22 Chapter 3 (7/7)

"The blood pool inside my Blood Ring still has enough for me to use for the next two months."

"Uhm, I will prepare for a new one soon."

"Thank you. Senior, I understand Master Whistler wanted me to create a name for myself to attract the attention of the Mages Council. But, isn't this too risky as it can expose me as well?"

"Kain, you do not have to be undefeated or win this tournament. Just prove yourself enough for one of our associates in the Mages Council to logically approach you. Then that is good enough."

"I understand now. Thank you for explaining, Senior."

Back to the present. Team members on both sides were sitting at the reserved areas while the teams' leaders turned in the rosters to register who was going to fight first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and last. The rosters can not be changed after it was turned in. This is to prevent a team from having an advantage over the other team like picking a Wind Mage to fight against an Earth Mage.

Wind Magic has an advantage against Earth Magic. Earth Magic has an advantage against Thunder Magic. Thunder Magic has an advantage against Wind Magic. Triangle effects. Even though those effects weren't much, it's enough to be noticeable.

Conjuration, Fire, Ice, Black, and Light Magics do not have an advantage or disadvantage against other Elemental Magics.

The announcer checked the roster and announced, "On Mages' Academy of Nosh, Kain Almos will be the first to fight. Kain is a Conjurer Mage, nineteen years old, and recently advanced into the Master-tier."

The audience started talking about Kain Almos because it was very rare for a nineteen years old to become a Master Conjurer Mage. However, they couldn’t help but feel sad for him as this match would end quickly. This was not the battle of Intermediate Mages, but Master Mages. Each level in the Master-tier was significantly different. Master-tier magic casters can learn two new spells. One at level 25, and the other one at level 30. Level 30 Mage would also have a higher mana pool, almost twice compared to the level 21 Mage.

The announcer continued, "On Mages' Academy of Sinerin, Oletha Harrison will be the first to fight. Oletha is a level 30 Light Mage, and she is twenty-five years old. Oletha is the leader and the strongest magic caster in her team. Looks like Sinerin wanted a fast win against Nosh."

The announcer was correct. Sinerin sent out their strongest contender to defeat as many of Nosh’s contenders as possible. They don’t want Nosh to be able to lose beautifully but lose in an ugly way.

Jaane Almos, Arthur Castillon, Sofia Verardi, Faziel Blonigan, Vincenzo Biersack, and all students of Nosh were praying for the Watcher to watch over Kain. They knew he would lose this match. But they hope to see that Kain could last long enough to lose beautifully.

The signal for the battle start was fired. Kain scratched his head thinking which creature he should conjure first. On the other side, Oletha did not waste any time to casted [Summon Angel Warrior] to summon a Four Wings Angel Warrior with the strength of a tenth-tier warrior.

Kain smiled and thanked Oletha, "I was having a problem thinking of which creature should I conjure. But since you have summoned an Angel Warrior, I will conjure Fire Demons. An old-style battle between Demons versus Angel is not bad. Thank you for saving me the headache."

Kain casted [Conjure Fire Demon] spell and a Fire Demon appeared to wait for his command. Kain said, "Red Boy, just do the best you can to keep that Angel Warrior busy. I will conjure more allies to assist you."

The Fire Demon turned toward the Angel Warrior and casted [Fireball] ten times to create ten fireballs that flew toward the Angel Warrior. The Angel Warrior could easily dodge all the fireballs while spreading out its wings and then flew toward the Fire Demon. After a twenty seconds fight, the Angel Warrior cut the Fire Demon in half with its sword.

This was the result that has been expected by the audiences. Even if Kain conjured five more Fire Demons, the result wouldn't change. That was why Kain did not do it. He casted [Conjure Thunder Eagle] ten times, and then casted [Conjure Fire Demons] five times. Ten Thunder Eagles and Five Fire Demons appeared and quickly surrounded to attack the Angel Warrior.

Oletha was surprised because she didn't know how Kain finished chanting that fast. A Conjurer Mage usually has the disadvantages of not chanting fast enough to successfully conjure a creature which normally resulted in the loss in one versus one battle. The Angel Warrior was killed after successfully slaying three Demons and six Eagles. Seeing her Angel Warrior die didn't bother her, Oletha simply casted another [Summon Angel Warrior] spell to summon another one. Her mana pool was large enough to summon five more Angel Warriors. Because summoning and conjuring work differently, Oletha couldn't summon another Angel Warrior until the current one is dead. She will also have to use her mana to maintain the summoned Angel Warrior or it will fade away.

