A huge wave of heat started to spread out from Karma's position as two fire pillars, that were as thick as the leg of an elephant, slowly appeared around Karma. However, unlike Nagisa's Raging Pillar, that was completely static, Karma's flames behaved as if they were alive. The two large flame pillars started to circle Karma like two enormous floating serpents covered in flames.

Karma had been Karasuma's student ever since he was in first grade, so if you had to choose someone who was most familiar with Karma's spell arsenal aside from Karma himself, it was Karasuma.

This was a variation of one of Karma's past favorite spells, Flame Whip. It was a spell that would create two thin rope shaped flames that had the characteristics of a whip. The spell would stay connected to the caster's arms and would move according to the caster's movements.

But Karma wasn't satisfied with that. Once a mage or combatant reached the fifth level of the fourth stage, their mana or aura would slowly start to liquefy until all the gas-like energy was concentrated to reach the fifth stage.

Instead of the steady increase in quantity from stage 1 to mid-stage 4, the transition from stage 4 to 5 was a change in quality. Starting from the fifth level of stage 4, the size of the pool will stop to increase until the fifth stage. But the increase in power is almost as large as all the 4 earlier stages combined. Because even though the size of the pool didn't change, the density of the content inside was very different.

But that still wasn't the biggest change from stage 4 and 5. The most important improvement was the increased control over the elements. The liquid state was a lot more stable and thus easier to control. That was why a pre-level 5 mage will never be able to use a spell like Karma was currently using.

Having two huge burning pillars gently move around you by will without having direct contact with the elements was something only a mage who started to liquefy his mana could do. Karma came up with this idea when he first sensed the changes the bit of liquid mana did to his control and applied them onto the spell Flame Whip. One could even say that the current spell Karma was casting was an original spell developed by Karma.

But Karma had just recently reached the fifth level, the small amount of liquid mana he had in his pool wasn't nearly enough to control a spell of this caliber. And if you asked any mage what would happen if the elements got out of control during a spell and they would all instantly answer, the elements would self-destruct.

And the self-destruction of elements was not to be taken lightly. There was an easy way to describe the force behind the explosion of the elements, the power of the original spell squared.

The easier way to see this is to imagine the mana as a balloon and the elements as the air that fills the balloon. Using the mana, a mage shapes and forms the basis for a spell, then gathers the elements from the surroundings to finish the spell.

Casting a spell is basically using the filled balloon and smack someone with it. And as the mage gets stronger, the texture of the balloon becomes tougher and tougher until it becomes like a soccer ball and even more, resulting in it being able to contain and hold more concentrated elements. Obviously, it hurts a lot more getting hit by a soccer ball than a balloon.

The case of losing control of your spells is when you infuse your spell with too many elements so that your mana is unable to contain and control them anymore. What happens if you pump too much air into a balloon or ball? It bursts. The tougher the ball, the bigger the consequences.

Right now, Karma's spell was on the verge of losing control. With the tiny amount of liquid mana, Karma couldn't hold the spell for longer than 5 seconds! However, that was more than enough time to place the rampaging elements next to Karasuma who was trapped by Nagisa.

With his entire face twisted due to the struggle to keep his control over the spell and the excited and evil smirk on his face, Karma looked like an absolute maniac when he finally threw his arms forwards and sent both pillars straight towards Karasuma.

Like every veteran fighter, Karasuma had a natural instinct for danger. And when he sensed the rampaging forces within the two pillars that were now even twisting around each other and even starting to merge because of being on the verge of exploding, his entire body turned into a state of alert.

Completely forgetting about the rule of limiting his own strength, a massive amount of aura leaked out of Karasuma and covered his entire body. The power he was using now was already on par with a stage five combatant but he had no choice. If he kept using the strength of a normal stage 4, his instincts told him that he would get severely injured.

A loud exploding sound and a shockwave started to spread out the second Karma's fire pillars came in contract with Karasuma's aura shield as a massive mushroom-shaped cloud started to rise into the air.

Karma, who had used all his strength with that attack, got swept down by the shockwave and fell on the ground gasping for air.

"Akabane! Did you lose your…" an angry voice echoed out of the smoke caused by the explosion but he was suddenly interrupted by a roar that came out of nowhere.

"AHH!" a desperate and shaking voice roared. It was Nagisa. Almost instantly after Karma's attack had landed, Nagisa also started his attack. His timing was perfect, he chose the exact moment where Karasuma had just finished defending himself from Karma's attack and was still recovering from it.

Or at least this would've been the case if Karasuma was really just a stage 4 or even 5 combatant. With Karasuma's actual stage being a lot higher than that, he also had way more experience in controlling his aura than any stage 5 combatant. His body was also several times sturdier, so for Karasuma, it wasn't a problem to put up another shield to defend himself against Nagisa's attack.

But Karasuma was taken by surprise again. Before he put up his defense, he had already checked the spell Nagisa was using, Bullet Rain. It was the same spell Nagisa had been spamming when Karma had put up the smokescreen.

