The next day, the tournament was scheduled to continue as planned.
There was no delay or announcement regarding Ulv Sylvester being dead or having people inspected.
Seeing as Ulv was a traitor, his death was of little concern to The Authority. It was not important for them to waste precious resources trying to find his killer. For them, the priority should be to keep the news hidden as well as to keep everything normal.
Zero’s parents recovered and were discharged from the hospital. As their son no longer participates, they headed back home and decided to continue watching the tournament on their TV.
Zero did not stop them and thought that it was best for them to stay in the house. He also called NightShade and asked them to send a couple of Rank-As to protect his parents.
Even when he knows that Ulv Sylvester is dead, he can’t rule out the possibility that others people might try the same antics.
Zero has also recovered and he came with other students from Ace Academy to watch the match.
This time he had to come to the stadium and sit down with other professors and disqualified students. As he glanced at the other members of the Ace Academy, all of them looked proud as if this tournament was already won.
It was kind of true since there was not anyone who could beat Lisanna or Hiro. The only ones that could fight properly with Ace Academy fighters would be either Jeremy Vincent or Adamscat. Other than those two, there were no other participants who could pose a threat to them.
It was simply a matter of deciding whether Hiro would win or Lisanna would win. Either way, it was a victory for the Ace Academy.
Between the two, many supported Hiro as he was apparently more powerful than Lisanna in the first round, even managing to defeat Omar Noel who had defeated Lisanna. So, logically Hiro should be stronger than Lisanna..
On the other hand, there were also many analysts who insisted that Omar Noel only lost to Hiro due to Lisanna and Lisanna should be stronger than Hiro.
Anyway, Zero didn’t care who would win. Professor Mia already promised him that as long as he helped the Ace Academy win, he would be rewarded.
There would be a reward given by The Authority to the winners of the tournament but it should not be more valuable than what he was hoping to get from the Treasury of Ace Academy.
The reward system provided to individual winners was never the selling point of the Tournament of Academies. The majority of schools are interested in the tournament because of the resources that will be distributed to the winners’ schools and also because winning the tournament increases schools’ prestige.
Though Ace Academy was brimming with happiness, other participants’ schools were not depressed either. Though the odds were against them, half the participants’ schools were weak, and to be able to reach the final was already a miracle for them.
As for the championship, it was beyond their reach and they never thought that their school would win.
-CHEERS!
As the 9 nine contestants made their way toward the stage, the audience cheered wildly. The participants from weak schools appeared relaxed, possibly because they had already achieved their goals and did not want the championship at all, unlike the students at the Top-5 Academies, who appeared more tense than ever.
The Top-5 academies always had one goal and that is the championship. As for getting in the final round, it is something that is achieved by many students of their school. Only being champion was worth it.
After they were on the stage, they were greeted by Nock Fletcher and he started by first congratulating the finalist and then saying the rules for the final round.
The final round was always the same. It would be a duel every time. The only difference would be the number of students in the final, otherwise, everything was the same.
There were 9 contestants this time, and in order for the number to be even, they first picked the two unlucky students who will then compete to make the number eight, which is just right for the tournament.
But before revealing the number, they were sent to their academy for 10 minutes to relax their minds. As for why the time given was so short, it was because the final round was already known and there was no need for many strategies. The last round is determined solely by individual strength.
Hiro and Lisanna came to our side. Professor Mia, in her position as the professor in charge, advised students to give their best effort, not underestimate their enemies, and be prepared for anything.
They nodded to her and then other students walked over and encouraged them. They have full confidence in those two participants and were not worried about them losing.
“Hiro, do your best! I know that you will win.”
“Senior Lisanna, the championship will be yours!”
“All the best!” …
During their conversation, the names of the two students who had to fight early were displayed. Zero also looked at the screen.
( As expected of the Main Character.)
Why Zero thought that was because it was Hiro who was unlucky, or should he say fortunate enough to get to fight.
Why he thought it was lucky was because the opponent was a weak one and the only thing that this fight will produce is the chance for Hiro to show off.
As his opponent was at Rank-D, Hiro would be able to defeat him immediately.
The two fighters stepped into the ring and took out their weapons. Hiro’s opponent was weak and he knew that but he still decided to fight.
It was his honor to get a chance to fight the world-famous Hiro and it was a rare chance to fight such a genius. It could be a very valuable learning experience for him. As for winning, he didn’t have much hope of winning from the start.
The problem was not that he lacked confidence but that one should know one’s limits. Even after witnessing Hiro’s power, if someone like him thinks that he could win then it was not courage or being positive, it was utter foolishness.
-CLANG! -CLANG! -CLANK!
The battle started and Hiro’s opponent frantically attacked Hiro.
Hiro seemed to be holding back and didn’t use all his strength in his first clash. If he did, he should have flung his opponent in one strike.
He seemed to be showing mercy to his opponent. Or maybe he wants to give his opponent some time to show off to the world.
-CHEERS!
Well, that worked as the audience cheered in excitement.
However, after a while, Hiro started to overpower the opponent and defeated him easily. Even with Hiro holding himself back, his power was way higher than a Rank-D.
-CLAP! CLAP!
With that, now Officially, there were 8 participants and soon the tournament bracket was shown.
In the first bracket, it was Adamscat and Jeremy Vincent, and two other students who are in Rank-D and Rank-D +. In the second bracket were Lisanna, Hiro, and Zoe who is the Demacia participant and the last one was Rank-D -.
For the first match, it didn’t take long for Adamscat to instantly defeat the opponent with her spell. The second match was similar, with Jeremy Vincent rushing toward his opponent without getting damaged by his attack and finally throwing him out.
In the third fight, Lisanna faced Rank-D – a boy who didn’t even get the time to react before a sword appeared on his neck.
This outcome was expected by everyone. All the opponents of Rank-Ds were the Ace of Top-5 academies who are in Rank-C. They didn’t expect them to win or put up a good fight.
The only match that seemed interesting was the last round which was the fight between Hiro and Zoe.
People didn’t expect her to win but she had shown amazing power before. People hoped that she would be able to last a few minutes longer than other participants.
Well, in reality, it didn’t take more than 10 clashes before Zoe was defeated. Though, she was the only member of the Rank-D who had managed to survive so long.
It was not that she was weak but Hiro took the fight seriously right from the start and used his full strength which was higher than her to overpower her.
Hiro acknowledges Zoe as a strong person and didn’t hold back. If anyone who was in Rank-D received the same treatment from Hiro, they would be honored. Honored because using full power meant that he acknowledges them as a powerful person.
However, Zoe looked furious when she was defeated by Hiro. Zoe was in the same generation as Hiro, which means that she sees Hiro as her rival.
Many think that Hiro is naturally gifted and that he is a genius that they should not compare with.
Others might not care that she lost and thought of it as natural for her to lose but she did not. She was also talented and the thought of losing never appeared on her mind.
She gnashed her teeth in anger and jumped off the stage.
The professors of Demacia Academy didn’t look disappointed as they didn’t have much hope of winning. Anyway, they had at least managed to get into the final round which was much better than getting eliminated like Arcane Academy.
In the end, the first round ended and not even 10 minutes had passed since the start of the match. That was to be expected since Rank-C was fighting with weak opponents who didn’t even last 1 minute before getting eliminated.
Anyway, those participants who were below Rank-C were all eliminated and all the students that were left were in Rank-C.
The real battle was about to start!