"ELIAN, BEHIND YOU!"
Caelan shouted when he noticed water magic in the shape of an eagle about to hit Elian. Thanks to the warning, Elian managed to dodge at the last instant.
He spun his body and threw one of his daggers, which was enveloped in wind magic, directly at the student responsible for the attack.
The weapon struck his arm and opened a cut.
At the same time, Caelan had to deal with another opponent. A huge mushroom approximately three meters tall, with arms and legs, advanced toward him and raised its fist to strike him.
"Water Dome!"
A dome of water appeared in front of Caelan and blocked the mushroom's attack. The impact made the barrier tremble, but it managed to withstand it long enough for Caelan to find an opportunity.
"Wind Magic: Horizontal Slash!"
Elian swung his other dagger, and a blade of wind advanced toward the student in front of him, forcing him to dodge. However, at that moment, Elian raised his hand, and the dagger he had thrown earlier changed direction, returning to him and heading exactly toward where his opponent was.
"Aaah!"
The weapon struck the student's shoulder. He tried to retreat, but Elian quickly approached and landed a blow that knocked him unconscious. As soon as he lost consciousness, his body disappeared, indicating that he had been eliminated from the competition.
Meanwhile, Caelan finally found an opening against the mushroom. A jet of water fired from his hands pierced through the creature and cut it in half.
The student responsible for the summoning tried to escape, but Caelan turned his hand, and water emerged from the ground beneath his feet, trapping him in place. Then, several balls of water formed around Caelan and were fired at the opponent, striking him repeatedly without giving him any chance to retaliate. His body also disappeared.
"Huff... Good job..."
"You too."
Between the two, Elian seemed to be the less tired and had suffered little damage, while Caelan had some injuries scattered across his body. Even so, the two became excited when they saw their opponents disappear. Thanks to that victory, their ranks would certainly rise. Besides, it had been a two-on-two fight, and they had worked together, warning each other whenever they noticed a dangerous attack. Because of that, they expected to receive a good evaluation.
A screen appeared above the field, showing that several students had risen or fallen in rank. What really surprised the two, however, was realizing that almost the entire Class C had been eliminated and half of Class D as well. At first, they thought this might have happened because of Enrico or Valença, since both had become much stronger recently.
"See that, Elian? Look now! I'm rank 47!"
Caelan pointed at the screen, quite excited.
"Finally, we're in Class A."
Elian scratched his head while checking his own position. He was now rank 43.
He had finally managed to get a little closer to Enrico, but he did not believe that distance would remain for long.
'Even so, I'm going to enjoy this moment a little.'
Ever since he began following the training Enrico had given him, every aspect of his abilities had been improving rapidly, to the point that he had even surpassed Caelan.
'I feel like I can face stronger people.'
His companion's voice caught his attention.
"Alright, let's continue. I've rested enough."
Hearing Caelan speak with such excitement, Elian smiled.
They could not fall so far behind Enrico in terms of evolution, especially because the three of them had formed a trio before. Yes, that was exactly it. They could not allow Serenya to place all her trust in just one person. The three of them were her subordinates, not just one of them.
They then began looking for new opponents and headed toward a more open area. As he walked, Elian continued thinking about the water magic that student had used. Perhaps he could copy the principle behind that technique and adapt it to his own element. He had the impression that he had understood the foundation of the spell, and because of that, he decided to start training it right there. Caelan simply watched as Elian tried to perfect the technique.
'In a way, I think Enrico would do the same.'
Caelan could not lie to himself. He really was becoming weaker and weaker compared to the others who had come out of Class C. Even that pink-haired girl had passed him. Clenching his fist, he decided that he needed to train more and more and become stronger. From that moment on, he would take the training Enrico had given him even more seriously.
"EVERYONE, I NEED HELP!"
Upon hearing a familiar voice, the two looked up and noticed an explosion occurring at one of the highest points. Shortly afterward, Liam fell from one of the holes in the cliff. He looked at the two for a moment, but immediately turned his attention back to the opponent pursuing him. Elian, being the fastest, appeared beside him almost immediately.
"You've gotten much faster."
"I've been training a lot with Enrico during the morning runs."
