The time had almost come. I was just an hour or so away from the start of the tournament. Persia, Rai and I registered ourselves two weeks ago as soon as we could, but we weren't the only first years to do so.

  Arg Lehosa and Gela Sorr would also be participating in it. Five first years, twelve second year students, and fifteen third years made up the thirty-two total participants.

  Apparently, there had never been this many first year participants in any of the previous Brawl of Glory tournaments, the most before this was only two.

  The match ups had already been decided, and had been posted up.

  The only way for me to fight Misen Ragiu was to win the first three rounds, in other words I had to make it all the way to the semi-final round. And there were some obstacles.

  Namely, those students that were collectively known as The Big Five were the main problem. See, second and third year students are allowed to issue challenges for one-on-one duels, and the Academy used the results of these duels to rank the students. It wasn't necessary to have a high rank in this system to graduate, it was more like an extracurricular bonus, graduating with a high rank was kinda like saying you were a prefect in highschool, it's not compulsory but it does make you look better.

  At the moment, the students who were currently occupying the top five spots in this system were way ahead of the rest, and were referred to by the other students as The Big Five.

  The ranks at 6th and below were constantly changing, but the top five had been unchanged for over a month now. Four of them were third years, and one was a second year. First years weren't yet allowed to duel, that'd be available to us by the last couple of months of our first year.

  Misen Ragiu was currently in second place, he'd been at fourth back when he attacked us the first time we met.

  In first was a guy with Fire Magic called Ekai Zabel, he was rumored to be powerful enough to take on S-Ranked Adventurers. In third was a Water Magic user, a guy named Siert Huet. Fourth was a girl named Fuo Wesroh, also a Water type.

  And in fifth was the second year student, a girl with Earth Magic called Vi Loubder. These five were the favorites to win the Brawl of Glory.

  I wouldn't face any of them within the first two rounds, but if I make it past that point, I'll be unable to avoid facing them. The odds would certainly be against me, that's for sure. Still, I was fairly confident in my current abilities. I had managed to gain full control of Lightning Boost upto a x2.2 multiplier boost, and my physical condition was the best I'd ever been in.

  I had also been working on another technique that I thought might come in handy, I hadn't fully mastered it but I had a decent enough grasp of it to use it in a real fight. Well, you'll see soon enough.

  During the last two weeks, I had extended my nightly training sessions as much as possible, pushing myself beyond my limits during my solo nights, and intensifying the sparring sessions every other night with Persia. As a result, I was hardly awake during classes, and got fired from one of my part-time jobs. But thanks to that, I genuinely felt like I had done everything I possibly could to get as strong as possible with the time I had available.

  And while my original goal in this was simply to get even with Misen Ragiu, I couldn't help feeling excited about seeing how my abilities would fare in a tournament like this. I knew better than to get too far ahead of myself though. I needed to take this one match at a time, I wouldn't last long if I got too carried away.

  Oh, and killing your opponent was impossible in this tournament. It's not that it was banned, but literally impossible. See, each match takes place within a closed barrier, which is activated using a Spell Scroll. First off, the barrier was extremely tough and wouldn't break easily, this was to keep the audience from getting caught up in the crossfire.

  Oh yeah, the tournament was taking place in a large stadium, known as the Rustlands Stadium, behind the royal castle, so there were a LOT of spectators.

  The second feature of the barrier was that during a fight, if a fighter was about to deliver what would be a fatal blow to his or her opponent, and said opponent had no way of avoiding it, they would instantly be teleported outside the barrier, and the person remaining inside the barrier would be declared the winner.

  Non-fatal injuries wouldn't trigger the teleportation, but I was worried about whether it would take my Healing Factor into account. After all, stabbing someone in the stomach would generally be a fatal injury, but not for me.

  I managed to get a glimpse of the Spell Scroll that was used to activate the barrier, and holy shit was it complicated, with hundreds, maybe thousands, of command lines entered into it.

  I just hope it was detailed enough to be able to take my regeneration into account.

  Anyway, thanks to the barriers' safety net, we were allowed to use any weapons we wanted, so that was definitely a plus.

  Alright, back to the present.

