"..." Cecil was a little speechless at the result of Ainz's battle.

He did win, but the way he won was...unsightly. After his opening and ending speech that sounded more like a taunt, Ainz had volunteered to carry out his defeated opponent. Cecil himself was not sure whether Ainz was a gentlemanly prick, or if he was a hypocrite. Normally, one's mana element would have a major influence in determining the kind of character a person would become.

Most, if not all, fire element spell casters had fiery personality themselves. Take Lucia for an example, even Milly, who they had partied together back at Forest Hill Town, had a fiery and bossy personality when she was on the battlefield.

Fina's alignment with the water element could be the reason why she was so timid, shy, and a little passive. Eli's element of wind and fire had made her analytic, but at the same time determined and headstrong. Ainz's 4 elements, however, made him rather...bizarre. Cecil could only say that he was an enigma.

His personality was really chaotic. One second he would be polite, then the next he would be restrained and then all of a sudden he would act condescending and arrogant. Of course, this mana element and a person's character thing was only a superstition that he heard a while back when he was in the Magic City.

It was based off a research of whether a person's element was something that also determined their personality and traits. He thought that it was hubris since if that was so, then what kind of personality would he have if he was non-elemental?

Cecil only laughed it off, but after recalling the results of the research, he was having an inclination to agree with it, especially when he heard about Lucia's other personality. She was fiery, caring, and passionate when they were together, but he's heard from the guild and other acquaintances that Lucia would sometimes act cold, distant, and uncaring if he wasn't around.

Now it happened again when he was observing his 3 new friends, he was further convinced when he saw how chaotic Ainz's personality was. He snapped out of his thoughts when Ainz came back after delivering his fallen classmate into the stadium's infirmary.

"How was it? Awesome right? Now do you see how awesome I am?!" Ainz had his nose facing the sky and arrogantly asked for his friends to praise him.

He turned an eye towards Lucia in particular since she said that she could defeat 10 of him if they had to fight in a match, but all he found was that the girl in question was clutching her stomach and leaning on Fina while laughing and pointing at him.

"Pffftttt~ seriously, how can you be so shameless? Hahaha~ that victory speech, pfft, especially your ending speech, it was awful! The GLORIOUS ME! The Flaming Winds Tor–PFFTTT–Hahahaha!"

Instead of praising him, Lucia just mocked and teased the arrogant and shameless fellow. This prompted Ainz to flare up and say, "What?! What's wrong with that?! I gave him a warning! AND! He should be honored to face ME. THE Bernstein family's Flaming Winds Torrential Mountain Magus!"

"Pffft, there you go again! Haha~" Lucia seriously couldn't stop laughing, even Cecil wanted to laugh, but he kept his mouth shut. If this was back on Earth, then it was safe to say that Ainz was suffering from middle school syndrome.

Cecil could only smile wryly and say, "Ainz, I didn't know you were like this...but...I'm sure you'll grow out of it, so let's look back on this fondly in the future..."

No further words were said. He just patted his friend on the shoulder and sat back down in his seat. The way Cecil put his words, it sounded like he was disappointed, but it puzzled all his friends, especially Ainz, since his face didn't have a single trace of disappointment in it. Instead, they only saw a hint of amusement.

The most surprised, however, was Elizabeth because before the match had ended, Cecil had been constantly praising Ainz for his ingenious use of spells and how great his technique and positioning was. At least, that was up until he gave his ending victory speech.

Of course, Cecil didn't have anything against chuunibyous, it's just that his brother, Gabriel, was one and his elder twin, Luca, had to endure a whole lot of embarrassment when he was in school.

It was also a part of Gabriel's dark history and he very much regretted becoming one and he told Cecil that he should never, under any circumstances become a chuuni. It wasn't Gabriel's fault, however, since his grandfather and father had fed him lies of fighting against mystical monsters and celestial beings while in the end he would save the world from peril. They naturally did all that so he would take up the mantle of inheriting the family's tradition.

In the end however, all it did was give others a way to exploit and make fun of him. This was especially true when Gabriel, the smarter one of the twins, was exploited and forced to do his brother's homework and chores after he recovered from being a chuuni, not to mention sometimes even their eldest brother and sister would force him to do something while hanging his past over his head like a sword.

"Ah, next is our turn, right Eli?" Cecil asked.

"Oh, you're right...let's head on down then!"

"GO, ELI! BEAT CECIL INTO THE GROUND!"

