As Ada absolutely wrecked Tony at the end of their battle, the following series of events could only be described as a declaration-a declaration on Philip's team and everyone around them that this time it was now her show, because after that what seemed to be a hard fought against Tony, no one among them even came close to damaging her, while she displayed her overwhelming talent in magic-

"Icicle barrage x2!"

"Lightning Charge!"

And each time her magic spells would clash with her opponents, none of them would get parried or miss, she was just that much more precise than her peers, granted that she could move while attacking-

"Lightning Spark!"

"Ice Wall!"

...

But what made her wins even more exciting, was that every time she would fight her opponents, she would deliberately find creative ways to use her magic spells to take down her enemies, one of which was her using her physicality similar to the strategy of the trio earlier, but this time she was even more fluid and efficient with her body and mana usage, she didn't hold nothing back when fighting them, it was as if she was making a statement, that whatever they can do, she can do better-

"For what reason is she going this far just to prove herself? When it was very clear from the start that she was the best among their generation?" the crowd thought-

While some of them even assumed that "Maybe she was just getting bored?"

But that assumption couldn't have been more far from the truth, because there was only one reason why she was doing this, and that is, she was in fact provoking Philip, because each step that she took in battle was a clear indication of a challenge, a message that can only be understood by Philip, as it was meant for him and him alone.

After all, Ada knew that she needed to do this at least this much provocation to make him go all out, as she may or may not have gathered information about him-

"Icicle Spears!

"Lightning Spark!"

...

Thus, the seventh round came, and a very interesting challenger entered the fight, at least for Ada.

It was a very average looking guy with a very average talent, but behind him was both of his parents that he brought along with him, which was cheering for him for his most awaited match-

"Go Jamie! You can do it!!"

"We believe in you!!!"

As both of his parents yelled as he waved back at them with a proud smile on his face.

"Hahaha! Thank you mom! Thank you, my old man..." The average looking guy with similar looks to Underling Number Three muttered to himself.

It was such a light-hearted moment that it uplifted the mood of everyone and made the heart of the audience flutter, however for Ada instead of it causing a positive reaction this soured her mood, which caused her face to wrinkle and show an irritated expression.

But as if that wasn't enough, another person from the crowd cheered for the average looking guy-

"I-If I you win I'll give you a kiss on the cheeks!! Go for it Jamie!!!" A girl the same age as him yelled out those words embarrassedly while she closed her eyes.

Several veins popped out on Ada's forehead, it was clear that she was really infuriated at what just happened, her thoughts could be summed up with 'A-A perfectly normal and loving parents?! Even his soulmate at his age?!! H-How could he?!!!'

Just from seeing him alone It was as plain as day that the boy may not have been gifted anywhere else, but he was definitely lucky, and also my condolence.

'Alright, now that my mom and old man is here to support me, even Marie's dignity is at stake, I feel like I can do anything!!!' Jamie thought to himself with his eyes burning full of fervor, unaware of the looming danger that he was about to face-

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"let's have a good match Ada" Jamie greeted her with a smile before the announcer said go.

However, Ada didn't even utter a single word and was just staring at him with a murderous gaze-

"GO!!!"

"Fireball! Fire Blast!" Jamie casted his magic spell with such passion and vigor as soon as the round started.

Meanwhile, pitch-black aura emanated from Ada, as she blocked all of Jamie's magic spells without any effort even though his element counters her, there was just that much difference in the quantity and quality of mana-

"Ice Wall!" Ada casted, and a gigantic wall made of light-blue ice spawned and extinguished both the fire spells the moment it collided with it-

Whish! Whish!

Sizzle! Sizzle!

For a moment this left Jamie dumbfounded, but he quickly picked himself back up and continued on attacking-

"W-What?—Fireball! Fireball!" Jamie chanted, while still being flustered.

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However, Ada didn't even bother attacking, she just kept on blocking him, as if to show him the level he is at, that he can never hope to surpass her, she wanted to crush his hopes and dreams...

But naturally that wasn't enough to crush the spirit of this innocent boy, he just kept on trying even when nothing worked-

"Fireball! Fireball!! Fireball barrage!!!"

Even when he was hit with a third-tier magical spell from Ada which ultimately led to his defeat, he just took it smiling, happy with how the fight concluded, and hoped to improve himself so that he may be able to be her match in the future-

"Lightning Charge Barrage!"

Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!

Bzzzt! Bzzzt!

Bzzzt!

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Jamie screamed in anguish while getting electrocuted and passing out for a brief moment.

...

"I-I lost huh..." Jamie muttered to himself while laying down on the ground, sadly the power of love just wasn't enough.

But right before the next match started, a girl rushed towards where Jamie is-

"mwah..."

"B-But I lost?" Jamie said, as his eyes widened by what Marie just did but couldn't express his genuine happiness and shock (Pun intended) as his body was deep fried, literally shocked to its bones.

"It doesn't matter I was planning on kissing you anyways-Silly me!" Marie replied with a cheeky smile on her face.

Suddenly all of the crowd cheered for the couple even when her dear prince lost, this reminded the adults of their youths that they always looked back fondly at and had wished to return to, it was the moment when their love was beginning to blossom and when they had to make that one decision that led them to where they are now.

But in the end they all just smiled as to not ruin the canon event of the two love birds; it was just such a wholesome moment...

