Chương 61: Will He Lose?
Inspired by Leopold's usage of two elements simultaneously, Greyson started to test it out during his down time. To no avail, sadly, as the minute he summoned up a different element, the other element would die off because his concentration was broken. He realized he was not making a breakthrough just sitting and trying it and felt that he needed a moment's epiphany to understand. Therefore, he decided to just wait until his next match to try it out on his opponent.
His next opponents were severely disappointing, however, and did not give him enough pressure. Apparently, his first opponent Victor was fairly talented among the group who passed because the next opponents were underwhelming to say the least. Most of the time, the fight only took him a couple spells to end and this was him taking it easy. Multi-element magicians definitely have the upper-hand compared to the normal magicians because there are more elements that are not very effective against them. Take Greyson, for example, most elements had a lessened effect on him since he could control them as well. The Absinthe family could easily break through Greyson's dark element spells because that was their element focus, however, this was applicable to the seven of Greyson's elements. This ability, though, did not mean he was invincible. A multi-element magician's advantage to shake off a lot of spells was only true with magicians around the same level and stage as him. Magisters could blow him away with any of his seven elements and he would not be able to resist.
Most of Greyson's opponents' spells did not have a large effect on him making his job much easier. His ease in passing made others envy him, however, Greyson only felt frustration and an inability to challenge himself. Feeling helpless, he could only look towards Leopold and Natalia with great expectations. Witnessing their earlier fights, both of them could use multiple elements at once. Natalia even had one more element at her disposal, but she was not as aggressive nor offensive of a fighter. A lot of her combination spells were good at deflecting, even her fluid and flexible sword ability matched this more passive fighting style of hers. On the surface, this defensive style made her look weak, but Greyson could tell how much talent and strength such a style requires. Quick comprehension to see through the moves of her opponent to skillfully deflect or block their attacks and fluid, quick movements to avoid any attacks. She skillfully used her wind element in her movements and fire in her sword. Sometimes, even her earth element would activate for heavier defense. Although her fights were more drawn out, Greyson could not calculate the actual bottom of her strength as she was always joking around with her opponent. Inwardly sighing, Greyson couldn't help but feel that this girl was a serious piece of work. I wonder how much grief she must give her parents and the servants?
Leopold's style, on the other hand, just left one feeling extremely overwhelmed by strength. One move. That's all it ever takes. Greyson continued to try to pry something from his fights, but they all ended so quickly that there was nothing to see.
On and on the battle went, until everyone had mostly been knocked out. Earlier on, Greyson had already caught on to the set up. They were saving Natalia, Leopold, and him for the last battles. Morning turned to night and the first day of the battles had concluded with most of the rankings already confirmed except the top three. All of the students were sent to a temporary lodging for the night. While the rest were asleep, there was still one pair of eyes that had not shut. Greyson could not fall asleep as he wanted to see if he could use at least two elements like Leopold. He felt it would not be possible to even get close to using three like Natalia, so he focused on two easy elements that he was the most comfortable with: water and wind. They were the earliest elements that he used the most. Wind for the Air Steps that had been his most useful spell in the beginning and water which had been the first element he thought he could use.
Easily activated Air Steps, Greyson took out Genesis and held the sword in his hands. While still in the air, he tried to activate the water element on his sword. However, time after time, it only resulted in him falling from the air and falling to the ground. He did not know how to overcome this stage. Maybe it was because he was focusing too much on his entire body? After multiple failures, he decided to only activate Air Steps in his left leg and put Genesis in his right hand. Trying to split his concentration, he pictures the left half of his body covered in wind, while the right side was swimming in water. When he opened his eyes, he realized he was still in the air and his sword was covered in ice. He had done it! The minute he cried out in jubilee, his concentration had been broken and he slammed back into the ground. Unprepared for the sudden fall, he had fallen into the dirt getting himself completely dirty.
After this important breakthrough, Greyson could finally activate his other elements two at a time as well. However, he could not do it comfortably at all and was still clumsy trying to summon them. The left and right option was all he had to work with and he could not even easily change it up. Mouth slightly twitching he wondered what it would look like in battle. Would he hop around with his left leg while swinging around his right arm? Sighing lightly, it seemed that it would not yet be plausible to use this skill in battle unless he is desperate. With the little time left in the night, he decided he would sleep for a couple hours to try to lessen his exhaustion for the battle tomorrow.
