As the tournament kept progressing more and more people began feeling worn down and hurt, some were even experiencing mana deficiency. They had a decent amount of time at the beginning of the tournament to recover themselves but as more people got eliminated, so did their recovery time.

The guides had made it clear to multiple teens who were complaining that they wouldn’t heal them or allow them to delay their matches. They said it was also apart of the rankings, it showed who had the most grit and determination to make it to the end.

“This is ridiculous.” A teen said, while multiple others nodded their heads in response.

The majority of people left now were ones who had decent backgrounds or backing, most commoners had been eliminated and would receive low rankings in school.

“That guy still looks normal, how is he okay?” Said a teen who was glancing at Dante.

“His matches don’t seem to last long so I bet he’s surprising his opponent everytime.” Another speculated.

Dante wasn’t fazed by any of this and just kept to himself, until a blonde teen walked up to him.

He was incredibly buff and stood at over 6 feet tall, for his age he was absolutely massive. His hair was blonde and buzz cut short giving him an image of a military man.

“Reiner, you?” He asked Dante while holding his hand out to shake.

“Dante.” Dante gripped his hand and noticed that Reiner was trying to apply pressure.

As Dante started squeezing he noticed that Reiner wasn’t actually losing out too much compared to him, multiple seconds of silence passed while they shook hands before Reiner was the first to pull his hand away.

“I knew you were different.” He sat down next to Dante and looked at the locker room around them, almost everyone in their respective room had been eliminated except for around ten.

“They should be reformatting the tournament after this next round or two.” Reiner said absentmindedly.

“Makes sense.” Dante didn’t bother looking up and just had his eyes closed.

“You don’t talk much do you? I don’t mind but everyone here finds you unapproachable.” Reiner laughed lightly.

“At least I HAD peace and quiet.” Dante said somewhat jokingly.

“Hahaha you don’t beat around the bush do ya? I respect that, not many people can act like this around me because of me being the heir to the Reinhardt dukedom.” As time went on Reiner kept talking and talking, Dante had found himself listening occasionally but for the most part just tuned out the guy. Reiner seemed well learned and mannered, which is to be expected from someone in a high ranking family.

Even Dante found himself not completely hating his existence which was surprising, Reiner was clearly a very charismatic man. Dante on the other hand had always been a loner, growing up in the slums had taught him to not show weakness and trust none. But as his time in Aevis grew, that strict mindset of his was slowly breaking down. Aiko was the first person whom he considered a friend and could tolerate, which was already an improvement from his past life. Second now was Reiner and Dante actually took a liking to the guy, yeah he talked a lot but clearly he could back himself up in a fight since he’s made it this long.

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“94.”

“Well that’s me, don’t get lonely.” Reiner jested at Dante before walking off.

Back outside Yuna was curious to why Duke Reinhardt would so easily accept a bet, so obviously she had see what teen was his.

“Oh? Not bad.” Yuna said as she spotted Reiner making his way to his arena.

He was carrying a tower shield as his weapon which drew glances from people who weren’t familiar with him, but his body clearly had the capabilities to make use of it.

“Begin.” As soon as the judge signaled the start Reiner slammed his shield into the ground and awaited whatever assault would come his way.

His opponent was another magician who was firing off fireballs at him but to no avail, he couldn’t land a solid shot because his shield encompassed basically his entire body.

Even at times when he could burn Reiner from the heat or land a hit, Reiner would immediately correct his posture to not allow it to happen again and quickly regenerate.

Reiners father had taught him how to Tank, which basically meant in a duel he was a complete nightmare. His body had an uncanny regenerative ability that made him not need a healer for the most part, so he could be offensive if he wished. But during this tournament he had made sure not to underestimate his opponents, hence why he waited to see what they were capable of before promptly dismantling them.

Reiner started walking forward while deflecting every fireball shot at him before finally pulling his arm back and punching the mage he was against. The punch wasn’t lethal so the teen was sent flying to the side, but he got back up and tried to switch things up. He began trying to increase the temperature around them to exhaust Reiner but that also failed miserably. Sure a regenerative body was great, but getting paired with an inhuman amount of stamina was unfair.

Reiner kept going forward like nothing was affecting before finally raising his shield to crush his opponent, right before it landed a blue barrier erected that ended the match.

Yuna was inwardly impressed with Reiner’s showing, he showed great promise. He seemed very calculating and careful, but this meant nothing in front of her monstrous son.

“What do you think?” Duke Reinhardt said. He had noticed Yuna was eyeing his son and was curious if she thought hers would still win.

“He’s definitely talented to say the least, but being talented isn’t enough to beat my son.”

“I guess we’ll see when the format changes, I don’t think there’s anyone here who could overcome my son.” The Duke treated his son like a golden goose, he had all the makings of a great leader.

Yuna merely shrugged in response before seeing Aiko send another teen flying against the wall in her arena.

“I think she could give your son a good thrashing.” Yuna said.

“Possibly, that would be a disadvantageous matchup but I doubt it’ll come to fruition. That girl is clearly on her last legs, she won’t have enough mana to make it much farther.” Duke Reinhardt was impressed with this year's outcome so far, many teens without backgrounds had made it much farther than he thought they would.

Most of the time the entire tournament was dominated by nobles and sponsored teens, but a handful in this tournament seemingly appeared out of nowhere with amazing talent.

Suddenly an announcement echoed throughout the coliseum.

“From this point on we will be reformatting the tournament, we’ve discussed performances so far and assigned seeds to all participants.” The voice belonged to Aaron the vice headmaster.

“May the best son win.” Yuna winked at Reinhardt before walking away.