Prince Ier raised his spear high and closed his eyes.

He could feel the culmination of his week-long efforts in his body, in his very bones.

It was a bit over a week when he had seen the results of the status check.

No traits. Everything at Low. It felt like another hit on the head. He was always the disposable child. From being sent to this academy, to everything that had happened at his home.

His elder brother, the crown prince, his younger siblings, even his own mother.

Prince Ier had always felt inadequate. Felt they had ignored him because he wasn’t competent enough.

If it was only incompetence, Ier would have never felt bad. He acknowledged improvement. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he worked, he didn’t seem to improve. His trainers all called him plenty strong, he was an ace when it came to academics as well, and there was no place to put in the effort.

And when he had seen his limits in the form of the status check, it only hurt more. Even though his instructors were full of praise, in his mind, Ier was someone who could never break through the confines of fate.

But none of those thoughts entered his mind today. Prince Ier had focused on something else. In a mere week, the professor had shown him dozens of ways he could improve.

“BEGIN!”

Professor Jim announced the start of the match, and Ier rushed ahead. He didn’t give his opponent the chance to even gather himself as he rushed right in.

He could hear the professor’s voice in his mind.

[Being powerful doesn’t make you strong. There are many more ways to win a fight than to defeat your opponent in a show of force.]

Ier charged ahead, his spear pointed at Wilbur.

He would have struck, but Wilbur was far too relaxed. He would be able to counter this.

Ier twirled the spear and slammed its tip on the ground. A wave of mana flushed outward as a giant magic circle encompassed the entire arena.

The circle gleamed a blue glow and spun as the spell activated. The temperature dropped and the top of the arena started to get covered with frost.

Ice formed all over the arena’s grounds.

Wilbur stepped back in surprise, his footing was completely blocked by the thick layer of ice. Something like this wouldn’t affect just one side, though. Wilbur looked at Ier, but the prince was gone.

From the side, Ier charged in with the spear. He was running on the frozen ground without any trouble.

“How…”

That’s when he noticed. Everywhere Ier stepped, a small crack appeared in the ice.

He was using pure mana to supplement his steps. It seemed like a wasteful use, but it worked splendidly right now.

Wilbur tried to run back but could slide on the ground.

And before he could move, Ier narrowed in. He thrust the spear at Wilbur’s head.

“Wow!” Wilbur yelped, his eyes sparkled with pure admiration as he allowed himself to slip on the ice to avoid the spear.

Narrowly, the spear’s range stopped short of hitting Wilbur.

It would have been the end of it… if Wilbur had not noticed the small white coalesce of mana at the tip of the spear.

The ball of mana shot out like a ray. The time taken for a chant, for a magic circle, and the cost of using a spell, all of them were discarded in favor of immediate power.

There was nothing Wilbur could do but admire it. He tried to dodge, but he knew it was too late.

The beam of mana struck the side of his cheeks… though a pang of pain never came. The beam of mana dispersed instead and only served to push Wilbur further back on the ground.

Wilbur fell on his back and slid, while Ier grit his teeth.

Whispers from all around reached their ears.

“Insane…”

“I’ve never seen Wilbur unable to even move.”

“I didn’t know Black Rose kids were this good.”

A chuckle left Wilbur. He couldn’t care less about the others today. No, he couldn’t care about them on any day, but today even more so.

The one in front of him was far too interesting.

Wilbur laughed. “Haha! Prince Ier, wasn’t it? I don’t know a lot of etiquette since I grew up in a village, I hope you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” Ier replied, a little bitter about the failure of his attack.

“You’re a riot…!”

Wilbur crawled on all four limbs as he slid through the frozen arena. He rushed over to the spot where Ier had stepped earlier and used the established footing to stand up.

Ier pulled his spear closer. He couldn’t keep running around and wasting mana, and his opponent looked too ‘on-guard’ to be phased by his attacks.

Right then, two magic circles formed around Wilbur. Then two more, and then four more.

Dozens of magic circles stood in wait, similar to what Ier could do.

Using arrows or projectiles on ice, where the terrain was on his side, was perplexing for Ier.

Wilbur stepped ahead.

The magic circles followed him as he jumped through the arena, stepping exactly at the same spots where Ier had stepped before.

“What?” Ier reeled back in surprise. Within moments, the one who looked like a ranged fighter was in front of him.

Ier rushed away, but in precise movements, Wilbur followed, using the tracks that Ier made.

Creating distance wasn’t going to work. Ier took charge and let his opponent come closer.

Wilbur was a step away. As soon as he was in range, Ier swung the spear down.

Instead of dodging, Wilbur swung his empty hand. The magic circles around Wilbur gleamed with a brown hue and the ground of the arena below the ice shot up.

It formed a staff in his hands and was crushed as it met the spear, but it didn’t affect Wilbur at all.

It had created new footing.

Wilbur stepped ahead and swung his empty hand once more.

Ier was surprised, but magic could be countered. He aimed his spear to intercept the earth staff he expected to pop out, but instead.

“ACK!”

Wilbur slammed his fist into Ier’s stomach. The magic circle hadn’t activated a second time.

Ier launched out some more mana to hold himself up and raised the spear again.

Wilbur swung his fists once more, both of them aiming for Ier. As Ier prepared to take the punches, the magic circles around activated and two earth staves shot out from behind Ier.

They were about to slam into his back, but Ier narrowly managed to twist his body and cut them off with his spear.

A storm of back and forths ensued. When Ier expected a spell, Wilbur punched, when Ier expected a punch, Wilbur used a spell, when Ier was prepared for them both, Wilbur kicked, and when Ier expected a kick, Wilbur punched and used a spell.

Like messy scribblings, Wilbur’s unexpected attacks rained down on Ier. Ier used his all to tackle the attacks and hold Wilbur off.

He jumped back, and Wilbur dived in at the same time, never letting the distance increase.

As the battle raged on, it started to become disadvantageous for Ier.

“Damn it!” A staff of stone stuck out from his left and grazed his shoulder. Ier immediately cut it off from the center, grabbed the broken stone, and swung it at Wilbur.

Wilbur took the attack head-on and laughed, undaunted, he fought even as he bled.

“You beast…” Ier grumbled and stepped back. “At least it’s over…”

Ier jumped back and tapped his spear on the ground.

Wilbur looked down as well. Ier had been running all over the arena… and with his spear, he had etched a giant magic circle on the ground.

There were multiple ways to use magic depending on their complexity. With enough mastery, simple spells like forming arrows or a veneer or ice, or even making stalactites jump out were possible with an ethereal magic circle.

But as the spell grew more complex, one drew more complex magic circles. More calculations, more concreteness, it all coagulated in the form of physically made magic circles, gestures to use spells, and even chants to aid visualization and the manifestation of the spell.

The casting time grew longer and the requirements tougher. It was difficult to pull off in a battle, except for experienced mages.

And a magic circle to aid a higher-order spell was completed.

“You…” Wilbur laughed again. “You were doing this the whole time?”

At the time Wilbur was launching attack after attack, Ier had his eyes set on the end of the battle.

Ier slammed his spear down on the battlefield.

And the spell activated.

“Blizzard.”

A sharp gust of wind blew all over the arena, and the very air started to freeze.

The staves of stones froze over. The magic circles dispersed.

From the bottom of the ground, a giant spike of ice emerged like a rising tide and tried to swallow Wilbur whole.