Over at Grim Lord Academy's section, Harvey Nefari sat sulking in the back row but became slightly more animated when the next match-up was announced. He looked over to his brother, Lewis Nefari, who was sitting in the middle of the front row and said:
"You have a tough opponent in William Rollins. If he is, in fact, a light path master like the rumors say, you will have a hard time. "
Lewis got up from his seat and maintained his plain expression, replying:
"Maybe so, but I'll give William Rollins the most memorable fight of his life before the day is done."
The dark skinned man sitting at the right end of the front row, who was wearing a pale-white magician's robe glanced at Lewis and said:
"Make the academy, that has nurtured you so far, proud."
Lewis silently nodded his head once to his supervisor and then left the section through the corridor door on foot. Back in Richter Order Academy's section, William Rollins rose from his seat and said nothing. He simply pointed his right index finger towards the center of the field and cast Instant Light.
He then disappeared amidst a flash of white light and reappeared in the same manner one moment later to stand at the center of the field with both his hands being kept within his pants pockets. Soon, Lewis walked from the corridor entrance and arrived onto the field; he walked to the center slowly until he was positioned about twenty meters away from William.
Lewis wore a set of dark-silver leather combat armor and maintained a plain expression as he stood observing the seemingly relaxed William. Seeing that both competitors were ready, Ralph gave his command before vanishing:
"Begin the match!"
No words were wasted between William and Lewis after they heard Ralph's instructions. William, who was no doubt the likely faster Magician, cast and resolved his spell first:
(Instant Ricochet)
William immediately became the likeness of a beam of white light that rapidly shot towards the arena wall behind him and once the light beam made contact with the wall, it bounced off the arena wall, tracing its previous path to move towards Lewis at twice the velocity as before. When the light beam appeared in front of Lewis, William's silhouette made out of flashing white light was then seen at the head of the beam and the portion of white light depicting William's intensely glowing right leg shot out at incredible speed towards Lewis' left side.
(Martial Light)
(Instant Smuggle)
Lewis sensed the attack but it happened too fast for him to see it clearly or react in time. William's right leg hit Lewis squarely on his upper-left-arm and Lewis somehow appeared to become the likeness of a beam of white light along with William's silhouette, which then both merged into one beam and shot towards the arena wall that had been facing William.
Within the next second, the two Magicians' flesh and blood bodies appeared again as the white light beam made contact with the arena wall, at which time, the head of the light beam flashed and the two competitors were revealed to be involved in a heated physical exchange with Lewis being kicked into the arena wall by William using the latter's right leg while Lewis had somehow managed to parry William's kick with both his forearms.
Lewis, however, still sunk into the wall, back-first, following which, the wall developed wide spreading spider cracks resulting from the impact. This exchange occurred about two meters above the ground and William and Lewis were momentarily kept in place by inertia before William pointed his right index finger towards the center of the field behind him and returned there at a seemingly instant pace once again via a straight light beam. His likeness then appeared amidst a flash of white light, standing calmly with his hands kept within his pockets.
With no pressure from William, Lewis quickly slumped down to the ground with his arms still slightly raised. Even as he landed onto the ground, Lewis eyed William and soon, Lewis' expression became one of someone who had been amused. Lewis then muttered under his breath:
"Not bad, Rollins."
The exchange only lasted three seconds at most but it caused the spectator stands to develop an uproar:
"The battle is off to an exciting start. Leave it to bright light William Rollins to steal the show."
"William is bae!"
"God damn it. Those moves were so cool."
"You students sure have some fan-boy fever over William Rollins. Sure, his moves were flashy but look, Lewis Nefari is getting up like nothing even happened."
"Didn't you watch Lewis' last match, old man? He is okay because he has the Steel Bones talent that makes his bones as strong as common steel so of course he suffered minimally from William kicking him into the arena wall."
"William got the opportunity to show off but let's see how he manages when Lewis hits back."
"Bright light is about to get decked for sure!"
...
Back on the field, Lewis slowly got up from the ground and then flexed both his arms, followed by stretching his spine using upper-body turns. Lewis soon muttered:
"Now I'm ready."
(Dark Speed)
(Dark Endeavor)
Lewis suddenly became shrouded in a layer of complete darkness that hid his features. Following that, he took a step forward with his right foot and seemingly disappeared. William, who was standing relaxed at the moment cast Glorious Perception due to Lewis' disappearance and a hunch that he had. William's eyes then immediately glowed with white lights and then opened wide as he witnessed a dark figure running up to him at incredibly fast speeds, almost as fast as his own speed when resolving Instant Light.
