As Theo walked back to where Ferdinand was, “Great job on that one, how did you learn to overcharge a spell?” Ferdinand asked “I don´t know, I just wanted to put as much power into the attack as possible” Theo replied “Those are some great instincts, but be careful when overcharging, if it gets out of your control the attack can backfire and get you seriously injured,” Ferdinand told him with a slight frown, Theo understood the seriousness of this and nodded.

“Your next match will test you, you´ll be facing a 3rd rank peak stage brawler, brawlers can be difficult to deal with because of their versatile techniques, all of them fight in their style so it’s very hard to get used to them, so be careful,” Ferdinand said.

As Theo was pondering, Ferdinand was called up for his next match, as he went to the arena, his opponent wasn’t there, then the referring officer said, “Due to injuries from his last match, Reese Veev has been ruled out for this match”

Ferdinand decided to leave but as he was stepping down, “I´ll volunteer to be his opponent” Ferdinand turned around to see who was volunteering to fight him, it was Officer Weiz, that wanted to take a shot at him.

Everette was seeing what was unfolding in the arena and decided to let it play out, it would be good to test out Ferdinand who hadn’t had a real opponent thus far, “Trainee Ferdinand, you are in the garrison regardless of this match result, so how about it?” Everette said, with an open invitation like this Ferdinand could have said no as he was already on the 20-man garrison which was his goal, but as the nobleman, he was raised as, he could not let this challenge go.

“I agree to the match, with the condition that I´m allowed to use my lance!” Ferdinand said as he walked back into the ring, “Officer Weiz, do you agree?” Everette asked, “I was just about to make the same suggestion” Officer Weiz answered with a malevolent grin.

“The match between Officer Brendan Weiz and Ferdinand Walker will now begin!” the referring officer announced and the match began, as the match began another 3 superior officers joined Everette in the stands, all of them highborn.

Officer Weiz is a 4th ranked high stage water Elementalist, as a brawler he was wearing serrated knuckles on his hands, as he went in to attack, a very thin layer of water was covering his knuckles,

Weiz was the first to strike going hard at Ferdinand, when Ferdinand blocked Weiz´s fist, the water from his knuckles expanded and went for a cut-like motion at Ferdinand, as it was about to strike the water evaporated, Ferdinand was using his fire to protect his body from any sneaky attacks that Weiz tried.

Weiz kept his assault on Ferdinand, his eyes bloodshot, he was going all out trying to inflict true damage on his opponent, Ferdinand was calm as he dodged or blocked every attack, waiting for the opportunity to strike.

“How much mana would they have to keep up those kinds of attacks?” Theo asked, “Because they are at 4th rank, they should have beyond 20 thousand mana, but with each stage, there is a massive leap in power, Ferdinand is probably at 100 thousand while Weiz is probably at over 70 thousand” Prim answered, Theo was shocked at the difference, he was barely over 500.

Weiz was getting more and more reckless with his attacks, as he landed a water cannon that pushed back Ferdinand but did no real damage to him, Weiz began a spell, and a casting circle appeared under him, it had 4 outer rings, meaning it was a tier 4 spell, as he was chanting Ferdinand decide to do the same and began casting his spell, under him, a casting circle with 5 rings appeared, and he began chanting a tier 5 spell.

When Weiz was finished he unleashed his spell, and a water snake formed about 2 meters tall and flew at Ferdinand, at that moment Ferdinand unleashed his attack, it was a fire tornado, it started growing in size and swallowed Weiz´s water snake whole, it kept growing and getting faster until it reached Weiz, Weiz then cast a water shell around him but Ferdinand’s attack was too powerful and broke through, as the tornado dissipated Weiz was on the ground with his uniform in tatters and burn marks all over his body.

“Winner! trainee Ferdinand” the referring officer announced, when Ferdinand was getting off the stage, Weiz managed to get up and then screamed “You may have the training now! but with no backing and no family, you will remain nothing! As a banished you are untouchable by anyone else there is no greater shame! don’t you ever forget this!

After Weiz´s statement, a few of the superior officers looked at each other, as if agreeing with him, Ferdinand got out of the arena and went to where Theo was, Ferdinand was smiling, he did not care for what Wiez had to say, but was incredibly pleased with how it played out.

“That was amazing Ferdinand, great thing you got to finish chanting your spell as Weiz´s was about to reach you,” Theo said, “Actually I was overcharging my spell as much as possible to completely overpower him” Ferdinand answered as the superior officers looked at him in disdain.

“But your spell was a tier higher than his, how were you able to cast it so fast?” Theo asked bewildered, “Well it depends on your mastery rank for each spell, the more you´ve mastered a spell the quicker you can cast it, which is my case, he probably has a C rank mastery of his spell, but I have an A rank mastery for mine” Ferdinand answered.

Theo was amazed at this and just now understood the importance of casting improvement, when your spell goes up in mastery, your casting time drops, and its power increases but so does its mana consumption, truly the one who works the hardest can overcome.