Hearing Lucia's shout, Cecil snapped his head back towards her and displayed a look of betrayal.

'Do you want me to lose that bad?! Aren't we supposed to be childhood friends?!'

Lucia only stuck her tongue out after seeing his betrayed expression.

"Alright! Just wait for me to pummel him into the ground!" Elizabeth replied with a wave of her hand.

"Oi, I'm right here!" Cecil seriously couldn't believe these two. He was standing RIGHT THERE.

'If you want to pummel me, at least have the courtesy to not say it to my face!'

After cheering on her friend, Lucia turned towards her childhood friend and cheered him on brightly, "Cel~ Do your best!"

"Y-You were just telling Eli to pummel me! What the heck is this, Lulu?"

"Do your best, Cel~"

"...Okay..."

"Don't try too hard though!"

"..." Cecil's face blackened at her words.

After receiving her encouraging words, Cecil made his way down to the ring as the instructor in charge for today quickly announced for the next batch of students to head down to the arena. After everyone gathered, they each quickly made their way onto their assigned rings and started getting ready.

"Okay, Cecil! As I promised to Lucia, I'm going to beat you into the ground!"

"...you guys are pretty cruel."

"Hmph! I won't lose just so you know!"

"...I don't plan to either."

She didn't forget what Lucia had said to her and remembered to scrutinize every one of Cecil's actions. If possible she should also take the initiative and make sure that the battle was going according to her pace and not Cecil's. So before the match even began, Elizabeth was already on full alert. She had already pulled out her weapon, which was a rapier.

The thin blade was red and it had golden runes etched on it. Seeing the weapon, Cecil narrowed his eyes and analyzed it with his Mana Eyes. He could see that the rapier was somewhat like Lucia's Butterfly. It was a weapon that also functioned like a spellcaster's staff or wand. Taking another look at Eli's form and posture, he could see that she had some experience in battle.

With her weapon held at the ready, Elizabeth glared straight at him. Cecil smirked and got into position, he had his body facing sideways, relative to Eli's position with his legs spread out in a horse stance with one fist hidden from Eli's view behind his waist while his other arm was stretched out in front of him. It was his family's standard martial stance.

Eli was surprised seeing this, since she noticed that Cecil hadn't bothered to take out his sword which he kept sheathed on the back of his waist, but she quickly focused her mind remembering Lucia's advice.

'He's not underestimating me, what could he be planning? And that form, it's... peculiar.'

Eli was thinking as such. It wasn't only her, but the rest of S class that was paying particular attention to their fight was also intrigued at Cecil's combat form. It wasn't like anything they've seen. Some were also bothered by the fact that Cecil had arrogantly not drawn his weapon and instead opted to fight the armed princess with only his bare fists.

"How arrogant!"

"Is he undermining the princess?"

"This is THE princess we're talking about! The youngest Sword Maiden!"

"Cecil is ranked 2, he's not that stupid. Maybe he... doesn't need to? Or maybe, he's just playing mind games with the princess. I mean, she did falter a bit seeing Cecil not drawing his weapon."

"Yeah, that has to be it! If not, then our ranked 2 is surely just being arrogant here and playing with fire!"

Lucia was listening to her classmates' ramblings and couldn't help but scoff at them. Fina was a little worried and she started nudging at Lucia.

"What is it Fina?"

"Uhm... is it really okay for Cecil to fight barehanded?"

"... just watch."

"But Lucia! That's the Sword Maiden over there!"

"Sword Maiden?"

"It's Elizabeth's title. She's also the youngest out of the 13 other Sword Maidens spread across Urrugdrasil..."

"Oh... then have you heard of the Silent Sword?"

"Silent Sword?" Fina tilted her head in confusion. Judging by her expression, Lucia deduced that she had no clue to what the title referred to. It wasn't a surprise though since it was only an adventurer's title.

"...never mind."

Lucia turned her attention back onto the ring. The instructor saw that the students were ready to fight so he raised his hand and swung it down while shouting, "BEGIN!"

Once the match officially started, Cecil quickly activated Mana Burst and kicked off the ground, dashing straight towards Elizabeth. He didn't activate his full-powered Mana Burst, so his movements were still visible to Elizabeth and the audience's eyes.

Elizabeth had already acquired some information on Cecil's combat style from Lucia so she had predicted that Cecil would dash towards her and engage in a melee. She raised her rapier and pointed it at Cecil. Multiple magic circles formed in the area in front of her and she started dashing backwards while chanting. After she quickly finished her chanting Eli waved her hand and quickly fired her spell at Cecil.

