Sorcerer… Cyborg???

The audience watched in surprise as Fred simply cast Magma Shell again, surprised that he would attempt to turtle away within his defensive spell. The massive disk slammed into the side of the magma capsule and rapidly tore away at it, sending streams of magma flying through the air. The audience gasped as the disk tore through the magma layer, heading straight for Fred.

"Guess he's not all that after all." The students began conversing amongst one another, the battle losing their attention. However, many had realized that the Professors had not yet intervened, and Janus was looking toward the arbitrators, a confused look on his face.

"Watch out!" A student yelled, as a massive river of magma flew through the air from where Fred stood, far to the left of his crumpled Magma Shell.

"What the ****!" Janus yelled, rapidly casting Wind Shield, unfortunately for him, defense was not a Wind Mage's strong suit, and the Water Mage professor from earlier intervened, casting a massive shield of glimmering water between Janus and the river of magma.

"How did he do that?"

"Did he cheat?" Cries of confusion sounded out through the gathered students.

"Kothar, how'd he do it?" Luis had noticed that Kothar hadn't stopped watching the duel like many of the others, and only now had turned away.

"I guess the rumors of Fred's battle sense were true. Your first thought might be that he used some sort of concealing spell, or even teleportation, but neither of those are specialties of Magma Mages." Kothar began to explain.

"So what did he do?"

"Well, he took advantage of the characteristics that many mages share, they aren't well versed in battle and neglect movement. When Janus' spell struck his shell, it threw up a lot of magma, since by that time he wasn't holding it together at all. Taking advantage of Janus' focus on getting through the shell, he moved out of the shell through the side Janus couldn't see, and simply ran backwards and off to the side."

"Surely Janus would have noticed something like that though?" Luis interjected.

"He should have, but Fred spent much of the battle taunting him and riling him up, his emotions meant he couldn't assess the situation calmly and instead, he tunnel visioned on to the Magma Shell."

"Wow." Luis, Rudy and many of the other students in earshot marveled at Fred's battle sense.

"Exactly, after that he had ample time to cast Magma Rush, and take out Janus."

The students began to chatter excitedly, many of them realizing for the first time that there was much more to Mage duels than who was of a higher level and could cast more powerful spells.

[He wouldn't have been out of place as a Captain in the Sentinels.]

[Definitely, that kind of battle sense can only be gained through a huge amount of experience, or pure talent, after his years of dueling, he's well on his way in the experience department, and he definitely has the talent.]

Fred walked over to the disappointed Janus and began to console him, laughing and joking as he did so, his jovial attitude had not shifted at all, he was as cheerful after the battle as he was before and during it.

"Come on Janus, I've got years of experience on you, I'll be honest, your Wind Disk even had me a little worried." Fred reassured Janus, teasing him a little.

"Yeah, okay." Janus grumbled as Fred wrapped an arm around his shoulder, strolling back towards the others.

They all watched as more duels happened, and their classmates showcased their abilities, some had made no real progress during the year, forgetting as soon as the battle started. Others simply attempted to showcase their progression to the Beginner level, sending their spells whizzing around the arena, making no attempt at real combat. These students quickly lost, but were nevertheless guaranteed to become Beginner students, and maybe even selected by a mentor.

"Kothar vs Newman." Finally, Kothar had a chance to battle, he eagerly leapt down towards the arena, eager to test himself.

Kothar's opponent was large and stocky, with a dour look on his face. He stared seriously at Kothar, nodding slightly when he met his gaze.

"Begin!" Kothar immediately cast Lightning Aura, and dashed towards his opponent. Unfortunately he couldn't use his sword during the battle, since it was considered to be a form of equipment.

Seeing Kothar running at him, Newman's face filled with confusion, and he took a few steps backward before gathering himself and casting Vine Whip, sending a thick vine whipping towards Kothar.

Kothar nimbly dodged the vine, but it continued to follow him as zigzagged across the arena, the vine steadily becoming charred as it whipped through the Lightning Aura.

By now Kothar had only a few meters from Newman, who suddenly looked nervously at the charred remains of his vine, and began to prepare a defensive spell. This was all the time Kothar needed, sending a Bolt spell flying at Newman's head.

"Halt!" The now familiar cry sounded through the arena, and an earthen spear flew through the air rapidly intercepting Kothar's spell.

"But, I hadn't even cast my best spell!" Newman protested, while the announcer declared Kothar's victory.

"Save it for the next battle, and remember to go all out straight away next time, in a real battle you'd have lost more than the duel.

"Good one Kothar!" His friends cheered as he headed back to his seat.

"That's a nasty battle style you have there Kothar, hope we don't get matched against each other too early." Fred remarked, his grin saying otherwise.

"You battle freak, you look like you can't wait to pick me apart like you did Janus." Kothar laughed at Fred's obvious enthusiasm to face him.

"Well, I want to see what you're holding back, there's no way you took on the Fidour mountains with just those spells."

"Hahaha, you won't believe me but those are the only spells I knew at the time."

"Alright stop having me on." Fred smacked Kothar on the shoulder.

"Begin!" The cry sounded through the arena, cutting the boys conversation short as they all turned to watch the coming battle.