"Combining elements?"
Mara was once again surprised. She didn't know just how did Ray knew about these things, and she was fairly curious too. When she thought that she couldn't learn anything more today, another new concept was slapped in front of her by Ray.
Combining elements was something that she had heard about before, of course. It was the one of the great three achievements of The Sage. The first was the creation of magic circles, the second was the contribution to defeat Rex Draco, and the third was figuring out how to fuse elements.
Mara already had a great respect for the Sage even before today. After learning the truth about the elements from Ray, her respect soared even higher. So, hearing Ray suggesting her to achieve something that was seen as one of the greatest achievements of the greatest mage in history, left her flabbergasted.
"How could I be capable of something like that?!"
"Why not? You have an affinity with every single element possible, which allows you to wield them without the need for magecraft, right? Compared to that, do you think that fusing them is that difficult of a task?"
'Yes!'
She wanted to scream that, but another part of her urged her to try. Why was that? Did she secretly hope that she was capable of such a thing? Did she want to meet Ray's expectations? Why? She had just met him, even if he had taught her a lot, he was just a stranger. There was no need to seek his approval, right?
"Even if you are an Allgemein, there should still be some other affinities that you are better at using than fire. I don't know why you are so fixated on it, but I advise you to open your eyes."
For what it felt like the first time, Mara looked at Ray's red eyes with her own, she felt like she would be lost on them. Not because they were absurdly beautiful, but because they felt ancient and mysterious. Behind those eyes there was an unimaginable weight of experience and power. That feeling was similar to the elders of the Flamma family, however, it was in a bigger and more oppressive manner.
"The rules that this world has both regulate and preserve it, but they also bind it and limit it. Open your eyes, Mara. Why should you be limited? Why should you be kneeling to someone else? Everyone is their own master, or at least they deserve to be. Why should you follow rules and limitations that stop you from becoming your true self? The power that you have is yours and no one else's, so wield it as you see fit."
Those words were a mixture of a demonic creed that Ray had once found and his own thoughts.
Mara, still looking into his eyes, widened her eyes in surprise. Slowly, the chains that were restraining him slowly dissipated along with the magic circle that had created them.
Ray focused on her eyes, trying to detect any type of change in her attitude. Her eyes now reflected a certain determination that brought a slight smile to his face.
"So, Mara, what is your answer?"
"..."
There was no answer.
Mara just raised her hands to chest level and conjured a magic circle. It was silver in color and was mostly blank.
'There is little to no intent, she hasn't formed any type of specific spell.'
Soon, the silver-colored magic circle started becoming tinted with red before starting to completely alternate the two colors.
As that happened, she raised her hand higher as runes and lines started being drawn into the circle. Mara was also chanting, the chants as loud as a whisper.
She never broke eye contact.
The magic circle kept rising and growing, becoming twice her size, until it stopped. Mara silently finished her chants as well.
"Ray. Ever since we met a few minutes ago, you have taught me a lot of things. Believe me when I say that I am grateful for everything. So, I will show you my true potential. If not today, then someday, but I will without a doubt become a mage who is not restrained by the limitations of life and society. With my strength, I will shape the world around me instead of the other way around."
The slight smile turned into a feral grin.
"You have even greater potential than I thought. Good, show me what you've got, Mara Flamma. Both now and in the future, let me judge your progress."
Needless to say, Ray had grown fairly interested in Mara. Her talent in magic was outstanding, and he also felt that as the first to take his teachings, he should take extra attention on the matter.
The magic circle grew brighter, and the spell was cast.
Several spears shot forward. These spears behaved almost like liquid metal as they were extremely hot. They twisted and shot forward in unpredictable ways.
'She manipulated the concepts of metal to better manipulate the shape and mostly focused on the heat of fire to melt the metal, allowing her to create a perfectly controllable piece of liquid metal.'
It was both liquid and solid at the same time due to the way she manipulated the concepts of both the metal and fire elements. To accomplish this, one needed to cast two different spells, but being an Allgemein with elemental fusion, she could just create a spell with both elements and even manipulate the concepts of both of them to better shape the spell.
Ray watched as the spears rushed in his direction, the sharp edge at their end pointing at him. He manipulated the concepts of flame magic, focusing solely on destruction.
Several fiery missiles shot in the direction of the chains. The flames of destruction slowly eroded the liquid metal. If it was normal fire, its heat would only merge with the metal's, allowing it to sustain itself with less mana, however, by focusing on the concept of destruction, Ray could still use fire to destroy the spears.
His thoughts were interrupted by the rumbling of thunder.
High in the sky a golden and silver magic circle was slowly spinning, aiming directly at Ray. It was another spell of Mara's that she had prepared while he dealt with the liquid metal.
From the magic circle, several metal lances covered in rampaging lightning appeared. With incredible speed, all of them shot in his direction.
Reacting quickly, he created an explosion beneath his feet and rushed in the direction of the lances, aiming to intercept them before they reached maximum momentum.
With his fists covered in flames, which were dim and colder than normal due to the focus on the concepts of destruction and form. With flame gauntlets covering his fists, he was now ready to deflect the lances that came at him.
With well-placed punches and smart redirecting, Ray successfully avoided the lances, either by punching them or by making them hit one another.
"It's too late, Ray!"
Ray looked at Mara with a wide grin. This girl was really satisfying to fight.
Mara was floating with wind magic while drawing an enormous magic circle that started covering the sky. It flashed in various colors. He could see red, silver, blue, golden, and two shades of green.
His grin widened.
"Take this!"
"Bring it on, Mara!"
From the magic circle, three eastern dragons were conjured. One of them was made of metal, flames giving it an orange hue and flames escaping its maw and eyes. The other was made of water, electricity coursing inside it. And the last one was a dragon made out of wood with great torrents of wind surrounding it.
All the dragons rushed at Ray, who was midair after deflecting the lances.
Letting out a few guttural sounds, Ray prepared his counterattack. Flames of destruction formed themselves in the shape of an eastern dragon, five of them.
Eight dragons were now on the battlefield, and with mighty roars they clashed. The water dragon evaporated while being attacked by two flame dragons. The wooden dragon, even with the protection of the wind, was defeated by a single fire dragon.
Although the flaming metal dragon was able to hold its own against two fire dragons, it was soon overwhelmed by the other three dragons that had swiftly made quick work of its allies.
The dragons then surrounded Mara and waited for her to make a move.
"I surrender."
"So easy to give up?"
"Combining elements took more out of me than I expected. I should have stuck to smaller spells. Why did I need to create damned dragons?"
Although she was saying this, there was a smile on her face. She had never felt so relaxed, to be able to feel free like that, to use her true power, to not be limited by her clan's idiotic obsession with fire.
"Well, you managed to entertain me quite a bit, Mara. I don't mind you taking the first points of the checkpoint."
"Really? Why? And besides, do you know where it is?"
"I noticed that it was close to us when we were fighting, so if we walk a bit, we should be capable of-"
«Participant Detected!»
«You are the first participant to reach this checkpoint. You have received 25 points, 5 points were reduced from the original reward.»
As he was talking, the announcement of the checkpoint rang out, alerting both Ray and Mara, who rapidly went in the direction of the sound.
There they found a black-haired boy with a scared look on his face.
"I-I didn't, I didn't mean to steal the reward, I swear! P-please don't hurt, don't hurt me, please!"
He groveled on the ground on the verge of tears.
Ray and Mara were deadpan.
******************************
Author's Note: And with this the last fight of the Practical Test is over and we can go to the last test of the entrance exams and finish the first volume. It was quite fun to write this fight, what do you think of it?