The Extra is a Genius!?-Chapter 557 - 556: The Measure of a Successor [I]

The walk from the Director’s office to the training grounds did not take long.

Minutes later, they stepped out into the open field.

The academy’s main training grounds stretched wide beneath a pale afternoon sky, the terrain marked by faint scars of past duels and controlled detonations. Today, it stood empty. No students practicing formations. No circles of sparring pairs. No instructors correcting stances from the sidelines.

Classes had been cancelled.

Grief had cleared the field.

A light wind moved across the open terrain, stirring dust and grass in slow currents. The silence felt different from the one in the corridors earlier. This one was cleaner. Expectant.

Noel stepped forward first, boots settling against packed earth. Revenant Fang rested at his side, dark metal catching a muted glint of light. He rolled his shoulders once, loosening tension that had nothing to do with the funeral anymore.

Noel stepped forward first, boots settling against the packed earth. Revenant Fang rested at his side.

Daemar joined him a few steps later, stopping at a measured distance.

He looked around the vacant field and let out a slow breath. "At least we won’t have to worry about anyone getting caught in the middle of this," he said calmly. "And I won’t have to explain to first-years why half the training grounds disappeared."

Noel allowed himself a faint smile. "So you are planning to hold back, then?"

Daemar glanced at him sideways. "If I hold back too much, it would be an insult. If I don’t hold back at all, it would be irresponsible. I intend to find a reasonable balance."

"That’s reassuring," Noel replied. "I was starting to wonder if you were trying to preserve your reputation."

Daemar gave him a look that carried just enough dryness to feel familiar. "My reputation will survive this. I am more concerned about yours."

The wind shifted between them.

Daemar’s expression settled, the lightness fading into something measured and serious.

"Let’s be clear," he continued. "This is a sparring match. I want to see your limits, not your funeral. We fight seriously, but without killing intent. Agreed?"

Noel nodded slowly. "Agreed. I’m here to be measured, not buried."

"And you may use everything at your disposal," Daemar added. "As long as you can control it."

"I wouldn’t have it any other way."

A quiet pause followed.

Daemar adjusted his sleeves slightly, faint arcs of electricity beginning to flicker around his fingertips.

"Then show me," he said, voice steady but firm. "Show me how far you’ve truly advanced, Noel."

Daemar did not signal the beginning. He simply moved.

"Gravity Step."

The ground beneath him seemed to loosen its claim as he shifted his own gravitational axis, propelling himself upward in a smooth, controlled arc that placed him directly above Noel. There was no wasted motion in it, no flare meant to impress. It was efficient, precise, and timed to test instinct rather than raw defense.

Lightning gathered in his palm, condensing inward instead of flaring outward. The air around his hand vibrated as the energy tightened into a focused construct.

"Thunderbrand Spear."

The lance of compressed electricity drove downward in a straight, lethal trajectory, fast enough that hesitation would have meant impact.

Noel felt the change in pressure before he saw the spell fully form.

"Shadow Step."

His body dissolved into darkness just as the spear struck the ground, the impact tearing through stone and sending a violent surge of current across the training field. Fractures spidered outward from the strike point as Noel reappeared behind Daemar, already mid-motion.

Revenant Fang cut through the air in a tight arc.

"Fire Arc."

A sharpened crescent of flame curved toward Daemar’s exposed flank, controlled in width to preserve density and speed. Noel layered the follow-up without pause.

"Voltage Needle."

A thin, piercing bolt of lightning shot through the wake of the fire arc, aimed precisely where Daemar would shift if he avoided the initial strike.

Daemar did not retreat.

"Gravition Hold."

The field compressed instantly. Noel felt the weight slam down through his shoulders and legs as gravity intensified around him, distorting the air and dragging at the flow of his own mana. The Fire Arc bent slightly off its clean trajectory, its curve forced wider by uneven pressure, while the Voltage Needle slowed just enough for Daemar to pivot midair with another subtle gravitational adjustment.

Noel’s boots cracked the ground as he resisted the pull, muscles tightening against the imposed force. The pressure was not overwhelming, but it was deliberate, testing how well he could maintain spell structure under environmental distortion.

Daemar landed several meters away, electricity and heat weaving together as he shifted seamlessly into another construct.

