Volume 2: Chapter 25 – Advancing to the Semifinals

Under my strong recovery magic, he gradually regained consciousness, but he was still very weak. After all, he did draw from his life energy.

“Thank you, you are truly strong. I totally accept this loss.” He helplessly said.

“Don’t use magic like that anymore, drawing from life energy is very dangerous.” Because I’ve also used life magic before, I know what the consequences are for using one’s life energy.

“Thank you, I will keep this in mind.”

The proctoring teacher walked on stage and gave me a nod of approval. He obviously approved of me giving aid to my opponent.

“I proclaim, Student Zhang Gong Wei wins first place in the 11th group, Student Cha Li Ao Te gets second place…” the teacher announced the results of the 11th group.

I didn’t know his name until now. He has already been carried back to the dormitories by some of his friends. I have also made a solid step towards my goal.

I see that Teacher Di has arrived in the audience, he must have come because of the magic fluctuations that occurred. Seeing me, he waved. His voice then sounded in my head: “What happened? Zhang Gong, was it you who used that impressive spell?”

I’m currently not skilled in using telepathy so I don’t dare use it lightly. I just answered very simply: “Wait until I find you and I’ll tell you then.”

“Alright, then I’ll go now.”

Coming out of the grounds, I immediately left using a couple of short-distance teleportation spells because I was scared of everyone asking me this and that. First I’ll go find Teacher Di, he must still be waiting for me.

“Teacher Di, I’ve arrived.”

“Come in.”

I walked into Teacher Di’s office and he signaled me to sit down.

“What happened?”

“It was like this….” I summarized what happened during the competition.

“Ah…..” Teacher Di let out a long sigh, “You kids nowadays, how could you guys use life magic so lightly? You should know your body was given to you by your parents. Last time, you used it in order to save another life. However, this is just an ordinary competition. The desire to win was far too great.” Teacher Di shook his head.

“Looks like I will need to add a counseling class to the academy.”

“Don’t be upset sir, it will be fine as long as you strengthen our education in that area.” I comforted him.

“You brat, today you used such an impressive spell, who in the second year would still dare compete with you.”

“Impossible, my Brilliant Empire is still very immature and I can’t control it very well either. I can only use about one third of its power. Also, I didn’t want to use it so early, but if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to block that shot.” I said, feeling hurt.

“Only you know that you can’t use its full power. How many people do we have using light magic? Everyone’s evaluation of you must be very high. This time, you can be as lazy as you want without a problem.”

……

Just as Teacher Di had predicted, none of the other students wanted to compete with me after seeing my performance the other day. Since the semi-finals started, all my opponents would concede after just a couple of moves. The first thing anyone who got me as their opponent would say is: “Why am I so unlucky?!” With hardly any effort, I became one of the top four. I even outshined Wo Ke, who originally was the most popular contestant.

In comparison, Ma Ke had to work a lot harder. After getting into the semi-finals, every match was won with great difficulty. Even with it being that hard, he still felt that he was lucky because he didn’t get me, hehe.

In the top four, there were three from A class: me, Ma Ke and Wo Ke. Unexpectedly, the last spot in the top four went to a girl from D class who majored in water magic. I haven’t seen any of her matches. I really didn’t expect that D class had someone so strong.

The draw to decide our opponent has started, I went up first and drew an A lot. Ma Ke, this kid, was mumbling something the whole time. Looks like he really doesn’t want to get me. However, life doesn’t work that way and he also drew an A lot. Hehe, looks like there’s going to be a good show this time.

Coming down from the stage, Ma Ke was like a frosted eggplant.

“What’s wrong, Ma Ke.” I poked him.

“Boss, why am I so unlucky? I got you so early!”

“Why is this so bad? I might not necessarily win against you!” How come he has so little confidence in himself!

“How can that be??”

“You wouldn’t know, but Teacher Long told me that you and I are not even on the same level. He said that I’m a lot weaker than you are and told me to keep on working hard.” Turns out, that it was something his teacher said, hehe, or else why would this kid be so scared of drawing the same lot as me. His teacher is the vice-principal of the academy, Magister Xing De Long. Naturally his words would contain authority.

“Let’s work hard tomorrow. I hope we can have a good match, just like on the examination day. How do you know you can’t beat me without trying?”

“Alright!”

It certainly is the top four competition, nearly all the second year students have come to watch, and it’s so lively. Ma Ke and I step onto the stage, “Ma Ke, don’t humiliate yourself, there’s so many people watching!”

Ma Ke gave me a helpless smile and started his attacks.

Ma Ke’s biggest advantage is that his magic control is very strong. He’s not scared of my teleportation, so he started with a single, advanced attack spell.

“Oh great fire elements, gather at my side, become a dragon of fire and annihilate the enemy before you.” Damn! Yesterday this kid was still saying that he couldn’t win against me. Today he’s so fierce, a fire dragon as soon as we start. This fire spell’s attack is not any weaker than the strengthened Raging Flames of the Burning Heavens from the other day.

A huge fire dragon appeared from Ma Ke. It circled him once and then it pounced towards me.

Although I have already strengthened my Light Prism Shield, I still don’t dare collide head on with his fire dragon. What should I use? Purifying Light probably won’t block it either and Dimensional Slash can’t handle such a large attack.

“Oh great light elements, hear my prayers, become a divine halo and halt the enemy’s advance.” Advanced defensive light spell, Divine Halo, appeared on my body.

The white halo formed a solid barrier three feet in front of me and threw the fire dragon back. However the fire dragon hadn’t yet disappeared, it turned around and immediately pounced back. Ma Ke’s strength is really strong, I’ve never seen him use this spell in the preliminaries or the semi-finals.

I summoned my magic power and blocked his attack again and again. I can tell, it takes him a lot of effort to control the fire dragon. It looks like he won’t last much longer.

“Boss, I’m going to use my trump card!” What, this kid has a trump card…

Ma Ke took a fire red magic staff and starting chanting.

In the audience, Teacher Di immediately grabbed Teacher Long’s mustache, “What?! Out of all the things you fished out of your trunk, you’d actually give that kid the Fire God’s Fury?”

Teacher Long didn’t take it lying down and also grabbed Teacher Di’s mustache, “What about you? Didn’t you also give him the Light God’s Robe?”

While the two old men in the audience were busy fighting, I entered my greatest challenge since the beginning of the competition. Following Ma Ke’s chant, a small, red ball appeared from the top of his magic staff, about the size of a ping-pong ball. However, I know that it’s nothing fun. That’s a ball of pure energy, much, much scarier than a mere fire dragon.