Ajax watched the result of the match with surprise, he had quickly managed to figure out that Anna had bet everything on this being a short match. Her armor basically ate chunks of itself in order to provide a shield. Not only was such craftsmanship not cheap but even the metal that it was created from was nothing to sneeze at, she probably spent at least two hundred gold just winning this single match.

But while Anna’s defense had made perfect sense her offense had not. Ajax couldn’t get his head around how someone lower than level thirty like her had managed to launch a single spell strong enough to even harm him.

“What do you think ladies and gentlemen?” The announcer tried his hardest to take the spotlight from Anna but wasn’t having much success. “Was that [Delayed Release] or a combination of [Gap Casting] and [Overinflate].”

Of the three skills Ajax only knew about [Overinflate], a Rare chanting skill that allows mages to supercharge weaker spells by repeating the chant over and over and pumping the spells with more mana. The issue was that Anna wasn’t stuck casting fire pillar ten times to get that result, she had been constantly throwing out one fireball after another.

[Gap Casting] and [Delayed Release] are pretty self explanatory from the context that the announcer made. [Gap Casting] allows one to pause on chant and pick in later, unknown to Ajax this is an Epic skill much like the other possible culprit [Delayed Release], allowing a mage to set a timer after which an already cast spell goes off.

Going just by what he had been able to feel the moment the attack was released Ajax was pretty sure Anna had gone with the combination of [Gap Casting] and [Overinflate], as he hadn’t felt multiple small spells join together but a single big blast being released all at once.

“Annabeth Goldmancer is the first Champion for this year’s tournaments.” the announcer shouted. “Join me in congratulating the young Lady for her hard work, dedication and cunning.”

Ajax wholeheartedly joined in, much to the surprise of a few lower nobles who were watching him for a negative reaction. To them Annabeth’s armor strategy was similar enough to the crossbow strategy that had been used on Tom.

Ajax however didn’t see it that way. First of all the expensive piece of gear was defensive only, secondly it had a short shelf life with chunks of the armor corroding away to create a defense, and finally she had forgone wearing any other type of enchanted armor, had Lexi managed to prolong the match she might have ended with not only and advantage in spell flexibility but even damage from her own armor amplification.

With that Ajax made his own way down from the stands and went over to congratulate both of the finalists. He wasn’t surprised to see just how quickly Lexi was back to her joyous hyper self skipping around the group, that was just how she showed herself. Ajax did however manage to pick up on a few tells that showed she was a little disheartened at the loss, afterall he had spent almost an entire year around her and his Perception was high enough to pick up on it.

Ajax didn’t stick around for long after the fight however. Unlike the rest of his classmates the tournament wasn’t over for him, he still had both the semi-finals and finals left. On top of all that there was also the deal that archduke Goldmancer had offered him, Ajax was going to take that straight to Judy, Alana, his mother as well as his grandparents. He knew that a good deal could be reached, he just had to make sure he wasn’t the one representing his house and that the archduke wasn’t who any of them had to haggle against.

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Later that night Ajax house was filled by multiple voices as five people surrounded the main table, unlike the usual food that was served on the table however it was entirely covered in scrolls and maps.

“I still think they are fishing for something, otherwise giving us a long term profit share seems a little too good.” Alana said.

“I’m not saying they’re not, the only problem is I can’t see what it is they are angling to get. So either they think we have something we don’t, in which case we get the better end of the deal.” Elija responded. “Or we really are in possession of a valuable technique and we’re not aware of it, who's to say we can’t also make use of it later after we see what they get up to?”

“How do you get the bees to stay in the hives?” Tom asked as he sat on the bench outside watching Ajax and Fluffy spar.

“Simple, they have a hive mind.” Ajax answers.

“What does that mean?” Tom asked.

“There are multiple different types of bees that make up hive.” Ajax explained.

“What does that matter?” Tom still wasn’t convinced.

“One of them is unique, there is only one like it in the entire hive, not only that but it rules over the rest of the hive, a queen.” Ajax said. “The whole trick is to catch that one in a small cage and relocate her in the wooden hive. From there the rest of the bees will move in on their own.”

Despite Tom’s initial instinct to say that it can’t really be just that simple, he did remember just how some other types of insect based monsters have an alpha that they never challenge and even sacrifice themselves for.

“MREOW!” Fluffy joined the conversation loudly as Ajax had managed to somehow get him from the side and performed an underpowered yet extremely satisfying suplex on the unsuspecting feline.

“That should be enough for today.” Ajax announced as he made his way to bed knowing that he had a match tomorrow.

Standing across from Ajax in the arena the next morning was last year's champion, come back to defend his title as is tradition for the last champion of the 6th year tournament so long as he is young enough to qualify for the event.

For the first time in the entire tournament Ajax’s opening charge wasn;t enough to outright win him the match. Ajax hadn’t gone for a bow shot opening and he complimented himself on that decision once he saw what was in store for him. His opponent managed to parry away his sword and still withstood the lightning enhancement that coursed through their body to intercept the axe with the shield.

Despite the opening attack not ending the match outright, that isn’t to say that Ajax’s attack was worthless. The perfect block had still transmitted enough momentum to fly his opponent clean off his feet and toss him into a hard landing.

Just because his opponent was down however didn’t mean that Ajax was going to give him a chance to get back up, following the heavy blow by pulling out his trusty bow and letting an arrow fly. A bright flash covered the arena as the former champion’s medallion cracked and shattered while producing a barrier that managed to block the arrow.

Having survived the arrow, the former champion had been quick to go back to offense, throwing lightning and ice spells alike. Ajax was paying very much attention to the lightning spells. Just because his stats were higher didn’t mean that an electric shock wouldn’t hurt him.

The round went downhill from that point fairly quickling. Now that Ajax had actually seen how he plans to fight getting inside the man's guard was rather easy. Pulling a trick out of Lexi book Ajax had used shows to grasp at the man.

Despite his shadow not being strong enough to restrict his opponents movement fully all Ajax needed was a moment before he rested his axe on his opponent's shoulder with the blade digging into his flesh.

“And we have our first finalist for the 6th year tournament.” the announcer yells out, he had figured it out pretty quick that he simply didn’t have time to comment on Ajax’s fights before the fight was over. “The final will be held four days from now once the rest of the tournaments have also concluded. And don’t forget to come tomorrow to see who Ajax will be facing for the title!”