Elem couldn't help but feel a sense of pride as he watched the two Summons square off. In many ways, the duel would serve as an important milestone in his journey to become a powerful summoner. He had worked industriously since embarking on his self-imposed exile. He had endured so much and now finally had the opportunity to gauge how much he had grown. Although Zorya was young for a Master and was relatively inexperienced, she was the head of a Summoning School and beating her would be a great indicator of where he stood in the world.

“Starting out with your new Summon I see. That is a bold move,” Master Zorya noted, her serious expression now displaying a slight smile. The prospect of dueling Elem seemed to excite her. “A winged Summon battling a subterranean one. This should be interesting.”

As Zorya spoke, her Summon did not move a muscle. The Landshark simply stared in the Wyvern’s direction, its mouth slowly opening and closing.

Elem noticed how the Summon’s eyes were white, somewhat like those of a person suffering from a severe case of glaucoma. Maybe the shark didn’t have good eyes? He hypothesized. After all, Zorya had described her Summon as ‘subterranean’ and he knew that cave dwelling animals such as bats and particularly species of salamanders were known for their poor eyesight. If the Earth Summon was indeed partially blind, he figured that his Wyvern could probably catch its opponent off guard as long as it moved quickly.

At his command, the Wyvern instantly launched itself at its adversary, gliding above the battlefield with its jaws aimed at the the Landshark’s thick neck.

The Wyvern’s attack was quick but Zorya’s Summon moved even faster. It spun around and- much like a drill- rapidly burrowed itself into the ground.

“My shark may not have the best vision but it won’t fall for such an obvious move,” Zorya explained, sounding very much like a Master instructing a class of disciples. “Its head is hammer-shaped for a reason. It transmits an electrosensory field that detects everything around it. Good luck trying to surprise us.”

“Rise!” Elem ordered, sending his Wyvern up into the air. He didn’t feel comfortable being so close to the ground, knowing that his opponent was lurking below. That would simply be too risky. Besides, it was better if his Summon maintained a good vantage point anyways.

The Landshark reemerged a few seconds later, breaching through the other side of the stage and scattering pieces of stone and dirt across the battlefield. Like an actual shark going after a seal, it spectacularly leaped up and snapped its jaws at the Wyvern.

Thankfully, the Wyvern could narrowly avoid the attack. Elem huffed. That was too close.

In response, the Wyvern pivoted to its side and quickly launched a plume of flames at its adversary. The inferno flashed across the battlefield but the Landshark’s reflexes protected it a second time; the Earth Summon guarded its face and neck with its arms and dropped back into the hole from which it had come.

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“Now pursue it!” Elem shouted, prompting his Wyvern to dive down and spew its flames into the Landshark’s tunnel. The fire, however, didn’t get very far as the Landshark had already collapsed the passage after going through.

“You learned to do all that in only a month?” Zorya gasped. Although the Wyvern hadn’t done much damage, She seemed genuinely impressed by its reaction time. “How is that even impossible?”

The Unagi Master adjusted her stance; she bent over, distributed her weight between her hands and feet, and then shifted her hips closer to the ground. Elem had never seen such a stance before but noticed how the Essence-fueled glare in Zorya’s eyes immediately brightened. Whatever it was, it was clearly working. He decided to follow suit, bending his knees and dropping lower into his own summoning stance.

So far the match was going decently, Elem thought. While his Summon had not been able to hurt the Landshark, it had successfully neutralized its opponent’s attacks and as long as the Wyvern remained in the air, it would remain safe from the shark’s bite.

It didn’t take long before the Landshark breached the surface once more- and again- the Wyvern managed to repel it with its fiery breath. The Earth Summon quickly returned to its tunnel, only to emerge somewhere else on the battlefield moments after, causing the Wyvern to adjust and launch another fireball.

The strategy reminded Elem of a carnival game he enjoyed playing back when he was a kid called “Whack-A-Wyrm”. Exactly like the Wyrm in the game, Zorya’s Landshark kept repeating the same cycle over and over; popping up from its underground shelter time after time without ever fully committing to an attack.

Elem was unsure what the Unagi School’s Master was trying to accomplish with the strange approach. He assumed she was just trying to tire him out but also worried that she could be planning something else.

“But what?”

The Wyvern restlessly circled above the battlefield, its lava-colored eyes scanning the surface like a hawk searching for a prey item. Then, just like it had done so many times before, the shark emerged again. But rather than jumping up, the Earth Summon opened its jaws and surprised Elem by launching a series of white projectiles at the Wyvern.

The objects seemed to pierced the Wyvern’s scales with ease, causing it to erratically flap its wings as it tried to regain its balance.

“We..were those teeth?” Elem stammered, utterly confused by what he’d just witnessed.

Elem’s Summon groaned before shooting back with an attack of its own. A streak of blood-red flames sprayed from the lizard’s mouth with terrifying velocity but ultimately missed its target by a second.

“That was my ‘shuriken teeth’ technique,” Zorya explained proudly, her gaze swiftly turning to the audience. ”It is common for sharks to regrow their teeth and my Summon can do this at record speed. And by using Essence, it can even launch them!”

Elem finally understood. All this time, Zorya and her shark had been timing his Wyvern’s reaction time and calculated the optimal attack pattern.

After the initial hit, the Landshark kept its shuriken teeth coming. Repeating the same cycle of digging, moving and firing over and over again. While the projectiles were not strong enough to knock the Wyvern out cold, they caused enough damage to chip away at its health and Elem’s Essence management.

Elem rubbed his hands through his hair. He had no idea how to deal with the elusive shark. The Earth Summon was simply too quick and too clever with its movements. In the air, his Wyvern was being picked apart by ranged attacks and when closer to the ground, it risked getting ambushed by a more powerful attack.

He could feel Wyvern's frustration rise by the second. The Fire Summon’s Essence burned like lava, building up like a volcano edging towards an eruption. If he wished to maintain control over his Wyvern, Elem knew that he had to make a move.