Although Kelson was at a disadvantage, he kept his composure far better than the other contestants.
By fighting steadily and cautiously, he managed to hold his ground.
But that was exactly the situation Herad wanted.
He controlled how much he held back, but he still could not afford to win too decisively.
Only by creating suspense could he raise the odds for the next match.
The sense that Kelson might win kept the bookmakers and gamblers firmly hooked.
Fireballs and arcane missiles bombarded each other, looking a little like fireworks.
Yet those dazzling fireworks were lethally dangerous attacks!
Those fist-sized fireballs were hot enough to melt steel.
The arcane missiles resembled purple grapes and did not seem especially powerful.
These spheres of pure arcane energy looked harmless, but they exploded and disintegrated whatever they struck.
Whether they hit metal or flesh squarely, the result was a blasted hole.
Any creature thrown into the arena without protection would instantly be burned to charcoal or turned into a ragged sieve.
Spells were no less lethal than the firearms of this world.
And these were only basic spells.
More advanced spells could rival cannons in power!
The more powerful a technological weapon was, the larger it needed to be.
A mage, however, remained just one small person.
Yet the seemingly monotonous exchange between these two mages would already have caused at least a hundred casualties on a battlefield.
Even trolls, with their innate ability to regrow severed limbs, could not withstand the devastation of fireballs and arcane missiles.
Locked in a battle of attrition, Kelson finally lost his composure as his mana reserves dwindled.
He had no idea how much mana his opponent had left or how many more attacks he could launch.
To give himself a dignified exit, he deliberately dispersed the flames in his hands and loudly conceded.
"I concede! I'm out of mana!"
Seeing that his opponent knew when to quit, Herad stopped attacking as well.
A voluntary concession was a good thing.
It saved a Magic Protection Device.
Anyone who insisted on fighting until their device activated would surely have a black mark quietly entered against them by the Magic Academy.
The contestants in Herad's group were all fairly even-tempered.
Even Kelson, a seeded contestant expected to advance, sensibly conceded when the time came.
Still, a few stubborn protests were inevitable.
He said indignantly, "If you hadn't kept those arcane missiles up your sleeve, I might not have lost."
The armchair champion's argument made sense, and most people agreed.
Even the gamblers who had bet on Herad felt that his victory had been sheer luck.
The two had looked evenly matched.
If Kelson had not wasted mana at the start, he could have cast several more fireballs.
Then there would have been no telling who would win.
That conclusion suited Herad perfectly.
He wanted people to think he had won by a fluke.
How else would the odds go up?
With such enormous profits at stake, there was no harm in flattering his opponent a little.
Herad immediately put on an award-worthy performance.
"Yes, I really did get lucky this time. The arcane missiles made a big difference."
In truth, Kelson already accepted his defeat.
After all, that display of arcane missiles had been genuinely smooth.
If he had not forced his Spell Shield to activate, his shield might have been shattered right at the start.
Still, his opponent's modesty made him feel considerably better.
He glanced at another arena where a match was still underway, and the last of his frustration faded.
The two contestants battling fiercely there were leading favorites to win this spellcasting tournament.
Yet they had faced each other early, in the group stage.
One of those two title favorites was destined to be eliminated today.
Now that was a real shame!
Satisfied to see someone even less fortunate than himself, Kelson left the arena.
Even a true genius was being stopped in the group stage, so his own defeat hardly mattered.
There was nothing to complain about when your opponent was stronger.
The fierce clash in the final arena also drew Herad's attention.
Those two contestants were remarkable: their strength and tactics were much the same.
Both had chosen Flame Shield for defense, alternating between Fireball and Scorch to attack.
The immensely powerful Pyroblast, however, was nowhere to be seen.
Pyroblast could conjure a massive fireball larger than a basketball.
If successfully cast, it could deal heavy damage to all sorts of shield spells, including Flame Shield.
But everyone had counterspells.
Halfway through the lengthy casting of Pyroblast, a counterspell would shut it down and inflict severe backlash for good measure.
The quick-casting Fireball and Scorch were the standard choices when fire mages fought each other.
A duel between two fire mages generally followed that pattern.
What most caught Herad's attention about these two fire mages was that each had brought a water elemental.
In the game, water elementals were a mage's best assistants.
But only frost mages could have them.
In reality, a water elemental was a type of elemental golem.
Mages controlled these water-based elemental golems through magical bracers.
The Arcane Field on the magical bracers restrained water spirits summoned from the Water Elemental Plane.
Put simply, mages tricked water spirits into coming over, then bound them with magical bracers.
Constrained by the Arcane Field, they had no choice but to work for the mages.
Even if an enemy destroyed their bodies, the water elementals could recover over time as long as the magical bracers remained intact.
These stubbornly persistent elemental golems were favored by every mage.
To Herad, however, enslaving water spirits to do their work was simply taking advantage of their docile nature.
Fire spirits, wind spirits, and earth spirits.
Mages rarely provoked those three kinds of elemental spirits.
Hot-tempered fire spirits would flare up at the slightest provocation and resist a mage's enslavement even if it meant punishment.
Fickle wind spirits were notorious turncoats, liable to betray their mages at a critical moment.
Earth spirits were actually quite docile too.
But they were slow to react and struggled to carry out a mage's tasks.
The performance of the two water elementals casting Water Bolt in support was quite satisfactory to the mages.
Water bolts striking a Flame Shield could effectively weaken it.
Combined with their masters' spell attacks, they could exert considerable pressure.
But with both mages using the same tactics, the scene looked rather like two amateurs pecking at each other!
Both kept piling pressure onto their opponent, hoping to overwhelm them with attacks.
Yet neither was a novice who would crumble easily.
Both were determined to hold on until the very last moment.
In the end, one of the two title favorites fell.
With water elementals summoned to assist, their frost-infused water bolts even triggered the lifesaving device supplied by the academy.
The device activated just in time, releasing a powerful Spell Shield that absorbed the incoming frostbolt.
Watching the contestant protected by the transparent Spell Shield, Herad suddenly became very interested in enslaving elemental spirits to work for him.
Previously, he had looked down on the practice of enslaving elemental spirits.
Elemental spirits were not particularly intelligent and could only help their masters fight.
Arcane golems could both fight and work, making them far better than golems formed from elemental spirits.
But arcane golems were not permitted in the tournament.
Herad had never enslaved an elemental spirit.
If he entered the tournament like this and faced a title favorite, he would be fighting one against two.
That would be a very unpleasant feeling!
So he decided to capture an elemental spirit for the tournament.
The quarterfinals were scheduled for the afternoon, leaving him plenty of time to prepare.
Before you continue