Fully knowing the force behind Nagisa's spell, Karasuma casually put up an aura shield capable of deflecting Nagisa's entire spell. But his eyes widened in surprise when the first icicle made contact with his shield.

A large crack had appeared on his shield with the contact of the first icicle! And when the force of impact finally dispersed the smoke around Karasuma that was created by the explosion from before, Karasuma could finally see what was going on.

There were 50, more than twice as many than before, icicles raining down on him! Not only that, but they also had twice the size and the speed of their fall was also at least twice as fast!

Beneath the icicles, Nagisa was standing there, his entire body shaking in pain and his eyes bloodshot while his right arm was stretched out towards Karasuma from casting the spell.

This wasn't just a rank 3 Bullet Rain! It had the force of a rank 4 spell! This was what Karma was talking about, that Nagisa might be able to forcefully cast spells that were beyond his stage due to his unusually sturdy pool.

It had just been a theory, but just now when Nagisa simply wanted to pour all his mana into this one spell, he had subconsciously exceeded the limit of how much mana he should release in one go as a stage 3 mage.

How much mana a mage can release in an instance also depended on the size of his pool. You could see the pool as a tube that could transfer the mana to the outside. And as the size of the pool gets bigger, the tube gets thicker and can allow more mana to flow through it.

While spells with a set rank all have a set amount of mana a mage had to use to form the spell, with evolving spells, the power of your spell completely depended on the amount of mana you used to form the spell in the split second the spell was formed. Which was why it was impossible for a stage 3 mage to cast a rank 4 spell or increase the power of an evolving spell.

But Nagisa was different. Due to his pool being several times sturdier than the usual mage, he was capable of forcing more mana through the tube than it was usually allowed without the tube bursting.

But at the same time, the pain he had to endure to achieve that was even greater than the one he had to experience in a breakthrough.

By completely misjudging the power of the spell, Karasuma was thrown out of his rhythm yet again.

Trying to defend Nagisa's attack with a shield that was too weak, Karasuma's shield almost instantly fell apart and he was forced to block the icicles with his own body. Naturally, a rank 4 spell wasn't enough to injure Karasuma, but the direct impact was still strong enough to keep him suppressed as long as he didn't use more of his aura.

Unlike mages, most combatants were only able to maintain one energy shield at a time. Because mages focus on strengthening their mind, their control over their mana was a lot better than the combatant's control over their aura.

Good mages were able to split their focus and do multiple things at the same time to its full effect. Which also included setting up multiple layers of shields.

Combatants train their body, which strengthened their natural defense and offense. A high stage combatant's body was even sturdier than the mana shields mages used and it was up permanently. Which was also the reason why you could assassinate an unprepared higher stage mage, but not a higher stage combatant.

Karasuma has already used the strength of a stage 5, so there was no way he would go even further. But since he was busy focusing on blocking the icicles and didn't want to just walk through them and abuse his physical strength, he didn't have the focus to create another aura shield while defending himself.

He could also just hit Nagisa with an aura blast and cancel his spell, but that was also something only a stage 5 combatant could do. He used the power of a stage 5 combatant against Karma who had already taken his first step towards the fifth stage, but using it against a mage who had just become a stage 3 would be nothing but bullying.

But it didn't matter, no matter what Karasuma did now, the fight was over. Even if Karasuma was a stage 4 combatant, a rank 4 Bullet Rain wouldn't be enough to knock out a stage 4 earth combatant. Bullet Rain was a multi-target spell, if Nagisa had gone for a rank 4 Raging Pillar there might have been a chance to take out a stage 4 combatant, but Bullet Rain would only be a huge hindrance and cause some injuries. With this attack, Nagisa would also have exhausted his entire mana supply deeming both him and Karma incapable of further combat.

Letting out a sigh of relieve, Karasuma simply waited until all 50 icicles have dropped until he had finally put his guard down to look at Nagisa. He did look like he was in huge pain when he was casting his last spell after all.

But in front of Karasuma was not what he had expected. Nagisa was still standing there gasping for air, but his body seemed oddly transparent and twisted.

Feeling a sudden chill run down his spine, the transparent Nagisa in front of him disappeared into the air as something ice cold was touching his neck from behind before he could even react.

Slowly turning his head to look at the icy feeling on his neck, Karasuma's pupils dilated in shock when he saw the tip of an icicle barely touching the skin on his neck and the young boy holding it.

It was a strange picture, Nagisa's entire body was shaking as if he was getting cramps all over his body, but the hand holding the icicle was unbelievingly steady. "It's your loss… Sensei." Nagisa forced these words out of his mouth with an ugly grin on his face due to his pain and finally let himself fall on his back after letting the icicle go.

"50/50 my ass." Karma's voice complained as he slowly dragged his body towards Nagisa and Karasuma before sitting down next to them, "More like 10/90." Karma continued to complain but ironically had a huge smirk on his face.

