While Aria and Landon were fighting, Amara readied the spells she would need. She first cast her danger sense spell and got her mana-sensing active. She also cast her lightning enhancement and created five red disks and had them orbit her. While Amara was adding the finishing touches, she saw Landon walk through the tunnel with his head down.

“I’m sorry it didn’t turn out well for you, hopefully, you can do better next year,” Amara said.

“Yeah, hopefully. Can you beat Aria for me?” Landon asked.

“Sure thing, you can count on me,” Amara answered

“Now, let’s move on to the final match of round one! Amara from Stonehaven versus Lysandra from Fairville!” Corvus shouted at the top of his lungs. The audience cheered as both contestants walked onto the field. Amara was covered in blue electricity and Lysandra was surrounded by a ring of water.

“Are both contestants ready?” Arinthea asked. Amara and Lysandra nodded in unison.

“Then let’s begin!” Arinthea shouted.

Lysandra raised a dome of water around herself and hurled a spear of water at Amara. Amara side-stepped the attack and backed up, analyzing her opponent. Amara’s divination magic told her that Lysandra had considerably greater mana reserves and that she also possessed more raw power than Amara. Lysandra fired several blasts of water at Amara. Amara ran around the arena's edge while dodging all the blasts. She could feel that the water was still suffused with Lysandra’s mana even after hitting a target.

Amara fired her red disks at Lysandra, intercepting her next barrage of projectiles. Using the lapse, Amara ran forwards, electricity arcing from her legs as she closed the distance. Lysandra hurled another spear of water at Amara. As Amara dodged right, Lysandra's dome collapsed, and the spear morphed into chains that bound Amara. Amara fell to the ground and Lysandra created another spear of water.

Amara generated a short-lived but large burst of lightning, destroying the chains and freeing her. However, she was slammed in the chest right by Lysandra’s spear and thrown to the other side of the arena. A bit dazed, Amara slowly began to stand up while clutching her stomach.

“You’re pretty tough, but let’s see how much longer you can hold on,” Lysandra said. Amara barely had time to dodge as Lysandra fired two more spears in rapid secession. By this point, Lysandra had abandoned her dome of water, favoring an onslaught of long-range projectiles.

“Long enough to win,” Amara said, firing five red disks at Lysandra, which were swiftly blocked by a wall of water which was then turned into a spear aimed at Amara. Amara tried a few more attacks which were met with similar responses. In response to her predicament, Amara began casting divination spells. She found that Lysandra had spent a large amount of mana, but still had plenty left. She also saw that Lysandra’s attacks were leaving mana-infused water all over the arena and in the ground. Amara turned to analyze Lysandra’s water magic. After narrowly dodging a few more attacks, Amara formulated a plan to deal with Lysandra.

Amara flared her enhancement magic while dissolving unnecessary spells like her danger sense. Blue lighting emanated from all over her body. Amara once again ran around the edge of the arena and created two spears. One of them was imbued with a freezing alteration spell, and the other with an electrocuting alteration spell.

Once the spears were completed, Amara poured what little remaining mana she had into firing a volley of disks at Lysanda while Amara closed the distance. Lysandra responded with several jets of water to intercept them. Lysandra fired another spear at Amara which Amara dodged before firing her own spears. Lysandra raised a wall of water to block the strike with her right arm and made another gesture with her left. Amara dodged too late as water crashed into her like a geyser from beneath her feet. The blow left Amara gasping her breath on the ground.

“Gotcha!” Amara shouted. Simultaneously, Amara’s first spear crashed into Lysandra’s wall, freezing it while the second one smashed through and slammed into Lysandra. The spear delivered a powerful shock to Lysandra and she collapsed to the ground. Amara rose from the ground and made one last charge before Lysandra could get up. Lysandra sent a massive wave of water at Amara. Amara dodged the wave and used all of the electricity from her enhancements to knock Lysandra unconscious. The crowd raced with excitement while Thomas dashed towards Lysandra.

“And that’s it for round one, now we’ll begin round two in an hour with our first match being between Amara and Aria. In the meantime, Corvus and I will be discussing the performance of the candidates so far,” Arinthea said.

Amara walked off the arena and made began searching for her friends. Luckily, they weren’t that difficult to find.

“That was a really close match, Amara, you can’t scare us like that,” Riven said.

“Don’t worry, I won’t give you even the slightest doubt that I will lose to Aria,” Amara said.

“Good, you have to avenge Landon after all,” Elora said.

“Thank you,” Landon said.

“And if you don’t win, then I will have to beat Aria myself,” Elora boasted.

“Only if you beat me,” Riven said.

“But I will beat you, so it’s not a problem,” Elora said.

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“Very cocky,” Riven replied.

“Because I’m right,” Elora said.

“That’s all well and good, but I think you three should prepare for your matches,” Landon said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll beat Aria. But I guess I should get started on forming countermeasures,” Amara said.

“Got any ideas yet?” Riven asked.

“During the match, I thought I could pierce her shadows with an all-out attack, but I don’t have enough raw power for that,” Amara said.

“Can you use alteration magic like you did against Lysandra?” Landon asked.

