Erik dropped his bag on the dirt and breathed in and out slowly. He visualized his heart burning like a furnace. The energy it created traversed through his veins.

They felt like they were on fire, mana burning through them like molten stone. He gritted his teeth, his hands trembling as the fireball flickered, almost fading away.

It hurt, almost making him lose control, however, memories of his past flashed back to him.

‘I will make everyone proud.’

The spherical amalgamation of mana burned with a bright orange glow, it crackled in the air beside him. Erik made it spin fast, focused his gaze on the target, and shot the attack.

“[Fire Ball].”

The spell was launched forward at incredible speed, it hit the dummy in a blink of an eye, leaving a trail of fire behind.

There was a crack.

A limb from the starch figure flew backward, the rest of the body covered in flames.

Erik blinked at the burning dummy, still feeling the lingering heat from the fireball. ‘I did it.’ He allowed himself a brief smile before realizing the entire group was staring at him—wide-eyed.

“Very well, 298 points,” the examiner said after a bit.

This was by far the highest of all the scores he had heard being called today. It even far surpassed that of that blue-haired girl.

There were many cheers from the examinees around as Erik had broken any score they had seen the day. A few of them tried talking to Erik as he got back to the sidelines, however he ignored them.

That was until someone piqued his interest.

“Wow, that was amazing! How did you do that?” a short girl with chestnut hair and hazelnut eyes hurried up to Erik as he returned to the group. Her eyes sparkled with curiosity, and her hands were clasped before her.

Erik Erik’s lips curled into a smirk. He walked over with his hands in his pockets and without showing much care. Most people watching probably felt like he had done it thousands of times.

“Not bad, huh?” His voice came out smooth. He glanced around to see other people watching, enjoying the brief moment of attention.

He got closer to her and casually rested his arm on her shoulder, leaning in a little closer than what was expected of strangers. “I could show you how, but it’s not something I give away for free.”

The girl blinked, her eyebrows raised. “Uh, what do you mean?”

Erik’s smirk deepened. He leaned closer as if they were sharing a secret. “Maybe… if you give me a kiss.”

He could almost picture the scene in his mind—her blushing, shyly leaning in, like the other times it had worked. Funny, though. Until about a year ago, this kind of thing wouldn’t have even crossed his mind. He hadn’t really cared about girls before, but now... well, things were different. Maybe it was all the free time he had lately, or just the way they seemed more interesting now than they used to.

Instead, her expression shifted, and her brows frowned, almost knitting together. Her eyes squinted, and she looked at him with disgust.

“Are you serious right now?”

Before Erik could respond, her palm struck his cheek, the sharp sound breaking the air. He staggered back, blinking in disbelief.

“P-pervert!” she shouted, her face red with fury.

Erik blinked up at her, touching his stinging cheek. This was new.

“He just tried to harass me!” she yelled to the crowd.

‘Oh, crap—’ Erik scrambled to his feet, waving his hands. “It’s not like that, I swear—”

----------------------------------------

After the awkward situation was promptly resolved, Erik got scolded by one of the teachers proctoring the exams. Something about women's rights and all that and his enrollment to school being canceled if he did that again.

Well, it was over now so he wouldn’t think much of it.

Once again Erik noticed that a lot of examinees left the field, enough for there to only be a few hundred people around by now.

The next exam was shortly announced. It would be a safe mock battle where contestants would pair up and fight. They would have a magical shield around them so that no damage was inflicted and once their shield received enough damage they would be considered to have lost.

‘The talentless folk have left already, I guess all who remain have at least a decent spell,’ Erik mused. He had no will to fight the weak, after all.

Soon, everyone started picking their opponent. The blue-haired girl from before caught Erik’s eye once again. In this section of the field, she was the one with the highest score. Besides, he felt like she had some kind of aura around her.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

It was a weird feeling but it likely had to do with how sensitive to magic he had grown. Erik could roughly know who was awakened just by looking at them and roughly know the amount of their mana.

Even in a field as full as this one, she was strong. Clearly stronger than Eleanor and the Princess but he didn’t know how she compared to Arthur. That boy looked to be the ultra-talented type of person but his aura was weird to read.

Just as he went to challenge her though, someone grabbed his arm—not letting him move forward.

“Wait, you’re going to fight me,” that voice was all too familiar. It made Erik roll his eyes.

Turning around, he saw Eleanor standing there, her posture rigid, her lips twisted into a sneer. Her eyes narrowed. She tightened her grip on his arm, as if physically holding him back from anyone else wasn’t enough.

“What do you want?” he said in a calm voice to try to de-escalate this. Erik despite all didn’t want to fight with her right now

“I’m not going to let you terrorize another girl. I’ll defeat you here and now and you’ll go back to your village, commoner,” as she finished those words, a smirk started to form on her lips.

Erik got away from her grip and looked at her in the eyes. “Look, I’ll be honest with you. You’re the most annoying person I’ve ever met…” Erik rested, giving her a chance to speak. All she did however was raise her brow, so he continued. “But you’re still the daughter of someone important to me. I don’t want us to keep being like this to each other.”

