Eight matches of variable duration made up the first round. There was great variety in the fighting styles of the single contenders, those specialising in close-quarter combat on one side, those concentrating on maintaining control of the pace of the fight instead making use of long ranged weapons on the other.

All three members of the hero’s party made short work of their opponents. Lily sent her challenger to sleep with a heavy blow inflicted with the flat side of her greatsword. The student was sent flying against the stands, impacting against the safety walls and losing consciousness upon impact.

Jonah cornered his opponent for the entire duration of the fight, with a series of well-placed arrow shots which forced the student to remain on the defensive, trying to avoid every single dart. Long range weapons were costly and inefficient, but they were certainly extremely effective against other archumans. The match ended with the opponent in a corner of the fighting ring and Jonah’s rapier poking his neck.

Isaac simply overwhelmed his challenger with a volley of slashes and lunges with his spear. They followed one after the other seamlessly, smoothly interconnected with a total absence of superfluous movements. Lily’s twin swords fighting style was beautiful to look at, but Isaac’s spear moved through the air like it was part of the gentle-blowing breeze itself.

The red-haired girl didn’t make an appearance, so my curiosity was drawn by another student who rapidly won his match. His appearance was unremarkable, with brown hair and eyes. He was quite tall, taller than Lily but shorter than Isaac. He fought using a longsword, which he used proficiently both with two hands and a single hand. His level of proficiency rivalled that of Isaac.

This last fact surprised me, as the hero’s level of martial competence should have been incredibly rare. Isaac was still relatively undeveloped, but this had nothing to do with his weapon proficiency.

It was likely that even Tobias fell a little behind him, at least strictly in terms of martial technique, although this had also to do with the fact that once you surpassed a certain level of strength there was the tendency to interrupt traditional training in favour of less orthodox fighting systems.

The rounds followed one another until we reached the semi-finals. The first match was between Lily and Jonah. The moment the referee gave the green light both contestants jumped immediately into action. Lily immediately discarded her greatsword and grasped her twin swords, while Jonah knocked an arrow.

A trail of arrows, thrown one after the other in a tight time frame, made its way towards Lily. Surrounded by her electric-like aura she ran towards Jonah while she avoided them, striking them in midair.

Jonah grimaced for every single slashed or damaged arrow. It was true that he was rich, but every single projectile cost a small fortune both in resources and labour.

Although he was simply delaying his inevitable defeat, Jonah manoeuvred remarkably around Lily, forcing her to keep her distance thanks to well-aimed shots. Eventually, Lily broke through Jonah’s barrage of arrows and the fight entered the mid-range phase. Here, Jonah’s fencing skill shone as he continually harassed her with lunges targeted at her vital areas, succeeding in keeping her at an arm’s distance and occasionally wounding her.

Every time the tip of his rapier made contact with her skin, a small purple aura bolt travelled through the blade and injected itself inside of her body. Every time this happened, Lily’s movements became more slow and clumsy. If things went on like this, Jonah could stand an actual chance at winning this.

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Unfortunately for him Lily was eventually able to close the distance between them and her sword dance rapidly overwhelmed her opponents. Less than a minute later Jonah, covered in wounds, was forced to concede defeat.

Part of the crowd loudly cheered for the winner, while another portion sent darting gazes into their direction. It was most likely a matter of clan pride, where the inhabitants of the Alpha Perimeter rejoiced for the victory of the daughter of their leader, while those of the Delta suffered for the loss of their future president.

The second semi-final was between Isaac and the unknown talented swordsman. The two entered from opposite sides and stood up facing each other about ten metres away. They raised their weapons, respectively the spear with the elongated slashing side and the longsword, and got into a fighting stance.

An untrained eye couldn’t completely appreciate the precision and effectiveness of those stances, and indeed I wasn’t capable of doing so, but I could guess they left no uncovered points or blind spots.

As soon as the match began the two bolted one against the other. Sparks flew through the air every time the weapons made contact. They immediately reached a standstill, continuously exchanging blows which were readily parried or blocked, without taking a step backwards or forward. They were in perfect equilibrium.

Most of the crowd was in awe at the display of such mastery and a good portion had expressions of utter confusion, probably due to their inability to follow with their eyes the fast exchanges. Fortunately, I was able to register everything. Had it not been so, I would have quickly grown extremely bored.

Suddenly a reddish halo rose from both the contestants. The two slightly different reds met each other and started to battle, forming a bigger halo whose movements resembled those of a flame in the wind. Their eyes shone and a pale light started to emerge from where their hearts were located. Their movements became more energetic and hits started to make contact, with wounds appearing on both of their bodies.

I frowned and almost stood up to get a better look, but in the end I was able to restrain myself. Isaac was spellcasting his “Fiery Heart”, an ability which enhanced his capabilities against strong opponents and delayed the consequences of sustained wounds and damages to his body. It was easy to recognize it, as its effects were quite apparent.

The problem was that another person was casting the exact same spell. It should have been impossible but it was happening right in front of my eyes. Not only that, the flames of the mysterious student burned brighter than those of the hero.

Soon enough he got the upper hand and started to put pressure on Isaac. The result of the match was decided once the mystery guy was able to disarm the hero. The crowd was silent, due to the power and ability shown by the two contenders during their bout.

“Another loss,” the disheartened Isaac whispered.

I couldn’t believe my ears. There was someone who apparently was capable of regularly defeating the hero. Seeing Lily getting defeated in the finals surprised me even more, not so much for her loss itself, but for how she had been defeated. The copycat aura had taken the same hue as Lily’s own one and he had replicated her spell, parrying every single one of her attacks by following her impossible trajectories and forcing her to surrender by pointing the tip of his blade to her throat.

The being in front of me was an irregularity, maybe not so much as I was, but one nonetheless. But I didn’t have the time to mull over my thoughts once I saw his head turn and point his eyes towards someone in the crowd.

I hadn’t noticed her before, as I had concentrated on the matches, but in between the crowd there was an awfully familiar person, with a notepad and pen in hand and pages full of notes. Her black hair was cut in a bob cut and a pair of glasses rested on her ears. She looked thinner than I remembered, but I immediately recognized her.

I would have taken my time to go and greet her, but unfortunately, there was no time for pleasantries, as the mystery guy threw himself in Faye’s direction, unsheathed sword in hand.