As soon as the fight began, many regretful sighs could be heard from the surrounding audience.
Had Yulana been at 100%, it may have proved to be an equal battle. Unfortunately, she was anything but.
The moment the fight began, Faye directly overwhelmed her, not giving Yulana a moment to breathe.
Yulana tried desperately to use her whip and magic to keep Faye at a distance, but the club-wielding teen was relentless. Within a minute, the match was over.
“Kannal, it’s back to you,” Mathias announced. “Would you like to continue challenging or forfeit your right?”
Although he would’ve preferred a little more time to rest, Kannal quickly leapt on stage, standing in front of Faye.
“I challenge Faye,” Kannal declared.
“Haha, come on then, brat!” Faye grinned fiendishly. “It’s been a while since this big sister of yours ruffed you up!”
Mathias quickly announced the start of the fight, and although he faired better than Yulana, Kannal also ended up losing convincingly. Still, whether it was the audience or Faye herself, they all knew that at this rate, it wouldn’t be long before Kannal surpassed the club-wielding teen.
“Alissa, you’re up next,” Mathias declared as Faye hopped off the stage. “Who would you like to challenge?”
Everyone looked at the elegant silver-haired teen curiously. It was clear that eighth place didn’t suit her current strength; the only thing they didn’t know was whether she would play it safe and challenge those above her one rank at a time or…
“Joel,” Alissa declared with a confident grin as she leapt on stage.
Even though they had half expected Alissa to jump a few ranks, no one thought she’d directly challenge Joel, who was currently fourth.
A sombre expression took shape on Joel’s handsome face. Even though he was at the Early stages of the sixth rank as both a mage and warrior, he didn’t dare underestimate the petit teen on stage awaiting him, and reality proved he was right not to underestimate her.
As soon as the fight began, glistening white fur with jet-black stripes coated Alissa’s body granting her a one-rank increase as a warrior, bringing her to the mid-stages of the sixth rank, surpassing Joel by one sub-rank.
Despite the difference being so minor, Joel understandably wanted to play it safe and keep the fight at range using lightning spells, knowing that Alissa remained a mage of the fifth rank, but the young Tigerstriped Warrior had other plans.
Despite being in the sixth rank, the speed she displayed had reached the seventh. Using Soru, her body moved like a blur allowing her to calmly evade Joel’s barrage of spells and rapidly close the gap.
As soon as the fight became a close-quarters battle, Joel quickly found himself outclassed in every possible way. Not only was she faster and stronger, like him, Alissa had also comprehended both states of wielding, the difference being in how they used it.
Although Joel could use both, Alissa was able to seamlessly go from one to the other with a graceful fluidity that her opponent couldn’t match.
“Her training with Cesar these last couple of months really paid off,” Ace sighed.
“At this rate, she should be able to fuse both states of wielding within another month or two,” Amira calmly assessed.
“True, but I wasn’t just referring to her near flawless control of ‘wielding’,” Ace said as he watched Alissa dominate with clear appreciation. “Haven’t you noticed the change in how she wields her daggers?”
Hearing that, Amira’s brows furrowed as she took a closer look at Amira’s fighting style. “Now that you mention it, each of Alissa’s strikes are a lot more…
Deadly!”
Though Alissa’s former style was still very deadly, there was a lot of wasted movement, and it lacked its current decisiveness.
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It made Joel, who was the one facing her feel a lot more pressure mentally as each strike was aimed at a vital organ.
Ace couldn’t help but think back to his former opponent – Silas. Although he wielded a single short sword, there was a distinct similarity between their current fighting styles.
What really made him look at Alissa in appreciation was that it had only been two months, and yet, the silver-haired Tigerstriped Warrior was able to use this new fighting style with such proficiency that it looked like she had been using it for years already.
He knew that Alissa’s natural talent for combat was likely the highest amongst their cohort, including himself – if he didn’t have his [Observation] to assist him – but this confirmed it.
“I give up!” Joel resigned helplessly when he felt the cold steel of Alissa’s blade against his neck.
A sigh escaped his mouth when he saw the grin on the face of his younger opponent. Since their enrolment, Joel had consistently been ranked fourth behind the three freaks that were Ace, Julius, and Amira. He knew this wouldn’t last forever as although he would be considered a genius to the rest of the world, here in the Pavilion, he was distinctly average. Still, he didn’t expect that time to come so soon.
