Victor and the others were still in the lands of Baronet Sungrave, Vans did not know what to do, he was not weak compared to average humans, perhaps his strength was equal to that of two mages, but he was inexperienced in battle, even having once been an S rank adventurer, he had never fought, he served as support and only helped with potions and some basic magic such as healing and wind. He did not use healing magic at the same level as Niko or Eris, but he could heal a wound or two, although he preferred to use potions, as they were more effective.
As for defending himself, he was good at that, since he could create barriers and avoid strong attacks, but even so the barrier he created was far inferior to the one Victor created, in other words, he was at a disadvantage, in a fight he would certainly lose. And in this combat he could be seriously injured and even die, that was the punishment chosen for him.
Duke Carmine, his family, and Sandra were in a VIP room, in the room next to them were the King, the Queen, the three princes, the Princess, and Duke Ambrose along with some guards, they were seated in an area slightly higher than the one where Duke Carmine was. This separation showed the power and influence they had. There was also a third VIP area beside the King's area, in that area were some generals, two mages, and a man who seemed to be from the Church.
There were still a few thousand people watching the competition from the other parts of the arena.
Vans was on a platform in the middle of the arena, he was a little afraid, but he did not show it, he did not want to worry Sandra, who was nervous and had asked many times for him to give up, but he explained to her that he could not. But he told her his plan, it was to use defensive magic to protect himself and pretend that he had taken heavy damage and leave the competition as soon as possible.
"On the right side we have the E rank adventurer and alchemist from Duke Carmine's house," the judge said.
Now Vans could not follow through with the plan, since that could somehow tarnish Duke Carmine's image and Victor would hate that. Vans decided to take the fight seriously, even without knowing how.
"On the left side we have Sulivan Von Anderson, son of Marquis Anderson, who comes from a long lineage of court mages."
Vans felt as if he were going to die, fighting a mage was difficult, fighting a mage from a lineage of court mages was the same as suicide. But he had a plan, defend himself and let the enemy's mana run out, then he could use basic wind or fire attacks. He could use the wind, fire, light, and water elements, but he had only developed light magic to enhance potions. Potion creation does not use elemental magic, only mana, however, he discovered that using light magic instead of pure mana was more effective and over time he managed to raise his light magic to a very high level that, if used in combat, could match Victor or Niko, even with Niko having almost limitless mana, they could still fight on equal footing, but he had never taken combat seriously and Victor preferred to take advantage of his work as an alchemist and never forced him to fight.
The judge started the fight, Vans raised an invisible barrier, he began thinking about how he could use magic in combat, he remembered a time when he saw Victor training with Valorie, she used a firearm that fired mana bullets, she could use pure mana or mana imbued with some element.
The mage attacked with several spells, but they were ineffective against Vans's barrier. He did not notice, but Marquis Anderson and Duke Ambrose were feeling anger, since the attacks were strong enough to leave marks on the ground, but not strong enough to break the barrier of an alchemist.
Vans visualized a light pistol and created a pistol that floated in the air, the pistol was outside the barrier, he fired a single shot and one of the mage's arms fell to the ground, then he fired a second shot and the right leg exploded. The mage fell to the ground, coughing up blood and unable to get up.
The judge declared Vans the winner.
"How did I win this so easily? Maybe I overestimated this mage," Vans thought.
No one celebrated, the nobles in the arena were angry, Marquis Anderson was ashamed that his son had lost so easily and in such a disgraceful way.
Vans looked at the mage on the ground, he took a potion bottle from his item bag as he approached the mage, he placed it in the fallen man's mouth while some mages entered the arena to heal the weak mage, but it was useless, the potion caused the mage's arm and leg to regrow.
The King stood up, he wanted to see the effect of the potion more closely. Not only the King, others stood as well, since potions like that were rare and only very wealthy people used them. But in the tower they used them as if they were water, in every training session it was common for at least ten of these potions to be used per person, since they were the simplest ones that Vans's assistants produced in mass for training, the ones they used in combat involved more complex processes, but even so they were produced in large quantities.
The potion used was approximately 92 percent pure, the potions used in combat were 95 percent, there were also the potions that only Vans could produce, they were 99 percent pure, but they could only be produced with special herbs that Vans cultivated in a room on the second floor. Only some generals and Victor had access to those potions, since they were produced on a smaller scale.
People stared at him in silence, Vans went to the Duke's room and sat in a chair, he had permission to enter.
"You are incredible, I did not know you were so skilled with light magic and so strong," the Duke said, laughing loudly so the Marquis could hear.
"Actually, I am not good at fighting, I just remembered someone and created that spell, I do not even know if I really created it, it just came to mind at the moment."
"Wait, wait, you can create spells so quickly?"
"It is not exactly like that, the way I use light magic allows me to create shapes, for example this sphere of light, I can shape it into whatever I want," he said while turning the sphere into the shape of a cat. "I remembered a companion who uses firearms, that is all."
The Duke tried to understand, but he pretended that he fully understood the explanation.
"Even so, you are very skilled, Vans," Sandra said with a smile.
The two mages in the next match did not have a proper fight, they seemed inexperienced in real combat, the fundamentals of magic seemed very well developed, but they appeared frightened and even restrained in their attacks. The winner was a tall mage who used dark magic.
"They seemed slow," Eleonor Carmine said.
"They know the fundamentals well, that is clear from the way they cast their magic and they have a decent sense of their own strength, but they lack combat experience, that is why they hesitate and delay their attacks, that is hesitation," Vans explained.
In the room next door the Prince was angry, Duke Ambrose as well, they were certain that Vans was weak. They sent two men to follow Vans to gather information, one of them used an appraisal ability similar to the one Vans uses with his glasses, but this one measures mana and strength. What they did not know was that Vans hid his total mana, not only him, all five of them used an artifact to conceal the fact that they were demons and the real amount of mana and strength each of them had. To the evaluator Vans was just an alchemist who could barely use his own mana to produce potions.
Victor was storing the rest of the harvest in an item bag, they had already finished all the work, but he wanted to continue for two more full harvests, this harvest would be delivered to the demons. He did not reveal the details to the workers, they only received a few coins for the service, the Baronet considered that part of the job, besides, he was very detached from all the work, he only stayed in the mansion and let Victor and the others handle everything. He really was incompetent.
With the harvests in the item bag they returned to the Capital, Victor could not hold back and started laughing, Niko as well. Both of them laughed at the trouble Vans had caused, they were not angry, just surprised at how Vans managed to accomplish such things.
Niko became curious about his magic, so she asked him to show it, she analyzed it and then replicated it, but her version was at least twenty times stronger, since she did not hold back.