Seifr had obviously told his friends about the run-in he had had with Kohl upon entry into the academy. He had not told them anything about his feelings for Celia, so he also did not tell them about the latest taunting he had received from Kohl while observing the 4th Class spar. Thinking about that incident got Seifr's blood boiling again.

Seth looked at the grim expression on his friend's face. He understood that now was not the time to continue poking fun at his earlier matches. He reached out and gripped Seifr's shoulder and said, "This is what you've been training so hard for. Make sure that noble puke doesn't forget his place. Put him on the ground and make him bark like the dog he is again."

Seifr flexed his fists continuously as he imagined them striking Kohl in the face, repeatedly. That mental image almost brought a smile to his face, but he repressed that urge. He needed to maintain this rage. I have to channel my anger. I can't lose control like last time and set anything on fire on accident. Well, maybe I can set Kohl on fire, haha.

There was real killing intent in his eyes after he witnessed that scene of Kohl whispering intimately into Celia's ear right across from him. At first it was just a one-sided hatred from Kohl with Seifr trying to avoid another confrontation, but now Seifr was anticipating their next fight. His gaggle of geese won't be able to save him this time.

Adrenaline was pumping through his veins at an unprecedented rate. He was almost giddy and near light-headed from all of the energy coursing through his body. He could not wait, and immediately made his way to the stage where the bouts would take place.

The bleachers and the area around it were suffused with participants and spectators. Each class naturally congregated together, with some exceptions mixing with the other group. As Seifr made his way to the stage, he spotted a large group of 3rd Class cultivators to the side. Seifr immediately spotted Kohl who was already looking at him.

When their eyes locked, Kohl smirked and then tapped someone on the shoulder next to him. It was Celia. Kohl said something to her and pointed at his face. Seifr stood there with a blank mind and an expressionless face as he watched Celia roll her eyes at Kohl. Kohl said something else, and Celia leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Kohl looked back at Seifr, and in that moment he appeared to be the embodiment of evil that Seifr was born to destroy. All thoughts of friendly competition left his head. He was on a mission now, and that mission was murder. Kohl's expression turned strange as he continued to look at Seifr, and Seifr could not place what it meant. He turned and immediately entered the arena. The message was clear: Let's get this show on the road.

An instructor swiftly followed Seifr into the ring. He turned to the crowd and said, "The competition still has a few minutes before we begin, but if Seifr's opponent wants to start now, we can go ahead and get this thing moving." Kohl was already on his way over to the stage, followed by the other 3rd Class students.

At the mention of Seifr's name, Celia looked at him, smiled brightly and waved enthusiastically. Seifr's expression remained grim. A confused look appeared on Celia's face as she continued to look at Seifr. Seifr had never not smiled back at her.

Kohl jumped onto the stage and said, "I'm fine with getting started now. The sooner we get this trash swept out of the way, the better." Kohl's taunting had no effect on Seifr, but his friends to the side bristled with outrage. The crowd clearly saw that there was some strong enmity between the two, but they clearly did not know what it was.

A strange quiet came over the entire area as everyone focused on this first match. If one did not know better, one would assume from the atmosphere that this was the final match of the entire tournament, not just the first match in the second bracket. The killing intent exuded by both parties in the ring was having a palpable effect on everyone here to witness it. Hearts were racing and palms were sweating.

"Kick his ass!" Raeq yelled from the sideline. His voice shattered the strange spell that had fallen over the crowd and conversation started back up. It was still muted, as the atmosphere was still grim, but it was no longer eerily silent. A wind kicked up and blew Seifr's hair and clothes around as he stood there waiting for the match to begin.

It felt like an eternity from the moment they had faced off against each other, but only a scant few seconds had actually passed since Kohl had made his remarks. The instructor looked at each student and saw that they were ready and raised his hand high into the air as he exclaimed, "Begin!"

The first time Seifr and Kohl had a confrontation, Seifr was at the 4th Stage Common Realm and Kohl was at the 1st Stage Elementary Realm. Seifr had increased his cultivation by leaps and bounds and now stood confidently at the 5th Stage Mortal Realm with the fighting ability to contend with a Mid Stage Elementary Realm cultivator. Kohl truly was a genius, and had advanced to the 7th Stage Elementary Realm. Seifr knew that he had to maintain his calm if he was going to thrash his enemy.

Seifr and Kohl both advanced towards each other, neither one wanting to waste any time. The second bracket had a ten-minute time limit on the fights as opposed to the first bracket's five minutes. The students qualified to advance had proven that they were not just playing around, and thus were given more time to compete.

Seifr was confident in his Kung Fu, and threw out an exploratory jab. Kohl was much faster than he was the first time, and much more experienced in fighting it would appear, as he smoothly blocked the jab and flowed forward into a counter. Not only was Kohl much faster than he was before, he was much faster than Seifr had anticipated. Seifr narrowly dodged the counter strike by leaping back.