Day came around quickly and the sunlight shined onto Greyson's sleeping face. Feeling the light, Greyson's eyes twitched slightly before groggily opening. Groaning slightly, he wondered whether it would have been better to have just slept instead of practicing on something he should have known he wouldn't be able to master in a short amount of time. However, his eyes lit up as he remembered a spell he had learned. His eyes flashing to a shining gold color, Greyson allowed the light element energy to flush through his body as he felt his exhaustion slowly melt away. Letting out a satisfied groan as he stretched out his newly refreshed body, Greyson soon smiled while thinking that the spell was totally worth learning. In his down times back at the academy, he had looked through most of their spell collection. The spell he had just used was a light element spell called, Renew. Although the healing effects were small, for older people or exhausted people it was perfect. The spell refreshed the body to the person's most ideal condition. It helps with aching bones, sore muscles, sleep deprivation, even some hunger. At first, Greyson had doubts about whether he would need it, but he had still learned it just in case because another healing spell would never hurt. Now at times like this was this spell very useful. All spell had limits, though, and with Greyson's magician level he could only use this spell once before his body would crash at night and he would spend the night actually recovering. The stronger he was, the longer he could repeat this spell over an extended amount of time to survive in adverse situations. When he ran out of mana, the light element would stop making up for the exhaustion and he would crash, thus the higher the level, the more mana he would have to sustain that state. At least, the spell would stay active until after the next two battles unless they completely drain him of his mana.
He slightly worried about passing out after his battles, but nothing could be done about it. The next battles were extremely important and he didn't want to go into it feeling sleepy and exhausted. Following the rest of the crowd of awakened students, Greyson slowly made his way back to the arena of yesterday. Noticing that even more people than yesterday were in the crowd to watch, Greyson thought it was probably due to the famous reputations of both Leopold and Natalia so everyone wanted to come see their battles. All the other students already had their rankings, so they sat in the audience seating while Greyson, Leopold, and Natalia made their way to the stage. Once again, they had to draw a ball, and whoever drew the blue one this time would be the one who would rest while the other two fight first. To the surprise of everyone, Natalia had actually chosen the colored ball again. Who knew where this girl got her luck from? While the other audience members were still whispering in awe of Natalia's luck, Greyson and Leopold were only looking at each other with strong intentions to fight.
Looking at the two boys who were obviously releasing their fighting intent while ignoring her, Natalia rolled her eyes before smiled brightly.
"Hmph, well you two stupid bulls go out it first. I'll just clean up afterwards." Her smile was so sweet that the audience all thought they had misunderstood her words at first. However, her words were yet again ignored as Leopold smiled and held his hand out to Greyson.
"I'm Leopold Basileus. You can just call me Leo. You're Greyson, right?"
Taking his hand and smiling back, Greyson responded in kind.
"Yes, nice to meet you. I have been looking forward to this fight extremely. I hope you won't hold back."
"Hahahaha! Great! I've been looking forward to fighting a worthy opponent as well! Do not worry, I never go easy on any of my opponents." Feeling all fired up, Leo laughed with great vigor feeling happy to have finally found someone who he felt rivalry with. Natalia was talented, no doubt, and maybe even stronger than him. However, her personality really left one speechless and no matter how hard he tried he could never get her to treat him seriously. As an opponent and rival to push him harder, Leo felt that such an existence was missing.
Said Natalia, was looking at their interaction with a pout of her face. She would definitely get back at the both of them for ignoring her like this. Finally feeling the cold glare, Leo looked over to only see the grievance on Natalia's face. Slightly breaking out in a cold sweat, he recognized the look on her face. A painful and helpless smile broke out onto his face. What tricks would she pull this time?
Vice Principal Morninghand summoned both Greyson and Leopold onto the stage while Natalia stepped off to wait. He looked at the both of them with a slightly warmer expression than usual. After witnessing the rest of their exams, Morninghand had nothing but approval towards these two geniuses who were joining the academy.
"Alright both of you, I hope you will not take it too far. Killing and permanent injury is not allowed, so take note of this."
Both of the boys nodded their heads with understanding. They had no real enmity and they valued each other as rivals, why would they go and kill off someone so important?
"Hmm... good, since you both understand, then this match STARTS!" After calling this out, Morninghand quickly disappeared from the stand and appeared back at the top of the stadium booth with the other judges.
Leopold quickly summoned his spear, while Greyson summoned Genesis.
"A sword?"
"He was a sword-user?"
"I haven't seen him use a weapon in his other matches, though."
