Dodging the first attack, Enrico threw a focused punch to the back of that rock dragon's head. Raising his arms, he stopped the two dragons coming from the sides.
"Large Fireball!"
The two fireballs destroyed those dragons. Enrico looked around and saw himself surrounded by many of those rock dragons, and Nicholas seemed to be hiding somewhere.
"Concentrated Mana."
Hearing Nicholas's voice coming from all the dragons, Enrico realized that from their mouths, a mana attack was being charged, and a second later he was surrounded by pure brown mana. Before the attacks could hit, he used fire steps to move to the rocks behind, which ended up being destroyed.
'Let's see if he can handle this.'
Taking his stance for his focused punch, Enrico decided it was time to test his new spell as he remembered his training with Virelle.
"This spell is something I created myself, and it can be used with any kind of magic."
Enrico was in the same position he had adopted to use that spell Virelle had explained. She had said he could use that spell however he wanted, so he decided to use it to enhance one of his blows.
"You don't need to focus on using it in just one attack. You can train by creating a small fire to perfect it and see what level it's at."
"So I'll be able to use it combined with any of my spells…"
"That's right."
In the original story, Virelle had chosen Victoria as her disciple but was disappointed after seeing her give up, and simply gave up on finding someone who could satisfy her work. There was Kai, who could have taken her place, but she wanted someone as intelligent as Victoria when she took things seriously.
"This spell can enhance an attack through the connection between your circles, becoming stronger the more you have. The connection is created by a line that brings the two closer, fusing and making them collide."
With that collision, there would be an increase in the performance of the spell being used at that moment. Of course, it was a dangerous spell—colliding the circles could cause the user's death, which was exactly why Virelle created a spell with automatic protection. It was quite a simple spell; Enrico would place a small fire spell on the line he created between the two circles with the command for them to quickly separate.
"The name of this spell is…"
"Arcane Collision."
In the stands, Virelle gave a small smile. Enrico, with his eyes glowing red, used his crimson eyes to locate Nicholas, who was hiding in a different spot from before, and then, with his entire arm bursting into flames, he threw a punch toward the dragons coming at him.
"Charged Flame Impact!"
All the dragons in front of him were instantly turned to dust upon touching that massive fire spell—even those that seemed more resistant and were defending Nicholas. Without time to dodge, Nicholas was hit, and Enrico immediately decided to control his spell to dissipate before killing him.
'I thought he could withstand it.'
[We won? That means I'm a better system, right?]
'What do you mean "we"?'
[That's right, we—after all, you admitted yourself that without me, you wouldn't be this strong.]
Great—now he wanted to go back in time and slap himself for saying those words. The guard watching the match checked Nicholas's condition, and seeing that he was fine, he waved to Enrico and stood up.
"The winner of this match is Enrico Solcren Ferreira!"
Nicholas was unconscious, so he was taken to the healers' area. Enrico had doubts about talking to him or any other reincarnated person, so he decided he would first observe their personalities to see who might be dangerous.
"Let's see… this fight might've taken a while, but I didn't take any damage."
His earned points were revealed as nine in total—six points for a clear victory, one for taking no damage, and two for defeating someone of a higher rank.
"Now that I think about it, being strong but having a lower rank is great."
[You're right—if you were rank 1, you wouldn't get those two extra points.]
With that, he had a big advantage over many others, but by showing that his level seemed above most rank 5s, they would now be cautious.
'For now, I can show this level since no one from Astrong has lost yet.'
[Even so, they'll still be cautious. Only three opponents left, and they must be watching the broadcasts.]
'You're right, but I'll do the same.'
Climbing up to the stands, Enrico was stopped by a guard who led him to the seats where the competitors were supposed to stay. Yesterday, Enrico should've stayed there, but he wanted to feel what it was like watching from the stands.
"Yesterday, you went up without permission. If something had happened, it would've been bad for everyone."
"What could've happened?"
"Poisoning. It's happened before—someone bet on a competitor and poisoned the other when they got close."
That had happened once in history, during Kai's seven-circle tournament. He managed to heal himself because he used an Elven magic technique taught by Elaris. Since Enrico's body was superior to others, that kind of poison would only work if it was extremely strong.
"I'll be careful, sir. Thank you for the warning."
"Just stay cautious."
Sitting down, he noticed that Lira's fight against Sakura had ended a while ago, and of course, the winner was Lira. Liang's match had already started some time ago.
"He's better, but I think I can defeat him without much damage."
His total points were now 16, and he was still in second place behind Lira, who, after the last match, reached 19 points by earning ten points from her victory over Sakura.
'So that's Enrico…'
Behind a wall, the rank 5 from Shengtian Academy, Jun Wang, was sweating nervously, holding a vial given to him by one of Shengtian's teachers.
'We must win at any cost.'