“Welcome to the final event of the tournament!” Wilder exclaimed. “In this event, the remaining twenty competitors would be divided into four groups of five,” Wilder begun explaining. “Each group will face each other individually within a Magic domain, so they can go all out. The two competitors with the best scores in their group will move on.”
“So it is a battle of strength and mentality,” Averin commented after hearing the explanation.
“What do you mean?”
“All of the matches will be done in the same day. If you reach the finals, you would have already fought six times.”
“I’ll be fine,” Zane assured.
Zane checked the projection and saw that he was in group B along with the guy that got the second highest vote to win.
“Competitors, go to your assigned groups!”
Zane went to his group and moment later, they were transported to an arena that was surrounded by a dark void. Zane himself was standing in arena with another person while the remaining competitors were in the stands.
“The first match in this group will be between Zane and Winston!” a holographic copy of Wilder spoke.
Zane turned to his opponent. Winston was a bald man in his mid-twenties and wielded a spear. He had a pretty lean build and traditional tattoos covered his arms.
“Begin!” Wilder exclaimed.
Winston wasted no time and charged. His spear lit up in flames as he shot forward, aiming for Zane’s head. Unfortunately for Winston, Zane was faster. His arm turned draconic and caught the flaming spear. Zane broke the spear in half by bringing down an elbow on it before delivering a bicycle kick to Winston’s stomach.
Zane faced his opponent while crushing the tip of the spear in his hand. Winston growled and charged at him with flaming hands. “You’re going down!” Winston yelled.
In Zane’s eyes, Winston moved in slow motion. He may not have a lot of combat experience, but Averin’s training put him through hell.
This was nothing.
Zane avoided every attack with ease and snuck in quick jabs to Winston’s face with his draconic hands. He finished the fight by stabbing his claws into Winston’s chest. When he pulled out his claws, Winston fell to his knees before glitching and disappearing.
Winston reappeared in the stands. A moment later, Zane was teleported to the stands as well and two different people were now on the field.
“The next match will be between Lance and Eunice!”
Lance was the guy from the magic tower. He took off his hood to reveal white hair and good-looking face. He had red eyes and the most eye-catching thing was his snow-white skin.
His opponent was a short woman wearing a modified yukata. She had brown hair styled into a bob cut and black eyes. She also had a katana strapped to her waist.
“Begin!”
Eunice dashed towards Lance at an amazing speed, but as she was about to draw her katana, Eunice suddenly crashed hard into the ground. Right above her was a magic circle that seemed to be pushing pressure down on her.
“Gravity magic,” Averin pointed out.
“Damn...” Zane muttered.
“I surrender,” Eunice spoke, ending her match.
This time, Zane was teleported back to the arena along with the other competitor that hadn’t fought yet.
“The next watch is between Zane and Agatha!”
Agatha was a young amazonian that stood over six feet tall. Agatha was buff with arms as thick as Zane’s head. On her back was an axe that probably weighed heavier than him.
“Begin!”
Agatha squatted, then jumped. He reached about twenty meters in the air before she began falling. She raised her axe high, then slammed it down on the arena. Zane barely had time to react before an obsidian spike almost impaled him. Agatha wasn’t done though as she charged through the spikes she created, destroying them as she swung her axe around.
“What the hell?!” Zane yelled as Agatha reached him and swung her axe down on him.
Zane managed to caught the axe with his transformed hands, but the sheer power behind it made his knees buckle and the ground beneath him cracked.
“You’re strong. I respect that,” Agatha said before pulling her axe away and kicking Zane in the stomach and sending him flying across the arena.
Zane landed in a crouch. “Sorry, but there’s no lesson to learn this time,” Zane raised a hand and unleashed a dragon manifestation.
“Bring it!” Agatha raised her axe proudly and tried to strike down Dark Revel dragon.
Dark Revel dragon struck her down with a corrupted claw, ending the battle. Zane was teleported to the stands once again.
This time, the match was between Lance and Winston ended pretty much the same way as Lance’s last match. Winston was crushed by Lance’s gravity magic until he lost consciousness. They were both teleported back to the stands with Winston fully recovered and conscious.
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Unexpectedly, Zane was teleported back to the arena to face Eunice. He expected Agatha to face her, but it seemed it didn’t work that way.
“Begin!”
Eunice dashed the same way she did against Lance, but this time there was no gravity magic to stop her. She drew her sword with such speed that Zane didn’t even see it, making him react to slow and punished him with a slash to his chest.
Zane swung with his clawed hand, but Eunice had already backed away. “Might as well,” Zane raised an arm towards her.
Eunice’s eyes widened and tried to create as much distance as possible as Zane manifested Dark Revel dragon once more. The dragon raced after her, and unleashed a beam of corrupted energy as Eunice circled around the arena. Unfortunately for her, she couldn’t outrun the attack was swept up in it.
This time, it was Agatha against Lance. As the holographic copy of Wilder signaled the start of the battle, Agatha leaped towards Lance in one go. But instead of a force pushing her down, Lance reacted with magic that stopped her midair and sent her flying back across the arena.
Lance’s hand and eyes glowed a purple hue as Agatha was lifted over the arena before being slammed down. This brutal method continued for half a minute, leaving Agatha unconscious.
“Two competitors stand at three wins each. Both of them would be moving on!" The holographic Wilder announced.
