Cardinal: God Spell

Zhu Linlin and her summoned Dragon Kin spirit made their way towards team 4 who stood over the unconscious bodies of the rest of her teammates and grimaced slightly, If she had some backup this fight would be as strenuous on her but now she was essentially going to have to repeat exactly what Sebastian did. 

Before Linlin and her Spirit beast stood Sora, Marcus, Leonardo (Tired as he may be), Jun Wie (still in his beast form), and Mu Lima, who had recovered from his earlier exhaustion, even if slightly since Linlin was no longer 'equipping' her Dragon Kin spirit Lima's Acid element was back on the table and he wouldn't be likely to need to use that weird casting method that Sora accidentally taught him, powerful as it was, the recoil was ridiculous and it took way too much mana to use in a fight consistently without adequate practice. 

Jun Wie in his Rhino Beastman Spirit manifestation charged in and attempted to tackle The Dragon Kin just for it to budge barely, He drove his spirit horn into the Dragon Kin's abdomen just for it to equally do nothing, it was then that the Dragon Kin was blasted in the face by a 'knuckled' Fire Fist: Drive making it stagger back in recoil. It was then followed up by a [Perfect] Flame spear that exploded in its chest sending the creature skidding backwards. Upon stopping the Creature immediately fired its beast breath at Team 4, just for Jun Wie to double cast his [Perfect] Hydro Pump and [Perfect] Earth wall- Spells that were easily blown away by the sheer power behind the beast's breath attack.

It was then that a figure blasted out of the smoke and attempted to drive its knee into the Dragon Kin's face just to be blocked and revealed to be Marcus casting his own [Perfect] Spirit Beast manifestation of a pugilist. At point-blank range, Marcus coated his body in the Pugilist Race's lava form and launched a flurry of lava-based punches that did negligible damage to the Dragon Kin. Marcus then landed a lava-powered drop kick, boosted by his [Perfect] Mental Force spell. Before the Dragon Kin could even retaliate it was somehow bound in Christopher's [Lesser] Vineyard Prison, going through all stages before breaking out of it and taking flight from raw physical might.

The Dragon Kin was about to release yet another beast's breath but suddenly disappeared from the sky and reappeared in front of Linlin just in time to block her Sora's attempt at a point-blank Knuckled Fire-Fist: Drive. Before smacking Sora aside and shooting a bolt of thunder his way- The bolt struck Sora mid-air for the 2 hit knock-out that blasted Sora into the ground and removed him from the fight. The Dragon Kin then appeared Behind Marcus, attempting to end him like Sora just to be hit by Lima's compression scorch spell, one that blasted the dragon's upper left body clean off. 

The Dragon Kin staggered slightly and looked at Linlin, wondering why she wasn't being healed, only to realise that Christopher, who had been turned into Leonardo's shadow puppet, had hit Linlin with his Scent of Confusion, Scent of Fatigue, and Scent of Vitality all at once, making her run on fumes just to keep The beast fight much less healing her. In her momentary distraction, Marcus landed a clean point-blank Mental Force-powered Lava hit on the Dragon Kin's chin, staggering it before it was frozen through by Mu Lima's Land of Ice spell. Only then did Jun Wie smash the Dragon Kin Spirit to pieces with a single full-powered blow to the body.

Zhu Linlin's spirit beast was gone and she now had less than a quarter of her total mana reserve left to fight everyone off- and fight she did, at the end of the day, Linlin beat everyone on Team 4 excluding the still energised Lima who hit her with multiple 'Properly cast' Compression scorch blasts to finally knock her out and win the match for Team 4 putting them all in the final round. Almost expectedly, as soon as Mu Lima knocked her out, he passed out himself from over-exertion and lack of mana- Group 4 and Group 1 would be making it to the final round thanks to the efforts of its captain combined with the innovation and strategy of it's youngest member.

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48 Hours Later

The 4th Year Medical Ward

Mu Lima jolted awake suddenly, just to immediately be met by reality when his entire body was throbbing violently forcing him to lie still before it stopped. After the Divine Tower, he expected that brat Sora to overtake his peers entirely and secure his place as the strongest student in his year, even if only as a result of his method of casting spells alone, If he could master such an energy-draining method, or even better let his mana reserves adapt to it, he would easily become a monster who could fight Magic Beasts at his level of cultivation alone, maybe even multiple depending on type.

"Congratulations Brother Lima... You beat me", Lima heard to his right and turned his head to see Zhu Linlin sitting on a chair beside his hospital bed, perfectly fine and dandy, "Before you ask, being a healer has its perks and gives me more lee-way on medical matters than non-healers", Linlin cleared up before getting serious. "How did you do that Senior Lima... I wouldn't try playing dumb in your situation as I'm not asking this as Linlin", she asked with a sharp glare that gave away the slight personal agenda she had for asking despite her representing her family on this matter.

As far as the Zhu Dynasty was concerned, this loss of Linlin was a win for the clan either way. Sora in the first year had already long surpassed her younger brother despite their attempts to suppress his potential and now the team captain of his regiment suddenly lets him survive the previous round just to suddenly get a temporary boost in spells. It's almost like their accusations were writing themselves. Mu Lima was either going to hand over the secret to his and Sora's rapid growth in strength today, or the Zhu dynasty was going to join hands with the Salvatore clan and the Chen Dynasty to suppress the Mu Clan once and for all before seizing all of their possessions.