Within moments, the shrouded Lewis appeared directly in front of William, crossing about one hundred and twenty meters in a blink. Lewis then struck out with both his fists and punched at William, first, in the belly with his left fist and then he gave William an uppercut with his right fist. William grimaced as a result of the first punch and immediately flew one foot off the ground, backwards, because of the second punch.
At that time, however, William's hands were basically pointing at Lewis while the former flew backwards and while William was still reeling and moving backward, his right middle finger glowed with an intense, white light before a thin beam of white light shot out from the finger and hit Lewis in the belly.
(Minor Jewel)
Despite Lewis' current fast movements, he was not fast enough to react to this attack and was forced to tank it. When the light beam hit him in the belly, the point of impact momentarily glowed and glimmered intensely before Lewis coughed out two mouthfuls of blood due to the damage done when the white light penetrated his darkness layer, then into his belly and then went on to damage his internal organs by causing them to degenerate slightly.
As for William, with Glorious Perception still active and himself still falling backwards, the white light emanating from his right eye suddenly concentrated and shot out as a linear beam, reaching to twelve meters above his current position.
(Instant Light)
William almost instantly disappeared and then reappeared at the head of the light beam amidst a flash of white light; he proceeded to look down on Lewis, who had not slowed down despite William's attack using Minor Jewel. Lewis quickly recovered from the shock of William's attack and waved his right hand at William, casting a spell:
(Dimness Salute)
William suddenly sensed dark path magic power surging from Lewis and before he knew it, William went completely blind, no longer being able to see.
(Huh?)
At that moment, Lewis moved like a blur and arched his right arm backwards, following which, a 0.8-meter-length, two-inch-thick ray of darkness magic power was generated within his right grip that Lewis then threw at William at the speed of cannon fire.
(Darkness Bolt)
The Darkness Bolt flew towards William faster than a speeding bullet. By the time that William blinked, however, his vision returned, Dimness Salute's effect seemingly having faded but that brief period of blindness allowed the Darkness Bolt to reach William without him having been able to react appropriately. William cursed inwardly:
(Shit!)
The Darkness Bolt quickly struck William and pierced into the right side of his chest after William managed to make a slight shift in midair to avoid being struck at the left side of his chest. William immediately coughed out a large mouthful of blood as a result of the impact. The Darkness Bolt partly exited his body at the rear and remained lodged within his chest. The darkness magic power that made up the Darkness Bolt then began corroding the tissues around it, which caused an awkward sizzling sound and steam to emanate from William's wound.
William gritted his blood covered teeth and acted quickly to mitigate his injury and improve his circumstance by casting two of his spells at almost the same time:
(Glorious Persistence)
(Instant Light)
William's body then became tightly enveloped in glowing white light before a beam of white light shot out from the center of his back and hit the ground over sixty meters away from Lewis, following which, the Darkness Bolt dissipated and William disappeared amidst a flash of white light and reappeared at the head of the light beam in the same manner, standing on his two feet.
(Healing Grace)
The white light enveloping his body quickly abated and William quickly cast his healing spell on himself in order to close the wound on his chest while ridding himself of the lingering corrosion of the darkness magic power. While William did all that, Lewis did not advance but instead observed his opponent while he mused:
(Dark Speed shrouds me in a layer of darkness and increases my movement speed; complementing the latter spell by also casting Dark Endeavor significantly increased my endurance, strength and agility as a result of the darkness layer being present. I used those methods to good advantage and went even further by casting Darkness Salute, which has an effect that robs its target of their vision until their next blink. In this way, William was completely caught off guard by my Darkness Bolt and ended up in his current pitiful state. I could press my advance but I have a thing against rushing at injured dogs.)
