The umbrella girl pointed a finger at Elly. “I vill be taking zat now.”

The large, spiraling stream of blood around him broke its orbit and flew towards her in a straight line then revolved around her. It split into little strands and flew into her open mouth. She downed it all.

Elly shivered, dumbstruck. That was nasty. “HEY! WHAT KINDA FREAK SWALLOWS SOMEONE ELSE’S BLOOD LIKE THAT?!”

“You speak a lot.” Her energy and aura shot way up. More cracks appeared across the entire arena. Everything began shaking, even the chairs on the sidelines that everyone else were sitting on. The sky turned completely black without any stars as if it was nighttime.

He was busy trying to accept it as he shivered. “THAT’S GROSS! THAT’S LIKE SO GROSS! YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!” He had wanted to flex his skills with blood manipulation, but now, he wasn’t so sure.

“Is zat all you are going to do, vine about it?”

“I’M NOT WHINING. YOU’RE JUST BEING GROSS! QUIT BEING GROSS!” He wouldn’t stop his pointing. “LIKE JEEZ, JUST DRAIN ME DRY, WHY DON’T YOU!”

“Zat is not a bad idea actually. You do taste nice.”

“NO WAY! THAT’S NOT HAPPENING!” The idea made his skin crawl. “NOW WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO, BITE MYSELF AGAIN?! BITING MYSELF REALLY HURTS.”

She tilted her head. “And…?”

“HOW ABOUT I CUT YOU THEN USE YOUR BLOOD INSTEAD?” He would do just that. She deserved it.

“If you can manage. Though I might take more of your blood first.” She shrugged. “Zere vill be resistance.”

“RESISTANCE, MY BUTT! YOU WON’T SEE WHAT’S COMING!”

“Your… butt?”

“YES, MY BUTT! MY. BUTT.”

“...You… are a strange von…” She was confuzzled…

“LOOK WHO’S TALKING!” That was enough chit-chat. Hydro Art: Free Form—Enski-Kâ. A blue symbol manifested next to the red one on this forehead. From behind him, a large, roaring torrent of water shot up from the ground high into the air, arching and came down onto her at a high speed.

She formed a fist above her head as the water came down. The water slowed and circulated her, forming an orbit around her. Despite the fact that she had shown her wand like everyone else when Mr. Nelson asked, she wasn’t using it. Maybe it had only been for show, knowing that Mr. Nelson would’ve scolded her like he did with Elly. She looked like one to avoid conflict when it was possible.

The water broke its orbit and flew towards Elly.

He put his right palm forward then bent his fingers down and pressed them against his palm. It was like a fist but with his thumb sticking out. The stream of water thinned and spread out into a broad, horizontal line, stretching to both ends of the arena. It stopped before him. Once he opened his hands, the line of water flew back at the umbrella girl. There wasn’t any way to sidestep it.

She breathed out, and the water simply fell on the floor. Splat.

He suspected that she had increased the gravity to sink the water, so projectiles would be useless. That confirmed her ability to control gravity, a good advantage against most physical matter. 

They locked eyes, neither one blinking.

The umbrella girl squinted. The gravity in the whole arena escalated. More jagged lines were appearing under him on the concrete. The ground was going to break, and he would collapse because of his increased weight if he didn’t do something.

Elly squinted back. Mentally, he pushed against the force upwards with his telekinesis. He matched the strength, exerting an equal amount of force to neutralize the abnormal gravity. While he opposed the gravity, he did the opposite for her body and attempted to push it downwards, deeper into the ground telekinetically.

She grimaced as she wrestled back with her force.

He wasn’t about to falter. Instead, he breathed easily with his feet equally apart to withstand her force comfortably.

She widened her eyes. 

Elly felt a more potent pushback against his telekinetic force around her and himself simultaneously.

Now he widened his eyes, pushing back her pushback.

He felt her force weaken bit by bit.

Her knees slowly bent forward, starting to buckle under his pressure. But then her eyes glowed white.

The moon above turned from black to white like her eyes, and the last of the sunlight faded away. Nighttime came with a radiant full moon, so radiant that it rivaled the sun.

Suddenly, a bright, concentrated beam of moonlight shone down onto her.

In one big, mental attempt, she overpowered his telekinetic push and poured down a greater amount of gravity onto him.

