Water vs Lightning?

With Owen's mental state already in shambles, Adrian was promptly announced the victor by the referee. With this, he had cleared his first match.

He took a few deep breaths to readjust his mental state before leaving the fighting platform to return to his seat.

"Congrats!" Elise clapped in encouragement when Adrian returned.

"You little monster! What did you do there?" Sam couldn't help but ask.

Unlike the professors, the magic apprentices present had no way of understanding what just happened in that fight. All they could guess was that Adrian had actually managed to learn a ranged attack spell and defeated Owen cleanly with that.

"It's a secret! You might be my opponent in the finals after all!" Adrian grinned as he put a finger to his lips.

Sam was surprised at that response, but couldn't help but stop asking. Adrian was right after all, who would willingly reveal his trump card to a potential enemy?

"Don't think that it will be enough for you to beat me though!" Sam could only retort weakly.

After a few laughs among them, Adrian closed his eyes and started to meditate once again.

Having personally experienced the power of a Spiritual Aura, Adrian naturally knew that what he did was far from the real deal. The stranger from before was able to completely suppress him in an instant and pin him to the ground with just his aura, but all Adrian managed to do was materialise his aura in bursts, striking at his target as a form of ranged attack.

Even so, he had expended quite a bit of mana in doing so, and desperately needed to replenish as much of it as he could before his next match.

While he rested, the other matches continued to play out with more and more people getting eliminated.

Next up among them was Daemon, who barely managed to scrape a victory against a freshman from Sand Academy. It was a close fight in which either one of them could have won, but at the last second, Daemon's attack landed before his opponent's and secured him the win.

Elise's opponent was a fellow Gryphon Academy freshman just like Adrian's, but Elise's wind magic allowed her to skip around her opponent and slowly wear him down. Her opponent had no way to even get near her throughout the fight. It was a drawn out fight in terms of time taken, but the victor was obvious from the start.

Sam faced off against another Gryphon Academy freshman, but despite how good natured Sam usually was, he was a completely different person on and off the fighting platform.

He went on the offensive the moment the match started, perpetually pushing back his opponent with his flames. There was a moment when the opponent managed to find an opening and counterattack once, but it was only enough to make Sam pause for a second before resuming his offensive.

With his victory, all four of them managed to enter the second round of the ranking tournament.

It was no surprise either. The four of them might not be considered as strong as Kyle, but they were still considered to be the better ones among the freshmen.

And this was largely due to Adrian's influence as well.

With him being so au fait with the theoretical portion, all they had to do was ask him if they encountered any problems with their studies. On top of that, seeing him returning to his room to meditate every day without fail also resulted in some form of subconscious pressure for the other three.

This invisible pressure eventually led to them working harder than they would have otherwise.

Adrian was no genius either, contrary to what the professors were inclined to believe at the moment. His ability to control his spiritual sense was good, but there were many others who were just as good, if not better than him.

However, he did have one big advantage over the others – the Lightning Card.

The Lightning Card in his body increased his magic affinity to the extreme, allowing him to learn and use lightning spells smoothly. This greatly reduced the amount of time that he had to spend practising his spells, and thus allowed him to spend the majority of his time honing his spiritual sense.

This, coupled with his unrivalled diligence, allowed him to successfully achieve what no one else was able to.

Soon, every participant had gotten their chance to stand on stage, but half were regrettably eliminated. These participants were definitely disappointed, but most of them did not expect to do well at the tournament so their moods weren't affected too much, choosing to stay on to continue watching the tournament.

With that, the second round of the matches began.

Adrian's opponent this time was an apprentice from Sand Academy. His opponent had been fighting at the same time as him previously, so he did not have the chance to observe Adrian's attack patterns from the previous fight.

All he heard from his peers was that Adrian managed to use some form of ranged attack to take down his opponent.

Armed with that bit of knowledge, his opponent did not waste a single second as he charged forward, determined to bring the match into close combat.

However, because he was in a rush to close the distance, he neglected to properly guard against any possible counterattacks from Adrian.

