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After Algon collapsed from exhaustion, he was taken to the infirmary to rest and the arena was repaired for James' event. Before he could head to the staging area to get ready, however, he was messaged by Lydia through the amulet and told to meet her outside.

"Hi! What did you need?" James asked, seeing Lydia walking up to meet him.

"Did you see what just happened!?! It was awesome!!"

"Of course I did. I was in the arena watching, you know."

Delta piped in. "I knew that Algon was strong, but I didn't realize he was that powerful. Where did he get that much strength in such a short period of time?"

"Well, his move Supercharge was based off his species' abilities..."

"You said that during the match. What I want to know is what happened when he got dragged underneath the lake. One minute Strike was announcing his loss and the next the entire lake is gone and Algon's standing there like a flipping god!"

"Honestly, I don't know either. We should go ask him!"

James grabbed her arm. "Woah there, Lydia. Don't forget, Algon's still resting from his match. We should wait until he wakes up."

"I won't disturb him!!"

James and Delta both raised an eyebrow.

Lydia groaned. "Honest. I just want to be there when he wakes up. Speaking of which, James, do you mind if I stay with him during your round?"

"Of course! If he wakes up while we aren't there, let him know that he placed 1st as well!"

"HE PLACED 1st!!!"

"You didn't hear?"

"Um...no. I kind of came straight here to meet with you after the event; I didn't think that the judges would have decided so fast!"

"Well, they're still talking about the lower places, but the top 10 list was released. Algon won with Hrell coming in 2nd. I think they gave Algon extra points for fighting an Elemental that was a direct counter to his affinity."

"Probably. After hearing James mention that he estimated that Algon had a 20% chance of victory, I didn't think it would end well, and everyone else was most likely thinking the same thing. So when he came out on top, it was a huge and surprising win."

"It was surprising; you got that much right." Lydia sighed. "Alright, I'm off to go see Algon. Anything else you want me to tell him?"

"Just that after James' round we'll be over as quick as possible! And that James will do his best to win!"

Lydia smiled. "Will do! See you guys later!"

She waved and left, heading over the teleportation platform. Delta and James walked back inside the stadium, still talking about Algon's fight. Suddenly, Delta stopped and turned to James with a serious expression on his face.

"You know, now that we've gotten a 1st place and 5th place, if you win your event we can theoretically win the tournament."

"I know. For Algon, that would be a huge boost to his spirit. Although, the only other group that I'm really worried about is Ren's. If he wins the tournament, then it would probably hurt Algon, even though he won his own match."

"So what are we going to do?"

James sighed. "I can aim for 1st place; that's about it. Ren is participating in the Mage Duels event as well; if he scores low then we have a good shot of winning."

"So let's just hope he screws something up, eh?"

James shook his head with a smile. "Always optimistic. Alright, this is where I've got to leave you. I have to wait in the staging area for my turn, so head back up to your seat and watch the rest of the round."

"Will do! I can't wait to see you out there, blowing everyone's mind."

"Thanks. Oh, and one more thing. Please, do NOT start anything with Ren's group. I don't care how annoying they are, we don't want to get disqualified for fighting."

"Never crossed my mind."

James left Delta and headed down to the staging area. The Mage Duels round was divided into multiple 1v1 fights. The competitors were not permitted any weapons but could use all non-lethal spells at their disposal. While the pairs were fighting, the remaining competitors waited down in the staging area to be called. They were allowed to warm up and prepare, but they wouldn't know exactly who they were facing until they stepped into the arena.

James occupied this time by focusing his mind and running through a list of his abilities. He didn't want to use magic for fear that he would alert someone to his powers and, judging by the looks of it, the other mages had similar ideas. Because this was a duel between two students, they could not risk letting their opponents know of their abilities and plan around them. As such, the competitors largely stayed separate from each other while waiting for their turns.

James ended up waiting for quite a while, most likely because one of the duels had taken an exorbitant amount of time. They could only be ended when a competitor surrendered or was unable to fight, so if two great willpowers competed it could last forever. Finally, his amulet flashed and signaled that it was time for him to line up. He climbed up to the outside of the stadium, where he could see the door that would lead to the arena. As his opponent entered from the other side, he had no idea who he would be facing yet.

The door opened and James walked out onto the floor of the stadium, heading for the platform that would take him up to the arena. The audience was still very excited from the previous match and was cheering loudly as Strike began to announce the current round.

"FOR OUR NEXT MATCH, WE HAVE TWO HUMANS! ONE OF THEM IS FROM AN OUTER COLONY AND CAME TO THE QUINTESSIUM TO TRAIN HIS UNIQUE AFFINITY, WHILE THE OTHER IS THE SON OF THE HEAD OF COMMERCE FOR THE PROFITABLE VINJIN REGION. GIVE IT UP FOR JAMES NEWMAN AND REN DEN-TOK!"

James looked up at Strike's announcement and saw a smirking Ren walking from the other side of the stadium to the platform. When they arrived, they both coldly shook the other's hand.

