"Don't you think I've lost, Julius!"
Enrick yelled with strength, hyping himself up to continue fighting against the blonde prince.
With a sudden burst of speed, Enrick leaped forward.
Thanks to the rising heat spell he cast at the start, he could feel himself able to last long enough for Alen to have come up with a plan.
The redhead got caught by a flurry of punches from Julius, each punch causing added slashing damage to Enrick's body thanks to the tempest gauntlets spell.
But Enrick powered through it and threw a punch himself, a punch that was easily avoided by Julius tilting his head to the right.
Another swing from Julius landed this time on Enrick's stomach, causing him to flinch and take some steps back.
Before Julius could swing his fists ocean again, Enrick adopted a defensive posture. His arms were lifted on a cross pattern in front of him, and he stiffened his whole body.
From the ground, lots of small and pointy rocks started to fly all around Enrick's body at a fast speed.
Julius stopped his swing before he got blocked and hurt by one of those rocks that circled the redhead's body.
"Elemental defense? It seems I've cornered you" Julius let a quick chuckle escape from his lips.
A defensive technique taught to all second year students. It applies everything learned and mastered from magic classes to manifest an elemental shield.
The biggest disadvantage of this technique is the fact that it requires a certain pose that varies depending on the element to be activated, and the one defending can't move while they've adopted the pose.
Enrick broke the pose, causing all those small rocks to fall to the ground.
"I... I may be losing the fight, but that doesn't matter to me right now" Enrick looked at the prince with determined eyes.
"Flashing lights. Blind my enemies"
"[Flashbang]"
A blinding light came out of the prince's palm, causing Enrick to cover his eyes.
In that split second, Julius rushed and punched Enrick in the stomach. The tornado-like coating he had around his arms caused cuts on Enrick's clothes.
But Julius wasn't finished yet. He followed up with a swing on the redhead's jaw that caused him to fall to the ground.
To make sure that Enrick wouldn't stand up to keep distracting him, Julius stomped his foot on Enrick's back.
"Wild winds from the land where beasts live in. Fly through the skies at impressi-"
"Pierce my enemies"
"[Rock Javelin]"
Enrick managed to cast his spell before Julius finished with his own incantation.
From the ground, a rocky javelin was launched at Julius with great speed.
Julius managed to lift his arms just in time to defend the spell, taking advantage of the added defense of the tempest gauntlets spell granted him.
Enrick shoved the prince's foot away and stood up.
"Burn my enemies"
"[Fireball]"
The fireball that was launched from Enrick's hand was mostly useless. It just wasted his mana, and Julius easily blocked it.
But enrick did not care. He stood up once again and charged at Julius while keeping his guard up.
He threw a quick jab that missed its target.
Julius answered with a jab of his own, landing on Enrick's arm and causing it to bleed from the cuts caused by Julius' spell.
'Once when that lich attacked us and you had to save us, and now against Julius. I failed you twice, Alen. Yet... you still trusted me to do something' Enrick thought as he was receiving a beating from Juluis.
'Did you truly never expected us to repay you for saving our life while putting yours in danger? Do you truly only want something as simple as just being friends? I can't fail you this time'
Enrick fought to repay Alen's kindness, even if he said that he didn't need it. To Enrick, saving Alen from becoming Julius' slave was his attempt at trying to live up to the trust Alen placed on him.
He just needed to distract Julius long enough for Alen to think of a plan to save everyone inside the eye of the Strom spell.
But, no matter how much he wanted it. Enirck fell down to his knees. He was still weaker than Julius.
"I didn't even land a single hit on him" Enrick looked down at the ground as he awaited Julius' deciding blow.
"[Ice Lance]"
Right in front of Enrick, the temperature of the ground dropped as ice began to form, and a lance erupted from the ground, causing Julius to step backwards.
"Hmph! It seems like I need to team up with peasants to help Alen. Hey you, if Alen considers you his friend... then I guess that makes us allies" Fran brushed her hair to the side before grabbing the ice lance in front of Enrick.
"You're also going to fight me, princess?" Julius asked as the tempest gauntlets spell wore off and dissipated into thin air.
"For my friend, for the one that accepted me. I will fight against you, Julius" Fran spun her lance before pointing the tip against the prince.
"Princess Von Themys..." Enrick fist shook from the feeling of failing once again. He couldn't keep Julius distracted for enough time.
"What're you doing down there? Stand up and fight. Aren't you fighting for the same reason that I am?" Fran asked in a cold tone, keeping Julius inside her view.
