My first visualization was to excavate 4 spheres of earth from the ground I stood on, levitate them next to me, then send them towards Elipto as quickly as I could imagine. The whole process should've taken no more than 3, maybe 2.5 seconds. Each of them was about the size of my fist.
Elipto blocked, but the way he did it had me believing he could've blocked it faster. He didn't just make a wall of ice to defend against the attack; he timed it so that the ice formation enveloped the spheres as they soared.
He must have sensed my surprise, as a sheet of ice quickly formed over the ground, growing towards me.
I reflexively raised my arm and made a section of the ground tilt towards me at a 45-degree angle. The growing ice stopped at the height of the makeshift ramp, ending with a line of icy spikes.
There was an odd sound, and when I looked up, Elipto was in the air. Ice was being formed beneath his feet as he surfed toward me.
He was closing the distance fast.
I raised a pillar of earth to shatter the trail of ice he left, but he jumped off before I could trip him, and he landed on top of me, faster than I could react with another visualization.
The moment I fell to the ground, he encased everything but my head in ice.
It was fucking cold!
My body reacted to the sudden cold, but the icy cage enveloping me greatly restricted it.
I looked at Elipto's face as he crouched on top of the icy shell he put me in.
"Okay, you win. Now, could you please let me out?"
"Why did you hold back?"
"Uhh…"
"I saw how you've fought against Alicia. Pretty devastating victory if you ask me."
"You heard Mr. Evenicht, we shouldn't go too far."
"Trust me, I know. Been called out enough times to hear that man's voice in my dreams."
"I… wanted to avoid inflicting emotional damage."
Seeing Alicia's reaction to my impulsive display of power made me realize how careful I'll need to be when manifesting my abilities in front of people I'm not fighting.
"Tch." He got up from my icy shell. "Fighting you is pointless if you aren't going to fight with everything you've got."
Using everything I've got might end up breaking his bones at minimum, but I get what he means.
Oh, he's walking away.
Need to get out of here before I get serious damage from hypothermia.
I dug another small ball of dirt and compressed it a bit so that it wouldn't fall apart for what I planned on doing next. Using the ball as a hammer to chip away at my icy prison.
Gotta hurry before I end up unconscious.
Other options I had were emulating comically overpowered characters and just moving like the ice doesn't phase me, or using telekinesis and cutting at the ice like a hot knife through butter or an ice saw, but if I must commit to only being able to use a single attunement, I'll have to stick exclusively to using conceivable applications of the earth attunement.
I morphed the ball into something sharper and put more force into its strikes, then excavated more mounds of earth and morphed them into identically sharp shapes, and had them repeatedly strike my icy cage. Striking hard enough to break the ice, but not too hard to risk killing me, slowly escalating the speed and force to a degree I'm certain won't risk hurting me.
There was a loud cracking sound, and the repeated assault of the make-shift pickaxes ceased.
I heard the sound of footsteps, and familiar faces helped me break out of the icy prison. Sebastian, who worked to melt the ice with his heat and provide warmth, and Richter, who used his own application of the earth attunement to remove the halves of the split icy cage from my body.
After that, I was brought to the hospital once more. This time, only to rest while my body temperature adjusts back to normal.
…
That was honestly horrible.
I mean, I have Imagination Manifestation! Losing should be more difficult than winning, especially with how responsive my power is to my whims.
If I had to give an honest assessment about why I had lost, aside from being limited to emulating the earth attunement, I can think of a few things.
Mentality. I have a volatile power, but that doesn't mean anything if I'm not using it with the intent to dominate a fight.
Mr. Evenicht's warning. It's easy for me to visualize something with a large enough volume that's impossible to counter; however, this class is meant to teach me how to fight other mages. At least, that's my impression. That, or to fight against those Obasidanite Sentinels Richter mentioned.
Weird looks. I've been ignoring them, but I've gotten weird looks for doing certain things with my ability. I thought it was just surprise from witnessing a magical phenomenon up close, but now I'm considering the possibility of them witnessing something not magical in nature, despite it appearing to be magical. If what Mr. Draco said in that office about multi-attunement mages, or the lack thereof, is true, then I might face unexpected difficulties regarding suspicions about my power's nature.