Because most of Light Mage’s magic spells were focused on healing and protecting allies. That is why they constantly needed protection and having a summoning spell to help them better in defending themselves while focusing on healing allies. The [Summon Angel Warrior] magic spell scaled level with the Light Mage. The stronger the Light Mage is, the stronger Angel Warrior he/she is going to be able to summon. A Two Wings Angel Warrior can be comparable to a ninth-tier warrior while a Sixteen Wings Angel Warrior can go face to face with an Eleventh Stage Saint Warrior (highest stage a Saint Warrior can get). Besides protection and healing spells, Light Magic is the only Elemental Magic that has a [Mana Regeneration] spell. This allowed a Light Mage to outlast their opponents while keeping his/her Angel Warrior alive for a long time or simply re-summon the Angel Warrior if it dies. Conjuration Magic on the other hand prevented the Conjurer Mages from being able to regenerate mana while their conjured creature(s) were still alive.

After the remaining Fire Demon and four Thunder Eagles were killed, Oletha asked, "Hey rookie, do you still have enough mana to conjure any other creature? I will be happy to play with you all day long."

Kain couldn't help but laughed out loud and thought to himself, "I should be the one to say that. My blood pool is large enough to play with ten of you all day long." Kain felt like he was cheating by using the Blood Pendant. At his current level, defeating Oletha would be possible but very hard without using it.

Kain casted [Conjure Skeleton Warrior] a hundred times and one hundred Skeleton Warriors appeared in front of him. Kain commanded fifty Skeletons to keep the Angel Warrior busy while the other fifty sprinted toward Oletha. Oletha knew what Kain was planning. That was why she immediately casted [Circle of Protection] spell because it was great at defending against undead creatures such as Skeleton Warriors.

Oletha also casted [Health Regeneration] spell, to put on an automatic minor healing effect for a two minutes duration on the Angel Warrior just in case Kain has any other trick to kill it. It cost less mana to keep the Angel Warrior alive instead of re-summoning it. Oletha started chanting the [Mana Regeneration] spell and will cast it as soon as it is ready to slowly regenerate her mana for five minutes. She knew Kain could not defeat her but he forced her to use some extra amount of mana that she did not expect to. She was tasked to defeat at least three members of Nosh before she was out. That task was given to Oletha by Professor Peckgray and she couldn't disappoint him. To be able to do that, she must reserve her mana as much as she could, and the [Mana Regeneration] spell can at least help her to slowly recover some of the mana that she had lost in this match.

Oletha was setting her mind at reserving mana while ignoring the possibility of what Kain could really do. Kain activated the [Warp Infusion] spell to switch places with a Skeleton Warrior that was about to attack the [Circle of Protection] that protected Oletha.

Appearing in front of Oletha, Kain casted [Conjure Ice Gargoyle] spell to conjure a blue skin Gargoyle that can use all Novice and Intermediate spells of Ice Magic. Not only that, its right hand was holding a Magical Ice Scythe. A weapon that can cut through Novice-tier defensive magic spell of all Elemental Magic. On the magical power side, the Gargoyle was equally strong compared to a level 20 Ice Mage. On the physical strength side, the Gargoyle was on par with a ninth-tier warrior. On top of that, it had wings to help it fly which made the Gargoyle equally strong compared to a Dragon-kin ninth-tier warrior. Despite being able to use Ice Magic, the Ice Gargoyle isn't immune to any Ice Magic spells.

[Conjure Ice Gargoyle], level 25 Conjuration Magic spell.

[Health Regeneration], level 15 Light Magic spell.

[Mana Regeneration], level 20 Light Magic spell.

[Summon Angel Warrior], level 30 Light Magic spell.

The Ice Gargoyle appeared in front of Kain and immediately casted [Freeze] spell to temporarily freeze Oletha for up to five seconds. This would prevent her from moving or casting any other spell. The Ice Gargoyle cut through [Circle of Protection] in under two seconds and finished Oletha with one scythe swing. The Angel Warrior killed thirty-two Skeleton Warriors before it faded away as Oletha was dead and could no longer use her mana to maintain it.

The entire battle lasted for seven minutes.

On the audience side, Arthur stood up and yelled out loud, "Yes! That is Kain Almos! That is the one that defeated me six years ago! Way to go, Kain!"

Kain heard Arthur cheered out loud for him, he thought to himself, "What the f*ck is wrong with you? You are supposed to be my arch-enemy. Why are you cheering for me?"

No one expected the result of this battle would end like this, including Vincenzo Biersack and Anrod Peckgray. Vincenzo knew Kain was recently advanced into level 25 in Conjuration Magic, but to chanted and casted that many Conjuration Magic spells in seven minutes were a feat not even he, a magic caster who had reached the maximum level of Master Conjuration Magic for more than twenty-four years, could do.