A sharp attack whistle drew the attention of all in attendance at the attempted murder.
"Illegal attack!" One of the teachers shouted.
"Lethal attack!" Robert shouted. He stood immobile, his eyes tracking the rapier's tip. It was full of Metal essence as Phillip was probably using an ability. Robert thought that was interesting but he didn't worry about the attack.
Girls screamed and screeched, cawing like harpies in the night. Boys shouted their warning, howling like wolves in the night. But it was all too late.
A barrier of Force energy sprung up right next to Robert's uniform. The rapier slammed against it and buckled, the flexible steel proving its tenacity as the weapon refused to break.
Robert smirked as his eyes met Amanda's.
Four teachers approached, closing in with their attention on Phillip. Hands of stone erupted from behind, breaking the grass and sending tufts of dirt and roots in all directions. They grabbed Phillip's legs, creaking his shin bones, and drawing a scream of pain from the young adult man. His knees buckled but his feet were firmly pinned to the ground by the stone hands. The result was that he fell on his butt and then on his back with a humiliating thud.
"Student Phillip Shayver, you are hereby sanctioned with a warning for delivering a lethal attack at a fellow student. It's further aggravated to two days of suspension for doing it outside of a duel. It is further aggravated to a week of suspension for doing that just after losing a duel to the same student."
Robert nodded. He knew the Academy rules upside down and was ready to complain if the teachers didn't throw the figurative book at the young master. But with these many witnesses, they knew better than to play favorites.
Some students were booing at Phillip. Robert stood impassible, unwilling to draw further animosity by trying to capitalize on the incident for personal gain. Anyway, his stoic and collected blasé air was earning him more social capital than he knew. He'd made more than one maid swoon at his display of bravery.
He overheard some students commenting on the exchange.
"Dude, that was Phillip's steel stinger. If the teachers hadn't defended the guy, he'd be dead right now."
"The teachers defended Phillip. Had he killed another student like that, he'd be expelled."
"Stop talking shit about stuff you have no clue about, you idiots," A third said. "Didn't you see how that Blaze guy was acting? He had his eyes glued on the rapier and didn't even blink! I heard he scrambled some guy's brain at the start of the semester! And he's from Samson's special forces. I bet he's a killer. Joke's on Phillip for challenging the boogieman."
"Bogeyman, you mean?"
"No. The Boogie-man. That guy had some sick dance moves."
Somehow, the moniker spread through the crowd like wildfire. Serendipity's crystallization rate ticked up by two percent.
Robert found Amanda and spirited her away from the crowd, toward the cafeteria, in hopes of reaching it before dinner service ended.
*
*
The next two days were filled with holographic sparring, gathering, burning essence to train spells and temper bodies, repeat everything da capo, studying the limits of their upgraded abilities. Then the last day before the tournament was spent relaxing the body, light tempering with the techniques that brought beneficial effects, meditation, and stretching. The two needed to be in their best game for the tournament.
The day of the first fights, the tournament brackets were revealed. The two-star tournament had 768 students. They were divided into twelve brackets with sixty-four fighters.
Robert and Amanda were seeded at the bottom, mixed with the lowest-scoring qualifiers and not at the bottom as they expected. Because the top qualifiers were placed at the head of their brackets to avoid pitting two powerhouses right at the start, the bottom feeders became the first opponents for said powerhouses, guaranteeing an easy and relaxing tournament at the start, with rising stakes as the brackets collapsed and dropped the losers.
The fights were simple elimination, with the winners moving up and the losers going into their own bracket, to fight for a chance to return in the round of sixteen. In that round, twelve winners from the main brackets would be randomly paired with four from the losers' bracket. From there, it was simple elimination again until a winner was chosen.
In the first day, everyone fought once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. They had twelve fighting rings in the stadium and each bracket had one fight going at a time. Each fight had an eight-minute time limit, with judges deciding on a winner if no clear win happened. A clear win happened when one combatant yielded, was knocked unconscious, or deemed unfit to continue to fight by either the umpire or their assisting combat teacher.
Fights were recorded. The rings had a shield with a peculiar trait. A circle at the back of each combatant's corner would flash with the color of the essence they were using if they used any external spell.
That cut off almost all of Robert's arsenal. He shouldn't use any Space, Fairy, Void, or Mental spells, leaving him with only Time and Life. It was not a prohibition but rather a decision born out of caution. He didn't want to show his whole hand.
Talents were okay to use but the combatants couldn't leave the ring. That also cut Robert from shifting to the liminal void as the barrier would mark his departure from this dimension as forfeiture.
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They couldn't use healing items but any object or creature that was used as part of one's abilities was okay. Robert could take Cotton and Coal to the ring with him but lethal attacks on tame monsters was fair game.
Phillip's week-long suspension meant he was instantaneously placed in the loser's bracket and his first opponent in his bracket moved one position up by WO. But he would make a comeback right in time to fight there.
Needless to say, lethal attacks were grounds for disqualification and disciplinary action.
*
*
The tournament uniform was slightly different. It had monster hide reinforcements covered in protective runes over the vitals and a regenerating fabric, to avoid wardrobe malfunctions. It was also stretchier than the normal uniform, to grant the students full range of mobility while also fighting in style.
Amanda chose a uniform with a pleated skirt over skintight pants. The under armor was custom fit to enhance her curves and promote her assets. It was vaulted around the chest area, showing some volume but as a single entity. It wasn't boob armor like what was depicted in some fantasy art. Her sleeves had lace around the shoulder and neck.