The sudden downpour nearly became an overwhelming pressure. The intensity of her retaliation and determination she had to win were nothing short of impressive. He thought back to the entrance exam and the minor injuries she had inflicted on the hydra. The realization dawned on him: she had held back then, but he couldn’t figure out why. Maybe she didn’t want to draw attention to herself if she outdid everyone. She didn’t seem like the social, noisy type…

~~~

The class and Mr. Nelson stared at the bizarreness in the arena. It was a stunning performance. Visually, the battle came down to a simple staring contest. But magically, their energies and auras were clashing and vying for control, like oil and water.

And even though their energies were causing minor damages, they both exercised enough restraint to avoid annihilating the entire area.

What was most impressive was their skillful usage of Arts. Arts weren't taught until they were seniors, but these two performed them with so little effort that they made Arts look easy. Arts were not in fact easy. And the more Arts used at once, the higher the mana burn rate. One needed a large quantity just to activate the Art then supply it continuously with additional mana to keep it active, and that didn't include spells used during the Art.

Given Astryn’s vampiric nature, her specialization of lunar manipulation suited her well. And she clearly knew that, since she was using the moon’s gravitational influence.

As for ViQoné, he was apparently trying a variety of tactics, switching between Arts while using psychic forces. And to be using 2 Arts simultaneously at his age was absolutely  astounding. However, one thing puzzled Mr. Nelson: he neither needed a staff nor a wand as he had said. At first, he had thought the boy was joking, or perhaps delusional, but seeing it now made him wonder.

But for Astryn, he understood perfectly: a vampire’s physiology was vastly different from a human's, so she couldn’t be subjected to the Etherum Effect: her body didn't produce magi particles.

Despite ViQoné’s physical and emotional immaturity, he had great potential. He wasn’t a bad student, though he did manage to rub him the wrong way sometimes with his silly antics and snarkiness. What if he could use archaic magic as well? He pondered on it. No, such a thing was ridiculous, regardless of his skills. If an average scholar were to pursue that field, it would take them years to have a solid grasp on only the fundamentals of archaic magic.

 And now, there was a full moon that shone as bright as the sun. The power they both radiated was astronomical.

As expected, the students were bewildered and stunned. They hadn't a clue what was going on. After all, they were just first-years.

Mr. Nelson was intrigued on who would win. He would bet on the vampire, since a vampire’s physiology outclassed a human's by default, unless ViQoné could compensate by enhancing his body's capabilities. However, Mr. Nelson wouldn't teach that. Body enhancement was taught in later years when students understood anatomical magic flow—how to pass magic along the body for different functions. It involved biochemistry, one of the more difficult subjects. And before that, they had to learn level 5 chemistry, level 5 biology, and level 5 kinesiology.

~~~

Cracks were everywhere on the ground. Lines had spread to every corner.

Elly was standing firm in a large crater. He had the stamina and magical defense to endure, so his body wouldn’t be crushed anytime soon, but he wasn’t sure about her. I could just wait until she wears herself out. Unless she could harness the moon’s massive energy supply. Either way, class time wouldn’t last forever, so she would have to make another move eventually if she wanted to actually win rather than finish with a draw. 

Neither one of them looked away from the other or moved in the slightest.

30 minutes passed and nothing changed.

He grew impatient. Fine then. Helio Art: Closed Form—Senra. Solar spells were the perfect counter. A yellow symbol formed next to the blue symbol on his forehead, now being the third one. His eyes glistened with yellow. Closed forms gave access to specialized, exclusive categories of spells that wouldn’t otherwise be accessible.

As Elly stared at her, he mentally pulled the moon out of the way gradually with the sun’s gravity.

Sunlight began pouring down again.

“Dark Fortification.” A pitch-black cloak appeared around the umbrella girl with a hood over her head as protection from the sun. She flew to him with an airborne kick.

Elly figured that she had realized that she couldn’t overpower his gravitational grip on the moon, since his magical energy was stronger, so the only way to break his focus was to attack him in hand-to-hand combat.

The gravitational field weakened a little, since she couldn’t draw more power from the moon. Despite still being heavily locked in place, he managed to raise his hand and catch her foot to stop it from hitting his stomach, trapping her with him in the field. Since he still held her foot, he expected her to fall on her back, given the intense pressure she had just entered with him, but she teleported out of his grip and reappeared to where she had originally been at the start.

That was his mistake. He should’ve used Spatial Lock when he had caught her to prevent her from teleporting.

Despite the sun’s presence, she was still overflowing with a fair amount of power, which meant she had sucked as much energy as she could from the moon, knowing it wouldn’t last indefinitely.

“You are good,” the umbrella girl said.

“Eh? WHAT DO YOU MEAN I’M GOOD?! OF COURSE I’M GOOD! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!”

Elly, calm down.

“AND WHY WOULD I CALM DOWN? I’M ALREADY CALM! YOU CALM DOWN!”

“Who are you talking to?” The umbrella girl tilted her head.

“NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!”

“Did you take your medication zis morning?”

“I’M NOT ON MEDICATION!”

“Zen you should be.” She was a little concerned.

