"!!!"
The thing was, Amelia Edemsworth, who was far beyond what others perceived as normal development, was staring in disbelief at the Great Elemental Blaze Lance, shrunk or rather condensed into the smaller form, that was most definitively increasing its piercing power!
No ordinary mage would be able to do that normally, not to even mention doing so while using the wrong chant, but Syon Gemleware certainly was amongst the most unordinary people out there… especially considering that he wasn't exactly a person in the completely human sense as Amelia knew from the story bestowed to her by the Grand Fae.
The girl swallowed her saliva, speechless, staring between the vice headmaster and the bleached-blond-haired youth.
Was that something they agreed on? Possibly? Hopefully…
…no, surely not…
There were so many wrongs and warning signs about this whole situation that Amelia couldn't really wrap her head around it in such a short period of time.
What she knew, though, was that it sure did look as if the vice headmaster wanted to kill Rotsard and disguise it as an accident!
Why else would he attempt to pass off a 6th tier spell as a 4th tier one!?
Was he in cahoots with the Treeedor family and was bribed into getting rid of Rotsard before he would have a duel to the death with Mary Treedor?
That was certainly possible…
And entirely unacceptable!
It would change way too much in this already messed-up story!
"...w-wait…!"
*WHOOSH*
Amelia simply couldn't keep her mouth shut, but she was too late. The spell shot out, aimed dead-center on Rotsard's heart…!
*TSSSSSSS*
"?!?!"
But the moment the condensed spell that should overpower spells of its own rank touched the dirty-looking wall that slid in its way, intercepting it before any harm could befall the bleached-blond-haired youth, the flames fizzled out with a loud hiss and dissipated into nothing more than a puff of smoke and steam… with BARELY any damage to the defensive spell!
Actually… Was there even ANY damage at all…?
"..."
"?!"
The vice headmaster's expression turned odd… in the dangerous sense of the word, giving Amelia a really bad feeling.
"Arrow Rain."
Her intuition wasn't off in the slightest because, within the next heartbeat, Syon waved his hand to the side and called out coldly.
At his command, the training ground was basked int the flickering red light from dozens of Great Elemental Fire Lances, condensed to appear as Fire Arrows, surrounding the bleached-blond-haired youth and indeed rained down upon him without giving anyone a chance to protest.
…and everyone was left speechless as Rotsard's supposed snow wall began moving, sliding all around its caster and intercepting every single spell to the point of a literal smokescreen arising within the next second from all the extinguished projectiles…!
It was ridiculous. A defensive spell of such capacity should not exist below the 7th or even 8th tier, and yet there it was.
What most couldn't notice because of the smoke and steam, some of the attacking spells stopped right before the defensive wall, letting other spells strike first, throwing off the rhythm, but were destroyed either way as the snow wall extended over its own perimeter to preemptively take them down!
"..."
At that point, Syon lost himself a bit in the researcher's excitement, glancing to the side to make sure that other students weren't paying as much attention and…
"...orb infernal…"
…chanted an incantation for a 8th tier spell…
An unassuming red sphere, not bigger than a plum's seed, materialised on top of Syon's palm, and it was already gone in the blink of an eye, exceeding the average human's reaction speed.
A spell so devious that, despite already having a rather ominous name for an 8th tier magic, it earned itself another, slightly humorous, one.
Lethal Round.
*ting*
"~!!!"
The spell instantly reached Rotsard, but his defensive spell was even faster...! The thing was, this time the fire spell did not evaporate upon contact! Rather, the wall kept moving as the Lethal Round was burning through it, resulting in the fire spell being deflected with only a short ringing sound and burrowing itself into the ground a few feet away from its target.
All of that happened under the cover of the smoke and steam, so only Syon with his Mana Sense could actually tell what was going on.
"That would be enough, the elemental advantage sure is no joke."
Syon forced himself to calm down before clearing his throat and calling out while calling off his spells.
As the smokescreen faded, it revealed Rotsard standing there unharmed, surrounded by a pitiful sight of the mostly melted remains of a defensive spell charred black on the outside.
"Whoa…"
"I-it's not THAT impressive, you know?"
"Y-yeah! A proper defensive spell with elemental advantage should be able to withstand a lot more!"
"Th-that's right! This is actually quite pathetic!"
When someone dared to let out a gasp of amazement, a few students took it upon themselves to downplay Rotsard's results... Although they certainly did look quite disturbed and troubled while they were speaking out their minds, absolutely refusing to even look in Rotsard's direction, much less right at him.
"As for other elements, should I leave it the way it is, or can I cast it again?"
"Leave it as is."
"...!"
Rotsard didn't bother with that, though, and instead inquired. The thing was, the answer he got certainly raised more than a few eyebrows.
But the vice headmaster did not care about their reactions and began casting spells one after the other.
With how the defensive spell was now, it could handle only up to 2nd tier spells of most attributes used, but it was defeated by the 1st tier nature element spell, Thorn, piercing almost all the way through and almost grazing the tip of Rotsard's nose, after which the vice headmaster ended the test.
The score he gave Rotsard placed the youth right in the middle of the second-years, nowhere near the top achievers.
"For the last part… Do you have any utility spells?"
"I can use my ice to preserve food, or make traps with it. Maybe build a shelter out of ice blocks?"
Moving on, the vice headmaster simply asked, and the youth answered with a light shrug.
"Anything else?"
"No, I don't think so."
Syon asked, and Rotsard shrugged again without even batting an eye as he glossed over the Solitude of the Frosted Field's golem creation he had already shown on multiple occasions.
It was a rather difficult part for both of them to keep a straight face as both knew perfectly well that Rotsard was using an illusion spell from Essence of Winter, the Dance of the Frozen Lake on himself at that very moment, too.
"Fair enough. I saw you use spells that would match what you said… Fine, you're getting the same score as Student Drooml. Any complaints?"
"Not at all. Thank you for your hard work."
The vice headmaster nodded and declared, staring at the bleached-blond-haired student as if he expected his decision to be contested, but the youth shook his head and agreed without any issue.
"That's it then... Exam over. You're all dismissed."
Having that confirmation, the vice headmaster breathed out and motioned to teacher Hervolst, who had a list with the students' names and their grades for each exam, to approach him while also shooing all the remaining second-years away…