Cube, Magic Duel Competition selected Arena.

With the Archery competition out of the way, the next big event that most of the cadets were waiting for was the Magic Duel competition, where some of the strongest magicians attending Cube as freshmen were going to fight to decide the best one out of all of them.

Currently, the audience seats were completely taken, as a rumor quickly extended through the whole academy. A Hero cadet was going to participate in a magic duel.

This was something no one has ever heard of since the foundation of Cube. Mostly because no sane Hero cadet would try to best a magician, who all their life learned magic and had Gifts that focused on magic, in a pure magic duel.

“Is it true?”

“Yes!”

“Holy crap…”

“And the one participating is ‘that’ guy!”

“That guy? What guy? Who are you talking about?”

“Idiot! That guy! The one who destroyed Shin Jonghak during the mid-terms last semester!”

“Oh… OH! THAT GUY!? But wasn’t he a fighter…? What’s he doing in a magic duel…?”

“That’s what I want to know! Is he maybe an attention seeker...?”

“I don’t know, but this is going to be good!”

Through all the audience seats, similar conversations could be heard.

“Hey… Do you think he can win?” On a specific part of the stands, where most of those from Veritas Class sat, Olivia asked Kim Hajin, who was currently eating some popcorn.

“…” Hajin stopped and thought for a moment, before nodding. “I just can’t see that guy losing…”

As Olivia looked at his awkward smile, she snorted.

“This time is different. He’s not using his combat skills, he’s using magic…”

“Yes, but you’ve seen it… Those fire bullets are a real threat…” Hajin said with a sigh. “I haven’t seen him use anything more than that, but still…”

“Um…” This time, Rachel intervened. “He also used some kind of fire attack before, during the mock Artifact Scramble.”

“Really?” Hajin tilted his head.

“!” While Olivia flinched, as a cold chill traveled through her back. “P-Please… C-Can we not talk about that… day?”

“Mm? Are you okay Liv?” Emma, who was beside her asked in confusion.

“Y-Yes… Just… Please let’s not talk about that day…”

“Pffft…” Hajin tried hard not to laugh, but with no luck.

“What are you laughing at!?” Olivia shouted at Hajin, her face red from embarrassment and anger. “It’s not funny!”

“Sure, sure…”

“Anyways!” With a snort, Oliva turned to look at the arena. “So… He can win, huh?”

“Yeah.” Hajin as he relaxed on his seat. “I’m pretty confident on that.”

“I hope so.” Suddenly, a new voice interrupted them. “That guy didn’t let any of the magicians in our class to try. If he lose really bad, he would be such an arrogant idiot!”

Turning to look behind, Hajin and the others got to see a frowning Chae Nayun, who was sitting besides Yoo Yeonha, Kim Suho, Yi Yeonghan and even Shin Jonghak.

“And what are a bunch of scandalous idiots doing here?” Olivia asked with a tilted head as she took a sip from her drink.

“You!” Yi Yeonghan shouted at her. “Who are you calling scandalous idiots! You’re the scandalous idiot!”

“See? You only know how to shout. Is it that all that muscle rushed to your head and turned you into a musclehead?” As she sipped from her drink, Olivia looked at Yi Yeongha with a pitying gaze.

“That’s it!” Trying to jump towards her, Yi Yeongha was raging, but was stopped by Kim Suho.

“Stop, man!”

“Don’t stop me Suho! I’ll teach this crazy girl some manners!”

“Jeez… He’s insane.” Olivia said with a sigh as she shifted slightly away.

“Mm? What are you moving for?” Emma asked.

“I’m worrying it’s contagious…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Kuhum… Maybe we should all calm down, the competition is going to start…” Hajin said, trying to calm the waters.

“Y-Yeah… It’s true. Come on, man. Just sit down, ignore her…” Kim Suho took the chance and pulled Yi Yeongha back.

“…” Trying his best not to cry, Yi Yeongha sat back.

“Is it true?” Suddenly, as if not caring about what was happening around, Shin Jonghak asked Kim Hajin with a frown.

“What?”

“That he’s going to win.” He said as his frown deepened.

“Probably…” Shrugging Kim Hajin turned to look at the arena, where two magicians from other classes were already standing in front of each other. “At least he looked confident about it.”

