Chapter 12 Aiko

"Care to make a bet gentlemen?" Yuna said as she began to approach the group of noblemen who were conversing about her son.

"What would that bet entail my lady?" Said the blonde haired man who seemed to be the leader.

"My name is Yuna, I assume you can connect the dots?" She said playfully.

"Ah, the mother of that child. My name is Duke Reinhardt, what are the stakes?" He said respectfully.

"Nothing much really, if my son wins this entire tournament then I wish for you to owe me a favor."

"Oh my, you seem very confident in your son. Have you done your research on the other candidates though?" Reinhardt was confident that the tournament had plenty of prodigies who could possibly beat Dante.

"No need, I have full confidence. You seem a bit worried though." Yuna said this and began to walk away.

"Wait, I'll take you up on that deal but what's in it for me?" Reinhardt was a wise man, if he wasn't then he wouldn't have risen to the ranks of a Duke.

"Mm, my son will swear fealty to your family?" Yuna herself held no influential power just yet but that would change with time.

"I'd like another prodigy under me, deal." Reinhardt walked forward and shook Yunas hand.

Ryota could only watch from a distance and sigh under his breath, if only they knew it was a free bet for her.

Yuna made her way back to Ryota and saw him shaking his head.

"What's the matter?" Yuna asked.

"Do you always take advantage of other people?" He asked seriously.

"Only if I need to." She said with a bright smile.

"Oh, Aiko is finally up." Ryota noticed his daughter making her way to the arena.

Over the last few years she had trained incredibly hard, but due to seeing Dante train her worldview was a bit skewed. She couldn't keep up with Dante but that doesn't mean she was weak, she grew by leaps and bounds.

"Begin." The judge said.

Aiko was facing another girl who had a book in her hands, some mages used grimoires in order to cast spells more easily. You could store spells inside it and simply inject mana into the pre-recorded magic circle, the main downside is if the book gets destroyed you suffer a blow back that hurts your soul. The grimoires are binded to your soul so it could be dangerous in some scenarios.

Immediately the girl began funneling all her mana in hopes of ending the match quickly, over ten spells of wind blade were thrown at Aiko.

Wind Blade was a Red Ranked spell that was very easy to cast and was simply just a blade of wind.

As the blades made their way to Aiko she simply held her hand up and muttered a spell.

"Wind Spirit."

As she said this a cyclone formed in front of her that completely absorbed all the wind blades and used to it materialize faster.

After absorbing all the blades a tornado with eyes had formed and locked its sight on the girl in front of it. It dashed forward and casted its own spell called Wind Spear that was an Orange Ranked spell, it was basically an evolved form on Wind Blade.

The spears instantly made their way to the girl who tried to conjure up a mana shield but the first spear shattered it completely. Right before the second spear could land a blue barrier appeared that signaled she had lost, Aiko said nothing and left the stage immediately.

"She's grown, that spirit magic is very unique." Yuna said to Ryota.

"It's something that's passed down to the women in my family, sadly her mother passed away so she couldn't learn directly from a teacher." Ryota said with a somber expression.

For the most part Aiko had taught herself spirit magic in hopes of catching up to Dante, but without some form of guidance it was incredibly difficult. The fact she made it to orange rank was an incredible achievement by itself, her determination was impressive for a teen.

As Aiko sat back down in her corner of the locker room, a bunch of teenage boys showed up and began flirting with her.

"Gorgeous and powerful, you'd make a great wife." A nerdy teen with glasses said.

"Back off, my family is ranked above yours and I happened to be looking for a concubine." A buff black haired teen said.

Aiko paid them no attention and just zoned out focusing on her next match, spirit magic had a large consumption rate. This form of combat wasn't advantageous to her so she had to replenish her mana right after each match otherwise she would run out of steam quickly. If it was battling nonstop then she would be fine but having to summon the spirit over and over again was taking a toll.

After around two hours passed and the second round began, the noblemen in the stands were making sure to keep an eye on Dante since they were curious how the bet with the beautiful young woman would go.

Surprisingly Dante was the first one called for this round and when he made his way to the guide he decided to change his weapon. After watching so many fights over the last few years he had at least an intermediate set of knowledge for most common weapons.

This time he grabbed a war glaive and made his way to the stands, when everyone saw his new weapon they were confused.

"Why is he using another weapon? Wouldn't it make sense to hone one weapon technique?" A nobleman asked Reinhardt.

"You know how youngsters are, they switch up like crazy but eventually they'll find what they like. I'm curious if he can use it though, not many people use that type of weapon." Reinhardt was curious since only a select few could efficiently wield a glaive, the most prominent were shadow demons who were rarely seen.

"Perhaps he's copying the one in the gladiators arena?" Reinhardt thought inwardly.

There was currently a very popular gladiator who went by Oblivion that wielded two war glaives, his style was incredibly barbaric and domineering to say the least. This was indeed one gladiator that Dante had made sure to visit every chance he could since war glaives were a new weapon he had never seen before, even in his past world.

As Dante made his entrance into the arena his opponent immediately frowned, he had never faced war glaives so his confidence wasn't too high.

"Begin."

As always Dante immediately cloaked himself in lightning and charged forward, but he immediately sidestepped for some reason. His instincts kicked in at the last moment and he wasn't quite sure why.

"You almost lost, great instincts you have. Too bad you're just a peasant, just lay down and die you half breed." The opponent said with a smirk on his face.

Dante looked around the arena and noticed subtle traces of mana around the floor that wasn't neutral. Mana that hadn't been absorbed or used in a spell were always neutral. Clearly multiple trap spells had been cast in the arena.

"You can't reach me so give up." He said mockingly.

"Cocky much?" Dante chuckled to himself before ramping up his lightning cloak, then he took a single step.

To his opponent it looked like he just disappeared, but in the next second a blue barrier erected around him. He looked to his side and saw Dante walking away and holding up his middle finger for some reason.

"Huh?" The teen didn't even know what happened.

"Get out of the arena." The judge said.

As Dante advanced through rounds similar things kept happening but his speed was simply too much for every opponent he came across, this was the sad reality between Red Cored teens and Dante with his Green Core. Even now he wasn't using his core to the maximum, his speed was simply too fast for anybody in this tournament to react if he ramped up his lightning cloak.