The gym had become busier than usual. Not only were the students from the same department watching the fight, but even the second-year students were watching as well.
"What's going on? Are they holding another big battle this year as well?" A man asked while raising his hand, greeting his classmates.
"Oh, Ran! You're here to watch too?"
"Yeah. I heard the gym would be used for a fight, so I expected a lot from this year's students. After all, only those who had the qualifications were able to force the teacher to authorize the gym."
"I know, right? For the fourth strongest person in our generation to come here, I guess this fight is indeed special."
"4th strongest… As if you are not stronger than I am, Stefany." Ran shrugged while rolling his eyes.
"Hehehe. Well, we're already surprised enough to see this. After all, it's fair for us to check our future rival. But to think that woman is also watching this battle…"
"That woman?" Ran looked around to find someone. "Ellia Stroph…"
"She is currently ranked second in our generation. Although her evolution was late, she must be planning to take back her spot as the number one." Stefany shrugged.
"So, who is fighting this time?"
"I heard the Lightning Emperor's disciple will be fighting today. His name is Simon Kestus. He possesses an extreme variant of lightning, white lightning. Even his affinity is S Grade. It looks like we will have a tough competitor next year."
Ran squinted his eyes. "How about the opponent?"
"His opponent is called Auric Elfe. From the rumors, this guy seems to surpass Simon. That's just the rumor, but who knows? Maybe we will see something interesting today." Stefany pointed at Ellia. "If not, do you think she is interested in coming?"
"That's where you're wrong. I might not know much of what is happening on our campus, but I know a lot of things outside. From what I've heard, Ellia visited the Lightning Dojo a week ago."
"What?" Stefany widened her eyes in shock. There were many possibilities on her mind, but the possibility that she was most curious about was, "Was she proposing marriage?"
"I don't know that much." Ran raised both hands.
"This is going to be…" Before she finished, cheers erupted, mostly from those in the second year. "…ooh?!"
Stefany finally figured out the reason. "Isn't he handsome? Like, very, very handsome? He has both talent and looks. No wonder Ellia is setting her sights on him."
Simon walked to the middle of the stage with a confident look. He had prepared everything, not just for the past few days, but also for the past decade.
He had trained hard to reach this stage, and his talent soared even further when it was revealed to be an S Grade.
There was nothing to stop him from becoming the number one person in his generation.
"You're drooling on someone younger than you?" Ran rolled his eyes. "What? You're going to compete with Ellia? Don't you remember that the last time someone competed with her, his entire family went bankrupt?"
"I know that much, but can't you just appreciate beauty?" Stefany sighed.
"I can—" This time, it was Ran's turn to get cut off by the cheers.
The cheers were even more deafening than the previous ones because most of the freshmen actually followed along.
Stefany was startled and hurriedly turned her head to see what was going on, only to find something even more shocking. "Yeah. This guy is number one for sure. Hehehe…"
"…" Ran was speechless. He wanted to see why Stefany made such a claim and instantly understood. "Is he a celebrity?"
"Look at that. He's really number one, right? What is his talent? I don't know. Since Ellia wants Simon, I will get him then." Stefany grinned.
"Look at you, drooling. Don't you feel embarrassed?"
"Piss off."
"But looking at this guy's face… I feel like I have seen him somewhere before…" Ran squinted his eyes, trying to recall the information he had gathered.
Auric stood several meters away from Simon. There were many people cheering for him. He found Ellia, but more importantly, he actually saw the woman who once came to his store, Angelina. It looked like her brother was also a student at Grand Magica College.
Since they were a year apart in age, he realized Angelina was actually a third-year student here while her brother was Ellia's peer.
"What's wrong? Are you nervous?" Lindwurm asked.
'No. Follow my gaze and you will understand.'
Lindwurm was confused about what was going on, but after raising his head, he figured out why Auric was nervous.
Angelina and Cain knew him as an earth element user, not a plant element user. He thought they were from other academies.
Then again, he expected a bit too much. If they knew about it and spread it around, he couldn't help it.
"Well, it doesn't matter that much, right? You have made your decision not to hide it. If you continue working as an evolution master, you surely won't mind using those elements, will you?" Lindwurm scoffed, knowing this kind of incident was bound to happen sooner or later.
What he didn't know was how much Simon knew. Since Simon had ordered that guy to cause trouble, the guy found out about Auric's element.
So, he wondered whether that guy had told Simon about it.
The only thing he knew was that Ellia had actually warned that guy not to share it with others. But he wasn't clear about what happened before that warning.
Nevertheless, he didn't plan to lose today.
"You're going to lose today. No matter what you do, you can't close the gap between you and me." Simon snorted.
"Auric!"
"Auric!"
"Auric!"
People were chanting his name after that provocation, mostly the girls he had helped before.
It was as if they were trying to tell Auric not to mind his words and fight him. It felt like Auric had the home ground advantage.
