Chapter 22-Reunion

Itachi flew towards the grand arena where he knew the national team was practicing at. It was no surprise that there was so much hype over the national competition due to the rewards. The major powers are the five continent magic associations: Liberty tower of the US, The Christo Fortress in Brazil, The void temple of St Kay Australia, The Dubai tower in Dubai and St peters temple in Britain, in addition to the World Hunter league and the Parthenon.

While China already had picked most of their national team, the US had yet to do anything although they were mostly likely currently scouting out the best candidates. A team should have 25 students and they have to test and sort out their team by the end of the National qualifiers.

After that, the team is split into two sides. A weaker half that stays home and defends from other teams, and the representative team that goes around collecting badges by beating other defense teams in their homeland.

The top 32 teams around the world will then travel to Venice where they will compete in a tournament. First they fight 5 on 5 matches to bring it down to 16 teams. Then the rest of the team is sent to the treasure dimension which contains many resources, but it contains monsters too guarding them.

The rest of the tournament would proceed with the top three getting amazing awards that were yet to be disclosed.

Itachi swooped down passing the arena in Shanghai where the team was currently practicing. He flew into his seat deciding to watch for a bit. Sure enough over 20 students were practicing their magic in this large arena. They were all very powerful with most being high tier or a few at the very peak of mid tier which was an insane level for their age. They were practicing how to better work together since most of the fights would be team fights.

Currently, they were working in groups of four practicing defense, support, and attacking while Dean Song He the appointed leader of the Chinese national team supervised while Feng Li helped.

Itachi looked on annoyed as some annoying pest kept bothering Mu Ning Xue who was clearly ignoring him. Maybe I should have a preliminary match Itachi thought mischievously. He didn't really care too much if people figured out his identity since he would leave soon anyway, but he still wouldn't give it away easily since it would be difficult for people to recognize him.

Leaping out into the arena, he did a double backflip before gracefully landing. Looking up he noticed the flash of recognition in Mu Ning Xues eyes while no one else seemed to recognize him besides Dean Song He who seemed shocked for a moment, but considering how he did not like the Holy Court, Itachi was pretty safe.

Winking at Xue'er in a clear voice he spoke "I happened to be visiting and I heard the Chinese national team was here. I will most likely be competing for the American team and I came to see what the competitions like"

Guan Yu who had previously been hitting on Xue'er immediately spoke up with a sneer "You look of Asian descent yourself yet you are competing for the American team? You must have been too weak to make here to you ran away" he said mockingly already annoyed some guy would come interrupt their training.

"Perfect, I would assume you are volunteering to be the first opponent?" Itachi said smirking at this free excuse to beat him up

"Hmmph I guess I could use a light spar" he said before signaling for Feng Li to referee the match.

Starting off the match he immediately sent out a mid tier level 4 tornado towards Itachi expecting it to be an easy win. He was shocked however when his entire tornado that shook the magically enhanced arena was sucked into a red vortex before landing in Itachi's hand as a highly condensed ball of air.

Immediately the entire class reacted in shock as they stared at this. This was the chaos element one of the rarest elements in the world next to space. It was said that if it was strong enough any attack would be deflected or sent back making the users defense impenetrable.

Immediately Itachi sent it back more powerful while the opponent hastily threw up earth shields to block his own attack as wind blades ruthlessly slashed down threatening to cut him apart. The barrier was penetrated and the opponent was forced to use a light shield magic tool before the attack was finally blocked.

Panting heavily Guan Yu gazed at his opponent who had sent one of his strongest attacks back without any effort. Using one chaos attack to force out one of his lifesaving tools, this guy was not going to be easy. Gritting his teeth he shouted "Try to deflect this!" as he immediately casted high tier earth magic petrification attempting to petrify Itachi with the brown glow that spreads from his eyes creeping towards Itachi while the ground below turned to stone. Indeed this had been a smart move since it is not able to be sent back by chaos but for high tier magic it moved quite slow which was one of the drawbacks of it. Immediately, Itachi activated wind track shooting past the destructive yet slow magic as he shot towards the panicking student.

The student tried to create distance with another wind tornado but it was countered once again by a the chaos element as Itachi sent a vicious kick that went straight through his hastily thrown up earth wall sending him crashing to the ground with chunks of rocks flying everywhere.

Immediately Nan Rong No the team healer ran forward to heal Guan Yu who luckily did not get injured too badly as he was only heavily bruised.

