"I hope the three of you are prepared, guinea pigs."
Vaan spoke with a big smile on his face. It was not just him, the other Mages, who knew how much Vaan had 'changed', all had smiles on their faces as well. From the way Galen and the other mages were talking, it was easy to guess that they didn't know what had happened in the Vesta House in the past few weeks.
Everyone here knew that these 3 Mages were in for a big awakening and they were all here for it, excited to see how this was going to end.
Galen and the other two mages narrowed their eyes in confusion.
Seeing everyone smirking at them, they felt embarrassed.
"I hope you are prepared as well, Young Master Vaan!
Because we are not going to go easy on you." Saying those words, Galen bravely stepped into the Magic Duel Ground and his two friends followed behind him.
Soon, a 4th Circle Mage who was chosen to be the judge of the match stepped up, looking at both parties, he spoke,
"The Rules of the Duel would be the same as any normal Duel, do both parties agree?"
"Yes-"
Galen nodded, however,
"I do not.
I want to change one rule."
"Huh?"
The three Mages and the judge frowned,
"What would you like to change, Young Master Vaan?" The judge questioned.
"Remove the option to surrender.
The Duel should continue till one party passes out." Vaan then looked into Galen's eyes and, "How about it? Do you have the balls to agree?"
"Until one party passes out…?"
Galen muttered.
"It won't be fun if the other two surrenders when I am done with the first one, would it? These people were generous enough to give us their Slots, the least we could do is entertain them with a good show, don't you think?" Vaan questioned with a playful smile on his face.
"Of course, you can always disagree if you are a pussy."
"Heh, removing the option to surrender huh?
I just hope Young Master Vaan does not regret this later."
Galen's smile widened.
Taking that as a yes, the judge nodded.
"The Rules of the duel are clear, the first party to pass out will lose, killing is forbidden, I wish to two parties the best of luck.
Now,
Start the duel."
Saying those words, the judge stepped back.
The three Mages quickly summoned their Magic Circles, all of them were 2nd Circle Mages, this was the reason why they were so confident about this.
Vaan was unreasonably strong, his fists were heavy, his reaction speed was fast and he seemed to be experienced in close-distance combat.
Which, of course, was their weakness since they were mages.
They didn't know how a waste like Vaan turned into such a fine fighter, however, what they did know, was that Vaan stood no chance in front of them when it came to Magic Duel.
After all, how could a mere 1st Circle Mage stand against three 2nd Circ-
"…what?"
Suddenly, Galen's expression changed.
Vaan had summoned his Circles.
He summoned 2 Circles!
H-He was a 2nd Circle Mage!
And that was not the scariest part,
"W-W-What are those circles!?" Kaelen, another Mage who stood in the Magic Duel Ground questioned as he pointed at the Magic Circles Vaan had summoned.
He had even stopped summoning his circles, that was how shocked he was and how could he not be? Vaan's Circles were completely different than normal circles he knew about.
"There it is! To think I would get to see the Advance Circles everyone was talking about!"
Suddenly, a mage who was witnessing the Duel spoke, his eyes shining brightly, showing his excitement.
"Heh, this is the second time I am seeing the Advance Circles yet they are still as mesmerizing as the first time I saw them." Another Mage commented.
"Wait, you were there when Young Master Vaan was challenged by those mages?"
"Indeed, I saw everything with my own eyes. I saw how Young Master overwhelmed all the mages using his Circles. That was quite an eye-opening experience."
"Then you must have seen how strong the Advance Magic Circles are, correct?"
"Of course. As I said, Young Master absolutely overwhelmed his opponents, of course, his opponents were quite weak since they were not from the Vesta Family and the spells they had were inefficient, but the way Young Master Vaan defeated them made it clear, their spells didn't matter.
With Young Master's Advance Circles, it was only a matter of how long they could last without getting hit, the difference between the two was simply too high."
"What do you think about those three, the Advance Circles may be strong, but can they allow Young Master Vaan to win a 1v3?"
"Well, that is about to be revealed, isn't it?"
The mage replied and as he did,
*Whoosh*
Vaan fired the first Spell, his favorite, [Fire Spike].
Of course, a Spike that was boosted by 12 Inner Circles.
*BOOM*
A huge explosion was heard, all three mages jumped back, dodging the spike. However, even though the Spike didn't hurt them, sensing its unnatural power, they all widened their eyes in disbelief.
"I-Is this the result of those weird Circles?" Kaelen spoke with a horrified look on his face.
However,
"Don't think too much!
We can't let our guard down, he is stronger than we expected, however, that doesn't change the fact that there are three of us and just him alone.
We can still win this, spread out!
His spells may be stronger than normal, however, if he could only target one of us, the other two can attack him back.
Don't lose hope!
We can still win this!"
In the end, the three of them were still Vesta Mages who were sent to the Academy to represent the Vesta House.
They may not be the strongest of the lot but they were much different than the mages Vaan fought before. All three of them were capable of joining the Elemental Clash and performing well in it.
Soon, the three mages got themselves together and spread out evenly, they made it such that Vaan couldn't get them all in one attack and started summoning their circles again.
It was time for their counterattack.
Galen, who was a Wind Mage, quickly summoned a wind spear, the spear quickly shot towards the second Fire Spike that was coming towards them.
*BOOOM*
The Spear and the Spike collided and another explosion was heard, however, the difference between the strength of the spells was clear as the Fire Spike simply destroyed the Wind Spear and continued with its path.
"Heh."
Even though his Wind Spear was destroyed, Galen smirked.
The wind spear had already achieved its goal, and that was to slow down Vaan's Fire Spike. He had enough time to cast a defense spell and not only that,
"Fire Ball!"
"Earth Spike!"
His team members now had the chance to openly attack Vaan from other sides as well.
2 spells rushed towards Vaan, each coming from a different direction.
Normally, this would be a bad situation, Vaan, however, was not a normal Mage.
He started running.
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
"What…?"
The audience and the three mages all blinked in surprise. The two mages however, quickly activated [Direction Manipulation] and started chasing Vaan.
Vaan continued to run as he gathered the surrounding Mana to cast another spell, the two spells followed him, with how quickly they were catching up, the difference in speed was clear.
If Vaan couldn't do anything, he would get shot by the spells and the duel will be over.
But what could Vaan do?
He was running away, no Basic Mage was capable of casting a spell as he runs, and without being able to cast a spell, Vaan couldn't block the attack.
Not to mention Vaan was a Fire Mage, even if he could cast a spell, not many Fire Spells were capable of blocking both Fire Ball and Earth Spike in such a short.
But then,
[Water Shield]
Vaan casted another spell.
As he did, the three mages widened their eyes in horror.
"H-How is that possible!?" Galen questioned.
How was Vaan casting a Spell as he ran!?
Also, wasn't he a Fire Mage? How did he cast a Water Spell!?
Did he perhaps use an Instant Spell?
Galen wondered, soon, however, he shook his head, he clearly saw the Circles being summoned and the spell casted.
Then…
Was Vaan one of those Duel Elemental Mages!?
That was the only possibility.
A Duel Elemental Mage capable of casting spells as he runs, not to mention those absurd Magic Circles he uses…
Just thinking about all this gave Galen and the other two mages a big headache.
His nightmare, however, had just started.
"Flamey, Splashy!"
Vaan called out his trump cards.
"Krrii!!"
"Guruu~"
Two adorably creatures appeared around him.
"I will be leaving the Spell creations to you two."
"Krrii!"
"Grruu!"
The two fairies nodded as they took control over Vaan's Mana,
And then,
Vaan ran towards Galen with a big wide smile on his face.
"Take at least 100 punches before you pass out, piggy."
