The elder's family had a huge house, even their own arena. I sat in one of the rooms next to it, waiting for my fight. There were sixteen participants in total, eight pairs. My fight was last, so I had to wait for six battles to finish. In my free time, I decided to cultivate.
Although I was in the city and it seemed like my cultivation should be slower, I felt like it was actually going a bit faster than usual. Perhaps this place was unusual; I'd have to ask the teacher later. I didn't have as much time as I wanted, but by concentrating on the element of space, I was confidently moving towards the second stage. I was just a stone's throw away from it when I was called to the arena.
"Do you dislike him so much that you decided to beat him up?" Asura's voice sounded in my head as I walked down the corridor.
"No, but don't you like humiliating rich turkeys who think they're the center of the universe and that no one can be stronger than them?" I grinned, approaching the arena gates.
"Hahaha. You understand me well." Asura laughed, and I paid him no more attention.
"Can I use weapons here?" I asked the person accompanying me. Better late than never.
"Huh?" He was surprised, his eyes widening.
"Yes, any weapon is allowed. The right choice of weapon is part of a mage's strength."
"Okay, thank you," I replied, taking a pair of my daggers from my spatial bracelet and confidently passing through the gates.
Gong Han was already standing in the arena. If I think about it, this is my first fight against a single opponent in the arena. Before, I always fought against entire teams. The arena was also larger than those I had seen before, with many people sitting in the stands. Glancing at them, I saw Se Lei and his company not far from my exit; they were very focused, waiting for the start. On the opposite side, in a richly decorated sector of the stands, sat Gong Gui, the teacher, and a rather solid group of elders.
"And so, the eighth qualifying round of the tournament for the title of the strongest young generation between Gong Han and Asura is declared begun! Fight!" someone shouted, apparently the commentator.
I turned my gaze to Gong Han. A powerful aura emanated from him, which could simply crush ordinary people. Such an aura can only be obtained by killing a couple of hundred living creatures, but unfortunately, I can't be intimidated by such an aura; it's not enough. What's more, even Xu Zhao Ting has probably killed more. Without further ado, almost immediately after the start, Gong Han rushed towards me, and almost immediately lightning appeared in his hand. It was the wrath of lightning that flew towards me in advance.
I could either dodge it or try to neutralize it. Only in the latter case, if his seed was stronger, I would be in trouble. Fortunately, I had taken care of such a development in advance and prepared spells. Releasing my wrath of lightning, I also activated the wind rush, quickly moving out of the zone of impact. Our spells collided, an explosion thundered, and... nothing, they simply neutralized each other, which means our seeds are approximately equal. Now he's in trouble.
Gong Han, as well as the entire stands, was greatly surprised by this turn of events, but he didn't lose his composure and ran after me, preparing another spell. But it was too late; using the wind step and wind rush, I was much faster than him, and it was practically impossible for him to react to my attack. I hit him in the stomach with the hilt of my dagger, sending Gong Han flying back about five meters.
However, I didn't stop my attack. As soon as he thought he had regained his balance, I sent him flying again with a kick. Then followed the third and fourth times. The stands sat in silence and shock. The fifth time, I couldn't approach him because he unleashed lightning around himself. It was some kind of unusual spell; I'd have to experiment later and find a star combination for it. These lightning bolts almost hit me, but to my surprise, my internal energy picked up the energy of the attack and channeled it into my own flow, just as it did with my own energy.
Meanwhile, Gong Han emerged from the dissipating lightning sphere, clad in brown armor. At first glance, I could determine that it was an earth armor made from the scales of some strong leader-level beast. Accordingly, it could protect against most of my attacks. Damn, he turned into a turtle, but oh well, even tougher ones have been broken. In his right hand was a sword that exuded cold, and that was definitely something to be wary of. This artifact is made from at least a commander-level material, possibly their family heirloom. On his feet, there were also a pair of artifact boots. Does he want to match me in speed?
"Now try to run away from me. My boots increase my speed several times, my armor can withstand the blow of a pack leader, and my sword can freeze even a supreme leader on contact!" Gong Han boasted confidently, catching his breath, as if confirming my words.
What a fool he is, and this guy participated in a bunch of battles? Or does he think my mid-level magic won't penetrate his armor? Perhaps, but I don't want to test the strength of his armor, so it's easier to attack with my strongest attack. I had enough time to prepare two mid-level spells.
The first was lightning magic. The lightning strike came unnoticed, hitting him at the moment he was laughing after finishing his sentence. Cracks appeared on his armor, but he withstood it. His face showed a moment of fear, but then he immediately composed himself, smiled, and headed towards me. I must admit, his speed became impressive, but not enough to overtake me. The wind blades were activated almost immediately after he started moving, so he literally found himself in a whirlwind, with no possibility of escape.
