Chapter 393: Bringing an end to the mission.
The problem with having safe team tests like these was that they ended too quickly, meaning there would be no break.
The students continued their lessons the following day, and although it was more stressful as usual (mostly because of Zirrack), Blake made a lot of progress.
From the last fusion class, Blake realized that he was meant to fire both elements as a single entity. So during the 1st fusion class of the week, he did exactly that.
It involved simultaneously activating both fire and lightning pathways before firing both of them from the same palm.
He got it right from the first instance, but he soon noticed that although it wasn’t as mana-consuming as his previous technique, it drained a lot of mana.
By the 2nd class, Blake began working on the efficiency of casting plasma fusion spells.
Throughout the 1st half of the class, he didn’t accomplish anything, but in the other half, he received an epiphany.
…..
Creating plasma was basically heating a gas until its electrons have sufficient energy to escape the hold of the positively charged nuclei.
Blake’s thought was that gradually heating air to make it reach that temperature was the most mana-consuming part.
So to overcome this, Blake tried charging up the combined version of both elements before firing it.
When the combination of both elements was fired, the air immediately reached a very high temperature, and all it needed was a little bit more push before plasma was produced.
Once plasma was created, he needed less energy to keep the air in the path at the same temperature.
This discovery had increased the efficiency by more than 50%, which was the same level as Serhan.
For the forgemastery class, apart from tirelessly practicing drawing more arrays at once, there was nothing else.
The combat class was where Blake made the most progress, and it was all because of Instructor Zirrack.
After he saw multiple students quit, Zirrack had decided to double their already hellish exercises.
The exercises became almost too much for even highly physical people like Blake, Luciano, and Haldor.
As for all those that were less physical, fainting due to physical and mental exhaustion became constants in classes, but Zirrack didn’t care.
Fortunately, the increased exercises led to a massive boost in his progress in body enhancement. Mana channels had formed in the entirety of his outermost and innermost part of his skin. This not only made his skin more resistant to physical force but to also magical attacks.
This meant the muscle fibers were the next area of concentration.
…
A week after the test, Blake felt that after 6 weeks of putting the demoted 2nd-year students in their place, it was time to finish the mission by challenging Serhan to a ranked battle.
This wasn’t just any ranked battle, it was one between the top students of each year. It was a battle that would shift the power balance between both years.
If Blake was to win, the demoted receive more shame than what they were currently receiving from teachers and 1st-year students.
If Serhan was to somehow come out victorious, the bullying of the 1st year students would resume in full force.
‘Seems people are more interested in the match than I thought.’ Blake said as Instructor Zirrack warped them into the battleground.
It was already the middle of the week, so everyone knew what was going to happen. That was why many had camped at the battleground to get the front-row view of the fight.
‘Now that I have learned mana fusion there is basically no difference between me and him.’ Blake said as he didn’t take his eye off Serhan who was at the other end of the battle ground.
[Actually, there is.] The system said. [In terms of fusion magic and normal magic skills you both are on the same level. When it comes to body enhancement, experience, and arcane spells you are superior.]
The 1st year students were ahead in both body enhancement and arcane only thanks to Instructor Zirrack and Professor Gibson.
Professor Gibson had inculcated the habit of using arcane spells at an early stage, but that was never done for the demoted 2nd-year students.
In the case of body enhancement, although both years were currently in the same class, the 1st year students had been under Instructor Zirrack for longer.
Their bodies had been pushed to their limits right from the beginning of their stay in the school. So it was natural for them to be ahead.
(AN: Don’t get it wrong, the demoted 2nd-year students had their own instructor, but he wasn’t as good and brutal as Zirrack.)
Soon Blake and the system began discoursing all types of possibilities that could happen. Like Serhan using an artifact, surrendering, and so on, but Serhan magically reaching the hero realm wasn’t part of it.
This was because Serhan hadn’t done anything heroic neither had he done anything villainous. The only thing he had was a list of failures.
He had been outperformed by the 1st years in the beast tide causing his already frustrated father to be furious at him.
He hadn’t done anything to stop Blake’s rising momentum.
He wasn’t even in the top 10 of the recent team test.
With everything going on, Blake’s main fear was Serhan surrendering because there were chances it would ruin everything he had worked for. 𝙗𝙚𝒅𝙤𝙫𝙚𝒍.𝒐𝙧𝙜
Once the time for preparation had elapsed, Instructor Zirrack signaled for the start of the fight.
“Begin!”
“So far all of your demoted 2nd-year mates have bored me. Hope you would be different.” Blake taunted Serhan as he activated lightning reinforcement.
“What about your sword?” Serhan ignored his taunts as he wore a necklace and activated lightning reinforcement.
In a battle of lightning users, non-lightning projectiles were useless because they could move faster than it.
“I don’t need it to show you your place.” Blake said with a smirk as he dashed forward.
On reaching Serhan, Blake threw a right hook to his face, but Serhan easily dodged it and gave him a punch to his abdomen.
‘What the fuck?’ Blake was shocked by what just happened but didn’t waste time to double arm block before giving a quick jab to the head.
Once again Serhan dodged it and made use of the opening to deliver another punch to his right abdomen.
‘What is going on?’ Blake asked the system as he immediately backed off.
[The feather necklace increases his speed to a little bit above yours. Also, from what I have seen it seems to have also increased his thinking speed.] The system analyzed.
It was one thing for Serhan to dodge his attacks, but it was another thing to perfectly counter them.
‘That makes a whole lot of sense.’ Blake said as he took in a deep breath before reengaging with Serhan in close combat.
He took the same approach and gave him a right hook to the head, but as Serhan dodged it and launched a counter-attack at his open right arm, Blake didn’t care about defending instead he dished out a left punch to his face.
Both punches connected but from the look on their faces, it was only Serhan that seemed to have been affected.
This was not because Blake had coated his body with a layer of mana, it was mainly because his body was stronger.
“You hit like a sissy.” Blake said as he didn’t give Serhan any breathing space.
He continued to throw out punches without regards for his defense, and although not all were connecting both of them were equally damaged.
“Is the artifact all you have?” Blake asked as he backed off and spat out blood. “Since there is nothing new, then it is time to get serious.”
Blake activated the mind boost before unleashing a barrage of punches and kicks at Serhan.
The only difference this time was that every attack that didn’t connect passed through a spatial dagger and appeared at an unsuspecting angle.
In a matter of seconds, the tide of the battle had changed as Serhan was now forced to be on the defense.
Although he was faster than Blake, his speed was not enough to dodge attacks coming from all angles.
As time went by, more attacks were connecting and the damaging Serhan was taking was only pilling up.
It soon got to the point that Blake had no more need for the spatial tears.
“Got you!” Blake said as he got a hold of his neck.
*************************************************************************************
Check out 3_Sins_Studios works: Deviants and Reborn in a Magical World: From Cultivator to Mage.
The account is a group work from me and two other authors. I hope you like it.