For a moment, her gaze pondered around. She crossed her arms and her fingertips tipped on the quickly.

She sighed.

“You’re good at lying,” she said, her gaze almost shooting daggers at him. “For a moment I almost forgot that you’re nothing more than a peasant that abused my father’s kindness to live under him after everything you’ve done. He may have forgotten it, but I won’t.”

Erik facepalmed. This couldn’t be easy, could it? Well, unless she brought up his family again, Erik would be fine with “taking a few punches to the gut” just to keep things mostly civil.

“Fine,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Let’s get this over with.”

Eleanor gave a cold smirk, her eyes seemed to burning with amusement. “Don’t worry, it’ll be over quickly,” she raised a single finger towards Erik, a small sphere of magma formed above it before falling onto the ground.

Ignoring her taunts, Erik moved to an open space on the field, where the examiner was already preparing for the next round of mock battles. Several other pairs had already squared off, with the sound of explosions in the background reminding him everyone was giving their best. The examiner glanced at Erik and Eleanor, giving them both a brief nod.

"This will be a mock duel, so the shield around you will absorb any damage. Once it reaches its limit, the shield will break, and you'll be considered defeated," the examiner said, raising her hand in the air.

Erik squatted, feeling his knees make cracking sounds as he moved them.

“If I beat her, will she lose the exam?” Erik asked, a smug forming on his face.

The examiner shook her head. “Miss Eleanor got near-perfect scores on the first and second exams while you got only a passing score in the first and a perfect on the second. Even if she loses, she’ll pass but the same can’t be said for you.”

Eleanor let out a soft laugh "So you think you have a chance?"

Erik shrugged. "Maybe."

Before anything else was said, the examiner dropped her arm. “Begin.”

The air felt thicker. The world slowed down as Erik’s mana coursed through every fiber of his being, igniting the red aura around him. It pulsed rhythmically, pushing him toward his limits. Across from him, Eleanor stood tall, her sharp gaze locked on him, her own mana flaring with a molten intensity.

Eleanor wasted no time. "[Lava Wave]!" she shouted, slamming her palms onto the ground.

The battlefield roared to life as the earth erupted, molten magma surging toward Erik. He didn’t flinch, though.

"[Fireball]!" he yelled, thrusting his arm forward.

His spell slammed against the meter-tall wave of molten stone, breaking it in two—and avoiding Erik.

He could see Eleanor frowning, annoyed that he cut through her attack. “[Molten Sphere]!” she called, unleashing a blazing orb directly at him.

Erik grinned. He waited for the attack to be just close enough to him before dashing to the side, dodging.

Despite the ultimate power, the magma element held, it was surely slower than his fire.

‘This is dragging out. My body’s still aching from yesterday.’

“[Fire Arrow]!” He shouted, bringing his arm forth. He shot a fiery arrow, much bigger than a normal one.

It dazed past her, her eyes widening and flinching as the attack grazed the barrier placed around her.

“W-What—”

Erik didn’t give her any time, however, casting another one.

This time, she kneeled bringing her hand down, conjuring an erupting wall of lava. This was a good move, despite the speed of the fire arrow, it certainly couldn’t pierce a wall of the strongest element.

However.

It left her without vision.

Erik launched himself forward, his athleticism enhanced with mana making him close the distance in just a couple of seconds.

Just as her lava wall began to crumble from her own exertion, he went around its corner.

The word seemed to slow down as his eyes locked on to hers. Erik could see Elearnor’s expression going from focused and calm to widening with surprise.

He would end it now.

He exhaled sharply and made his decision. "[Ablaze]," he whispered.

She raised her hands again, opening her mouth. It was clear that she would desperately cast another spell to hold her own, however Erik wouldn’t allow it.

“Molten Sphe—”

His fiery punch met her weakened barrier, shattering it like glass. The flames erupted outward, scorching the air and forcing her to the ground with a heavy thud.

Eleanor’s body lay motionless, her breath ragged, her mana completely spent. The fiery remnants of Erik’s attack dissipated into the air as he staggered, clutching his arm.

The pain was excruciating. His arm throbbed, he could only think of the bruises of this spell would bring to his fist. Still, it was a good kind of pain.

It meant he won.

The examiner’s voice echoed across the field. “Eleanor of Frosthollow’s magic barrier has been broken. Erik Blake is the winner!”

Eleanor sat in the dirt, her posture slumped, eyes cast downward. Her shoulders trembled as she struggled to steady her breath.

She held her legs close to her, seemingly wanting to shrink.

“I… I lost,” she whispered amidst the silence of the battleground.

Erik watched her intently, his gaze never leaving her. Honestly, he would have felt bad had she not been so antagonizing against him. Despite all this, he wasn’t one to want to break her confidence.

However, he wouldn’t move a finger to help her out now. Instead, he just turned around.

“You’re weak, stay out of my way.”