Professor Dmitri’s selections amazed Merlin, and it did not fail to amaze the rest of the students—perhaps even those selected were not different.

  Nikoi, Park Yuri, and Choi Sangook were those who had been chosen to take him on. Merlin could see the man’s vision; Nikoi was in Cohort Fategss. Park Yuri was in Cohort Spearhead. And Choi Sangook was in Cohort Dragon Eye. This way, Merlin took on students of different Cohorts.

  And, honestly, he was fine with it. At least, he didn’t have to fight anyone he was particurly close to. And… He got to take one more crack at Choi Sangook. The bastard had even been smiling when his raised hand hadn’t gone unnoticed. It seemed he too wanted to fight Merlin as much as Merlin wanted to fight him, but obviously for different reasons. Merlin had come to realize that ice magic was basically his own antithesis. This way he would be able to strengthen himself even better. Choi Sangook didn’t realize it, but he was just a training dummy to Merlin. And the thought caused Merlin’s lips to twitch into a smile.

  “All right,” Professor Dmitri continued after the students had settled down. “Make your pick, Merlin. Which of the duels do you want to be graded on?”

  Merlin gnced at Professor Dmitri who didn’t spare him a look and turned back to the seated students. It was not even up for debate which duel he wanted to be graded on. He had never fought Nikoi before, and had no idea of the boy’s capabilities. He couldn’t assume he would do well against the d, and if he wanted to help it, he would love it if the boy could earn some points.

  Of course, because he was not being graded in a duel didn’t mean his opponent would get free points. But at least they would be noticed better. And that thought naturally corresponded with dueling Park Yuri as well. She was a student of Cohort Spearhead, and also the granddaughter of the Guildmaster of the Silver Dragon Guild. If there was anyone he didn’t want to be graded against, it was her. After all, he recalled from the usual gossip that she was also an A-Css Mage.

  And that left him with the person he was sure he had a shot against: Choi Sangook. He had engaged the boy once already, and had fought against actual ice monsters. He stood a chance.

  “Choi Sangook,” Merlin said, and a flurry of murmurs rose from the dead. He saw Hakyun with a narrowed gaze. The boy probably thought he had done it because of him, but he didn’t need to worry. His choice was completely undriven by emotions and based on pure reasoning.

  “Haha!!” Choi Sangook burst into ughter and cpped his hands wildly. “Good choice, Deficient Mage! Good choice!”

  Merlin simply sighed.

  Professor Dmitri then nodded in acceptance of Merlin’s decision, nudged his gsses, and stepped down from the podium.

  “Nikoi Volkov, come down,” he said, motioning for the boy to stand up. Then he tapped on his smartwatch and immediately the podium sunk into the ground, spping a look of awe on everyone’s face as they watched the transformation. A hexagonal ring grew out of where the podium had been, and around it crackled to life a net made of blue surges that felt a bit too ethereal to be electrical. Mana surges.

  Nikoin got to where Merlin was then and they greeted each other with a smile.

  “I saw your video,” Nikoi started. “I know you’re strong, but don’t hold anything back and let’s give it our all,” he said with a brief nod.

  “Sure.” Merlin reciprocated the nod.

  Nikoi had been a good guy to Hakyun during the physical assessment, and even though Merlin would go all out respectfully, he would try his best not to subject the boy to any harm. Well, that was considering the boy was not on a whole other level.

  Well, it didn’t matter. A friend of Hakyun was a friend of his.

  “You may both head in,” Professor Dmitri shifted aside as Merlin and Nikoi walked into the ring. He then turned to the rest of the students. “This might just be a simple duel to you all in hindsight, but it is more than that. Dungeons and Towers require teamwork. With this duel, you will learn all about how your fellow mate fights, that way, when the Dungeon and Tower simution practical comes around, you will not fail woefully. Every course ties into the other at Prestige Academy. Joke with one, you joke with all the rest.”

  Loud gulps resounded through the White Room. Then Professor Dmitri turned back to Merlin and Nikoi.

  “The duel ends when your opponent gives up, or something simir to a lethal strike nds. You have five minutes. Begin.”