Through the wind and the dust raised by him, it was visible how the poor guy was trying to defend himself from my attack, while his armor was finally being destroyed under the pressure of my magic. The whirlwind soon stopped, and in its center stood a rather battered Gong Han. I quickly used the wind rush and was practically instantly next to him.
However, he was not completely defeated and tried to attack me in the air. It was a correct move, as I had almost no chance to dodge it. But he simply didn't make it; the sword didn't reach me by a couple of centimeters, but I could already feel its cold. My next blow to his stomach sent Gong Han flying. This blow was significantly stronger than the previous ones, so he flew almost to the edge of the arena.
Regaining his balance and standing firmly on both feet, he spat blood. The next moment, I was already attacking him, raising my dagger above him. But he managed to react and put up his sword for defense. The dagger and the icy blade collided with an unpleasant metallic sound, and a smile appeared on his face, and I already knew why. The cold from his sword had already transferred through the dagger to my hand, freezing it. But, to his misfortune, the dagger attack was not my real attack. With my leg, I struck him in his unprotected side, reinforcing the blow with a wind rush, and also managed to send a shock of lightning towards him through the dagger.
And although this could have killed an ordinary mage, his body was tempered, so I only managed to weaken his grip. But combined with the blow to the side, he dropped his sword, flying to the side. I didn't stop again and continued the attack, literally beating him. After losing his sword, he could barely react to my attacks, awkwardly dodging and trying to block, but after a minute, he was so beaten that he could barely stand on his feet.
"Do you give up?" I asked him, standing directly over him.
"Never!" he shouted, lunging at me.
I easily dodged, grabbed his hand, and immediately threw him aside, not allowing him to launch another attack. After that, he could no longer stand on his feet, remaining lying on the sandy arena, breathing heavily. His clothes were practically turned into rags, and his whole body was covered in bruises, contusions, abrasions, and scratches, from which blood was still flowing.
"Do you think that's enough, or will you beat him more?" Asura asked me as I examined my defeated opponent.
"No, but if I beat a lying opponent now, I definitely won't be praised," I replied calmly, watching Gong Han's every move. Only if he tries to get up will the beating continue.
Meanwhile, the entire stands were in silence. Soon, in this silence, I could hear Mo Fan's voice:
"This is definitely some kind of monster, to do this to your strongest member. He's our age!" Soon the commentator also came to his senses and proclaimed my victory, after which the entire arena buzzed, discussing what they had just seen. As I left, I overheard my teacher talking to Gong Gui.
"Where did you find him? How did you make him so strong?" Gong Gui asked, clearly not over his shock.
"Where he lived all the time, in Huzhou, and I didn't find him; he found me," the teacher replied with satisfaction. Damn, he's profiting from me again! Well, whatever, what difference does it make to me?
"He only started training at the beginning of October, so he has a long way to go."
"What! Impossible, you mean to say that this is his natural talent?!" Gong Gui replied in surprise, but I heard nothing more. Returning to my waiting room, where I continued cultivating, the second stage of space was almost within my grasp.
But I didn't manage to reach it again; three fights passed too quickly. My second opponent was the red-haired girl. I had no prejudice against beating girls, not since my previous life, so I didn't pity her. As I thought, she turned out to be a fire mage, approaching the mid-level. She had fire armor and a sword, but just like with Gong Han, it didn't help her at all.
Her fire was easily extinguished by my wind, plus she didn't have a seed, so when our attacks collided, she received a not-weak electric shock. The armor disintegrated as quickly as Gong Han's; this time, one lightning strike was enough. I didn't beat her badly, though; I finished her off with a whirlwind of wind blades as soon as I destroyed her defense.
My third opponent was some guy, I don't remember him well, he wielded wind magic, tried to run from me, but I was much faster. It ended the same way as with Gong Han, with him being beaten, though I must say he surrendered quickly, his fighting spirit was clearly crushed even before the battle began.
The fourth was a handsome dark-haired guy, the first one who greeted me when I approached the young generation's table. It turned out he wielded earth magic. Initially, I found it strange that a guy with such magic made it to the finals, but it turned out he had a very strong body. In terms of speed using earth waves, he could even compare to me! But alas for him, I was not only fast, but also possessed lightning magic. A couple of "Lightning's Wrath" spells and he was no longer so agile, all that was left was to catch him, and after that, he wouldn't be able to do anything.
At least, that's what I thought, but after my first blow, he managed to regain his balance and even counterattack. He clearly had a lot of battle experience, but it was too little to overcome the difference in our strength. We exchanged blows a couple more times until my strong blow to his stomach finally took him out of the game. He bent in half, and after landing, fell on all fours, spitting blood. I had amplified this blow with space magic. Throughout this tournament, I had been trying to figure out how to do this, and finally, at the end, I managed to do it.
The stands were silent for about a minute after that, and then they buzzed, discussing me. After all, it's not every day that a completely unknown guy comes and defeats all the tournament participants without missing a single significant attack.