"I hope you realize that, when I crush you here and today, your friend will lose the tournament and all hope of saving his planet."

"Well, that depends on if you can actually beat me."

"Such arrogance from a weakling Elementalist. Fine! I'll show you why, against a prodigy from a prestigious family of Lightning Elementalists, you should know your place and be silent!"

The platform began to rise and Strike continued his overview of the competitors and their affinities. However, he hesitated out of shock when he saw what James' affinity was, pretty much drawing the entire crowd's attention in the process.

"UM, EXCUSE ME. I'M NOT SURE IF THIS IS A MISTAKE, no? It's not? Interesting. APOLOGIES! AS IT TURNS OUT, JAMES IS A PURE ELEMENTALIST. IN FACT, HE IS THE FIRST EVER PURE ELEMENTALIST TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS TOURNAMENT!!!"

The audience was immediately shocked. "A Pure Elementalist. They're super rare! But aren't they very weak? How can he possibly stand up to Ren Den-Tok?"

Delta was sitting in the team viewing room with his hands clasped tightly. Hrell was laughing over with several of Ren's friends, while Asdek was sitting quietly by himself. Regardless of what they were doing, everyone's attention was fully on the tournament.

"Come on James," Delta thought to himself. "You've got this."

James and Ren both reached the arena and walked to opposite sides. Chatter reached James' ear from the audience and although he couldn't make out the specifics, he knew they were wondering about his affinity. As he was looking around the stadium, he saw Master Rell, Uthiel, and the rest of his Pure Elementalism class. Rell and Uthiel were both smiling, but apparently, the others hadn't been told about his participation in the tournament, because they were staring in shock. James smiled and waved and a couple managed to get over their surprise to wave back slowly.

"Ignore them and face me. I'm the one you're fighting."

James turned back to Ren, who was sneering. "You know, you're going to regret the words you've said to Algon and Delta."

"And who is going to make me? You?"

"Apparently, yes."

Ren shook his head. "Such big words for someone who is about to lose. You have to chance against me!"

"ARE BOTH COMPETITORS READY?"

James and Ren both nodded, staring frostily at each other. Strike saw this and felt the urge to add one more reminder.

"AND REMEMBER, NON-LETHAL SPELLS ONLY. NOW, LET'S GET STARTED! 3...2...1...BEGIN!!!"

Neither of them took a single action; they just glared at each other. Finally, Ren relaxed and shook out his shoulders, incredibly confident in his victory.

"You can make the first move, you know," he said with a condescending smile. "It won't change anything."

James did nothing. Or at least, on the outside he did nothing. On this inside, he was preparing his mind and getting a feel for the elements present in the arena. The mental space he had created could be visualized as a huge black void, with James standing in the middle. Thousands of motes of light could be seen and felt floating just outside his vision, each an element that could be harnessed and manipulated. This was a representation of James' concentration, created by his training with the Imagers.

Finally, he responded to Ren's question with a simple, "No, I'll pass."

Ren raised his eyebrow and smirked. "Suit yourself, idiot." His hand crackled with energy that condensed around his fingers. "Time for you to lose!"

He flung out his arm and a bolt of lightning flew outwards. James dashed to the side, the spell just barely missing his coat as it flew by. Ren then threw another bolt, and another, and another. Each time, James dashed to the side, dodging by just a tiny inch.

Delta was trembling. "What are you doing? You can't dodge forever! Fight back!"

The audience was in a similar state of mind. "The Pure Elementalist has no chance. He's not even using magic. Eventually, he'll get hit by one of Ren's spells, it's only a matter of time."

However, Strike was watching with an intense gaze. He could see that James wasn't just dodging for fun, he was getting a feel for the elements in the stadium and how they reacted to his magic. James was actually managing to dash around the arena in such a manner by channeling a small amount of the 162nd element, the element of motion!

"So he is stronger than the standard Pure Elementalist," Strike muttered. "Interesting, I wonder how this will progress."

Eventually, Ren got tired of James' inaction. "Stop dodging you, idiot! Don't you realize that this is a magic duel?! Fight me for real or just surrender now if you're too scared."

"Scared?" James laughed, dashing out of the way once more. "I don't think so. You want magic? Fine, I'll give you magic."

This time, when Ren fired, James didn't move. Instead, he reached out his hand, gathering up thousands of the elements that made up the arena floor inside of his mental space. With a grunt, he closed his fist and rocks ripped upwards, collapsing into a ball that shot forward to intercept the lightning. With a crash, pebbles flew everywhere, but James was completely unharmed!

Most of the audience felt that this was normal, but those that understood how weak Pure Elementalists normally were absolutely shocked. Several mouths dropped open and even the masters sitting in their box leaned forward, now fully engrossed in the fight.

"So you can do a little magic," Ren said, not fazed in the slightest. "Still weak though!"

He raised his arm and an electric yellow sigil appeared, spinning in midair. James clenched his jaw and readied himself to respond to whatever might be coming. With a bang, the sigil dissolved into lightning engulfed his arm.

