“Ok, class, before we begin, I will demonstrate how I use each of the runes,” Alex announced to the rapt crowd.

“Wooo, you go, Professor Alex, if you can last against that monster, you can’t be as useless as my father said you must be!” one of the observing students cheered from behind the class.

“Yes… Thanks, I guess… Anyways you have seen flow acceleration. This, as you know, allows you to move through a medium with greater speed. Traditionally it is used to make moving through water like moving through air. I, however, use it to amplify my movement through the air to a far higher degree.”

Alex held his right arm out to demonstrate this and let the rune light up. Then, with a few steps, he began whizzing around the arena at an unnatural speed. What was especially unnerving now was that he was doing it over greater distances as he looked like he was flowing from place to place.

“Next rune is perfect balance. This one is straightforward. Moving in all angles and ways can easily cause you to lose balance. But with this, I can do this,” Alex lit up the perfect balance rune and leant backwards to the point only his heels were touching the ground. But despite the absurd angle he was tilting at, he could easily walk around.

“Add that to spider feet, and I can even do this trick on walls,” as if to demonstrate this, he began walking at his weird heel angle along one of the arena’s walls.

“Ok, that’s the right arm now, my left,” Alex said, jumping back down and deactivating the runes on his right arm.

“Tell me does anyone know what repelling field does?”

“Oh, I know!” Daisy beamed, eagerly waving her raised hand.

“Yes, Daisy, shoot.”

“It repels things.” Alex paused for a moment before shaking his head.

“Well, yes… it’s in the name. I more meant specifically what it repels?”

“Oh, it creates a repelling force from the ground or walls. The rule of the spell is it has to be inanimate and in contact with the earth itself.”

“Exactly, thank you, Daisy. I use this one as a way to aid my manoeuvring. Every force has an equal and opposite reaction. So I repel from the ground or walls in conjunction with my other runes, and boom, I whirl all over the place and am harder to hit, all while keeping out of the way from hits.”

“Next is dizziness resistance. This one is used as is. Trust me, spinning around like a lunatic can make you dizzy as anything.”

“Final one is greater perception. With the increase in speed and manoeuvring, it can be easy to lose sense of where you are. This will make time seem like it's going slower for me. Using this, I have more time to react and thus evade strikes.”

Barring Yuu and Elissa, the entire arena gazed at Alex in awe. He somehow could chain together various spells and runes into a coherent method of use.

“It is all very well and good explaining, but we came here for a show!!!”

“Ok, Professor Longshanks… bit weird you are here with the stoner kids, though…”

“So, Elissa, what level do you feel up for today?”

“THIRTEEN!!!”

“Huh… really… Elissa, I know those fights left you… well, I know you want to really have a good fight, but I’m not maxed out.”

“I don’t care, thirteen,” Elissa said, crossing her arms and pouting.

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“Thirteen?” Maxwell repeated, confused.

“Oh yeah, Elissa has higher levels than ten. It’s just ten is the max of her usual repertoire,” Yuu answered.

“Fine… Yuu put up a protective barrier. Longshanks, help Yuu maintain it,” Alex shouted to the crowd as he made his way to the middle.

“Is it really that dangerous, chief?” Gunter asked.

“Thirteen, she could probably turn this ruin to dust with a single swing of her sword. Though it looks like she is going for fisticuffs, so probably only a shockwave that’d rupture your lungs,” Yuu answered to the class and the observing crowd.

The entire arena was silent as both combatants stood face to face. There was no bow, no exchange of words. In fact, they were exchanging kisses, blowing them from the palms of their hands and catching the ones sent their way.

“Is that barrier to protect us from this?” Bea asked.

“START ALREADY!!” One of the observing students shouted. As if coming out of a stupor, the pair sprung into action.

Elissa began launching blows at Alex’s head. But his head blurred; looking closely, they could see he was moving his head left and right, narrowly avoiding the strikes that all observing had no doubt would remove even a dragon's head.

Moving away from Elissa, Alex spun around and flourished his cloak blocking Elissa’s view. The moment her hand went through the cloak, Alex was already flat on the ground as if he was doing pushups. Taking the opening, Elissa began trying to stomp on him, each stomp creating a crater half a foot wide.

But Alex avoided each by pushing off with one hand, spinning to his back, then his front, slowly circling around Elissa. Roaring with rage, Elissa pressed her attack, only for Alex balancing on his toes, to start to spin away from her, rotating from foot to foot all on his tiptoes while flat on the ground.

All observing were silent as this was the most absurd fight they had ever seen. Alex was barely avoiding strikes that were already making sonic booms.

Spinning back to a standing position, Alex sidestepped another downward kick from Elissa, only for his foot to land on hers. Seizing the opening, Elissa shot her foot up in a high kick. But there standing with perfect balance using a spider-like grip was Alex. At the peak of the kick, he even shielded his eyes as if looking at a far-off horizon.

Jumping down himself, Alex landed behind Elissa and began manoeuvring so that no matter how she turned, he was still behind her. It is then a strike landed. But not from Elissa but from Alex. A light tap to Elissa’s shoulder but a strike nonetheless.

“Wow, he is being extra serious today. Guess he’s showing off for you kids,” Yuu observed.

“But he is just avoiding her; he can’t fight back,” Tasha pointed out with admiration in her voice as she gazed lovingly at Elissa.

“Huh, you kids really can’t tell what he’s doing?” Longshanks asked. The entire audience shook their heads.

“He’s cancel casting. When it’s a sparring match like this and a mage of his calibre is casting a real combat spell, it’s like asking for death. He is proving he could attack by cancel casting.” Longshanks explained.

“What’s cancel casting?” Daisy asked.

“Exactly as it sounds. You go through the steps to chant a spell but stop at the last moment and let it fizzle out. You still lose the mana as if you cast it, but with tests like these, you can tell they would’ve landed. That’s what that little tap was. If he had finished that spell, Elissa would’ve been bisected.”

“Why are they continuing then?” Kline asked.

“I doubt being bisected would stop Elissa, if I’m being honest,” was Yuu’s simple answer.

Turning their attention back to the fight, Alex was back on the defensive flash, shielding against Elissa’s strikes. Then, he failed to stop a strike heading for his head. Less than an inch from his face, Elissa’s hand got repelled by an invisible force.

Utilising the stunned Elissa, Alex pressed a hand against her stomach. Looking down at his hand Elissa’s expression dropped.

“Dammit, I was winning as well; I hate when you use that flash shield,” she said, looking upset.

“What happened?” Daisy asked.

“He cancel cast a spell even she couldn’t win against,” Yuu answered.

“How odd it looked like the tickle prank spell to me,” Longshanks said, adjusting his glasses back up his skull.

“Yeah, Elissa is surprisingly ticklish. You tickle her; she is down for the count. Pays to know your opponent's weaknesses.” Looking back to the duo whose fight they had witnessed, no one knew what to say. Their stunned silence was only broken when the pair approached them.

“Few, that was a tough one, nearly became headless there,” Alex said, wiping sweat from his brow.

“Still think you cheated,” Elissa said with a pout.

“Well hope you guys got an idea of what to do. We will have sparring matches every so often. However, I will switch up the opponents. Regardless have a fun weekend, kids. Me and Elissa have… other stuff to attend to.”