"Who cares, we won." Nagisa also started grinning uncontrollably, "And Sensei cheated too."

"Hehe, true." Karma started laughing, "If Karasuma didn't cheat we would've won with just my attack."

"Yeah, that thing was crazy! What the hell was that?" Nagisa remembered and asked in awe, he knew that Karma was a stage 4 mage, but that firepower was insane.

"You will know when you get there Shiota-san. Knowing it now will only distract you from your current progression." Karasuma tried to change the topic a bit awkwardly.

"I'll tell you when we're back." Karma completely ignored Karasuma and continued, "But damn, you actually did it." Karma grinned even more, "You're actually able to force cast a rank 4 spell, shit I'm jealous now."

"That was an accident, I'm not doing it again, that hurt like hell." Nagisa shook his head slightly but the excitement in his eyes clearly said otherwise.

"Needlessly to say, you both did great, no, exceptional." Karasuma nodded, "Especially you Shiota-san, there was the factor that I didn't know anything about you, but your actual combat strength far exceeds the one of a stage 3 mage. I would even go that far to say that your effect in this battle was greater than what any stage 4 mage could've achieved considering that you're able to cast rank 4 spells." Karasuma praised Nagisa sincerely.

"But it's a shame really." Karasuma sighed regrettably, "If you only were a high, no even if just a mid-level stage 3 mage I would've taken you into this team without any hesitation. The effect that your talent to read your enemy and guide your allies could have in this team would've easily balanced out the lack of your natural talent."

"Lack of natural talent?" Nagisa's eyebrows twitched a little bit, that was something he used to hear a lot.

"Even now you're already an entire stage behind Kayano-san who's even younger than you." Karasuma shook his head, "And this gap will only become bigger and bigger. I'm not sure if you will be able to lead the rhythm of the fight when the gap between you and your teammates is even bigger than now."

"What makes you say that?" Nagisa asked slightly disturbed. "I can guarantee you that I will not fall behind in the future."

"Your resolve is admirable Shiota-san, but this is not something you can do with resolve and hard work alone. As long as Akabane-san and Kayano-san don't slack off they will always improve faster than you."

"I started less than 4 years ago." Nagisa just said bluntly. If he was merely interested in joining this class before, now that he knew that Kaede was a part of this class, he did not plan to give Karasuma another choice.

"Again?" Karasuma was slightly surprised by Nagisa's seemingly random statement.

"I only started meditating less than 4 years ago." Nagisa repeated, this time with more details, "You can confirm this with Kaede when she wakes up, she was the one who taught me how to meditate."

"… What is your compatibility with your element?" Karasuma eyes started to light up but he remained suspicious.

"91," Nagisa answered confidently.

"If it was that high, why did no one in your tribe teach you? With a compatibility that high, any tribe would see you as their treasure." Karasuma wondered.

"I'm an orphan, my mother died giving birth to me and my father left right after I was born and I lived with my aunt." Nagisa started, "But before my father left he left a seal on my scale that would suppress its connection to the elements until I started meditating for the first time. So back then my test showed a score of 12."

"Then how do you know you actual compatibility?" Karasuma became more and more confused by Nagisa's story. Everything sounded absolutely absurd, but Nagisa didn't seem like the kind to spew this kind of nonsense even if he wanted to lie.

"My Shisho told me." Nagisa shrugged.

"Who's your Shisho?" Karasuma asked.

"Can't say, but he was the one who got me into this academy."

"I see…" Karasuma went into deep thought. Since Nagisa was a mage he naturally assumed that Nagisa's Shisho was a mage as well. But then there was the question why he would send Nagisa into the academy if he could teach him himself so Karasuma assumed that the person wasn't a mage but was teaching Nagisa in something else. Karasuma also knew that Nagisa was brought into the school outside of the admission time of the academy, which was proof that this Shisho of Nagisa had some significant influence.

"In that case, welcome to the class, Shiota-san." Karasuma finally smiled and said as he took out a device and suddenly a transparent layer surrounding the garden slowly disappeared.

The garden of the principal had barriers installed in them because of Karma, since he tried out his spells out here quite often. What it did was to limit the sound and damage within the barrier.

"Nagisa? Nagisa where are you?" just before Nagisa could answer, a scared and broken voice came from Nagisa's balcony where he had left the door open. Kaede has woken up.

And another new chapter :D This chapter is a bit more of an information chapter. And if you're asking why I updated rather fast again? My parents went to play poker for the entire weekend and left me home alone even though I came for Mother's Day O.O, therefore I had nothing better to do… sooo hooray?

Introducing some of Nagisa's and Karma's future signature spells :D Nagisa's double layer prison and Karma's original spell. A clearer structure of the path of mages and combatants and how mana actually works.

So yeah, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Please tell me how you liked it in the reviews, have a great day and I'll see you in the next chapter! ;)