In the academy, duels are composed of three rounds where the first person to land a hit on his/her opponent will be declared as the winner of that round.
The first person to win 2 rounds will be the victor.
Although duels can’t simulate an actual battle between champions, it was still a good indicator at judging another’s ability
In any case, while Elvina casted Seed Bomb towards Revlo, he anticipated her attack when she tried to take advantage when he was dealing with her tree golem when he casted Gigaflare, he double chanted and secretly casted a barrier around himself.
While he was tanking the exploding seeds..
He snaps his fingers.
“Mana Bullet”
Above his head, tiny glowing balls appeared then slowly changed into a shape of a bullet, then fired towards Elvina like a gun, some got blocked by the explosions caused by the exploding seeds while some managed to pass through unobstructed.
Elvina was smiling when Revlo was covered in tiny explosions from head to toe and thought the first round belonged to her.
When Elvina saw a dozen or so bullet-shaped projectiles aiming towards her, her eyes widened and she instinctively said
“Vine Graveyard”
The same spell she used the first time, but instead on using it to attack she used it to defend.
But unfortunately she reacted a bit too slow because she let her guard down when she thought that she won when she used Seed Bomb and got careless.
Two of the mana bullets already made contact and hit her before her defense spell got finished, she got cut on her left cheek and got hit on the right shoulder while the rest of the bullets got blocked by the wall of roots and vines.
But at the same time, the barrier that Revlo casted cracked and got destroyed by the explosions and got hit by the three last remaining exploding seeds.
Draw!
They both got hit by their spells at the same time!
There was a drop of blood running down Elvina’s cheek from the cut she received while her shoulder was swollen and turned purple, her clothes was made of magical materials and protected her a bit so her shoulder was only swollen and no blood came out.
Revlo’s appearance was even more miserable, he was only lightly injured since the quantity or the amount of the Seed Bombs made up for the lacking quality or lacking explosion power but it was enough to dissolve his clothes, he looked like a beggar you would find in the streets and his face turned black but fortunately his pants were fine.
The last three seeds exploded right in front of his face, chest and back, there was 2 large holes on his shirt and due to the explosions, dusts and mud were flying everywhere and he was covered in dirt, blood was running down his head but was only a minor cut.
If any non-champions were to see this, most would’ve thought Elvina won the fight.
But the acute observants here knew that the result was a draw!
Even down to the millisecond they both got hit at the same time.
The crowd was surprised except for the Mason couple.
They weren’t surprised because they were impressed with the two genius novice-ranked champions in front of them.
They were surprised because they didn’t expect Revlo to drew Elvina and they expected it to be her victory.
Not because they thought Revlo was weak but because Elvina was already on the verge of breaking out from the novice-rank and could already enter Intermediate-Rank whenever she wanted.
Plus she also has a Pseudo-Magical Phantasm!
In simple terms, with her abilities, she could already defeat an average Intermediate-Rank champion.
Even if she was surrounded by dozens of other Novice-Ranked champions, she wouldn’t necessary lose.
It may look like the benefit of having a pseudo-phantasm was not be obvious during her fight with Revlo, but her phantasm gives her the benefit of increasing the potential of her nature magic and gives her increased mana regeneration.
If it weren’t for her phantasm, she would be unable to destroy or even crack Revlo’s barrier!
Even Revlo himself underestimated the power of her pseudo-phantasm.
If this was only an incomplete phantasm, what happens when it gets completed and becomes tangible?
Revlo sighed at his mistake and admonished himself for being too careless.
Even if he was a reincarnated person with tons of magical knowledge, it didn’t mean he knew how to apply it, heck 99% of the stuff he learned, he hadn’t personally tried it out yet.
Just because you know the physics on how a backflip worked doesn’t necessarily mean you actually know how to perform a backflip.
This pretty much sums up Revlo’s circumstance.
Elvina’s teacher, Olivia Moonstorm walked towards her pupil and performed healing magic on her.
“Stay still” she said.
Elvina nodded and complied.