  I had just reached the outside of the stadium with Persia and an unusually nervous Rai, we each had a ticket to confirm that we were participants. A massive crowd was outside the main entrance, thankfully our participant tickets got us in through a different entrance, so we wouldn't have to stand in line.

  "Well, this is it. You know, we should make a bet to spice things up, like whoever gets eliminated first has to treat the other two to dinner or something," I said half-jokingly.

  "No! ……I can't handle any more pressure right now," Rejected Rai, his face slightly pale as he took in the sight of the large crowd.

  This side of him was truly fascinating to watch.

  "Hey speaking of bets, that reminds me, Kuro. Remember our race two weeks ago?" Whispered Persia, coming close next to me, "I won, but I totally forgot that the winner got to give the loser one command."

  Oh, right……

  "Huh, I totally forgot about that too. There was that big distraction right after our race," I replied, referring to Misen showing up, "You picked a strange time to remember that, though. Let's get back to it after the tournament, 'kay?"

  "Sure, I have no reason to rush it."

  I then noticed two familiar faces heading towards us.

  "Hey, you guys. You're all really going through with this, huh?" Greeted Key, walking up to us with Azyl behind her.

  "Hey, Key. Mhm, I never even thought about opting out. Besides, it's too late now," Shrugged Persia, greeting her back.

  "Yeah, it kinda sucks that we won't be able to kill him though," I remarked.

  "More like you're lucky that he or someone else won't be able to kill you. You guys are easily the underdogs in this tournament," Stated Key, with a sigh.

  "This one's quieter than usual," Yawned Azyl, nodding towards Rai.

  "Oh, I-I'm fine. It's just……that's a lot of people," He replied with a hint of nervousness in his voice, looking at the crowd.

  "Heh, I never thought that you of all people would have stage fright," Smirked Persia, looking at him with an amused look.

  Seeing Rai so mellowed out was quite a treat.

  "By the way, the Rustlands Stadium is quite a distance from the area we all live in, I'm surprised Azyl walked all the way here," I said.

  "Oh, we didn't walk. Azyl actually made a teleportation Spell Scroll for this last night," Explained Key.

  "Yeah, that makes more sense."

  There were teleportation spots to instantly get from one spot in the country to another, but only official Adventurers were allowed to use those, and buying your own teleportation Spell Scrolls were way too expensive since they were one of the most complex type of Spell Scrolls out there.

  We chatted with them for a bit longer and then headed in. The tournament would be split into two days, the first two rounds would take place today, and the last three rounds would be tomorrow.

  So a total of twenty-four matches today, sixteen in the first round and eight in the second, narrowing down the initial thirty-two competitors down to eight for tomorrow.

  As we entered the waiting area for the participants, more than twenty people had already shown up, and were eyeing us closely as we walked in. Guess that was to be expected.

  "Well, you three actually showed up! The match ups are rather unfortunate, you'll have your work cut out for you if you hope to face me. I hope you have what it takes to defy expectations," Misen smirked, as he approached us.

  "Hmm, I wonder. Remind me to ask you if I defied expectations, after I beat you to a bloody pulp," I replied calmly, refusing to let him irritate me.

  "Ooh, big words. Make sure to live up to them," He laughed, walking away.

  "Dude, you're really keeping your cool, I don't know how you're not panicking or even nervous right now," Whispered Rai anxiously.

  "Huh? Of course I'm nervous. I've never done anything in front of a large crowd before, so there's no way I can be totally calm," I replied, before adding, "I just have no intention of letting anyone see that."

  "Yeah, same here. Seeing that large line of people outside was pretty nerve-wracking," Agreed Persia.

  "Lies, neither of you look even remotely nervous. Hey, Kuro……help me calm myself down, I'm starting to feel nauseous," Groaned Rai, his face turning pale.

  "Don't look at me, I wouldn't know," I replied, before recalling something he'd said before, "Just……live your life to the fullest or something, I guess."

  "Wow, that's some pretty half-assed advice, it barely even applies to this scenario," Remarked Persia, raising an eyebrow at me.

  "Huh……you're right. How could I forget? Yeah! This is nothing! It's not like I'm dying or anything!" Rai suddenly declared, perking up.