On the other hand, this only irritated Ada further and made the anger in her heart burn stronger, because she somehow felt like she was the one who actually lost, Jamie figuratively ignited the hidden beast inside her, so in the next rounds she no longer show any mercy and just bulldozed through them, up until she reached the fifteenth round.

...

At this point everybody was already filled with anticipation on what the results of this bout will be, after all there is still some money on the line here-

"Will she really be able to pull it off? Will she be able to win this all by herself?!" The crowd all thought to themselves.

Meanwhile on the other side, Philip started going down from the tree that he rested on, and as he came down and walked into the crowd that the villagers had formed, he weighed the consequences of the actions that he will soon be taking-

Firstly, if he just forfeited this match, he would surely receive a lot of backlashes from the villagers who betted on their faction, which will destroy his reputation, because he didn't even try fighting and they might even call him a coward, this option only seems to avoid the first hurdle of exerting himself, but what follows is actually more troublesome, so he crossed out the thought in his mind-

Secondly, would be to lose this match on purpose and to just show the bare minimum of his capabilities, which at the time seemed like the best option if he didn't want to be involved any longer in this charade-

But after deliberating between his options, he chose the last option, and that is to actually try and win the match, because while it may actually be more of a hassle to win, his pride wouldn't allow him to lose, she had already provoked him enough, and he was already itching for a fight.

A mark that at the end of the day no matter how mature Philip may act, with the irrational decision that he just made, he is still a child.

...

The moment they both faced off, the sun had already reached its peak, like the skies was signifying that this is it, the deciding moment on who will come out of this duel alive, in other words "It was high noon."

They walked like two warriors, gunning at each other's throat, ready to have a standoff-

"3!"

Then as if there was a musician playing somewhere, in the far-off distance the beats of a drum could be heard-

"2!"

It was then followed by the echoes of a person whistling, and to fit the occasion much better, one of them just needed to drop the line, "This town ain't big enough for the two of us."

"1!"

Then there were the banjoes strumming- ♫♪♫♪♪

And when the beat dropped, as if the crows nearby could sense that death was coming, they immediately all flew-

Flap! Flap!

"GO!!!"

"Hap!" WHOOOOSH! Philip jumped upwards in a speed that most eyes probably wont be able to keep up before lunging in forward, as to confuse his opponent on which direction he is going to attack, because if he just rushed in forward, his opponent would most likely be able to predict the trajectory from where he is going to attack by looking at his preemptive body movements.

However, as if Ada instinctively knew what Philip was going to do, she instantly casted a defensive spell to block Philip's attack-

"Earth Wall x4"

CRASH!!!

'W-What she can use the element, earth?' Philip thought while he punched the wall midair, destroying it in the process.

On the other hand, Ada's prediction was right, Philip indeed attacked her head on instead of attacking her from behind, but that wasn't the end of Philip's attack as he promptly dissapeared again, like he was able to perform the magic spell blink-

WHOOOOSH! And right after, he reappeared behind Ada in a flying kick stance.

But as his foot were only a leap away from her back, she counterattacked by using the lightning spell that she had prepared right after she casted the earth spell-

"Lightning Strike!"

Bzzzzt!

So, Philip who was about to get hit by the spell in his abdomen, was forced to manuever his body by rotating it in a 90 degrees angle sidewards, afterwards in that split second, seeing as though Ada can keep up with his movements, Philip became cautious with continuing his flying kick attack as she might've prepared another spell, so with the momentum of rotating his upper body he immediately decided to cancel his attack by twisting the joints in his foot like a spring to bounce away from her without touching any surface, only the air.

Something that Philip had learned to do while he was playing with the trio-

'I-Impossible could she actually follow my movements; this was the second time already that she managed to defend against my attacks' Philip thought, dumbfounded by what just happened.

Philip, again altered his direction while in mid-air to bounce back at her, this time attacking her flank-

Swoooosh!

But the same thing happened again, right as he was about to punch her, she had already casted a defensive ice spell.

"Ice Wall! x4" However this time, she wasn't just about to let Philip go, because as soon as his fist punched the ice wall, she resupplied it with her own mana to make it regrow, for the purpose of getting his arm stuck right where she wanted it to be, where she then conjured another lightning spell that is more advanced-

"Lightning Charge Barrage! x2!" It consisted of coagulated balls of lightning that exploded lightning sparks upon impact to completely paralyze the receiver's entire body, temporarily.

However, what she didn't expect was that Philip was actually strong enough to destroy the entire ice wall, by just pulling his arm that was stuck-

Crackle! Crackle! As the entire wall started to show some cracks, until finally, it wholly crashed in a span of not even a split second-

Crack! CRASH!!

Then as Philip got away from Ada's creative usage of attacking spells as a combo, he was caught off guard at how good she is at first and that she was still holding back, but it matters not, as he was able to confirm the thing he needed to-

'That girl, she was following me with her eyes, I saw it as soon as I was about to throw a jab, although she may not be able to move as fast me, her eyes were definitely good enough to catch up with my movements, I guess it's time to test her limits.' Philip thought of all that in a span of milliseconds...

So, Philip then continued relentlessly attacking her, going faster and faster each time he would strike, while Ada was forced to be on the defense to look for ways to counterattack.

But both of them are still not going all out, they were still feeling each other out-

'Heh! What a fun guy!' Ada thought to herself.

...