Lewis soon began casting his own healing spell, Reverse Malady, in order to heal his damaged internal organs; Reverse Malady's effectiveness was in proportion to his dark path affinity and was made even more effective because of the darkness layer now shrouding him. While Lewis observed William, William was also observing Lewis while he continued to heal himself of his injury, thinking:
(He didn't run straight for me after I landed onto the ground. He is not simple; if he had, I would have made sure that he regretted it. He seemed to tank my Minor Jewel fairly well, which is a rank 2 intermediate grade spell that degenerates its target using intense light that moves with a base speed faster than sound; that speed is about as fast as Glorious Justice but Minor Jewel is far inferior in terms of offensive power. Lewis' methods must be enhancing his body's endurance, somehow. Sigh, the dark path power that he struck my chest with was fairly powerful but I managed to mostly neutralize it using Glorious Persistence, which is a rank 2 advanced grade defensive spell that grants my body the intangibility properties of light for a time which will forcefully cancel most ranged spells that require a graspable target to stay active. The fact that the corrosive effects of the darkness power remained, however, means that Glorious Persistence's defense partly failed and that Lewis' magic power is not inferior to my own.)
Realizing that, William actually grinned like a child who had just obtained a new toy because he now knew that this was going to be an exhilarating battle. William soon fully healed himself of his injury and so the hole in his chest had closed. Once he cancelled Healing Grace, he cast Martial Light and both his arms immediately began glowing with an intense, white light.
Lewis noticed the surge in William's magic power and cancelled Reverse Malady in response since his internal organs had mostly been healed, following which, Lewis shouted:
"Come!"
A white light beam once again shot forward from William's glowing right eye and reached Lewis a moment later, following that, William disappeared and then reappeared at the head of the light beam, directly in front of Lewis amidst a flash of white light. William proceeded to adeptly punch at Lewis with both hands. Lewis returned William's punches with his own punches while parrying and dodging William's blows.
Both men had clearly been well trained in hand-to-hand combat and the effects of their spells allowed them to fight each other using great speed and strength. They both punched, shifted, ducked, side stepped, slapped and parried when appropriate and in that way, the sounds of the air whistling could be heard by the audience as the two Magicians' hands moved at blinding speeds while displacing and blasting away the surrounding air.
After two minutes of this kind of fighting, William could take no more since Martial Light did not enhance his own physique in the same way that Lewis' methods enhanced his physique. At that point, William cancelled Martial Light and cast Glorious Persistence again and when Lewis punched at William's left side using his right fist a moment later, Lewis' right fist moved through William's upper left side like the latter was not real at all. The site of impact became akin to pure, white light and William coughed out two mouthfuls of blood in response.
William then took the opportunity to grab Lewis by the face with his right hand and cast two of his spells, after which, a halo of light appeared around William:
(Glorious Javelin)
(Instant Smuggle)
William's body instantly became bathed in white light, following which, the same happened to Lewis and both men shot towards the arena's wall that was facing William at pseudo-light-speed like two closely traveling, parallel light beams, leaving two corresponding light beams trailing behind them and crossing over one hundred meters in mere moments to crash into the arena's wall. This time, there was a massive impact as the resulting crash created a large area of cracked wall and as Lewis was driven four feet into the wall by William.
The site of the crash was about four meters above ground this time. Following the impact, William cast Instant Light and fled backwards by about forty meters instead of continuing to pressure Lewis. At that point, the layer of darkness covering Lewis' body abated since his magic power had become unstable after being completely overwhelmed by William's light, canceling Dark Speed.
Lewis then took the opportunity to cancel Dark Endeavor and shakily pointed his right index finger towards William while he himself basically sat in the hole created by the previous impact. One moment later, a pebble-sized speck of darkness shot out from Lewis' right index fingertip and crossed the distance between William and himself in moments, going directly towards William.
(Dark Speck)
William was having none of it, however, and pointed his right index finger at the Dark Speck and cast Minor Jewel, following which, a thin, intense, short beam of white light was emitted from William's right index fingertip and crashed into the Dark Speck, at which point, both projectiles were destroyed by the power of the other. William squinted his eyes in suspicion, thinking:
(That small amount of darkness was strong enough to neutralize Minor Jewel. Lewis' spells are no joke.)
Lewis had only cast Dark Speck in order to give himself a few more moments to finish casting another spell without William's interference and the moment that William destroyed the Dark Speck, Lewis' spell was cast:
(Silent Darkness)
Without warning and seemingly in an instant, all around William became dark and eerily silent. For some reason, William's Glorious Perception was rendered ineffective and so he cancelled it and tried to cast Instant light in order to go after Lewis again but his spell could not be resolved; William then clapped both his hands but heard nothing. William was very perturbed; he was basically deaf and blind right now and had no details that he could use to immediately effect a suitable counter:
(What kind of spell is this? Hmmm...it seems to restrict sound and light.)