Enrick let a long sigh escape "I guess you're right" he stood up with heavy, ragged breaths "For the one friend we have in common"
"This is the first time you have ever stood up to me, princess Von Themys. I guess you grew tired of pretending to get along with me for the sake of political relationships"
"Alen's already gathered every student that got caught up in this mess and ordered them to follow his orders" Fran whispered to Enrick, ignoring what Julius just said.
"The first princess of the Montanev kingdom and the first prince of the Raychmen kingdom fighting for a simple nobody, who would've thought?"
"That's why you don't deserve to be Alen's friend. To me, he's not a nobody. He's my friend, and I'm the only person who values him more than anything in this whole academy"
Fran blushed as she confessed that, looking at the boy who was too busy with ordering the other students to hear what she said.
She smiled, knowing that he's the first person she had ever called a friend.
"I never thought I'd hear such infantile stuff leave the mouth of the cold princess who's only ever known how to be by herself" Julius chuckled and grinned towards Fran as he recalled how she always rejected anyone's attempt at getting close to her.
They both started approaching each other.
"I always wanted to punch you in the face, Julius. I never could because the two kids that'll be the future of their kingdoms shouldn't fight. But the safety of someone more important than my kingdom is in my hands"
Fran lunged with her ice lance, taking advantage of the extended range.
Not letting the unharmed prince a moment to rest, she quickly sidestepped together with Julius. She followed him and swung the lance from one side to the other, using a single hand.
Just as Julius stepped back, Fran followed him. She started a flurry of attacks with the tip of her weapon, not intending to attack him but wanting him to move more, to waste his energy.
She gripped the lance with her arms and tucked it close to her body, starting a charge against him.
Julius stepped to the side and avoided the charge.
But now that she was close enough, she swung her lance from behind her, using the back of her lance to catch him off-guard.
Julius stepped back again to dodge it, but Fran didn't stop with her attempts.
She turned around and swung his lance, trying to use the back of her lance to hit him.
She spun her lance around, pointing the tip to him once again.
Julius clicked his tongue "So annoying. Being unarmed is a clear disadvantage"
But Julius' superior abilities allowed him to keep dodging her attacks.
"[Fireball Barrage]"
Julius glanced to the side and saw multiple fireballs heading their way to him.
He adopted a pose, and fast winds started flowing around his entire body, protecting him from the fireballs and Fran's lance attack.
"Cornered Julius? That's what using elemental defense means" Enrick mocked Julius, who quickly stopped the defense.
"Two-on-one, and I'm unarmed. I can accept when I'm at a disadvantage" despite his bet efforts to keep calm, his tone clearly sounded way more irritated.
"Iceborn soldiers. Attack from below"
Julius quickly ran away as Fran chanted the quick incantation for a spell.
"[Ice Stalagmite]"
From the ground, a trail of icy spikes grew towards Julius. But because it was the quick version of the spell, it didn't reach far enough.
"Spiritual winds, blow in my favor"
"[Spell Haste]"
Tier two wind spell, makes his spells be cast faster.
He ran to the sides, looking at the various students who were working together to stop his spell.
The students were divided into groups of three where one worked to stop the wind wall, while the others defended them from Julius.
"Fast wind. Shoot"
"[Wind Bullet]"
A tier one wind spell. It shot a single bullet of wind from Julius' hand that was aimed at Franchesca.
She ran to the side. But when she glanced where the bullet would go to, she widened her eyes with concern.
The bullet wasn't actually aimed at her. It was aimed at Alen, who was using his own magic against the wind wall.
The bullet hit Alen's shoulder, causing him to jerk forward and have his hand enter the wind wall.
The fast spinning winds caused various cuts around his hand.
To Alen's surprise, the cuts were less powerful than he was expecting them to be. A sign that his plan was working.
He ordered every student that was decent enough at mana manifesting and had a wind affinity to create winds going in the opposite direction to the winds of the wall that trapped them.
He wasn't good at mana manifesting, evident by how difficult it was to learn new spells.
Manifesting an element requires focus and a lot of mana.
"Alen!" Fran shouted.
"I'm fine, don't worry about me!" The brown-haired boy yelled back at her.
"[Fire orb]"
Tier three spell. It creates a small orb that grows bigger every second, and once it reaches the maximum growth possible, it starts throwing fireballs at the enemies.
Thanks to the faster casting speed, the fire orb immediately reached its maximum growth possible.
"I'll have to get a bit more serious then" Julius grinned, knowing that he only used his wind affinity, his worst one, on the offensive instead of his more compatible affinities like fire, light, nature, or dark.