The Magic domain shattered, bringing them back into the arena. Zane was immediately hit by the roaring crowd, flinching at the sheer volume of their cheers. It seemed their cheers were directed at the competitors that have yet to finish their group battles.
Looking at the score board, Zane saw that Tasha Karama stood at three wins, while Reyna who was in the same group as her stood at two wins and one lose. In another group, Sylvinia already had three wins.
In the last group, Zane was surprised to see that someone had four wins. It was a woman named Lina. Her image on the screen showed that she was wearing a white mask with red horns.
“That person isn’t human,” Averin mentioned.
“Lina? Is she an elf?”
“A monster called a Shifter. They can take the form of anyone they consumed.”
“Then the real Lina is...”
“Dead,” Averin said bluntly. “In order to take their form, the part they need to consume is the head.”
“What should we do then? I doubt anyone is going to believe us that a monster infiltrated the tournament.”
“You’ll face them soon enough,” Averin stated.
------
“Only eight competitors left! Who will win this year’s tournament?!” Wilder floated in front of a holographic projection of the images of the remaining competitors.
Wilder pointed at the center of the arena where a dome of magic energy materialized.
“An isolated magic domain has been created so our competitors could go all out in their battles. Without further ado, let the first match begin!”
The match ups were shown.
Lance vs Reyna
Sylvinia vs Danna
Tasha vs Maria
Zane vs Lina
The first match between Lance and Reyna began with Reyna dashing away to gain more distance while raining down bullets at Lance. He responded by stopping all bullets in the air, a few inches away from him. Lance attempted to shoot them back, but the bullets exploded, forcing him to create a barrier.
“Reyna attempts to gain some distance while applying pressure!” Wilder narrated. “Ooh! Lance attempts a counter attack, but Reyna added a little bang to those bullets!”
Once Reyna was far enough, she materialized a sniper and took aim. The bullet was launched with a thunderous bang. Lance created several layers of barriers, but the bullet shot through them all and shot his arm off. Reyna was aiming for his head, but it seemed the barriers altered the course of the bullet.
“Reyna materializes her main weapon and shoots off Lance’s arm!”
The crowd gasped at the sudden loss of a limb, but it didn’t seem to bother Lance as he slammed his remaining hand on the ground, creating a giant magic circle that covered the whole battlefield.
“Looks like Lance doesn’t want to go out without a fight!”
Reyna fired another shot, but to everyone’s surprise, the bullet never reached Lance and dug into the ground. Reyna’s eyes widened as she began to feel pressure pushing down on her. The moment the gravity reached her, the giant magic circle shrunk and focused right underneath her.
“What kind of magic is this?!” Wilder exclaimed as the crowd cheered.
The pressure increased dramatically, forcing Reyna to use all her mana on enhancing her body to withstand the pressure. But even that wasn’t enough as the pressure began to crush her.
“Surrender,” Lance spoke.
“Not yet you prick,” Reyna replied as she crashed into the ground.
However, in that short moment, two cannons materialized beside her and fired at Lance. Since the cannons were out of the range of the magic circle, they managed to hit their target. Lance reeled back as two cannon balls slammed into his body. Thankfully for him, before the cannon balls could tear through his body, the magic domain shattered after Reyna finally lost consciousness.
“The winner of the first round is Lance!”
The crowd cheered as Wilder announced the winner of the battle. All the damage Lance took vanished, but Reyna remained unconscious and had to be taken out of the field in a stretcher.
The next match was a lot less intense with Sylvinia facing a young woman with brown hair and wore the Albertian academy uniform. The match started with Danna firing fire balls at Sylvinia, but they were all blocked by thick roots. The battle ended shortly after dozens of roots shot out from beneath Danna and impaling her.
The next was even less flashy with Tasha just beating Maria unconscious since they were both hand-to-hand fighters and Tasha was just better.
The only thing left was the last round of the quarter finals.
Zane vs Lina.
------
Zane stood in front of his opponent. The person in front of him was a monster pretending to be human. He didn’t know what its goal was, but he needed to deal with it now.
Zane needed to expose the monster within the magic domain where he could go all out, but he needed to make sure to reveal the monster’s identity and not just obliterate it out of existence.
“The last round of the quarterfinals is between Zane and Lina! Two people that have not lost during the group battles!”
The magic domain formed around them.
“Begin!”
Lina rushed him and Zane responded charging as well. Lina showed off her flexibility by throwing attacks at strange angles, and Zane showed off his speed by avoiding every attack.
“Not a single attack has connected!” Wilder exclaimed. “Are they evenly matched?”
Lina suddenly grew claws and began lashing out. Zane now had a hard time avoiding and received several scratches before jumping back to create some distance. Lina didn’t allow that to happen though as she charged at Zane.
“Lina keeps up her pursuit, not allowing Zane to catch his breath!”
“Screw it! Might as well shot this now!” Zane his arm toward Lina.
Lina stopped her pursuit and prepared for the dragon that will come charging out. But instead of a raging black dragon, a lean humanoid figure wearing black scale armor came out of a magic circle.
Its body was covered head to toe with the black scale armor. A pair of black draconic wings stretched out from its back. An intimidating black aura shrouded its body as two purple slitted eyes peered through its sleek helm.
Zane smirked.
“Let me introduce. Ravelous, the Dark Revel dragon.”