Unfortunately for William, this situation made him very vulnerable to Lewis' next few moves. While still sitting in the hole within the arena wall, Lewis cast his spell, Dark Chaser, that allowed him to move instantly to any place enveloped by darkness. Lewis thus appeared at William's immediate left flank but William did not react to his arrival. Lewis, who could still see perfectly, knew why:
(This bastard is now as blind as a stone. Not to mention, my Dark Disciple talent conceals my presence and magic power while I am immersed in dark environments like this one, in addition to allowing me to see in the dark. The flaw of my talent, however, is that it only conceals the magic power of spells below a certain standard relative to my overall strength.)
Lewis did not waste his chance and quickly pointed his right and left index fingers at the left side of William's head and cast one spell twice:
(Darkness Speck)
(Darkness Speck)
One pebble-sized concentration of darkness was shot out from each of Lewis' index fingertips and landed squarely on the left side of William's head. The Darkness Specks enlarged upon impact and spread over William's head like an animated adhesive, beginning to corrode the latter's head at a startling pace.
"..."
William was actually forced to scream out due to the pain but no sound could be heard because of the effects of Lewis' Silent Darkness. William then began turning his head in a frenzy in a vain attempt to somehow sense the source of the attacks but he found no source and no relief. Lewis used that time to prepare another one of his spells in order to deal what he hoped would be a fatal blow against so called, bright light William Rollins. After eight seconds of watching William's suffering and searching, Lewis, who had kept a few feet of distance between himself and William at all times, cast his spell:
(Darkness Hold)
The darkness within William's and Lewis' surroundings seemed to become animated in response to being affected by Lewis' spell and the corrosion affecting William's head intensified, basically destroying the latter's eyes, nose, ears and removing a fair amount of his hair, skin and flesh. If the students could have seen William's head at this time, it would have appeared as if hydrochloric acid had been dumped on it.
"..."
William screamed more intensely than before but still, no sound was heard. Despite his screaming and desperation, William, had all this time been preparing a solution to his predicament but the preparation had taken a while because of the effects of the prevailing darkness that was interfering with his light path magic. William then cast two of his spells at almost the same time:
(Glorious Persistence)
(My Glorious Light)
William's body instantly and intensely shone with a dazzling golden light. Following that, William cast Instant Light and flew straight up into the air, carried off by a beam of gold light, eventually escaping the Silent Darkness after reaching twenty meters above the field. William stopped rising when he reached a few meters above the limit of Silent Darkness.
Now that he had finally become free of the effects and envelopment of Silent Darkness, William appeared to the audience as a radiant, adult sized, floating gold glow. Looking down at the darkness below him, William furiously moved to cast one of his most powerful spells.
William raised his hands in front of his chest and pinched his right index finger and thumb together, followed by doing the same action with his left hand's equivalents. A cluster of dazzling, twinkling gold light then appeared at each hand where he pinched. Only one moment later, dozens of short beams of gold light, that emanated from the clusters of light at his hands, were shot by William into the Silent Darkness below him, every second.
(Glorious Jewel)
Lewis was seeing all of William's actions from where he stood and he had to admit that he himself was in trouble:
(Glorious Jewel is famous for a reason but as long as this Silent Darkness is still active, I can resist it.)
Lewis quickly proceeded to cast his spell, Dark Intentions, that allowed him to more easily intuit the malicious intentions of his attacker and perpetually track their attacks. True to his privileged background, no sooner than Patrice had revealed her power during her match with Harvey Nefari, did Lewis act to obtain a dark path method that mimicked wisdom path. Lewis also cast other spells:
(Dark Speed)
(Dark Endeavor)
Lewis' magic power surged but was concealed amidst the Silent Darkness and William had no way of finding Lewis' exact location so Glorious Jewel's light beams were shot at random places but adequately covered the Silent Darkness' area of effect, which was a little more than half of the field.
Lewis dodged the gold light beams at superhuman speeds and left impressions in the ground with his feet as he moved; wind also whistled as he traversed the ground. The light beams devastated the field, causing the ground to degenerate wherever they hit, which created pits all over the ground's surface. Soon, the destroyed terrain began interfering with Lewis' footwork and he was forced to slow down, following which, he was hit by a few light beams and despite the physical enhancement of his darkness magic and his Steel Bones talent, he was inflicted with severe wounds.
