Chapter 4: The Hard part: Math

 " You have a total of two hours to complete. When you are done, simply press the bell on the corner of your desk, and you will be moved forward." Everyone began working as soon as the timer started, and so did Elisa. She was doing pretty well, she just hoped her writing was readable. About an hour in, she had finished, but she didn't ring the bell. Why? Cause nobody else had finished yet, there's no way she'd be the first one to finish so quickly. So Elisa sat there going over her answers, waiting for a few others to finish first. Elisa had been spinning her pen when the first bell rang. One person had finished, and one more bell rang, which meant she was in the clear to ring her bell. She's teleported to an enclosed room, and the entire vibe is gloomy. It was dimly lit, and she wasn't alone, the two who had finished before her were also here. One of them was a guy, the other a girl. They both seemed to be older than her by a year. They both also seemed to be of noble status, the way they were dressed and composed was like that of a noble. The guy, dressed in a midnight black and maroon dress tailcoat jacket. Based on the colours and the emblem, a wolf with a sword behind it, he belonged to the Rela Family. From what she knew, they held a great deal of influence in each Empire.

" Which house are you from?"

"Huh?"

"What CLAN are you from?" He asked, annoyed, "I'm...not from anything like that?" She shrugged, further annoying him. But now that she thought about it, those two were also the ones who had found the hidden instructor. A little further ahead, a magic circle appeared as the old man announcer materialized from it, "Congratulations to the three of you for finding the hidden instructor! You three are exempt from the third trial and can take the duel if you so please," the old man said, chuckling to himself while clapping.

" Cut the crap, if that was all you wanted to say, you wouldn't have brought us here, there's more to this, isn't there?" Elisa asked; she didn't mean to be rude, but the aura emanating from the old man was vastly different from when they were outside; it was more... deadly. He clasped his hands together, his expression going slack. " Very good, the real reason is because you three, out of all the candidates moving forward, are Duel Ego users." This put them all on edge; even the girl who was slack-faced was now shocked. " Oho, don't be so surprised, the Grandmaster himself was observing all of you when you entered the forest and brought it to us, normally we'd have one of our senior instructors do it but he felt like doing it this year," Elisa's interest has been piqued; she needed to surpass the current Grandmaster if she were to replace him. Lucas was still annoyed, or maybe that's just how his face is,

" So what if we're Duel Ego users? Two of us come from prestigious families, so it's nothing out of the ordinary, though I can't say the same for that one," he says, nodding his head at Elisa, which made her all the more eager to move on to the duel portion. The old man snapped his fingers, and the wall behind them opened to show the path forward. " As I have mentioned before, you three have already passed the Entrance exam, but are allowed to partake in the duel if you so wish. In addition to all of you being Duel egoists, you will be given an extra mandatory class; you will learn more when the first day of classes draws near." He steps aside and gestures to the exit. The girl was the first to leave, followed by Lucas.

They found themselves in an arena filled with people watching a fight. The roar of the audience was loud as the two fighters went at it. Elisa scanned the crowd until she found them, seated across from her above everyone else, the Emperor. He looked bored; his head rested on his hand as he watched. Next to him was the Grandmaster. He too was watching the fight, but from this distance it kinda looked like he was looking in her general direction, maybe he felt them enter? The trio found empty seats and joined in on watching. From what Elisa could see, the fight was between two normal people, no Egos. They were both fitted with armour and fought with swords, a very old-fashioned duel. A lot of people have a fascination with these duels; one fought without magic, just the strength of two humans eager to know which one of them is the superior. The fight ended with one man getting disarmed and surrendering. There was a five-minute intermission till the next fight. Someone working for the Arena approached them, bowing before addressing them, " Will any of you be partaking in the duel?" He asked. Lucas looked like he was about to decline, but Elisa got her word in first, " How about it, Mr. Prestigous?" She says, taunting him, he glared at her.

" No."

"Huh!? Seriously, is it cause you're scared your Duel Egos won't be enough against mine?" Elisa stood up, smirking, so she was looking down at him. Lucas was grinning. If she pushed him any further, would a vein pop on his forehead? " Is that so? Well, if you so badly want to put that to the test, then let's go," He says, getting up and jumping down into the sandy arena. Elisa followed after him, despite it not being the right time, and they took their positions.

Lucas was a good few feet away from her. The few audience members who stayed were now seated, while others ran to get their friends so they wouldn't miss this one. Elisa drew Irakami while Lucas drew a rapier. She had no idea what his second Ego would be, but the Relas family was known for its strong ties with the Sea god, so she did know. Despite the arena grounds being sand, she found it not too difficult to stand or move. Elisa struck first, relying on her speed to close the distance as their two blades clashed. Elisa contended with both Lucas's attacks and his Ego; she didn't want to use her own Ego, showing off all her strength here wasn't wise. Thanks to her speed, she was able to get close on multiple occasions, landing a few hits in. Elisa hadn't thought about it before, but those guys who had been fighting before were properly armoured, their weapons were probably blunt so that no fatal wounds would happen, but they were going at it with real, sharp swords.

She was kinda scared now. Would Lucas know when to stop? Could he stop if she surrendered?

Nah, no point in thinking about that, since he's the one who's going to surrender! Elisa let her Ego flow through her body with the slightest resistance; she needed to channel only a fraction of it for this fight, any more than that and it'd be excessive. She swung her blade, producing an arc slash that grazed Lucas. Their blades clashed again, only this time they were both coated in elemental energies, electricity and water. The result of this caused a massive burst of the two powers, which almost reached the audience. The two fighters had been pushed back, but other than that, they were still both in it. Elisa was tired. She didn't really have much real fighting experience, aside from the bandits. She didn't care about hiding her strength; she needed to win. Elisa's output increased a little more. Her speed remained the same, but the power behind her attacks had increased slightly; even so, Lucas had the advantage of training behind him. Don't get it twisted, she trained as well, but clashing against another's blade made her hands ache. Thanks to Lucas' water Ego, the sand became wet and slightly harder to move around. She dashed forward, her sword swung from below as it slammed into his rapier.

Lucas managed to push the distance between them again, and he grinned again. " Come on, is that all you got? Well, I can't say I blame you, it's not like your dad had much to teach you anyway," He snapped, and so did she. Her eyes narrowed as she sheathed her blade, " Oh come on, you're seriously not considering surrender after that weak ass insult!? Come on! Show me your all so 'powerful' Ego!" Lucas was still poking her. He wanted to see her Ego, was that right? Elisa's hand drifted to the sword just below Irakami, the blade with the purple cloth tied around its handle, a chain dangled from its end, attached to it was a flower that never seemed to wither. She drew the sword, and as the second it drew, a pulse rippled. She continued to draw, only for her entire being to be pushed into the ground, like the world itself was protesting against her.

The gravity around her was pressurized by a lot; she had dropped to a knee, but her hands remained on her blade, and she had managed to pull it out halfway. Someone reached out and pushed the blade back into its sheath. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to look at whoever it was that was doing this. She moved her head back in surprise. The man had lowered himself down to her level; his face was a lot closer to hers than she anticipated. He smiled at her with an unnerving calmness, but his eyes were as pitch black as the deep night; the man before her was none other than the Grandmaster.