Cardinal: God Spell

Longwei, Juri, and Piso were the first to be called up as the only elite students of the lightning element, with the squad system the students were introduced to the elite class in recent years there wasn't any squad that wouldn't want a lightning mage on their side; not only is it by far the fastest and strongest element among the basic elements but it also had the paralysis effect it dealt on the odd chance you somehow managed to survive the actual strike.

In all honesty, Sora was tempted to expose his 2 elements just for the prestige and potential resources he could have access to as a lightning mage but decided against it until he could cast at least full-powered magic for all 4 potential elements he would have at the intermediate level. That being said the showcase was simple, all of the mages here would have three chances to successfully cast their spells so that their casting speed, spell power, spell control, and rarity of the type of spell could be evaluated, If anyone had an innate talent they would likely be assigned as student captain of the squad who answered only to their assigned squad leader.

The first of the lightning Users to display their might was Ma Juri; As an early-stage basic mage, she was expected to only have access to 'lesser' spark, the 1st stage of the lightning elements basic spell. Sora could tell as soon as she started channeling mana through her elemental core's mana path, she was about to cast the 2nd stage of the lightning element basic spell 'True' Spark.

In 2 quick seconds, she completed her mana path and her spell was beginning to form around both of her palms, she jammed both of her palms together to build up the power of the spell taking an extra 2 seconds. Juri fired her spell and the sky-blue arcs of lightning formed into a bolt of lightning and shot out at Instructor Hei-Jin whose first element was the Earth element. Hei-Jin nodded at her casting speed of just 4 seconds which was much faster than anyone who started in the elite class in previous years, Despite the lightning spell traveling toward him at near instantaneous speeds he never panicked.

Hei-Jin suddenly started moving backward despite not moving a muscle, the ground around his feet became soft and carried him backward at the same speed as the spark bolt that was aimed at him, he was utilizing the final stage of the earth element basic spell, 'Perfect' earth ripple. After evading for 10 yards Hei-Jin placed his finger on the tip of the approaching spark bolt and it began to freeze in the air, The effect spread over the bolt's body and even froze both of Juri's arms, effectively stopping the spell. As soon as Juri's spell stopped Hei-Jin stopped using earth ripple and looked at the complete frozen form of the spark bolt Juri shot at him while rubbing his chin with a pondering look on his face.

"It certainly has range but if it can be frozen with my Ice spread at this meagre distance it is lacking in power", Hei-Jin remarked as he inspected the frozen bolt. He snapped his finger and the Spark bolt crumbled into shards of ice on the ground along with the sheet of ice holding Juri's arms in place.

"Your casting speed and control are all excellent for your level, you simply need to pour some resources into your spell power and you'll grow into a formidable lightning mage", Hei-Jin said before asking Juri to step aside which she did with a mildly frustrated look on her face.

Sora was genuinely impressed by the instructor's ability to freeze a lightning bolt even if it was a weak one, it was common knowledge that lightning spells were especially strong against Ice and water so Hei-Jin certainly had Sora's acknowledgment.

Next up was Longwei who stepped forth with a nervous frown as he stared intently at Hei-Jin who used Perfect Earth Ripple to return to his original position and simultaneously clear out the Ice on the path. "Fire at will", He ordered with an indifferent look on his face. Longwei began with gritted teeth and took a total of 8 seconds to cast and form his spell which turned out to be a True spark once again. This one had dark gold sparks that danced around his outstretched arm, forming a bolt at the centre of his palm. Longwei fired his bolt off to the right at an angle, making all students except members from Class 1E laugh at his 'mistake'.

Longwei's spark bolt curved around and almost struck the side of Hei-Jin's head, The Instructor drifted backward by a yard to evade the spell and was about to write the spell off as meaningless showboating when he sensed Longwei's intent still on the spell, not long after the spark bolt curved once more and turned around and shot forth at Hei-Jin's back. The ground around Hei-Jin softened and spiralled around him before shooting up to form a circular wall of mud that Hardened as soon as it rose to 8 feet. This was the final stage of the advanced earth spell, Perfect Earth Wall.

