Her defeat in the second round was even more sound than it was in the first battle, as Cæ overcame her in an even quicker fashion despite her change of strategy to focus on defense exclusively, prolonging the battle.
Cæ was just overwhelmingly strong.
The month of missions in the slums had helped him become even more fluid in combat with his magic, growing to become an even more fearsome opponent.
An ordinary student in the Senior Program did not really stand a chance in comparison.
"Winner of the second and the match: Cæ!"
Cæ heaved a soft breath as he departed from the combat arena, to the participant spectator area around the combat area. Immediately, his attention returned to the matches as he threw a sweeping gaze across the various matches that unfolded around him with a curious gaze.
His aim was to spot particularly strong students who could end up proposing a problem to him later on in his block and in the finals. The more he knew about them beforehand, the better he could prepare for them when he eventually had to fight them.
FWOOSH!
"Oh my god!"
"Look at that!"
"That's Hyoken's ice magic!"
A wave of gasps emerged from the spectating student body as ice swept over the entirety of one of the combat arenas. Cæ's eyes sharpened as his attention was immediately drawn to the frozen ring.
At one end stood a young man with pale skin and a spear in his hands.
Across the rest of the combat arena was pure ice, growing in height the further it got away from him.
It had completely swallowed another student, leaving them frozen inside.
In the blink of an eye, the combatant had been rendered incapacitated.
"Winner of the match: Hyoken Sirura!"
Immediately, the magic circle across the ring lit up with profound magical power, as the ice across the ring was vaporized in an instant, freeing the student, who immediately began gasping for air, apparently unharmed otherwise.
The bright, active magic circles and encrypted runes on his athletic uniform depowered, growing inert once he was freed from the prison of ice.
It was perhaps the only reason that he had managed to survive being frozen alive and imprisoned in a block of ice. All the uniforms of the magicademy were actually powerful enchanted items that could guarantee the security of the students during practice and competition.
"I-I resign!" the student shrieked as they ran away from Hyoken with terror as a frosty smile emerged on the latter's pale face.
Cæ sharpened his eyes.
'I will have to keep an eye out for him.'
He was in the same block as Cæ, meaning that they would fight each other sooner or later as long as they kept winning their battles.
However, he wasn't the only student in the Senior Program worth keeping an eye out for. The Senior Program was where students had begun learning about their own strengths and tapping into them.
Thus, there was more diversity in the magic that one saw in the Senior Program compared to the diversity that one saw in the Apprentice Program.
RUMBLE…
Mild tremors passed through the world around them as Cæ's attention was immediately drawn to the epicenter.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!
A student furiously leaped across the combat arena with heaven manipulation magic aiding his motion, barely managing to evade a barrage of hair. Long, golden hair emerged from a woman who stood on the other side of the combat arena. Her expression was calm and composed as she adopted a simple pose of balance, ensuring that she remained centered and straight while her long golden hair continued expanding, blasting at her opponent.
"There goes Mielin Morn and her hair magic again!"
"That stuff is as crazy as ever!"
"Ahhh! She's so beautiful and strong! Go Mielin! We will support you forever!"
Her opponent desperately tried to evade the hair as he launched numerous fireballs at it.
And yet, it did nothing, simply snuffing upon contact.
"She's using body manipulation magic to harden her hair," Cæ realized. "As long as she manipulates all of them in unison, she would be able to create extremely tough whips."
CLASP
"Rgh!" the boy gritted his teeth as his ankle got caught by a tuft of hair.
In an instant, she twisted her body, waving her hand as several magic circles emerged before her.
"AAAAHHHHHH!" her opponent screamed with terror as he was flung out of the arena, landing halfway across the facility as he bounced and skid across it in a painful crash. Despite the uniform being lit up by its protective enchantments, he still fell unconscious.
"Winner: Mielin Morn!"
Her hair gently returned to its original hairstyle as she himself flipped her hair before walking away from the combat arena.
"Another one to pay attention to…" Cæ's eyes sharpened. "Senior students are not as weak as I'd hope—"
"AARRGGHHHH!!!"
Cæ's attention immediately shifted to a shrieking student who simply found himself sinking straight into the ground in a horrifying manner. His opponent was a short, young man with earrings and piercings across his entire face and long, flowing black hair.
He didn't have any wand or weapon in his hands.
Cæ's eyebrow rose as he saw the glowing light from his metal piercings. "His piercings are magic conductors…"
Out of all the magic conductors that he had seen until that point, that was definitely the strangest. More importantly to Cæ, however, was the fact that he was using alchemy offensively by turning the ground underneath his opponent into a liquid, causing his opponent to sink into it.