  Merlin was always ready. His body tensed up as he brought the activation of Reader Mage to the tip of his tongue. But at that moment, he noticed Nikoi stealing a brief gnce at Professor Dmitri and he frowned. The boy’s expression had crumpled for a moment there. And Merlin knew that expression. It was the one a person wore when they had something to prove—when there was a certain burden on their shoulder.

  Was there something he was missing between Nikoi and Professor Dmitri?

  He didn’t have the time to settle into his thoughts as Nikoi arched his brows and let loose his Grimoire from the pouch around his waist. Merlin’s heart skipped a beat at the color of the Grimoire. It was bck and without any accentuation, just like Hakyun’s.

  Nikoi was a D-Css Mage.

  Merlin felt a sour taste creep onto his tongue. He had already promised not to hold anything back, but even if he tried to be humble, he was well aware that he was somewhat stronger than a D-Css Mage at his current level. He’d been able to take on C-Rank Ice Wyverns, and had fought against Chima, an A-Css Mage, and won, despite the fact that Chima was holding back. Wasn’t it only sensible that he pced some sort of restriction on himself to bance things out?

  No. He was not at the level to be feeling conceited and giving people the edge in a battle. Nikoi had raised his hand of his own accord, he had wished that they gave it their all. Who was he to think the boy deserved pity? He was going to fight like he would any other person. He was going to be decisive. Merlin’s eyes narrowed into a glint.

  Nikoi channeled his mana and the air around his arms brimmed with life. Merlin was curious as to what sort of magic his eyes would be blessed with, and he was pleasantly surprised to find out that Nikoi was not amongst the common category of Mages. The veins on the boy’s arms bulged, his flesh writhed, his fingernails turned into cws, and as every one present watched with focused gazes, his skin’s color changed into a blend of orange and bck stripes, a mountain of fur sprouting over them.

  Merlin smiled amidst the murmurs. A creation Mage.

  “Ready?” Nikoi asked, his voice having been tampered with as well as it became extremely raspy.

  “As ready as I can be,” he replied and Nikoi dashed forward.

  Merlin was no longer caught by surprise at the possibility of Mages being melee rather than ranged, and he had long put his whole misgivings about Warriors behind him after experiencing Chima’s capabilities and, well, Janeth’s strength. In fact, a Mage who could switch between Melee and Ranged like Chima had shown during their spar back in the dorm, was the kind of Mage one was to fear the most. They were versatile and quick.

  However, Nikoi was not that Mage.

  Merlin had no problem evading the boy’s attacks. They were crude, slow, and without rhythm. He could predict where Nikoi would strike next just from how his waist moved, and he danced aound every blur of cw easily.

  Nikoi had a look of furstrayion on his face, but Merlin only focused on it for a brief second. What his mind was most drawn to was how the boy’s magic worked. He knew Creation Mages had had their DNA tampered in accordance with the knoeldge their mana possessed. What he wanted to know about was the mechanics. And he was unable to prevent his curiosity from escaping his mouth.

  “How does this work?” Merlin asked as he ducked beneath an overhead ssh and evaded a following diagonal swipe of cws. “Oh, yeah. I do understand the basics of Creation, I just don’t understand how it transtes to reality. Are you like a half-human, half-beast, but can control the tter part of your body? You know, let it come out at will or the likes?”

  Nikoi’s brows arched into a frown as he kept trying every means he could think of to get a hit on Merlin. “What is this?” the boy asked, his tone low. “Are you kidding here?”

  Merlin snapped back to reality then, realizing how his actions would look to a third-party. And well enough, his thoughts were correct.

  “Isn’t he just toying with him?” a student asked from the crowd. “That Nikoi guy hasn’t even nded a single hit, and Merlin just keeps dancing around him.”

  “This is boring,” another yawned.

  “This is not a show.”

  “We haven’t even seen his anti-magic at work. At this rate we won’t even see it.”

  The murmurs grew louder, expressing their displeasure with how things were proceeding, and Merlin felt extremely bad and displeased with himself. He’d messed up. Nikoi had an embarrassed look on his face. And, instinctively, he knew the best thing to do here was end things before it got even worse.

  Merlin jumped a few steps back, putting a substantial amount of distance between him and Nikoi who had beads of sweat running down his head as his breathing pulled in and out. Immediately, Merlin stretched forth a hand and activated Reader Mage.

