Damian had returned to his seat in the stands, his breathing starting to become more regular after the fight. Setsu'ryū leaned against the bottom of the bench beside his feet, its blade still covered in cold dew after the match. Because it was still cold, Damian did not dare to put the sword back in its sheath.
On Damian's left side, Liam sat quietly as usual. Behind them, Lucien opened his tactical notes and began to scribble down the defense scheme again.
The sound of an announcement came from the loudspeaker.
"Next match, from the west side… a user of ground magic and a heavy spear, ranked sixteenth: JARETH GLAVINE!"
"From the east side… a first-class fighter, he calls himself the strongest, and this has proven true because no one has ever been able to defeat him until now. Ranked seventeenth: ELRIC DRAYMORE!"
The cheers of the audience immediately exploded. Elric stood up, waving his hand towards the stands, precisely turning towards Damian and his friends with a wide, confident smile.
"I can't lose, I'm the strongest," Elric shouted at Damian.
Damian nodded lightly. "Don't talk too much, hurry up and defeat Jareth," Damian replied, mocking Elric.
Jareth Glavine stood calmly, a large spear in his hand. As soon as the match bell rang, he slammed his spear into the ground.
Instantly, a large stone wall appeared from the surface, trying to trap Elric. But Elric jumped onto the wall while laughing, his hand holding his cheek. "You can fight!" Elric said.
Jareth used his magic, creating pillars of stone from underground, trying to hit Elric with the attack. Elric dodged by jumping back, then slammed his fist into the ground. His fist cracked the ground and destroyed several pillars made by Jareth, and fragments of the destroyed pillars scattered towards Jareth.
The two now exchanged attacks: spear and ground magic against Elric's mana-coated fist. Elric was hit by Jareth's spear and was pushed a few steps back. He took a breath and moved so fast that he managed to catch Jareth's arm quickly. In one powerful movement, Elric threw Jareth to the ground.
Jareth tried to get up, trying to summon protective magic, but the ground around him began to shake and slowly formed a solid wall from underground. But before he could provoke, Elric was already at the front of the fortress, with one hard punch right into the middle of the wall
CRACKKKK!!
The wall shattered into several pieces.
Elric then immediately shot up and lifted Jareth by his neck while telling Jareth to surrender.
Then Jareth finally said, "I surrender."
Instructor Van raised his hand. "Jareth Glavine is eliminated. Elric Draymore advances to the next round."
"Sixteen?? WHAT A JOKE, if he can get a ranking like this, I should be in the top ten." Elric said, annoyed. Then he left the arena.
After a while, Elric returned to the stands, his breath still panting, but his smile was wide. He raised both hands as if celebrating victory. "I am the strongest in this school, and I will prove it not with my words, but with my strength," Elric said arrogantly. Damian just shook his head slowly, holding back a smile. "Do you need a drink?" he said as he patted Elric's back, making sure his friend didn't run out of energy.
A few minutes later, the announcer's voice on the loudspeaker was heard again.
"Next! From the west side: the wind magic controller, ranked seventh: KAELITH SNOWVEIL!"
"And from the east side: the mysterious first-year student, known to have a very strong and hard-to-penetrate defense, ranked thirteenth: LUCIEN FAEBORNE!"
Damian and Elric both glanced at Lucien. Lucien closed his book quietly and stood up slowly.
"Good luck, keep your spirits up, bro!" Elric whispered.
Lucien only glanced at Elric, nodded once, then stepped towards the arena.
The two entered the arena simultaneously. Kaelith Snowveil stood to one side, holding a slender, wooden wand. Lucien Faeborne waited at the starting point, a large shield in his hand, his robe fluttering gently in the wind.
As soon as the bell rang, Kaelith immediately activated a wind magic spell, creating a gentle whirlwind around him. She moved nimbly, her wand pointing in various directions, manipulating the whirlwind to become larger.
Lucien remained calm, still holding the shield in front of his body. He observed Kaelith's every move carefully. When Kaelith directed the wind attack at him, Lucien raised the shield and placed it right in front of him to block the attack. The wind that hit the shield whistled loudly, but Lucien's shield managed to withstand the pressure, although Kaelith's attack was so strong that it made Lucien almost fall.
Kaelith increased the intensity of the fight by directing several small whirlwinds at Lucien again, trying to throw Lucien off balance. But Lucien set his feet firmly, activated his shield magic, and moved the magic shield in every direction of the wind attack directed at him to withstand the attack.
Seeing that her attack failed to make Lucien fall, Kaelith changed strategy. She held her wand up, summoning a whirlwind that formed a storm from the sky. Lucien ducked, raised his shield, and focused his mana to create a magic shield right in front of his shield, so his defense was thickened again. The windstorm hit Lucien's defense right away, causing dust to scatter, but Lucien's shield and magic shield layer managed to withstand it.
After the attack, Kaelith immediately approached, running with the help of the wind controlled by her wand. She launched himself at Lucien, kicking right at Lucien's face, but Lucien blocked the kick, and the kick made him retreat a few steps.
Lucien responded by pushing his shield forward, dragging it on the floor until it created a shock of magic energy towards Kaelith. Kaelith jumped back.
Lucien realized the gap and immediately closed the distance.
At that moment, Lucien swung his shield with full power, but without him realizing it, Kaelith was already behind him, because the Kaelith he wanted to attack was just a clone or illusion of Kaelith's wind magic. Kaelith quickly shot a whirlwind right at Lucien's back, causing Lucien to be thrown into the arena wall.
Instructor Van raised his hand from the edge of the arena: "Lucien Faeborne is eliminated. Kaelith Snowveil advances to the next round."
In the stands, cheers erupted. Damian and his friends felt sad that Lucien lost so badly, but on the other hand, they knew Lucien had tried his best, but Kaelith's ability to control his magic was indeed much better than Lucien's.
It was seen at the edge of the arena that Lucien, who had been thrown earlier, was fine, with only a small scratch. It turned out that when he hit the arena wall, he had time to cast his magic shield to withstand the impact of his collision with the arena wall.
Seeing Lucien's fine condition, Damian, Liam, and Elric sat back down quietly in the stands.
"Lucien was pretty cool earlier... too bad it wasn't enough against Kaelith," Elric said softly, his eyes still focused on the fight.
Liam nodded. "He stayed calm until the end... but Kaelith is very strong."
Damian replied, "It's okay, he gave his best, but the most important thing is that he didn't get injured or anything."
After a few minutes had passed. Lucien walked back to the bench without a word. Even though he lost, he displayed the same calmness, but from the look in his eyes, his determination not to suffer another defeat was evident.
Tessa and Rin arrived with drinks. They distributed cold tea to Damian, Liam, Elric, and Lucien. The four friends raised their glasses, toasted, and then laughed softly to release the tension.
"There's still Liam… Nero… who hasn't competed yet," Rin said as she took a sip of her tea, her eyes turning to the other stands.
Damian looked to the opposite stand, where Vellia sat alone, her gaze blankly staring at the center of the arena. Damian sighed. "And… her."