After convincingly winning my duel, I headed back to where Vesemir was. Vesemir gave me a high five due to my victory. Fortunately, I don't think anyone knows that I am capable of string manipulation. String manipulation is my trump card, and I only used my strings inside the smoke, which would have concealed it perfectly.
There was still a lot of time until Vesemir's match began, so we passed the time by watching the many happening duels. Among the many students, there was a handful of them who were substantially stronger than their opponent. They crushed their opponents just like I did with mine. Vesemir and I were both taking notes on the several strengths and weaknesses some of these standout students had since we might be facing them in the future.
Throughout many duels, Vesemir focused my attention on some unremarkable students. He made it clear to me not to underestimate them. From his observations, they were most likely concealing their actual abilities in these early matches. I fully believed in Vesemir's warnings. Therefore, I paid particular attention to them in hopes of glimpsing into their true skill.
The time flew by, and before we knew it, it was time for Vesemir to fight. I felt worried over Vesemir's fight. For Vesemir, he needed to obtain the early advantage. The longer the fight is dragged out, the lower his chances are to win. Therefore, Vesemir will attempt to overwhelm his opponent with magic spells as soon as the battle begins. If he cannot take down his opponent in his magic barrage, he will lose since he will have already spent all his mana casting the earlier spells.
Vesemir stepped inside the ring at the same time as his opponent did. I quickly peered over to Vesemir's opponent to get a hint of what his fighting style is like. The best-case scenario was that his opponent was defense orientated.
To my demise, Vesemir's opponent was anything but defense orientated. From a glance, you could tell that his opponent was heavily invested in their agility. They wore little to no defensive clothing, meaning that they were confident in their evasive ability.
This duel was going to be especially hard for Vesemir. Out of all the different kinds of opponents he could have been up against, this was the worst. Vesemir had to think on his feet now. He couldn't continue with his original plan of barraging his opponent with magic spells. That wouldn't work with this opponent.
I could only hope that Vesemir, with his quick wit, can develop a plan to beat his opponent.
[Vesemir's Perspective]
God has shit in my dinner once more. Why did my opponent have to be of the agility kind? I would have been content with anyone else. Well, complaining isn't going to help me with this situation, so I better stop. The fight hasn't started yet, so I have some time to develop a new battle strategy.
I noticed that my opponent had many short daggers attached around his belt, no doubt he had more hidden in his clothes. It was no secret that I used magic since I was one of few in our grade who are skilled in using magic, let alone capable of using magic in battles. My opponent must be thinking of how to shorten the distance between us as fast as possible. After all, the easiest way to defeat a magician was to get up close and personal with them.
With the daggers, my opponent could attack me from a medium distance or close distance. With Gideon's training, my evasions skills were not something one could easily scoff at. Therefore, I wasn't concerned if my opponent decided to throw his daggers at me instead. In case I couldn't dodge them, I knew spells that would be able to protect me from the daggers.
While I was still deep in my thoughts, the women dressed in skimpy clothing walked into the fighting ring and started announcing the fight. "Three, two, one, go!" declared the woman.
As I had expected, my opponent immediately dashed towards me in a zig-zag fashion. This was the suggested movement taught to us for going up against mages. The movement makes it harder for mages to be accurate with their magical attacks. My opponent must not have considered that I had listened to the same classes and knew everything there was to know about this movement technique, including its subtle weaknesses.
In the zig-zag movement, although the user may seem to be moving seamlessly without pause, the truth is that every time the user changes direction, there is a split movement where their speed drops. If you can predict when those intervals of decreased speed occur, you can essentially have your opponent walk into your attacks by preemptively attacking where they will be in the future.
Once my opponent had cut the distance between us in half, I cast my first spell. It was an ordinary fireball spell but with a slight twist of my own. The fireball spell is a strong, destructive spell, but it wasn't as fast compared to the many other offensive spells I knew. From the spectator's view, it would seem like I made a dumb decision hurling a fireball at a combatant that specializes in speed. They would be able to dodge the fireball easily. Little did they know that I was counting on my opponent to dodge the fireball.
With all going according to my plan, my opponent easily dodged the fireball by slightly tilting his body. Just when my opponent thought my defeat was inevitable, the fireball next to him exploded. The explosion knocked my opponent off his feet, and he skidded across the grounds of the ring. After skidding for a few meters, he quickly got back onto his feet.
My fireball burned my opponent's entire left side. Parts of his skin were charred from the explosion, and the sluggish movement from his left arm suggested that he had lost partial motor abilities in his left arm from my attack. I was surprised by how effective my attack was. My opponent's sorry states goes to show just how powerful and destructive the fireball was.
Unlike typical fireballs, the fireball I had cast had a secret mechanism in it. During the conjuration of the fireball, I had formed a separate flame within the fireball. When my opponent dodged the fireball, I detonated the different flame within the fireball, causing the entire fireball to explode as if it had hit its original target.
From my opponent's furry-filled gaze and breathing akin to a madman, I could infer that my opponent was extremely pissed off and was out for my blood. The only thing that will quell the thrashing flame in him would be to see my head detached from my shoulders.
If this were a regular school, the officials would have already called off the battle and declared me the winner. However, this was not a traditional school. This school was an underworld school. The fight would not stop until either side surrendered, was incapable of fighting anymore, or was dead.
My opponent started to continue advancing towards me with the same zig-zag movement. However, this time, the zig-zags were a lot wider, and his movement came off as more slithery like a snake, and his speed was constantly changing with no discernible pattern. His body seemed to wobble back and forth, his center of balance never sitting still. My opponent's weird movement made me incapable of locking onto him with my spells, and his never consistent speed rendered me unable to attack him as I had done earlier. Most definitely, this was my opponent's trump card. He probably felt frustrated that he had to unveil his secret skill in his first match.
The distance between us was becoming ever shorter. I was gradually losing my advantage in this fight. Moments later and my opponent's fury-filled eyes were right in front of me. The smell of burnt flesh wafted around me. Seeing my vulnerable state, my opponent's lips curled upwards slightly. Just when he was about to pierce my throat with his dagger, a spike of earth erupted from the ground piercing through his stomach.
From the very beginning of the fight, I had been preparing for this attack. I prepared this spell just in case I couldn't prevent my opponent from getting close to me. During the entire engagement, I had been secretly preparing this magic attack. Manipulating mana with the soles of my feet, I conjured a trap-type magic circle in front of me, which would attack anyone who stepped onto it, in this case being my opponent.
With a spear of earth sticking through his body, my opponent was incapable of fighting anymore. Therefore I won the fight. The attack was not fatal as long as he got immediate medical care after this duel. Even in this state, my opponent stared at me with murderous rage. If stares could kill, I would have died several hundred times now. The judge quickly declared I the winner of the duel. Just before returning to where Gideon was, I walked beside my opponent and whispered into his ears, "Don't stare at me with such a distasteful gaze. It unsettles me, and I'll let you know that you'll never be able to find a girlfriend with that look." My opponent's face started trembling, and right before I turned around to head back to the stands, I could swear that I saw foam forming from his mouth.
