The duel began with the referee snapping his finger. That snap, accompanied by a flash of sparkles, caused a shrill bang to reverberate throughout the amphitheater, making the viewers stop talking. As if the entire audience was holding their breaths, a silence encompassed the scene.

Amidst the silence, Alec and Iris’ magics were executed at the exact same moment.

On Iris’ side, the magic circle embedded in her forehead started spinning so fast that its spin seemed to disappear, like the tires of a fast car. From her skin came out a beam of blueish mana, traveling toward Alec at breakneck speed.

“It’s a blunt variant mana ray! Iris sure is starting with a banger!” The referee shouted into the voice enhancer. The crowd was still holding their breath, waiting for the first collision to happen.

Alec, on the other hand, was calm. He had already readied himself for some overpowered magic to be thrown at him. With his shallow level of spellcasting, there was no way for him to understand the enemy’s spell and respond to it. Not without the system’s spellcasting aid.

As soon as Alec’s magic circle disappeared, a greenish hue covered his body, making him launch forward in a slightly right-tilted line. The sound of his feet tapping on the ground was similar to the shots from an assault rifle, loud and rapid. With each of his steps, the audience’s heart jumped in excitement.

Fortunately, Alec had pre-prepared his spell, or he would have no way of dodging Iris’ mana ray, which would’ve promptly launched him off the stage and would’ve broken at least a few bones in his ribcage.

As the mana ray brushed past him, Alec felt his heart start beating with more and more vigor. His adrenal glands pumped adrenaline into his body, enhancing his already inhuman physique. He could feel the difference between himself before his training and after his training. His senses were sharp, and every step he took was filled with force.

“Incredible dodge from Alec, utilizing a first circle magic called dash! His ability to control his direction while dashing indicates great physical prowess!” The announcer shouted. At the sight of Alec’s dodge, the silence of the audience was broken. Cheers, boos, and whistles emanated from the amphitheater, spreading in every direction.

Seeing Alec dodge her mana ray, Iris didn’t panic at all. She cut off the mana supply to the spell. No matter how fast Alec was, her pupils were completely stuck to his location, tracing him at all times. This made Alec almost shiver, as her gaze was more than creepy, somewhat similar to that of a wall painting with moving eyes.

Raising her hand, Iris started insta-casting magic missile after magic missile. These were blunt missiles with a flat surface variant, very potent at disabling an enemy without mortally wounding them. However, what surprised Alec was her speed of casting. Normally, when Alec cast spells, there would be clear traces of the four stages. One would be able to see the mage go through these stages physically. Iris, however, cast so fast that her magic circles constantly appeared and disappeared, all rotating rapidly.

Frowning, Alec planted his right foot on the ground sideways and rotated his body before launching off in another direction. If he were to keep going in the same direction, he would have been hit by Iris’ magic missiles with well-calculated trajectories.

‘That magic circle on her forehead,’ Alec contemplated. Squinting, he tried to read the writings on the circle, however, failed to do so. ‘It’s not just a mana ray circle. I feel like it’s helping her calculate my movements.’

For a few brief moments, Alec kept dodging around as Iris rained down magic missiles. He couldn’t see any signs of mana exhaustion from her which made him frown. He was walking a thin line here. He was making a lot of mistakes while dodging, and if he performed any worse, he would definitely get hit.

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As another magic missile approached him, Alec’s dash finally ran out. Funnily enough, his speed decreasing actually helped him dodge another barrage of magic missiles. Quickly, as he started running in zigzags orbiting Iris, Alec started recasting the dash spell. He had memorized its magic circle and relied heavily on the focus potion’s help for the casting process.

Seeing what Alec was trying to do, Iris clicked her tongue and brought forth both of her hands. Shortly after, a second circle magic circle, about the same size as her, started spinning in front of her. Once the realization stage was done, it released a paper-thin, blue, and transparent mana wall toward Alec's direction.

The wall’s range was too wide, and even with the dash, Alec wouldn’t have the chance of dodging. The only thing he could do was fully focus on the casting process and hope for the best.

Just as he was entering the realization stage of the dash spell, the mana wall collided with him. It was a gentle, almost unnoticeable collision, if Alec hadn’t been looking at the spell, he wouldn’t even have noticed its existence.

Except for the fact that it had knocked out Alec’s intent frame, completely resetting his progress on casting the dash spell.

“An imaginative move from Iris! The thinned mana wall she sent out shocked Alec’s mana frame and caused it to break!” The announcer shouted. Hearing the confusion arising from the first-year students, he explained. “This wouldn’t normally work, however, because Alec doesn’t have access to the system’s spellcasting helper, he has to construct it from memory!”

‘Great job, announcer. Keep exposing my weak points like that,’ Alec grumbled mentally before restarting the spell from scratch. Although Iris’ spell was annoying, it wasn’t destructive. He was still untouched and could keep going for a long time. ‘What I should do is... Where is she?’

Looking around the arena, Alec noticed that Iris had completely disappeared from his sight. No matter where he looked, he couldn’t see her.

“Oh!? What is this? Alec is looking around dumbfoundedly! He seems to be incapable of noticing Iris!” The announcer shouted.

‘What? I can’t notice her. Not see, but notice?’ Alec thought. If not for the announcer’s words, he wouldn’t have known the predicament he was in. ‘She might be using anti-memetic magic. But that’s a really hard one to use, isn’t it?’

Riffling through the options in his head, Alec cursed at the fact that he couldn’t use The Author’s Pen. Instead, he started running around the arena once again while looking around.

‘By this logic, I must be unintentionally not looking at the place Iris is,’ he thought. ‘That should be the only... 5 o’clock!’ he shouted in his head as he suddenly turned around. This movement he made felt like holding his breath to try and drown himself. It was unintuitive, and every part of his body screamed at him to not do it. However, he shook off those mental blockers and looked in the direction he was not supposed to look at. His eyes first caught a silhouette, then, that silhouette slowly transformed into Iris. And also a few blunt magic missiles on a collision course with his belly.

*Bang!

*Bang!

“Urgh!” Alec spat out a mouthful of bile as the force from the missiles caused him to stumble back. There were still more magic missiles coming, and he didn’t have the concentration to dodge them. So instead, he just let himself fall down according to his instincts. As his back met the ground, he saw five balls of pure mana pass by.

“Alec dodges by a hair's breadth! He also doesn’t seem to care about how he looks, as he toppled over like a sac of potatoes!” The announcer joked, extracting a good few laughs from the audience. “Nevertheless, he is back on his feet!”

Rolling and jumping up, Alec landed on the ground and started running again without stopping. Iris, momentarily stunned by Alec’s forceful dispel of her anti-memetic magic, grumbled in anger. The dormant magic circle on her forehead started spinning with renewed vigor as she lowered her stance.

“You think running around and trying to get closer to me is going to work!?” She shouted. Seeing that she was being ignored, Iris didn’t hold herself back and launched toward Alec in a collision course. “Try dodging this!”

As she started tapping away at the ground with her feet, Iris cast a second circle spell. As the magic circle disappeared, more than ten balls of mana started orbiting her in seemingly random directions. It was a magnificent sight, as if those balls of lights were ten, angry stars accompanying her.

Obviously, Alec didn’t have the time to appreciate the beauty of the situation, as the stars’ anger was pointed towards him.

Fortunately, he had managed to construct a dash spell in time, increasing his speed to avoid Iris’ attack. After passing by Alec who had managed to run away, Iris turned around and slid on the ground for a good few meters before launching forward again.

‘I don’t have time, and I didn’t want to do this but...’ Alec thought to himself before putting his hand inside his jacket’s inner pocket.