I should've asked more about this place before my reincarnation.
There was a knock on the door, and I quickly got a hold on my thoughts before giving permission.
"Come in!"
The door opened, and Kiori, Richter, Sebastian, and Alicia came in.
"Emilie had some classes to catch up on. She said she wishes you a speedy recovery." Alicia spoke first.
"Elipto tends to be ruthless when sparring, even though Mr. Evenicht has warned him countless times. But I've never seen him this angry about winning. He tends to express his boredom, complaining about his victories being too easy." Sebastian followed up on Alicia's words.
I looked to Richter, expecting him to follow up on everyone sharing their impressions of the prideful Ice mage.
"Umm… we once sparred, and after he froze me, he said that was the closest anyone has gotten to beating him, and that he'd look forward to future spars when I get stronger."
I looked to Kiori, not wanting to leave him out of this chain.
"He froze me and didn't say a thing. He didn't say it, but he knows I'm weak."
It sounded self-deprecating. He definitely didn't want to be included in this dialogue.
"Aside from Kiori's words, it sounds like he's constantly looking for genuine opportunities to test how his strength measures against others. Wait, Kiori, did you volunteer to challenge him, or?"
"Mr. Evenicht wants everyone to fight, no matter how much you want to avoid it," Kiori answered.
"Why did you stick to your earth attunement? Surely your other attunements would've sufficed. Better yet, using them simultaneously, if that doesn't strain you." Richter asked.
"Mister… Draco said something weird about multiple attunements. Did he ever say anything about acquiring another attunement being reckless or suspicious?"
Everyone but Sebastian looked at each other, then he spoke up.
"It was the first thing he warned me about when I enrolled here. He even made the room glow yellow when he talked about it."
That serious, huh?
"His specific words were, 'If there ever comes a point where you believe you're weak, getting another attunement is never the answer.'"
"When was this?" Richter asked him.
"I think… it was a week before he gave a lecture about the dangers of having multiple attunements."
I wondered if that was the equivalent of a class on the dangers of drugs and addiction in my world.
"Do people still treat mages with multiple attunements as legends, or something to idolize, despite the dangers?"
Sebastian turned toward me. "It's the decree of the tower. It's impossible for anyone not to know about it, but some people still believe it to be a chance at greatness. I sort of understand where they're coming from. I've been asked to help with fighting multi-attuned mages. I've beaten them, but I've found they're more difficult to fight against than anyone with a singular attunement."
"You don't need to answer this, but by your own estimation, what level would a multi-attuned mage need to be in order to beat you, and what attunements?" I asked the master mage in front of me.
Everyone else in the room simultaneously turned their heads at Sebastian, which didn't go unnoticed. I guess he felt put on the spot.
"If I had to answer, it'd be a water and ice attuned mage at medium-advanced level at minimum, and they'd be equally skilled in both attunements."
"So you admit that water and ice attunements are difficult for you to fight against."
"The only way I can beat them is if I overpower them before they have the opportunity to fight against me. It's similar to what Elipto does when he spars."
"Back to the part where you said you've fought other multi-attuned mages, how'd that go?" Richter asked.
"Yeah. You've never talked about that. It's surprising you've encountered them at all." Alicia followed up.
Kiori also appeared interested in what Sebastian had to say, but didn't express it.
"Well, aside from the obvious, there was something off about how the Proa of different attunements interacted with each other in people's bodies. I think the different attunements were fighting to be used by their host."
"Like 2 siblings vying for attention from their parent?" I spoke, wanting to include the analogy and not feel like an observer in an important conversation.
I got odd looks from Richter, Sebastian, and Alicia.
"Siblings tend to compete for attention from their guardians, from what I've heard."
"That's… a good analogy." Richter broke the silence.
Thank you.
"Ambroska and Amlika often compete for every single thing. It gets to the point where teachers have to get them to stop."
"Who now?"
That's when I was finally able to names to the faces of those 2 girls who were around Salil when he confronted me in the cafeteria.