  "What the f-? It actually worked?" Muttered a bemused Persia.

  I was kinda surprised that it worked that well too. At the end of the day, he was a pretty simple-minded guy.

  Nearly all the participants had arrived now. Arg walked past us and gave us his trademark condescending look, which was annoying but easy enough to ignore.

  Gela showed up soon after, and walked over to me.

  "If we both make it past the first round, we'll be up against each other in the second round. I look forward to tearing you apart," She grinned sadistically and licked her lips, tracing her talon across my jawline, before walking away with a smirk.

  "Well……that was unsettling," I muttered uncomfortably.

  "I don't like her," Growled Persia, looking irate.

  My first match up was against a second year guy with Lightning Magic, I'd looked into him and found out that his Mana capacity was well above average and his Lightning Magic was pretty powerful, but he was unable to use Lightning Boost.

  I should have the advantage, but I'd rather overestimate an opponent than underestimate them, so I'll play it cautious. Well, my match would be the eleventh match of the first round, so I still had a bit of time. Persia's match was the fourth one.

  And Rai would be fighting in……the very first match.

  No wonder he was panicking. Emphasis on 'was', he was totally fine now.

  "How much longer!? I can hardly wait!" He mumbled to himself in anticipation.

  "He sure changed his tune fast, huh?"

  "Yeah, I can't believe your dumb advice made such an impact. 'Live your life to the fullest', I mean……really!?" Muttered Persia.

  "Don't worry about it too much, Kitty Cat. One man's dumb advice is another man's words of enlightenment," I replied.

  "……where do you come up with this crap?"……

  anime, mostly.

  It wasn't long before the participants for the first match were called up. Rai was fighting a girl with Earth Magic. The two of them headed for the stadium battle arena, a large square at the center of the stadium, around which hundreds of spectators were watching. Once they were both there, an old man held up a Spell Scroll just outside the arena bounds and activated the barrier.

  It looked they were in a shimmering glass box.

  "Is everyone ready for this year's edition of the BRAWL OF GLORY!?"

  The audience cheered voraciously in response. Huh, that old man had a pretty loud voice.

  "Who's the old guy?" I inquired.

  "That's the Academy Headmaster, I think. In his prime, he was said to be the strongest Adventurer to ever come from the Rustlands," Replied Persia.

  Interesting, I should look into him sometime later. Right now though, the tournament was about to begin.

  "Ready……FIGHT!"

  Rai unwound his chain-sickle, streaming lightning through them while staying rooted, waiting for his opponent to make the first move.

  And she did.

  The girl hung back and sent rows of rising rock columns towards him. He activated his Lightning Boost and zigzagged past the rising pillars, avoiding them with ease. I didn't know what kind of training he'd done, but it was clear that he'd improved a lot.

  However……he was no longer faster than me, I was definitely quicker than he was now!

  "Hey, your face is super easy to read. Were you really that bothered by it when he was faster two months ago?"

  "Don't ruin this for me, Cat Girl."

  Well, I may be faster than he is now, but……

  He charged forward and used the momentum to run up the side of one of the pillars and jumped up off it, out of her range……

  at his current speed, this match was not going to be a problem for him.

  He flung his lightning enhanced sickle at his opponent, but she just managed to avoid it, deflecting the blade by raising a small wall. However, she was forced to rush into making that wall, so it was quite brittle. Rai yanked the chain across as hard as he could, pulling the deflected blade back towards his opponent. It scythed through her wall and was on course to slash her head off.

  Huh, it looked like he hesitated for a second before swinging the sickle across her……he really was anti-killing, wasn't he.

  Right before impact, she disappeared from the arena, the sickle slicing through thin air instead. She reappeared outside the barrier, looking rather stunned.

  "The winner is……first year student, Rai Rumel!"

  The audience cheered and clapped, as the Headmaster announced the result in that booming voice of his. He then deactivated the barrier for Rai to leave so that the second match could begin. As the next pair entered the arena, one of them was a nervous wreck while the other was stoic and calm, showing no emotion.

  "It's Ekai's match, this should be over in no time."