"It's called training... I doubt the Zhu clan is familiar with the term but training paired with hard work and a decent level of talent often leads to a fairly rapid growth in strength... After all not every clan can afford to sell their oldest daughter off to some family with a bigger stick to buy out a dragon spirit to claim as part of their family talent", Lima mocked with as much sarcasm as his body could muster. "No matter how many times I fight it, even I know that If that fight earlier carried on as a one-on-one I likely wouldn't have won... But it's easy to win when all of your strength is handed to you", Lima finished off before Linlin finally stood up.

"You can't say I didn't give you a chance Lima... Since you have sided with that nobody over the future of your clan... Try not to regret that choice Later", Linlin warned as the full bloodlust of her Dragon Kin Spirit Beast leaked without regard for the rest of those in the ward. She was the Number 2 student in this bloody academy, without her the academy would have no ability to lift their heads in front of other magic academies who all consistently produce graduating Master Magicians, at least three others per academy, yet their interstellar bunch insisted on being special and 'supporting the needy' when at the end of the day it would still succumb to the politics surrounding magicians these years anyway, they wouldn't dare give her grief over scaring a couple of her peers.

"My only regret Linlin... Is that trash like your Zhu Dynasty thrives by destroying the future of our nation for the sake of your petty politics and your need to feel important... The lot of you are without a doubt the most abhorrent, deluded, and unproductive clan of all of the magic clans... The fact that your matriarch is willing to take on the seed of any even slightly stronger clan doesn't make you lot any less pathetic", Lima spat with blatant disgust before turning his back to Linlin. That was the soul mage's last straw, Zhu Linlin began casting her Profound level Poison spell, [Advanced] Plague, ready to strike Lima down this second.

The plague was being channelled through her right palm and Linlin lifted it to strike down on Lima's back just for her arm to be taken clean off in an instant without her even seeing what had happened. The process was so quick it was painless so she couldn't tell where the attack came from. Linlin didn't need to see it though, there was only one other student who could overpower her, and the teachers in here didn't have the balls to interrupt a fourth-year elite student, to the point that murder was an option and nothing would happen. Linlin regrew her hand with her Instant Healing spell and walked off, but her anger was at a boiling point that was only suppressed by the knowledge that Sebastian Salvatore would withdraw his support if she insisted on harming Mu Lima in his current condition.

"You lucked out Lima, someone really important wants you alive... Let's see how lucky that team of yours i-", Before Linlin could say another word three pointed tips rested on her back, at the base, middle and top of her spine respectively, ready to skewer her if she made another move. "Do whatever you feel like to me brat from the Zhu Dynasty, or is your family insecure enough to need to bully the weak more than they already have", Lima accused more than asked, much to Linlin's further annoyance, if she insisted on this path she knew it would only end up bringing her before Sebastian as an enemy and she knew the Zhu's couldn't afford that happening right now. "Understood", Linlin responded as she took to the skies in her manifested dragon form through the window, flying as high as she yelling in fury and wildly shooting beast breaths all around her to get the anger out of her system.

Little did Zhu Linlin know, that at least subconsciously, in her blind anger, she had achieved the same feet as Mu Lima earlier, she had cast her trump card without using her mana path, so when she manifested her Dragon Kin this time, the power of her beast's breath almost tripled when compared to it's normal variant, a fact she noticed but instead attributed to her boiling rage rather than casting method.

In the first-year ward, a jolt forced Sora awake, however, unlike Lima, Sora was simply knocked out and needed healing so there were no aches and he could leave the ward whenever- He just suddenly got the feeling that it wouldn't be a very good idea to leave right this second. "It seems I've somehow incurred the wrath of a half-breed dragon... how fun", Sora smirked as his eyes looked up in the direction that Linlin had flown, he could feel the increased pressure of her attacks from over 100 kilometres below her, meaning that at the very least she was using her Soul element at it's naturally given strength. Now, she was finally going to be a real threat to him, because now she would act and fight like a real Half-dragon would.

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A week had passed before Team 4 was entirely ready for the final round of the tournament as some already began to wonder how they would fair against the older years or how they would sneak in a few wins before some of the seniors steamrolled them completely. As it turns out they were worried for nothing, there was guaranteed to be 1 representative for each year group- instead of a round-robin fight where one had to avoid losing 5 times first to survive, the 10 finalists would fight in a coliseum setting in front of the entire school in a series of 5 one-on-one fights for the right to go to the Divine Tower. The following fight would make up the 5 matches that would determine the 5 representatives the school would have at the time they would return to the Interstellar Magic Academy and leave this glorified testing ground:

Sora (First Year Elite) Vs Xiao Feifei ('Strongest' First Year)

Marcus Sterling (Strongest Second Year) Vs Han Yunji (Second Year Elite)

Leonardo Colston (Rank 50 Third Year) Vs Carlos Shin (Weakest Third Year Elite)

Jun Wie (Rank 21 Fourth Year) Vs Ji Wenqing (Fourth Year Elite)

Mu Lima (Academy Number 4) Vs Sebastian Salvatore (The Strongest Student in the Academy)