Slight ripples went through the audience, but Leo just smiled as he believed this was Greyson taking him seriously. Bursting into action, Leopold took the first stab at Greyson who blocked this first move with a sturdy earth wall before slashing down with Genesis. A wind blade formed and sliced towards Leopold whose fire shield in turn dissipated the attack. All of their attacks were quick and the weaker ones in the audience almost could not follow everything hit by hit. Smiling brightly, Leo swept with his spear as multiple ice shards formed. Greyson could only activate Air Steps to quickly avoid the attack and once he landed he fire out his Fire Arrows to only see them bounce off harmlessly from Leo's fire armor.
His brow furrowing, Greyson realized that the only way he could catch Leopold was if he used his element at the same time as well. Otherwise his abilities to attack are too low. Leo was attacking and defending himself at the same time while Greyson had to first dodge or block before attacking. Placing Genesis in his right hand, Greyson suddenly used the wind element to allow his left leg to burst with power. Charging in quickly with unexpected speed, Greyson swung down Genesis which was now arcing with lightning. Slightly caught unaware by the sudden change, Leopold could only swing his spear in response cutting down towards Greyson. Greyson held out his left hand and blocked the incoming spear with an ice wall while still slashing down with his lightning sword with his right hand. The sword hit landed, however, his ice wall was a little too weak from the split in concentration so the spear swing still hit and sent him flying to the side. Both Leo and Greyson spat a little blood from the damage that they took. Greyson's, however, was more from the brute force leftover, while Leopold could feel his left side which was hit by the sword had gone numb. He started losing strength in his left arm.
"Nice hit! Hahaha my whole arm feels numb." Leopold praised Greyson as he was the first of his peers that forced Leo into this situation.
"You as well." Greyson grimaced back. That had taken a lot more concentration and mana than Leopold was aware.
"I thought about holding back on this move, but I think that would only be insulting this fight. Prepare yourself!"
Returning to the basic starting position with his spear, Leopold breathed in slowly. Since his left arm was out of commission, he could only hold his spear with his right arm. Soon the red and blue colors blended together to the spear point. Feeling the indications of this move, Greyson felt his cold sweat run down his back. Combining elements! He could feel the destructive power gathering.
"Will I lose?" Greyson suddenly had this thought. But he could only grit his teeth refusing to back down here.
Leo's right arm's muscles slightly bulged under the weight of the spear. With both his arms the spear was still manageable, but with only one arm he was definitely pushing it. However, he still burst out while thrusting his spear out towards Greyson.
Watching the impending spear, Greyson felt himself drift into an amazing state. On the outside, his eyes had changed. One a beautiful blue, while the other a warm brown. In front of him grew a hard metal wall with hard ice covering the wall for double the defense. When the spear and wall collided, a loud crash sounded out as Leo was thrown backwards and Greyson spat more blood as his wall crumbled. The crowd held their breath to see who would be the one left standing. Greyson was the first to collapse and fall onto the ground breathing hard while Leopold was bruised all over but still managed to stand.
"You have won." Greyson bitterly smiled.
"No, we have tied. No matter what anyone says, this win was not mine." Leopold denied with a shake of his head.
"I have no mana left and I'm about to collapse. It's okay, I am not a sore loser. This only means that I will work harder and surpass you later." Greyson, however, was clear with his situation.
"I am older than you, and have had much better teachers than you. I was curious so I looked up your information. You have not even had a proper multi-element teacher, yet. If anything, the fact that my mana is also so low and I am worn out like so; this is a real pathetic win. I can already see you quickly defeating me after attending the Academy for a little while with your talent. However, I will not grow complacent. I will not allow you to surpass me so easily!" Leopold held out his hand to help Greyson up. Smiling after hearing the other boy's words, Greyson took the hand offered and slowly got up.
"Hahaha, good! Good! This is how it's supposed to be. I look forward to both of you working hard and improving. Today, is Leopold's win, however, I am looking forward to seeing you guys battle again!" Smiling warmly, Morninghand announced the result.
Feeling his empty mana and the Renew spell wearing off, Greyson knew that he needed to recover. He was escorted to the physician area and soon crashed onto the bed given to him.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
LazySky
LazySky Sorry, my readers, if you were hoping for Grey to like always win and never lose. Obviously I want him to win all the time, but honestly that's so unrealistic for someone coming from his background. I always love a good OP protagonist, however, I believe that true growth happens from losing at times even if it's a rare occurrence (it was kinda a tie anyways).
Enjoy and have a lovely day~!
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