A minute later, the commentator finally gave the start of the fight. My five opponents scattered in different directions, trying to surround me. Well, guys, it will all be very quick. Without hesitation, I also ran towards the center, falling right into their trap. Immediately after my first step, the wind step spell was completed. My speed increased a couple of times. A slight surprise was noticeable on the faces of the five, at my actions, but I don't care.
When two of the opponents were to my left and right, lightning's wrath flew at the left one, and I rushed at the right one myself, quickly changing direction with a wind rush. The gap between spells was less than half a second, almost instantaneous. I started preparing lightning's wrath as soon as I released the wind step, and the rush immediately after it, it's simply impossible to react to such a change.
I hit the right one with the back of my dagger, it's still not allowed to kill intentionally here. At the same moment, using the still-active rush, I flew upwards. Immediately after that, three fiery waves covered the place where I had just stood. Did they really all five of them have fire mages? Well, that makes them even more vulnerable, what kind of fool wouldn't take at least some kind of defense mage in a team?
In the air, I finished another lightning's wrath, which I directed at the mage who was trying to get around me from the left. My dagger flew at the right one. A moment later, I landed on the ground and, using the wind step, quickly ran to the last mage, went around him from behind, and put a knife to his throat. He didn't even have time to react, his face showed indescribable shock and fear. For some reason, this made me feel pleased, I don't even know why.
"It's over," I said briefly, releasing the mage, causing him to fall to his knees, unable to stand.
The entire arena plunged into a deathly silence. Not a sound was heard, before the fight, there was active chatter from the spectators, but after the start, I heard nothing. Looking around the stands, I saw the same expressions on people's faces as on the mage's, shock and fear, pure natural horror caused by my actions. I incredibly liked this, I don't know why, my chest felt incredibly warm, I even smiled, it was a pleasant feeling. I headed towards the mage at whom I had thrown my dagger, his light barrier, set up by the mage monitoring the fight, protected him, so the dagger stuck in the ground.
"The winner is Asura! He won in a record time of ten seconds! What will the judges say about how many points he will get?" the commentator livened up, being the first to recover. I retrieved my dagger and headed for the arena exit. "Incredible, the judges awarded him the maximum number of points, fifty! First fight, and Asura already has fifty points in his treasury! We witnessed the birth of a legend! He defeated his opponents without using intermediate-level magic in ten seconds and received the maximum points!"
Entering the corridor, I stopped hearing the commentator's voice clearly, but it was quite funny to hear so much flattery towards myself. Leaving the arena, I headed to find the old man, and also to collect my winnings.
"Well done, you didn't do badly, but you could have been faster, you're too slow," the old man said, approaching me. Is he serious, really? I took down five mages in ten seconds, and he says it was slow? Really?
"Next time it will be faster, teacher," I said, bowing slightly. After all, he is my teacher, and thanks to his training, I was able to become so fast. After that, we immediately headed to the consultation desk, by chance we ended up with the same girl as at the beginning, what a funny coincidence.
"Hello, how can I help..." she said, looking up from her computer. "Huh? Didn't your fight start a minute ago, what are you doing here?"
"I would like to collect my student's winnings," the old man said, approaching closer. "And also the winnings from my bet."
"What? How!" The girl was also completely shocked. She quickly started searching for something on the computer, after which her jaw almost touched the ground, and she began to speak stammering. "T-ten s-seconds, t-to a team of f-five people? W-without intermediate-level magic!"
"So, can we get our money?" the old man asked her politely, smiling slyly.
"Y-yes," the girl nodded, coming to her senses. "Here, five thousand yuan for winning the fight. And..." After that, she was silent for a couple of minutes. "A million yuan for the bet of winning within half a minute, we will transfer to your account if you don't mind," she smiled, looking at the old man. I almost choked on her words. The old man made a million on me! Scoundrel, that's not fair, share with me quickly! Although, I myself made two on Mo Fan, and I plan to make more, so we are definitely a match. But that doesn't negate the fact that he owes me at least ten percent!
"Yes, I don't mind," the old man replied politely. "Can you register us for tomorrow for the same type of fight?"
"Of course," the girl nodded, starting to type on the keyboard. "Everything is ready, don't forget to come."
"Yes, of course," the old man said, then turned and headed for the exit. "Let's go, you can only participate in each type of fight once, unfortunately," the old man said, waving his hand at me.
After leaving there, I returned home and started cultivating. That night, I had a nightmare where a pseudo-me, or Asura, was fighting without a mask and killing all my opponents. This made me cringe slightly, as it was too brutal, in just ten seconds, five mages became five puddles of blood, who wouldn't flinch from that, huh?
The next day, I headed to the old man's again at eight o'clock for training, and at six, we both headed to the underground arena. My opponent had already been chosen, all that remained was to wait for them to arrive. This time, the opponents were the team: "Jade Dragon," a rather formidable team, but in reality, they lasted much longer than the previous one, only fifteen seconds. This was because there was a wind mage in it, although I don't know the point of it at the beginner level, did he fight with his fists? I had to struggle to catch him, he was fast, damn it. I earned another sixty points.
The third fight was more interesting, there was an intermediate-level light mage who defended his teammates. Well, how did he defend, once he created a wall of light, saved one, after which he was immediately eliminated due to a dagger thrown at him. So he only slightly extended the fight to thirty seconds. My treasury was replenished by fifty points. The next day, I went hunting with Xu Zhaoting, which was also very successful, we managed to earn over a million yuan each, a very rich place, with all sorts of expensive monsters, although we had to sweat a lot for them.
