As soon as he began to get accustomed to his opponent's speed, Alexander decided that there was no longer enough pressure in that training to justify the energy he was spending and attacked the young woman.

  Caught by surprise by this change in posture, the young woman hesitated a bit about what to do and tried to move away.

  Her hesitation cost her dearly. In this small moment of opportunity, Alexander managed to get close enough to launch |Water Jet| at the hand holding her sword.

  With the sheer volume of the spell, the young woman's sword was thrown out of the arena by the water.

  The fate of any novice swordsman who lost his sword couldn't be more obvious.

  Some students were still excited about the end of the fight. But since this ending was less flashy than the other semi-final', the intensity was much lower.

  The other students were surprised by the fact that Alexander had managed to reach the final, as he was a "nobody." But even as a big underdog, it was unanimous among the other students that he would not be capable of winning.

  The happiest about the outcome was Lucas, who wanted so much to see the circus catch fire with intensity that he even gave a break for the competitors to catch their breath before the final.

  Alexander didn't mind the rest, as he was probably the one with the most energy among the rookies, and sat in the shade to read again about the evolution he had chosen.

  "What a problematic evolution. Besides being very dangerous, it also requires several very expensive resources to not become a complete waste of my potential," he thought. "Even the betting prize won't cover even 1/5 of the value of the resources I will need, not to mention they probably aren't easy to find… Better think about that later."

  When the rest time ended and Alexander entered the arena to prepare for the fight, Jason gestured for him to wait and began to speak: "Hello, I'm Jason Azurre. Would you mind telling me your name?"

  "Alexander Ocean," replied Alexander before noticing and connecting the dots. "Azurre? As in Stella Azurre?"

  "She is my sister," confirmed Jason. "Where do you know her from?"

  "I did part of the admission exam with her," explained Alexander, not caring about the reaction the other students had upon seeing him speak as if knowing someone from the Azurre family were a minor thing.

  "I see. So it was you she was talking about," said Jason, a little lost in his thoughts. "That makes things easier… Fight with everything you have. I want to see how strong you really are."

  Excited about the situation, Jason unsheathed his sword and began to prepare to attack. Ironically, Alexander's response was not to draw his dagger to face him, but to prepare to continue keeping his distance, because he knew that fighting head-on would only lead to defeat due to the blatant difference in the handling of their respective weapons.

  As soon as they were prepared to begin, Alexander increased the distance between them and drew his weapons. This time his dagger didn't come alone, for he also retrieved the scepter from his storage item.

  "Keeping him under constant pressure before he gets close to me is my best chance of winning," he analyzed while continuing to move away.

  As soon as both were ready and the start of the fight was declared, Alexander used |Magical Body Strengthening| and |Run| to increase the distance even further while Jason responded by using |Wind Feet| and |Wind Cloak|.

  Before Jason began to close the distance between them, Alexander turned around and used his scepter and dagger to launch spells at high speed.

  "|Water Blade|."

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  "|Water Cannon|."

  Overwhelmed by the 2 spells that appeared almost instantly to obstruct his path, Jason hastily concentrated energy into his sword and cut the |Water Cannon| spell, as he did with the |Large Fireball|, and tried to parry the |Water Blade| spell, but his attempt ended up failing because the spell did not dissipate completely upon colliding with his blade, it only split.

  Surprised and frightened, but still experienced, Jason used the momentum of his movement and the weight of his sword to lean and dodge. However, such an improvised and rushed move left him with a stain of blood on his face, as a reminder that he should not underestimate Alexander.

  A reminder that was greatly reinforced when the latter, taking advantage of his great speed, appeared in front of Jason before he completely recovered his posture and struck him with a thunderous impact.

  To Alexander's surprise, Jason managed to defend his dagger strike with the sword, even with his posture still a bit broken, and was not pushed back as much as he expected.

  Upon recovering his posture and composure, Jason looked at his still trembling hand and sword and praised Alexander while reevaluating him: "Good combination."