As the remainder of the matches ended, Theo was the last one of the day, “Remember to be aware of your mana consumption, he probably has ten times more mana than you” Ferdinand mentioned to Theo, Theo gulped and made his way to the arena.

As he got on the platform they greeted each other and took their stances, as the match was about to begin Theo´s opponent was smirking, he thought this was gonna be the easiest match for him, Theo tempered himself and got ready to go all in quickly as to not give him a chance to strike back, this time he was going on the offensive.

The refereeing officer looked at both participants and then said “Begin!” Theo immediately rushed at his opponent, but he stopped about a meter away from him right outside his range, just when Theo stopped his opponent lunged at him with a big punch aimed right at his chest, in that moment Theo parried the knuckle upwards, and dived forward, when Theo rolled he was already 2 meters from him and his opponent immediately went to battle at close quarters.

Theo was at a disadvantage his opponent being a 3rd rank peak level, a whole rank above Theo but Theo´s intense sparring for the last couple of weeks had paid off, his opponent may have been a higher rank but experiencing Ferdinand’s battle prowess has given Theo the edge he needed being on par with his opponent.

With every short parry, he made he took two steps back trying to widen the gap so he could get at his best range, Theo tried to keep his opponent just out of his range because Theo had daggers he had a slight advantage if he could keep the spacing between them as he had better range.

As they kept going at each other, “Theo he needs to have a feel for where he's going, he bounces his foot twice and then takes a step, look for the bounce, and at that moment hit him with your spell” Prim said to him, Theo acknowledge her and started to look carefully at his opponent.

As he was about to do it again Theo took his chance and went for a quick Arc Slice, because it was at B mastery he was able to quick cast it, getting his opponent off balance, and just as he staggered it gave him time to rush his opponent and get closer, Theo went for hard hits with the daggers.

Theo was almost out of mana as he had been infusing it into his arms and legs throughout the entire match, it was now or never, his opponent tried to shake him off but Theo was going too hard at him, he had to stay rooted and take the punishment, with his arms protecting his head while he received a dozen hits everywhere on his body.

There were puddles of sweat under him, his superior attitude all but gone, he was beyond tired, and Theo wasn't going to stop, all he could do was try to defend and take every hit, he started to give in and kneeled to try to keep defending, but unlike Theo, he had a lot more mana.

Theo could feel something coming, but he wasn’t going to stop, he only had a quarter of his mana left, now was his chance but then a spell circle appeared under Theo´s opponent, it was a tier 2 spell that he quickly unleashed, a powerful gust of wind blew from where he was and lifted Theo a few feet in the air.

Now that his opponent had some distance another spell appeared under him with 4 rings, “Theo, his next attack is likely a gap closer accompanied by a likely amplifying of a brawler attack” Prim said to him.

As Theo pondered on what to do, he used mana regeneration, It would take 12 seconds to fill his mana, “Prim, what should I do?” Theo asked, “I will lend you some of my power Theo, When he rushes you, time will slow down, it will give you time to use your strongest spell before he reaches you,” Prim said.

After Theo had charged his mana up he began casting Arc Slice and overpowering it as much as possible, his opponent was done suddenly like a jet, he flew at Theo with his fist outstretched toward him, and it took half a second for him to reach Theo, then as Prim activated her power, time began to slow down giving Theo enough time to overcharge his attack 3 fold, spending almost 400 of his mana, he used his advantage by lowering his stance, taking advantage of his opponents state.

Because his opponent was flying at him trying to strike him down with one attack, he was highly vulnerable, Theo noticed this thanks to all the training Ferdinand showed him, teaching him never to be completely wide open.

When his opponent reached him, just before he connected Theo had cast Arc Slice, impacting his opponent’s lower half with a big clean hit, after striking him hard Theo took a defensive stance taking the greatly diminished blow.

At that moment Theo took advantage of the situation, he had a third of his mana and enhanced his whole body he had 6 seconds to take him down, his opponent was already injured from the Arc Slice and was defending his core greatly, Theo relentlessly attacked the other parts of his body, his opponent in shock that a 2nd ranker could injure him so.

Then with the last of Theo’s strength, he did 3 last Flower Wind stance combos, he got a clean hit on his opponent’s head, knocking him out cold.

“Winner! Trainee Theo Dawes!” the referee announced.

Theo was exhausted and took a sit right there, “phew, thank you, Prim, I couldn’t have done it without you”, “Your victories are mine as well” Theo nodded and stayed there replenishing his mana.

Ferdinand went to the arena and helped Theo up “good job!, You kept it close but never let up, in the end, it was all about strategy, even though he had a lot more mana than you, you utilized everything you knew and outsmarted him” Ferdinand said as he helped Theo off the arena “Maybe we should take tomorrow off, I´m exhausted” Theo said with a strained smile, Ferdinand looked at Theo with a smile and nodded.

After the last match, the 20 remaining recruits were to stay for Everette to address them, “congratulations on your victories, you are all part of my garrison, we will be training separately from the rest of the recruits, also our commanding officer will be here tomorrow, I expect you all bright and early, dismissed”.