"Let's see if you can take a bit more. Arcing Blast!"

A blast of lightning flew across the arena straight at James, already hundreds of time more powerful than the basic lightning seen earlier. Reacting instantly, James gathered the air around him into a powerful tornado that whipped around in front of him.

"Spiraling Vortex!"

BOOM!

The lightning and the tornado collided in an explosion that shook the arena. A shockwave knocked James down, but Ren stayed on his feet. He immediately fired off with another spell, sending current racing across the ground. James jumped up from where he had fallen and reared back. Inside of his mental space, he frantically assembled a much larger spell than he had before. It took more time, but was much more powerful!

He clapped his hands in front of him and yelled, "Rolling Thunder!" A solid wave of sound exploded from his hands and rushed forward. It instantly blew away the lighting, sending the bolts scattering across the ground, and hit Ren with a roar, sending him flying.

"Yeah!" Delta yelled from his seat. "That's how you do it! Kick his ass!"

Hrell laughed from across the room. "You think that's all he's got. Just wait and see; your little friend is still doomed."

Ren jumped up from the ground and turned towards James, wiping some dirt off his face. But before he could say or do anything remotely cocky, he was surprised by James flinging fireballs from his hands. He was forced to dodge the first few, but then conjured lightning that formed a shield in front of him that blocked the rest.

Seeing this, James didn't rest He knew that because Ren was much more powerful than him, so it was best to attack from multiple different angles with a variety of spells. In fact, his entire strategy was based on outlasting Ren, not overpowering him directly. And in fact, it seemed to be working as Ren's shield was shattered when he got hit from behind by a rocky barrage.

At this point, pretty much all of James' classmates had their mouths hanging open. One, a wolf-like person known as Thion, turned to the only person near them that wasn't shocked out of their mind, Master Rell.

"Sir, do you know what's going on?"

"Of course I do. I'm the one who gave him permission to enter the tournament in the first place."

"But how is he so strong? He's using spells that even a 4th-year student would have trouble with, and he's throwing them out like it's nothing."

"He's actually at or above a 4th year's students level already. He might even be approaching mine, although his technique needs a bit of work."

The entire row was aghast. "Please sir, explain how that's even remotely possible. We've all been training for years and haven't ever heard of anything like this."

Rell scratched his head. "Apparently, one of James' friends, a Weird, worked with the Librarian of the Quintessium to invent a new training method. He's already shown it to Headmaster Sherru and it will be used starting immediately after the tournament is over."

All of the Pure Elementalists were undeniably excited. Since they had discovered their affinity, they had been told that Pure Elementalism was weak and useless, but now they were seeing proof that it could challenge a lightning Elementalist prodigy. This was a huge morale boost for all of them!

Delta was similarly ecstatic, confident that James would win. Now he understood why he had been so secretive in the months before. He had obviously been training up his abilities.

Ren finally managed to interrupt the chain of spells with a lightning bolt. He stood up and faced James once again, still wearing an arrogant look.

"You haven't even forced me to use a small portion of my strength yet. I'll finish you with this next attack!"

Two disks of lightning formed in Ren's hands. Spinning around, he threw both at James before jumping back and pointing his hand at the sky. Bringing it down, a massive bolt fell toward the arena with a roar.

James has initially readied himself to stop the disks, but the bolt put a massive wrench in that plan. Not knowing what to do, he frantically analyzed his memories to try and find a solution.

The attacks hit James at the same time, filling the arena with a blinding light and a large cloud of dust. Everyone was unsure if James had even survived that much power being released. As the smoke cleared, however, they saw James sitting in a huge pile of oddly shaped boulders. In his desperation, he had remembered his practice fight with Algon and had created a full suit of armor out of the arena floor. It had shattered under the combined attacks, but James himself was not harmed, only panting from the effort it had taken to form in such a small period of time.

The crowd cheered and James smiled at Ren. "That all you got?"

Ren was furious. That attack was very strong and had beaten many of his opponents before, but this little brat wasn't even fazed. And to make matters worse, it consumed a massive amount of energy too. Ren had been at about 80% before but was now under 50%. And now he was being insulted!

"You don't know when to give up, do you!"

"Actually, I think it's you that doesn't know when to quit. You're not as powerful as you think, Ren! So cut the bullying and arrogant attitude; you're no better than the rest of us."

"Is that so?" Ren assumed a dangerous tone and aura, his eyes growing cold. "Well, then, I think that it's time you find out what happens when you overstep your bounds."

He formed a sigil above his hand, more complex than James had seen so far.

"Feel the power of an age-old lineage. I've been trained since I was young to be great, and here is the result!"

The sigil collapsed in a ball of lightning that flew upwards in a streak before exploding outwards. However, the streaks of energy then formed back into a bolt that rushed back downwards. Ren, in one motion, reached out and seized the bolt by its base, spinning it around and bringing to his side. It flashed and crackled, a spire of lightning held in his hand.

"Feel the power of a prodigy, weakling, and know your defeat. Special Move: Thunder Blade!"