"Blazing Sword!"

A large flaming sword formed in front of Elizabeth and she directed the sword to shoot towards Cecil who had avoided her wind mine spells. The magic circles that formed in front of Cecil had prompted him to switch directions and take a roundabout way towards Eli only to be met with another obstruction in the form of a large flaming sword the size of a car shooting towards him.

Elizabeth immediately began conjuring more flaming swords and promptly fired them at Cecil all the while she began chanting another spell, but instead of an attack spell she decided to use a body enhancing spell. This spell played a large part in her becoming the youngest 'Sword Maiden'.

"Shukuchi! Overheat!"

She had simultaneously used two intermediate ranked spells. Shukuchi, which was a body enhancing spell to enhance her speed and agility, and Overheat, an enchantment spell, to add flames to her sword attacks.

On Cecil's side, he had either evaded the flaming swords fired at him or he parried them with a wave of his mana covered hands. He had broken through Eli's spells while still dashing towards the girl without pausing even for a single moment.

After the flaming swords' bombardment, Cecil was surprised to see Eli take the initiative to dash towards him and engage in close quarters combat. He smirked and met her flaming rapier with his mana covered fists. Eli's swordsmanship consisted of multiple thrusts and slashes to create a sword storm that she would use to overpower her enemy. With her body enhanced with Shukuchi, her thrusts and slashes were sent towards Cecil at blinding speeds. She had not forgotten to keep chanting and would occasionally send a Fire Bolt or a Flame Lance towards Cecil.

Cecil was constantly activating and deactivating Hyper-sensitivity and speeding up his thought process in order to anticipate Eli's movements and predict where she would send her attacks.

'Throat, rib, chest, shoulder, chest, eye, waist, fire bolt left, flame lance from above, a sweep, stomach–'

Using Hyper-sensitivity like this enabled Cecil to fight at a seemingly leisure pace. He didn't overexert himself and only used the right amount of force and movement to either parry or dodge Elizabeth's attacks. He didn't forget to send a punch and jab while he was evading and parrying her moves. Elizabeth was surprised seeing how accurate Cecil was able to evade and parry all of her moves and even while doing all that, still managed to find room to send a few punches and kicks her way.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

'M-Monstrous... just like Lucia said he'd be!'

She continued slashing and stabbing at him, the battle still flowed in her rhythm and she hadn't seen Cecil use a spell yet. She had to keep the pressure up and make sure that her opponent had no time to even cast a spell.

"Kuh.... AHHHH!!!" With a spirited shout, Eli upped the speed of her attacks. She even started firing original spells at Cecil. Her originals were weak, unlike Lucia's originals, but it did serve as a headache for Cecil since he could no longer predict what spell Elizabeth would use since she stopped chanting.

With only 30 percent of his Mana Burst activated, he didn't have the room to look around for the spell formations while dodging Elizabeth's accelerating attacks.

'Tsk... good for you Eli, you've actually forced me to use my 'magic'.'

Cecil roused his mana and a Mana Bolt formed in his palm. Elizabeth, who was attacking at a blinding speed, was still closely observing him, so the small golden ball that abruptly formed in his hands hadn't escaped her vision. She widened her eyes and quickly started chanting again. She slashed one last time at Cecil before kicking him.

He saw the unexpected kick and quickly blocked it. Elizabeth used him as a springboard and kicked off of him before flipping away and widening the gap between them. She had shortened her chant and quickly put up a Fire Wall separating the two, but in the next instant a large hole was formed right as she landed on the ground. She quickly threw her body to the side to avoid the Mana Bolt that was flying straight towards her.

After tapping the ground lightly, she landed back on her feet and gazed back at Cecil who was still in the same posture when he had blocked her kick.

"Heeh, nice reflexes," Cecil had a small grin on his face seeing Elizabeth dodge his unexpected attack.

"..."

Cecil got into his martial stance again and raised a hand beckoning for Eli to come at him again. It was a light taunt, but Eli didn't fall for it and remained in her place while closely observing him, hoping to find an opening.

Back at the stands, Lucia immediately stood up and exclaimed after seeing her friend not take the initiative to attack, "No, Eli! You have to attack!"

Even though Cecil had taunted her to attack, it was better if she had rushed forward and attacked instead of keeping her distance and watching him. This put her in a passive state instead of the active state she was previously in.