“Probably not, Arinthea didn’t teach me how to use alteration magic on shadows. Though I might be able to if I can analyze it for long enough,”

“She won’t let you,” Elora said.

“She gave me the time to cast my strongest spell, so it is possible,” Landon said.

“But an alteration spell could actually work, unlike sheer power, no offense Landon. I doubt she would let you unleash your strongest attack if it could actually work,” Riven interjected.

“Do you think she has good range, because not once in my fight did she launch an attack, only blocking,” Landon said.

“That might be it! She has horrible range and mobility, so she has to let her opponents tire out,” Amara said.

“Yeah, but my divination spells were struggling to get a proper read on her. But I could tell that she had a lot more mana than me and that she didn’t use a lot of it during the fight,” Landon said.

“You might just want to leave this fight to me after I beat Riven,” Elora said.

“Never, I will beat Aria myself,” Amara said.

“Good and you won’t beat me, Elora,” Riven said.

“You wish,” Elora said.

“Either way, I might have a plan that could work,” Amara said.

“What is it?” Landon asked.

“A surprise attack right after she drops her guard or from an angle she isn’t guarding, but it requires that I get close,” Amara said.

“Great, well let’s leave you to it,” Riven said. Elora, Landon, and Riven then left Amara to finish her planning. Neither Arinthea nor Veil taught her how to deal with shadow magic, but Amara had a few ideas on how to break through. So right before the fight, she readied her divination spells and her lightning enchantment. She didn’t think Aria would be able to hit her, but she didn’t want to risk everything on Aria’s not having good range. By the time her match was about to begin, Amara was ready and waiting in the tunnel.

“It’s time to start round two of the Mage Tournament with Amara from Stonehaven versus Aria from Silvercrest. Both mages showed an impressive display in the first round, so let’s see them amaze us again!” Arinthea shouted to the cheering crowd. Amara walked into the arena covered in blue electricity and Aria simply walked in.

“Now let’s begin!” Arinthea shouted.

Amara fired a red disk at Aria which was swiftly blocked by a wall of shadow. Amara followed up with a blast of lightning at Aria. The lightning collided with the shadowy wall, and a slight hole emerged in the wall.

“That’s interesting,” Amara said.

“This has become a bit more of a pain,” Aria said.

“Good, I look forward to defeating you,” Amara said. Amara launched more lightning bolts at Aria. Aria raised a shield of shadows to protect her, and the lightning bolts harmlessly crashed into the shield.

“I thought it was going to be harder to block that. I overestimated you, Amara,” Aria said. Aria began slowly walking closer to Amara with a smirk on her face. Amara backed up and launched a few lightning bolts and red disks at Aria. The attacks were easily blocked and Aria continued her advance.

Amara tried to read Aria with her divination magic but found that her spells were unable to get clear results. The thought dawned on Amara that Aria was using illusions and wards to interfere with her divination magic. Wards explained why her defense was so powerful but also briefly vulnerable to lightning magic but not fire magic. While illusion magic was concerning if Aria had long-range attacks or a way to close the distance.

“You can’t keep running from me Amara, you’ll have to get close eventually or I will die of boredom,” Aria said. She was right as well, Amara had to get close in order to break Aria’s defenses. However, she needed a bit more information.

She cast some more divination spells and fired lightning bolts, red disks, and rocks. She also ignited a wooden stake, amplified the fire, and threw the fire at Aria. Aria blocked the lightning bolts, disks, and rocks with a wall of shadow before dispersing it and creating a new wall to block the flames.

“I must admit that his fight is more interesting than my previous fight, continue to entertain me,” Aria said.

“I will,” Amara replied. Amara was finally ready to launch her finishing blow on Aria. She poured her mana into her divination magic and legs before readying her alteration magic. Amara sprinted toward Aria closing the distance in the blink of an eye.

“You finally entered my range!” Aria shouted. A swarm of shadowy tendrils emerged and reached for Amara. She dodged the first few before being grappled and subdued. However, she was able to unleash her alteration magic, unleashing a lightning spell and a fire spell against Aria simultaneously.

Aria covered herself in a veil of shadows in a futile attempt to stop Amara’s attacks. Aria blocked the fire magic, but the lightning tore through her veil effortlessly. Aria dropped to the ground and the shadows restraining Amara faded.

“Looks like your wards can’t protect against fire and lightning simultaneously,” Amara said while charging toward Aria, hands infused with both fire and lightning spells.

“I can’t believe you’re forcing me to use a trump card,” Aria said. Her eyes began to glow a dark black and Amara sensed a surge in Aria’s mana. Four duplicates of Aria emerged around Amara, surrounding her.

Amara tried to continue her assault but found herself tied up in the attacks of the duplicates. She tried to burn and electrocute the shadows, but the usage of duplicates allowed for the shadows to be protected from both fire and lightning. Amara soon found herself unable to move in and out of options.

“I win, though I can’t believe you forced me to use my manifestation,” Aria said.

“The winner of the first match of round two is Aria. This was a splendid display of power and skill from the two mages with clever strategies from both contestants!” Arinthea shouted.