As he said those words, Shin Jonghak clicked his tongue and turned to look at the arena, no longer caring about asking.

***

[Cadet Kim Eun-Yeong from Acceptance Class won! She now advances to the next stage!]

“Why are eating here, aunty?” While looking at the Magic Duels from the VIP Observatory box of the Arena, both Ah Hae-In and Baire Moren talked as they ate from a table filled to the brim with delicacies and drinks.

“I heard that there was a Hero cadet that was participating in this competition.” Ah Hae-In answered as she smiled sweetly at her nephew. “So I wanted to see what made him so confident in participating. After all, Heroes and Magicians have a really big difference in fighting styles.”

“He’s just an attention whore. I’m sure he’s doing this to gather attention.” Moren rolled his eyes. “You’ll see, he won’t even pass the first round.”

“Perhaps.” Ah Hae-In smiled. “But I still want to see him, even if he’s just going to be humiliated.”

“Ha… Okay.” Moren smiled as he nodded at her, and the Duchess took the chance to give him a strong hug, which almost made the attendant blurt out how small she was compared to her nephew.

[Next duel is! From Potential Class! Representative Ray Grigori! And from Veritas Class! Representative… Cristopher…?]

At the doubtful voice of the announcer, Ah Hae-In asked the attendant.

“Is it him? The Hero cadet?”

“Ah? AH! Yes it’s him.” The attendant, who was slightly distracted from a message, quickly answered.

“Ho… Do you know him, Moren?” Smiling, Ah Hae-In turned to her nephew, only to see him looking at the arena with wide eyes. “Mm? Is there a problem?”

“Kuhum… N-No… It’s just that… Cristopher is the cadet that defeated Shin Jonghak in the last semester's mid-terms… I never expected him to be the Hero cadet you were talking about…”

“Is he strong?” Looking at the attendant, she asked.

“He’s the first-ranked cadet from the freshman year…” The attendant smiled awkwardly.

“Ho…” As her smile deepened, she looked directly through the windows, towards the cadet walking lazily towards the center of the arena. She could recognize him easily, as he wasn’t wearing the normal robes that magicians used. “This looks promising…”

With a smirk, she took a sip from her wine.

***

Standing in the middle of the arena, Cristopher lazily looked around him, until he locked his gaze with Rachel, Olivia, Emma, and Kim Hajin.

With a smirk, he waved at them, and they waved back. For some reason, he could also see Yoo Yeonha waving back at him slowly.

“You should be paying attention to the duel. We don’t want you to lose so fast.” Standing in front of him, Ray Grigori sneered at him as he prepared his staff.

“Mm? Yeah, yeah… Whatever you say.” Cristopher yawned as he dismissed the comment with a wave of his hand.

“You…” As he glared at Cristopher, Ray simply frowned. “I’ll make sure you learn your lesson today.”

“What? How to talk like an idiot?” Cristopher tilted his head.

“…” Gripping his staff strongly, Ray decided it would be better to teach him with actions instead of words.

“Kuhum!” With a fake cough, the referee for the fight got close to both of them. “I’m sure you’ve already heard this before, cadet Cristopher. But as this is an event without precedents, we want to make sure that all is fair.”

Cristopher nodded, urging the referee to continue. “Please pay attention to the rules, as the announcer will be dictating them anytime now.”

[Ladies and gentlemen! It seems that new rules have been selected for this event. More specifically for cadet Cristopher!]

At the announcement, everyone looked confused on what the new rules were, except for those that were part of the Veritas Class, as they were sighing and shaking their heads.

[Taking into account the physical capacities of cadet Cristopher, it has been decided that he won’t be able to freely move during the duel, he must either move far slower than he’s normally able to or use any movement magic like Blink to move during the duel. He also won’t be allowed to use any kind of martial arts, and as usual, the duel will be decided strictly with magic. Also, special skills that might come from a Gift will be forbidden during this duel.]

“Whoa…!” Everyone around was surprised. After all, they knew that if a Hero cadet had any chance to win against a magician with the forced use of magic and not physical skills, it would be because of his mobility. But right now, even that wasn’t possible.

“So? What are you planning to do now?” Chuckling, Ray asked Cristopher.

