The third round was complete, leaving only fourteen participants behind.

Those who had managed to emerge from the third round victorious were truly among the strongest students in the entire magiciademy. These were the most powerful and accomplished students of the Senior Program, and each stood a chance to be among the finalists.

"We will now take a short break before the fourth round commences to give our students some time to recuperate their stamina," the announcer informed the students.

The murmurs of the crowd grew louder as the spectating student body burst into excitement about the matches that they had borne witness to up until then. They had witnessed some of the most fascinating battles of magic that they had ever seen up close. They also couldn't help but become extremely excited as to who would emerge victorious in the fourth round and make it to the final round the next day.

Cæ drank some water to quench his thirst as he felt a heavy gaze fixating on him.

His stormy gray eyes shifted to catch none other than Serulia Vritra staring at him. Her gaze lingered for a moment longer before slowly shifting away.

Her interest was understandable.

He was her next opponent, after all. If she could defeat him, then she would earn the right to partake in the final battle with the seven final contenders from the seven blocks and fight for a genuine chance to represent the Colohen Branch of the Elendir Institute of Magic in the Magic Contest.

Cæ, however, had no intention of allowing her to get that far, of course.

He took a seat as he fell into thought, pondering how he ought to fight his next opponent.

'She's tricky.'

Illusionists were tricky to fight. And, in particular, Serulia had displayed a resourceful and clever application of illusions against her opponent to obtain victory against them. He was especially impressed by her resourcefulness and the final illusion that she cast to get her opponent, Merun, to lower his guard so that she could take him out then and there.

Even if she had trained extensively in illusionary tactics and strategies, it still showed that she was a very challenging opponent. If he let his guard down, she would probably seize victory against him in the blink of an eye.

'I should assume that I'm in an illusion at all times against this opponent,' Cæ closed his eyes as he tried altering his mindset. He was generally trustful of his senses, but in this fight, he would have to assume that everything he was seeing was a mirage. 'This will keep me on my toes at all times and help me react quicker to any surprises.'

This was a good mindset to adopt against an opponent like her.

However, while he was very wary of her strengths, he was also aware of her shortcomings.

'Out of all the students in the fourth round, she probably has the weakest mana-motive force and eidos mastery.'

These were the two most fundamental parameters that constituted magic mastery. The reason that she had gotten as far as she did despite that is that her magic was relatively unique, and her opponents didn't have experience fighting against illusionists.

She had also cast the non-magic illusion on everybody about her true specialty, deceiving everybody that she was only an invisibility specialist.

'She must have told everybody for quite some time that she was exclusively focusing on invisibility magic,' Cæ realized. 'As long as she spread this truth enough time ahead of the selection process, then she would undoubtedly be able to fool everybody. And it has proven to be a brilliant strategy, considering that it made it all the way to the fourth round.'

But the secret had undoubtedly come out. It also alerted Cæ to her long-term strategic thinking, something that he needed to keep in mind.

'The inexperience of her opponent against illusion magic, the secret of her specialty, and her strategic and tactical thinking…' Cæ grew engrossed in thought. 'These are her greatest strengths and the reason that she has made it this far.'

Thankfully, the second reason was no longer valid against him, and while strategic intelligence was great, Cæ was hardly short-sighted by any means. The first reason was probably the only chance that she had against him, as far as he was concerned.

'Given the intelligence she has displayed this far, it is entirely possible that she has a trump card that she has yet to display to save for our battle.' Cæ's expression grew severe. 'Still, the only thing I can do for that is be extremely careful.'

There was also not much he could do for his inexperience with illusion magic. He would simply have to learn from her previous battle and make sure that he didn't make the mistake that Merun made.

He lost a battle he could have won, and that was something that Cæ intended to weaponize.

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Another weakness that Merun had inadvertently exposed was that she couldn't automate the change of her illusions to automatically match changes in her environment. Thus, any sudden drastic change could expose her momentarily.

'However, that only works if she's forced to use illusions instead of invisibility,' Cæ mused. 'And the only reason that she was able to do that was Merun's poisonous gas. That forced her to create a bubble of fresh air, which forced her to use illusions to change the color of the air around her.'

That also meant that she wasn't able to spread her invisibility spell to anything beyond herself, which was also an important limit that could prove to be decisive in his battle with her.

Regardless, he had a good idea of how he was going to approach this battle.

'My defenses are stronger than hers, which means as long as I set up a powerful defensive system, I should be able to keep her from reaching me. Of all the spells she displayed against Merun, her offense was easily the weakest.'

It wasn't just a matter of her mana-motive force being weaker; it was also true that she hadn't mastered much offensive magic in the first place, reducing the complexity of her offensive magic and making it easier to counter.

