A charring gust of air blasted against the walls of the training chamber. Alec gritted his teeth at the pain. If his health stat was any lower, he might have gotten second-degree burns all over his body.

'This is genuinely horrifying. Not to mention, he is a support-type mage!' Alec grumbled inwardly. This was a baffling fact he had learned after one of their previous training duels. According to what he said, Edward's mastery was mostly in enhancement-type magic.

When asked why he would specialize in such an area, he told Alec that he wanted to lead the way for his countrymen, which was actually pretty typical of Edward.

But it was also important to point out that Edward wasn't clueless when it came to fighting. Quite the opposite actually, Edward was probably one of the best fighter mages in the academy. In a situation where he wasn’t using The Author's Pen, Alec wasn't confident in beating him, which was the main reason behind him choosing Edward as a training partner.

'Damn, his enhancement spells are quite something! Maybe I should try learning some too,' Alec thought as he pushed himself off the wall he had attached himself to using telekinetic magic. Although the mana costs were pretty high for such spells, their effects were hard to ignore.

"You focus too much on dodging, Alec!" Edward shouted with his hand raised. No matter which direction Alec ran toward, he would trace accordingly, blasting him with different spells. When he felt confident in hitting Alec, he would unleash magic missiles. When he didn't, he would cast fireballs to utilize the explosive aftermath. "It might be true that you can't cast attack spells during our training, but you should still have methods to attack!"

With a click of his tongue and a flick of his hand, Alec threw over two daggers to disrupt Edward's spellcasting.

After dodging one of the daggers by lowering his body, Edward slapped his hands together, catching the dagger mid-air in the process.

On the other hand, Alec wasn't one to let go of such an opportunity. Utilizing the opening, he dashed toward Edward at breakneck speed. Fists and kicks rained down like a torrent, all of which were repelled by Edward's unreasonable mastery of close combat magic use.

Normally, it would be impossible for a student mage to stand against Alec in close combat. After all, his physical stats were too high. However, someone like Edward who had a range of enhancement spells, some of which probably increased his casting speed, could.

As one of Alec's punches was about to connect with Edward's shoulder, a magic missile hit his hand on its side, steering the punch off course just enough to create the distance Edward needed.

When he tapped Alec's belly with his finger, a magic circle quickly appeared and disappeared. Feeling uncomfortable, Alec jumped away and took off his shirt. On his skin were thin, inky strands that looked awfully like circuit traces.

"What the fuck?" Alec muttered. He knew what this spell was, and was horrified by Edward's ability to cast it.

'Isn't this a fourth circle spell? How can his mana still be this high!?' he shouted in his head. Casting a single fourth circle spell was already way over the limits of a student mage, let alone using one after spending mana on other spells beforehand.

As the inky strands kept spreading throughout Alec's body, his skin started cracking and bleeding from around those strands.

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'If I want a chance to win, I have to finish this in time!'

Fortunately for Alec, Edward didn't seem like he was capable of pulling out another bullshit spell from his pocket. The plethora of enhancement spells on him had run out leaving him shaky like a tree in the wind. Surely, if Alec were to dash toward him and land a punch, he would topple.

However, when Alec kicked the ground and launched himself forward, he found his body to be stiff. The spell seemed to have worked its way through his core muscles already, leaving him in a hard-to-move state. This delay was the only thing that the spell needed to find its way down to Alec's legs, leaving him completely immobile.

With the momentum left from his initial dash, Alec fell over and rolled on the ground until he was left unmoving in front of Edward, barely half a meter away from him. Whenever he tried moving one of his limbs around, the traces on his body ripped apart his skin, making him squirm in pain.

As their duel ended, the training chamber suddenly lit up green. A holographic text appeared mid-air, signaling Edward's victory. Then, a blue mesh of mana appeared around Alec's body, infusing into his wounds and restoring them back to their state before the duel. It had already stopped the magic from attacking his vital organs, which had saved it a lot of energy when healing him.

As the thin lines disappeared from Alec's body, he raised his head and looked at the hand Edward had reached out to him. Grabbing it, Alec jumped back to his feet.

"Since when have you been capable of casting that?" Alec asked. To which Edward chuckled in response.

"Not long. I've recently learned it in case I have to fight with someone way over my level," Edward answered. "Normally, using higher level spells like "Stone Prison" isn't a very good idea for lower level mages. I don't know if you have seen them fight before, but even most professors stick to the basics in spellcasting."

"Huh... That's interesting. Why?" Alec asked. He had kind of expected higher-level people to use esoteric and exotic high-level spells all the time.

"Because most of the time, the spells that are used the most are the most well-developed ones. There is no need to complicate things more than they need to be. In the end, if you are just trying to take down your enemy, you need to hit them hard. That's all." Edward answered. "If I had the ability to, I could have showered you with fireballs, a simple first-circle magic, and left you completely charred. I just can't multicast that much in quick succession. So I had to opt to use a fourth circle magic, which drained almost all of my mana pool."

"Huh... That actually kind of makes sense," Alec muttered to himself.

"Yep. That's why, it is a good idea to focus on the basics first. You might find this funny, but I don't think Douglas is completely crazy for being obsessed with magic missiles."

"That's funny," Alec chuckled in answer.

"On the other hand. I really admire your attempt at improving yourself in non-magical combat against mages, but I can't say I see the point. It's not like I can teach you hand-to-hand combat," Edward said as they left the training chamber. Walking up and wearing his jacket, Alec plopped down onto the chair.

"I just felt like I should utilize my physical stats more," he said in answer. "I know that it might seem pointless, but I kind of find spell-casting hard. Even with the mana brain. I would rather have more in my arsenal until I get better."

"That's okay. I would actually recommend you look into enhancement magic, but don't know if you have the time," Edward said before gathering his stuff. Alec thought to himself for a moment before answering.

"I should be able to. Not now though," Alec muttered. "I have a lot to do tomorrow. And you... You might want to get that checked in the infirmary building," he said while pointing toward Edward's arm.

There was a weird, seemingly benign lump growing on Edward's forearm. Its size was comparable to half a ping pong ball. It didn't seem dangerous, but Alec still thought that it was better to be careful.

"Thanks for worrying, though, I would like to point out that there is no infirmary building in the academy," Edward said. Alec frowned for a second, then nodded.

"Yeah... I don't know why I said that. Still, you should go get checked out by one of the healer professors," he urged him further.

"I will. Thanks for noticing," Edward muttered. He seemed unaware of the thing until Alec pointed it out, as he kept looking at his arm for the next few seconds.

As their training was over, Alec bade his farewells and left the training grounds.