Just as Longwei's spark bolt was about to hit the earth wall it curved up and turned down into the centre of the circular earth wall, as it landed spark travelled up through the walls of the earth spell and the Earth wall exploded, creating a massive dust cloud that covered up Hei-Jin's form. The students were shocked silly by Longwei's control of his spell and the fact that he struck the Instructor who was an Advanced mage, they looked at him with a newfound respect for his talent.

Sora knew exactly what Longwei did and was surprised that someone like him had the nerve to pull it off, that wasn't talent at all; Longwei had overclocked his mana reserves to keep pushing his spark spell further without it losing power and used his raw intent to turn and control the spark bolt at intervals. this would allow his attack to land at full power but would almost empty his mana reserves and ruin his concentration for the next few hours. Just as Sora predicted after a few seconds Longwei wobbled and collapsed, dropping to one knee as he did.

That wasn't what most people noticed; the dust cloud had cleared and revealed Hei-Jin standing over a patch of cracked and scorched earth, a drop of sweat running down the side of his face as he stared at the foot-deep hole of scorched earth beneath him with a frown, it was as wide as a pole and he couldn't help but wonder if he would have survived without the perfect basic spell of his third Element. "I'll admit I can't say this event is boring anymore... But at the end of the day, a pathetically weak party trick cast by a joke of a magician has no chance of being effective", Hei-Jin said before chuckling and using perfect earth ripple to clean the ground up and return to his original position.

Next up was none other than, Chen Piso, the person with both the greatest elemental talent and highest cultivation of the lightning users; Despite just turning 16 he was already a Mid-stage basic mage with 5 stars fused with his mana core, furthermore it was clear from the intensity of the aura leaking off of him that he wasn't stuck at the meagre 2nd stage of his basic spell.

Piso stepped forward and patted Longwei's shoulder as the exhausted lightning mage stumbled off before finally walking up to his position to start the display. "I would advise you to take blocking my spells a bit more seriously, It would be bad if I accidentally injured one of my beloved instructors", Piso warned earnestly despite the clear anger on his face. Not many actually knew this but the Zhu Dynasty helped the Chen clan many decades back and the 2 clans had always been friendly with each other since; seeing Longwei whom he thought of as a dear cousin embarrassed that way pissed Piso off to no end.

Yes if one looks at the difference in cultivation they would laugh his claim off as some sort of weird new form of joke, but the Divine Kaiser lightning element which he awakened was nothing to scoff at, it increased the casting speed, power, and force of his Lightning spells by 3 times the regular amount, while having a suppressive effect on elements lightning wasn't even strong against. With how much force Piso planned to use on his spell the warning was well justified.

Before the instructor could even scold the boy Piso cast his spell instantaneously and formed an advanced spark in his palm without error in half a second; By the time Piso had lifted his palm and aimed at Hei-Jin his spell was long since complete and a beautiful black bolt was in his palm. When Piso fired the spell the bolt tore through the sky quite literally, and the air around it swirled in a tight and violent formation forming a wind spear around the Black spark bolt.

All of a sudden a unique energy swirled around Hei-Jin's form as scaly armor formed over his hands and palms with his fingernails being shielded by claws. The scale armor spread to his shoulders and back but not anywhere else, two metallic wings sprouted from his back and coiled around him as Hei-Jin shielded himself. The Black bolt struck Hei-Jin's wings and blasted him back making him skid on his feet for 20 yards before he managed to force himself to stop with a perfect earth ripple.

This time Sora was pissed off, there was no way in hell any of the lightning mages were going to do serious damage to him with this ability. What Hei-Jin just used was the basic spell of the soul element, Inner spirit manifestation. Not only had he taken the spell to the advanced stage but his spirit beast was some sort of Metal Dragon, not are lightning spells less effective against dragons and their kind in general, but Metal Dragons were basically immune and would only maybe be blasted back by the force of the spell with the lightning itself being useless.