Holes appeared in Lewis' torso, arms and pelvis. He managed to protect his head and legs by sacrificing those other areas but this still put him near death as he bled heavily from his wounds; he had basically become a sieve by this point and was approaching his wits end:
(If not for Dark Endeavor's and Dark Speed's enhancement, Silent Darkness' concealment of my actions and Dark Intentions' guidance, I would be dead by now.)
William was still enveloped by gold light so the audience mostly witnessed darkness and gold light interacting with each other fiercely for a time. The scene truly epitomized the contrast between two opposing forces that had wholly conflicting natures. No one heard or saw the results of William's Glorious Jewel unless they used special methods but most of the students did not have such methods and it was mostly the licensed Magicians that saw the situation clearly. They discussed:
"What an intense battle and there has been losses on both sides."
"Do you see William's face? It is now something that only a mother could love."
"How is Lewis maintaining so many strong spells at once? Isn't that strange?"
"Hmmm...It is likely due to his Dark Disciple talent. Talents that have effects that are bolstered by affinities usually and incidentally grant an enhanced ability to multitask but that is assuming that Lewis' affinity for and attainment in dark path is high enough. Lewis must be close to becoming a dark path master. That is unthinkable for someone that is around age thirty."
"What do you mean? Isn't William Rollins a light path master and only a little older than age thirty? If William can do it, so can Lewis."
"Hold on, something is changing."
...
After thirty seconds of bombardment, William cancelled Glorious Jewel, mostly because his magic energy reserves were running low by that point. As soon as he stopped attacking, he cast Healing Grace in order to repair the tissues on his head. Normally, his healing spell would not be effective on his destroyed eyes but since the spell was being used along with origin light because of the effects of My Glorious Light, Healing Grace's effectiveness and potency had increased manifold and could be used to heal destroyed, sensitive organs.
The effects of Glorious Persistence had already rid William of the influence of the darkness magic so the healing process was uncomplicated. Before William could finish healing himself, however, the Silent Darkness below him receded and soon Lewis could be seen standing on the ground in a pitiful state, sucking the ambient darkness into his own mouth.
Lewis had already cancelled Dark Speed and his clothes were visibly tattered and ruined; a pool of blood collected at his feet as blood poured from the holes that were now on much of his mangled body and that were now easily seen. Many students cringed at the sight of Lewis and many others shook their head, saying:
"Things have gone too far."
The licensed Magicians openly sneered at the students that said such things before returning their focus to the field. Lewis sucked in all of the dark path magic power that Silent Darkness consisted of, following which, his mangled body gained a renewed and greater strength which caused his bleeding to stop for the moment. He then cast Reverse Malady to clot his wounds while he mused:
(This is the last leg of the race, so to speak; my magic energy reserves are low and my body is close to failing me so I have to make my next moves count. Darkness Endeavor also allows me to consume darkness magic in order to bolster my existing enhancements but this act will probably cause me to burn out pretty soon...)
Lewis knew that if he was going to act, it had to be right now. He cancelled Reverse Malady as soon as his wounds clot and looked up at William, who was still floating in the sky. William returned Lewis' gaze with his own gaze and thought:
(He must be thinking the same thing as myself - I need to finish this quickly. Sigh, if it wasn't for my Light Weight talent, I wouldn't even be able to remain in midair while not consuming magic energy to do so. I've got enough magic energy within my mindscape at this point for one more decent attack. I'll aim to take Lewis out with my next move.)
Lewis quickly waved his right hand at William and cast:
(Dimness Field)
The surroundings suddenly appeared to become overcast and dim but William, who had healed much of his injuries by now, could still see; he was wary, though:
(The change in lighting is subtle but the light emanating from my body has weakened. Lewis' spell is evidently suppressing my light magic but only by a superficial standard since I am currently making use of origin light.)
Lewis then cast another spell, exuding a cloud of magic energy exhaust in the process:
(Darkness Fog)
A large collection of darkness that appeared like a thick fog and swirled ominously was quickly generated with Lewis at the center. Following that, the fog spread out to cover the entire field in moments. When Darkness Fog fully manifested, Lewis was not done, however; he then cast:
(Darkness Bolt)
The Darkness Fog immediately concentrated towards and condensed within Lewis' right grasp in order to form a 0.8-meter-length, two-inch-thick ray of darkness that emitted a terrifyingly intense, dark magic power. Lewis mused:
(The Darkness Fog spell generates a fog like collection of darkness that suppresses magic power and corrodes objects within its area of effect over time. It is a rank 2 intermediate grade spell but when harnessed like this using Darkness Bolt, its magic power becomes a devastating weapon. As long as I hit William with this power, I win.)
