BANG!
Shang exploded forward with all his power, the ground beneath him shaking as he used his Fire and Ice Affinity to increase his speed.
For a moment, the Adept became nervous when she saw Shang's speed.
'Calm down, Leen!' the Adept, Leen, thought. 'Just do what teacher told you to do! First, Mana Shield!'
Leen quickly spoke several words in a shockingly fast fashion. It didn't even take her half a second.
Some distortions appeared around her as her Mana Shield appeared.
A normal human, not experienced in combat, would have taken longer to recover, but Mages trained their minds. They were thinking far quicker than warriors. Because of that, it appeared like Leen had created her Spell as soon as the battle had started.
Shang was still 25 meters away when the Mana Shield appeared.
'I should be able to create an Ice Spear before I have to use Mana Step,' Leen thought.
Leen's words jumbled together as she spoke faster than Shang could fathom.
When Shang was ten meters away, a long needle made of ice appeared above Leen's head.
'Next, Mana Step,' Leen thought.
Shang arrived in front of Leen and swung forward.
SHING!
However, Shang's attack missed as Leen suddenly vanished from his vision, and she nearly instantaneously arrived over 20 meters away from him.
Of course, Shang had expected that his opponent would use Mana Step. He had seen plenty of fights, and he knew all the spells the Mages could unleash.
Without pause, Shang immediately charged toward Leen again.
Every Mana Step consumed quite some of Leen's Mana, and consuming all his opponent's Mana was one of the most common methods to win the fight.
After some words, a second ice spear appeared beside Leen.
Shang reached her and struck forward.
Leen vanished again, but this time, Shang had noticed where she would go.
Leen had looked in a certain direction after she had finished her Incantation, telling Shang where she would go.
Experienced Mages would never make such a rookie mistake. They would have scanned the surroundings beforehand and would remember where they wanted to go. They didn't need to look in that direction while using Mana Step.
So, Shang struck the place where Leen would pass to.
CRRRRK!
The sound of two hard things grinding together echoed throughout the room as Shang's sword was pushed back.
Shang had hit her Mana Shield!
30 meters away, Leen's face became white.
'I lost so much Mana!' She thought in horror. 'Don't panic, Leen! Just do what teacher told you! Create another Ice Spear!'
Shang charged at his opponent again.
A third Ice Spear appeared beside Leen.
When Leen saw Shang approach her, she was uncertain of what she should do. 'The fight has been pretty easy so far. Should I try a Mana Push? I should be able to win if I can pull it off.'
However, when Leen saw the violently approaching Shang, she became fearful. 'Too risky!' she thought as she prepared another Mana Step. 'Just do what teacher told you!'
'Everything is prepared. Now, I only have to pull it off!' Leen thought nervously. 'Just do what teacher told you!'
CRRRK!
Shang's sword ground against Leen's Mana Shield again as she vanished one more time.
Then, Shang turned towards her to follow her.
BANG!
The Magic Circle on Shang's uniform activated.
While Leen had shot towards the distance, she had thrown one of the Ice Spears at his head, triggering the Magic Circles of his uniform.
Shang was more than a little surprised. When he had seen the Apprentices fight the Soldier Stage warriors, he hadn't seen any of them essentially use two Spells at once!
Shang had even seen very talented Apprentices, but even they hadn't been able to do something like this!
And just when Shang recovered, Viera appeared in front of him.
CRACK! CRACK!
The two other Ice Spears were destroyed by Viera.
Just now, Leen had unleashed all three of her Ice Spears in a line.
This was exactly what her teacher taught her.
Warriors often had some armor that defended them from a life-threatening attack, which was why it was important to line up several such attacks at once.
Shang looked with shock towards his front.
'I lost?' he thought.
His opponent had been incredibly inexperienced, obviously.
Yet, his opponent had still won against him with ease!
Shang guessed that his opponent probably hadn't even used 70% of her Mana!
'I did it!' Leen thought with an excited smile. 'It went down exactly as teacher said!'
"You can leave," Viera said to Leen. "Contact the teacher responsible for external rewards in your academy for your payment."
Leen quickly recovered and bowed politely. "Thanks, miss," she said.
Leen threw one last glance at Shang but didn't say anything else.
Shang looked scary, and she didn't want to be in his vicinity.
After Leen left the room, Viera looked at Shang with a bright smile. "Well done! You managed to exhaust her Mana by a lot!"
Shang didn't feel as proud of himself.
'I exhausted her Mana by a lot, huh?' Shang thought.
Shang clenched his fists.
'She was insanely inexperienced, but she still won!'
Then, Shang remembered all the fights he had watched between the red uniforms and the Apprentices.
'However, none of the Apprentices had been able to wield Magic as fluently as her. I wonder…'
'Is this the effect of the Mana Source?'
"What role did the Mana Source play in this fight?" Shang asked Viera.
"Her Ice Spears," Viera answered. "Her Mana Source allows her to quickly manifest them and keep them active without using too much Mana to sustain them. However, the biggest advantage is the ability to Half-Cast."
"Half-Cast?" Shang asked. He hadn't heard of that ability before, even though he had visited Vice-Dean Ranos' class for an entire year.
That probably meant that Half-Cast was something that only Adepts could use. After all, Shang had only been in the Preparation Grade, which was for warriors at the Soldier Stage.
"In the Apprentice Realm," Viera explained, "Ice Spears is one Spell. You summon them and then unleash them. However, after getting a Mana Source, you can Half-Cast. Half-Cast allows you to prepare a Spell and interrupt the Incantation without destroying your work."
"She finished 90% of three Ice Spear spells one after the other and then finished all three of the Incantations rapidly one after the other."
"Each of these Spells represents a very powerful attack. After all, she took nearly a full second to create one. One Ice Spear Spell has about the same power as if you were to abandon all defense and put your everything into a single strike."
"But as a Mage, she can prepare several of these strikes beforehand. Of course, since a Mana Source has to be Element-specific, Half-Cast only works on Elemental Spells."
"You also have to remember that a Mage's closeness to their Affinity allows them to finish the Spells whenever they want. Your opponent, for example, finished the Spell while using Mana Step. You didn't know that, which was why she was able to take you out."
"But this is the point of training. You are supposed to learn these things so that you don't fall for them when your life is actually on the line."
"Anyway, you did very well against your first opponent, Shang," Viera said with a bright smile.
Shang absorbed everything Viera explained, but he couldn't even properly digest it before the doors to the room opened again.
Shang looked over and saw a nervous young man looking into the room.
'Another inexperienced opponent,' Shang thought. 'I guess this is what I have to deal with for the next few days.'
