CHAPTER~21 THE FIRST SPARK FIRE V/S ICE
Friday arrived without a ceremony.
No announcement.
No warning.
That morning, I checked my status one last time.
___________________________________________________
Strength: 8.5 → 8.8
Agility: 7.7 → 8.0
Endurance: 7.0 → 7.4
Sense — Enhanced Reaction Window: +0.2s → +0.4s
___________________________________________________
I stared at the numbers longer than I meant to.
All that—
from a friendly spar with an Elite.
I let out a quiet breath.
“So that’s what an Elite does to you,” I muttered.
Elite for a reason.
Huh.
The rest of the morning passed almost normally.
Usual jogging.
Breakfast that tasted blander than it should have.
Then a long, hot bath to loosen muscles still protesting from yesterday’s spar.
By the time I dressed, my body felt lighter but my nerves didn’t.
Classes started half an hour late.
Deliberately.
They wanted us anxious.
When we entered the hall, the atmosphere was wrong. Too quiet. Too tight. Like everyone was holding the same breath.
Professor Selene didn’t appear.
Instead, her assistant stepped forward, carrying a thick stack of sealed papers.
“The challenge results,” she announced calmly.
One by one, names were called.
“Elena von Hestia — eleven challenges.”
A ripple ran through the room.
Predictable. Even restrained, Elena attracted danger.
“Arthur — fourteen.”
Low whistles. Someone laughed nervously.
“Iris Aethelgard — six.”
That earned surprised murmurs. Iris just smiled like she already knew.
“Lucen Gray — nine.”
I glanced at him. He didn’t react.
“Aria Asteron — eight.”
She stiffened for half a second—then exhaled slowly.
“Theo — twelve.”
Theo grinned, clearly pleased.
The assistant paused.
Then looked at me.
“And finally—”
My name.
“—twenty-one challenges. Out of thirty possible.”
The room went silent.
Not shocked silence.
Staring silence.
Ding!
___________________________________________________
System message
Somebody is faaaamous
________________________________________________
“
I felt every gaze land on me at once. Confusion. Curiosity. Doubt. A few sharp edges of anticipation.
Twenty-one.
I didn’t smile.
Didn’t frown.
Inside, though, something clicked into place.
So that’s how they see me now.
As a target
There is already a rumor that i bought the elite rank and according to them i fought theo in undignified way
So nobles who want elite rank all challenged me
Yeah,” I whispered. “Figures.”
I leaned back in my seat, heart steady.
“Guess there’s no hiding it"
I lowered my gaze to the slips in my hand.
One by one.
Names.
At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.
Then my stomach sank.
Elena von Hestia.
The Cold Queen.
I reread it.
Once.
Twice.
No mistake.
She hadn’t challenged out of curiosity.
Or pride.
Elena didn’t do casual.
Then arthur expected
To him, I wasn’t a classmate.
he thinks i am a villain that needed to be cleared
And Theo no needed to explain right
***
After a brief moment spent reading the names, I lifted my gaze to my target
Aria Asteron.
Her deep maroon eyes were already locked onto me.
She smiled.
Not wide.
Not friendly.
smug curve smile
Aria rose from her seat and walked past my desk, close enough that I could feel the faint pressure of her presence.
She leaned in slightly and spoke in a low voice meant only for me.
“See you in the arena,” she said.
“I won’t make the same mistake Theo did.”
Her eyes flicked over me once measuring.
“I won’t even think about underestimating you.”
Then she straightened and walked away as if nothing had happened.
I swallowed.
…Gulp !
***
Two matches dominated every conversation on campus.
Elena von Hestia V/S Iris Aethelgard.
Ice versus Fire.
Control against chaos.
No buildup. No mercy.
Just two Elites reminding everyone why their names carried weight.
Then came
Arthur V/S Lucen Gray.
Plot armor versus hard work.
A chosen hero standing against someone who carved his strength piece by piece.
Ideals clashed.
Steel answered steel.
And for once, destiny had to work to keep up.
And finally—
The match everyone waited for.
The academy’s beauty.
Versus
the academy’s shit
Whispers filled the stands before the names were even announced.
Not anticipation.
Expectation.
Hope
That aria would dance above me
***
Unlike my previous match, the arena was packed.
Students filled the stands shoulder to shoulder, voices low, excitement restrained.
Professors lined the edges, standing straighter than usual alert, cautious.
And at the very center of it all stood
Headmistress Eldra Williams.
