''Then, start from the fourth year, I want to see the best first.'' Stephen turns to look at the people sitting opposite our side.
''I will go first, solo.'' A girl with pure black hair in a ponytail and black irises confidently walks to the platform.
''Daughter of Duke Camila, good. Let's see how strong our school's number one is.''
''Then, please take of me.'' The girl, still with her emotionless face, rivaling that of Emy's, pulls out two daggers and holds them in reverse.
''Come.''
Instantly after that, the girl seemingly disappears into thin air before reappearing behind Stephen, using one of the daggers to stab towards his neck.
But Stephen spins around with superhuman speed, catching her wrist with his right hand and pulls her entire body over to his side, destabilizing the girl. He then throws out a casual punch towards her stomach, but the girl disappears again and targets his neck behind him one more time.
''Old trick.'' Stephen commented.
He doesn't even turn around this time, just stomps lightly on the ground.
The air around him changes as mana fluctuate, then finally the atmosphere surrounding him explodes like an air bomb, pushing the girl back several meters.
''My turn.'' He said.
Stephen, much like the girl, pretty much instantaneously appears behind the girl, who is still a little bit dazed after the hit before, and throws a punch towards her side.
The girl hastily turns around to block the hit with the daggers, then she tries to get Stephen with a spin kick, to which Stephen just falls back a bit, narrowly dodging the passing kick.
Using the opening, Stephen this time casts several spells at the same time from all directions, two fireballs, two ice spears, three earth bullets, and throws all of them at the girl.
It looks like she's finally getting serious, the black gemstone on her necklace glows together with the two daggers. Then, dark spikes started to come out of the ground, deflecting all the spells.
The girl charges forwards again, slashing Stephen continuously, while the spikes are stabbing him from everywhere as well.
Stephen, still calm, dodging all the attacks very casually for a while, before he finally retaliates.
That's... space magic.
Pitch black portals, much like the entrance to my space bag, started to appear all over the platform. The spikes thrusting through the portals come out on ones near the girl's body, grazing all over her skin.
That is a very dangerous move. If Stephen wanted to, he could have open a portal connecting one of the spikes to the back of her head or something, then it would be game over in an instant. I get why he's so respected now.
The act of opening portals like this to attack is one of the most advance applications for space magic, dad can do it too. Actually, I should master space magic more, I think I have some ideas to cook with the guns here...
Anyway, back to the match. It's pretty obvious at this point, the girl can't even touch him, and her body is covered with her own blood already.
Stephen punches the girl, who is visibly tired, in the stomach, causing her to collapse, her hands holding her abdomen.
I mean, she was quite strong, maybe even stronger than Emy, around 4 star Advance? I don't know.
''Not bad.'' Stephen said. ''Get some healing.''
From the corner, a mage uses telekinesis to move the girl closer, then another woman dressed in a priest's robe started to use healing magic on her.
''Next.''
''Yes! We want to go next, team, please.'' A guy in the fourth year said.
''Sure.''
Their team is the perfect example of balance, one tanker, one mage, two damage dealers, one supporter.
The synergy is pretty good, too. The two swordmans are pretty flexible, they know how to connect their attacks, the tanker takes the hits very timely, the other two are decent as well.
But that's pretty meaningless against a master, they got absolutely destroyed after a while.
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''Good teamwork, keep training.'' Stephen nods. ''Next.''
-----
Just like that, he proceeded to destroy every single one of the students, including the third year ones. No one here can really deal with that annoying portal magic. I probably could, but haven't tried.
And don't even get started on the first year, they didn't even get Stephen to use his signature magic.
''Hmm, not bad, not bad at all.'' He commented, after beating the crap out of a freshman, poor guy.
''Now then, second year.'' He turns to us. ''Anyone?''
''You guys wanna go?'' I said to the girls.
''No, I have to duel Emilia.'' Christina refused.
''Mhmm.'' Emy nods as well.
''...I'm feeling a little bit under the weather today, so...'' Anastasia said.
''You wanna go?'' Liana asked me.
''Hmm...'' Do I try or not.
Fuck it, let's just go.
So I raise my hand. ''Me, solo.''
''Hoh~ This is finally getting interesting.'' Stephen exclaimed.
I then fly my way onto the platform. ''Right, let's try not to go too far.''
''You're right.'' Stephen chuckles.
I could feel everyone, excluding Christina and my girlfriends, looking at us with question marks on their faces.
Well, if we go all out here, they really could get swept up in the fight, so.
''Let's get started, then.'' I said.
*****
Standing 15m across from each other, Sylvia and Stephen each takes a deep breath.