William sensed the power emanating from the Darkness Bolt that was within Lewis' right grasp and his expression became grave. William quickly cancelled Healing Grace and Glorious Persistence. Following that, the gold light wrapped around William's body vanished. William then arched his right arm behind his head, towards his rear and cast multiple spells:
(Martial Light)
(Instant Smuggle)
(Glorious Justice)
(My Glorious Light!)
Within an instant, a relatively short, intensely glowing gold light ray was generated within William's right grasp, shaped in the form of a simple medieval lance with its tip facing William's front; the weaker students had a hard time looking directly at William's bright magic power at this time. The 'light lance' was about one meter in length and four-inches-thick. It was no mystery as to what William intended to do with it.
Just as Lewis had basically performed the same right arm movement as William, with Lewis' Darkness Bolt pointing forward, he himself and William both launched their attacks forward at each other; the movement of the light lance could only be observed by some licensed Magicians because it was just too fast, definitely faster than the speed of sound. Lewis' Darkness Bolt was also fast but some students were able to track its movements, albeit barely, since its speed exceeded that of cannon fire. William's light lance made contact with Lewis first and vaporized all of Lewis Nefari's lower-body using its gold light, resulting in the latter falling towards the ground, tragically.
Not long after, William was hit in the center of his chest by Lewis' Darkness Bolt. William immediately fell towards the ground while blood poured from his mouth and he struggled to breath. Lewis hit the ground before William did, back-first; William soon also fell to the ground, back-first. The Darkness Bolt within William's chest corroded his internal organs intensely and he was close to going into circulatory shock as a result.
William tried to use the last bit of his magic energy in order to attempt to cast Glorious Persistence but the Darkness Bolt suppressed his magic power stubbornly; he could not cast a single spell. William was just about to lose consciousness when Ralph appeared beside him and waved his right hand, dispelling the Darkness Bolt with his grey space magic power by seeming to split up the darkness into thousands of minute portions and sending each portion away in different directions. Ralph then performed emergency healing on William, seemingly using the same gray space magic power to do so.
Another Magician that the audience did not recognize and who wore a black magician's robe, which had a hood attached that was used to cover the Magician's face, had already appeared beside Lewis. The mysterious Magician then poured a red and silver colored liquid from a glass bottle, that he had suddenly summoned, onto the open wound left behind by the destruction of Lewis' lower body.
William's last attack had actually melted most of the blood vessels at Lewis' waist closed so there was little bleeding from Lewis' ghastly wound. The red and silver liquid was quickly absorbed by Lewis' organs and within the next few moments, his lower body wholly appeared again, seemingly out of nowhere and it looked exactly the same as before it had been destroyed, even Lewis' tattered pants had been restored. The thick and distinct aura of time path radiated from Lewis' body from then on.
Ralph soon looked over at Lewis' position and seeing that Lewis Nefari was alive and partially healed, he announced the result of the match:
"William Rollins has won this match by way of knocking out his opponent!"
William squinted his eyes in response to Ralph's words and slowly raised his head to look at Lewis. When Lewis entered his vision, William did see that Lewis' eyes were closed and he was not moving and seemed to be barely breathing. William then weakly muttered:
"I won."
William's head immediately fell backwards after saying those words and he lost consciousness. Nick watched as Varrow disappeared from his seat and instantly appeared on the field, standing beside William and Ralph. After speaking with Ralph for a few seconds, Varrow raised William four feet off the ground by using a gust of pale-green wind that he used to carry William away while Varrow himself walked on foot towards and through the corridor entrance a few dozen meters away.
After Lewis Nefari's lower-body had been restored, the blacked robed Magician used his magic power to envelop Lewis and himself in orange-green flames, following which, the flames dissipated a few moments later and Lewis and the black robed Magician were then nowhere to be seen.
Rebecca Jones, who was sitting in the stands at this time, commented:
"William is a very promising student. Although his style is different from mine, his use of light path is just as good as when I was his age. It is spectacular that he won the match even though he was slightly disadvantaged."
Jessica Jones, who was sitting beside Rebecca, developed a confused expression when she heard Rebecca's latter words. Jessica then asked:
"What disadvantage did William have? He is rumored to be a light path master while Lewis Nefari has never been said to have such a high attainment. Wasn't Lewis the one that was disadvantaged."
