Showdown Between Magician and Genius Princess

Ren picked the thrown spear. He assessed it thoroughly. It was quite good. Even though it was made by magic, its shape quite solid and it was sturdy enough to block any low or mid tier attack.

He swung and thrust the spear to no one as he imitated the movement skill of a seasoned martial artist. The weight of the spear was great as it was neither too heavy or too light.

"What are you doing?" Elena, who was watching Ren since before started to ask question.

"Nothing much. Just assessing my weapon a bit. I would say you did a good job with this spear. It fit perfectly on my hand. No wonder people called you genius." Ren still swung his spear aimlessly.

Elena released on her spear from her arsenal and shot it towards Ren. Ren reacted the attack by analysing the trajectory and speed of that flying spear. He evaded just before that spear could hit him and caught it with his empty hand.

"Thanks for the second one." Ren said it jokingly.

"I'm not giving it to you." Elena replied, still wore a poker face.

"Hahahaha. I see."Ren laughed. "It seems you are seriously want to beat me."

"Of course. You mocked me during the entrance test."

Ren arched one his eyebrows in response. " When did I..?"

"When you creeping behind me all the time during the test period." Ren couldn't finished her question as Elena interrupting him. "That was first time someone had one-up me and made a fool of me."

"No, no, no... I am not trying to trick you or something." Ren tried to explain his reason but he was interrupted by Elena, once again.

"Whatever happened, you are already wounded my pride. If it was someone exceptional, I don't mind it. But it turns out to be a weak mage who couldn't even reach 2nd circle."

Ren's face dropped upon hearing the word 'weak mage'. The bright expression from his face disappeared completely. His stare on Elena becoming sharp.

"You shouldn't underestimate the weak too much, princess." Ren spoke. His voice was as sharp as his stare. Elena felt a goosebump on her body upon listening Ren's voice right now.

Ren then turned his face back into smiling face. "Let me give you an advice, princess. You should not underestimate your opponent and always assume your opponent is not any weaker than you, especially the one you fight for the first time."

"Alright, let me too give you a piece of advice. People did not called me genius for nothing."

Elena sent two spear at Ren. With two spears on his hand, Ren deflected the attacks easily. But it was just a decoy Elena set up. Ren saw there were another eight spears coming for him with high speed.

Ren dodged the attacks and executed a backflip and land perfectly. Then Elena shocked him with an attack from below as ice shards coming from ground near him.

[Fluttering Fire]

A fire was conjured and spread around him rapidly. Those ice shards could not went through the flame as they started melting before vanished into thin air.

Elena bit her lip in frustation. At the same time, she began deploying her next magic. Ren did the same.

A massive spear of ice formed in front of Elena, looming ominously with its tip pointed at Ren's head. Then, in a blink of eye, it was halved into two before melting and become puddles. Hundreds of water droplets rushed forward to Ren before turned into shrapnels of ice in the air. Those shrapnels was blocked by a kind of wind barrier in front of Ren and using wind magic, he changed the position of those shrapnels and targeted them onto the maiden in front of him.

A block of ice formed in front of Elena, blocking those from hitting her. Back and forth, magic formed into existence and dissipated into nothingness.

The more Elena exchanged magic attacks with Ren, the more she was being pushed back. She felt a slight twinge of surprise -- why did she was the one that was being pushed back instead of Ren.

In terms of power, Elena's mana far exceeded Ren's own. She possessed skills seen only one in a thousand year where ordinary person could not keep up with. If they both cast the same magic, Elena's would have twice the power. Even far stronger if it was an ice attribute spell.

But in magic combat, the victor was not merely the one who possessed greater mana or wielded stronger magic. Tactical awareness, understanding battle conditions, speed, making environment as one's advantage would have more important roles deciding the winner.

Being able to read opponent's intentions and strategies, develop a countermeasure, and quickly execute it -- these elements were more important than blasting stronger magic without assessing the level of one's opponent.

Every magic Elena executed had been repeatedly countered by far weaker magic. Her simpler spells were constantly deflected just by physical attack, while her more complex spells were rendered irrelevant by Ren's counter magic. Ren was reading her completely like a book, and effortlessly dragging her into his pace.