"Solar Flare Burst."

The spell detonated outward from his position in a rapidly expanding wave of braided fire and lightning. It was not a projectile but a controlled radial discharge designed to consume space and deny positioning.

Noel responded immediately.

"Frost Wall."

Ice surged from the earth in layered segments, angled to deflect rather than absorb. The expanding burst collided with it a breath later, lightning crawling across the frozen surface as heat fractured the structure from within. Steam erupted violently into the air as the wall shattered under sustained pressure, shards scattering across the field in a spray of glittering debris.

Noel slid backward several meters, boots carving shallow trenches into the stone before he stabilized his stance. The impact had forced him on the defensive, but his posture remained grounded, his breathing steady.

Daemar did not allow the distance to reset the tempo.

The air shifted again, heavier this time, layered with more than simple pressure. Electricity began threading through the gravity field itself, the two elements no longer cast in sequence but interwoven.

Gravity intensified in pulses instead of a steady hold, distorting footing unpredictably, while arcs of lightning flickered between invisible anchors in the air.

Noel felt it immediately.

Daemar’s voice remained calm.

"Gravition Array."

The ground buckled unevenly as localized gravity spikes formed across the terrain, forcing Noel to move instead of hold position.

Noel answered by reshaping the field rather than resisting it.

"Flare Trap."

Sigils ignited across the ground in subtle bursts, embedded within fractured stone. A moment later, as Daemar shifted his weight mid-step, a vertical pillar of flame erupted beneath him, forcing him to redirect his trajectory.

Noel layered again.

"Ice Spike."

Multiple lances of ice surged upward in a spreading formation, not random but predictive, cutting off likely escape vectors.

Daemar adjusted instantly.

"Gravity Step."

His body twisted mid-air as gravity inverted along a diagonal axis, allowing him to slip between two rising spikes without losing altitude. Electricity surged again in his palm, but this time it did not take the shape of a spear.

"Heavenfall Current."

A vertical column of lightning descended from above, striking where Noel stood—and then tracking, bending slightly as Noel moved. It was not precise like Voltage Needle. It was oppressive, meant to corner.

Noel burst sideways, boots tearing across stone as he accelerated through unstable footing. Revenant Fang cleared its sheath fully now, dark edge catching the light.

The lightning column followed for a heartbeat longer than expected before dissipating, carving a smoking trench across the field.

Noel’s eyes sharpened.

Enough testing.

"Stormpiercer."

Electricity condensed violently around him, arcs snapping across his limbs as he channeled it into a singular forward thrust. His body propelled in a straight line at near-lightning speed, the air splitting under the acceleration as he became a streak of blinding light driving directly toward Daemar.

Daemar reacted at the last possible instant.

Gravity warped sideways.

The space between them distorted, compressing and twisting the trajectory of the charge. Stormpiercer collided against that warped field rather than flesh, the impact releasing a shockwave that exploded outward across the training grounds.

Stone fractured.

Dust and debris lifted in a circular burst.

Both were forced backward several meters.

Daemar landed first this time, boots sliding but controlled. His eyes narrowed.

Noel’s mana density had not dipped.

If anything, it had thickened under pressure.

He recovered fast.

Noel did not pause to reset.

Flame ignited along Revenant Fang.

"Ignition Surge."

In the same motion, frost gathered along the blade’s spine while residual lightning crackled along its edge. The elements did not clash. They layered.

Daemar stepped forward to meet him.

Their weapons and constructs collided in close range, lightning against flame, gravity shifts forcing unnatural footwork. The ground beneath them cracked repeatedly under the force of redirected weight.

Noel pivoted under a gravitational pull that would have dropped a lesser mage to his knees, adjusting his center of mass instinctively.

Then the shadows deepened.

"Eclipse Rend."

Revenant Fang’s edge blurred into black afterimages as a sweeping arc of void carved forward. The attack did not burn or shock. It erased. The ground caught in its path simply ceased, leaving a hollow trench where matter had been devoured.

Daemar’s eyes widened fractionally.

"Gravity Step."

He vanished upward, narrowly escaping the full breadth of the void arc. Even so, the edge clipped the space where he had been standing, shredding residual constructs and destabilizing the gravity field entirely.