Sylra stopped crying. But the presence of Caelith excited everyone. Finally, the party started again. Everyone came one by one and presented their gifts to Caelith and Sylra, and congratulated them again.
The dining table was lavishly decorated, and there was no similar dish on the table. Everything on the table consisted of different dishes from different locations.
The royal families sat together with Caelith and enjoyed the dinner.
When everyone finished eating, Draen decided to talk to Caelith, "Hey Cael, can we have a duel? It's been a while since we tested our strength. Come on, let's digest our food."
Everyone's eyes lit up. Caelith chuckled as he identified others' intent too and said, "Of course, brother, but first we should give the juniors a chance."
Eyes became brighter, and everyone cheered, "Yeahhhhh!"
Everyone, including the emperors, went to the arena. Then Caelith announced, "Okay, now we're going to have friendly spars. Each junior will fight with each other, and after that, I'll fight everyone one by one. The rules are simple: don't hurt anyone, the match ends when the emperors decide it should, and don't forget I'm an emperor too," he laughed at the last part, but everyone was high on excitement.
He then looked towards Sylra and said, "You're going to spar too, so that your father can check on your progress... Hehe... Don't forget what I taught you."
Sylra smirked and nodded. Caelith announced, "Okay, so the first spar will be of our youngest heirs. Come forward, Sylra and Liora."
With that, Sylra and Liora came forward, excited to test each other. Sylra was holding wooden daggers, and Liora had a bow and magic-made arrows, created by Caelith especially for this spar, which wouldn't damage others.
Caelith shouted, "Are you both ready?" Both nodded, then Caelith shouted again, "Begin!"
Liora stretched her bow strings and an arrow and tried to shoot it, but to her surprise, Sylra disappeared into a black mist and appeared behind Liora, placing her dagger at her neck.
Caelith announced, "Sylra won!" Everyone, including the emperors, was shocked after seeing Sylra's move. Soxen asked while Sylra was in the arena, "What move was it?"
Sylra said, "We named it Shadow Travel; it was made by Caelith."
Caelith playfully denied it, "That's not true; you helped me while I was creating it."
Sylra smiled a bit. The emperors became even more shocked. Liora said like a kid, "Ahhh, that's not fair... Brother Caelith, you taught her something too awesome."
Everyone laughed at her innocence. Caelith told them to go back to their seats and then announced, "Come forward, Astrein and Raizen."
They both came forward and took their positions. They both were excited since the winner of their last match was undecided.
Caelith began their match. One was holding a spear and the other was holding a sword. They both launched their attacks on each other. Sword and spear were evenly matched, and the spar ended with a draw again, but both were left unsatisfied.
Watching their looks, Caelith said, "Don't worry, you all will be fighting me at the end, so no need to be unsatisfied."
Both gained their composure and returned to their seats.
Caelith announced, "Okay, since Zephyr is the only one left in the juniors, I'll have my first fight with Zephyr."
He then looked at Zephyr's father and said, "Be our judge."
Aelric Veyrault started the match.
Caelith looked at the nervous Zephyr and motivated him, "Hey, don't worry, you won't get hurt. The mana I'm feeling from you, it's interesting."
Aelric wasn't surprised, but others were, especially his big brother who trained him in martial arts, Eryas Veyrault. Zephyr had never shown his mana to his elder brother.
But anyway, the match started.
Caelith used telepathy and told Zephyr, "Seems like you wanted to keep your mana hidden. I'm sorry for that, but as an apology, I'll guide you throughout the battle."
Zephyr was startled by the sudden voice but realized that Caelith was using telepathy.
Mr. X, watching the battle, got terrified, "Just what he learned during these years... these magic spells aren't from this era. They are from the Godwars Era..."
Caelith asked him, "From what I sense from you is a special type of mana, it's for a specific power, am I right?"
Zephyr replied, "Yes, brother, I got it during an accident. I can see through magic spells and anything, even illusions. Can you keep it hidden, please!" Zephyr understood that he couldn't hide anything from Caelith—sooner or later he'd know it—so he told him everything.