Rebecca slowly shook her head and then corrected Jessica:
"Based on their last exchange, I can reasonable deduce that William and Lewis had about the same attainment level in their respective paths or at least they had very similar proficiency in understanding and manipulating their magic. Remember Jessica, high attainment is a great thing, but one needs extensive experience to make full use of it. The battle went the way it did because Lewis and William were about at the same standard in terms of battle experience and spell casting skill."
Jessica knew that her sister was a very powerful Magician who had done all kinds of research into the usage of magic power, not to mention that she had long since become a light path master so Rebecca's words and judgement were as heavy as a mountain. Rebecca then asked:
"Did you learn about magical conflict theory in any of your classes, Jessica?"
Jessica silently nodded in affirmation; magical conflict theory did involve basic information that Magicians needed to be aware of. Rebecca continued:
"Well, light path and dark path have a significant conflict because the principles of their laws basically contradict each other at almost every point, every fact. That being said, darkness strongly and aggressively consumes light as a result but light does not consume darkness as aggressively because the nature of light requires some amount of darkness to be present for light rays to perpetuate energetically. The latter fact means that the more darkness that exists, the greater the perpetuation of light but that also means that darkness is often in superior standing to light up to a certain threshold. Maybe you didn't notice but Lewis' dark path methods suppressed William's light by quite a bit throughout the entire match. Even at the end, Lewis' final attack suppressed William's magic heavily, leaving the latter basically defenseless."
Once Rebecca explained, Jessica did remember the seemingly frequent suppression of William's light but she did not think of it as that significant when it was happening, considering how flashy many of William's moves still were. Jessica replied:
"So even the fundamental natures of our magic powers can determine whether we struggle or have an easy time during battle. That's easy enough to understand by thinking of the conflict that exists between water path and fire path but conflicts between the other paths are a little more difficult to intuit."
Jessica nodded her head and then remarked:
"That is why having a lot of battle experience is important..."
The other spectators also discussed:
"Man, that was an ugly finish but William won in the end."
"He only won by an inch. If Lewis had not fallen unconscious before him, it might have been Lewis that won."
"Speaking of Lewis, the Nefari prince almost died. I have never had my entire lower-body destroyed like that. If not for that black robed Magician coming to his rescue, today might have been Lewis' death date."
"Who was that black robed Magician, anyway?"
"Considering that he went straight for Lewis before the match even officially ended, that Magician was probably one of the Nefari goons set up to make sure that one of their princes did not die. I suspect that the red and silver tonic that the black robed Magician used to heal Lewis was the time path potion, Person As Before. That is a regular level potion and is worth a few vatas in value. No ordinary group could afford to use that potion on an Apprentice Magician; the Nefaris would, however, use such a potion if one of their own was at stake no matter their rank."
"We all know that the royal family and the Nefaris have a close relationship so the Nefaris interference should be no surprise."
"Anyway, William's bright light inheritance and Lewis' dark consume inheritance are both treasures. If I had such good quality inheritances at their age, I might have been able to start my own academy."
"In your dreams! Besides, considering the fame of those inheritances, William and Lewis might encounter many troubles after they graduate from their academies."
...
Ralph waited for the arena's power to restore the ruined field before he announced another match-up and when that match concluded, Ralph announced matches from then on until a match-up that even made Nick want to stop working, so that he could watch the upcoming fight directly, was declared:
"Uriah Narco and Kirst Elthirst. Come to the field, now!"
Not long after, boisterous laughing could be heard from Great Overlord Academy's section that made the spectator's look over in surprise. They were surprised because of the magic power that the owner of the laughter was now emitting.
(Blood Lord)
Everyone watched as the moisture within the atmosphere condensed, beginning at Great Overlord Academy's section railing, and then the resulting water became blood-red...no, the water became actual blood. Following that, the blood took the shape of a descending staircase that led from the section's railing to the center of the field before completely solidifying.
Kirst Elthirst, who wore a set of dull-red leather combat armor and a pair of black, designer suede shoes, then jumped onto the peak of the staircase and proceeded to descend its length, eventually bringing himself to the center of the field one and a half minutes later. Kirst stood on the field proudly and loudly asked while staring at Raylam Priest Academy's reserved section:
"Where is Uriah Narco?"