Robert chose the classic combat jacket. It resembles an equestrian garb with slim-fit pants, riding boots, and a formal shirt. It was perfect to give glimpses of his chiseled physique while being modest enough.
He checked the bracket, hovering above the stadium like an hologram. The fights weren't broadcast to the general public but privately streamed to choice subscribers. Doting parents and sect leaders all had their eyes glued to see what the next generation of the Empire's elites had to show.
*
*
Amanda got a reassuring pat on the back from Professor Actus as she walked into the combat ring. It was more cramped than she wished, giving her less room to lay down her plants and maneuver. Her opponent was a terrible match. A Fire affinity Arch that specialized in close-quarters combat. She really didn't want to get a fiery fist bruise in her first fight.
She readied herself. When the umpire shouted, "Fight," the guy rushed forward, flames forming along his fists. A bright red circle flashed behind him, denouncing he was using Fire essence.
Amanda dropped four vases with nightshades and ran to the corner. She didn't need to look to know the shield behind her flashed bright green.
Her opponent ignored the flowers as they released sprays of pollen directed toward him. As the pollen contacted the flaming fists, Amanda raised a dome of stone around her. The shield behind her flashed brown.
Then the whole shield flashed white as it strained to contain the dust explosion. Amanda's rocky shelter trembled and cracked from the pressure. She used more essence to reinforce the dome until she heard the final buzz.
Dropping the stone back into the floor, Amanda saw her opponent on his back, with second and third-degree burns over all of his body. His uniform had burned, leaving only the inner armor relatively intact. A Holy healer was already treating him.
She looked up and grinned. One fight won, nine to go.
*
*
Robert entered the ring with his eyes focused on his opponent. A Lightning and Water Arch, one of the many young masters attending the Academy.
"So, they decided to screw me over by pitting me against the special forces boogie man," The guy started with some passive-aggressive banter.
"It is what it is. If you have any issue with the pairing, have your teacher file a complaint with the tournament organizers."
"Bah. I want to see you dance your way out of getting electrocuted."
Robert didn't reply. He focused and cast Haste, thought acceleration, and dampen pain on himself. Self-buffs were not detected by the shield and could be used before the fight started. It wasn't like they had any way to stop him from doing so. he glanced behind him and saw the reassuring white mask with a blue eye. Noah nodded and gave him a thumbs up.
"Start!"
The guy started to gather Lightning in his hand. The shield flashed light blue. Robert cast slow on his opponent. His shield flashed sand beige. Even with a time difference of four due to his improved spell, it would still suck to get zapped. But the slow spell delayed the incoming lightning bolt.
Robert took his boar spear out of storage as he dashed forward. Right when his foresight told him the lightning was incoming, he planted the spear in the ground as far as it would go, hearing a metallic clang as its head pierced through the layer of stone and struck the metallic plate that generated the shield.
The lightning caught the metal shaft and grounded into the plate below. Robert sprung forward and bull rushed his enemy before he could cast another lightning bolt.
Not that he intended to cast a lengthy spell anyway. Seeing Robert come at him like a maniac running toward his doom, he planted one foot down and sent a kick powered by flowing strike and hydraulic flex, the deadliest martial arts combo attack.
Robert jumped and latched onto the kicking leg. It was coming at him four times slower than normal due to the differences in time dilation and contraction he placed on them. As he rode the leg for a spin, he summoned his sword from storage and slashed up along the leg. The long sword came up toward the family jewels and the ridiculously sharp blade sliced through the side of the codpiece and connected with the delicate flesh hidden underneath. Robert flicked his sword sideways, amputating his opponent.
The kick was aborted halfway as blood gushed from the martial artist's crotch. Robert let momentum carry him as he was flung toward the shield. He watched as his opponent clutched his crotch and dropped to his knees.
The audience realized what happened and flinched collectively in empathetic pain. Robert hit the shield as if he was flung into a speeding truck that would magically take him to another world. He felt his spine crack and his ribs break. Before he hit the floor, reconstruction was working hard to fix him.
Robert stood up before his opponent. The martial artist screamed and released a burst of pure Lightning essence, an explosion of electricity that strained the shield and covered the whole fighting arena. Robert only had time to send his sword to his storage ring before the Lightning struck him. He froze in place, cycling vitae infusion and gritting his teeth as he used reconstruction to repair the damage his body was taking in real-time.
The lightning surge kept going. The martial artist was still screaming as blood pooled underneath him. Robert's muscles were locked in place as he used all of his willpower to keep them from firing randomly. Reconstruction worked nonstop to keep his tissues from cooking to a well-done state.
The shield was white with a light blue disk on the guy's side. Since Robert was using internal effects only, the shield detected no essence coming out of him. He wished he had Amanda's pendant and tempering.
But this raw manifestation was extremely wasteful. Within seconds that felt like an hour to Robert, the surge ended and the shield went back to fully transparent. Robert's flesh was sizzling as the smell of cooked meat and burnt hairs overwhelmed his sense of smell. The dead skin flaked off as new skin grew underneath. The paralysis effect ended as the combined tempering from five affinities banished the Lightning essence from his system. Robert even directed Reconstruction to grow half an inch of hair over his scalp, along with his eyebrows and eyelashes.
A minute after the surge ended, Robert examined himself. His pants and jacket were gone, leaving only the runic armor to protect his modesty. But if the shouts of the females in attendance were any indicator, they liked what they were seeing.
He took his boar spear from the ground and slammed the flat of the blade against his opponent's head. He toppled to the side.
"We yield!" His teacher shouted.
The buzz signaled the end of the fight.
Robert turned around and walked out of the ring without saying a word.