Zoemi moved his hand as if he was warming up his wrist and in the palm of his hand, a spark of black fire flashed.

The black-haired boy moved it around and the spark ignited into a big round black fireball crackling menacingly.

”Ready?”

Zoemi asked.

”Y-yes…!”

Grazio clenched his fists and nodded, his face tensed up with anticipation.

”Fireball.”

Zoemi adjusted the power so his spell to a magician level and shot it at Grazio’s stomach.

*BOOOOOOOOM*

”!!!!!!”

The spell flew with great speed and as it exploded, the dark flames covered Grazio’s body and finally pushed him back, making the red-haired boy fall on his back and tumble around a few times before stipping.

”Ugh…! What was that…? Almost one-quarter of my mana is gone just like that…!”

Grazio gasped for air, rolling to the side and slowly getting up while shaking his head, trying to get rid of the woozy feeling…

”How strong was it…? Did you put in as much mana as when you punched that water magician?”

The red-haired boy asked, looking up at the black-haired boy hopefully.

”Wha…? You mean Letro…? Pfffft…!”

Zoemi couldn’t help but snort at that question.

As much mana as the punch that knocked-out Letro, he says!

|Pffft…! Ekhem! Well, he is confident, I can give him that.|

Ludier’s shadow straight-up laughed inside Zoemi’s head while the black-haired boy himself did his best to keep it together even internally.

”…pffft…!”

Still, he had to really focus to not openly laugh at the red-haired boy.

”Sorry to say that, but it was at the level I of the one I used against that female fire magician during the first fight of the tournament – which by any means is much stronger than the normal one – don’t get me wrong – but, you know…”

Zoemi had a difficult time deciding on how to approach the situation – on one hand, the fire armor spell was an incredibly impressive achievement for someone with an average amount of mana for the fire magicians, and that definitely was worth prising. But on the other hand, it would be better to bring Grazio back to earth, after all. It was a good spell for an average fire magician but faced against a light magician, or equally strong transcended magician wielding another attribute would not withstand too many hits… overestimating its capabilities could be fatal – literally.

”You see…”

—–

The black-haired boy ended up explaining things just how he saw them.

”O-oh… I see…”

After hearing him out, Grazio looked down and muttered with a dispirited expression.

”Don’t worry about it though, it was never meant to be the strongest armor anyway. Think, it almost completely negates the backlash of your own spell at the close distance, isn’t that what you told me you were aiming for?”

”…!”

Zoemi reminded him and the red-haired boy perked up.

”Yes… Yes, you’re right!”

Grazio nodded and his face brightened up with a smile.

”See? That’s the spirit – now, that’s not the end – you still have mana so let’s continue. Try checking if you can recall it and then cast it again at will – that is the most crucial thing. I’ll have you know that I might not be around to trigger it the same way each time.”

”Sh-shut up! Of course, there won’t be a need for something like that!”

Zoemi instructed and smirked, making Grazio call out in embarrassment.

”Well then. Go for it.

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and beckoned at the red-haired boy to proceed.

”…hmph…”

Grazio scoffed in a pouty way and closed his eyes, concentrating…

*haaaaaa*

And his armor disappeared the next moment with the sound of a person breathing out with relief.

”Fire armor.”

Grazio called out, but the armor did not appear again causing the red-haired boy to flinch in worry.

”Remember the feeling you got when you activated it before. It’s okay to take things slow. Just focus and carefully construct your spell – conjuring it consciously will be hard and can take more time than you would like to, but the speed will come with practice.”

Zoemi spoke in a calm voice, reassuring the red-haired capture target and instructed him patiently.

”…the feeling… fire… armor…”

Grazio muttered to himself and breathed out – he kept his eyes closed and spoke slowly, trying to follow the advice given by the black-haired boy and…

The fire armor did appear – although it did not look exactly the same as during the first cast – this one was more of a robe than armor, but it did suit a mage, especially a fire magician like Grazio.

”It works! Zoemi, it works!”

The red-haired boy opened his eyes and exclaimed with joy as he saw that he had succeeded.

”Congratulations – again – but seriously… Pffft… I can’t, really… Hahaha… Ahahaha…!”

Zoemi nodded with approval, but then suddenly his body shook from the fits of uncontrollable laughter.

”Wh-what is it…?!”

Grazio blushed, unsure what exactly caused the black-haired boy’s laughter.

The red-haired boy even stealthily checked whether his fire armor isn’t missing some parts that would cause it to look silly, but no. Everything was in order.

”Oh, you know… Pffahahaha…! The main thing with the armor-type spells is that to properly construct and cast such spells a magician needs to have a very strong desire to protect themselves. Because of the environment and way that magicians in our kingdom are brought up, it is normal for the earth magicians to learn about it from an early age – it is also somehow normal for the water magicians, hence their protective water bubble.”

Zoemi explained, but then he stopped, furrowing his brows.

”Wait- let me clear things out more. The desire to protect oneself is the most important, but the key to conjuring a proper armor-type spell is the confidence that you can do it. Beforementioned earth and water magicians are confident that they can use that kind of spells because that is a norm – every other earth and water magician is using the defensive spells like that, so they never doubt themselves.”

The black-haired boy said, now visibly more satisfied with his explanation.

”But as for the wind, fire, and light magicians, you already know where this is going right?”

Zoemi asked, and smiled at the red-haired boy.

”They don’t use defensive spells because they don’t believe that it’s possible…? But going with that logic everyone could cast whatever spell they liked! That sounds insane! What, you’re saying that I could also conjure something like a fire blade or… or use fire version of levitate spell?”

Grazio asked in surprise before shaking his head and declaring with a frown.

”Grazio – this must be because you were born in a family of mages and grew up with a certain stereotype in mind but – IT’S LITERALLY MAGIC WE ARE TALKING ABOUT, WHY ARE YOU PUTTING LIMITS ON IT?! The only limit to magician’s spells is the magician’s own ingenuity!”

Zoemi rolled his eyes and responded.

”No – but, each element has its specialty!”

”Yeah – specialty – that means the construction of a certain spell works better with a certain element, not that it cannot work with another element – I know, I do that.”

Grazio shook his head and denied it, pointing out the obvious, and was countered by Zoemi doing the same thing.

”That’s because you are a transcended shadow magician!”

Still, it was not easy to convince someone to change their belief on the spot – as was the example of Grazio who refused to believe Zoemi’s explanation despite using the spell that was known to be impossible to conjure by an average fire magician.