Chapter 167.

PART 1.

The match between Vivek and Shin is the first one of the day. before the match even starts, Vivek looks at Shin disdainfully. “Your nameless ones don’t know your place. Not everyone will let you win just because they like you.”

Vivek did the same thing with Tom when he fought against him. Tom remained silent and brutalized him. but Shin is not Tom. “I suppose that is why you are the only one who has no victory to his name in this tournament? A loser like you has no right to speak with me.”

“You!” enraged, Vivek attacks with the most destructive spells he knew from the start.

Unfortunately for him, Shin has grown up around Hatori. Some simple internal transmuting spells and modified poisoned Stingers are hardly going to impress him. Vivek witnesses how easily his spells are dealt with this nameless boy, and as if to taunt him, a small vortex of fire comes his way and he ends up finding himself outside of the ring, with his body scorched and another loss to his name.

Hatori shook his head. “Some fools don’t learn.” He muttered. Raven has not come today, and Hatori is feeling a little bit lonely as a result.

James is busy with the healers, and his other two friends are sitting apart from him since they are competing against one another. In his opinion, that is uncalled for. It is not like he would try to make them admit to their strategies.

The next match is between Daphne and Avinash. The match starts, and the audience waits with bated breath for the next disaster coming their way. so far, things seem to be restricted to the ring, as they have a pretty standard spell exchange and a pattern of attack and defense emerges.

But Dimitri notes something. “Did you see that?” he asked Nandan.

“Yes. she’s moving sluggishly.” Said Nandan, seeing the rather slowed reaction of Daphne.

“Looks like she is reaching her limits.” Said Dimitri.

Daphne is trying her best to defend against Avinash’s fire spells, as she is cornered in the ring, and she has no room to maneuver anymore. one wrong step, and she will be out of the match. Avinash knows this, and as a result, he uses more offensive spells to put her out of the ring.

Once it becomes clear to him that she won’t go so easily, he hides a fire blast spell in his normal flurry, and Daphne fails to spot it. once the stars clear from her vision, she finds herself outside of the ring, sitting on the ground and seeing a loss in front of her name.

Tom and Aditya are the next pair. The duel is pretty standard. Tom wins, and Dimitri notes that he is just behind Hatori in the ranks, considering his win/loss ratio. He then remembers dealing with ratios in his younger days in his math class and regresses into trauma.

Noticing the muttering, Nandan slaps him. “Thanks for that,” he said and sat back on his chair to observe the next match.

Hatori and Josh are face-to-face. The audience judges that this duel will be intense by the stair down, and made suitable distance from the ring. The match starts, and the president prepares to fight his brute.

Josh came mentally prepared. He knows that Hatori won’t go easy on him, and he proves it in the very first exchange of spells. Josh tries to attack him with the deadly spell he has learned recently but has not used in this tournament so far. It can turn the blood into ice and can prove to be fatal if not treated on time.

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Hatori just cancels this spell, and it disappears into the whisp. “How?” Josh couldn’t help but ask.

“It was pretty easy. The structure of that spell is very simple. Even a mathematical idiot like me can cancel it.” said Hatori. “But here’s a challenge. Try to cancel this spell.”

With a wave of his staff, Hatori sends a stream of lightning to Josh. Though he did receive a small shock, Josh also managed to cancel this spell. “Please. I can manage such problems in my sleep. try something else.” Said Josh, cocky after his success.

“I already did.” Said Hatori softly.

“What?” then Josh is seized from behind, and ends up tied with the conjured chains of steel. Once solidified, this conjuration cannot be canceled like other magic.

Hatori has the other end of this chain in his hand, and Josh knows what is coming next. He tries to wiggle, do something with his foci to defend himself, or extract himself from these chains, but he can’t move at all, and he is helpless to defend against the current streamed in the chains by Hatori.

The yantra declares Hatori the winner after it is clear that Josh is unable to extract himself from these chains and is delirious from all the shocks he has received. Once he comes to his senses, Josh stares at the word “loss” in front of his name. his win/loss record is in tatters. He must do something rather quick if he does wish to be a main member of the team.

‘But at this rate, it seems it would be a miracle if I even qualify as a substitute.’ He thinks dejectedly.

Praduman faces Ranveer. Though he won the match, he is not satisfied with this victory. ‘I must do better than this.’ He thought to himself.

This tournament has not been easy for him. he once thought himself to be the strongest student of his batch, but he has been proven wrong time and time again during this entire tournament.

Ravina is facing Yatharth. They start the match, as Ravina defends against the spells of Yatharth coming at her in the form of arrows. She continued to defend until she thought that he had no way to pierce her defense. Once she is certain of that, Ravina attacks.

But Yatharth retaliates, as his arrow splits into multiple ones, and all of them are different spells. Ravina is unable to defend against this onslaught. She takes a lot of damage, and Yatharth is preparing another arrow like that.

But before he can fire it, he is stunned by a spell of Ravina and is knocked out. ‘The important thing is, I won.’ She thinks to herself. ‘Nothing else matters.’

Hatori looks around as he leaves with other competitors. There aren’t many opponents left for him. he is looking forward to facing Avinash. While others are suffering from the effects of this tournament, Hatori is still feeling fine. His recovery runes are working well, and his tough training under Zeko has also helped him.

‘Master will be pleased once I tell him of my success.’ he thinks. ‘Though once this tournament is over, I’ll go and take a long nap in the room of frozen time.’