{Back in the arena}

Law tested the grip of the sword.

For the finals, they were allowed to choose weapons if both the participants agreed to it.

Law came back into the arena as he saw Ellis standing opposite him calmly with his sword drawn out.

"Looks like both our participants have decided to fight each other with the sword. What do you have to say about the two futures of the magi association, Sir Merlin?" Albert casually talked about the upcoming fight from the side, but this time every word of his amplified to the point everyone in the arena could hear them.

"Law is a high capacity magi with extremely high talent. Him being a rank 2 shouldn't, therefore, come as a shock to many." Most students inside the arena started murmuring hearing that Law was a rank 2 magi.

Most people who took the graduation exam were usually Rank 1.

"What about his opponent Ellis?" Albert asked.

Hearing this Ellis gave a quick glance to the old man by Magi Merlin.

He made sure to not reveal any sort of emotion as everyone is observing him right now.

If anyone found out he somehow had some kind of relationship with someone from the Thorn family it will be problematic.

"I have been told, Ellis is a genius in understanding and mastering spells even that are higher rank than him from his teachers." Merlin ended it there not knowing if he was allowed to say more or not.

He wasn't sure if he was allowed to publicly reveal any information pretraining to an imperial princes bodyguard.

He not only hated social events, but he was a bit dumb when it came to politics as well. The only reason he was chosen as the head of the magi despite the magi association having it's on political warfare was simply due to his immense talent, understanding and desire towards Magi that not only the previous head respected but all the other senior Magi as well.

Due to this reason he was appointed to have an assistant, who had made an oath of equality, to deal with all political affair for him along with explaining things to him in a grand scale before he made any important decision.

Albert slightly nodded in understanding seeing Merlin's enquiry.

"So what rank is he in? Could he also be a rank 2 magi? Does he have a unique capacity as well?" Albert asked, trying to lead the conversation in a direction where not too much information is revealed.

"He is a rank 2 magi as well. However, he only has a normal capacity." Merlin answered.

This time however there were not many murmurs or talk when discussing Ellis. Most people had directly witnessed and seen Ellis' might during the start of the 2nd phase of the exam.

It would be dumb if they all assumed Ellis is a normal rank 1 magi as well.

But what did shock many of them was the reveal that Ellis had a normal capacity. Most had expected Ellis to have a specialized capacity.

"Looks like they are starting." Albert announced as he watched Law casting a spell.

"What do you think he attempting, Sir Merlin?" Albert asked.

"I believe he is aiming for a frontal assault with his sword using a speed boost. Unless Ellis counter with a strength boost or some other kind of spell to cancel his momentum it will be hard to block, Law's attack." Merlin analysed.

In all honesty, Merlin did not mind this job. He wasn't put in an awkward spot where he had to talk unknown bullsh*t, but rather do something he actually enjoyed, analysing the application of spells.

Law ran forward. He felt strange as he saw Ellis preparing to take the full impact of his attack.

He knows Ellis is a smart person, so he knew there should be a reason if Ellis wasn't moving.

Warily Law ran forward expecting an attack from him any moment. However, to his surprise, Ellis did nothing other than prepare to counter his attack with a sword stance.

Using his charging momentum Law swung his sword diagonally from the top, towards Ellis.

Till the last moment, Law had expected him to use a spell or be pushed back. However, what he did not expect were the fancy sword movements Ellis exhibited upon meeting his sword.

Blocking Law's sword with the flat side of his sword, Ellis quickly took a side step to his right and slowly moved his sword away while redirecting Law forward with his momentum.

Law, moving forward and slowly losing his balance as he was about to face the ground, quickly discarded his sword and rolled forward using the forward momentum.

This was later considered as a good decision as he saw Ellis' sword launching at where he should have been.

Quickly Law maintained a distance between them.

Ignoring the cheering and commentary in the background Law focused.

He remembered something Natasha has said about Ellis before. "Repelling sword art. A sword art designed uniquely for opponents fighting with weapons. Anyone fighting with a weapon against someone who mastered that sword art will become unarmed in seconds."

'If a weapon can't do it, let me see how you deal with spells.' Law smirked as he launched a firebolt at him. Law clearly made sure not to throw any sort of solid spells at him like ice or earth as he could easily repel them.

As Law expect Ellis quickly moved out of the way seeing the incoming spell. Trying to deflect a firebolt was akin to slicing a water bubble. Not only will it burst but it will throw out its resulting fire and shockwave everywhere including at the person who cut it.

Seeing he had a way, Law quickly casted an ice spell to freeze certain areas around the arena, while at the same time launching firebolt towards Ellis to stop him from getting close.

Suddenly the whole arena became quiet seeing Law casting two spells at the same time.

"Hey Merlin, didn't you say Mr Lawson was a high capacity user?" Albert asked while wearing a stupefied expression which was showcased on the screens allowing everyone to see.

