Lord of Charm

3 fireballs were enough to make Gale's stone wall collapse and he was sent flying, landing on his back painfully.

To add insult to injury a few more fireballs exploded above him, dealing him no damage but making a clear statement that Jay could take his life within seconds.

Gale slowly got up and looked at Jay with astonishment; even though there was no way she had a better connection than him to the mana, her magic swallowed his easily, as if his fire was a stage under hers.

"How is it possible? How many years did it take you to become a mage?"

"16 years, when I was 32."

Jay said with pride. It was a true achievement even among the top; the fourth prince became a mage around age 33, and he was the best the royal family showed outside. Even Sol who was considered a genius was over 40 when she advanced.

"Then how your magic can defeat mine so easily?"

"Because your control over it is a mess, you basically release all control the moment you launch your spell, and your mastery of the spells is at the bare minimum level required to execute them."

Jay explained to Gale his shortcomings and went back to stand with her friends.

"Boy, did you have enough or do you want to spar with another one of my students?"

Shana asked with a pleased tone, and her voice hinted she hoped Gale wasn't satisfied yet. Her wishes came true; Gale wanted to see if all her students were so strong, or if Jay was special.

"I will fight one more."

Shana beamed and called the other girls with a happy voice.

"Okay girls, the first one to arrive gets the same deal as Jay."

"No need, I will take it. Jay already explained to you your shortcomings, so why do you want to spar again? Does it matter if the rest of them are not as strong as her? Even if they were weaker, which they aren't, you must only aim at the top and never be satisfied with defeating the weak."

Lena stopped Shana and took the stage, lecturing Gale to change his mindset before starting the fight.

"No need to count, you may attack whenever you want."

Lena signaled Gale with her hand to come at her and stood without moving. Gale felt nervous about fighting Lena; she was always the unbeatable sister, the best in her generation who cannot lose.

However, he gathered himself and cast stone pillars from both of Lena's sides. Without casting a spell, Lena stepped forward and dodged them both in the nick of time.

"Your casting isn't covert enough, I can easily judge from the mana movement where the attack is coming from and what element you are using."

She kept lecturing him while dodging the next pillars Gale used. Gale understood he can't hit her with the pillars and decided to force her to act by using his stones barrage.

It worked; Lena cast a sphere of water around herself and all the stones that hit the sphere entered the current of the sphere, circled her, and got shot from the other side.

"The power is too low, each stone is only equal to a second or third-rank spell, which makes it useless against an experienced mage. It might even be sent back against you."

The sphere's current changed; instead of releasing the stones behind Lena's back, they made a full circle in the stream and got shot back at Gale, hitting the incoming stones with precision.

Gale quickly stopped casting his barrage; he knew that the stones hit the other stones instead of hitting him only because Lena wanted them to. Lena followed and canceled her water sphere.

Taking advantage of Lena's passive approach, Gale took his time and summoned over a hundred wisps of fire and sent them to attack her. Lena waved her hand and a thin wall of stone emerged from the ground in front of her, blocking the wisps from advancing.

"I trained you to condense your fireballs for days, why are your stone pillars so damn big?"

The wisps crushed on the wall and dissipated, leaving nothing but a black mark on the seemingly weak wall.

"By making the pillar so big your mana is less dense, making it more like a normal stone and less like a powerful spell. Remember, with the aid of mana, a thin wall can weigh just as much as a thick one, but it'd be much stronger because of the mana density. A thick stone is superior to a thin wall only if their mana density is the same."

Gale sent a sharp air blade in an attempt to cut through the wall, yet nothing worked. Lena stopped supporting her wall and let the mana scatter, making the wall crumble under its own weight.

"Again."

Gale complied and shot other air blades, to which Lena responded by creating her fire snakes. The snakes passed above the blades, 2 snakes per blade, and the fire sucked in the air from the blades. The snakes attacked the helpless Gale and left a small burn on his limbs.

"You don't keep the density of the mana in your air blades, I only had to suck the air out. Remember, the element without the support of mana is fragile."

Gale understood he was still too uneducated about magic. He became a magician less than a year ago, and his mother taught him mainly the basics magicians needed to know.

"I understand, I surrender."

"Good. I could do the same also with the wind element, you need to utilize your elements to the maximum. Spend the time until the tournament practicing. It's almost guaranteed you will win your bracket, but it's better if you can leave a good impression."

"My bracket?"

"Yes, the tournament is divided into three brackets by age – one for magicians between ages 16-25, one for magicians and mages between ages 26-35, and one for mages between ages 36-45."

"Wouldn't it make the tournament extremely unfair for the younger ones in every bracket?"

"In terms of winning, yes. But if they are talented, they can almost always leave a good impression on the testers. The main goal in participating is to be chosen to train in the empire, not to win."

"Wait, you said I'm going to win my bracket, but you are also 24. Are you going to let me win?"