The arena hushed as Daemon stepped onto the packed earth for his first individual combat match of the tournament. His opponent, by a twist of fate the students found intensely satisfying, was Sheila von Lancaster, the Lightning mage he had publicly humiliated days earlier. The tension was palpable; this was not just a match, but a guaranteed collision of two deeply established hostilities.
Sheila, having learned the lesson of the Wendigo fight and her near-choking, had shed all trappings of slow, noble defense. She discarded her heavy shield and wore minimal leather armor, relying solely on her longsword for parrying and her inherent speed. She knew Daemon was unnaturally fast and refused to allow him into melee range. The bell rang, and Sheila immediately took the offensive, launching continuous, high-speed streams of raw lightning at Daemon. They were fast, aggressive, and powerful. Daemon found himself pushed instantly onto the defensive, executing a frantic series of dodges and evasive maneuvers that forced his augmented body to strain. This is why firearms remain an effective weapon regardless of their simplicity, he sighed inwardly, observing the sheer suppressive power of concentrated, high-speed energy bolts. He knew he couldn't sustain this evasion without severely depleting his stamina before his remaining matches.
Daemon stopped running. He quickly channeled his Water affinity and conjured dozens of tiny, near-invisible droplets of water, suspending them rapidly in the air to surround Sheila in a perfectly spherical perimeter. He did not touch her with the water, maintaining a one-foot buffer, but the presence of the moisture immediately triggered a survival response in the Lightning mage. Water is a natural enemy to pure electrical magic; the moisture surrounding her felt like absolute dread, an unstable medium that threatened to ground her power. Panicked, Sheila immediately reacted by firing continuous, uncontrolled bolts of lightning at the surrounding water droplets in a desperate attempt to vaporize them and clear the field. This was precisely Daemon's calculated trap.
Water is an excellent electrical conductor. By firing bolts into the suspended water, Sheila had unknowingly created a volatile, spherical lightning cage around herself, locking her in place. But Daemon's subtle manipulation had achieved something far more potent than mere electrical conductivity. Due to the repeated, high-intensity electrical discharge running through the water vapor, a strange, rapid shift occurred in the medium—a phenomenon completely unknown to this magic-obsessed world. The high-energy flow rapidly split the \text{H}_2\text{O} into two highly unstable, invisible gases: hydrogen (\text{H}_2) and oxygen (\text{O}_2). These gases, highly volatile and perfectly mixed into a concentrated sphere around Sheila, were a lethal, invisible atmosphere.
Daemon capitalized instantly. Maintaining his distance, he channeled his Fire affinity and launched a small, focused, tennis-ball-sized fireball toward Sheila's saturated perimeter. The fireball was not intended to strike Sheila; it was intended to serve as the ignition source. The moment the projectile breached the invisible perimeter and contacted the invisible cloud of suspended gases, a deafening, concussive WHUMP resonated through the arena. The concentrated, volatile gases exploded in a powerful, contained combustion wave. The explosion was largely kinetic and thermal. The blast wave struck Sheila directly. Her light armor offered no protection against the force. She was lifted instantly and thrown backward out of the arena, impacting the ground near the wall with violent force. She was left instantly unconscious and gravely injured: her clothes were singed to ash, her skin blistered, and she clearly suffered from massive internal concussive trauma. She would live, but her career, and her status, were annihilated.
The arena was once again plunged into shocked silence, the air stinging with the faint scent of ozone and something sharp and metallic that no one could identify. The crowd, which had expected a brutal melee, had witnessed a strategic, scientific annihilation.
The Students: The commoners and non-affiliated students erupted in chaotic awe. They understood Daemon had used some esoteric, forbidden, and brutally effective technique. Whispers of "Dark Alchemy" and "Forbidden Elemental Fusion" spread rapidly. Julian, watching from the sidelines, felt a cold knot of certainty: Daemon had created a miracle, a devastating weapon using the simplest materials.
The Instructors' Discussion: The judging panel was in utter disarray. Master Harkan (Principles of Magic) stammered, his face pale: "The water... the water disappeared! And then the fire... it was too big! It was not a fireball! It was... it was a concussive burst of raw energy! He used the water to amplify the power of the fire in some way we do not comprehend! It defies the known principles of elemental interaction!" Master Veridian (Weapons Proficiency) was equally stunned. "He's a menace. He didn't even use the Ninjatō. He won with three affinities in perfect sequence! The commoner façade is dead. We are not dealing with a talented scholar; we are dealing with a magical tactician who views combat as some form of warped alchemical process." Dean Thiel (Arch-Mage) gripped the arms of his chair, his previous dismissal of Daemon utterly shattered. "His strategy was... devastating. He utilized the elements in a way we have never documented. We failed to recognize that his theoretical genius is not impractical; it is simply too advanced for our curriculum. We cannot allow a student to win a duel using principles that endanger the entire arena." He tapped his hand on the desk. "Monitor his remaining matches. Do not interrupt his victories, but document every single application of his affinities. We need a full, immediate reassessment of Daemon's threat level. He must be contained, but now he must be contained after he wins."