Kayden had his domain destroyed several times, but the amount of mana he had available was very large. This allowed him to place dozens of wear barriers and dilate the surrounding mana.
The spells didn’t stop coming out for about five minutes, and Kayden had to spend 50% of all available mana for the spells to stop coming out. When he calmed down, he saw Bruno desperately trying to gather mana on the other side.
"A good spell," Kayden commented before placing dozens of pentagrams in front of him and resuming his attacks without stopping. Brunno’s barriers were no longer as strong and durable as before. Every minute, an attack would pass through the barrier and cause Brunno to suffer some damage. At first, they were just thin, weak cuts that did not pose any harm to Brunno’s evolved body.
Kayden’s attacks were intended to make the mage slowly lose hope and fall into despair. Everyone could see that it was only a matter of time before Bruno died. Kayden’s critics fell silent, and an eerie silence dominated the entire space as everyone watched a wizard face someone from an entire kingdom above him.
Paradigms were being broken in front of millions of people, and this transmission would gain global proportions. Once again, Kayden’s name would spread to every corner of planet Earth.
"Come on, Bruno. React! You can do better", Kayden said mockingly, and the wizard began to despair when he realized that he was going to lose. There was no way to run, as the residual damage protection bubble functioned both to protect the public and to trap the participants inside. He had no escape. With each minute, his emotions became darker.
"Let’s negotiate!" he shouted at Kayden, leaving his honor aside. His only response was a mocking laugh, and Bruno lost all consideration that the elven race had for him. At this moment, he was complete trash in the eyes of the elves.
"Please, I have many techniques I can offer," Bruno pleaded, but Kayden did not respond. He continued throwing his attacks, pushing Brunno towards a precipice of depression and hopelessness.
"I can accept living as a slave!" shouted Bruno desperately. Kayden felt disgusted with him on a completely heightened level.
"You don’t even deserve the dignity of dying like a man, like a wizard who reached the top. You’re nothing but trash," Kayden said coldly, placing three pentagrams in front of him and launching a destructive beam to wipe everything out at once.
The first attack didn’t kill Bruno, it just broke his barrier completely. But the next one destroyed his entire body into pieces, and the next one completely burned any remnant of his existence.
A silence hung in the air as the elves and all the invited races witnessed a human break an entire kingdom and triumph in spectacular fashion. Even the administrator, who already knew Kayden’s strength, was surprised.
It was an absolute massacre. Bruno had no chance from the start. Kayden was at a level of strength where even those an entire kingdom above him posed no danger to his existence. The mages capable of killing him below the fifth realm could probably be counted on one hand.
"The winner of the match is Kayden Heart, and he receives all of his opponent’s assets," the empress’s voice announced. In the arena, only a few dozen voices cheered, but these shouted enough for thousands.
The betting discrepancy meant that even those who entered with just a few coins walked away with a ridiculously large amount. The crazy people and dreamers who entered with thousands came out millionaires.
Kayden didn’t look at anyone as he levitated into the air and left under the gaze of millions of people. A new legend was born in the elven world, and Kayden’s morals were raised to new heights. If before he was just a teacher, now he was a national idol.
Two years later, Kayden managed to maximize his second level and advance easily. This time, he was half a year faster than expected, all because of the techniques he studied from Merlin’s book.
His progress seemed rapid, but on the outside of this planet, it could be considered mediocre at best by true geniuses. However, the techniques he received were on a completely different level.
He realized that the way mana was manipulated was much more efficient than what he had previously learned. Their class had already risen a lot in the general classification, and practically all of them developed their fighting style, boosting their strength to another level.
Unfortunately, they had not yet reached the top 5 as most had advanced to the second realm. Kayden was the only teacher who banned his students from advancing. One of them broke his orders and was harshly thrown out of the room, making everyone realize that Kayden was as strict as he was kind.
"Why do we need to spend so much time training in the same realm? We are losing and being humiliated, in two years we will be the last class and we will become ridiculous in the eyes of elven society", Lucas questioned freely to Kayden freely during one of his open classes.
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Kayden sat in a rocking chair while his students balanced on just a strand of mana a few feet above the ground. Those who fell or had their thread broken received Kayden’s punishment, a combination of spells that shaved off all body hair and then caused some physical pain.
"Have you ever asked yourselves why you want strength?" Kayden was talking more to himself than to his students.
"I want to protect my family!"
"I just want fame and power!"
"I want glory for my lineage!"
Several different answers, without falsehood, were given. Most teachers might condemn some of them, but they all learned that Kayden had very questionable ethics and morals and preferred the truth in every situation, even if it wasn’t pretty.
"All of these are futile reasons. If I kill your parents, you won’t be able to protect them and, consequently, you will end up declining in strength. Glory? This will just be forgotten over time. Money? Women? Treasures? All of this can be taken away from you. These are things that won’t get them anywhere."
The class was all silent as they listened to Kayden’s words. He would often give them a life lesson, and oddly enough, they always fit perfectly into the context in which everyone lived.
"The reason must be yourselves. Seek strength for yourselves, seek power for your ego, for your happiness. This is the only thing that will give them the strength to continue fighting the current."
"What is the current?" again Lucas asked. He had no family and always raised himself alone. Kayden’s lessons absorbed him like a sponge absorbs water.
"Mediocrity. Look around you. How many people out there follow the same technique as you? How many have the same habits as you? Few? Lots of? It doesn’t matter. You are currently towards mediocrity. The true source is at the beginning of the river and not at the end."
"We are not a current, professor. We all have strong techniques that, if placed in the second realm, would dominate this academy", expressed his opinion, Lucas.
"You are like frogs stuck in a well right now. What’s the point of being the best in the gym? This is just one place of thousands of others throughout the universe. You may be the 1% of the population, but you are not the 1% of the 1%. This is what you should seek. Reach the true peak of the first realm, and maximize everything. Your techniques must be authorial, your cultivation method must be authorial. Have enough strength to rise above everyone, and at the moment you are not capable of that."
"But why should we try for years? What if in the end we don’t achieve anything relevant and just waste time?" This was the fear of the majority, and the person who expressed this doubt was another student. Lucas didn’t have that fear.
"I only spent 15 years in the apprentice realm and advanced to ridiculous strength that allowed me to jump several levels even against geniuses. I didn’t even spend 10 years on the first level and obtained even more ridiculous strength that allowed me to destroy anyone at my level."
At that moment, everyone thought that Kayden was being a hypocrite by moving forward so quickly and leaving them waiting for so long. Everyone still had a big ego for being the best in their society, literally frogs in a well.
"But… I spent about 250 years in the second realm," Kayden’s sentence made some fall off their threads in disbelief. That was a long time, a long time. "And I achieved a strength that puts me on top of this world even with people a kingdom above mine. Perfection cannot be rushed. I never asked how many lightning bolts each of you has, but for this event, everyone must get at least five, ideally six," Kayden ended the class there and punished those who fell.