The first fight after, so to speak, a break was not particularly interesting, rather tedious. And all because there were as many as seven people in the opposing team, among whom was an intermediate-level ice mage. He annoyed me greatly with his ice chains, pursuing me with them until he received lightning's wrath, which bypassed his defense and slightly scorched him. Everyone was shocked by this, even the mage observing the fight, as he did not expect my lightning to break through that defense so quickly. As a result, a little over forty-five seconds and seventy points in my pocket.
My fifth opponents were a team of three intermediate-level mages, one light, one ice, and another earth. What a tank team, damn it, they gathered, huh? I had to struggle with them for more than a minute, ten seconds, as the chains with the earth wave constantly interfered with me, and the stone wall and the wall of light stopped my lightning's wrath. These were the most difficult and annoying thirty points in all my fights!
The sixth team was more fun, it included ten different mages, among whom there were only two intermediate-level mages, water and fire. And although there were many problems with them, they were not as annoying as the previous one, these were quite easy one hundred points, although I spent almost two minutes.
After that, there was another hunt with Xu Zhaoting, as a result of which my budget increased by another million yuan, nothing unusual. The seventh team was a team consisting of seven girls, peak beginner-level mages. The team was called: "Seven Magnificent Elements," by the way, the girls possessed all kinds of elemental magic and were quite beautiful. Of course, I don't know why such a useless team was assigned to me as an opponent, but in twenty seconds I dealt with them and received my rightful seventy points. Maybe they were assigned to me as opponents, thinking that I would fall for their beauty and lose? Strange.
The eighth team was also nothing special, consisting of five people and one intermediate-level mage. Thirty seconds – fifty points in the treasury. The ninth also didn't please me with anything, six mages, two intermediate, one minute – sixty points mine. After that, there was a day of rest and cooling off on a hunt with Xu Zhaoting and another million-dollar replenishment of my wallet, so I can relax, although it's difficult, considering how hard we earn this million.
The tenth, the last team from the iron rank, consisted of five intermediate-level mages, all five were at the peak of the personal rating, and the team occupied the top spot in the team standings. Fortunately, there was not a single one among them who used a second element, otherwise there would have been some problems. So, three minutes of work and another fifty points in the treasury. In total, over these thirteen days, I earned five hundred and ninety points, defeating ten teams, and tomorrow I will fight a bronze team for the right to move to the bronze rank. At first, they didn't want to register me, as qualification for the next rank happens in a one-on-one fight, but then, after talking with the old man, learning my statistics and about me, the consultant girl agreed.
All these thirteen days, I had nightmares, and I thought I had started to get rid of them, what a pity. All of them were related either to hunting or to fighting in the arena. And if those related to hunting were quite standard, then those related to fighting in the arena, they really bothered me, as the fights were repeated, only Asura killed all opponents instead of just taking them out of the fight. I felt especially sorry for the team of seven girls, they are very cute and I could have... Although no, wait, recently I contacted Lin Yun Er again, and it seems I have a good chance of becoming her boyfriend again, so I need to discard all unnecessary thoughts.
My cultivation has also grown quite a bit during this time, for example, I have mastered all the lightning stars and have already tried the lightning strike spell, now I just need to practice it to release it in less than ten seconds. As for space, there is very little left until I master the seventh star, I will finally be able to grab the TV remote without getting out of bed, this is simply paradise! And one more important event, my seeds have reached a small level, now they amplify my magic by exactly three times! This is very good, large seeds, by the way, amplify magic by almost four times, but slightly less. After all, a coefficient of amplification of four is already a false spiritual seed, I still have a long way to go to reach it.
And today, finally, the fight for the right to be promoted to the bronze rank. My opponent will be a team called: "Magnificent Six," I don't think it's a strong team. After all, I managed to find out that all six mages in it are at the intermediate level, just recently entered this level, so there shouldn't be any particular problems, although who knows, maybe they will be quite strong for their levels. However, the old man said that I should fight this team too without using intermediate-level magic, is he deliberately making my life difficult? Although this is essentially his job.
- The rising star of our branch, the incredible mage known by the nickname Asura, enters the arena! - The commentator introduced me. By the way, after a couple of my quick victories, I had quite a solid fan base, so the stands were packed at almost all my fights; everyone wanted to see for themselves how quickly I would win this time. - He only participates in one-on-one fights, appeared for the first time two weeks ago, and in that time has already won ten out of ten fights! Today he challenged a whole team of bronze rank to qualify for the bronze rank. It's too overconfident to advance to the bronze rank this way, you'd say to everyone, but not to him! In all his fights, he manages to win in the minimum possible time without getting a single scratch, thus earning maximum points!
Opposite stood a team of seven people; energy from mid-level mages emanated from all of them. My perception, after training with the old man, had also improved; now I could recognize the strongest elements in opponents, of course, if they didn't hide them, and identifying the second element of a mid-level mage was still a problem for me. But it helps me a lot; for example, now I know that my opponents are a light mage, a lightning mage, a couple of fire mages, one wind mage, and two water mages. A rather unpleasant combination, but mid-level magic still needs to be released; ha, in these two weeks, my strength and speed have practically equaled that of low-level servants, but the fight promises to be interesting.