Lilot would have some vague idea about what type of magician I was naturally gifted to be.

The magic I demonstrated during the sparring match with Everblize was by no means common.

However, I hadn’t shown any magic that could serve as definitive proof, like healing magic.

That meant I could still twist Lilot’s perception.

The reason was that the proportion of magicians with special types was extremely low, and there were countless unknown magics in the world.

"Enough chatter. Focus, unless you want to leave with a handicap."

As Lilot spoke with sharp eyes, the atmosphere grew heavier.

Though her basic nature leaned toward a strong sense of justice, perhaps due to the blessing’s influence, her demeanor turned fierce when a battle started.

[Lilot El Ers]

◆ Ash of the Exploding Dragon Ignas

If you hear the roar, it would already be after everything had been swept away.

: Gains the ability to handle explosions of a higher dimension.

* Traits

◇ Attribute Armor ◇

◇ Elemental Load ◇

The blessing enabled high-dimensional explosions that could even expand space.

The 'Attribute Armor' trait reduced any attack’s damage by 30 percent.

And the 'Elemental Load' trait, although it changed the element randomly with each use, increased damage by 10 percent.

Her combat style excelled in fundamentals.

On top of that, she had an excessively well-balanced offense and defense.

Even this alone was already overpowered, but she also had defense stats comparable to characters specialized in tanking, and her attack stats were equally high.

Moreover, she even had utility effects provided by the blessing.

Facing a woman like this one-on-one right in front of me, I couldn't help but doubt whether the mock battles I had imagined in my mind would actually work in reality.

Even so, my mouth didn’t stop moving.

"Well? I'd rather just keep cracking jokes."

The referee announced the start.

I immediately retreated, gripping my long staff, and watched Lilot as she cast physical enhancement magic.

I tried to figure out which element she had loaded.

But unfortunately, I couldn’t see it with my eyes.

It was just a blind attempt.

There was the option of licking it to find out, but I couldn't blatantly reveal my special-type magic, and getting close would guarantee a beating.

In that case, I might as well continue the flow from earlier.

I created three clones using shaping magic.

Just before Lilot finished her enhancement magic, I sent one clone charging at her for reconnaissance.

In response, Lilot shouted and swung her staff at the clone.

The sheer force of the wind blew the clones away like smoke.

"You're definitely not a shaping magician!"

"...The clone was a bit wobbly, though."

As Lilot stomped her staff on the ground, angular rocks jutted up from the dueling arena’s floor.

A small rocky area, reminiscent of a dry mountain range, was formed in an instant.

The clones couldn’t withstand the shock and scattered like smoke.

The loaded element seemed to be rock.

"Didn't you consider the possibility that it was just smoke to confuse you?"

"No matter how hard you try, you can't create such lousy clones on purpose."

I guess pretending to be a shaping magician is out of the question now.

"I don't know what you're scheming from earlier, but it'll all be for nothing."

As if not wanting to waste any more time, Lilot lightly tapped her staff on the ground.

The rocky field instantly transformed into a riverbank.

As the water level began to rise, I quickly moved onto the emerging rocks.

Within these visibly shrinking boundaries, Lilot came rushing at me like a bullet.

Crash!

With one swing of her staff, a rock crumbled with a deafening roar.

Before that, I had thrown myself to the side and, just before falling into the water, used ice magic to barely keep from sinking.

Even so, all I managed was a single thin sheet of ice barely supporting my weight.

Lilot smirked, finding it laughable.

"Is that tiny ice sheet the best you can do? Don't tell me you've awakened tactile magic or something."

I answered with a sneer.

"Who knows? Maybe I'm a magic-user who prioritizes efficiency."

On the surface, I acted calm.

But inside, seeing someone capable of transforming the battlefield into a natural disaster in real time, I couldn’t easily suppress the doubt about whether I could actually pull this off.

After all, the only real weakness of 'Elemental Load' was that its effect ended after a single attack.

But as of now, Lilot had grown enough, under Arshian’s teachings, to compensate for this flaw.

Just as she remodeled the battlefield to her advantage, she could now use lasting magic effects.

In other words, she had an almost perfectly balanced hexagonal spec.

