Now the top 16 had been chosen and all of them are from the E and S-Class. The E-Class had 10 students, while the S-Class had 6 students in the top 16. Dito didn't pass after being defeated by his classmate, Ron.
After a 30 minute break following the previous round, the drawing for the top 16 starts and it showed the result after a moment. 6 E-Class students will take on 6 S-Class students while the other 4 E-Class students fought their classmates.
The 6 E-Class students that would face S-Class students were Ron, Gea, Olive, Cya, Parka and Yorki while the 4 students that will face their classmates are Mina, Hans, Dan and Felice.
This will be the last round for today's tournament. So the 16 students needed to go all out to advance to the top 8 and fight in the quarterfinals. But Ben is certain the top 8 will be comprised of E-Class students.
The names that came up first were Gea, Cya and Yorki who would face S-Class students while Mina and Dan face each other. There are 4 arenas, so there will 2 batches in each round.
The battles begin and Gea, Cya and Yorki prepare a big attack. They want to finish their battle quickly and watch the one between Mina and Dan.
Gea immediately made a big bubble to trap her opponent and suffocate him by taking out the air. Her opponent panicked and couldn't prepare a spell. He tried to breathe, but the lack of oxygen caused him to faint and earned Gea the victory.
Cya did something similar, but she trapped her opponent inside a ball of water. Her opponent was a girl and she immediately gave up before she lost consciousness.
As for Yorki, he generated a big beam of lightning to attack his opponent. His opponent tried to evade the beam by running to the left. But Yorki can alter the direction of his magic to chase him and it finally hit him. He was electrocuted and fainted shortly afterward.
The three used their full power and quickly ended their battles. S-Class students weren't strong enough to challenge them. Among the other students, only their classmates possessed the ability to rival them.
Ben smirked and looked at the S-Class teacher who was fuming in anger while they watched from a room reserved for teachers. He never trained his students to fight in a real battle, while Ben and Raul often trained them for that. Their power and experience were vastly different.
"My students have faced many serious threats while your students sat calmly in class. So don't assume your students have a fighting chance against mine. There was no way they were going to win from the beginning." Ben said with a smirk.
This made the S-Class teacher madder.
"Don't assume too quickly, kid! My best student hasn't fought your class yet. He will easily defeat them later." The S-Class teacher said.
"Hmm? Are you referring to the green-haired kid that will face Ron? Well, he is decent, but he will lose to Ron. Even if Ron is tired and injured, your student still won't have a chance. My students aren't apprentices anymore, they're full-fledged mages." Ben said as he continued to smirk.
The S-Class teacher walked away without a word. Ben knew he wanted to instruct his students. But it didn't matter, because the E-Class students can handle anything thrown their way.
Ben even hoped the S-Class students would be able to challenge his students. He wanted them to gain more experience by fighting strong mages around their age other than their classmates.
They need to know there are people a lot stronger than them. But Ben wasn't sure they understood it already. They always consider him and Wendy to be a lot stronger than them even though they were around the same age.
Ben cast the thought of his head and observed Mina's battle with Dan. Both of them had just started to fight. But they were just testing the water because Dan fired some low powered bullets and Mina easily avoided them in her wolf form.
Then they up their game and use more power. Dan rapidly fired bullets at Mina and the bullets were faster this time. Mina also quickly ran at Dan while dodging the bullets.
Dan also moved while firing the bullets. But Mina was faster and she easily caught up to Dan. Mina then leaped towards Dan and scratched at him.
Dan rolled to the side to avoid being scratched. Then he covered his fists in a purple magic ball. Bullet Magic was a type of Darkness Magic and Dan covered his fists with the element.
Dan and Mina then engage in hand to hand combat. Mina transformed into a orange monkey to fight Dan. They get into a close-quarters fight and use all the skills they learned from Ben.
They fight and Mina could move faster than Dan. Her monkey form granted her better reflexes and agility than Dan. It caused Dan to take more damage than Mina, but Dan was extremely durable.
Mina gained a advantage over Dan as the fight dragged on and it seemed she would win this battle. But just as she was about to finish it, Dan made his move.
Mina transformed into a gorilla which was stronger than a monkey. Then she threw a full power punch at Dan. But her gorilla form was slower than her monkey form.
Dan used this chance to narrowly dodge Mina's attack. Then he got closer to Mina and pulled both his fists that were coated in Darkness Magic back directly in front of Mina's stomach.
"Bullet Magic: Cannonball!" Both purple balls on Dan's fists merge and form a bigger ball. Then he fired it right in front of Mina's stomach and the bigger ball hit her.
The cannonball hit Mina and she was flung back at high speed. She hit the barrier and Dan's magic exploded. Mina was engulfed by the explosion and she fell to the ground. She fainted and reverted back to her human form.
Dan won the battle even though he had been injured. He defeated Mina with a decisive attack that was strong enough to knock her out. But then he also fell to the ground due to his injuries.
Ben smiled and ran into the arena to check on them. They were fine, so he took them to Wendy for treatment. Wendy checked them out and said they'll be fine, so everyone was relieved.
The next group's battle start shortly after that. Ron, Olive and Parka take on some S-Class students while Hans and Felice will face each other.
'Hmm, I don't need to worry about the others. Maybe Ron will have a harder time because he's still not in the best shape after his fight with Dito, but he won't lose. Hans and Felice will also be fine, they know when to stop fighting and not go too far.' Ben thought.
Then just like Ben thought, among the ones facing S-Class students, only Ron had a harder time. He wasn't in the best condition and his opponent was ranked 1st in S-Class.
Ron's opponent was a boy, who was also a Fire Mage like him. The boy used a AOE fire spell to attack Ron. So he created a sphere of fire to protect himself from the boy's attack.
When the attack stopped, Ron lowered his fire sphere. But the boy ran forward and was right in front of him with a flaming fist. The boy punched Ron in the face with the flaming fist and made him fall back on the arena.
The S-Class students and their teacher smile and cheer but the E-Class students don't react at all. This confused the S-Class students and teacher until they heard laughter from the arena. It was coming from Ron.
"Ha ha, I thought a punch from a S-Class student would hurt, but it was just a sting." Ron said.
"What did you say?" The boy asked in a offended tone.
"Ben nii-san's punch is a lot more painful than this. Compared to his, your punch is just a sting. Your fire spell is also weak compared to his." Ron said while getting to his feet.
"Humph, don't bluff too much! I am different from the classmates you fought before." The boy arrogantly stated.
"Heh, I also know you won fast in your previous matches. But that's not good enough, you'll need more than that in a real battle. I'll show you what you need to be a real mage." Ron said as he covered his fists in fire.
"Cheeky brat." Ben smirked after hearing what Ron said.
Ron ran at the boy who also ran towards him. They use the same spell, but the experienced mages know that their spell's power is different.
The boy threw a punch at Ron who caught with his left hand. This surprised the boy and Ron used this chance to punch with his right hand while holding the boy's fist with his left hand.
Ron's punch hit the boy's face with full power. The boy's head was flung back and he spit out some blood. Blood also came out of his nose before he fell to the ground.
'E-Class. They've turned into monsters. What kind of teacher allowed them to become this strong in such a short amount of time?' The boy thought as he looked at Ron with shaky eyes.
The boy took a peek at Ben's figure in the audience before he fainted. A single attack at full power allowed Ron to defeat the best S-Class student. The E-Class had just proven they are the best class in the school.