Adrian's understanding of his most commonly used spell, Shock Imbue, was considered to be extremely advanced, thanks to his theoretical prowess and lightning affinity.

With a single electrically charged palm strike, Adrian completely paralysed his opponent the moment he closed in on Adrian. After the Sand Academy freshman fell to the ground, he was announced the victor once again.

One hit.

That was all it took for Adrian to take down his opponent as the match ended within seconds.

At this time, all the stronger participants who were aiming for the position of champion were thinking of ways to beat him.

"So he is not all about his ranged attack," Richard pondered out loud.

Richard was one of the two apprentices from Sand Academy who stood up to Krill before Henrik came into the picture. He won his first round as well, and his sight was currently following Adrian as the 10 year old walked back to his seat.

"How is it? Confident of beating him?" his friend Hamlin commented from beside him.

"Would you be confident of beating him if you were me?" Richard let out a helpless sigh.

"Hahaha, too easy!" Hamlin confidently answered, clearly not sharing the same anxiety. "If I were to meet him, I will be sure to beat him to a pulp!"

"You only say that because you are in the other group!" Richard retorted indignantly.

"Well there's still a chance that I meet him in the finals!" Hamlin continued laughing, obviously not caring about how nervous Richard was.

Next, Daemon walked up the fighting arena, staring resolutely at his opponent who was already waiting for him.

He was unlucky with his draw, and now had to face the one known as the strongest of the freshmen within Gryphon Academy – Kyle.

"Please go easy on me," Daemon smiled as he greeted.

"Vice versa," Kyle nodded.

The moment the fight began, the two started to advance slowly towards each other.

"Vine Armour!"

As if his body was the earth itself, thick plant roots started sprouting from under Daemon's skin, completely covering his body from the neck down.

He knew as well as everyone else that Kyle excelled in his physical prowess, and this was his answer to defend against that.

"Vine Spear!"

One of the thick roots extended from the armour covering his right arm, forming into the shape of a long pike.

The moment he got close enough to enter into attack range, Daemon immediately thrust forward with the spear that had completely covered his right hand.

It was worth a shot, but Kyle still dodged it with a side step.

"Haste!"

This time it was Kyle's turn to cast a spell. As can be guessed from its name, Haste was a spell that granted the target with greater physical speed, improving agility in battle.

However, it did not alter a person's reflex and reaction speed. So if the target's mental processing capability could not keep up, then the improved speed would have gone to waste.

Kyle obviously would not have such a problem though, handling the spell buff with ease.

After dodging the thrust from Daemon's spear, Kyle quickly circled around to his back, swinging his arm backwards in a back chop towards Daemon's neck.

But right at this moment, the Vine Armour suddenly grew once again, moving up to completely cover Daemon's neck, blocking the chop from Kyle.

Kyle gave off a frown as he immediately drew back, barely in time to get out of range as Daemon turned around and swung his spear horizontally across.

Daemon's fights had always been like this. He would armour up and stand his ground, while trying his best to strike his opponent with his Vine Spear.

It had gotten him the win in the first round of the ranking tournament as well. However, there was no way that he could hit Kyle with his attack speed.

With his body completely armoured up, Kyle could only strike at Daemon's head. It wasn't easy for him either, since Daemon would quickly use his Vine Armour to temporarily block anywhere that he believed Kyle was going to attack from.

However, he could not just completely cover himself up, for that would mean his mobility and vision would be greatly reduced. By leaving parts of his head exposed, he was still able to at least follow Kyle's movements with his sight.

But Kyle's physical prowess still proved to be too much, especially buffed with the Haste spell.

Hit after hit connected with Daemon's face, while his attacks all swung wildly to hit only air. Finally, Daemon stumbled and fell to one knee.

Panting heavily in exhaustion, Daemon was finally no longer able to sustain the Vine Armour as it dispelled, leaving his body exposed.

Kyle naturally did not move forward to attack him while he was down. He knew that the fight was over the moment the Vine Armour was dispelled.

