From the determined frown Eona was wearing, Nick knew this wasn't going to be easy. With how busy he'd been studying everything he could get his hands on, they hadn't had much chance to deepen their growing rivalry, but he had noticed her desire to one-up him.

Now, she'd finally get the chance to face him, with the wards providing her the safety net to go all out.

Since this was the third round, only four duels would take place, and a clear gap between second-year and first-year students had become evident.

Of the eight participants, only three were new recruits, despite their initial numerical advantage. Since Nick and Eona were about to face off, and only one would come out on top, their numbers would be reduced even further.

Not to mention the semifinals. Even if Bellamy wins his next duel, I have no doubt he'd be matched up against me to prevent the possibility of two first years reaching the final.

"I hope you know there won't be any holding back on my part," Eona said as she took her position opposite him. "No hard feelings, I just need to win."

Nick smiled cheerfully, noticing the spike of annoyance it caused in her. "Oh, don't worry. There won't be any hard feelings on my part either."

He hadn't said it outright, but it was pretty clear he was implying he wouldn't lose, no matter how seriously she took this.

Surprisingly, that appeared to snap her out of her building rage, and she settled into an almost unnatural calm.

"Begin!" Lasazar called, almost hopping in place with excitement.

A full plate armor of light materialized around Eona, but Nick had no intention of letting her set up like all the others had. A blast of annoyance-fueled [Spirit Blast] shot into her, staggering her back and, more importantly, disrupting the coherence of her construct.

As the light mana shattered, Nick summoned his [Wind Armor], adding multiple kinetic barriers on top of it.

I could have tried to end it then, but something tells me it wouldn't have been that easy.

To her credit, Eona didn't delay by summoning another armor, and since she noticed he had taken measures to protect himself, she chose to focus on a quick offense, crafting a lance and sprinting toward him.

Having seen how capable she could be in close combat, Nick didn't let her get more than two steps before a powerful gust of wind howled toward her, forcing her to disrupt her lance and turn it into a tower shield, which sank into the ground and protected her.

She has great versatility with that thing. If only she could wield it with the same power from a distance as she does up close, she'd be a formidable opponent. But I guess that's why she's here. Her repertoire is still limited.

Not one to let a sitting enemy go unpunished, Nick gathered the howling winds into a mass of [Wind Blasts] and launched his barrage, pinning Eona in place.

Constant explosions echoed for a full minute, never letting up until he ran out of patience and stopped to see whether she'd give up.

Her mana levels haven't dropped much, but she has to realize it wouldn't be much different if she continues. She just can't match me as long as I keep my distance.

Eona, it turned out, had very different ideas because the moment the wind spheres stopped raining, she dismissed her shield, transformed it into a lance, and threw it forward with her full body.

Given her size and her background as the daughter of a knightly family known for its martial skill, the strength she could impart to the light weapon was considerable.

Nick was tempted to take it on just to prove how big the gap was between them, but he remembered Lasazar's teachings and knew that kind of showboating wouldn't be received well.

Instead, he pulled himself to the side with a lasso of air, quick enough that the lance only grazed the edge of his outer barriers.

The moment the two pieces of magic touched, the lance erupted into a blinding flash of light, causing him to groan in annoyance.

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If he were a regular human, he was pretty sure that would have permanently blinded him, but his VIT was high enough to withstand it with only mild annoyance, and the light had been filtered through several layers of defensive magic anyway.

Still, it gave Eona a few seconds to finally create something beyond just weapons.

A rumbling neigh echoed through the arena as Nick blinked away the last of the light and found himself facing not only Eona but also a steed of golden light, whose features were defined enough for him to know it couldn't have been a mere construct.

Lasazar prohibited enchanted items except for casting foci, which means she summoned it herself. It's also pretty clear that it's not a spirit, since it seems entirely present in the physical world. It kind of reminds me…

"An elemental," he realized, before the implications of that sank in his mind.

Elementals were fiercely willful creatures, as alien as spirits, yet tethered to the material plane by their element. They could be as harmless as the Dust Rabbits he'd once been tasked to clear out of the temple's library in Floria, seen merely as pests, or as formidable as beings so powerful that only Prestige warriors and mages could hope to match them.

This horse was pretty clearly somewhere between the two, but the key was to know exactly where it fell.

Eona didn't seem interested in answering the unspoken questions because she kicked the elemental's sides and sent it charging at him, even as another lance of pure light materialized in her hand and an even more intricate armor covered her features.