  "Yeah, I would hate to fight him."

  "Heh, I feel bad for the other guy. Poor guy got the worst possible opponent in the very first round."

  So, that was Ekai Zabel, the strongest student in the Adventurer Academy. I'd heard that his Anima was a lion, and with dark blonde hair and golden brown eyes, he certainly looked the part. His teeth looked sharp like a lion's too, nothing like normal human teeth. He didn't have any other noticeable physical mutations. If I remember right, I believe I'd heard that he had Fire Magic.

  He barely had any protection on, he wore a dark brown, lightly armored trouser, and just a regular maroon tank top, with sweat bands on his wrists, and no weapon. He looked like he was dressed for a casual workout, not a fight.

  His opponent, meanwhile, was heavily armored and carried a sword and a shield.

  Well then, let's see just how strong the so-called strongest was.

  "……FIGHT!"

  I had planned to watch this fight closely, but it ended as soon as it began.

  Before his opponent could move, Ekai pointed his palm towards him and fired a massive fireball in an instant, rapidly blazing towards his opponent and crashing into the barrier wall, shaking it upon impact. That ball of flames had been bigger than a large boulder, and he hadn't needed any time to charge it up or anything, he just fired it in the blink of an eye. And not only was it big, but it was also fast.

  Even with Lightning Boost I'd probably just barely be able to dodge that. In less than a couple of seconds after the fight began, with the most minimal of effort, his opponent had already been teleported outside the barrier.

  "The winner is……third year student, Ekai Zabel!"

  The audience had been stunned into silence by that display of power, but then broke out into deafening cheers.

  "……I'm not making it past the second round, am I?" Said Rai, laughing nervously, as he realized that Ekai would be his opponent in the next round.

  "Yeah, I almost feel bad for you," I replied.

  "Just 'almost'?"

  "Mhm……it's a 'better you than me' kinda situation."

  The third match came and went without much excitement from the crowd. Persia was up next for the fourth match. Her opponent was using Fire Magic, along with a spear.

  "Ready……FIGHT!"

  Her opponent immediately sent out multiple fireballs towards her, she responded by blasting herself up off the ground, straight up into the air.

  Her opponent then fired more attacks towards her while she was airborne. She sharply inhaled and fired off an absolute storm of wind from her mouth, extinguishing the flames in an instant.

  She then angled herself towards her opponent and propelled herself down towards him while compressing and gathering swirling winds around her fist. As she neared the ground, she aimed a punch towards her opponent, who managed to dodge away to the right, as her attack collided with the ground, the force smashing down on it, and the impact breaking apart the arena ground into pieces, sending up a dust cloud. She then took a deep breath and gathered wind behind her feet, as she got ready to go all out with her Propulsion. Her opponent noticed and stopped staying still, running across the arena in random zigzags.

  That would have been a smart move if Persia could only move in short, linear bursts like she was limited to two months ago. But now……

  She shot forward towards him at her top speed, he was barely able to respond as he jumped across to the left. As soon as he did, he dropped his guard, expecting her to go flying past him. Instead, she smoothly adjusted her path and changed her course, once again heading for her opponent.

  This time he couldn't dodge.

  She stretched out her fingers so that the claws were pointing out, and aimed a pinpoint strike towards his heart, thrusting forward rapidly. Her claws began to pierce his armor, before the teleportation kicked in and sent him outside the barrier.

  "The winner is……first year student, Persia Gerit!"

  So far, three of the first four matches had been one sided, both Rai and Persia's fights included. I had assumed that we'd all find every fight to be difficult, but it looks like we could definitely hold our own in this tournament.

  Before the tournament, the only upper-class student I'd seen fight was Misen. With that as my only sample, it's no wonder than I ended up overestimating what to expect from the other upper-classmen.

  I had just been overly cautious, but realistically, it's not like every second and third year student would be on the same level as that annoying prick.

  "That wasn't as tough as I'd expected, but I doubt I'd have been able to win if I was the same as I was before we began training for this. It feels good to know that all that work paid off!" Smiled Persia cheerfully, re-entering the participants waiting area.

  "Way to go, Kitty Cat," I replied, high-fiving her.

