with his attacks, instead he increased them. Cayden used the earth elements to create a shield, but he knew this wasn't going to last long.

Just as Antony was getting ready to destroy the shield, he suddenly felt weight on his back. Cronix was hanging from Antony's back, his left arm was dripping blood.

While Antony tried to grab Cronix, Cayden used this time to recover. Cronix licked the blood from his arm and began forming lines with his tongue on Antony's neck.

Cronix was only able to draw two lines before his shoulder was grabbed by Antony, and thrown off, but he couldn't be completely thrown off because ice had formed on the hand hanging on Antony's neck.

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"What the..." Before Antony could completely figure out what was happening, a lance made of earth hit him right in the center of his chest, unfortunately it didn't penetrate.

Cayden managed to stand back up, and create several earth lances. Using this distraction Cronix managed to secure himself back on Antony's back, and started using his finger instead of his tongue.

Antony was getting annoyed, and he was done playing around, this time he gathered all the earth elements he could, even disrupting Cayden's attacks in the process, stealing the earth elements under his control.

The earth elements surrounded Antony's entire body, creating a seven foot avatar around him. The avatar easily threw Cronix away, but not before he finished his ninth line.

Cronix was thrown 15 feet in the air, but he didn't worry though, he shifted his shoulder blades up and down.... "Oh fu..." Now he was scared, the things he usually depended on for these types of scenarios were gone.

He braced for his incoming meet up with the ground, but a sudden wind arose, strong enough to gently carry Cronix to the ground. Cronix was confused at first until he saw Lapsa making movements and breathing heavy as if he was going through a huge workout, and he understood.

While he's only in the two star Caster stage, he could be useful when it comes to this...

Cayden had an ugly expression on his face, and Cronix slowly landed next to him with Lapsa's help.

Both boys were out of breath, "We're doomed..." Lapsa muttered from behind them, while Cronix and Cayden weren't as pessimistic as Lapsa, they were not feeling optimistic in the slightest.

Antony's face became smug, "Are you guys giving up? Well, I'll tell you what, if you bow down and beg, I might consider forgiving you."

The other demi-humans were slowly losing interest in this fight, this was the destined outcome for demi-humans like them, not to mention the power difference coming from the different stages.

Cronix looked at Cayden, and Cayden glanced back at him. "Oh, screw it!" Cayden began creating earth lance after earth lance.

Cronix smiled at Cayden's actions, he gathered all the water elements he could, and also gathered every scrap of mental energy, Cronix's mental energy was stranger than usual, it now had an even greater icy hint than before.

Antony's eyes narrowed at their actions, but he didn't panic in the slightest.

Cayden ended up with nine earth lances, and sent them Antony's way, however Antony was as unfazed as ever, he charged straight at Cayden.

Damn it, me and my big mouth, if I still had my fifth star this would've been a lot easier!

While Cayden hated himself for his previous actions, Antony suddenly felt the water elements at his legs, but he didn't pay them any attention.

That was a huge mistake, as a mysterious force enveloped the elements and quickly turned them into ice.

"What..?" Antony sadly didn't have time to be confused and he knew it, he stopped focusing on keeping his earth avatar around his body, but manipulated it to move around like an extra person.

The earth avatar continued the charge towards the two boys, while he tried to break free from the ice.

Cronix frown,

Even if I used the water elements again, I don't have the energy to create ice like that again.

He then turned to Lapsa who was behind him, there was a small idea forming in his head, and he dipped a finger in his own blood. Cayden also frowned, "Maybe I bit off more than I could chew with this fight."

"Stall for time." Cronix suddenly whispered, Cayden only had time to glance but he didn't have time to ask any questions, or noticed Cronix was tieless.

The earth avatar took a swing at both boys, Cayden heard the swing coming and instantly jumped back, but Cronix was not so lucky, he was knocked back into the field in front of a group of demi-humans.

Cayden formed a few earth lances, and sent them flying, but they did little to nothing against the seven foot rock man.

Antony finally broke off from the ice holding him down, Cayden frowned, this was no doubt a complete failure.

"This has been fun, but we're finished here." The avatar quickly ran up to Cayden, fast enough that he couldn't react. Antony raised his hand, and the avatar followed his movements

Antony smiled as he brought his arm down, the avatar followed his directions, but just as the avatar was about to make contact with Cayden, a fabric hit the back of Antony's neck and the next moment an explosion occurred in the same area.

Antony's head was launched forward, and his head hit the ground with a thud. Lapsa was behind Antony, his face was mixed with fear and amazement.

I didn't understand why Cronix told me to throw his tie at the symbol, but this is just...

The earth avatar collapsed at Cayden's feet. Cayden smiled as he quickly approached Antony's fallen body, and with Antony no longer using the earth elements, Cayden was free to use them as he pleased.

Antony was disorientated, and his head felt like it was splitting. He looked up only to see a figure with black and white hair gathering all the earth elements they could muster.

And once that was done, they slammed every bit of it on his head. Antony was instantly knocked cold.

Cayden looked at Antony's passed out body and fell down on the ground below him, this was too unbelievable.

Cronix was lying in the field, his face was pale, he used what little energy he had left to gather the water elements and used them to freeze over his bloody arm.

The formation on the tie disappeared along with the formation on his neck... Good job Lapsa...

The surrounding demi-humans watched in wonder, this was barely ever seen.

Lapsa walked up to Cayden, "We're screwed." Although Lapsa's words weren't all that bright, he had a smile on his face.

Cayden laughed, "Yeah, I'll be surprised if we're not dead by the end of today." Cayden extended his hand, "Come on, help me up."

Lapsa took his hand and pulled him up. When Cayden stood up, he brushed the dirt of his clothes, "When's next week, I want to actually get my clothes washed this time"

Lapsa made a weird face, "I'll do it, I'll also take... His clothes too."

"His name is Cronix, speaking of which, where is he?" Cayden took a deep breath, "I can smell him over there." Cayden pointed at a field, where Lapsa could see Cronix being surrounded by demi-humans.

"This guy's a demi-human?"

"He looks weird."

"Look at his tail, he might be a crossbreed."

Cayden smiled when he heard their comments, while Cronix didn't have the energy to care.