Reader Mage 173-We Have Our First Winner

rlin and the others watched silently through the tv screens in the waiting room as cheers resounded through the Open field. Carlos and Lena walked onto the large ceramic ring, each wearing a different kind of expression. rlin wouldn’t fault Carlos for still being anxious, as the crowd present was a rather great one, but if there was any ti for the boy to set his mind straight, now was it. Anything less than full focus would result in him losing.

Instructor Park Minjee stood in the center of the stage, serving as the only thing keeping Carlos and Lena apart. She turned to the crowd and riled them up, and everyone cheered. Then she went ahead to explain how each fight would pan out, which wasn’t anything the contenders didn’t already know. Each fight would be on a fifteen minute tir. To win, one has to make their opponent give up, or have to exhaust them. Caution was advised with the type of spells that were cast, and if she was alerted to a fight going out of hand, she was allowed to step in and put an end to it, making the fight null. If the fight pans out for the full fifteen minutes without anyone giving up or being unable to continue, then it would be declared as a draw.

There was basically no difference between a draw and a null in that they both didn’t add any points to the participants. The only difference between them was that one required the fight to be stopped at any ti, while the other was when the ti ran out.

And, honestly, rlin was kind of concerned about the ‘null’ thing. Especially concerning Park Yuri. He had a nasty feeling at the back of his neck that once she tried to use Solar Flare, the fight would be called to a close. He glanced at her, but her attention was fully focused on the tv screen, a cup of coffee in her hand as she crossed her legs and leaned back in her seat.

She didn’t seem bothered. He shouldn’t be too.

“And now, let the second stage of the tournant begin!”

Instructor Park Minjee vanished from the stage as soon as she made that announcent. Instantly, Carlos’s Grimoire flipped open and took flight. He dipped a hand into his pocket, obviously reaching for his lighter, and readied himself.

Lena was the sa. Her Grimoire was hovering overhead now, but her flat gaze didn’t give any hint as to what she intended.

Carlos waited for a few seconds. The girl didn’t do anything but keep staring. She said nothing either. Carlos clenched his jaw and decided he would be the first to attack.

Mana flowed to life beneath the surface of his skin. His Grimoire flipped three pages over, and his palms opened up like holes were drilled into them. The crowd gasped at the sight, but imdiately fell silent after as they were more entranced by what spell would co out and not the process it took.

Just like with Carlos’s display while he was still in the waiting room, light green petroleum shot out of his palms like a fountain. However, they didn’t fall to the ground and continued to rise up towards the sky where they coalesced to form a cloud.

rlin instantly had a notion as to what spell the boy was casting based on what he had told them. Petroleum Cloud.

Bit by bit the cloud grew in size, until it spread all the way over to Lena, where she stood, still nonchalant in her approach.

Carlos frowned.

“Aren’t you going to defend yourself?” he asked. She didn’t reply. He gritted his teeth.

“Don’t let her get to you,” Chima muttered.

rlin agreed with his roommate. It was most likely her tactic to make him feel like she underestimated him and force him to act rashly to prove a point. He shouldn’t let her influence his decisions, keep a leveled mind, and fight her like he would at any other ti.

Victory was greater than proving a point. Achieving both was the better of the options though.

Carlos clicked his tongue and exposed his lighter.

Lena’s expression shifted then. rlin noticed it.

Imdiately Carlos flicked the lighter on and lit up the strand of mana that connected the petroleum to him. Fire climbed up the strand and into the cloud. With a practiced movent of his hand, the petroleum disconnected from him and the cloud moved, stopping over Lena.

It was then that she finally loosened her folded arms; her Grimoire flipped open and several pages later, her shoes caught on fire, leaving her bare feet touching the concrete. A second later the petroleum cloud over her exploded and fire rained down.

No protection ant that Instructor Park Minjee ought to step in before Lena was severely injured. However, that wasn’t the case. The surrounding concrete an inch from where she stood suddenly changed color. It went from grey to pink and yellow-brown in less than a second. Then it split open, exposing its interior which had beco a bubbling viscous liquid. A second later the viscous liquid cooled into a glassy porous kind of rock, crawling up her body and covering her completely before Carlos’s rain of fire could collide with her body. And when it did, Lena was unscarred.

Carlos blinked fervently.

“A construction Mage,” rlin muttered. “She’s not creating magma from her body, but affecting the constituents of rocks to change them to magma.”

“Not only that,” Hakyun chid in. “She’s able to heat and cool them instantaneously. Holy shit, rlin. Are you sure Carlos can win?”

rlin pursed his lips, unable to give any reply. They hadn’t seen this part of Lena in the research they had done, which was limited to the video of the first stage of the tournant. The ability to heat and cool magma instantaneously would be troubleso for Carlos who had to rely on the heat it would produce to create toxic fus close to her. She can shield from his fire by solidifying magma over her body, and perhaps not even need heat to attack him.

rlin’s eyes widened. “Oh, shit!”

Everyone turned to him.

“What is it?” Chima asked.

“Did you watch the video of Crown Academy against the instructor of Nikita Academy?”