"...you sure you don't want to come? If you're not coming, then I will!" Cecil upped his Mana Burst to 50 percent output and kicked off the ground. His speed was blindingly fast to Elizabeth and everyone else.

It seemed as though Cecil had disappeared from the ring. Elizabeth could only trust her instincts and quickly dash backwards while keeping her weapon in front of her in a defensive stance. It was a good move since when she finally saw Cecil reappear, he was already sending a fist slamming down at her previous spot.

BOOOMMMM

The arena quaked at Cecil's attack and the entire ring ruptured at his punch.

"Oops! Sorry, my bad! I got a little excited there~" Cecil said with a smile. He lowered his Mana Burst back down to 30 percent output and lightly said, "I'll be attacking now."

Elizabeth began sweating inwardly. She couldn't believe her eyes at the devastating effects of Cecil's 'casual' punch. She gulped and refocused her mind when Cecil lightly said that he would be attacking. She saw that he was taking the same posture as before and quickly prepared herself for his dash and began chanting a spell, but she had to quickly stop and dodge away from her spot when she saw Cecil not dashing towards her, but thrusting his hidden left arm at her.

PWING BOOM

"Heh. Take this!"

PWING PWING PWING PWING PWING

Cecil started firing off Mana Bolt after Mana Bolt from his palms at Elizabeth. Knowing the devastating effects of those things, Elizabeth had no choice but to quickly dodge away, however, the Mana Bolts weren't the only thing she had to worry about as Cecil started kicking up the debris from the ground he had ruptured earlier with his fist and proceeded to launch them at her with a punch or a kick.

'Damn! So the punch wasn't just to scare me!' Eli inwardly cursed.

Just like Lucia said, Cecil's attacks all had a purpose behind it. He didn't just crush the ground with overwhelming force to intimidate Eli, but he also did it to create large, ready-to-use projectiles that he could fire at her.

Elizabeth could only use her rapier to slice the debris in half or use small spells to direct the flying debris away from her. She couldn't stop moving, however, since Cecil was also firing Mana Bolts her way even while he was kicking large and small chunks of rocks at her.

Now it was her turn to experience what it was like to dodge projectiles of varying sizes. Payback was still payback, Cecil was giving her a taste of her own medicine, but he wasn't actually aiming the debris at her. Instead, he was trying to use the debris to limit her area of movement and cut her off.

"Checkmate, Eli~" Cecil abruptly said playfully.

"Oh, noooo!" Lucia, who was spectating, abruptly cried out. Fina was startled at her friend's outburst and asked, "What's wrong, Lulu?"

"Eli lost!"

"Huh?"

Just like Fina's reaction, everyone else in the class looked at her in confusion.

"Look! Cecil's surrounded her!"

"What?" Fina quickly moved her gaze back to the ring and when she looked around, it was indeed as Lucia said. Their friend Elizabeth was surrounded. She was surrounded by the broken debris that Cecil had kicked towards her.

"!"

Back on the ring, Elizabeth had widened her eyes in astonishment.

'Since when?!'

She didn't think any further, however. Elizabeth didn't want to admit defeat even when she was trapped. So, she decided to fight Cecil head-on. Just as she was about to turn towards Cecil and confront him, she saw that he was in the same posture as before only that both his hands were brought back to his waist.

"Mana."

SZZZT SZZT SZZZZT

"Burst!"

"What the hell?! CEL?!" Lucia immediately shot up from her seat in disbelief after seeing the stance that Cecil was in and the technique that he was currently channeling.

The mana around the ring where Cecil and Elizabeth's fight was taking place began to gather around Cecil and it electrified the air. Streams of golden light began flashing intermittently as Cecil gathered the mana into his palm and a burst of golden aura surrounded his body. The instructors in the stands were shocked to see the phenomenon that was happening because of a student's technique and a few stood up to get a better look.

Lucia was biting her nail nervously while Ainz and Fina along with the rest of their class stared in complete amazement at what was happening down there. Even the other classes were acting similarly.

Cecil had gotten a little excited and whipped out this technique because it was the most suitable one to use at the moment. He had successfully trapped Elizabeth in an enclosure, effectively cutting off her escape routes, and all that was left was to use a wide area attack to finish her off.

'Uh oh...maybe I chose the wrong one...and I focused too much mana into this...'

SZZT SZZZZZZT SZZZZZZTTTT

"Eli, you better dodge."