Merlin furrowed his brows while looking at Law strangely. "He is indeed a high capacity user."

"Then how do you explain him dual casting, something only a low capacity user should be able to do?" Albert asked unable to still get over his shock.

"I..." Merlin too was speechless seeing this.

"..he is indeed a high capacity user; otherwise how can you explain him casting so many spells." Merlin tried justifying himself while pointing out Law who was still casting spells that should be way over the limit of a low capacity user of Rank 2.

"But look at that ice spell on the ground. If I am right that is a variation of water freeze spell that low capacity users do to freeze small areas around them right?" Albert inquired.

Albert had already come out of his shock, but he still found it funny to put Merlin in a tight spot in front on thousands.

"Stop putting him on spot and do your job properly." A familiar voice came from both of their ears.

Hearing it, Albert looked towards John and established a 3-way mental connection "Then do you know how to explain why a high capacity user is able to cast spells like a low capacity user, lazy ass?"

"How am I supposed to know? Besides, you guys are the experts, and this is your job, make some bullshit up so the people will believe you." John ordered through the device in their ears

"Wait I think I know, how he did it." Suddenly, Merlin shouted excitedly through the mental connection, the speakers and the device in their ears at the same time.

Everyone turned towards Merlin wanting to hear what the head of the magi association had to say.

"I always had an assumption about this theory back when I was in the academy, but this is the first time I have ever seen a real-life application of it." Merlin sputtered in excitement.

"Calm down, Sir Merlin and explain it to us." Albert tried to calm down the excited Merlin.

"I always had a theory, during my academic years that high capacity users could simply practise with their spells and get better control over it. In fact, I had even applied for a grant to research on this theory to test this out but as you can expect, it was rejected at that time." Merlin explained while those in the crowd with high capacity got excited at hearing they could have the best of both worlds.

"Ohhh, why was that then?" Albert asked in amusement, as he remembered hearing about that theory from the previous magi head as well back when he was visiting him. Both he and the previous head had obviously rejected this idea, due to them making the same conjunction in their younger days as well.

Merlin sighed in dejection as he answered Albert "Obviously because the improvement brought by doing this was only limited to that certain spell. So, for example, Mr Lawson there should only be able to multicast with the spells he has practised and wasted so much time on, like firebolt and water freeze. He could only repeat this with spells he had mastery over.

Also, besides that, the improvement brought by such a spell was abysmally small for a high capacity user, that spending time to mastering a spell could be used to advance themselves in rank. In my opinion, the time he had to spend mastering those two spells could have been used to become mid-way through rank 3 magi by now." The high capacity users became dejected when they heard Merlin.

They already had to spend 10 times longer than other people to accumulate magi particles due to their high capacity, to the point that most high capacity users spend less time practising and learning their spells and focused on accumulating.

However, now everyone looked at Law like a freak.

"If my analysis if right Mr Lawson should be extremely talented in accumulation that he could easily afford to spend time mastering each spell of his, while at the same time make progress with his accumulation that makes everyone seem that he is practising normally like a high capacity user." Merlin did a spot-on analysis.

Albert's eyebrows twitched as he looked at the crazy nutjob in front of him. No wonder this guy was the head of the magi association. His monstrous insight into everything that is related to magi is unbeatable.

Both Albert and Merlin then turned to look at Law like an idiot in the arena and sighed. ��Only if he had advanced in ranks, with his talent he would have realised within a few years, mastering those spells was a waste of time.'

"Wait there is more to this than simply it is a waste of time for your project to be cancelled Merlin, right?" As if on cue John asked from the device in their ear through which only they could hear.

Merlin looked at John startled. 'How did he know that?'

Merlin looked at Albert as if asking him 'Does he know?'

Albert shrugged his shoulder while asking through his mental communication "Brat how much do you know about magis?"

"Only as much as what was taught to me, which I should expect is slightly bit more than most students here, from which I have derived a few theories of my own." John answered.

"Bu...but how did you know there was more reason for my project to be cancelled?" Merlin stuttered in confusion.

"He probably guessed." Albert mused entertainingly seeing that John made Merlin panicked.

"Nope." John said as he smiled from the other side.

"I know that there is no way the empire will reject such an excellent opportunity to turn a magi into an unstoppable being.

I mean look at this guy in the arena, even with Ellis' combat training given by the best he is still being cornered by an inexperienced noob, who don't even know the basics of proper stances.

Besides that, that theory of yours will open so many doors and opportunities to magis that most high-ranking nobles will reconsider picking an award over magi." John explained his reasoning.

Ez clearly had a rough understanding of the advantages of a magi over an award user.

Sometimes the advantages offered to a magi was greater than an award in certain areas, hence the reason why many of the senior magis in the magi headquarters rejected being an award user when they were offered one.