The mood in the front row changed immediately. The others stared at Ryan, who was shouting to the crowds on the arena floor.

It was hard to believe what had happened. The turnaround had come too suddenly.

Blaine had looked in control in those final moments. The fact that Ryan had managed to turn it around shocked everyone.

It took quite some time before everyone was back in their seats. The announcer soon came out to introduce the following two fighters. One of which was a familiar face. Rosalia had also managed to make it to the quarter-finals.

Her opponent was another Light Type. A sword was his only weapon.

Far more Light Types had bonded in the higher ranks than usual, with only a few Heavy Type C-Rankers appearing. That meant that quite a few of the finalists were Light Types. However, even amongst them, there was a hierarchy.

Rosalia's opponent shifted nervously in front of her.

I had managed to see a few of his matches before. The announcer had said his name was Dominic Woodward. He had been quite skilled. But nothing compared to the performance Rosalia had shown.

In every other fight, he had seemed quite confident. In front of Rosalia, I could see none of that bravado.

As soon as the fight began, Rosalia went on the offensive. Striking immediately at Dominic. Who was already beginning to retreat. His single sword was all about offence. His attempts at parrying her blade were successful only because Rosalia let them be.

She kept his sword busy with one of her blades while the other attacked his armour. While her weapons hadn't done much damage to a Heavy Types shield. They managed to tear through the Light Type armour with ease.

Dominic tried to avoid her attacks, but her speed was too much. Dominic was a strength-focused Light Type, and if any of his attacks were to hit Rosalia, they would be devastating.

Unfortunately for him, she was proving to be the fastest in the entire year and giving him no chance to retaliate as she continued to cut into him.

The fight continued for some time while Rosalia dealt a lot of damage. It wasn't enough to take Dominic out of the battle completely.

He had attempted a few attacks, but none had come close to hitting Rosalia.

She managed to dance away at the last moment, usually scoring a vicious blow in return.

It was clear that Dominic started to become frustrated and began to go on the offence. Making Rosalia keep her distance by using wild and random swings. Any skill he had shown before was thrown away in favour of mindless attacks.

It was enough to give him a little breathing room as one of his blows managed to strike Rosalia on the arm. It wasn't enough to cripple the limb, but she became far more cautious moving around him after that.

Once again, the end of the fight came too quickly for many to react.

Dominic went for a wild swing again, this time overextending too much.

Rosalia danced underneath the swing, her blades slashing straight into his torso.

The arena called the match to a halt with Rosalia the victor.

That brought up the mood of the others in the front row. Blaine had joined us during the fight, looking more than a little unhappy. I could understand why. I hadn't seen him use his skill in the sparring the day before. So, I wasn't sure if he was trying to hide it from the others.

I imagine he had more than expected it to be enough for him to turn the tides of battle, and in most cases, it would have been. Unfortunately, his opponent had been a little too tough.

Rosalia's victory didn't do much to improve his mood. He clapped a little, but other than that, he kept quiet.

That starkly contrasted with how Georgia was celebrating a few rows behind us. She had loudly congratulated Ryan since he returned from the arena floor.

I could understand why she wanted to do it now. After all, once the semi-finals started, she wouldn't be able to talk to him till he won or lost it all.

The rest of the Quarter Finals passed quickly. Ivan was quick to defeat his opponent. Another person he knew personally. As such, he finished the opponent off without any fanfare.

The final person to reach the Semi-finals was Lyra Collins, another Light Type who wielded a spear.

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Her battle had been close, but her added reach had given her the win. I had thought spears were a rare enough weapon, only a few appearing each year. Our year was once again an outlier.

She had also been sitting behind me for the last few days. The fact I hadn't noticed her fighting up until this point was surprising.

With that, the Quarter Finals for the first years were over. It had been an exciting round by all accounts, and even the Upper years seemed impressed with the quality of matches.

I was a little nervous about the lineup of the semi-finals. There was little doubt in the other New Types minds that Ivan would come out on top for the year.

Both Rosalia and Lyra had fought with Ivan several times already this year. Both with and without their weapons. To not much success. It was only Ryan who was the wild card.

But if he were to win, then I didn't want to imagine the mood of the others. I had already been told in no uncertain terms that I would be joining them in sparring every night I could from now on. They wouldn't let my lack of skills show them in a bad light.

If Ivan were to lose, I wouldn't have an enjoyable evening.

Ryan and Rosalia were called down to join the others on the arena floor. It would be there that the match-ups would be decided.

The Semi-finals were quick to start and distracted me from my thoughts.

Everybody waited with bated breath for the first combatants to appear.