Lime-colored light with green plus signs covered Olivia’s hands, Elvina’s swollen shoulder returned to its pristine condition and the cut on her cheek was healed, it didn’t even take 5 seconds.
Olivia then turned her head to look at Revlo and walked towards him and healed him as well.
Even though Revlo knows healing magic as well, he just allowed her to heal him.
“Okay, you’re good to go as well but I can’t do anything about your shirt, I’m embarrassed to say that textile magic is not my thing, even though it is a branch of nature magic” Olivia said while embarrassed.
“That’s okay” Revlo said, he snapped his fingers and the holes in his shirt was slowly getting patched up, he also added some magic to make his shirt more durable and added a layer of protection as well since Elvina’s clothes has one.
Seeing this, Olivia was surprised.
“Textile Magic, Non-Attribute Magic, Fire Magic, Physical Enhancement Magic, Multi-casting, you are really full surprises huh? Who said that you were lazy? You can’t possibly learn so many types of magic without training hard and so young at that” Olvia said, when she uttered the word ‘lazy’ in her sentence she subtly turned her head towards Revlo’s parents.
Vorne coughed and said something to change the topic of discussion.
“So it was a draw right? The first round goes to the both of them”
“Wait, master did you say multi-casting?” Elvina said with a surprised expression
“Oh right you didn’t know, when he ran towards here like cheetah, he casted physical enhancement magic beforehand, we could tell that he triple-casted since they weren’t layered on top of each other and moved seamlessly on his body”
Olivia said while she scrutinized her personal pupil’s expressions, its not that she wanted to praise Revlo, its just that she wanted Elvina to curb her arrogance, geniuses will grow arrogant because of their talents and develop a conceited and stuck-up attitude.
Elvina may look like a cute little girl that acts all polite and mannered but deep down, as a princess of an entire race and a magical genius, it was inevitable that she would have a mindset that makes her think that she is above others.
By making her realize there were geniuses on the same level or even above her would she alleviate this ‘I’m better than everyone’ mindset.
There were plenty of magical talents that made mistakes or even killed themselves due to their pride and arrogance and as her teacher, it was her responsibility that Elvina would not become one of them.
Nonetheless, Elvina had a strong and brave personality, she wasn’t all that sullen and her teacher’s words only fueled her competitive spirit but her haughtiness lowered a bit, she looked at Revlo and said.
“So you weren’t giving it your all, I thought I already gave you a high enough evaluation so I used my Magical Phantasm almost immediately because my instincts were telling me I won’t be able to win if I don’t use it”
“But since I now know that you were holding back, there is no reason for me to hold back as well” She continued and closed her eyes.
The atmosphere in the area turned cold and heavy and the mana in the surroundings suddenly froze and then a large amount got sucked in by something to form a whirlpool and in the center of the mana whirlpool was Elvina, her eyes still closed.
In the next moment, a white, ball-shaped object with a diamond texture made out of concentrated mana that has the size of a tennis ball appeared out of her body, flashing the colors of white and pink.
Revlo and everyone knew what this was, it was Elvina’s magic core!
The size of her magic core was much bigger than most, since the magic core of most people has the size of a pebble or a small rock.
Eventually, the white coloring on her magic core slowly disappeared and the pink color took over the magic core.
This phenomenon signified a champion rising up in the ranks.
Elvina Greenlight, 10 years old, Intermediate-Rank Champion!
As a Novice-Rank, she could already fight and defeat an average Intermediate-Rank and wouldn’t lose if she fought a dozen or so Novice-Rank at the same time.
Now she herself has stepped up another rank, how powerful was she now?
The magic core slowly receded and went back into her body, the area she was in was devoid of any mana because she absorbed all of it into her magic core.
But after a while, the surroundings went back to normal and she opened her eyes.
The flames of competitiveness in her eyes blazed even more when she looked at Revlo, she didn’t think it was disgraceful at all to fight someone who is a rank lower than her since she thinks Revlo was worthy enough for her to not hold back.
Saint-Rank spirit power at birth.
Youngest ever to become a champion at age 5, beating the [Almighty Celestial]’s record.
