Combat Arena

Clifford got into the vehicle together with Dora and the chauffer drove them around the city.

"You can't just beat anybody up here in Sun City." Said Dora.

"He deserved some beating, I don't regret teaching him some lessons." Clifford replied why he kept looking around the nice views of the city.

"You beat up the son of the vice chancellor, aren't you worried of the consequences?" Dora asked.

Clifford thought about it, he planned to keep a low profile because of the responsibilities and the mission on his shoulder but it seemed like trouble always come for him. He had to avoid issues like this and he couldn't allow anyone to bully or cheat him because he wasn't strong enough. He had to get strong very quickly.

Dora looked at him and thought he was worried of the consequences, she smiled lightly and said. "You don't have to worry much, the vice chancellor is a reasonable and nice man, but you have to be careful of others that hold high positions in this city."

"Hmmmm!" Clifford just nodded, he wasn't scared of the consequences at all. He just kept thinking of Dora, why she kept giving him nice treatment. Other than his handsome look, he dressed ordinary and doesn't give off the aura of a strong or talented mage. "Could she be attracted by my handsome look?" Clifford thought with a smirk hung on his face?

"What's with the smirk?" Dora asked when she noticed the expression on his face.

"It's nothing." Clifford said hurriedly while putting on a stern expression. He felt quite embarrassed.

They rode around the city for about an hour before Clifford returned to his suite at the hotel. It was late in the evening when he got back. He had a quick bath and ate some cheese before he started to cultivate. He cultivated till dawn of the next day before he got up to stretch his body. Cultivation doesn't take a toll on the body, the body rests while one cultivates. He didn't achieve much despite cultivating with the bracelet for quite sometime. Clifford knew he had to cultivate harder in order to achieve a breakthrough into the intermediate rank. He needed to duel with other mages to improve his control over his mana, he would also grab more combat experiences and this would boost a major boost for his breakthrough.

He sat down on the chair facing the window while looking at the busy and bustling city, a lot of thoughts going on in his mind. After some time, he slept off and then woke up at noon. He dressed up and left for the academy's combat arena to practice.

When he got to the academy, he couldn't find his way to the combat arena as he wasn't familiar with the academy yet. He asked for directions and later got to the arena.

The combat arena looked like a normal arena from the outside but Clifford was amazed by the large expanse of space in it.

"It doesn't look this large from the outside, must've been some kind of space element sorcery." Clifford thought aloud.

The arena's combat field is almost the size of 5 football pitches and it also had seats that could hold massive amount of spectators.

There are also special rooms for special trainings at the arena.

He saw a few young men dueling in pairs at one end of the arena, he decided to go have a look at them.

When he got there, he sat on a seat while he watched them duel.

The young men were in white outfits with a red belt worn around their waist while they had badges of different colors on their chest, it seemed to be like some sort of uniform .He noticed a middle aged man among them. The man turned out to be their master, he was teaching and instructing them.

A particular young man caught the attention of Clifford among them, he was tall, dark skinned and had a stern expression. He seemed to be the strongest of the men. He was undefeated in all the duels he has had so far. Clifford kept observing him while the intent to battle the dark skinned man grew inside of him. After sometime, he couldn't resist it anymore, he left his seat and walked up to the group.

"Hello guys!" Clifford shouted to disrupt them. They looked at him but none of them replied. They had displeased expressions on their face, Clifford had just disrupted their duels.

The master walked up to Clifford with a very stern expression, he wore complete black outfit with a red bet and beret. He had a hairy body and scars on his face which gave off a fierce expression.

"What is it you want?" He said sternly.

"Errrrmmm!! I've come to duel with your students, I want to challenge the strongest of them." Clifford said loudly and brazenly.

The students overhead Clifford and they busted in to laughter.

The master raised up his palm and the students stopped laughing immediately.

He had no choice but to allow Clifford to duel with one of them, it was in the rules of the school, one cannot reject a duel proposal.

"Finn!" The master called in a deep voice.

"Yes master?" One of the young with a blue badge answered. He appeared to be in the second stage of the basic rank.

"Prepare to duel with him." The master said to Finn while he pointed at Clifford.

Finn nodded with a wicked grin, he had been dueling the dark skinned man for quite some time but he kept loosing. The dark skinned man was too strong for him. Now he can vent his frustrations on Clifford.

"I only want to battle the strongest." Clifford said confidently while he pointed at the dark skinned man. This displeased Finn a lot.

"You look weak and pathetic, I bet you can't even beat the weakest of us." Finn said mockingly.

"You can duel with him if you win against Finn." The master said. He couldn't detect any strong magical aura from Clifford, he only noticed he had an aura of confidence around him and this could only come from mages who are sure of their capabilities. He decided to test Clifford with Finn to see how it would be.

"Hmmmm." Clifford nodded and got in to the dueling ring together with Finn. They stood fifty metres from each other. The others looked at Clifford while shaking their heads in pity for him. Finn was known to be very brutal in duels and Clifford appeared to be a weak bluffer.

"Ready?" The master asked them both and they responded with a nod.

"Fight!!" He declared the start of the duel. Immediately, Finn summoned water discs to his palms and threw them at Clifford, the water discs made whistling noises as they made their way to Clifford at a crazy speed. Clifford just stood there with his hands clasped behind him. The others looked at Clifford as if he was retarded, he didn't even made any attempt to dodge the incoming attack. Finn had a big mocking smile on his face, he was about to enjoy the doom of Clifford.

Surprisingly, before the water discs could hit Clifford. He sank into the shadow behind him. Shocked expressions appeared on the face of Finn and the other young men, even their master was surprised. It's so rare to find a shadow mage, and they are always hard and tricky to deal with. Finn's smile froze on his face, he immediately knew it was going to be tough to fight Clifford. He quickly changed his expression to a serious one and tried to find which of the shadow Clifford was hiding in.

Before Finn could made any other move, Clifford appeared right on front of him with his right fist coming right at Finn's face. Finn was scared but he was skillful, he had rich combat experience. He quickly summoned a water barrier to stop or at least slow down the powerful fist of Clifford.

"So this is your move?" Finn thought with a smile on his face but he was shocked when Clifford's fist broke the barrier and landed right on his face, the impact threw him off the ring along with a few pieces of tooth. The master wasn't too shocked by the result but the students were completely shocked. Clifford was certainly no pushover.

Finn stood up with a furious expression, blood smeared all over his face he tried to say a few words but his face was contorted with pain. He couldn't believe he had lost so quickly to Clifford.