“Why are you so anxious to know? You’ll see shortly.” Cristopher said with a yawn, making Ray click his tongue. “Say, with all those changes to the rules, is it possible if I make a little request?” Cristopher said as he looked at the referee.

“… A request...?” Confused, the referee tilted his head.

“Yeah, it’s something simple, really.” Cristopher said with a nod, before taking out his two earphones. “Just wanted to listen to some music.”

“…” The referee’s mouth hung low as he looked at Cristopher.

“Are you shitting me?” Frowning, Ray asked him. “Is this a joke to you?”

“No, but I just wanted to listen to some music, you know? To pump things up.” Cristopher said with a shrug.

“...I, I don’t think it would be possible.” The referee said.

“Oh come on, you’re limiting my mobility, and all I’m asking is to listen to some music, it’s not like these earphones will magically give me magic.” He said right before chuckling.

“Um…” The referee scratched the back of his head just as a call came to his headset. “Yes! ...Huh? Um, are you sure? Okay…” After talking for a little bit, he gave a small glance to the VIP Observatory and then turned once again towards Cristopher. “It seems it will be allowed, once I checked you’re using the academy’s smartwatch.”

“Ha… This has to be a joke…” Ray just shook his head before shrugging. “Well, it’s not like you had any chance to win this.”

“Right.” Cristopher nodded and put on his earphones after the referee checked his smartwatch.

“I’ll take my leave now…” Nodding to both of them, the referee walked back towards his spot, not before giving Cristopher a weird glance. Meanwhile, both participants just waited for the announcer’s signal.

[Duel… Starts!]

As soon as the announcer spoke, a shiny-red magic circle appeared in front of Ray and multiple fire spears shot towards Cristopher who simply stood there while moving his head and foot up and down to the rhythm of the music.

“Hmp.” Snorting, Ray sneered at his opponent. “You are not even able to respond to such simple magic. What a clown-”

“Dude, you talk too much.” Cristopher rolled his eyes, interrupting him. And just as everyone thought the spears would impact him, a transparent dome appeared to take the hit instead of him. He just stood there, head and foot still moving rhythmically.

“What…?” Ray stood there with his mouth open. {When!?} He thought.

“Is that it?” Cristopher said as he tilted his head, a mocking grin on his face. “All bark and no bite… is it?”

“You…” Gritting his teeth, Ray quickly waved his staff around, creating multiple circles in front of him. “I’ll teach you a lesson. Let’s see how much will that barrier of yours last…”

The multiple red circles threw hundreds of fire spears to Cristopher, covering his entire field of view.

At the same time, Ray spun his staff once and strongly hit the ground with its butt, a red line extended from it and moved at high speed towards Cristopher, even faster than the hundreds of spears, dividing in two and summoning a tall firewall that further blocked Cristopher’s view. Not wasting any time, Ray started chanting his next magic.

Yawning, Cristopher looked at the wall of fire in front of him, and the hundreds of spears that quickly pierced through it, only to meet with his barrier the next moment.

Fire covered the arena as the sounds of explosions resounded all around. The area where Cristopher was standing was quickly covered with fire, making it almost impossible to see him.

“----” After chanting for a while, and making use of the time the spears were buying him, Ray finally opened his eyes wide and thrust his pear towards the direction where Cristopher was. “BLAZING RAGE BLADE!”

With his shout, a small red magic circle that outshines any of the others he previously made appeared in front of his staff’s head, and from it, a shining-red beam shot out forwards. The blazing beam quickly made its way through the firewall and reached the burning field where Cristopher was standing.

Only to break and be reflected behind the same barrier that stopped the spears earlier. Thankfully, the special barrier on the arena stopped the stray beams from reaching the audience.

Whistling, Cristopher looked at the barrier in the arena, before turning to look back at Ray.

“So? Do you only know fire magic or something?” Cristopher said with a smirk.

“Y-Y-You…!? HOW!? HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM!?” Ray screamed as he looked at Cristopher standing calmly at the other side while moving his head to the music. “AND WHAT’S WRONG WITH THAT BARRIER!? HOW CAN IT RESIST MY ATTACKS LIKE NOTHING!?”

“Man, how loud does one have to shout to out-volume someone else's music? We’re not that far away, just talk normally.” Cristopher said as he took one earphone and picked on his ear. “Also, it’s just a barrier, you should know how it works.”

