The stands erupted as the crowd began screaming with joy, and for the first time, the citizens of the Northern Kingdom were cheering for the War God Mage Academy without any reservation, like they were no longer separated again.

The new set of supporters no longer seemed bothered by the idea that their cheers might annoy the king, at this moment, all they wanted was to join the die-hard fans of the War God Academy and shout their hearts out.

Seeing Alec finally make a series of serious moves sent them into overdrive, as it felt just like the Inter-Academy Competition all over again for them.

It was no surprise that Alec and the War God Mage Academy team had won the hearts of many mages in the crowd, especially since a lot of them already held some prejudice against one or more of the Great Eight Academies.

“Can you hear that?” Vladimir asked Vincent who stood beside him, as the entire crowd of Northern Kingdom mages shouted Alec’s name, which completely drowned out the Western Kingdom supporters cheering for the Argent Guild.

“That guy has always had a way with the crowd. It’s not like charisma and confidence like that can be easily taught,” Vincent replied.

“He might not realize it yet, but there’s a way he carries himself that makes others see him as a reliable leader they can trust.”

They both kept watching, trying to learn everything they could, with the number of mage academies getting smaller and smaller, it was starting to look likely that they might meet Alec’s team soon.

Vincent, however, hoped they wouldn’t cross paths until the final match, as that was his end game.

He wanted to lead his team to the finals this time, because he hadn’t been able to do that last time, but this time he truly hoped to push his team all the way and win, especially because he felt this might be their last competition together.

“Well, it looks like this match is already half-won, from that exchange alone, we can both agree that not even the Argent Guild captain can make Alec get serious yet,” Vladimir said, and Vincent nodded in agreement.

“Well, with so many of our guys not around, I guess it’s fine if we do the information gathering on Ember Citadel by ourselves,” Vincent said as Vladimir looked toward where the Ember Citadel members were seated.

“That’s going to be one tough fight for us, from what I’ve heard, not only have they not really shown anything worth mentioning, it’s said that they won their last matches with nothing but brute strength,” Vladimir replied.

“They’re showing a very different approach, the raw pride of the Southern battle style, completely unlike Ashmaw Academy, who faced the War God Mage Academy using demonic beasts to display superior strength.”

–

Though the captain and vice-captain of the Battle Mage Academy had come specifically to watch Alec fight, but they weren’t the only ones, because elsewhere not too far away were the mages of the Bloodline Academy who were also watching, with Dragov at the forefront.

As usual, his white hair fell forward, covering much of his face, and his massive greatsword rested beside him, the mages who had come with him to watch the match were the Sorin siblings, Damien and Carmilla.

“What do you think, big brother? He definitely looks weaker than before. I don’t know why you all seem so worried about him,” Carmilla said as she stared at Alec, as to her all he had done was show a few clean martial moves so far.

There had been a small rumor making its way around the Northern Kingdom academies participating in the tournament, though she didn’t know who started it, but from what she’d heard, people were saying Alec might not have progressed that far, since he came from a mid-tier clan that couldn’t properly nurture his kind of talent.

“Are you watching with the back of your head or the front?” Dragov, who had been silently observing, spoke up before Damien could even answer her, and Carmilla stared at him in shock.

Dragov Dragonmir, who barely bothered replying to most people, had actually used sarcasm on her.

“It seems that because it’s been a while, you’ve forgotten our last fight with him, let me remind you of something for your own good,” Dragov continued.

“In this first battle alone, he’d used nothing but sword skills coated with his Qi.”

“In a normal fight, mages of the same realm would have to go all out against each other just to figure out who’s superior, but he’s already shown that with just his sword skills, lightly augmented by Qi, he can threaten someone in the same realm and even take their life, and this wasn’t just anyone. It was a captain-level opponent who could kill five of you in under ten seconds with ease.”

“Now, for today, he has shown another thing entirely. Since the beginning of this match, he’s only been using palm techniques and a bit of fire element, just a simple flaming aura spell around his body, he hasn’t even drawn his blade yet.

Now tell me, in what dimension do you think he’s become weaker?” Dragov asked after laying out his points, he said such harsh words with such a calm, gentle face that it was hard for anyone to associate him with what he’d just said.

–

“How dare you!” Grayson shouted as he dashed forward, bypassing Roderic, who was still sliding backward, and hurled his massive warhammer forward, as it spun at high speed while it flew straight toward Alec.

“Pale!” Alec called out while skidding backward at ease, while still wearing a casual look on his face like the hammer wasn’t a matter of concern at all, and a second later, a wall of ice rose from the ground a few meters in front of him.

“You should let me fight my own battles, cause why do you always have to interfere with my one-on-ones?” Pale complained as he closed the distance, now standing face-to-face with Alec with his hands starched towards the Ice wall that was raised.

“Well, I don’t care about your ‘bout,’ but the team we’re facing isn’t a bunch of weaklings. I can’t have you acting out and getting yourself eliminated when I don’t have a replacement for you or when we haven’t been able to eliminate someone from their team,” Alec replied almost instantly, as his blue irises were flickering around the battlefield trying to process everything happening.

On one side, he saw Knight still deflecting bullets to cover Sophia as Cassian drew closer, Sophia, on the other hand, was just recovering from the backlash of having two of her spells destroyed at once.

On the other side, Endrick was dashing around, doing his best to evade the spinning rune blades being hurled toward him at frightening speed.

Sometimes he would turn and shoot an arrow at them to destroy them, and other times he would simply evade, keeping Talia Frost busy that way.

The only problem was that with her being in the air and having such sharp reflexes, it was getting harder and harder to dodge her attacks while waiting for a slip to counter back at her.

“Well then, all you have to do is talk to me and not just pull on my collar like I’m some kind of kid,” Pale snapped back in anger when he realised Alec wasn’t even fully paying attention to him.

At that moment, the warhammer finally slammed into the ice wall, as a booming sound rang out causing cracks to spread across its surface, but it still held firm, while the warhammer bounced back into the air before falling back into Grayson’s hand as he caught it one-handed, twisted his body, and flung it forward again.

Alec, on the other side of the ice wall, saw this and knew instantly that the Ice wall wouldn’t be able to hold it a second time, so he bent slightly and blasted off the ground, using compressed gravity beneath his feet to launch himself into the air.

As he rose, he ignited flames beneath the same foot to propel himself toward his target—Roderic.

“Just fight like the magic-path mage you are and everything will be fine! Stop trying to act like you’re some bona fide battle-path warrior mage!” Alec shouted mid-air, before he pulled his fist back, with flames coating it in a thick aura, and just as Roderic finished picking up his sword, Alec’s clenched fist came flying toward him.

[> Mid Tier Spell – Enhanced Flaming Fist <]