"Alicia! Alicia! Alicia!"

"Long live our G.o.ddess!"

In the VIP seats, Vincent Violet nodded in approval. A smile spread across his weathered face as he observed the duel.

"You really have gotten very strong, my daughter." He sighed and shook his head, a little sad. "You've surpa.s.sed me when I was your age."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Teacher Fielding asked in an offhand manner. He was still in charge of refereeing the fight, so he wasn't allowed to take sides, but that didn't stop him from being impressed by the performance that both sides displayed. He glanced at me. "Both Alicia and Richard represent the brightest hopes of the academy."

"Yeah." The academy director nodded, his expression thoughtful. "Perhaps we might stand a chance at the tournament this year. With Alicia captaining the team, she might be able to help us rise to unprecedented heights."

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Unaware of the praises heaped upon her, the person in question continued to fight. That was the reason why Teacher Fielding hadn't declared the end of the match. The ever-so-impartial teacher was aware that neither of us had been completely incapacitated yet.

"Huff…"

Breathing heavily, Alicia studied the blossoming smoke as she landed on the still wet ground. At least there was no longer a sea of water filling up the coliseum.

"Did I do it?"

"You almost did," I replied with a shrug. Alicia glanced at me, and then turned back to stare at the dissipating smoke in disbelief.

Black Tortoise was still in one piece, a little singed, but otherwise he survived a direct hit from her ultimate spell. He was staggering, dazed and severely hurt from her railgun spell, though. Credit where it was due. Alicia's railgun spell was incredibly powerful.

I couldn't help but be impressed. Bowing my head slightly, I smiled.

"That was amazing. If it had been any of my other Stellar Guardians, they would have been obliterated by your railgun spell. Fortunately, Black Tortoise has the highest defense out of all the Stellar Guardians."

Alicia shook her head, and then s.h.i.+fted her aim to me.

"But I've immobilized him, even if it's only temporary. As long as I take you out, it doesn't matter how powerful your summoned spirits are."

I dodged her attacks, the bullets whizzing above my head as I ducked under them. Smirking, I raised Orion.

"You're right," I admitted.

Except for one thing, but I didn't tell her that. There was no point bragging and giving my opponent the advantage.

All this while, when Alicia was engaging Black Tortoise in combat, I hadn't exactly been idle either. During her evasion and counterattack, I had summoned Orion and began casting an ultimate spell of my own.

And now it was complete.

"Rigel!"

One of the most powerful arrows in my possession streaked out, blazing a destructive path toward Alicia. Realizing that she couldn't escape in time, Alicia gritted her teeth and raised both her guns, casting an intricate defensive spell.

Blue light cascaded across her, forming a s.h.i.+mmering barrier. Rigel struck it just a millisecond after she completed it, and exploded.

This time it was Alicia's turn to be engulfed in an explosion. The conflagration expanded rapidly, turning into what seemed like a mushroom cloud. Even more powerful than Alicia's railgun spell, my Rigel spell was almost like a mini-nuke.

It was the spell I used to take one of Hades' lives.

Alicia should know about it. She had witnessed me using this spell firsthand against our common enemy and obliterating the entire cemetery.

However, most of the spectators had never seen me unleash this spell before.

"What the f.u.c.k?!"

"How…?!"

"Isn't Richard a summoner?! How the h.e.l.l is he capable of unleas.h.i.+ng such a powerful spell?!"

That was combat magic combined with summoning magic. My Constellation weapons were the product of a unique summoning spell that relied on my imagination. Obviously, that didn't mean my Constellation magic was all-powerful. They were limited to my own strength. If I didn't possess sufficient mana, I obviously couldn't nuke anyone. Furthermore, I needed some time to complete the casting of that spell.

If Black Tortoise didn't buy me the time I needed, I would never have been able to finish the casting and unleash Rigel on Alicia. Similarly, if Cecilia hadn't distracted Hades and fought with him evenly, I would never have the time to finish the casting of Rigel and nuke him too. All powerful spells had their drawbacks.

They were too slow.