“Alissa, as the winner, you are now ranked fourth. Therefore, you have the option to carry on challenging now or wait for your next turn to come,” Mathias announced.
As the fourth-ranked core disciple, the only people left above her were the three monsters. Although she was confident in her new abilities, the psychological shadow left by the other three wasn’t so easy to ignore.
“I’ll wait,” Alissa voiced before calmly jumping off the stage.
Next up, Faye chose to challenge the aloof bowman – Osiris. She knew that nine times out of ten, she wouldn’t be Osiris’ match, especially as he was a fifth-stage warrior and mage, but as they were limited to the stage, she felt confident. Unfortunately, Faye was destined for disappointment.
This was the first time in a long time that many of them had seen Osiris in action, and although they expected him to have grown stronger, the level of skill he displayed was still impressive.
Like the rest of his classmates, Osiris’ comprehension had grown by leaps and bounds during his time in the pavilion.
He was able to skilfully apply both concepts of wielding his arrows, forcing Faye to take each arrow seriously as with his seemingly never-ending barrage, it was sometimes hard to tell which state of wielding he applied to each arrow, and if that wasn’t impressive enough, his adept use of his darkness styled magic allowed him to layer his archery with an added layer of subterfuge.
But without a doubt, the hardest thing for Faye to deal with was Osiris’ movement.
Although it was true that stepping outside of the ring would count as disqualification, that was only if your foot hit the ground.
In her planning, she had forgotten to take into account that after reaching the fifth rank, Ace had taught all of their class how to use [Geppo] – a skill that Osiris, as an archer, was all too eager to master.
She had also learnt [Geppo] and [Soru] from Ace, but she was far from a match for her opponent in either regard. As such, she was nothing more than target practice for the dark-haired archer.
“I give up!” Faye snorted unwillingly, knowing she stood no chance.
Next up, it was Osiris’ turn to challenge, but having a cursory glance over at those ranked above him, he chose not to make any challenges.
He wasn’t like the others; he didn’t have a burning desire to get a higher rank. Plus, he also knew all those above him were substantially stronger than him.
Next up was Killian, who was now ranked sixth, with Alissa pushing them all down one rank.
“Joel,” Killian declared decisively before hopping on stage and summoning his axe from his storage ring.
As soon as the match began, other than Ace and Leonel, who had the clearest understanding of Killian’s strength, everyone else looked at him in surprise when they noticed how easily he seemed to be finding it to suppress Joel.
They were both at the early stages of the sixth rank as both a warrior and mage, but it was clear after this last year fighting against one high-level opponent after the next, constantly being put in life-or-death situations, Killian’s battle sense was a couple of levels superior.
The difference was so glaring that, despite not using a single spell, Killian was able to dominate the fight.
“I give up!” Joel sighed.
Despite seeming so at ease with it all, deep down, Joel was overwhelmed with feelings of shame.
When he was first accepted into the Pavilion, he had such high hopes for himself and his future. With his talent, he didn’t expect to find many who could match him, but between the top three monsters, he was quickly humbled. Still, in terms of strength, he was hovering near the top, but now…
Ace and Julius had long since left him in their dust. He didn’t know how strong Amira was now, but he didn’t doubt that with her talent, she wasn’t much weaker. And now, both Alissa and Killian had surpassed him. His emotions were completely understandable.
Unfortunately, he didn’t have the chance to stew in his emotions as next up to make a challenge was him.
Looking at the new top five, he had already been beaten by Killian and Alissa, he knew he didn’t stand a chance against Ace, and Julius was off-limits – not that he could beat him even if he weren’t. The only person left that he even remotely stood a chance against was Amira.
Taking a deep breath, Joel turned his attention to Amira. No words needed to be said; it was clear from the sombre expression whom he was choosing to challenge.
Amira wasn’t an idiot; she could guess how Joel was feeling at that moment. Still, she wasn’t about to go easy on him because of it. One, her pride wouldn’t let her, and two, she knew it’d only hurt Joel more winning out of pity like that.
“Ready when you are,” Amira said lightly.