Clearly, she had been holding back quite a bit if she was capable of that much. Her casting speed had been her biggest problem so far, but she was now able to summon multiple constructs within a second of each other, even while moving.

The horse must have improved her speed. Maybe even her output, then?

It made sense. Nick knew that not all contracts with different entities were as straightforward as the one he had with Talbot. Some required the signee to permanently relinquish parts of their mana, while others were more mutually beneficial.

For the daughter of a knightly house, contracting an elemental horse capable of serving as her steed everywhere would be an obvious choice, especially if it could boost her magic.

A few options crossed Nick's mind. He could probably destroy the horse with [Spirit Crush], but that would kill it permanently, and he wasn't sure if the wards extended to protect a summon.

Alternatively, he could establish a sympathetic connection with the horse, thereby contesting Eona's contract just long enough to weaken her while he dispatched of the creature through more conventional means. However, that approach seemed overly complicated, and given their rapid momentum, it also appeared too lengthy to be worth pursuing.

Lastly, he could go for something a bit different. Something a bit risky, but equally promising.

I've been wanting to rework my defenses for a while. What better time to do that than now? He asked himself with a sardonic smile.

"I always did my best work under pressure, so this shouldn't be too different."

His multi-layer shielding had served him well, allowing him to withstand even exotic effects like the False Philosopher's Stone's Rubedo stage, but it was clearly approaching its limits.

Addition is good at first, but it simply can't compare to multiplication over time. Fortunately, I have a working example to guide me, or I would have been stuck before I could figure it out.

Using [Air Step] to get out of her charge wasn't the most glamorous method, but Nick just needed a little time, so he circled around the arena, leading Eona by her nose.

The more time he gained, the more he would need to rework the formulas for his defensive spell suite, but also, the more time she would have to strengthen her armor and lance, which, by the look of it, were developing a quite dangerous sheen.

Clearly, she knew he was planning something and had no intention of letting him do it, so she thrust her lance forward with a shout, unleashing a bolt of light.

He somersaulted out of the way and let out a burst of laughter, which only made her angrier.

"Stay still, damn it!" She yelled.

Nick, meanwhile, was frantically working on the newest version of his defenses. He began by slotting [Wind Armor] into the basic block and added more force magic elements, similar to those he had used for [Air Step]. However, he quickly realized the result would be mediocre.

He knew he could do it, but why would he when [One With the Storm] provided him with such a strong connection to two other elements? Especially after personally experiencing a Greater Ritual and witnessing a Thunderbird form above him, which could give his magic incredible stability if he used it as a focusing memory.

Thus, he rejected the first option and started creating a much more complex, yet deceptively simple structure.

People shouted something, probably telling him to fight back, but he couldn't care less. He was very close to a major breakthrough; he just needed one last thing to give the whole thing stability…

The thing Dad was fighting for his rank-up trial was almost gone by the time we got there, but I managed to catch a glimpse of it. It only loosely resembled this horse, but they shared one thing in common. It was the very concept of their element that gave them life. The ice was so cold that it went beyond its natural limits. Light so bright it naturally condenses into something more. That... I can use that.

The Thunderbird was a majestic creature, close enough to divinity that he could feel its concept resonate with the spell, but to help it along, he needed to add a resonance, something to make the magic reach for the power it held.

Fortunately, Nick had already done something similar before. It had been almost accidental, but it didn't really matter. Getting a glimpse of the System in action when he granted himself [Wind God's Third Eye], which then became [Empyrean Intuition], had served him well.

So, he assembled all the elemental pieces into the massive circle forming in his mind and reached for the tiny fragments of purified mana inside him, which still bore the imprint of the Thunderbird he had summoned.

A flash of light followed, so blinding and powerful that it shook the chamber's dimension, forcing the Tower to supply extra power to keep it stable.

Eona and her horse didn't hesitate to lunge forward as soon as he stopped, clearly knowing he was about to unleash the result of his efforts and that it was their last chance to win.

Hidden behind her helmet, he couldn't quite see her expression, but he knew it had to be very frustrating as he mouthed an apology.

"[Crest of the Thunderbird]" he intoned, and the light took on a golden sheen.

Eona's spear struck him just as the magic finished forming, then vanished.

Unfortunately for her, her momentum was too strong to stop mid-charge, and he could see the horror in her eyes as her horse began dispersing upon contact with the nearly invisible field around him.

Yet, before the horse could fully vanish and Eona could crash into his newest protection herself—likely to get seriously hurt despite his careful deactivation of its offensive powers—the Tower intervened. The girl disappeared in a flash and reappeared next to her steed fifty feet away, her momentum gone.