  "Not really," replied Alexander, shrugging. "I thought I could knock the sword out of your hand with such a heavy blow."

  "And you almost did," admitted Jason, exuding fighting spirit. "But let's leave the conversation for another time."

  With the end of the conversation the fight restarted, but this time it was Alexander who was surprised, because Jason no longer tried to cut his |Water Blade| spell. Instead, he swung his sword in a wide motion and fired a blade of pure Ki to intercept it.

  "He can do that? This technique doesn't seem weaker than my |Water Blade|," Alexander marveled. "Let's see how long he can keep this up. After all, I seriously doubt his energy reserves are greater than my mana reserves."

  Feeling that this would help shorten the distance between them, Jason stopped defending against the spells and continued launching his Ki blades to stop them. But even after spending a considerable amount of energy, he didn't manage to close the distance much.

  Frustrated for not being able to shorten the distance much, Jason interrupted his pursuit to conserve energy. But as soon as he stopped, Alexander began to harass him with even more momentum to force him to always keep his guard up and prevent him from conserving energy.

  "Step down from the arena if you want to rest," taunted Alexander while launching a succession of spells.

  "I'm not tired," replied Jason. "Stop running and face me."

  "Childish," retorted Alexander with a bit of disdain. "Why would I give up my advantage and fight in your specialty? Isn't it easier for you to ask me to let you win?"

  His words were so logical that they left Jason stunned and ashamed. So ashamed that he couldn't completely stop a spell and suffered a cut on his chest.

  "You're right. I'm sorry about that," said Jason, who snapped back to reality with the pain of the injury. "But since you're not going to stop and face me, all I can do is use this… Don't blame me for what happens."

  As he finished speaking, Jason exploded, overflowing his body energy (Ki) and mana, which made his speed skyrocket. Not to pursue Alexander, but to avoid the spells while infusing Ki into his sword.

  Feeling the growing danger as energy accumulated in Jason's sword, Alexander stopped launching spells and acted decisively. He then planted himself on the ground and crossed the dagger over the scepter; used a magical chaining of |Water Field| and |Mana Blessing|, followed by another |Mana Blessing|; and began charging |Elemental Water Blast| in his magical scepter.

  For the first time that day, Lucas lost his smile.

  Lucas's POV

  "(@#$%)… These guys are crazy," Lucas cursed and complained internally.

  "Are you guys crazy or do you want to kill yourselves? Stop this now," ordered Lucas, too late.

  As soon as Jason launched his attack, Alexander launched his in response.

  "Crap. They are really crazy," complained Lucas.

  "My affinity isn't good in this type of situation," he thought while evaluating how to proceed. "I’d better focus on protecting the other students."

  "|Lightning Palace|." Lucas hastily conjured.

  Responding to his will, a crackling, bluish-purple structure of pure electricity and static began to form and envelop the students watching the fight.

  "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

  The explosion was so strong that it destroyed the part of the arena that was right below its epicenter, shook some of the nearby buildings, and raised a large curtain of dust.

  When Lucas dispersed the dust curtain with his mana to see if the two had survived, he discovered that the students had withstood the explosion, but the state of the arena was desolate.

  "Damn. The teacher is going to scold me," concluded Lucas, clearly annoyed.

  Still lamenting the complaint he would hear in the near future, Lucas expanded his perception and precisely located Jason and Alexander.

  Jason was the closest to him, because he was slammed into a nearby side wall by the explosion resulting from the attacks. Alexander, surprisingly, was still on one of the remaining parts of the arena, lying on the ground and holding his dagger, which was stuck in the arena.

  "Why is that part a bit wet?" Lucas asked himself while analyzing Alexander's condition. "That spell, even being of the water element, shouldn't create water itself, since it was pure destructive energy…"

  "Unless…" Lucas didn't know if what he had thought was correct, but this mere possibility brought the smile back to his face.

  Just dropping by to remind you that my "mini-event" runs until this Friday.