“Cough…cough…cough, Blake do you plan on killing me?” The Crowned Prince coughed while walking out of the dust after the explosion had settled down.

“Heh! Stop pretending, you should know we’re just getting started.” Blake smirked looking at the dust-covered Crowned Prince.

“*Sigh* My friend, why don’t we stop here?” The Crowned Prince asked with a soft smile.

“What? Are you scared?” Blake asked mockingly.

“Not a chance, I just don’t want to beat you up.” The Crowned Prince chuckled lightly.

“You see, I want to beat you up.” Blake shrugged and attacked once again.

The Crowned Prince quickly sent out an attack, blocking the attack Blake sent towards him.

Boom!

Both attacks collided sending out a huge shockwave.

The Crowned Prince being an Earth Elementalist preferred staying on the ground while fighting, since he’s much more comfortable there. But since Blake had already taken to the sky, he also had to fly up, else he would be at a disadvantage.

“*Sigh* I miss the days when we used to fight on the ground.” The Crowned Prince said while appearing mid-air.

“Those days are long gone.” Blake attacked once again.

Bam! Boom!

With both fighters flashing through the air sending out multiple attacks, it was impossible for low leveled Elementalists to keep track of their movements, especially Blake’s. Even for a Lightning Elementalist, his speed was unbelievable.

Another two minutes went by with none of them gaining the upper hand.

‘I hate this element.’ The Crowned Prince complained.

What he hated the most about the lightning element was its speed, this was also what he loved about it. When he was younger, he hoped he would awaken the lightning element, but alas, when he went for the test, he awakened the earth element.

For the past two minutes that the battle was ongoing, he couldn’t get a clear view of Blake due to his speed, but being a master in the art of defense, he had been able to block most of Blake’s attacks while also counter-attacking.

But cracks had already started appearing on some parts of his armor after suffering from a few hits.

____

“Wow! He’s fast!” Delia exclaimed while watching the battle.

Her eyes could barely keep up with Blake’s movements. There were even times where all she sees is a blur, before she could see the figure properly, it had already disappeared.

“He’s a Lightning Elementalist, he’s meant to be fast.” Oliver said, not surprised by Blake’s speed.

He even felt he could go faster.

‘I’ll have a little talk with him after this battle. Looks like he’s been slacking off lately.’ He thought.

But he knew in the entirety of the Academy, if Blake said he was the second fastest person, no one would dare say they were first. Well, except for Chris, but Oliver wasn’t counting him as part of the Academy.

Most of the time he just goofs off, then when he gets bored, he’ll go out as a representative for the test, and would rarely bring back any new students. But when he does, they all turned out to be extraordinary.

He had been friends with him for a long time and didn’t really know much about his background. He also knew the only reason Chris was staying in the Academy was because of him, and he was grateful for that.

When the previous emperor was still on the throne, he invited Chris over wanting to make him an official, but he refused without a second thought, the emperor even went as far as promising to make him the second highest ranking individual in the empire being below only the emperor, but he still refused.

“I heard you wanted to challenge him to a battle, are you still confident in defeating him?” Oliver asked looking at Delia.

“Hmph! Give me another three years, no wait, five years, and I’ll surpass him.” Delia said confidently.

“Hehe, and what would he be doing in those five years?” Oliver chuckled.

“He…” Delia paused, not knowing what to say.

Due to how strong Blake was, and since he was a head instructor, she forgot the fact that he was still young and would continue growing in strength.

‘If he’s this powerful now, how powerful would he be in five years time?’ She asked herself while in a daze.

Oliver smiled as a response before focusing his attention back on the battle that was going on mid-air.

‘The Crowned Prince isn’t as simple as he looks.’ He narrowed his eyes.

He had been watching the battle since it started, and could tell the Crowned Prince was just as strong as Blake, the only reason he was at a disadvantage was because of Blake’s insane speed. If he were facing off against some other head instructor, then he would’ve won the battle already.

He also realized that since the battle started, almost every time the Crowned Prince counter-attacked, it was successful. How precise must one’s timing be to have such a high success rate? Especially when facing someone this fast?

‘He’s like a patient hunter, waiting for the perfect time to strike.’ He thought.

There had been cases where even he felt the Crowned Prince had won the battle, but Blake’s speed would help him avoid the attack.

____

‘I hate this element.’ Blake complained.

Although his attack power was strong, due to the high defensive properties of the earth element, it has managed to block them. The only way he can break it is to use a high leveled attack, but whenever he does, the Crowned Prince would also bring out a high leveled defensive technique making his effort useless.

Although there are times where he had struck the Crowned Prince, the effect isn’t as high as he wanted since the Crowned Prince’s defense would take out most of its power.

“Hey, how about a close-ranged battle?” He suggested.

“Hmm, okay.” The Crowned Prince agreed to it.

‘It’s been so long I had a heart-racing battle.’ He thought.

This was the main reason he agreed to spar with Blake, being the Crowned Prince, even if people fought against him, they would hold back in fear of hurting him, either that, or his opponents weren’t strong enough. But he was friends with Blake, so he naturally knew he was just as strong as he was, if not even stronger.

And given the anger Blake had towards him, there was no way he would hold back. He knew why Blake hadn’t used his full strength was because they didn’t want to alarm the people in the Academy, or a battle between two Overlord Plane Elementalists could easily destroy a city, much less an Academy.

Blake stretched out both hands open his palms wide, the second he closed them, two lightning swords formed on them. Each reaching one meter in length. Holding them by the lightning-formed hilt, he pointed it at the Crowned Prince.

“Damn! I never get tired of seeing this trick.” The Crowned Prince laughed and created an earthen spear.

In close combat, he preferred using the spear. Although he rarely gets the chance to use it, he still practices with it, so he’s quite good with it.

Swoosh! Crash!

Blake disappeared from his previous spot and appeared close to the Crowned Prince slicing his lightning swords at his side.

The Crowned Prince blocked with his spear pushing him back. This was the advantage of the earth element, its pure brute strength!

After pushing him back, he thrust his spear at Blake’s shoulder with unexpected speed.

Blake used his sword to deflect the thrust of the spear by hitting its side.

Before long, they had exchanged more than fifty moves with no one obtaining the upper hand still.

____

“Looks like their strength is on the same level.” Delia spoke after seeing that even after trying multiple fighting styles, none of them has been able to gain the upper hand.

“Not just that, but they are too familiar with each other hence they could guess what the next move of the opponent would be.” Oliver added.

Of all the people in Blake’s generation, for the first time in Oliver’s life, the Crowned Prince was the only one who could fight him to a draw. This alone made him think highly of the Crowned Prince.

‘*Sigh* If only he and his father isn’t trying to take control of all the Academies, then he wouldn’t be a bad ally.’ He thought.

____

“You see, you still can’t defeat me.” The Crowned Prince said while panting heavily.

Blake looked at him while also trying to catch his breath.

“Hmph! It’s only because I’m holding back, or else, you wouldn’t be standing.” Blake snorted, not pleased with the draw.

They soon fell into silence staring at each other.

“You know what?” The Crowned Prince suddenly said after a moment of silence.

Blake raised a brow looking at the Crowned Prince.

“I did come back that day, it’s just that I was too late. I’m sorry for leaving that day.” The Crowned Prince said in a low apologetic tone.

His armor and spear disappeared. And he turned around to leave.

After flying some meters, he turned around and smiled.

“Also, I hope we never get to fight against each other.”