Oblivious to the fact that his fight motivated Half Emperors to bet, Reiner jumped out of the platform and went to the resting area not without nodding at Arianna before his figure disappeared into the gate.
Jester on the other hand was in a so miserable state that he was brought by two assistants in a stretcher towards the infirmary, normally Kirik, in other words the clan head of the fire crane clan of the Risha family would have taken him to the family grounds so that he would personal treatment.
But since he and Horace were still busy dealing with something, the representatives of the Risha family were Veronica, Anya and Irina and none of them cared about Jester.
The referees repeated the selection process for the next match and after a second they got the participants.
"Rank number 12, Felix Argent".
"Rank number 15, Erick Gillian".
The screens changed to mirror the newly chosen participants, Felix is similar to Reiner in the aspect that he also has wolf like ears and tail, his body isn't slim nor too muscular, making it hard for others to realize if he is a mage or a knight.
Erick on the other hand was a tall slim man, his hair is a mix between dark brown and some blue strands, and his eyes were light blue, his skin was also a bit pale making him look slightly haggard.
While most of the people in the stands thought Erick could trip due to a small rock or maybe get flown away by a casual current of air, Diana stole a gaze at the skybox of the elite class as she nodded.
'I hope that girl realizes her future will be bright in the academy of the army after this fight'.
Back at the platform, the referees returned to their positions giving the greenlight for the match to start.
Although Felix thought this fight was on the bag, he didn't underestimate Erick, Jester was beaten to a pulp by someone who technically was weak against his affinity after all.
'You stole the stage for you as always Reiner, but I won't be ending second to you this time', he thought as he let out his battle aura flooding half of the platform with a dark brown light.
Erick didn't show any reaction, but there was water condensing on the floor near him, a sign that he is a water affinity mage.
Even if Felix was trying his best to not look overconfident, he couldn't help but let a glint of disdain flash on his eyes.
"Water… what are you going to do heal me to death?", he said as he snorted.
"Rock Claw!", Felix stomped and a large spike of earth raised from the ground, aiming at Erick's leg.
Erick calmly stood there with a bored expression, only when the spike of earth was a few centimeters away from him, a single word came from his mouth.
"Jet", the water under Erick's feet seemed to have come to life, propelling him as if he was sliding on the floor.
His image dashed sidewards perfectly avoiding not only the spike of earth that was coming at him frontwards, but a second one that that sneakily raised from his back making the previous a pincer attack.
Felix frowned, water mages are known for being "slippery", unlike wind mages which are fast, water mages are hard to hit, but in exchange their offensive is rather weak until they reach the Lord realms, but at that point other affinity mages have developed better offensives than them.
In other words, a water mage is a good support including healing spells, but they aren't apt for combat, or at least that's what Felix believed until this day.
"If two aren't enough to get you then how about twenty", mumbled Felix, the ground trembled as a bunch of earth spikes raised form the ground surrounding Erick.
Erick's eyes finally showed some reaction, but it wasn't the panic that Felix expected but… disdain.
The ring in Erick's index finger glowed and a pair of gloves with small holes on the tip of his fingers covered his hands.
He then tapped the ground with his right foot and started rotating, the water of the floor splashed all over the place, until a wave was shot form his still rotating body.
"Rupture", as Erick's voice echoed through the arena, the earth spikes were cleanly cut in many little dices.
Felix used his arms to protect his body, while also raising a wall of earth in front of him.
"Boom!", the wall crumbled apart and the impact made Felix step back a few meters, leaving behind a trace of broken rocks, because he attached himself to the ground but was still forced backwards.
While Felix looked at his arms which earth armor had deep scar from which water was oozing, Erick stopped rotating, his face was a paler than before and a moment later he covered his mouth with his hand barely resisting the urge to puke.
"No way!", the reaction from the people in the stands was all similar, originally, they believed Felix's skin tone was due to a combination of lack of exercise and a weak body, two things pretty common in water mages, but it turned out to not be the case.
At the skybox of the elite class, Aleah showed a slight bit of interest in the current fight.
"What a weird technique, pressured water can make holes in steel, but it requires a really high pressure for it to work, to be able to imitate it while being a mage and not a knight, although he used some tricks it's not too shabby".
Calvin nearly choked at Aleah's words, a mage with the element known for being the worst in offensive literally obliterated the defense of a knight which used the best element for defense, and her verdict was "not too shabby".
"Not everyone can be a monster like you or Daimon, you know?", he mumbled.
Speaking of Daimon, he now understood why Diana was so keen in bringing Aleah to the academy of the army, if they were able to create such a technique for a water mage, what could they do with someone with such a high battle prowess as Aleah.
As for the "trick" mentioned by Aleah, it was the water on the floor, it didn't only work as a medium for that weird movement spell which consisted in sliding on the floor, but it helped to reduce the friction at the moment of rotating while also being used as a support so that his body didn't randomly wander on the platform.
'Even those gloves had really small holes from which the water was shot at an incredibly high pressure, forming slashes… truly creative', thought Daimon as he injected mana into his eyes.
…
Back at the platform Felix was dumbfounded, a water mage made he, a knight with earth affinity step back and not only that, his arms were a bit numb due to the impact.
"Fuck!", he shouted, the earth armor which was clad around his arms restored and also plaques of earth covered his neck, chest, legs and face as she jumped towards Erick.
'If a long-range battle isn't fitting, then how about a close combat, I would like to see a mage beating a knight up close', he thought as he landed a few meters away from Erick.
"Let's get rid of that annoying movement spell of yours", said Felix as he waved his hand and little bits of earth mixed with the water on the floor turning it into mood.
But as Felix was about to pounce onto Erick like a wolf which bites its prey, he suddenly lost the balance on his right leg and his body inclined towards it.
Feeling that if he didn't move, he would lose, Felix jumped backwards with his left leg landing a few from his original position.
He then looked at the armor on his knee which now had a small almost unnoticeable hole from which blood was coming, he gazed at Erick just to see him pointing his ten fingers at him.
"Water bullets".
While others only saw Erick pointing at Felix and the latter jumped with an angry expression, Daimon could see the ten drops of water which were shot at a fast enough speed so that they couldn't be seen without using mana sense.
Felix managed to dodge some of the bullets which impacted against the ground carving holes of about five centimeters deep.
Felix looked at his arms, legs and stomach on which there were now a few holes of about one centimeter of diameter and his face lost his color.
Erick slowly walked towards Felix as he spoke.
"What the hell is that spell, how can a water mage use such a destructive attack... that is what you are thinking right?".
Erick saw that Felix wasn't showing any reaction and he shook his head, he had lost his will to fight, so the match was over, but since he now revealed his true fighting abilities a bit of propaganda was in order.
He pointed at Felix with his index and thumb which were imitating a pistol, but unlike before he did the process slow for everyone to see.
A large amount of water condensed on the tip of his finger before it compressed to the maximum possible, creating a little drop of water which then rotated before it was shot at Felix's chest.
"Booom!", the drop of water clashed against the earth armor making it explode at the contact, launching Felix's body backwards.
By the time he landed outside of the platform he had already lost consciousness, the referees approached him and inspected his wounds.
Since they were also part from the army, they knew this was going to be the result, although they couldn't show any favoritism, they couldn't help but give thumbs up at Erick.
"The winner is Erick Gillian".