"You lost," Kyle walked over to Daemon in triumph.

"Yeah, I lost," Daemon was still trying to catch his breath as he replied.

He was disappointed, but losing to the renowned Kyle was nothing to be ashamed of. He could only wish that Kyle go onto become the champion, so he could at least say that he was eliminated early only because he was unfortunate enough to meet the eventual champion of the tournament.

Adrian was watching the match closely, as it involved both his good friend as well as Kyle.

Becoming the champion was his goal after all, and Kyle was certainly one of the strongest obstacles that he had to overcome.

After watching the fight, Adrian inevitably lost a bit of self-confidence. If there was one thing that was his weakness, it was his physical body.

A normal 10 year old's body like his would never be able to match up equally to a well-trained 15 year old's.

His mind kept working as he continued thinking of how he should deal with Kyle if he were to meet him in a match. But he still had some time, so he wasn't too worried. According to the brackets, they would meet in the semi-finals if both of them kept winning, but that was still a few rounds away.

He still had the chance to watch Kyle's other matches while trying to think of a way to beat him.

Thinking that, Adrian's mind calmed down and entered meditation once again.

Other than Daemon, Sam and Elise won their matches in convincing fashions, both against Sand Academy freshmen.

Upon the conclusion of those matches, the third round began.

Once again, Adrian took a deep breath to calm his mental state before heading onto the fighting platform. He didn't have to wait long before Richard from Sand Academy arrived in front of him.

Richard eyed him from head to toe, finally smiling helplessly as he readied himself.

"When I first heard that there is a genius 10 year old kid among Gryphon Academy freshmen, I simply shrugged it off as nonsense. But I guess that was wrong of me. I really should have paid more attention," Richard spoke.

"It's difficult to pay attention to someone whom you have never met, especially when what you heard is just hearsay from other peers. So your actions are completely understandable," Adrian's right hand started to give off electrical charges after he replied.

"However, I did start paying attention after this tournament started. And I had two rounds worth of information. So don't go underestimating me!"

Richard might not be holding high hopes for victory in this round, but that did not mean he would just willingly keel over.

A layer of water formed around both of Richard's hands, quickly realising the shape of spheres with a 30 centimetres radius.

"Flowing Water Bindings!"

"Water?" Adrian was slightly surprised, but he was not worried at all. In fact, he became even more confident upon seeing his opponent's magic.

Can that joker get any dumber? His element was lightning! What could water do against lightning?

Without any hesitation, Adrian struck with his right palm, matching Richard's fist that was covered in water.

But what happened next was completely out of his expectations.

When his palm collided with the ball of water, it was as if he was hitting an extremely viscous liquid. It was as if all the power behind his punch was rapidly sapped away as he made contact with the ball of water.

The momentum from his attack allowed his palm to sink deep into the ball of water, but it was ultimately insufficient to reach Richard's clenched fist within.

His physical capability was still too lacking to break through!

He was slightly irritated, but at this point, Adrian was still able to maintain his calm. He knew that the main crux of his attack was what came next.

"Shock!"

The electric charges shot out from his palm, speeding through the water even faster than through air. This was natural as well, as water had always been a good conductor for electricity.

But little did Adrian know that the ball of water was actually separated from Richard's fist by a thin gap of air. His hand within the ball of water was only used as a guide to move, so it only had to be close enough for Richard to maintain control over the spell.

In preparation against Adrian's lightning class magic, Richard had specially maintained a layer of air between his hands and the water surface even though this meant that he would lose a certain amount of control over the spell.

Of course, by doing this, he also reduced the damage that could be dealt by his own attack. But the trade-off he obtained from that was absolutely essential.

As water was a much better electric conductor than air, the powerful electric charges remained within the ball of water, completely not affecting Richard at all.

While Adrian was still confused as to why Richard was not getting electrocuted, he felt a strong impact strike him in the lower torso.

It was Richard's other fist.

Direct hit!