He could alter his defenses to specifically counter her simpler or more singular attacks.

Thus, she had no way of actually defeating him if she placed enough power into his defense.

'That is reassuring, but what should I do to actually defeat her?'

Cæ was extremely unwilling to take the role of a hunter as Merun had. It was a waste of mana and gave her many opportunities to counter him. Instead, he wanted to go with something that was more foolproof.

'Wide-scale magic that covers the entire battlefield is guaranteed to hit her, but the issue is that wide-scale magic dilutes the potency of the attack, allowing even her weaker defenses to deal with it.'

This meant that he would be wasting just as magic if he simply tried an aggressive tactic of blasting her with wide-scale magic over and over again.

'Then…' his eyes sharpened. 'I will have to rely on an incantation to increase the power of the spell. If I chant a tenth-circle wind blast spell, I should be able to put in enough power to knock her off-balance and cause the spell to disrupt.'

Of course, it was possible that she kept her invisibility automated so that even if she was distracted, the spell didn't get dispelled. He kept refining his plan as he tried accounting for all the information that he had gotten from her previous fight.

Another advantage that he has is that she was also injured, something that would undoubtedly affect her performance.

Soon enough, it was time for round four.

Almost all of the participants had visible fatigue on their faces and in their bodies. Having fought multiple matches in each round, they had been through a lot of grueling combat. Almost none of them were at their peak condition, but they would have to make do with whatever they had.

The student body grew pumped with energy as the air tingled with anticipation and excitement. The combat facility, illuminated by the afternoon Sun, gained a heavy atmosphere as each of the fourteen participants took their stand before each other in the arena.

STEP

STEP

Cæ found himself standing opposite to his opponent, Serulia Vritra. Her athletic uniform was scratched and torn in several places, yet she didn't lose any of the aristocratic bearing that he perceived in her. She comported herself with dignity even though she was undoubtedly at least discomforted by her wounds and her exhausted. Her light blue eyes were laced with determination while her golden hair was disheveled.

She was clearly in a worse position than most participants.

Cæ was tired, but far from running on empty.

He was also unharmed, something that worked greatly in his favor.

"Draw your wands or weapons."

They both drew standard-issue wands of the Elendir Institute of Magic.

"…And begin!"

From the moment the arbiter began the match, a single magic circle emerged before Serulia as she became invisible.

Cæ, on the other hand, waved his wand as a conjuration spell of the darkness magic emerged before him.

WHOOSH

In the blink of an eye, darkness consumed the entire combat arena to the very brim.

No one could see anything, much to the dismay of the spectating students.

Cæ would abuse the spell a lot more if not for the fact that even he couldn't see anything.

He wasn't immune to its effect just because it was his magic.

However, in this case, it was helpful because it made it extremely difficult for her to target him, giving him plenty of time to complete his strategy of using an incantation spell to overwhelm her with raw power.

Several magic circles emerged before him as he excluded his immediate surroundings from the spell. He cast a powerful barrier of heaven and earth to protect himself from any attack, along with the darkness spell, as he began chanting his incantation.

Incantations were powerful because they took longer, allowing for more mana to be poured into the spell.

However, because much of his mana-motive force was already consumed in fueling his defense spells and his darkness spells, it would take even longer for his wide-scale offensive magic to reach the scale of power that he sought for it to.

Thus, he simply chanted within his little burrow, drowning the entire battlefield in darkness as he completely avoided his opponent.

The students grew even more displeased with each second.

"Hey, get that darkness out of here!"

"We can't see anything!"

"Hell, they aren't even attacking each other. Boring!"

Cæ simply ignored the spectating students.

He didn't mind if his strategy was boringly effective.

He wasn't here to put on a show of entertainment for spectators.

He was here to win.

And this was the most effective strategy for him to win.

Illusions and invisibility were meaningless if an overwhelming attack swept across every inch of the combat arena and washed her out of it with overwhelming power.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Several impacts blasted across the entire battlefield with what was clear desperation.

'Looks like she has figured out what I am up to.'

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

She began launching powerful attacks across the entire battlefield.

Some even hit his defensive measures, but she wasn't able to pinpoint him.

That was the point of the darkness.

Without it, she would be able to concentrate the most powerful firepower that she could muster. However, with the blanket of darkness across the entire combat arena, she couldn't find him. And given that his attack would sweep over the entire battlefield, he didn't need to see her.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Several minutes passed as Cæ took his time with the incantation, pouring as much mana into it as he could.

Until it was time to unleash it.

A powerful eidos of an omni-directional wind blast attack emerged in his mind the moment he ended his incantation as his eyes lit up with mana.

His defense disappeared as he unleashed his most powerful attack.

BOOOM!

A thundering wind blast swept over the entire combat arena.

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