  "Hey, no fair……you didn't congratulate or high five me after my match," Remarked Rai.

  "And……?"

  "……that's cold, dude. Especially since my chances are slim in the next round."

  "Slim? Well, aren't you being optimistic."

  "……"

  Misen was fighting in the fifth match. He had on light armor, which was white with black streak patterns, matching his black hair that had white streaks.

  I'd found out that his Anima was a zebra, so I guess my initial assumption that his hair had been dyed was wrong. He had a spear on his back, but the blade at the end wasn't metal, it seemed to be some kind of blue crystal. His opponent was a third year guy with Water Magic, using an axe as his weapon.

  As soon as the match began, Misen used Lightning Boost to shoot forward, drawing back his fist in position to deliver a punch. His opponent surrounded himself with a dense wall of water in response, but Misen didn't change his course.

  He suddenly took his speed up another notch and drove his lightning engulfed fist forward at the wall. His fist went through the water like a hot knife through butter, and slammed into his opponent's face with a devastating impact, sending him flying back till he crashed onto the barrier, blood pouring out of his mouth and nose. Misen charged towards him again, ready to deliver another strike.

  "I-I give up!" Surrendered his opponent, forcing Misen to stop short.

  Attacking an opponent after they've surrendered would disqualify you.

  "Oh, man. That really looked like it hurt," Winced Rai, watching the defeated competitor walk away while a waterfall of blood was pouring down his face.

  "This barrier definitely has loopholes, it looks like you can inflict plenty of damage to your opponents so long as you avoid delivering a fatal blow and they don't surrender," I muttered.

  Not that it mattered much to me, inflicting pain really didn't do anything for me, and while I do enjoy a good, challenging spar, when it comes to a serious fight, I just want to kill my opponent as swiftly and efficiently as possible.

  I had a feeling that the barrier's teleportation safety net was going to leave me feeling unsatisfied.

  The next couple of matches didn't have anyone noteworthy in them, so let's skip the details. The eight match had Arg fighting a second year guy with Wind Magic . It was a pretty close contest, with Arg narrowly pulling off a win.

  "Huh……he doesn't seem that much stronger than he was during the mock tournament," I remarked after the match.

  "Yeah, didn't you guys see his face after Persia's match? He looked pretty horrified," Remarked Rai, with a grin.

  "Damn, I'd have liked to see that. You couldn't point it out or something?"

  "Nah, I was going to, but he turned away when he saw me looking at him."

  The ninth match went by without anything too remarkable happening.

  The tenth match had another of The Big Five fighting, Vi Loubder. She used Earth Magic, and didn't use weapons. Her Anima was a kangaroo, and she had kangaroo ears at the top of her head, plus her legs were shaped similar to a kangaroo too.

  Her legs were reinforced with pretty sturdy looking gear, a medium-light armored blue with red design pattern trouser that fully covered her legs. Her top was just light armor, a white reinforced leather tank top.

  She had a slightly dark complexion and wore her medium length brown hair in a ponytail.

  As the match began, her opponent was quick to create some distance between them, going all the way back to the wall of the barrier. She just smiled and bent her knees, angling her body forward. She then jumped forward. Well, I say jumped, but it looked more like her legs had been launched by powerful springs.

  As she shot forward towards her opponent, she unfurled a vicious kick aimed at his chest. But before her foot could connect, he was teleported out.

  Instead, her kick slammed into the barrier, several cracks spreading out from the point of impact……

  that kick was so powerful that it would have been an instant fatal blow to her opponent.

  "Wow……she won without using any Elemental Magic," I said in surprise.

  "With most people, Animas have little to no tangible effect. Some result in improved or additional physical abilities, like Persia's cat-like agility. In rare cases though, they can make absolutely drastic differences. We just witnessed that," Explained Rai, as he stared in amazement.

  "Well, I don't have time to analyze it. My match is next," I declared triumphantly.

  The eleventh match was about to begin. Finally……it's my turn.

  _____________________________________________

  Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to vote, and feel free to leave a comment, I appreciate any and all feedback and criticism! Also, check out my Instagram account @aimdaqs for posts relating to this book.

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