Chapter 177: Magic items

Everyone was rendered speechless and in disbelief by the sharp retort from the Dean after the teacher Arnold tried to talk down to Alex.

Arnold’s lips twitched as his face turned red from embarrassment. He wanted to talk back, but the old man was not someone he could disrespect, both in strength and status.

But it seems like the Dean wasn’t done yet, he turned to face Arnold and spoke with a reprimanding tone.

"I’ve been told of this student’s suffering during his years in the academy because of his special circumstances and yet, he’s the one currently saving the face of the academy in this tournament.

Shouldn’t you talk to him more kindly for what he’s doing? How can you, a teacher, speak so poorly to a student? I’m disappointed."

Arnold was shaking silently, he was on the verge of exploding but the person who was aiming at him was the Dean and an Archmage; he could only swallow his rage and look away.

Everyone in the sitting area of the Dragonic Magic Academy stared in silence as they watched the Dean scold Arnold.

Alex looked pleasantly surprised, not expecting the Dean to act so decisively.

He liked this Dean!

After receiving the scolding from the Dean, teacher Arnold didn’t say anything else and only shot glares.

The Dean proceeded to give some more words of gratitude and advice to Alex, and he also encouraged Glen and the others who were in the team mode of the tournament.

Soon, the stadium was filled with spectators, and the two referees came up to the arena. The floating orbs also appeared and projected the list of matches for the day.

After looking, Alex saw that his match against Laura was the seventh match for the day and would be held in the afternoon.

The projections stayed in the air for a bit over a minute before disappearing and the names of the two academies for the first match were projected.

(Crimson Tide Magic Academy Vs Seren Moon Magic Academy)

As the names of the two academies were projected, the two students from the two academies had already appeared in the arena.

The student from Crimson Tide was a female with short brown hair, while her opponent from Seren Moon Magic Academy was a young boy of average height.

Both students stood facing each other on opposite sides of the arena as they patiently waited for the referees to announce the start of the match. Both sides had serious expressions on their faces, and their eyes were focused on one another.

The solo matches for the second round of the tournament awarded 20 points to the winners; they couldn’t afford to lose, especially not when one side’s academy had lost their first team match.

"Begin!" The voice of one of the referees sounded, starting the match.

Right after the match started, neither side immediately charged at the other. Instead, they shifted back at the same time to create more distance between themselves.

And at the same time, they exploded with powerful mana; both of them were at the Core mage rank!

Mana visibly swirling around their bodies, both sides summoned the stars of their elements.

The boy had the wind element so he summoned yellow stars. Meanwhile, the girl possessed the fire element so blazing red stars appeared around her.

After summoning their stars, neither of them immediately started to connect them to cast spells. The boy clapped his palms together, and the necklace he was wearing suddenly glowed with a soft brilliance.

The next moment, a ball of white light appeared from the necklace and landed on the boy’s right palm before condensing into a straight shape and then taking the appearance of a black dagger with a curved blade.

A magic item!

Many people were surprised to see the dagger, Alex was the same. The dagger looked like something used by people with assassin-class abilities in fantasy novels.

Befitting of wind mages.

The boy grabbed the dagger and brandished it while still looking at his opponent.

However, the girl showed that she had also come prepared. A ray of golden light flashed around her before circling around her left wrist and forming into a golden bracelet with glowing patterns written on it.

Alex didn’t know what this bracelet was and what use it had, and since he couldn’t bring out the all-knowing mask to appraise it, he decided to wait for the match to start so that he could see.

Since the use of magic items wasn’t prohibited in the tournament, the referees didn’t make a move when they saw the two magic items. However, they prepared to step in once the situation got dangerous.

Now equipped with their magic items, both students were ready to make their moves.

The yellow stars above the boy’s head glowed and began to connect, the process was complete in less than two seconds!

"Swift feet!" The boy shouted and the next moment, his feet were covered in a pair of yellow mana boots that reached up to his calf.

After casting the speed-increasing spell on himself, the boy shot forward.

Swoosh!

His speed was astonishing and he left afterimages behind him while flashing across the arena and approaching his opponent in a zigzag pattern.

Many of the audience were finding it hard to follow the boy’s movements due to the way he was running, even those who were also at the Core mage rank were having some difficulties as well.

This was the same for the boy’s opponent, but the girl didn’t panic. She looked calmly and connected her stars as well.

The bracelet on her wrist glowed briefly immediately after she started connecting her stars and the connecting process immediately sped up!

It took less than a second for the star pattern to form and the girl calmly called out.

"Fireball!"

Right after her voice sounded, the bracelets glowed once more before the fireball flew out of the star pattern. But instead of a single fireball, three huge fireballs came shooting out of the star pattern in quick succession.

Alex’s eyes flashed, and he immediately figured out what the girl’s bracelet was for. It increased her casting speed and acted as a buff for her spells!

A very valuable item, it was just like Alex’s vortexes!

Their sizes were bigger than the average fireballs of other mages, and their speed was also faster!

The three fireballs flew out towards the incoming wind mage in a horizontal formation, they crashed into the ground a few meters in front of the boy and exploded.

Boom!

A tall wall of flames rose in the middle of the arena for a moment but a figure came cutting through it the next moment.

The boy directly cut apart the wall of flames with his dagger since the fireballs had exploded right in front of him, and he continued to charge at the girl.

But the fire mage had already moved away after sending out those three fireballs. She stood over fifteen meters away from her previous position and ten red stars quickly connected above her head.

Her usual speed of connecting the stats and forming two star patterns was a bit over two seconds but with the enhancement from her bracelet, the time reduced to a bit over one second!

So by the time the wind mage realized that his opponent had shifted positions and when he located her, the girl had already completed the two star patterns and cast another spell.

"Fire claw!" She shouted.

And just like with the fireballs, two big fire claws shot out from the star patterns instead of one and rushed toward the wind mage.

The boy didn’t try to dodge them and summoned his stars instead. He quickly formed a single star pattern and cast Wind Blade.

At the same time that he cast the spell, he slashed out with his dagger and a powerful wind blade shot out from the blade of his dagger.

The wind blade didn’t come from the star pattern this time but from his slash! And at a glance, it was obvious to see that this wind blade was more powerful than the normal wind blades that came out from the star patterns.

Boom!

The wind blade crashed into the first fire claw, and both spells exploded. The shockwave from the explosion pushed the second fire claw away, causing its flight path to change.

It flew past the wind mage and crashed into the ground a few meters behind him.

Boom!

Time flew by quickly as the two fought in the arena, and a whole hour passed before their match finally came to an end.

The wind mage had a dagger that increased the sharpness of his spell and allowed him to cut through the spells of his opponent, while his movement spell helped him to move at high speed.

The girl, on the other hand, had a magic item that increased her spell-casting speed, letting her cast spells extremely quickly and keeping her opponent at a distance while also increasing the power of her spells.

Both sides were unable to touch each other, and it resulted in the one who ran out of mana first.

In the end, the wind mage had won since he had cast fewer spells during their fight; the girl had run out of mana first.