The crowdâs naivety was beginning to fade. One win could be brushed off as luck. Two wins might have hinted that Wilton Academy had a hidden strength they hadnât shown before. But three victories, three matches in which Wilton students had come out on top against all odds, was impossible to ignore.
Now, with yet another Wilton Academy student stepping onto the stage, the audienceâs thoughts had shifted completely. Most of them believed Wilton was going to take this fight as well. The only question lingering in their minds was
how
. How would this student manage to secure yet another win?
"Let the match... begin!" the announcer called, his voice ringing through the arena.
The opposing student wasted no time. Quick on their feet, they immediately launched an attack, sharp bursts of wind magic cutting through the air toward Raze at high speed.
Good,
Raze thought, his eyes narrowing in appraisal.
The studentâs making the right call. They donât know what Iâm capable of yet, so theyâre testing me with a fast, direct strike. Even if it doesnât land, itâs the best way to gauge my reaction. It seems their academy has been teaching them well.
Just as the wind blades reached striking distance, Raze moved. With a sweep of his arms, he conjured his own wind magic. The two attacks collided midair with a dull
whump
, and then vanished into nothingness, dispersing harmlessly.
But his opponent didnât falter. In the same breath, they activated something new. A small, circular item floated above their head, spinning faintly, and from it, a stream of deadly ice spears began launching straight toward Raze in rapid succession.
Seeing this, Razeâs expression shifted slightly. He raised his hands, drawing on the earth beneath him. A thick wall of stone surged upward, intercepting the barrage. The ice spears struck hard, lodging deep into the wallâs surface with a series of dull cracks.
Interesting,
Raze mused.
That item... it lets them prepare magic circle formations in advance. Itâs almost like activating a formation in real-time, but powered by their own ice-attribute mana. Clever, and dangerous.
The crowd reacted in mixed fashion. Some spectators groaned in disapproval at the use of an item, muttering about fairness. Others leaned forward in intrigue, impressed by the quick thinking and adaptability. The student, however, wasnât concerned with what anyone thought. They were here to win, and they had every intention of doing so.
Chanting again, the student cast their own earth magic. The ground trembled as a jagged fissure ripped through the stone wall Raze had raised, splitting it clean in two. Through the gap, the ice spears kept flying, their pace relentless.
This time, Raze didnât simply block. He extended both hands, flicking his wrists in swift, precise motions. His own ice magic formed in an instant, razor-sharp shards materializing before him and shooting forward. Each one struck the incoming spears head-on, their tips colliding with pinpoint accuracy, shattering them mid-flight before they could reach him.
When the two attacks collided, they dissolved instantly, fading away into nothing but stray particles of mana. That was when Raze finally began to move forward.
As he advanced, he mirrored whatever his opponent did, matching their magic in both type and intensity. Earth spells, fire spells, ice spells, and wind spells, he conjured them all, replicating the studentâs output perfectly.
Step by step, spell by spell, Raze closed the distance between them. Each exchange brought him closer, his measured pace never breaking, his focus unwavering. Then, once he was close enough, he brought both hands together in a single, decisive motion.
A sudden whirlwind burst forth from his palms, slamming into the studentâs stomach. The violent gust twisted them upward, spinning them through the air, and then, almost as if the wind itself were alive, it drove them back down, slamming their body into the arena floor with crushing force.
The match was over.
I hope the student managed to get some worthwhile combat experience out of that,
Raze thought as he lowered his hands.
It was good to see him use whatever he could and think creatively about the situation. I could have ended the fight much earlier, in a dominant fashion... but I could tell how hard youâd worked for this moment. You trained with everything you had, so I wanted to give you the chance to show it to everyone on the stage.
The second Wilton match concluded, but the reaction from the crowd was muted. It wasnât that the fight had been bad, far from it, but compared to the earlier matches, it lacked spectacle. There was no flashy affinity, no rare trait, no awe-inspiring display like the magic swordsman had shown. It had ended too cleanly, too simply.
Perhaps, after everything they had seen so far, the audienceâs expectations had climbed a little too high.
Regardless, the results were undeniable, both Wilton students had won their matches.
The tournament moved on to the next pairing: the second BIMM student versus another academyâs representative. This fight, too, lacked the unique traits or overwhelming abilities that could captivate the audience, but it still showcased a wide variety of magic. The steady back-and-forth, the clash of top-level spells, kept the crowd entertained.
It was evenly matched until the very end, but the BIMM student ultimately claimed victory. Surprisingly, it wasnât Lee Roy advancing, but another member of their academy. From watching the bout, however, it was clear to most that this fighter was far weaker than Lee Roy.
Finally, the last match of the second round was set to begin. The name called drew the crowdâs attention immediately, Kayzelâs turn had come.
****
****
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