A terrifying woman.
Dark hair.
Dark eyes.
A presence so heavy it made the air itself feel unstable.
She didn’t radiate mana the way Elites did.
She didn’t need to.
Her mere existence made the arena shiver.
Even professors who commanded fear in their own right found it difficult to hold her gaze for more than a second.
Their eyes slid away instinctively, like prey avoiding a predator they knew better than to challenge.
And then there was the detail no one ever got used to.
Behind her, moving slowly, deliberately—
A black tail.
Smooth. Controlled. Alive.
Everything about her was dark.
Hair. Eyes. Aura.
Everything—
Except her skin.
And yes.
You heard that right.
She had a tail.
No explanation.
No apology.
Just another reminder that the academy’s absolute authority was not entirely human.
And whatever rules governed this place—
She was the one who decided when they applied
Headmistress Eldra Williams raised a single hand.
The noise died instantly
Not faded.
Not lowered.
Gone.
Her gaze swept across the arena once, slow and deliberate, as if weighing every soul present.
When she spoke, her voice wasn’t loud—but it reached everywhere.
“Let us begin.”
No flourish.
No ceremony.
Just permission.
A pulse rippled through the arena as the barrier snapped into place, transparent walls humming softly as ancient runes lit beneath the stone floor.
“First match,” Eldra continued, eyes already bored, already elsewhere.
“Elena von Hestia.”
Heat stirred.
“Versus—”
“Iris Aethelgard.”
Cold answered.
The arena temperature dropped the moment Iris Aethelgard stepped forward.
Frost traced the stone beneath her boots, she smiled brightly.
Across from her, Elena von Hestia effortless and heat shimmering faintly around her like a lazy flame refusing to be ignored.
Fire and ice.
Order and chaos.
The crowd leaned in.
This wasn’t curiosity.
It was hunger.
Two Elites faced each other—
and the arena knew something was about to break.
The instant Eldra’s hand fell—
The arena detonated.
Iris moved first.
Not a step.
A burst.
Frost exploded outward from beneath her boots,
not creeping
erupting.
Jagged ice spears tore from the stone
the arena itself was rebelling,
racing toward Elena in a shrieking wave.
The temperature crashed.
Breath turned to mist. Stone cracked.
Elena didn’t retreat.
She lifted one hand.
That was all.
Fire answered ice with violence.
A wall of flame roared to life, not flickering compressing, dense and white-hot punching straight through the incoming frost.
Ice didn’t melt.
It shattered.
Steam was screaming upward, pressure slamming into the barrier hard enough to make the runes flare.
The crowd recoiled as one.
Iris laughed.
Actually laughed.
She spun, coat snapping, and slammed her palm into the ground.
The arena floor froze solid in an instantthen collapsed.
A circular sink of razor ice formed beneath Elena’s feet, pulling her down, crushing, trapping.
Elena stepped forward.
Through it.
Flames wrapped her legs, armor her skin, and the ice gave way like it knew resistance was pointless.
She drove her fist forward.
Not at Iris.
At the air.
A compressed fireburst detonated mid-arena sound vanished, then returned as a concussive boom that flattened frost,
flame, and spectators’ courage alike.
Iris was hurled back, boots carving trenches through ice as she skidded.
She didn’t fall.
She grinned wider.
“Oh,” she breathed, eyes shining. “Good.”
This wasn’t a duel.
It was two disasters colliding.
And it had only just begunn
I watched the barrier vibrate from Elena's fireburst. My Sense was working overtime just trying to track their attack
They aren't fighting, I realized, my hand subconsciously touching my lip.
They’re reshaping reality.
"You're shaking," Lucen said beside me. He wasn't looking at the match;
he was looking at me.
"It's not fear," I lied
Iris skidded across the ice, grinning like a maniac. She looked at the VIP section maybe at Arthur, maybe at me and then the temperature
dropped again.
"Lucen," I whispered. "How do you fight someone who can freeze the air in your lungs?"
Lucen gripped the hilt of his sword. "You don't let them breathe, Louis. You hit them before the cold hits the ground."
I looked at Aria. She was watching the fight with a calm, predatory focus.
She knew exactly what she was capable of.
And she knew exactly what I was:l
a target.
While the students trembled, Headmistress Eldra’s expression shifted.
Her dark eyes, usually cold and bored, sparked with a predatory delight
She wasn't just watching a duel; she was savoring the raw,
unrefined violence of two apex predators clashing in her cage.