  He had never deconstructed the spell of a Creation Mage before, but at the moment, his feeling of curiosity had been tainted by his stupid actions a minute or so ago, and so he could not relish in the moment.

  [Perk: Reader Mage Activated]

  [Analyzing spell…]

  [Analysis complete]

  [Spell: Beast Arms.Category: Novice, Tier I.Spell Wielder: D-Css Mage.Spell Description: A spell formed by shaping the nucleotide sequences present in the Mage’s modified deoxyribonucleic acid to correspond with a certain aspect of the knowledge their mana possesses. In this Mage’s case, the knowledge of the cellur structure of the arms of beasts of the panthera genus.]

  [Deconstructing Process: Disrupt the bonding between the weakest of the rung base pairs of the Mage’s deoxyribonucleic acid, which is the adenine to the thymine pair, by channeling your mana into the construct of their hydrogen bond. Do be careful though, this time it is not your life that is at stake. Too much mana and you risk a widespread cell death in the Mage, killing them.]

  Merlin froze. He had gotten him an idea of what he wanted to know, but the knowledge left a sour taste in his tongue. He had never thought that using his anti-magic would put his opponent at risk, and not him. Kieran had not tackled an opponent with ‘beast magic’ in Singurity Mage, so Merlin was not sure how to go about this here. He was no longer a novice as to how he channeled his mana, but would it be wise for him to risk it with someone else’s life on the line?

  If something can go wrong, it will go wrong…

  [Deconstruct?]

  [Yes?]/[No?]

  Merlin made his decision.

  No…

  He lowered his hand and the mana that had wrapped around his hand vanished.

  “Huh? What’s going on? Has he used anti-magic?”

  “When? I didn’t see anything?”

  Murmurs sprung to life, but the fact that Nikoi still had his spell active gave them the answers they needed. And it seemed his actions angered the boy, because he now looked furious. Merlin decided to end this some other way.

  [Perk: Reader’s Bookmark Activated]

  [Bookmarks (2): Fsh Step (Activated)(Requires at least 190 milliseconds reaction time to function). Mana Spring (Requires at least Level 10 Strength, Level 15 Agility, and Level 20 Resilience to function)]

  [Conditions to function met: Agility Level: Level 16 (190ms reaction time)]

  [Intelligence Level is low; effectiveness will be reduced]

  [Bookmark: Fsh Step, Chosen.]

  [Bookmark: Fsh Step, Activated.]

  Nikoi clenched his chin and pushed forth one more time, but he was only halfway towards his target when Merlin blurred into view before he could react.

  A look of shock spped Nikoi’s face as he halted in his tracks, visibly confused as to what step he should take in that instance. However, he was too te to come to a decision. Merlin clenched his fist and smmed his knuckles into Nikoi’s belly, taking the air out of his lungs and dropping him to the floor.

  Nikoi wrapped his arms around his belly as his eyes reddened, and a second ter, his beast arms vanished.

  There was a pause so loud the air stilled, then…

  “Merlin Tyrrell is the winner of the first duel,” Professor Dmitri announced. “Nikoi Volkov earns no points for his Cohort or academics. Leave the stage.”

  Merlin sighed and stretched forth a hand at Nikoi who was hunkered over. “Good—” His eyes widened as the rest of his words caught in his throat.

  He knew he had messed up more than once during the duel, sending the wrong messages with his actions, but that should be no reason for Nikoi to have such a pale look on his face, like he had seen a ghost. For a moment there, Merlin felt like his strike had been too hard. But he had definitely held back with his punch. Then what could he have done to make the boy look so…depressed?

  “Nikoi Volkov, I said leave the stage!” Professor Dmitri’s tone was a lot harsher now, even far more than when he had been ridiculing Merlin in his css, and that prompted Merlin to gnce his way. Merlin’s expression worsened. The man was staring straight at Nikoi with eyes that glinted animosity.

  It was then that it dawned on Merlin. He put together the pieces, the surname and the hair, and he came to a conclusion: Professor Dmitri and Nikoi were reted. And he, a Deficient Mage, had most likely just made a mess of their bond.