At Elizabeth's cue, Barron and I released our auras which collided, sweeping the air in every direction.

"Let's get this over with quickly, I don't have all day."

Barron said spirals of flame swirled around his arms.

"As you wish."

In an instant, a bed of flowers covered the field, and the ground, which had seemed chaotic earlier, took on a heavenly appearance, the best way to conceal a lethal weapon.

Barron, unfazed, fired an orb of fire at me, sweeping the flowers away. A magic user so, interesting. The orb exploded on me, and the petals scattered, Albert jubilant.

"Well done, Sir Barron! I knew you had it in you!

He coughed lightly and regained his composure.

"This establishes that Miss Elizabeth, even you cannot deny that it is grossly insufficient."

No one answered him or even looked shocked, Hope and Elizabeth stared at a very familiar scene, thousands of petals swirling around Barron.

"... No, you won't."

Barron turned the palm of his right hand and a violent wind rose,

throwing the petals into the air.

"I can sense magic you ignorant, you think something so petty could...!!!"

A black javelin grazed his cheek, in front of him, I emerged from the cloud of smoke without a scratch.

"Could you insult me more? I'm still not motivated enough to shoot on target."

"... You Bastard!"

Furious, he fired several fire lances at me, each crashing in small explosions never hitting their target.

"You're so good at running away, is that all you can...!!!"

Several black chains emerged from the cloud of flowers that continued to hover above him and planted themselves all around him, paralyzing him, higher up I was standing on a ball of flowers.

"Before you learn magic you should learn to finish your sentences, boy."

"I'll fucking kill you!!!"

All the chains were covered in flames and Barron fired fire orbs in all directions, I threw myself to the ground and created a wall of earth to protect myself.

"Yeah, let's do that, I won't let you finish your sentences."

The cloud of petals in the air was covered with Barron's flames but instead of disappearing, it was gaining volume, and the flames gradually turned green, suddenly a heavy rain fell on Barron. For their part, Elizabeth and Hope analyzed the fight while Albert was amazed.

"I see, using water to weaken Barron's attacks, a very good idea!"

"Not exactly, using water, yes, but rain like that will never stop a fire orb, and Cid is very special."

"What do you mean? Dora has the upper hand, he won't lose to that fool."

At that moment, a bolt of violent lightning tore the atmosphere. Hope, stunned looked at Barron, covered in a white aura and light lightning strokes, further away, I clutched my slightly burned arm.

"I'm done playing with you, now I'll..."

A small pillar came out of the ground and hit him in the lower jaw, knocking him backward.

"… You're done playing? Good for you, because it's not."

"RAAAAAGH!!!!"

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He threw a barrage of fire and lightning at me, I could dodge the flames easily, but the lightning was a problem.

2 spears of fire on each side...!!! Lightning from below... 3 more lightning... Urgh!... Too fast... a blade of ice... A blade of ice ?!

Around Barron 2 orbs were spinning, a green and yellow orb and a blue and white orb, each releasing a lightning spell or an ice spell respectively, how many elements does this guy master?! Even among the emissaries, it was rare that one could use more than 2 elements, but since ice is derived from water and wind magic, this guy has already used 3 normal and 2 special elements, that was beyond the common level.

"That's what I told you, Hope, I didn't choose Cide for no reason, he's the same as you and Dora."

"He's... An Avatar?"

"Yes, an E-rank Avatar with magic and healing abilities, not to mention he was trained in an affiliate of the academy, basically this boy is a true genius."

Hope, for the first time, was paralyzed. For a long time, he considered himself the best at his level, it was not necessarily bragging, but he had worked extremely hard to get there.

His last obstacle to date was this young man he had never been able to beat, this young man who was his ultimate limit.

In his sweetest dreams, he imagined he had to defeat him to become one with greatness, but then someone else had appeared, someone with a better story, and that person was about to do what he had always been unable to do.

Barron put on a mind-blowing spectacle, lightning flying, flames swirling and ice flying in a spectacular firework display. I was swimming in this ocean protecting myself using hundreds of tiny orbs that disappeared absorbing every ounce of energy it came in contact with, how long has it already been?