Beating her would require overwhelming brute force, which seemed nearly impossible.

As I nervously swallowed, Donatan, who had remained silent, spoke to me.

'I stayed quiet since you said it was your own fight, but I can't help asking. What are you thinking?'

'Just holding out until she reaches her most dangerous state.'

'What?'

There was no time to answer.

Lilot, having loaded the wind element, started to ascend into the air.

It was surely Wind Steps, one of the higher-level magics among elemental spells.

'Damn, not yet.'

Lilot spun half a circle in mid-air and kicked off a foothold above his head to descend.

I hurriedly kicked the nearby rock to move my ice platform.

Lilot shot past me, missing by a hair’s breadth.

With a light earthquake, a huge splash of water erupted.

Seeing the cracks on the surface where she landed, I knew that taking even one hit would leave my body seriously damaged.

This time, I didn’t waste any footholds.

Lilot launched herself toward me again, and I hastily conjured numerous barriers in her path.

They only slightly slowed her down.

While the barriers were being torn apart like paper by her staff, I used telekinesis to change my direction.

The ice sheet swayed like a ship on a rough current from the wind pressure created as she passed by.

Unable to overcome the momentum, Lilot slammed into a rock.

Fragments tumbled down like a landslide.

As the dust cleared from a single swing of her staff, Lilot’s face appeared with a faint look of puzzlement.

"You’re an odd one. Didn't think you could use barrier magic. Even if it was pathetic."

Barrier magic was considered the specialty of breakthrough-type magicians, who were treated as elites among magicians.

It made sense for Lilot to think that.

Normally, combining shaping and elemental magic required profound skill, and without that, most would fail.

In my case, I barely managed it through high-level spellcraft and understanding.

However, due to poor mana control, the barrier’s strength was severely lacking.

Now, should I make things even more confusing?

Among the special-type magics I had tried to learn, I cast the one that Rockefeller had deemed usable.

The magic’s nature was to temporarily borrow one of the four talents other than the special type — "Talent Mimicry."

[Restriction 1]

It could only be used once per day.

Of course, there were two significant costs attached to it.

[Restriction 2]

The mana cost for the spell would be tripled.

Although my mana had dramatically increased compared to before, it was still small compared to a playable character’s.

Thus, large-scale magic was difficult.

But if I pushed myself a little, there was one powerful magic I could use.

This was thanks to the terrain Lilot had created.

I looked at Lilot, who still hadn’t used the loaded element, and said,

“You’re not showing your true strength.”

The number of uses for Wind Steps was four in total.

Since she had already used two more, she could create only two more footholds in the air.

She probably thought that would be enough.

“There’s no need to show everything.”

“Really? Then I’ll make you show it.”

I cast the magic Ice Age, which froze the entire area.

The waters Lilot had summoned began to freeze with a sharp crackling sound.

Due to my limited mana, the scale wasn’t large, but the arena was just the right size to fill with cold air.

Lilot, trapped in the ice, widened her eyes in surprise, but only for a moment—when she moved her shoulders and neck, cracks started forming.

“...I don’t know anymore.”

After a sigh, she relaxed her body and spoke.

“I’m bored. I want to finish this quickly and rest.”

Before she even finished speaking, Lilot stepped on the wind stair she created midair and leapt up.

The ground was slippery, so she had no choice but to use it.

I hastily threw off my coat and unbuttoned the top of my shirt.

I only needed to block this one time.

Although elemental loading was random, once an attribute was used, it wouldn’t repeat unless a full cycle was completed.

She had already used rock, water, and wind, so what remained were lightning and the fire I had been waiting for.

As Lilot’s shadow began to cover me, Donatan shouted urgently.

‘What are you doing standing still? Move already!’

Easier said than done.

The terrain was just as slippery for me.

Even if I managed to dodge by luck, I’d be knocked down by the shockwave for sure.

So with no excellent offensive or defensive options, my only choice was to make Lilot soften her attack herself.

And the method was hidden inside my shirt.

I grabbed the collar tightly and yanked—buttons flew through the air.

Then the dragon emblem drawn on my chest was fully revealed.

Lilot’s pupils shook violently as she swung her staff.