The announcer once again took to the centre stage.

"What an exciting quarter-finals. I can only hope for the same in the semi-finals. I will now introduce the first fight. On one side, we have the final Heavy Type Ryan Steele. On the other, we have the spear-wielding Light Type Lyra Collins. Let the first battle of the first year's semi-finals commence."

I felt the world stop around me slightly as I heard his name. While I knew the Steele name wasn't powerful in the Capital. I had seen it before. Another surname on my parent's list. My parents had not trusted someone in his family, and I had no idea why.

Now, I wasn't sure how to feel about Ryan and Ivan not facing each other in the semi-finals. While Lyra was skilled, unless she had been hiding a powerful skill. There was little doubt in anyone's mind about the fight's outcome. Ryan's Frenzy was too powerful a skill at C-rank for anyone to be able to stop it.

With the others' confidence in Ivan, it seemed that they would be facing each other in the end.

It seemed that Lyra didn't want to make it an easy fight. As soon as the fight began, she was in front of Ryan. Using her superior reach to try and deal some damage.

While Ryan's defence was low for a Heavy Type, his armour was still far thicker than any Light Type.

Her prodding didn't do much but annoy the large man. Ryan was better at keeping his cool this time around. The close victory over Blaine had tempered his impatience somewhat.

He was being far more careful facing Lyra and letting her lead the flow of the fight. He didn't take any risks with oppressive blows.

It was clear that Lyra was the one who was a little more impatient. Her speed nearly rivalled Rosalia's as she moved around the arena. I would have liked to see a fight between those two more than what was currently going on.

Ryan had the trump card, after all. No matter what Lyra tried to do, it was clear that Ryan's rare skill was holding her back from going all out.

While many Light Type skills dealt a large amount of damage, few stopped damage. Even if she were holding back a skill, it would be closer to mutual destruction.

With any other Heavy Type, she would have the reach not to worry about using such a skill. Ryan's hammer and massive size allowed him to extend at any moment and strike back. Even a light blow from him would deal a similar amount of damage to her enhanced attack.

That was if she had a skill at all. She had shown no signs of having developed anything in her fight to reach the semi-finals. A fight that had been as close as Ryans, only with a less dramatic conclusion.

It seemed Ryan had come to a similar thought after he managed to strike a slight blow with the back of his hammer. Even that was enough to cause damage to Lyra.

I had expected him to use Frenzy, but it seemed he didn't think it was necessary. He simply rushed towards Lyra.

Upon seeing the massive figure looming over her, she began to panic slightly.

She tried to move back, but even without Frenzy, Ryan had surprising speed for a Heavy Type. He was on her in an instant, his Warhammer moving with fury. She tried to block his attack with her spear. But it was far from enough to do so.

His strength was too much, pushing past her meagre defences and hitting her body with the full force of his hammer.

She crumpled into the ground. However, the arena hadn't called off the fight, and she tried to return to her feet. That was when a brutal hammer smashed right into the side of her head. Ending the fight for good.

There was a massive roar from the crowd at the brutality of the finish. Most more than a little appreciative of the final blow.

The others around me had stony faces as they looked down into the arena. A wildcard would be in the final. With Ryan showing such power, no one could be sure of the outcome.

I could hear Georgia's cheers from behind me. Her loud voice overpowering most of the surrounding cheers once again.

As much as I wanted to turn around and see how they were reacting, I knew that my seatmates wouldn't be too happy with that behaviour. Arthur hadn't been happy that I knew Ryan already, even if it had been only a brief meeting.

While the Steele name meant something to me, it only reinforced the other's belief that he was a nobody. The whispers around me corroborated as much. They weren't happy that someone they didn't know had made it this far.

The cheers quickly died down as the announcer went to the stage again.

Whatever he was about to say was stopped as Ivan took to the stage. There was another massive cheer as the crowd caught sight of his golden armour.

It was a very different reaction than to any other person. It took a few moments for the crowd to calm down and for the announcer to begin.

There was another roar when he announced Ivan's name. It was clear to everybody who the crowd favourite was.

That was for a good reason, as even with Rosalia's speed. There was little she could do against Ivan.

He hadn't even needed to use any of his Commander Type skills to defeat her. Overwhelming martial skill was enough to get the job done.

He once again finished the fight quickly. He was not playing or taking his time. He clearly respected Rosalia's power, as he was careful throughout the fight. He was not letting her get close enough to deal any damage with her blades. There were a few moments when it looked like she had scored a blow. But even with those few blows.

It wasn't enough for her to triumph.

aThe final fight for the first years had been decided.

Ryan would be facing the lone Commander of the year.