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Kohl did not allow Seifr to gain any separation and matched Seifr's retreat with a steady step forward. The two disciples exchanged a bout of lightning fast strike-counter-strike as Seifr continually backed up and Kohl matched him. The audience was amazed at the level of precision and speed both of these fighters were displaying. It was no longer just the atmosphere that made it seem like the final match, the skill of the competitors let the crowd easily imagine this was the finale.

Seifr circled around the stage fending off Kohl's advance with arms and legs alike. Seifr was nearly at his limit, and it seemed like Kohl was still increasing his pace. Seifr was frustrated that he could not seem to gain any advantage and his calm demeanor started to slip. He began to take more risks, reaching to find a chink in Kohl's defenses.

He planted his feet solidly and charged at Kohl in a desperate move to try and regain the initiative. Kohl smirked as he moved forward to grasp a hold of Seifr in a grapple. He had been training in grappling for the past several months, and Seifr had yet to learn any of it. Seifr had assumed that if he stayed out of his opponent's reach, he would be fine. Kohl had manipulated him into falling for his trap.

Kohl slammed them both into the ground while restraining Seifr. He moved his mouth next to his ear, "I'm going to hurt you now, trash. Be a good little boy and don't tap out. Who knows what would happen to little Celia if I'm unable to vent my frustration." A chill ran through Seifr's spine at the words whispered into his ear, and he redoubled his efforts to escape his enemy's hold, but there was nothing that he could do to escape.

Kohl rolled them over so that he was on top of Seifr with Seifr face down on the ground. Kohl gripped a fistful of Seifr's hair and repeatedly slammed his head into the ground. Blood sprayed out of his nose as it was crushed and out of his mouth as he involuntarily bit his tongue. The world was swimming as he was pummeled into the ground.

In a desperate move, Seifr swung his leg around to gain momentum to twist his body underneath Kohl and hook his leg around his opponent's waist. He spun his body around as he flipped so his feet were now towards Kohl's face. He lashed out with his foot and kicked Kohl square in the face. He felt a satisfying crunch as he made contact, so he decided to do it again.

Kohl latched onto Seifr's leg, preventing him from completing the kick, and then he lifted his leg up and performed an axe kick down onto Seifr's ribs. Seifr felt some of his ribs fracture and the wind was knocked out of him as he coughed up some blood.

This is not how this is supposed to happen! Seifr started to panic. He did not know how to contend with this form of fighting. The rage and feelings of helplessness started to boil over inside of him as Kohl repeatedly smashed his body. The pain added fuel to the fire as Seifr again felt that strange sensation of energy exploding inside and out of him. He shook free of Kohl's grasp and launched himself into the air to bring his fist down onto Kohl's head. Kohl dodged his head to the side as Seifr's fist punched through the stage.

Seifr's fist was momentarily stuck, but he was wild with rage and losing his sanity. He slammed his forehead repeatedly into Kohl's face, using any method available to him to bring pain to his nemesis before he could extract his arm. The two became a whirlwind of punches, elbow and knee strikes, and headbutts as they rolled around on the ground of the stage. All technique flew out the window as each of them tried to bring as much pain to the other as possible. Blood was spraying everywhere, and their clothes were covered in it.

The crowd had long since returned to that eerie silence as they watched mutual hatred come alive in front of their eyes on the stage. Nobody was cheering. They were not witnessing a competition in a tournament anymore, but a fight to the death. The instructors prepared to intervene if things devolved any further.

The energy welling up within Seifr reached a critical point and began to boil off of his skin in waves of heat. Kohl had no idea what was going on, but the sudden increase in temperature was painful. He bent his legs up underneath him and launched Seifr away from him across the stage. Seifr bellowed in rage as he landed and a portion of the stage that he came into contact with started to char and smoke.

Kohl watched this scene in front of him with some trepidation and fear. The crowd gasped when waves of Spiritual Energy gushed off of Seifr's skin and his cultivation base again plummeted from the 5th Mortal Realm to the 3rd Mortal Realm. Despite the fluctuations emanating from Seifr decreasing to a lower realm, a sense of crisis appeared in Kohl as he felt inexplicably that Seifr had actually just powered up.

The two contestants had returned to their feet and were glaring at each other. Kohl was not sure exactly what was going on anymore, but his seething hatred for this commoner welled back up and ruthlessly stamped out any momentary fear he had felt. The two charged at each other again and returned to exchanging blows at an alarming pace. It was almost a mutual agreement that they would forgo dodging, and they each just pummeled the other's body over and over.

Despite his power up from purifying the ki within his body, Seifr simply did not have enough of it as he felt his strength bleeding out of him. Kohl realized that Seifr was weakening in front of him relative to himself, and he redouble his efforts.

A fist slammed into Seifr's fractured ribs and he stumbled back. Kohl instantly latched onto this opening and again grasped the other disciple. This time, however, he did not go down with him to a grappling position. He lifted Seifr up over his head as he yelled at the top of his lungs, and body slammed him head first into the stage.

Everything went black as Seifr lost consciousness.