Grey Hollard: The Earth User

Arthur fixed his torso as he prepared himself for combat. His green eyes were gleaming a jade color as he fueled his sword with mana. He then coated it with wind, making it even lighter than before to make his swings and movements swifter during combat.

The armored boy laughed at his confidence through his helmet.

"So, you choose to be crushed. Pathetic!"

"Don't underestimate me," Arthur warned, waiting for his enemy to strike first.

"ARRRHHHHH!!!!!"

The armored boy screamed and lunged at Arthur. With each step he made, the ground rumbled as if a miniature earthquake was happening in real-time. And then, he manipulated the earth to rise and created a wall behind his opponent while he attacked.

Surprised, Arthur braced forward, using his wind magic as a boost to jump over the armored boy and land behind him. He then made a few slashes with his sword from behind—but it was useless. Even with a blade enhanced with wind magic, he still couldn't cut through his opponent's armor.

'Earth magic is a bigger pain than I thought.'

The boy turned around:

"You don't get it, do you...? This Academy is no place for the weak!" he laughed, squeezed his rock hands into a fist, and hurled it at Arthur with half his strength. Surely something this powerful would take him down.

"Shit!"

Out of instinct, Arthur put his sword forward to protect himself, but the impact from the collision created an earth-shattering shock wave that threw both students about ten meters away from each other.

'Urgh…'

It took a moment, but they both stood up, wondering what had just happened—overwhelmed by the confusion.

Arthur picked up his sword, its blade glowing again with runes that he couldn't translate. He had tapped into its original abilities.

"What have you just done?" he whispered, amused by the sword's unexplored powers. Claudia mentioned that as he grew stronger, the sword will keep on revealing its true powers bit by bit to him until he was worthy of wielding all of its abilities.

"…w—what just happened…?" asked the boy from within his armor. He sounded unnerved by the shock wave.

"D—Did you use sound magic…?" he groaned as he tried to recover his balance.

Arthur studied his armor again and noticed small cracks shooting from the core. Then he realized something: a normal shock wave could have left the armor unscratched, but since his sword wasn't a normal magic sword, the shock wave created by it must have been stronger than a normal one—strong enough to damage a titan armor.

'I see.'

He sneered.

"The weakest part of your armor is the core, right?"

"Huh…how did you know that?!"

Arthur pointed at the cracks growing from the center of his armor.

"If your armor is impenetrable as said in the books, the shock wave should have done almost no damage to the armor. But since you're still a teenager, you've been using so much mana to move its weight and keep up its toughness that you forgot about keeping your weakest part hardened. You're not so experienced with it, are ya?"

He grinned once he sensed hesitation coming from the boy's presence.

"Wow…they weren't kidding when they said you're one of the smart ones. Let's end this."

With that, he drew a litherium greatsword from the earth and pointed it at Arthur.

"I will not let you pass, no matter what."

He charged. Arthur prepared himself and—

SLASH*

Their swords clashed with force. Of course the boy was stronger, but Arthur was faster in this case.

He pulled back, stepped to the right side of his opponent, and prepared for his next move— it was risky, but he was planning to thrust his sword through the core and end this fight quickly.

He was about to destroy the core when the ground rumbled, and spikes popped from the ground, forcing him to jump away once he sensed a huge deal of magical energy coming from the earth.

'I need to get him out of that armor.'

"Nice trick."

Arthur commented as he surrounded himself with wind magic. If he focused long enough, he was able to use his mana to control the wind. Although, it was hard since fire was his strongest element for now.

"Thanks…"

The boy responded as he got into a combat position.

"I saved for the best for last--this battle is getting even more entertaining."

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Professor Glory was on top of her bird as she watched the entire game through its eyes. Being her bond, she shared the beast's eyesight—she could see clearly despite being high in the sky.

So far, the game was going well, and the students were doing their best to avoid her planned punishment. But then, she sensed a crack in her barrier. To Glory, it felt like an electric shock. Who could've cracked her barrier?

"Gerald, take me to the east wing of the barrier. Someone has just released an alarming amount of magical energy."

The bird screeched at her command and fretted its majestic wings, flying them to the east wing of the barrier. Once they got there, she couldn't believe what she saw.

"These two…"

Arthur and Grey were going all out with their magic as they engaged in combat. The magical energy the two were producing was so powerful that it cracked the barrier she had made.

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Grey gasped in some air as he faced Arthur.

He had never thought the day would come when someone could actually give him a hard time during a fight. He was looking forward to battle with Theo—but it seemed Arthur had filled that hole in his chest.

From what he had seen, Arthur was fast enough to make his mediocre swordsmanship lethal. He was also capable of exploiting his mana effectively; it was amusing that he had managed to last this long with his little mana. It was no secret that Arthur was weaker than almost everyone in this Academy, but if that were true, this fight was supposed to end at the start.

'This first-year…he's making my blood boil with excitement.'

Coming from the Hollard family of earth magic users, Grey was raised to become a prodigy just like his father. Until now, he had been nothing but the perfect magic user he's family had always wanted to be. He had forgotten the fun of magic.

'Thank you, Arthur. I now see why he chose you, I shouldn't take you for granted.'

He thought, seeing the fire in the boy's green eyes.

Then, he undid the armor surrounding his body. It all crumbled down and he revealed himself to Arthur's eyes; he was in the same jet-black uniform as Theo. Then released his bloodlust and everyone in the area including Professor Glory felt it as he slowly walked towards Arthur with nothing in his hands.

"That's right, I am not going to hold back anymore."