And can even triple-cast at novice-rank and knows many different types of magic.
She was sure that she could draw him again even if he uses multi-casting but wasn’t confident in obtaining victory if she stayed as a novice-rank, therefore she stopped holding back her rank-up so she could win!
Achieving Intermediate-Rank at 10 years old when most people would still be in solidification or crystallization, even in the Freedom Magic Academy where the geniuses among geniuses in the entire continent gathers like moths to a flame, the number of people who reached Intermediate-Rank at age 10 could only be counted in one’s hand or two.
Even Revlo’s father, Vorne reached the Intermediate-Rank just one day before he turned 11, he technically reached that rank at 10 but that was by a hair’s breadth.
Elvina’s advancement speed was slightly faster than [The Lightning Demi-God], currently one of the most powerful people in the mortal world.
Revlo then looked at his sister who was sitting on his father’s lap, cheering him on yelling things like ‘Brother, Win’ or ‘Brother is the best’.
She is probably the only one in this world that he knew that could beat or rival Elvina’s advancement speed other than [The Almighty Celestial].
He didn’t really include himself since he had the unfair advantage of being a reincarnated person with tons of experience.
If this was the first world that he was born into, he probably wouldn’t be able to reach Novice-Rank at 10, even if he works twice or even three times as hard in his training compared to Elvina.
Of course, even if Elvina is talented, she wouldn’t be able to achieve this much with just talent alone, she was also hardworking and spent more time training than most people.
“Now then, time for round 2” Elvina said while getting ready.
Revlo also got ready and checked her new stats with his system.
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Name : Elvina Yule Voir Amadeus Reto Greenlight
Age : 10
Race : Elf
Magic Core Progress : Novice-Rank (SSS+) —> Intermediate-Rank (F-)
Strength : Novice-Rank (E) —> Novice-Rank (S)
Agility : Novice-Rank (B) —> Intermediate-Rank (F-)
Magic : Novice-Rank (SSS++) —> Intermediate-Rank (F)
Spirit : Intermediate-Rank (D) —> Intermediate-Rank (C)
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Her physical strength was still at Novice-Rank but still experienced a big leap of growth.
Everything about her stats completely changed and experienced a huge boost.
The pressure he got from his opponent increased but his visage remains unchanged.
It was not like that he actually held back during the first round when he only multi-casted once, it was that multi-casting wears off some of the efficiency of the spell and it uses more mana than usual as well, meaning at his current level, it was not optimal in a prolonged fight and the power of his spell would decrease.
He was only at the novice-rank at the end of the day, no matter how much magical knowledge he has, there was a limit on much power he could bring out with the level of his magic core and body.
He could only multi-cast five times in one session when it comes to double casting and three times when it comes to triple casting before he completely empties his mana reserves.
“Blessings of the World Tree” Elvina said and just like last time, a silhouette of a large tree appeared behind her but instead of being completely black, there was some colors on it but it was still transparent.
‘tch, her pseudo-magical phantasm actually got stronger and become a bit more tangible and corporeal’
Faced against Elvina who not only ranked up but also had her pseudo magical-phantasm evolved somewhat, meaning the effects that her phantasm will give will also have gotten stronger as well.
Revlo calculated his chances at winning against her and the results were…
‘not optimistic’ he thought.
But it is not like there is a prize nor any sort of penalty if he loses…
‘so why’
‘why do I want to win so badly?’
He did not desire glory nor he was seeking to impress the audience watching the duel.
So why?
He was not a competitive person either nor he would feel humiliated to lose to a 10 year old when he is over a 1000 years old, at least he thinks so.
Somehow his heart was pounding faster and the emotion that he thought he lost somehow resurfaced deep within his soul.
He was excited, he was excited on how he could turn this situation around in a fight that he is nearly guaranteed to lose.
This was the same feeling that he got when he experienced his first fight on his first reincarnation.
He grinned and the change of his facial expression surprised his opponent.
“So you finally smiled huh, I thought your face was too stiff to move, I like this face much better than that cold and detached look that you had” Elvina grinned back.
“VINE GRAVEYARD”
