How could Calista continue to call him a student at that stage? She had unknowingly started to treat Zavier like a peer or an equal after the incident with Kyouko and the other S rank mages. So, the reason that she had never felt odd calling Shiranui her best student was that she had never considered Zavier her student in the first place. He was too strong for that, almost like a cheat card.
However, before Calista could have called out to the referee in order to announce her forfeiture, someone else beat her to it. It was the white bearded old man let out a roar to attract the attention of the referee while waving his hand furiously.
The referee turned towards the old man in response to the roaring voice that was full of authority.
Calista was dumbfounded as she was just about to call the referee before she had been interrupted. Her words had been forcefully stopped in her mouth and she barely stopped herself from rushing towards the rude old man.
"We concede this fight to Merion High. Rebecca will withdraw from the fight."
"Are you sure that you want to concede the fight to Merion high school? Caesar High will be unable to proceed to the finals that way?"
White bearded old man let out a heavy snort as if he had been offended by the question.
"Do I look like I care about that at the moment? Hurry up and end it."
As soon as the old man confirmed referee's question, he rushed into the field towards Rebecca who had been running about firing lasers from her body in an attempt to stop the flame from devouring her body.
He went into the flaming field without a single defense but the out of control flame was unable to harm him in the slightest. He pulled her out of the sea of flames like he was not even making an effort.
There was not the slightest smidge of smoke or soot on his flames despite having entered the fire. The mana shield around him had been too strong for the flames of this level to have affected him in the slightest.
Old man pulled out a small bottle that was pitch black in color and looked like a drinking gourd of olden times. There was a cork in the mouth of the bottle that was as ancient looking as the bottle itself. It appeared as if the bottle had never been opened previously.
The old man hurriedly fumbled around with the bottle before pulling out the cork at the mouth of the bottle with his index finger and the thumb of the right hand.
With a little noise, the cork came loose and a suction force erupted from bottle that was enough to suck in all the surrounding air and water vapours,
The flames around Rebecca and those that were burning the field into embers started to sway in the wind as they began to be affected by the devouring force of the bottle as well. The flames looked like they were about to extinguish at first but the wind that was moving in the direction of the bottle continued to fan the flames further as they started to burn even more brightly.
The suction got stronger until it was enough to pull all the flames on Rebecca's body into it. The flames were lifted into the air like uprooted trees in a terrible storm.
As soon as the flames had been cleansed off of the field, the white bearded old man put the cork back in its place and the pitch black bottle shook slightly in his hand before settling down.
Zavier wondered if it was some kind of spatial magic or some kind of sealing magic that it was able to contain such a large amount of powerful flames in that small body. Either it was a bottle imbued with spatial magic that enhanced the actual capacity of the bottle, or it was some kind of defensive artifact that had the ability to transfer the incoming attacks to someplace else.
The old man had managed to save Rebecca with the help of the bottle but Shiranui was still sprouting golden flame from every part of her body like she was some kind of a high temperature furnace. The old man didn't care that Shiranui was still in trouble and dragged Rebecca out of there without even looking back.
Meanwhile the fire field surrounding Shiranui continued to burn fiercely and continued to gain momentum. Calista could tell that Shiranui had no control over herself at the moment and needed to be saved as well. Since the old man had no intention to save her as well, Calista started to chant while making hand signs at the same time.
The hand signs were fluent as if she had been practicing them her whole life and the chants that came out of her mouth felt like music to everyone else. No one understood what she was about to so they left it up to time to reveal the answer to them.
As the audience waited in silence, the air around Calista continued to circulate as if it was all gathering around her in a cyclone. The moisture in the air was being dragged out as if the very essence of water vapors was being extracted. The water condensed from the air gathered to Calista's side in the form of huge globules that looked like slimes. The water globules moved towards Shiranui at the direction of Calista who was finished with her spell.
If possible, Calista hadn't wanted to display this skill in front of so many people since it had to do with her elven heritage but the situation left her out of options. This skill was a kind of elven water magic that was easily able to suppress any normal fire with the greatest efficiency. Calista was hoping to suppress the golden fire with her elven magic since she was desperate to save her student through this method.
The water globules started to wrap themselves around the furious flame trying to calm the dancing flames but to Calista's surprise, the fire wasn't suppressed at all. On the contrary, the fire began to grow in size and spread outward like a flood breaking past the time. It was almost as if the flame was retaliating against Calista for trying to suppress it. Even the flame was as prideful as the caster; and just as stubborn too.
Shiranui meanwhile had lost all senses and was acting like a fiery volcano that had finally burst to mow down the surrounding land through its heavenly fury. The tidal wave of the flames spread with Shiranui as the epicentre and had reached the edge of the field even after Calista's attempt to suppress it with her water magic.
Zavier who was standing at the edge of the fire field as well could feel the absolute heat from afar. The temperature of the field had increased as the fire continued to burn. It was as if the whole world had been thrown into a pot of boiling water. The heat was enough to deter the audience who retreated even further back to avoid being touched by the golden flames. They had already seen that the flames were inextinguishable through normal means. It was only natural that they were all trying to avoid touching it like it was the plague all over again.
Zavier too had to step back in order to save himself from the furious flames but at the same time he could not stop being worried about Shiranui who was at the centre of the fire. He could only hope that she was fine as it was her own skill that was raging all around her.
Those on the high seats had also seen what had happened but had yet to move despite being the strongest of all the attendees. It wasn't because they were indifferent to what was happening and they didn't care about the life and death of others but because they were waiting for something.
They had been too focused on Shiranui the entire time for them to be acting as strangers now. Zavier had seen the old men at the top and had witnessed how excited they had been when the golden pattern had emerged on her body. Therefore, he had expected them to act but all of them had yet to make a move as if they had all reached a consensus.
As Zavier had expected, the audience at the top finally started to get flustered as the fire began to grow increasingly out of control. Galen who was among the highest audience cast a glance at his apprentice who was also sitting close to him.
As soon as their eyes met, the two of them, one middle aged and the other an elderly man with a sharp look in his eyes stood up from their respective seats.
The audience members gasped loudly at their actions. The audience at the top was the top brass of the empire and the pinnacle of the world of mages that every mage of the empire hoped to reach.
This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by (f)reew𝒆b(n)ovel.com