Chapter 38: Fire, ice, nature, light, lightning and earth.

Let's ignore the space-time duo for a moment and take a look at the number 2, Mia Amethyst.

***

With a raise of her hand, Mia said with a small yawn "Freeze." And the barrage of well over 90 flaming lances froze in their paths. Then, with a flicker of her wrist she pointed at the male who was quite literally bathed – no, bathing - in flames "Return."

All the previously flaming lances vanished and reappeared surrounding the flaming man all around him. "Zach, are you tired yet? cause I am, can we stop? A novel I'm reading released a new chapter today." Mia yelled at the guy - aka zach – while stretching.

Ignoring her request, zach gripped his already gripped hands and closed his eyes. The flames surrounding him became more violent and hotter causing the ground to turn a tad bit red, opening his eyes he looked directly at the attack headed towards him and,….. sighed?.

The flames around him burst upwards in a violent torrent spiraling upwards and outwards from him, melting all the lances. But despite that he flames continued towards one direction, more accurately one person.

Mia, tilting her head and sighing at Zach's decision rose her hand once more towards the coagulating mass of flames headed towards her. As if Mia's surroundings were mimicking her, they too seemingly ignored the heat and the flames as if they weren't hot.

The flames directly in front of her hand, made contact with Mia's index finger. As if time was tampered with, the flames stopped the moment the made contact with her finger and a second later the spot on the flame she was touching burst into ice and crippled it's way throughout all the flames turning all the flames into a huge mass of solid ice.

Removing her finger from the mass of frozen flames, the structure shattered into tiny icicles that created a beautiful sight. Mia seemed to have grown used to such a sight, as shown by her overly neutral face – looked a bit forced in Zach's opinion.

"Zach, I'm done."

"Why did you place second?" zach genuinely as the flames dispersed as he walked forward, "You have outclassed me in strength ever since we were young. For a moment I thought you were an imposter, reason I requested we fight."

"First off, you didn't request for a fight you pulled me into your time chamber and attacked me. And second, you know more than anyone else that I'm not one for attention."

"You do know that being second still garners you attention, at this point most things you do will put you in the spotlight."

"I know and that's partially thanks to you. That aside, being second at least gives me more breathing space. You though, can suffocate in first 'Mr. king of the first years' he who won first with an overwhelming spectacle that left even Miss Alyona stunned. Well slightly but still." Mia ranted on and heavily exclaimed on the extra rep Zach sowed.

Zach, growing tired of his best friend's endless ranting knew how to shut her up, "Don't you have a new chapter to read?." Mia knew what he was trying but she really wanted to read her book's new chapter.

She was willing to leave if only it weren't for Zach's smug smirk. Holding in her urge to freeze it, she smiled and crossed her hands behind her head as she walked away "I can wait. Didn't you want to continue? I believe our growth is more important."

That, coming from her, stunned Zach. 'You? The lazy, procrastinating and ever-sleeping princess wants to train? WILLINGLY?' Zach's silence was enough for Mia, despite her inability to see his face the thought of it put a wide smile on her beautiful face.

Snapping out if it, zach got an idea that put a sadistic grin on his face. "Ok hat's actually a great idea, let's train. And since you seem so willing let's do this for the entire day, you know, inside the time chamber." Zach slowly 'suggested' and with each word Mia's smile turned into a scowl.

Zach need not look at her face to even guess her expression, her aura did more than enough for him. 'The tables have turned little one.' Zach happily recited in his head.

***

Someone fast or someone strong, who would win?. Let's answer that with these three.

***

"Like I need to catch you two." The rank number 3, Julius Ozias spoke to seemingly no one. Clapping his big muscular hands together, Julius stood like a monk for a moment with his eyes close patiently. There was only the sound of wind and trees in the vast forest.

Julius was in one of the many training grounds Ignatius had to offer, usually they consist of plain lands, but different terrains are granted to the top 10 students but despite this the forest he is current in is the work of rank 11 student Amelia Fern.

"I really can't see or sense those two, are they even moving? And this is my dam forest." On top of one of the trees close to Julius, Amelia grumbled in anger or confusion – one of the two, I don't know. As a nature user and the creator of this forest she shares senses with it, normally she would be aware of everything inside it and one of the benefits of hers, is that despite the size of the forest, her senses won't be overwhelmed just takes more mana.

But for some unsurprising reason she couldn't sense the Julius's opponent's. yes folks it isn't a 2 on 2, it's a 2 on 1. Amelia was just here because she saw the rank 3, rank 12 and rank 13 at the reception of the training grounds. Despite the gap in ranking the fact that the rank 12 and 13 requested a duel with Julius was something to watch, after all those two hold the title 'the fastest' among the first years.

Their speed was show cased during the ranking process, and to call them fast was somewhat an understatement. The rank 1, 2 and 3 all admitted that they couldn't keep up with either of the two and they weren't at their full speed, so they said.

'So this is their fastest speed that they were talking about. These two are to be monitored.' Amelia silently thought in astonishment.

Halting her thoughts was the sound of lightning crackling, focusing all her attention on the direction she heard the sound, she hoped to catch a glimpse of Abner. But sadly all she saw were a few streaks of lightning, what she guessed the signal that he already passed by.

Julius in the other hand, with eye's still closed, crisscrossed his hands. His left hand was holding a fist aimed towards his right temple and his right hand was clutching tightly to a fist aimed to his left ribcage.

The two owners of the fists were finally caught, rank 12 - Abner Kijo a lightning user and the rank 13 - Vincent Cecil a light user. With Abner's electric body stunning him and Vincent's fist burning him. Julius wasn't fazed in any way to the effects of their elements. With a smile in his kind face Julius gave congratulated the two, "I'm happy for guys, I commend you on landing 10 hits on me. But I think I'm done now."

Tightly gripping his hands, Julius pulled in both his hands. Expecting the feeling of squeezing bones and flesh as well as the sound of bones cracking, Julius was greeted with the sound of a rock getting crashed and the feeling of hot sand in his right hand and the sound of, metal? Under pressure.

'An illusion, no illusions created by Vincent and made realistic by use of their elements. I get the hot stone but where did Abner get metal from? He never had that.' Julius thought in astonishment.

Surprised, Julius let go and jumped as back as fast and as high as he could in that moment but how could an earth user out speed lightning and light users?. Like phantoms, Abner and Vincent appeared right in front of Julius mid-air with both of their fists pulled back and their bodies coated excessively in their respective elements, a testament to their true bodies.

Like a flash both their fists vanished from Julius's sight. Curling in and raising his hands to block Julius, no it's more accurate to say, 'he tried to block', the moment he tried raising his hands both their fists had already made contact with him.

A burning sensation enveloped Julius's chest that spiked up in temperature, followed by the sensation of electricity coursing thought out his body that too spiked up in volts. The electricity annoyed him the most, causing him to uncontrollably spasm, all his muscles contracted or relaxed against his will causing his incomplete guard to completely fall.

Abner and Vincent didn't skip 'beating up a guy 101'. In that very moment Abner landed a total of 4 more punches, pumping all his mana in each causing Julius to have even less control with each successful hit while Vincent landed a total of 3 more punches, searing Julius's body.