"As expected from a peasant, you're just good at running away!"

I kept dodging as much as I could, but even as talented as they said I was, it was like running inside an explosion and so, I left several burns and pieces of clothes there and there.

"Not saying anything? Talk, you idiot! Talk like you were doing before, why are you silent now? I will torture you little by little, you won't..."

At that moment, a clump of mud landed in Barron's mouth, he was so surprised that he stopped his attacks at once.

"Sorry, your mouth looked too much like a trash can. Oh, by the way, I picked that from a farm nearby, so I can't confirm it's mud, God bless you."

Barron Wide-eyed spat the thing out of his mouth and began to shake.

"...Wait, are those tears in your eyes?"

"...ill you..."

"Could you repeat that? I can only hear shit."

"...ill yoouuu..."

"It also smells... Ah! Silly me, it's just your mouth."

"I'LL KILL YOU!!!!"

He rushed at me in rage, I stayed motionless with an arm behind me, smiling, but suddenly Elizabeth and Albert stepped in and intercepted Barron.

"RELEASE ME! I WILL KILL HIM!!!"

"Enough! Cid, the test is over!"

"Sir Barron, we can't let you proceed further, please calm down!"

"Aaaah... I swear I'll kill you! You're dead!"

"No shit Sherlock?"

He was literally smoking with rage but was unable to get out of Elizabeth's grip. No matter how talented he was, an E-tank was still an E-rank.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm shitting my pants~"

"Aaah... aaah"

"Holy shit, I'm so scared."

"Dora, don't make it harder. Albert, I think that's enough right?"

"... Let's talk about this later ok? Sir Barron, you need to calm yourself, please!"

They dragged Barron towards the village and returned without him a few minutes later.

Elizabeth sighed and turned to me.

"You have a knack for making enemies."

"Everyone is an enemy before knowing them."

"I just hope this kind of thinking won't cause your fall, Albert, back on the topic, don't you think it's enough?"

"Hm... Well, If I had to be perfectly objective, it wasn't bad, but... between you and me, Barron was clearly dominating, if he hadn't lost his composure, he would have won."

"Yes but the test wasn't to defeat him, just to test Dora's skill, his powers are interesting, right? And he also has great stamina, he's a perfect recruit."

"Listen, Miss, I understand your will to see him join the academy, but you have to understand that for commoners we need to raise the bar."

"What's about me then? He can beat me anytime, so if I can join, why not him?!" Again, Hope came to my defense.

"Your case is different, Sir Hope, because of your sister, everyone believes in your line, but what about him?"

"That's bullshit!"

I laughed for a second and I quickly regained my composure, I had finally accepted your request, are you going to keep me waiting?

"Albert, follow me for a second."

"Mademoiselle, you once again abuse your notoriety."

They started to walk but suddenly jumped up.

"What was that?"

Elizabeth looked anxiously at what they had just stepped into, a puddle left by the rain earlier.

"What the... I could have sworn that…"

"What's up, sis?"

She approached the puddle and put her hand on it before displaying a dumbfounded look.

"Is this… Draining me of energy?"

"What?!"

All 3 turned to me.

" … What? Yes, it's just a debuff, you know I can do that too, right?

"So... All the rain that was falling..."

"Yeah, that dude was a magic user, so the most fun way to defeat him was to drain his mana pool"

It was a perfect plan, I intended to drain Barron's mana and get sweet revenge, very slowly, but Elizabeth and Albert's interference ruined everything.

"His energy reserves must have been depleted earlier, you stole my victory."

Both were paralyzed, Elizabeth finally smiled and turned to Albert.

"Well… Looks like we owe someone an apology, is that a high enough bar for you?"

"Ah...ah...What was his affiliation again?"

"Dora, I liked you before but now you have me drooling."

"... I am 16 years old."

"I am 20 years old, and on behalf of all royal knights, I welcome you to the academy."

She laughed happily, Albert furtively probed the surrounding puddles, not believing what he had just felt, and behind them, his face dazed and motionless for too long, Hope watched us in silence.