“IMPOSSIBLE! IT CAN’T BE A SIMPLE BARRIER!”

“But it is…” Sighing, Cristopher waved his hand. “Anyways, I guess this is enough for the show.”

“Show…?”

“Yeah.” Cristopher said as he pointed upwards.

“WHAT DO YOU… mean…?” As he asked full of anger, he turned to look at where Cristopher was pointing. Everybody in the place did.

“What…?”

“What is that…?”

“Just when…?”

Similar questions could be heard all around, as an enormous blue magic circle shone on the sky, covering the entire Arena’s building, while lightning could also be seen coursing through it.

“What… is that…?” Ray looked surprised at the sky.

“That?” Cristopher whistled. “A distraction.”

“Oh, I see…” Ray nodded absentminded for a moment before he frowned. “A what?”

“Distraction.” Cristopher smirked as he pointed to Ray’s feet.

“!” He quickly looked below, only to find a small red-colored magic circle. “What…!?”

He froze, not knowing what to do, and just as he finally regained his senses, the small circle exploded right below his feet, making him fly away.

“Haha, idiot.” Cristopher chuckled as he saw the guy flying away. “Mm... now that I think about it, it’s true that there’s not a limit to the area of the arena.”

Looking around Cristopher noticed that the place didn’t have a platform from where he could throw his opponents away.

“Surrender or knock out it is then.” As he said that, Cristopher waved his hand towards Ray, who was trying to raise himself using his staff for support.

Hundreds of spears made of fire formed all around the place in an instant, and the next second, they all rushed towards Ray.

“Hiii!” He screamed at the incoming spears and tried to create a barrier, only for it to be destroyed by a single spear which flew through it and exploded in front of him, sending him flying towards the wall of the arena.

Soon, all the spears followed the same pattern and impacted somewhere around him, while the explosions made after the impacts made him fly from one side to the other multiple times.

After all the spears impacted, Ray lay unconscious on the ground. His eyes rolled all the way back, showing their white.

“...C-Cadet Cristopher wins!” Waking up from his shock, the referee finally announced the results, followed by the announcer.

[A-And the winner is Veritas Class representative! Cristopher!]

{Boring.} Said Cristopher as he went towards the waiting room, letting out a lazy yawn on his way out of the arena.

***

“…I can’t believe this…” Chae Nayun muttered as she looked at the unconscious Ray. “How is that guy so good at magic!?”

“W-Well… He just used a barrier and fire spears… Right? Maybe he’s not that knowledgeable in magic…” Yi Yeonghan said as he scratched the back of his head.

“Pfft, as if… See? A total muscle-head.” Olivia said as she gave him a mocking grin.

“Can you stop messing with me!?” He shouted back.

“What? It’s true. How do you expect someone who casually throws hundreds of spears and that can stop all his opponent attacks with a simple barrier not to be knowledgeable in magic? It’s stupid.”

“But how do you know he doesn’t just have a great control of his magic power!?”

“No…” Yoo Yeonha looked at the place where Cristopher was with shock. “That’s not something you can do with simple magic power control…”

“Ha…” Hajin who heard all of this just sighed as he shook his head. {Was it necessary to pull all this attention? And how can you even ask to listen to music at the same time!? Ha...}

“Hajin, Hajin! Did you know he was able to do that!?” Emma who just woke up from the shock, quickly shook Hajin’s shoulder as she asked.

“Kuhum… No, I actually didn’t know. He was confident, yes… But I wasn’t really sure if he was good at magic or not.” Hajin said with an awkward smile. {A dragon, huh…}

“Hey, stop shaking him like that.” Suddenly someone grabbed Emma’s arms and separated them from Hajin.

“Hey! I’m just excited!-” Emma said as she turned to look at the one who grabbed her arms, only to freeze at the frowning eyes of Chae Nayun. “Kuhum… I guess I was a little bit too excited, haha…”

Chuckling awkwardly, Emma retreated.

“Relax, it’s not like she’s hitting me or something.” Hajin rolled his eyes. “Besides, what’s wrong with you all of a sudden? Are you sick?”

“W-What? No! Why would be something wrong with me!?”