“Of course,” said Hakyun. “We all did.”

“What did you notice about who was the brains of the operation?”

They frowned.

“You’ve lost ,” Kim Yiseo said. “Wasn’t it the guy, Marcus?”

rlin shook his head and pointed at the screen as the solidified magma over Lena crumbled, revealing a gaze as hard as that of a predator. Her Grimoire flipped several pages over, and her hands were covered with magma. Not solidified, but a hot, scathing liquid. And yet they didn’t burn her skin because they didn’t make contact with it. Her mana served as a sheathe.

“She didn’t attack first because she wanted Carlos to make the first move,” he muttered. “That way she finds out about his Hex and how to counter it. In the video, during the early stages of the fight with Nikita Academy’s instructor, Lena was nowhere to be found. She appeared only a few seconds later after the instructor had used his Hex. And when she did, who was her first point of contact?”

Chima’s brows loosened. “Marcus.”

“Exactly. She’s the real brains, and Marcus is only a front.” rlin turned back to the screen. “That girl, she only needs a few seconds to figure out how to counter another’s Hex. She has to be the best student in theory in Crown Academy. And Petroleum isn’t a really versatile Hex.”

“Are you saying the toxic fus won’t work?” Park Yuri asked.

“I’m saying we’ll have to hope far more than we did before that it works.”

rlin wished he didn’t think the way he did, but if he was right, then God did he wish Nora was the one fighting her.

Carlos, realizing he couldn’t give Lena the chance to have an edge over him, activated his next spell. This ti the petroleum that shot out of his body was not the sa light green liquid that ford the clouds. It was black and thick. Bitun.

He slamd his palms onto the ground, and let the bitun swim towards Lena, almost covering the stage completely.

It was obvious what the plan was. He was going in for the kill. Once the bitun made contact with Lena, it would freeze her in place, and if she tried to lt it with her magma, it would produce the exact toxic fus that would shift the battle in his favor.

However, he was disappointed once again. Lena’s Grimoire flipped pages, and the small structure she was standing on, the only part around her to have yet been turned into magma, shot upwards. Beneath it was the sa type of structure that had shielded her from his rain of fire. Shortly after, the magma around her hand solidified as well. It was then that she finally made her next move.

The rock that lifted her up broke apart, and she descended into the petroleum that covered the stage.

Carlos smiled as he saw that, but his smile froze imdiately. Because from within the petroleum jutted out another solidified magma that she landed on, and like she was skating, she moved across the black liquid covering the stage as she closed the distance between her and Carlos.

All hope was not lost, though. The solidified magma was doused in bitun. Carlos could do sothing with it.

And he did.

He solidified the bitun around Lena’s skating magma. But as soon as he did, they evaporated, producing visible smoke around the stage.

rlin’s brows twitched.

“The fus,” Hakyun announced.

“You seed to have judged her wrongly, l,” said Chima.

But rlin was unsure. His gaze moved from his surroundings and focused on Lena, perusing every tic she made as she hurried towards Carlos. His brows pulled in as he noticed sothing. Her neck was tight.

“She’s holding her breath,” he said.

Everyone glanced at him and then back at the screen, and then they noticed what he had too.

Lena knew she couldn’t fight Carlos without having to burn his petroleum, releasing more of the toxic fus it produced. If she didn’t finish him off quickly without drawing the fight out much longer, she would be the first to tire out.

This could work out in Carlos’s favor. He just had to notice that she was holding her breath, and use that to his advantage.

rlin was disappointed a second later as Carlos let himself get anxious when Lena drew even closer, obviously thinking the toxic fus were doing nothing to her. He pulled out his lighter, refrained from forcing her to burn his petroleum, and coalesced the bitun, reducing their viscosity. Then he flicked his lighter on and tossed it into the bubbling petroleum in the air.

It exploded. A massive, expanding cloud of fire covered the stage. Everyone shifted on their seats, both in the waiting room and in the arena.

But it didn’t do what Carlos expected of it. And rlin was certain the boy had expected that. Because a second later, Lena burst through the cloud of fire, folded into herself like a cannon ball, with just a little burn around her shoulder.

Carlos took a step back at the sight of her. He tried to channel mana and cast another spell, but he was too late. She landed on the floor and sped towards him before he could do anything else, drew her arm covered in solidified magma backwards, and slamd it into his midsection.

Carlos hung in the air for half a second before he was sent hurtling backwards. He landed on the floor and rolled in pain, stopping just before he fell off the stage.

After a second of gasping for air, unable to stand up, Instructor Park Minjee flashed onto the stage and gestured for a group of dics on standby. They rushed onto the arena, hurled him onto a stretcher, and hurried him to the infirmary.

Instructor Park Minjee stood up with a sigh, glanced at Lena who still had a rather flat expression and declared, “We have our first winner! Lena Alvarez. First point goes to Crown Academy.”

“Tsk.” Sangook leaned back on his chair, clicking his tongue. “Fucking disappointnt.”

No one argued with him this ti, they just turned back to the screen silently as Lena scoffed and turned around, putting an end to her spells as she left the stage with nothing but a slight sting on her shoulder.