"Kugh!"

After warning her friend, Cecil immediately let loose a roar as he pushed his arms forward, "WAVE!!"

"ELI, RUN!!!" Lucia shouted at the top of her lungs. Elizabeth had already sensed the danger from Cecil's technique and completely dropped the notion of confronting him. She instead dashed towards the left and started jumping over the debris, trying to get away from the encirclement that Cecil made and from his attack.

"HAAAAAA!!!"

'I'm sorry, Eli, but...I ALWAYS WANTED TO DO THIS!'

The condensed mana ball that was crackling in Cecil's palms was fired at the debris that was trapping Elizabeth. He saw Elizabeth running away, but didn't aim at her. He had messed up and gathered too much mana, so the technique was quite deadly at the moment. If it struck Elizabeth, it might severely injure her, so he only aimed at the debris that he used to trap her.

Cecil also gave her time to dodge and deliberately contained his Mana Wave, or in this case, his Mana Burst Wave. After making sure that Elizabeth was out of the way, only then did he finally fire off his Mana Wave.

Unlike his usual Mana Wave, this time's Mana Wave was condensed to a degree where even the sounds of crackling and buzzing rang in the air, but it only happened because he had gotten a little too excited. When the condensed Mana Wave travelled forward, it destroyed everything in its, including the arena's floor. When it hit the area in the middle of the debris...

BOOOOOOOMMMMMM

A large explosion and a pillar of golden mana rose from the place and it struck the protective barrier that was surrounding the ring. This barrier was an enhanced version of the one that they used in the magic assessment 2 days ago, but Cecil's attack caused a crack to appear on its surface. The shockwave from Cecil's attack even shook the barrier as if something big had struck it.

The aftershocks of Cecil's attack finally reached Elizabeth, who was already far away from the area, and they sent her tumbling even further away and she could only stare back in a daze at the absurd attack.

"What the... what the..." She could only mutter in absolute disbelief.

Seeing that she was safe, Lucia slumped down into her seat with a relieved look on her face, "Phew..."

Everyone was gazing at the beautiful, but deadly explosion and pillar of light that was caused by Cecil's technique.

The boy himself was already regretting it since his attack had even affected the other rings to some degree. It was a good thing that Cecil had dragged his fight on, testing Elizabeth's combat standards, which made their fight the last match that was still happening in the arena. The other 4 matches had already finished and the participants were spectating Cecil and Elizabeth's match on the side.

After finishing his technique, Cecil dusted himself off and sauntered towards the dumbfounded Eli before he asked smugly, "Are we continuing?"

"Huh?" Elizabeth snapped out of her daze after hearing his question. Seeing her not reply, he once again asked, "Are we continuing?"

"N-No...I surrender..."

"Okay!"

With a bright smile he extended his hand and helped her up on her feet before helping her off of the ring. He then turned his eyes towards Lucia who was still slumped in her seat and smiled at her. Lucia perked up after feeling his gaze and quickly looked back at him. Seeing his taunting smile, Lucia's eyes were lit ablaze. He taunted her even further by gesturing with his head for her to come down.

"HMPH!"

She stomped her way down to the arena and passed by Eli who was a little downtrodden.

"Eli!"

"...Lucia."

"I'll get back at him for us!"

Eli smiled and brightened up a bit before she said encouragingly, "Wipe that frustrating grin off his face for me Lucia!"

"Yeah!"

Lucia quickly made her way onto the ring and confronted Cecil.

"I'm winning today and this'll also be payback for Eli!"

She smacked her fist into her palm before pulling out her Shirayuki and Butterfly. Cecil smiled and stayed silent, he didn't reply to her words, but turned around and walked off the ring.

"HEY! Where are you going?!"

"Uhm... Lucia..."

"Huh?"

Instructor Jin, who would be the one acting as the referee for their match, had spoken up from behind her to get her attention.

"Y-Yes, Instructor?"

"We still have to fix the stage, and we have to make it bigger since it's a fight between you two. So... could you walk down from the ring first?"

"Eh? AH! Sorry!" Lucia's face reddened and she quickly ran down the ring while sheathing her weapons. She ran up to Cecil and started bashing him when she saw him covering his mouth and holding back his laughter.

"Idiot! IDIOT!"

"Ouch, haha, sorry, haha! You just looked incredibly serious and passionate! I didn't want to spoil your mood!"

"IDIOT!"

The playful bashing continued and so did the reparations of the arena.