Although Itachi wouldn't care even if he killed him, he decided to be lenient since if would be bothersome to deal with all the trouble. Hoping to find a good match Itachi immediately tainted them.

"Only a recently awakened high tier mage who hasn't awakened his third element? Please send someone more skilled" he said with a challenging look on his face that annoyed the other members of the team.

Walking forward was Xue'er with a frown on her face obviously angry at something "I believe we never finished that rematch last time for certain reasons. How about we truly fight now"

"You have a point it has beeen while" he said with a little bit of sadness in his tone at how long they had been seperated.

Returning that sentence with a glare she looked at him angrily "and whose fault is that?"

She immediately summoned out a strong ranked commander beast the Frost Cerberus a powerful beast with three heads and icy breath.

"You didn't even bother visiting, you just left messages. Do you know how I felt" she angrily said to him while they stood a couple meters apart from each other.

Immediately she commanded it to attack as Itachi jumped around dodging its three heads as it snapped at him. He didn't attack as he just dodged with wind track.

"You were probably having fun on your little adventure going around with other women, while you left me hanging." She said tears streaming down her cheeks as she threw a powerful ice coffin high tier spell towards Itachi who immediatly countered with his high tier fire magic minus the spirit seed so he wouldn't be recognized.

Immediately the two attacks collided filling the entire arena with steam as the magic barriers in place struggled to hold the power behind the attacks which completely blocked the view of the spectators.

"Xue'er, I'm sorry" he said moving the mist aside around then with a spatial barrier. Walking up the white haired beauty he immediately wrapped her up in a hug sending his warm energy to soothe her. "I'll make it up to you I promise" He said as she struggled for a bit before finally giving up as she leaned against his chest drying off her face with his sleeves.

"You better not do something like that again you asshole" she said threateningly hitting his chest with her bundled up fists cutely without any force. After seeing him disappear into the wilderness she didn't know what to think. Sure he was being chased by many super tier magicians, but he didn't even visit her to tell her goodbye. She knew he was just doing it to protect her since she had noticed she had been being watched a few times most likely for the holy court. She had quickly been informed by Ling Ling so she knew why he couldn't expose his identity, but she truly loved him and knowing he was in constant danger tore at her heart.

Over the past year she had cultivated intensely hoping to catch up enough to help him with his struggles yet it didn't seem to be enough. Despite the fact her Ice and Wind were near the peak of high tier, she still seemed to have no ability to help him. After all, what would a few high tier elements do against their adversaries?

She made a huge breakthrough in strength with the summon element. While she was pushing herself deep past the safe zones she had come across the child Frost Cerberus who she had managed to convince to become her contract summon.

Soon she had grown it into the maturing stage as it had reached a shocking strong commander rank.

In a few more years with the benefit of her summon energy and resources she out into it, it would likely reach the monarch rank which was an elite strength throughout the world.

She also had her ice bow which could rival super tier magic, but it never seemed to be enough.

As if he could sense her discomfort Itachi pulled her close again "I am strong enough to protect myself you don't need to worry about me." Cupping her cheek he gently kissed her lips feeling the softness he had missed for over a year.

Suddenly she slipped her warm tongue into his mouth as they began battling with their tongues for dominance. After a few moments they broke away with their faces red remembering where they were. Sighing a bit Xue'er turned to him "I know you want to conceal your identity, but you better come wait for me"

Itachi agreed before he sent out a powerful gist of wind clearing up the field as the others gazed towards the two wondering what had happened.

Both of them looked completely fine although a little red. Tired maybe? It seemed it had been a tough match, but they realized their team member had lost when recalled her summon before forfeiting the match. This shocked them all as she was probably just as strong as their captain who was a rare space element user.

At the start, they had seemed to recognize each other, but the magic barrier blocked out the most of the sound so they would have to ask her about that later.

"I guess it would be my turn then" said a tan skinned athletic looking guy who was the captain of the team.

"So you must be Ai Jiang Tu. The young space mags labeled as the strongest in China. It's a pleasure to meet you" Itachi said cordially quite excited to see what tricks the opponent would use with his space element.

Standing across from each other, Ai Jiang Tu immediately tried to throw his opponent with telekinesis, but he discovered it was like trying to move a mountain as Itachi only took a single step. "Not bad, it actually made me move a step" Itachi said genuinely complimenting him. After all, his physique could be comparable to a monarch so to actually affect him with telekinesis was quite the feat.