“I’M FINE. JUST FINE.”

“Are you sure?”

“YES! I’M SURE. ACTUALLY, NO. I’M NOT FINE. MAYBE IF I DIDN’T HAVE TO SEE YOUR FACE, I WOULD BE FINE!”

“Oh…” She seemed hurt.

“BUT YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE. DON’T THINK WE’RE DONE YET!”

She nodded.

“SHOW ME EVERYTHING YOU HAVE, AND I MIGHT FORGIVE YOU!”

“It is a decent deal, I suppose.”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU SUPPOSE?! OF COURSE IT IS! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!”

“Are ve really starting zis again?”

“Like I have time to argue with you!” His sturdy willpower broke the gravitational field around him. 

 With his palm forward, a portal appeared in the ground between them in the center of the arena. A water-based sword as large as a building floated out and levitated high in the air.

But before he could do anything with it, she teleported into his personal space.

Elly couldn’t react in time.

She slapped his hand aside with her own hand, breaking his control of the sword. The magical energy in the sword unraveled and the water burst in the sky, raining down on them. She leaned her head towards his neck.

He sent his magical energy up his body and concentrated it in his neck to harden it.

She took the bait and bit it. Her fangs bent “AH!” She screamed in pain.

“Serves you right.” Elly smirked.

The umbrella girl appeared back at her spot.

Radiant Spear. While his hands were at his side, he flicked one thumb. Formulas with various symbols appeared in the air everywhere—numerous—for a second then vanished.

In the air, elements appeared to form a spear. Streaks of lightning came from a portal. Streaks of water came from another portal. Streaks of fire came from a third portal. They collided and merged in the middle and molded into a spear the size of the water sword she had broken. The 3 elements rotated around one another rapidly, giving off a huge amount of magical energy, heat, and a loud whooshing sound.

Elly glanced to the sidelines. People were talking and grinning. He enhanced his hearing and focused on their conversations.

“Whoa! That's so spectacular! Mr. Nelson, can you teach us that?” Elly heard a girl ask.

“No,” he replied.

“Aw, and why is that?!”

“Because combination spells are highly complex and require the caster to constantly manipulate multiple elements at once, not to mention the high mana drain rate as well as the finesse and meticulous attention needed to craft and activate the formulas. It also takes time.”

“Then how did he do all that in an instant?” a boy asked.

“Because he has apparently mastered it.”

Heh. That’s right, noobs. Elly directed his attention back to the umbrella girl.

She was standing still, likely waiting to counter his attack.

He sent it down on her.

“Swallowing Abyss,” she said. “A black portal opened above her and swallowed it. The portal closed.

Seriously? What a pain. Solar Blast. He pointed with his hand.

At the same time, she said, “Lunar Blast.” and pointed with her hand too. She had realized that lunar attacks were effective against solar attacks.

They each shot a beam at one another from their hands. Violent winds blew around them. The cracks everywhere spread and caused large, deep crevices.

Elly’s was yellow. Hers was white.

He was using the sun to empower his attack.

Even while at a disadvantage with the sun out, she was holding her own against him.

Neither moved an inch back.

She pushed harder, enlarging the beam. Hers grew longer. 

His own shrank. This forced him to slide back a few inches. His eyes glowed yellow. He matched her energy output, slowly overpowering hers and making a few small steps forward.

She took a few steps back. Her back was approaching the wall behind her.

Just a few more steps. Her power was dwindling.

Suddenly, he slid back about 20 steps across the arena. This frustrated him. Did he really need to use more power? The plan had been to win without breaking a sweat—with minimal effort. “GIVE UP ALREADY!”

“No.”

Giant, white orbs appeared above his head and rained down.

A transparent forcefield went up around him and repelled the balls.

He telekinetically sent them her way.

When they reached near her, they floated to her beam and merged to supply it with more power.

Her beam pushed him even further back across the arena, shortening his beam as her beam’s length increased.

His back was nearing the wall. He was done playing. Using the full power of the sun, his beam steadily moved and within seconds, it swallowed all of hers and engulfed her, ensuring his victory.

Once the light cleared, she was panting with a few bruises and tears in her uniform. She had gotten rid of her cloak.

“A good fight,” she commented.

“Hmph.” Elly folded his arms. He was somewhat satisfied. And he figured she had put up a shield to divert most of the energy, which would explain her minor injuries. 

~~

Mr. Nelson scribbled in his book. He had been completely wrong. ViQoné had won. If he had been in a real bet, he would have lost. ViQoné’s unexpected victory surprised him. His blood control had been excellently done as well despite failing to keep it from Astryn’s mouth. They both deserved an A+, especially ViQoné with having 3 Arts active simultaneously along with an advanced combination spell.