Cardinal: God Spell

The rest period the students were given was more than up, and all 4 teams had been given time to recover and strategise, as such the match was bound to be an entertaining one. This was also going to be the first time in the past year that The Academy's strongest student would be given a stage to showcase his stuff.

Such a thing had been written off as unnecessary for too long and now he was going to have to defend his title as the undisputed number one. That was exactly what he ended up doing in the opening match of the group tournament, Sebastian fought the entire enemy team 1 on 5 and beat them all, including the academy's in-name number 3. He revealed himself as an Entry Level Master Mage with 5 elements all having awakened with unique traits being the {Nova Flare} Fire Element, the {Arch Angel} Soul Element, the {Constellation} Space Element, the {Fatherland} Earth Element, and the {Glorious Sun} Light Element.

Witnessing his one-sided dominance over the 3rd group made Sora gain slight respect for this generation, It was no sage series magic, but this Sebastian Character was the only individual who used the ignition method, however incomplete, to cast his spells rather than his mana paths, as such not only was he the most powerful and versatile mage cultivation-wise, but he was a mage who was using the full power of each one of his spells, Sebastian was the first individual in this Academy that Sora respected from the bottom of his heart.

After the awe-inspiring first match, the teachers gathered for what they assumed would be a more even display of magical prowess across both Teams as they were placed in an open plain with a Kilometre-wide radius from where both teams stood. On one side were Zhu Linlin, Clarence Joules, Christopher Lance, Xiao Yaya, and Chen Piso from Group 2- On the other side were Mu Lima, Jun Wie, Leonardo Colston, Marcus Sterling, and Sora. 

The first to act amongst the 10 was Mu Lima who used his [Lesser] Hail Shard Assault to force Team 2 to disperse by their means, it came as no surprise that the other members of Team 4 split up to challenge their respective marks, leaving Zhu Linlin and Mu Lima to have centre stage in their brawl. The other fights were broken up into Sora and Marcus Vs Piso and Xiao Yaya, Jun Wie vs Christopher, and Leonardo vs Clarence.

Xiao Yaya kicked off the first fight by double-casting her [Perfect] Scent of Confusion and [Advanced] Scent of Fatigue to dissuade her enemies from coming any closer, making it a point to try and alleviate the effects of both spells on Piso. Like clockwork though, Sora fired a [Perfected] Fireball at Piso to try and force the two on the defensive, his borderline instant casting speed catching Yaya off guard. The second-year Pinnacle intermediate mage barely managed to raise her Binding vine and wrap herself up in it to blunt the damage. While the vines were almost instantly burnt, they did their job and softened the blow on Yaya allowing her to back away.

She wondered why Sora's spells were so strong despite being fired from a distance but ignored it, she was a crowd-control mage who had been tied up in a fight with two damage dealer mages and needed to find a way to stall till anyone else could help. At the same time in the second fight, Christopher was annoyed by the fact that he was fighting a Fourth year for whatever reason, a Half-step Profound mage at that, he was strong for a third-year student but that didn't make him strong enough to challenge the upper brass of the higher year, especially one that had counters for almost everything he could bring to the table.

Jun Wie started the fight off by casting his [Perfect] Inner spirit Manifestation, covering his entire body with the spirit of a Chieftain Class Rhino Beastman. Christopher tried firing off a few of his [Perfect] Corrosive curse arrows, but despite only being a spirit manifestation of a chieftain class beastman its hide was still much too tough to break through, so he tried changing his strategy up by trying to trap Jun Wie in his [Lesser] Vineyard prison, but the Fourth year Tank Mage simply erected a [Perfect] Earth wall to stop the Vineyard prison from trapping him and leapt out of the top firing a [Perfect] Hydro Pump spell at Christopher in retaliation. Christopher quickly used the Vineyard Prison on himself and only let it harden to protect him from the force of the incoming attack.

The third fight of the lot was the first time that the difference in experience showed itself as there was a mirror match with the shadow element, with neither side wanting to show too much of their skills if they could help it. Besides the fact that Clarence was casting his skills faster than Leonardo was, their strongest spells were at different levels with Leonardo only having just awakened it while Clarence had already perfected his own Shadow puppet spell, meaning that in this fight he would lose if he tried to force it to remain a pure shadow element battle.

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The main fight though, was by far the most important of the lot- Mu Lima had limited himself to just his Ice, Fire, and Space elements as they were the only ones that could harm Linlin when she was manifesting her Dragon Kin soul beast, Acid did nothing and was too slow to hit her even if it did do anything. On the other hand, Linlin had full access to her full plethora of skills, from her Soul, To her healing, to even her poison elements which all had a means of bypassing Lima's Space element- She couldn't use her Acid element but it wasn't her go-to element anyway, she only ever developed it to make sure her cultivation didn't stagnate so not being able to use it didn't hold her back in any conceivable way.

