Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy
"Beat him up! Show them the power of gnomes!" Flynn cheered for Gnome, who was trying his best to fight against Ben. He was actually doing much better than Richard, since he could evade Ben's attacks by hiding underground. Gnome's teammates were already knocked out, he was fighting against five people all on his own.
Ben wanted to save his Media's mana for the next fight, so he only relied on his spells. Ben, being a wind mage, couldn't really harm Gnome with any of his spells. Gnome hid underground, popping out randomly, strikin at their ankles. "How much mana do you think he has left?" Flynn asked Drew. Burrowing through the ground required Gnome to activate Excavate continuously, which burns quite a bit of mana. "If I had to guess, probably half?" Drew said, not too sure. Although Excavate needed a good amount of mana, that was the only spell that Gnome used, so he still had half of his reserves. "He's got to do something else, I don't think it's working," Brian said. Whenever Gnome pops out of the ground, Ben instantly sends a compressed blade of air at his neck, forcing him back underground. One of Ben's teammates was an Acid mage, who was slowly flooding the arena with corrosive chemicals.
Gnome could feel that his clothes were slowly melting, and he felt a burning sensation on his skin. Popping out from the ground far away from Ben and his teammates, Gnome pulled out his Catalyst. His Catalyst was a geode with black crystals sticking out of it. As it filled up with mana, Gnome chanted, "Quicksand!" The ground under their feet instantly turned into a muddy swamp, slowly dragging them to their demise. "Updraft," Ben chanted, as his color drained from his face due to the rapid consumption of mana. A powerful breeze swept Ben and his teammates up into the air, bringing them to safety. With his last endeavor failing, Gnome unhesistatingly gave up. The spectating students clapped, Gnome did a really good job fighting one against five.
Popping open different potions that the coach handed them, Ben's group got back into perfect condition. Stepping once again onto the arena, Flynn and his friends were really excited. Finally! They've got a chance to fight against real mages! "Kevin, deal with Ben. Flynn, take on Frank. Brian, block the acid from corroding Josh's plants," Drew quickly assigned positions to everybody. Flynn sized Frank up, trying to figure out a way to fight him. Frank was a Crystal mage, who had crazy high defenses. They could crystallize different Ionic compounds, and they were quite the pain to fight. As the battle began, Josh instantly got to work, pulling out his Catalyst and started tweaking the genes of the seed in his hand.
Noticing what he was doing, Ben and his teammates couldn't let him have his way, or the mutated plant could cause lots of trouble. Five beams of mana shot towards Josh, trying to interrupt Josh. But Josh still carried on with his modification, not really worried about the attack. "You're up," Flynn said, as Kevin stepped in between the attack and Josh. With his electrum gloves on, Kevin reached for the rays of mana. The attack was instantly absorbed by Kevin, a large amount of energy building up inside of him. "Energy Conversion, Electricity," Kevin chanted, as he almost stumbled because of the recoil from the blast. A large bolt of electricity possibly more powerful than real lighting shot out from his other palm, blasting Ben and the others.
Before the bolt of electricity could smite Ben into pieces, he activated his Medium, a large barrier instantly forming around his team. The whole bubble was engulfed by the maelstrom of electricity, sparks flying everywhere. The electricity lingered on the barrier, but unfortunately, it failed to break through. "Done," Josh alerted his teammates, as he threw the seed onto the ground. "Invigorate," he casted, forcing the seed to grow. Sprouting, the thick vines slowly coiled around the barrier, entrapping them inside.
Ben couldn't allow the plant to seal them up, Flynn would definitely wipe them all out with anesthesia if they were stuck in this concealed area. As he felt the vines tighten around the barrier, he deactivated it instantly. Without a support to hold up its shape, the vines were going to collapse on Ben and his team. "Updraft," he casted immediately.
Outside the plant barrier that Josh created, Flynn couldn't see anything. "Did we just win?" he said, looking at the airtight seal that trapped the whole enemy team. But as he was going to get a closer inspection, the whole plant expanded like a balloon that was ready to burst. With the sudden change, he instantly leaped back, in case something bad happened.
Before Ben and his teammates slammed into the thick, fibrous wall of plants, he pulled out his plasma cutter. With a swift slash, a part of the plant was teared open, allowing him and his team to escape. The Acid mage reacted instantly, a large wave of acid instantly showered down onto the plant. White smoke clouded the area as the plant was being corroded. Flynn rushed at Frank, who fell not too far away from him. Kevin faced Ben, with both if them in a stalemate, waiting for their opponent to cast the first spell. Two metalic serpents silently slithered around the arena, preparing to make an unsuspecting attack on the Acid mage. Josh was focusing on fighting the acid that was eating away his mutated plant, while Drew took on the other two members on Ben's team. The two mages that Drew fought were both Water mages, which was a bit tricky for Drew to fight since pure water was a pretty decent conductor.
His Polarized field was useless since there wasn't really any magnetic materials around. "Flood," the two mages casted simultaneously, as a large wave of water washed towards Drew. "Electrolysis," casted Drew, creating a flow of highhigh voltage electricity. Pulling out two rods crafted from zinc and copper, he ran the current through the water. Before he the water could reach him, it began to bubble, directly turning into gas. "Checkmate," Drew said, throwing a small bolt of electricity at the two mages. He instantly malleableize the two rods of metal into large sheets with his magnet magic, creating large shield for what's about to happen. As the bolt of electricity arced, it created small sparks. Hydrogen was a combustible gas, which means it was the perfect fuel for a large explosion. The sparks ignited the whole cloud of hydrogen that formed when he electrolysed the wave of water. Instantly creating a large explosion, the two water mages couldn't possibly react in time. Even with the shield, Drew was knocked back the large shockwave, his arm fractured.
"Someone is trying their best," Flynn said, as he felt the ground tremble. He was fighting Frank, who constantly formed small plates of diamonds to block his attack. The carbon atoms were only roughly aligned and crystallized poorly, so the diamond would turn back into carbon dust within seconds. But the few seconds was more than enough to stop Flynn's fists, which hurt like hell since he was constantly punching diamonds. "You turtle, hiding behind your shell all day!" Flynn cursed, trying to break through Frank's defense. "Scalpel," he casted, a large blue blade appearing in his hand. "Break!" he screamed.