"Look at this guy. It's only been one week, and he has so many followers already." Arina chuckled.
Though, because of those followers, the male second-year students wanted to see him lose.
"Go to hell!"
"No, no. I wish both of you dead!"
"Both of you should die!"
They somehow agreed that Auric and Simon were similar, so they ended up booing both of them.
Professor Eren, who was supervising this match, was rather speechless. This was the first time he had gotten such a reaction from the spectators during all his time refereeing a match.
Professor Eren raised his hand as a translucent blue box appeared, isolating both of them. The box was big enough for them to move around, so Auric and Simon prepared themselves.
Eren spoke aloud. "Remember. This is just a sparring match. I will stop any fatal blow. It will end once one party surrenders or is deemed unable to continue the match. Do either of you have anything to say?"
"Do you think just being pretty will let you do anything you want? I will show you who is number one in this generation!" Simon scoffed.
"Professor. It doesn't matter if you give permission or not, he will keep saying whatever he wants." Auric chuckled.
His remark made a lot of people giggle as well.
Professor Eren coughed as he raised his hand one more time. "In that case, you may begin!"
Simon summoned his avatar, which turned out to be a small humanoid creature similar to a fairy, but instead of a cute-looking one, it had a long beard like an old man.
Auric, on the other hand, released his magical energy without summoning his avatar, and he did so with ease.
"What?" Those who understood the difference couldn't help but widen their eyes in shock.
"He is able to release his power without summoning his avatar? Isn't he supposed to be a first-year student?"
"One should only be able to do that after a certain mastery. Most of the time, you need to be a second-year student first before you can do it."
Only Eric could roll his eyes, muttering inwardly, 'What do you expect? It's not about whether he has mastered his power or not. He can't even show you his avatar, even if he wants to. Because there's none to begin with.'
"You keep looking down on me!" Simon shouted and raised his hand forward. "Lightning Discharge!"
A lightning bolt was discharged from Simon's fingertip.
Auric snapped his fingers, imitating what Arina had done the previous day. This time, he only summoned one root as if he wanted to test something.
The root rose up and formed a wall in front of him, but the lightning was actually drilling the root until it broke the root apart.
"…" Auric's eyes were still wide open as his body moved to the right, avoiding the lightning. He could feel a bit of numbness in his body due to the lightning's influence.
As he expected, the way Simon wielded his lightning was much more proficient than him.
If Auric's mastery was at the same level as Simon's, Auric would have been able to pierce Arina's defense the previous day.
Even though his character was a bit questionable, Simon indeed had talent.
Still, they had just awakened not long ago, so the number of battle techniques they could use shouldn't have been more than three.
That was why Simon had to use the same thing over and over again.
Simon had already moved his finger and discharged his lightning one more time.
Auric summoned another root again, but he controlled it this time. The root would lunge forward like a snake so that the root's length would intercept the lightning strike instead of its thickness.
The white lightning bored through the root as expected, but it was gradually losing power and disappeared after destroying about 60% of the root.
"He stopped him!" The people were amused by how Auric controlled his power. Unlike Simon, who was completely reliant on the power of his battle technique, Auric was controlling his battle technique to produce a different effect than intended.
It was Auric's turn to attack. He summoned all six roots at once.
"!!!" Simon and the others were surprised. They thought Auric's limit was just one root, but it turned out he had been gauging his opponent's strength all this time.
"You…" Simon gritted his teeth. When the roots were about to reach him, Simon suddenly leaped into the air.
All six roots immediately sprang up to chase after him, but Simon leaped from one root to the next.
He had been training from a very young age, so his posture, balance, reaction speed, and movements were better than Auric's.
The second battle technique he possessed was surprisingly a movement type. Thanks to the speed of this battle technique, Simon avoided the roots and closed in on Auric.
It was impressive, but Auric had a surprise for him. He raised both his index finger and middle finger and flicked them upward.
All of a sudden, a wooden spike emerged from underneath the roots, breaking them apart as it shot toward Simon.
"Kh." Simon twisted his body at the last moment, barely avoiding this attack. Still, the spike grazed him on the arm.
However, Simon quickly regained his balance and jumped toward Auric.
Auric knew that Simon would win against him if he confronted him head-on. His hand-to-hand combat was clearly much better than Auric's, so Auric had to keep his distance from Simon.
Unfortunately for him, Simon's battle technique allowed him to catch up to Auric.
"Auric. Watch out!" Lindwurm warned him.
Auric took a deep breath before thinking, 'This is going to hurt.'
Since Simon was clenching his fists, Auric raised both arms to block his punch. But as expected, Simon took advantage of Auric's lack of experience to the fullest.
He opened his grip and grabbed Auric's arm instead.
"Oh." Auric figured out what he was trying to do, and it was too late for him to get away.
Simon discharged his lightning one more time to electrocute Auric.