Caelith was a bit surprised, but the mana he sensed told him many things, so he assured Zephyr, "Don't worry, you can rely on me. Just watch my moves. Since your mana is specialized in telekinesis, we'll fight with it."
The whole arena started vibrating, and suddenly Caelith started flying. A few rocks from the floor started floating as well.
Zephyr used his Eye of Wisdom to see through the spells and decided to do the same. Caelith approved and said, "Very well, Zephyr. Now throw them towards me using telekinesis. Only use mana in throwing them; don't waste mana on keeping them floating, just throw it."
Zephyr did the same, and Caelith used his stones to destroy Zephyr's stones. Caelith then told him, "This is the very basic of telekinesis. Use it to fight me. Now use your brain."
Caelith used another stone and started rotating it at high speed and threw it towards Zephyr. Zephyr, with the use of his Eye of Wisdom, understood the magic formula and did the same with improvement: he sharpened the stone like a cone, then rotated it, and then threw it towards Caelith. Caelith's rocks were destroyed, and the stone moved towards Caelith.
Caelith made a shield with telekinesis and blocked the attack, but Zephyr's mana got depleted and he started to fall to the ground. Caelith used a wind spell to make him levitate. He then took Zephyr to his father and announced, "Zephyr won! He's excellent for his age, and considering he never trained in magic, this was good."
Zephyr's father looked worried about his son, and Caelith saw it and assured the emperor, "Your son's mana just got depleted; he'll be awake in about 20 minutes, don't worry."
Aelric became normal and then announced for the next match, "Come forward, Liora and Caelith."
Liora came to the stage and Caelith too. Liora was happy to have a duel with him, but she said to Aelric, "Uncle, brother Caelith just battled with Zephyr. Wouldn't he be tired?"
Aelric and other emperors laughed, and Aelric said, "Don't worry about Cael. He won't be tired by just this. If he gets serious now, even we emperors might have a hard time." Everyone's mouth was wide open. Even though they knew that Caelith was strong, they didn't expect him to be this strong at age 16. The emperors are at the mid-level of a 7-star warrior, so what must Caelith's strength be?
Caelith chuckled and denied it, "No, no, uncle, that's your generosity speaking. I'm just a kid yet."
Emperors laughed and continued the match. Liora's father told her, "Don't hold back; you can go wild, he won't get hurt."
The match started. Liora used her bow, drew three arrows at once, and shot them using her family arts.
Caelith disappeared into a black mist and appeared behind her, but when Liora saw the black mist, she remembered her last battle and was ready to attack. She shot an arrow at Caelith as fast as she could, but Caelith again disappeared using the same method.
Liora's father understood that Caelith wanted to train Liora for what she lost in the battle with Sylra.
This happened for a while, and Liora got tired. Caelith announced, "Okay, Liora has improved. This is her victory."
Liora became surprised and looked happy but still didn't want the victory, "Brother, that's very kind of you. I clearly lost, and I accept defeat."
Liora's father became proud and praised her, "Very well, Liora, that's the true act of a warrior. A warrior should be able to accept defeat."
Everyone nodded. Caelith approved, and then the emperor announced, "Okay, next candidate, Sylra, come forward."
Sylra came. Caelith told her, "Don't hold back even a bit. Your father wants to watch your improvement."
Sylra nodded. The emperor started the match.
Sylra used the very same technique, 'Shadow Travel,' and appeared behind Caelith at a very high speed than before and used her dagger to attack Caelith.
Caelith dodged it and didn't use magic to attack her, but instead made daggers from water and air so that he could block her attack and not hurt her. He threw the dagger at her. But Sylra again disappeared into the mist and stood on the other side.
She then used her family technique, 'Shadows,' and had become 10 Sylra. This technique helps the user to have multiple images while only one is real. Sylra's current power was to have only 10 clones...