“I mean, you’re suddenly worrying about me. That’s not normal.” Hajin said with a frown.

“I-I-It’s just that it was bothersome! Seeing her making so much noise over it! That’s all!”

“If you say so…” Hajin said as he nodded.

“Y-Yeah… It was just that, kuhum…”

***

Meanwhile, in the VIP Observatory, Ah Hae-In was frowning as she looked at where the giant magic circle was moments ago. Just as the smaller red magic circle exploded, the one above it disappeared, but no matter what, she couldn’t forget that magic circle.

“Wow… That was really unexpected…” Moren couldn’t help but look dumbfounded at the arena. After shaking his head, he turned to look at his aunt, tilting his head. “Aunty?”

“…”

“Aunty?”

“…”

“Is there a problem aunty?” Frowning, he shook her slightly. “Did he cheated or something?”

“Huh? Oh… No, he didn’t. I’m sure. He used magic through and through.” She said slightly distracted.

“Mm? Then? What’s the problem? That magic circle? Wasn’t it just a fake one to distract his opponent?”

“…” Her eyes focused on the empty air. “Yes… It was…”

“Oh well, then why are you just looking at empty space then?”

“…” She looked for a little bit more, before sighing and shaking her head. “It’s nothing. But it seems that this will be quite an interesting event.”

“Is that so?” Moren looked at his smiling aunt before he turned to look at the arena. “Oh well, it was indeed a surprise… Who would know he was hiding something like that.”

“Indeed…” Ah Hae-In nodded. {How…?}

Even if she was smiling, the inside of her head was complete chaos. It wasn’t just the audience and Ray who didn’t notice the enormous magic circle that formed in the sky. She wasn’t able to do it either.

She was an 8-Stars Magician. Not just any spectator. And her title certainly wasn’t some decoration to flaunt around. She IS a strong magician, someone that most normal people could only hope to look up to.

{How couldn’t I notice until he pointed it out…? No matter how small the amount of magic power he used, I should be able to notice something appearing out of thin air so suddenly.}

A glance at it, and she couldn’t hide her surprise. It was utterly shocking, to say the least. What worried her the most, was not only the fact that the supposed ‘distraction’ went unperceived even by her. It was that she could feel it. Deep inside she had this feeling creeping up her own core, squeezing her heart. THAT wasn’t by any means a simple distraction. As much as she couldn’t believe it, and didn’t want to believe it, there was something about that magic circle that made her tremble.

{Who is this kid…? Is he really 17 years old...?}

“Aunt?”

“Mm?”

“Is everything okay? Did something happen to you?”

“No, nothing happened.” Ah Hae-In smiled.

“Are you sure?” With a worried face, he looked at her. “You’ve been acting strange since the duel between Cristopher and Ray… You haven’t even looked at the other contestants.”

“It’s really nothing, I’ve just been thinking about these things I have to do, Seoul’s Magic Tower has been nagging at me recently.” She said with a smile. “Anyways, who are the ones participating in the duel right now?”

“Okay…” Moren nodded before pointing at the arena, where magicians were quickly chanting spells at the same time they were evading the ones coming from the opponent. “Those are Jin Sang-ah from Friendship class and Richard Lurtz from Wisdom class. Jin Sang-ah is supposed to be the strongest magician among everyone from the first year.”

“Mm… Is that so?” Ah Hae-In nodded as she looked at the girl with straight black hair that was braided right behind her, with the end of the braid falling over her shoulder. Different from her opponent, she was calmly casting her spells while occasionally using what looked like the spell blink to evade the enemy’s sporadic counterattacks. Ice, water, earth, and lightning, Jin Sang-ah kept casting different types of elemental spells, and even some non-elemental ones like chains to try and trap her enemy. “She does look quite relaxed, huh.”

“Yes, a lot of people bet for her to win the competition.” Moren said as he looked at her.

“Did you bet on her too?”

“Me? No, I didn’t bet. I didn’t know we were coming here, and just thought that I was going to spend time with you outside of Cube.”

“Awww aren’t you cute!?” She said as she pinched his cheeks.

“I’m not a kid aunty! Stop!”

“But you’re so cute!”

“Ha...Haha…” Meanwhile, the assistant was standing slightly away from them while awkwardly chuckling at the scene.