"I give up!" the student shrieked when his chin had reached the surface.
"Winner: Merun!"
Yet another troubling student in his block with a tricky magic to combat. On top of that, the fact that he managed to apply magic to his opponent's footing showed that he was powerful enough to overcome the student's interference field with the sheer power of his mana-motive force.
However, what drew his attention the most was, of course, the battle whose winner he would have to fight next.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!
"Hahaha!" A young woman with short hair summersaulted across the entire combat arena with remarkable athleticism as she narrowly evaded a myriad of attacks converging on her. "Is that the best you can do? Hehehe, you can't catch me!"
Her opponent, an older woman, gritted her teeth as several magic circles emerged before her face, unleashing a myriad flaming daggers against her opponent.
And yet, to the surprise of everybody watching, not a single one of them even so much as touched her opponent.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!
She bobbed and weaved through them, warping her body to the limit with immense flexibility as she squeezed through the gaps in the attacks.
"Too bad!" She emerged from the barrage of attacks unscathed.
In front of each of her eyes were two sixth-circle magic circles, shining actively.
"…Divination magic," Cæ realized. "No wonder she is able to evade all those attacks with magic helping her maneuver. She is reading her magic and her body and predicting her magic."
He knew how powerful divination magic could be, having already watched Headmistress Lenolia defeat a master mage with it in the battle of the slums. It was one of the reasons that he had chosen divination magic in his very first year of the Senior Program.
He knew the power it gave its users, and he was hardly willing to forgo getting his hands on it.
And just like he expected, the edge it gave her was enough to overcome her opponent.
BAM!
The divination user's foot crashed into her opponent's jaw after closing the distance effortlessly, knocking her out on the spot.
THUD
Her opponent collapsed, falling unconscious.
"Winner: Marwily Kornin!"
Despite her mocking in the middle of the fight, she helped her opponent get to her feet, checking up on her.
"Good fight!" she patted her on the shoulder. "Next time, make sure that you're not so transparent. Now…"
She got up, looking at the tournament board that featured the brackets. "I'm twenty-two, facing the winner of the match-up between twenty-three and twenty-four."
Her eyes swam around the facility as it rested on Cæ.
"You! You're my next opponent."
WHOOSH!
Several magic circles appeared before her as she surged towards Cæ in the blink of an eye, arriving before him with a heavy landing.
"I guess I'm going to be fighting you next," she sized him up with an excited gaze. "You look strong. I can't wait!"
Cæ studied her silently.
Her hair was even shorter than his, while her conduct and demeanor were masculine and brash.
THWACK
She slapped him on the shoulder playfully. "You look tough! I can't wait to beat you up! See you next match, ok?"
She simply walked away, fetching herself some water nonchalantly.
She didn't seem to have any concern about trying to learn more about the kind of magic that he wielded.
'Maybe she already knows, given that she is a divination expert.' He sharpened his eyes.
He wouldn't be surprised if divination magic allowed her to keep track of his battle while she was fighting her own battle, given that her own opponent was not strong enough to even pressure her into using maneuvering magic.
If that was the case, then it was possible that her feigned ignorance was just an act to get him to lower his guard or think that he had some kind of information advantage against him.
Cæ's gaze returned to the battles of the first round of the remaining blocks, featuring many more strong students.
For the most part, as one would expect, the favorites of the entire selection process were as strong as they were chalked up to be. They dominated and won their first matches quite well, usually against some hapless student who had essentially been rendered into a victim to flaunt their dominance.
Cæ grew serious as he understood the caliber of opponents that he was dealing with.
These students were, naturally, much stronger than the students of the Apprentice Program and had been practicing magic for five years, on average, at that point.
Cæ, on the other hand, had only been practicing magic for one academic year, which was less than an actual year. He had been practicing magic for less than a year if one counted the fact that the first month of the holidays had been entirely dedicated to Trinity Housings and planning the Talent Acquisition Operations.
The fact that he was not just able to compete but also dominate many of the students of the Senior Program spoke to just how stunning his prodigious growth at the age of twenty-five was.
However, even considering his talent, there were many exceptional students who, while not as talented as he was, were also extremely talented and had dedicated many years to the craft of magic, making them formidable forces even for him.
And yet, the notion only made him more eager.
A small smile uncharacteristically cracked at the edge of his mouth as he felt a surge of anticipation well up within him.
Magic was the only thing that could make him feel this way.
The only regret he had was that he was unable to fight to his full potential, which was his pure magic.
He couldn't even imagine just how satisfying and euphoric that would feel. Surely it would feel like a bird spreading its wings and taking flight after being freed from its prison.
And yet, he would have to stay happy with what he had.