“Spirit magic?”

I subtly made the dragon drawing twitch using telekinesis, and Lilot urgently created another wind step in front of her to brake herself.

Just like how Professor Gomon’s tattoos moved when summoning the Stone Bear, this was a trait of those contracted with spirits.

Since I had previously displayed Ice Age—a high-level elemental spell—it was only natural for Lilot to retreat without doubt.

Ha! It was just a doodle with flower juice, but she fell for it so well.

Now that she had used up all her wind steps, she was just a flying paper airplane.

I swept my telekinesis toward Lilot, trying to knock her out of bounds.

I thought it would be perfect if it ended like this, but—as always—nothing was ever easy for me.

Just before hitting the ground, Lilot swung her staff, unleashing a wave of scorching heat.

“Tch!”

Her staff, infused with flames, exploded, and Lilot’s blessing erupted.

◆ Ash of the Exploding Dragon Ignas ◆

If you hear the roar, everything would have already been swept away.

: Gain the ability to handle high-dimensional explosions.

Lilot expanded space to re-enter the arena.

‘W-What just happened?’

‘She’s manipulating space—though limitedly—through contraction and expansion.’

Lilot glanced at my chest and gleamed with exhilaration.

“You said you’d make me show my strength, didn’t you?”

The drawings on my chest were melting away from the heat.

Realizing that the spirit magic was a bluff and that she had almost been knocked out because of it must’ve bruised her pride.

“Must feel good, getting what you wanted.”

With her cold voice fading, all the ice in the area melted away.

Perhaps deciding to use her final loaded element, Lilot conjured an electric orb in her left hand and tossed it into the sky.

The sky began to darken, and raindrops fell.

The spell she used was Falling Thundercloud, where lightning strikes randomly.

Even a single hit would be fatal, so to survive, I had to reveal my own trump card.

I drew a forbidden spell Rockefeller had told me never to use.

***

Rockefeller and the other professors were watching the crowd's excitement.

Compared to the student-level spells shown until now, Lilot’s magic that transformed the battlefield had been shocking.

“…That’s not a student. Even her innate mana seems on another level.”

At Professor Gomon’s words, Rockefeller nodded—something he rarely did.

“I knew she was special. But she’s grown beyond expectations. Wisdom’s education must have given her wings.”

At this level, she might even defeat Ares.

But for some reason, the surroundings became more chaotic.

When he turned his head, he saw Athera and Magdal’s group.

He had known they were there, but what made him turn this time was the extra annoying voice added to the mix.

“Hmph, struggling against someone like that? How disappointing. If I had enrolled just one year later, I would’ve led Frost Heart to victory.”

“What a load of crap. You got destroyed by Riamon.”

“Shut up, Magdal! I wasn’t feeling well that day, I told you!”

Rockefeller shook his head.

‘Of course, it’s Kerndel.’

A disgrace who was once top-ranked but stripped of graduation rights.

Last year was far easier compared to this year, but his pride made him talk like that.

Just as he sighed at the addition of another nuisance, the sky became full of dark clouds.

Rockefeller, paying respect to Lilot’s display of space expansion and Falling Thundercloud, looked at Hersel.

‘You've done well to hold out, Hersel Ben Tenest. But this is the end. For someone who can’t even be called a proper magician, you’ve fought admirably.’

Rockefeller’s opinion hadn’t changed.

He wasn’t born a magician.

He had undeniable talent in other areas, but his magical sensitivity was drastically low.

‘If only there were a way, I’d have taught him the proper path—but reality is merciless.’

He was about to turn away from what he believed was an obvious ending—when he saw the spell Hersel was drawing and broke into a cold sweat.

“N-No way…”

“P-Professor Rockefeller? Why do you look so pale all of a sudden?”

“Gomon! Stop the match immediately!”

“Excuse me?”

The magic Hersel was casting belonged to the most dangerous group among the special types: the forbidden art Gambler.

A spell that sacrifices several lucky events in exchange for one ultimate misfortune.

Especially casting it here, amidst thunder, would be suicidal.

No matter how much the Magic Tower ensured safety, once the misfortune took effect like a law of nature, everything would be thrown into chaos.