It was sort of like Magic: The Gathering, or Pokémon Trading Card Game. The more powerful the spell, the more mana or energies you needed to cast them. For example, a spell that did five damage to each creature and player would cost five mana as opposed to Lightning Bolt, which did three damage to a single target at the cost of one red mana. Or a basic Pokémon's ember attack would cost only a single fire energy and did 30 damage as opposed to an evolved Pokémon's Fire Blast attack, which cost three fire energies and did 130 damage in exchange for discarding a single fire energy attached to that Pokémon (though you had the Burning Energy card that could circ.u.mvent it by having a rule that allows you to reattach it after you discarded it for using it for a fire Pokémon's attack…if you play Expanded, that is). And you could only play a single land or attach a single energy card per turn. Of course, there were spells or Trainer Cards (which were in the form of spells, artifacts or enchanted gear) that could accelerate mana or energy acc.u.mulation, but in essence the principle never changed. The more powerful the attack, the more mana you needed.

And thus the more time you required to cast it.

Of course, aggressive mages couldn't care less about powerful spells. They aimed to finish off the opponent before he could set up his mana acceleration or play his trump card. That was the reason why summoning wasn't popular in the first place. It left you vulnerable to tons of small, cheap spells that were still capable of killing you quickly. All the powerful spells in the world would be of no use if you died before you could cast such expensive attacks.

The best, like Alicia, was capable of both cheap, fast attacks and expensive, powerful techniques like her railgun spell. Even so, it was clear that Alicia's repertoire contained more of the fast and cheap spells than the expensive ultimate technique. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if her Railgun Maximus was her only expensive spell. Alicia seemed the type to excel in today's Meta, which allowed her to rise to her current high rank. She could take down her opponents quickly with a barrage of cheap but numerous shots, overwhelming them with sheer output and acc.u.mulated damage. At the same time, she also had defensive spells to allow her to survive counterattacks, like the barrier she had just conjured.

Unfortunately for her, the barrier was not enough to prevent the devastating damage from an ultimate spell…or a technique of Rigel's caliber.

"…ugh…"

I had deliberately missed Alicia. Not because I underestimated her, but…well, yeah. She was a close friend. Okay, she was extremely beautiful, and like most other guys I sort of had a crush on her. There was something about her that just made me reluctant to hurt her. A direct hit would have incinerated her and reduced her to a deathlike state. Even with the boundary field preserving her life, she would require extensive healing spells and arcane treatment to recover, as well as a long period of several days in the infirmary.

There was no way I could do that to a delicate-looking girl like Alicia. Even though I didn't buy that G.o.ddess bulls.h.i.+t and I didn't wors.h.i.+p her, it was hard to dislike Alicia. She was universally beloved by everyone for a good reason.

She treated everyone with respect, was a very nice girl and had a great and sociable personality. Her beauty was only the icing on the cake. Even if she wasn't as beautiful as a princess, she still would have been popular. I was sure of it. I could guarantee that I would still have a crush on her even if she didn't look like a princess out of some Chinese web novel.

Her beauty was a little diminished now, with soot covering her singed face and skin. She was sitting on the ground, dazed and scorched. Trivial injuries, compared to what she would have suffered had I landed a direct hit.

Even though I had deliberately missed her, the explosion from Rigel was still enough to overwhelm her barrier, smash it to smithereens and knocked her over, injuring her enough to incapacitate her from the fight. Just to be sure, I strode forward, three arrows notched and aimed at her. From her current position, she wouldn't be able to dodge my Orion's Belt.

"Do you surrender?" I asked. Alicia looked up groggily, but understanding slowly returned to her eyes. She sighed, and then nodded, raising both her hands.

"It's my loss."

"Battle ends!" Teacher Fielding declared immediately, as if he was waiting for that precise moment. "The winner is Richard Huang!"

A small bubble of cheers burst out from my side of the arena. My fan club (if you could call it that) were yelling themselves hoa.r.s.e. Earlier, the Black Roses and almost the entire school were cheering when they thought Alicia won, but now they were deathly silent, with Harvey and the others' cheers echoing throughout the colossal coliseum.

"You did it, Senior!"

"I knew it! I knew Senior Richard would win!"

"Ha ha ha ha! He's full of surprises, isn't he?"

"Amazing!"

I tilted my head toward them by way of acknowledgement, and then proceeded toward Alicia. Smiling, I extended a hand toward her in a polite manner.

"That was a close battle. I almost lost there."

"I concur. It was really close." Alicia returned the smile and accepted my hand, allowing me to pull her back to her feet. I was about to withdraw my hand when I realized that Alicia refused to let go of it.

"?"

Alicia suddenly yanked me forward, catching me off guard. Taken by surprise, I stumbled toward her, only for Alicia to seize my collar. At the same time, she leaned forward to meet my lips with hers.

Right in front of an amazed and outraged crowd, she kissed me.