This match ultimately came down to who could foil the opponent's trump card faster, could Lima beat Linlin's dragon manifestation first and secure himself the win, or would Lima's versatile Soul manifestation overwhelm Lima's space element and eventually beat him to a pulp. To avoid wasting effort both mages got right to it, Linlin used her [Perfected] Inner spirit Manifestation, dawning the scaled limbs and wings of her Dragon Kin soul beast, meanwhile, Lima used his [Perfected] Telekinesis to take to the skies and attempt to get an early advantage.

It was a waste of his time though as Linlin beat her wings and took to the skies after him turning their fight into an aerial battle. Linlin fired her Soul Beast's Dragon breath at Lima forcing him to use his [Perfect] Gravitational Force and [Advanced] Crushing force to boost the power of his [Advanced] Scorch and try and match Linlin's raw firepower of a Pinnacle Chieftain Class beast. The two blasts cancelled out but multiple arcs of lightning rapidly gathered around Linlin and shot out in a single, shining white bolt at Lima, who equally followed up with his [Perfect] Flame spear just to have his fire disintegrated and barely manoeuvre his way out of the path of the lightning bolt Linlin shot out at him.

Lima grit his teeth and fixed his attention back on Linlin just for her to already be within striking range, Linlin attempted to blast Lima out of the sky with a punch but the Space mage bore it with a mix of his Mental force and gravitational force spells, forcefully keeping him airborne. Lima then grabbed Linlin's wrist with both hands and used [Perfect] Land of Ice with his Death Frost applied to freeze Linlin's entire right arm through before being blasted away by her left fist. "Annoying bastard", Linlin muttered as she knew without even checking that her dominant arm would be out of commission for a while if she let it thaw. Linlin didn't get a chance to think before she was hit by Lima's fire and space combination spell and was equally blasted back with her right arm being blasted to pieces as a result.

Lima flew after Linlin rapidly attempting to knock her out with a gravitational force-reinforced punch, just for Linlin's right arm to instantly regrow and catch his fist, tanking all the fore and momentum he had built up with apparent ease. Linlin gut-checked him once more with her left fist before throwing Lima at the ground with her right arm, but the Fourth Year space mage refused to make contact, stopping himself with gravitational force and staying airborne with his Telekinesis. At this moment, Mu Lima acknowledged one thing, Zhu Linlin's title as the Academy's number two was by no means a joke. He had more than a few broken ribs and dislocated joints that were only functioning properly because he was using some of his telekinesis to forcefully hold them in place and move them, he could feel his consciousness slipping and he still hadn't figured out a way to consistently make Linlin even use her healing magic, talk less of actually overwhelming it. 

"Do I have no choice but to listen to that brat??", Lima questioned as he felt his breathing get increasingly heavier, He had heard Sora explaining the proper way to cast spells in passing and played it off as a joke but at this point he was willing to try almost anything to win. "Fuck it... might as well", Lima resolved as he began flooding his fire elemental core with mana, completely abandoning his mana path and filling the core till its profound stage. he tried igniting the mana the first time with nothing happening as Linlin began building up another lightning blast, He tried once more in a fit of desperation and somehow he felt it.

He felt his mana twitch, almost like a muscle, before it ignited and he successfully cast it, his [Advanced] Scorch. Despite being wild and uncontrolled, Lima's spell shot into the sky overwhelming Linlin's lightning blast and Launching Linlin into the distance before she crashed to the ground for the first time in the fight. Only then did Lima's consciousness begin to fade even more as he dropped to his feet, wondering if his attack just now was effective. Little did Lima know, that for the briefest moment, Linlin passed out after she was hit and regained consciousness before crashing to the ground and healing herself up.

Linlin got up with plenty of difficulty and found herself disoriented from the blast, the only thing she was sure of was that under normal circumstances there was no doubt in her mind that she would have lost the fight then, but she doubted that Lima could recreate that power from his spell, even if he could, she wasn't going to arrogantly give him another chance to use it on her again.

Linlin looked around for the rest of her team just to find Chen Piso and Xiao Yaya unconscious at her feet, there were deep burn marks and bruises from physical trauma all over the two of them and it gave her a bad feeling. Linlin cast her [Advanced] Spirit Beast Summoning spell, and as a result, the spirit of a female Thunder Dragon Kin emerged from her body, having the unrestrained strength of a Dragon Kin at the Chieftain level.

The only problem with this spell was that since she had such a low level of mastery over it, she was constantly burning mana just to keep it out, she would then also have to burn mana every time it took damage, launched an attack (regardless of nature), and when it needed to heal. Using this spell at her level turned her into a glorified basic summoner with an overpowered glass canon of a summon and that very fact is why she never used this spell as a secret trump card if she could help it. She only went this far this time because If she missed out on this chance to go to the Divine Tower like she had done the year before she would never be have the chance to catch up to a monster like Sebastian again.