Thinking he was mocking him he grew angered at how easily he fended of his telekinesis. He immediately threw a few curse attacks over that would directly attack his soul which looked like fast moving gray clouds that shot towards Itachi.

Immediately Itachi threw a couple novice lightning bolts, but reacting quickly he used telekinesis to control steel plates beside the arena to finally stop them. Deciding to get a little serious he casting a powerful thunder strike with his heaven seed that blasted towards him ripping up the ground in the process. As he expected, the mage teleported away to avoid the destructive blow immediately sending many rocks and other things flying towards Itachi with his telekinesis.

What a waste of space element Itachi thought easily deflecting all the rocks since they were not much of a threat. He continued trying to caste curse magic, but Itachi dodges everything with a frightening speed.

Tired of Itachi freely moving around, he immediately casted high tier curse magic that locked onto Itachi leaving him completely unable to dodge. The web of gray curse magic spread around Itachi as it closed in from all sides ready to attack his soul. Before it could close in however, Itachi's enhanced wind wings spread from his back before shooting him out of the trap easily as he circled around the space mage sending many lightning strikes that he struggled to defend from.

He tried casting lightning back, but it was weak only around mid tier with only a low class spiritual seed boosting it. Ai Jiang quickly noticed his gravity magic didn't seem to affect his opponent at all.

Itachi sent a powerful high tier bolt that shot towards the mage as the magic barriers started to crack from the strain of protecting from the magic. Sensing the terrifying attack that scorched the ground he immediately teleported although his space element was quickly depleting.

Itachi finally decided to end it as he sent a powerful chaos slash towards the reappearing Ai Jiang Tu which cut through space itself. Even if he had time he would be unable to teleport again as the chaos blade locked onto his aura.

Ai Jiang Tu immediately felt his blood turn cold at the power of the chaos element. Immediately he a flash of water appeared from a bracelet around his neck that stood in front of the powerful blade struggling to block it.

Breaking through, it prepared to slash on his neck as the Dean immediately jumped out of his seat to save his student but there wasn't enough time. Ai Jiang Tu desperately threw his arms up but before it hit, the entire blade was dispelled by Itachi who's mental control was so strong even a powerful attack such as that can be stopped without too much difficulty.

Many of the nearby team members looked on angrily. They had been training to hard for the competitions, yet one guy defeated the two strongest members of their team.

Stepping forward Dean Song He looked at Itachi surprised "such a talented mage at a young age competing for America. What is your name? I dont think I have seen you before."

"You can call be Itachi" he said using his past life name that he used while in America. "Japanese?" He asked a little surprised

"Something similar he replied being a little vague. Well I'll see you around it was nice meeting you all" he said before walking out the exit of the arena waiting behind for their practice to end.

Sure enough a few minutes later, most of them walked back towards the dorm they were staying at Mu Ning Xue was the last one to walk out. Waiting a second the others to clear, he soon jumped down from the roof landing in front of her eliciting a surprised Yelp that Itachi found very cute.

Smiling at her he looked back towards the doorway "You can come out, I trust you won't reveal my identity" he said before Dean of the imperial university Song He stepped out starring at him wistfully "it has been over a year hasn't it?"

"Yes a year passed by so fast since that training mission" he said remembering what they had done in the past.

"I trust you have been doing well? Don't worry I won't inform the holy court since I hate the way they do things. Trying to eliminate you just because they are scared of the power you wield. It's truly foolish. They are the reason humanity's advancement has slowed and they even banned the new research on combining elements which had the potential to open up a whole new field of magic."

Itachi had tried combining element and it was extremely difficult. You had to make sure they did not interfere with each other wearing both. His control would have to be at an almost impossible level to bring it to the level where it increased the power through the combination.

Saying goodbye to the dean, he walked away while holding Xue'ers hand. He glanced at her with a mischievous smile on his face "It's been so long since I've seen you, maybe I should show you how much I really appreciate you"

"Hmmph I would like to see what you will do to make up with me" she said turning away arrogantly with her arms crossed.

"This!" He shouted picking her up princess style as she immediately began protesting while her face turned red at him doing this in public. Leaning over he brushed his lips over her ears causing a tingling sensation in her spine "I haven't seen you in a long time.

Let's go somewhere more private" he said in a huskily as Xue'er faintly nodded embarrassed as Itachi flew off to find a nice place to 'chat'