Zillah's and Arianne's fight had been the most intriguing fight for a while. Ever since their fight ended, the other matches just couldn't feel the same way.
It was not that there were no fascinating and talented students, but they were just not on their level, simply enough.
Ray had been quite surprised by Zillah's performance. Most people had focused on his ability to conjure so many shadows, but not Ray. He was more intrigued not only by the presence of Demonic Power, which probably came from that entity that somehow lived inside of him, but also by his weirdly refined control over his shadows.
The element of shadows, true to their nature, was highly mysterious. Knowing now that this was Zillah's affinity, Ray was not as surprised that he was capable of escaping his and Mara's senses.
The shadow element was a vast one, with several concepts attached to it. Its original concepts were simply Light, Darkness and Concealment. With the arrival of humans, more concepts were added. Death, Mystery, Soul, Illusion, Reflection and Shapeless.
Zillah didn't seem aware of the truth of the elements and their concepts, much like how Mara was unaware before. Even so, he had been capable of manipulating several of its concepts throughout the fight.
Using Light and Darkness to generate shadows out of nowhere. Using Concealment and Mystery to totally escape Arianne's senses, except for her Divine Power Vision. And with Illusion he created a fake area to bait her into using a large amount of Divine Power at the center of the huge shadow dome. And Death to deal as much damage as possible in that last attack.
If Arianne wasn't a Saintess that carried a huge favor from the gods, that last attack could have probably harmed her even outside the virtual world, that was how strong the shadow element was.
It was to be expected considering that it was an element born from two of the strongest elements in existence.
Anyway, after their fight, there wasn't really any match that had caught his interest, so he was getting kind of bored.
"Next is participant number 10, Jynn Caster."
"Against participant number 181, Mara Flamma."
'Oh. This is much more interesting.'
"It seems that it's my turn now."
"... Good luck."
Mara widened her eyes before flashing a smug grin.
"Don't worry, I will give my all, so no luck needed."
"..."
Ray was still not sure if she was being humble by going all out on an opponent she doesn't know or arrogant for saying that she doesn't need luck.
Mara calmly walked in the direction of the room she was assigned to and left Ray alone for the first time since the start of the combat test.
During the fights, they, from time to time, shared their opinions on the current match, and although besides the fights from Cù Sith, Tiana, Arianne, and Zillah, none had been that interesting, talking to Mara was not that bad.
'Well, on the bright side, even if she is not here to talk to me, she will give me quite the show in her fight, I'm sure'
«Participants, prepare yourselves. Once the countdown reaches zero, you can start the combat.»
«3»
«2»
The voice prompted Ray to look at the projection of the field of the virtual world in the arena.
Mara was silently looking at a young man named Jynn Caster.
'Isn't that the boy that was smiling after being hit by Stelle?'
Jynn had blond hair in a very flashy hairstyle that left a few strands to loosely hang in front of his face.
«1...»
He was carrying a sword, and although he hadn't drawn it yet, Mara could tell that he was fairly proficient in using it.
«0!!!»
A burst of aura and mana burst forth, reinforcing Jynn's body, and in a flash he was already by Mara's side, swinging his sword at her neck.
But he was met with nothing.
Mara's image dissipated as if it was a mirage.
"Huh, I thought you were a fire mage? What's with you using illusion magic all of a sudden?"
Mara's figure appeared a little far away.
"Your mana and aura are both at the same level as my mana. Although my control is better than yours, I was already expecting your body to be significantly stronger than mine. You must think that I'm an idiot if you thought that even after knowing that I would partake in close combat with you."
"You want to hide in your illusion then?"
"Hiding? Oh no, not at all! I just needed some time to prepare my first strike."
"Prepare?"
Under his feet a red and green magic circle appeared.
'How did she conceal such a magic circle? Was it with illusions as well?'
Before he could formulate even more thoughts, he was engulfed by a chaotic, flaming tornado. This was the result of Mara's element fusion, by using the fire element in conjunction with the wind's concept of movement, she created this erratic and destructive tornado of flames.
However, she didn't let her guard down, and she was smart to do so.
The flaming tornado suddenly exploded in a burst of steam. Using wind magic, she blocked the shockwave and waited for the culprit.
Jynn came out of the explosion with several water snakes coming out of his back, they swayed gently like a calm river. In his face a grin could be seen, it was not his previous smug grin, it was different.
Once again in a burst of mana and aura, he rushed forward with a thrust in her direction. With a simple wave of her hand, several magic circles of metal and fire elemental fusion were formed, shooting metal darts covered in flames.
Jynn slashed at them, attempting to block, just for the darts to liquefy and dodge his blade, hitting him in the face. But it didn't damage him as he covered his face with a half mask made out of water. His grin widened.
He slashed his sword in a wide arc, from bottom to top, creating a huge wave of water that flew in her direction. It was around the size of a small building, two stories high, perhaps.
Mara met his attack with a powerful stream of flames of the same size, aiming to block his attack.
When both attacks met in the middle, another steam explosion occurred, even more powerful than the last.
Amidst the steam, she quickly conjured a magic circle of the steam element between her hands before clapping. Her body dissipated in steam, fusing with the huge cloud of steam in the air.
And it was just in time, as several water snakes, the ones in Jynn's back, flew right through the place she had just been.
'It seems that I will have to force her to go back to a physical body, huh?'
Once again, with his huge mana and aura reserves, he jumped in the air into the space above the cloud of steam.
He outstretched his arm in its direction and formed a simple wind magic circle. It grew brighter and brighter as Jynn channeled more and more mana into the spell.
"Air Bullet!"
The air screamed as it was being torn by the overloaded air bullet. The cloud swiftly dissipated with a shockwave disheveling the ground of the virtual world, leaving several cracks like a cobweb.
Mara had returned to her physical body as she saw Jynn descend with few water platforms. Once he reached the ground, he immediately rushed in her direction, his sword ready.
'The Air Bullet spell is a simple spell that any mage could use, but he overcharged it with so much mana that it resembled more a Tempest Descent than an actual Air Bullet!'
Mara breathed in and out and started chanting while preparing a hidden magic circle in her palm and rushed forward with a burst of wind magic.
They both rushed at great speeds towards each other.
"I thought that you were not stupid enough to confront me in close combat?"
She didn't reply, instead she kept chanting.
And as they both reached an acceptable distance, they both made their move. Jynn slashed at her neck with deadly precision, while she created a sudden explosion with fire magic, successfully jumping over Jynn.
Before landing, she finished chanting and struck at his back with her palm, inscribing him with a magic circle, a golden and blue magic circle.
Jynn found himself losing control over his water snakes that dissolved and wrapped him in a tight full bodysuit of water before igniting with lightning, bringing immense pain.
But it was not over yet.
He laughed, the pain bringing him immense joy. Still walking even though he was covering lightning and being repeatedly electrocuted, he still slashed in Mara's direction, launching at her a moon-shaped projectile of pure aura.
Not knowing what to do, she altered the magic circle in Jynn's body to malfunction and explode.
BOOOOM
«The match has ended!»
«There is no winner, it's a draw!»
***********************************
Who were you hoping would win?
Mara?
or Jynn?