And, as much as Elena hated it, she had no option but to admit that she was completely outmatched in this fight. This fight made her realised that Ren was not a typical ordinary student, he was more than that. As if she was fighting a war veteran who accumulated many years of experince in magic combat.

'It doesn't make any sense.' Elena's mind swirled in confusion. No matter how she thought of it, there was no way Ren and her were in the same age. The gap in experience was made her think otherwise. 'Just who is this man? How he can be like that?'

She paused and stepped back to gather her wits and refocus.

Although she knew the difference in experience between her and Ren was quite large, she refused to give up. This is matter of her pride. She, who was dubbed as the genius of a thousand year was not supposed to lose to a no name mage.

[Hymn of the Doom]

With every ounce of her remaining mana, Elena executed her final attack.

In the sky, a large number of magic formulas began to appear simultaneously. The counts had reached hundred in few seconds. Ren raised his gaze to the sky. His face never changed. If this was in his past life, he was already tremble in fear right now. He was used with magic of this caliber in the past, even he had faced a magic that far stronger.

"You sure live up to your title as the 'one in a thousand year' genius, princess. I doubt there are not many mages can cast those magic at once.

"Just keep your compliment by yourself, Milford. I bet even you cannot escape these attacks unscathed."

"Yeah, you are right. But what if you can't launch it?"

"...What do you mean by th...?"

Elena could not finished her question as two ice spears flew and directly penetrated her from behind. One of the penetrated the back of her while the other one pierced her shoulder.

Elena gasped in shock as she didn't expected the sudden assault on her. She looked at Ren with her eyes widen, seeking the answer from him.

"Oh, those two are actually mine. When you cast those magic, I also cast the same magic and hide them between yours."

"But..? How...?" Elena struggled with her words.

She was confused. Ice magic was supposedly a unique magic that can only be used by family from her mother side. After her mother died, Elena and her sister, Ryna were the only mage that could use it. There's no way an outsider could learn this.

"Let me tell you something, princess. Ice magic is indeed rare but it is not that unique. With a great amount of effort and proper training, anyone can learn this magic. After all, it is just a manifestation of two magic that fused."

"That's ridiculous!!" Elena yelled as she collapsed into her knee. The pain on her shoulder and thigh had became unbearable.

"I know you don't believe me. I will show you." As Ren tried to explain, he created two magic formulas on both his palms. On his right was a blue magic circle was formed and a green magic circle was on the left.

Then, he merged the two magic circles into one as the colour of the circle gradually changed into cyan. An ice sword was beautifully formed from that new magic circle. Ren grabbed the hilt and rested the sword on his shoulder.

"What?? How he do that?" Professor Arun shrieked in the audience seat. He and other Varion professeor were watching the fight through the big screen in the arena. That was the first time he witnessed someone fused two different elements and created a new element.

He was not the only one that surprised by this, every other professors with him also were taken aback with what they witnessed just now. If what Ren showed there was indeed true, it could be a groundbreaking way for humanity, or Elsgard Kingdom specifically learning more complex magic in the future.

Noisy echoes began to resonate around the audience place as people muttering to each other l, sharing their thoughts regarding of what they had saw. Varion professors' also began to formulate a plan on how to use the information they got.

Going back to the testing ground, Ren now pointed the tip of his ice sword on Elena's throat. "You are already lose."

Elena knew that she couldn't do anything to turn the table around. She sighed heavily before spoke to Ren. "So in the end I couldn't beat you. I thought my magic was special, but it was nothing big. I thought I was strong and could beat you, but I underestimate you too much. I would reflect on that."

"You are indeed strong, princess. No one can deny that. The thing that differentiates us is experience."

"I don't know what you had faced before that made you more experienced than me. But I swear I will beat you one day. For this time, I will admit my defeat." A hint of smile occurred on her face.

Just she wanted to declare her surrender, she and Ren were surprised by a looming shadow that came from between the trees nearby. Luna Longbow was leaping into the air and aiming Ren's head with her magic gun.

"Checkmate!!"

Luna conjured a stone bullet at the end of her magic gun and fired it right on her target.