The morning runs were one of the training exercises Enrico had given them. Every morning, the two raced each other, and Elian had lost every single one up to that point. Because of this, he had been running out of money lately. While they talked, the smoke from the explosion began to dissipate, and a person emerged from within it. It was Grakk, who stopped in front of the three.
"Looks like I found the same three from before. How about we finish that fight before my other allies arrive?"
The three immediately understood the danger. If Grakk was saying that, he had probably already sent a message to Princess Elowyn. They needed to defeat him before she arrived. Without wasting any more time, the three increased their speeds with their magic and advanced together, each appearing on a different side of Grakk.
"Earth Imbalance!"
Grakk slammed his feet against the ground, causing the earth beneath the three to break apart. Caelan, Elian, and Liam lost their balance for a moment, and Grakk took advantage of the opening. He prepared his axe and advanced toward Liam, using the blunt part of the weapon to aim directly at his ribs.
"Double-Layered Dome!"
Two water domes appeared in front of Liam and merged, forming a single barrier with two layers. The axe struck the defense with force, but the attack was stopped. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Caelan appeared beside Grakk. The injuries he had suffered earlier had already disappeared, as he had healed them with his water magic.
"Double Water Jet!"
Caelan raised both palms, and two high-pressure jets of water shot from his fingers. Grakk managed to block only one of them. The second struck his arm and opened a wound.
"This time I managed to hurt you."
"Good job, human."
Grakk did not seem irritated. On the contrary, he was becoming more excited. Before he could counterattack, he felt three cuts appear on his back.
Liam's spectral spear had managed to hit him. At the same instant, Elian stepped onto Grakk's shoulder and jumped above him. Bringing his two daggers together, he began concentrating his new technique.
When the weapons collided, a wind eagle formed and advanced toward Grakk. The Orc managed to defend himself using his axe, but the impact was still strong enough to drag him several meters across the ground.
"Earth Axe."
Grakk stood up and enveloped his axe with a large amount of earth. The weapon increased in size and became even heavier.
He placed it over his shoulder while smiling, clearly excited. Magic began to form around the axe. That was a technique he had saved to face Enrico, but after seeing those boys fighting with such courage, he decided that they also deserved to face his best technique.
"Is this serious?"
"Hey, that's not going to kill us, is it?!"
"You lunatic!"
"Calm down, humans. You'll only get injured."
The three began to sweat coldly. Grakk's strength was clearly superior, and they knew they were in a dangerous situation. Elian tried to think of some alternative while observing the axe enveloped in magic.
'What would Enrico do?'
He continued thinking until he realized that, at that moment, their only chance was to take a risk. He then explained his plan to the other two. The three began gathering their magic and tried to combine them into a single attack. They had never done anything like that before, but they would give it a try.
It was a triple magic.
The problem was that combining three different magics required an absurd level of control. As far as they knew, only Fifth Circle mages would be capable of doing something like that safely.
"Do you think it'll work?"
"As far as I know, no. But it's better than nothing."
The three continued trying to form the magic while Grakk watched. He could attack at that moment, but he decided to wait. He wanted to fight those brave boys until the end and discover what they were capable of doing. The three realized that he was giving them an opportunity and, despite thinking Grakk was an idiot for doing that, they also began to respect him.
"Let's go!"
Just as they were about to release the combined magic, several golden swords and black spheres appeared above them. The attacks struck the three with such force that they were immediately eliminated from the competition.
Grakk raised his eyes and saw Elowyn, Narisse, and Deymon above the field.
"With that, we've eliminated three of them. Good work, Grakk. Come on, let's look for the others."
Elowyn began moving away together with the other two. Grakk remained standing for a few seconds, looking disappointed at the battlefield. He was not sad about being defeated, but because his fight had ended before he could discover how far those three could have gone.
'Why did I have to be defeated by this princess first?'
If it had been Enrico, Grakk was certain that he would have let his battle finish before interfering.
'If my tribe saw me like this... how would they feel?'
After a few seconds, Grakk finally began following Elowyn and the others. Deep down, there was only one thing he wanted: for Enrico to defeat that princess. That way, he could follow someone who, in his eyes, truly deserved to be his leader.