Stephen, unlike the calm and casual look before, seems to be concentrating, clearly taking this fight very seriously. This confuses the students, who the hell is this short girl for the headmaster to be that serious??
But regardless, the fight starts.
Sylvia immediately draws out mana from the gems on her earrings and choker, her already brilliant blue eyes seem to shine even more brightly.
On the air, 25 ice spears the size of a human simultaneously formed, Sylvia then sends them flying with terrifying speed towards Stephen with a simple motion of her finger.
Stephen, just like his opponent, draws out mana from his two diamond rings, opening an uncomfortably big number of portals, each around 1 meter in diameter, and there's over 100 of them floating all over the platform.
The ice spears fly towards the portals, everyone expected the battlefield is going to be a mess with ice all over the place after they get through the portals, but what they didn't expect, was the ice spears piercing through all the portals like glass, continuing to fly towards Stephen, who is totally dumbfounded.
Sylvia used a technique called 'hijacking', a highly advanced skill on the mana control category. Because people use mana by controlling the flow of energy outside of their body, magic can technically be hijacked. The only problem was, it's really hard. You need to have much better mana control than your opponent, and you need a lot of concentration, at that point, just casting a counter magic of your own is probably more efficient.
But, Sylvia is known for her absurd mana control capability, and against such annoying magic like portals, it was the right solution.
Against the rapidly approaching barrage of ice spears from all directions, Stephen has no choice but to deactivate the remaining portals and form a barrier around him to block them.
All 25 spears collide with the barrier continuously for a few seconds, but they only managed to put a few scratches on the sturdy barrier of an Archmage.
''That's hard.'' Sylvia commented, finishing up the next barrage of magic.
This time, it's her most powerful elemental magic, earth.
Close to 40 metal spikes coated in mana started to emerge from the ground, their tips pointing towards Stephen.
Inside the barrier, Stephen has already completed his next magic. If she can hijack the portals and destroy them, then he just need to cast spells beforehand and then have them fly through the portals the moment they formed.
Surely she can't hijack the portals before his magic goes through.
By the time all the metal spikes were flying towards Stephen with a speed comparable to a bullet, a bunch of portals opened behind Sylvia. From them, all kinds of magic came out continuously, fire bolts, lighting bolts, ice blast, mana missiles...
Sylvia hastily put a barrier around her as well.
On one side of the platform, Stephen is pouring his magic to the barrier to defend against the barrage of metal spears while attacking through the portals.
On the other side, Sylvia is also enforcing her barrier, while putting even more force into the spikes by controlling them with her most proficient magic - Telekinesis.
That proved to be a good decision, because Stephen's barrier began to crack, bit by bit. However, Sylvia herself could not hold on for much longer, the hijack before was a half bluff, it took a pretty heavy toll on her brain. Now she has to use telekinesis while defending against such intense stream of spells like this.
She would win very easily here if she can teleport. But unfortunately, applying space magic on a living organism is vastly more difficult than normal objects. This also applies to Stephen.
So now, it's a fight of endurance, whosever barrier breaks first, it'll be game over. And both of them know it.
The students have been staring wide-eyed at the colorful scene for a while now, the sheer mana radiating from the platform was enough to make some of them feel nausea and headache.
Slowly, more cracks started to appear on both of their barriers, they gradually grow longer ang bigger, growing like a spider web, and with the onlookers staring at the battle between two masters with bated breaths-
Both of their barriers break at the same time.
'''' ... ''''
Canceling all of their magic, they both shrug at the same time.
''Well, that was pretty good.'' Sylvia said nonchalantly.
''Yes, I think it was enough.'' Stephen said, dusting off his clothing.
Although the two of them could have continued, they decided that it was enough for a quick evaluation.
*****
'''' ... ''''
Coming back to my seat, I could feel all the stares from everybody present. If you could feels the stares physically, I would be long dead, pierced by them now.
I sit down on my seat like nothing has happened. ''The headmaster, he's pretty good.'' I said.
''Y-You... are you really not 100 years old??'' A certain cat girl asked me.
''Cmon, I'm not so shameless, lying about my age like that.''
''Ah! Maybe, you... the Saint?!'' Anastasia exclaimed.
''Well, what do you think?''
The cat girl excitedly jumps to my face, putting her hands on my shoulders, eyes sparkling.
''Really?! Are you really the new Saint?!''
...I forgot just how enthusiastic this girl is when it comes to religion. ''No, of course not, I'm just a pretty decent mage...'' I said, pushing her away.
''Eh~'' Her face crumbles in real time, almost as if she just ate a raw lemon.
I can't do a grand reveal just yet, sorry.