The previous fight was rather one sided and the platform didn’t suffer that much, so in a couple of minutes it was back to normal, then the referees repeated the process of selection.
“Rank number 3, Lana Ramir”.
The people in the stands went crazy hearing the first participant, it was another member of the top five and a girl after all.
The second referee then shouted the other participant.
“Rank number 7, Minadine Faresh”.
Although there were some cheering ups here and there, it wasn’t as loud as with the first participant.
Daimon raised an eyebrow, these supposedly random selections had dispatched two of the top five in the first day, it was a bit too much to be considered a coincidence, but no one cared, for the sake of making the tournament faster, only half of the second year’s elite class was participating.
Of course, the half that was chosen was the upper one as those above the rank fifteen weren’t priorities to be the captain of the team, in other words this tournament was for the sake of choosing the captain.
The reason is very simple, the captain will be carrying the badge which supposedly would allow it to bring a mage lord inside the magic ruin, it was the top priority of the exploration because the first one to clear that trial would have the advantage over the others.
Luckily the year recently started so there were no six-star mages nor knights among the second-year elite class yet, so everyone had the chance to go, but for those from the sixteen to the thirty ranks, were only allowed to challenge someone in the revenge match of tomorrow, and they could only ask for fight for those below the top five.
“I guess we’ll know it, if the last fight of today includes the fourth rank”, he concluded.
Back to the arena, the girl surnamed Faresh was easy to spot since she had a cow’s head instead of a human one, as for the other girl which now had the rank that used to belong to Arianna, it was the girl with a reptile tail and some small, scale patterns on her neck and arms.
Daimon turned to see the half emperors and didn’t see someone with similar characteristics among them, but on the stands where the peak Arch ranks were sitting, he saw an old woman with a similar tail.
Not all the half emperors attended the tournament but it was slightly weird to not see one that backed someone in the top five not coming, those old monsters tend to value their faces quite a bit after all.
The two girls went up the platform, Minadine immediately took out her weapon a two-handed heavy axe, as for Lana… her ring illuminated and a piece of some kind of crystal materialized leaving all the first-year students confused.
“What the hell, is that some kind of throwable weapon?”, they wondered, but then their eyes widened as they saw he… biting it.
“Crunch~Crunch~Crunch”, loud crunch sounds filled the arena as Lana literally munched pieces of the crystal, then the scale patters on her neck and arms illuminated and then she stomped her left leg on the ground before rushing towards Minadine.
The bull-headed woman changed her stance and then her battle aura exploded out of her body, similar to what happened with the Faresh ancestor earlier, her height increased about thirty centimeters and the clothes on the area of her stomach broke to reveal her toned figure.
“Haaaa!”, with a loud shout she swayed her axe towards Lana, to everyone’s surprise she wasn’t slow and to top it off, her element was wind.
“Boooom!”, a crystalized little fist and a heavy metal axe clashed causing a loud explosion, the platform under their feet cracked and both of the girls were sent back a couple of meters without none of them getting a clear advantage over the other.
Or that’s what most people thought before shaking their head, because while Minadine used her battle aura in the previous clash, Lana didn’t.
On the skybox of the elite class, Daimon inspected both of the participants with his infinity eyes, keeping such an extreme distinctive trait as a bull’s head is rare, as normally the path of evolution makes races become more and more human like.
Compared to other people he has observed she had thrice the amount of mana circuits in the head, there was obviously a reason for that, but he didn’t feel too interested in that, instead what was reflected in his infinity eyes when he saw the girl from the Ramir family was more eye catching.
She had the mana circuits of a mage, but even if she had mana in her body, it wasn’t circulating and yet her whole body was shining.
“I guess all the races had their own things”, he thought.
Back at the platform, Minadine moved as fast as she could, her axe left after images but no matter how much she tried Lana simply blocked them with her arms causing sparks to fly with each impact.
“Damn they move too fast I can’t see anything”, and other similar things could be heard coming from the stands, their exchange was literally physical as none of them used any martial art or spell.
Lana suddenly dodged one of the attacks instead of blocking it for the first time.
“Whooosh!”, the sound of air splitting apart echoed through the whole place as Lana used her reptile tail as a whip.
Minadine felt her hairs stand on end, she forced her body to stop midway and jumped backwards, unfortunately she was still touched by the tip of Lana’s tail, right on her left thigh.
“Aghhh!!”, a loud high-pitched scream nearly made the ears of those in the stands to bleed, when they focused on the fight again their eyes widened in shock… Minadine’s whole left leg was gone.
The cow headed woman saw Lana walking towards her as she munched another piece of the same crystal and her whole body trembled as she looked downwards.
There are a couple of important veins on the legs, the only reason as to why she isn’t screaming to the content of her heart is because her wound was sealed by some kind of crystal.
“Give up, I can remove the seal on your wound if I want to, and believe me when I say that even a current of air will feel like hell if it touches your raw meat”.
The Faresh ancestor clenched his fists seeing his younger daughter now missing a leg, loud explosions came from his body, but he had no choice but to calm down, there was supposed to be a big gap between the top five and the others, even if Minadine was the not that far from them.
Noticing the dangerous glow in Lana’s eyes, Minadine sighed, she guesses she was going to lose anyway, but not this miserably, with the first serious attack from her opponent she lost a leg.
The worst part was that she had to give up which meant she would be prohibited to challenge anyone on the revenge match, unless she continued fighting until she passed out, as jumping from the platform by one’s own will was the same as giving up anyway.
“I forfeit”, she said with a defeated voice.
The referees went up the platform and after inspecting what could be considered the most serious wound so far, they nodded at each other before saying.
“The winner is Lana Ramir”.
“Woaahhh!!!”, the crowd went crazy, the only ones which seemed more serious than before where the others left of the top five, Samuel Jolbaris and Calant Allier, it was the first time they saw Lana using her tail like that and the result was horrible.
The Faresh family’s trait is body magnification, their cells expand with mana of battle aura making their body grow taller, essentially, they become giants which increase their physical attributes.
And yet that tail whip turned a reinforced leg into blood mist, it was terrifying to say the less, Lana stole a gaze at Samuel before she jumped from the platform and happily hummed as she left the arena, it was a big contrast compared to the threatening expression she had when she fought against Minadine.
But unlike others, Daimon saw the shine in her body disappear after that attack with her tail.
“She uses those crystals as some kind of fuel… what a peculiar way to fight”, he thought.
The referees were about to select the participants for the next match since the platform didn’t look too damaged, but as soon as Lana closed the door to the resting area, a layer of the platform crystalized and then became brittle.
“I guess we’ll have to wait”, said one of the referees to the other, the ones that haven’t fought from the second year’s elite class all seemed stern, well everyone but the other Allier twin and the girl from the Leeris family.
Calant Allier is the last one left out of the top five, the fourth ranked to be more specific, so if he was chosen to fight today, the best opponent for him was the sixth ranked.
The referees repeated the process of selection and even they couldn’t help but inwardly sigh.
“Rank number four, Calant Allier”.
“Rank number six, Gina Leeris”.
Daimon gazed at Aura, this was a bit too much, but apparently all the half emperors agreed so no one dared to say anything, instead the remaining Allier twin gallantly greeted Gina as he waited for her to go up the platform.
A gesture which seemed to move the heart of the female students, unlike Caleb which had a certain air of bitterness around him, Calant was all smiles which combined with his refined appearance made him look like a blue prince.
Unfortunately for him, his opponent didn’t seem to be on the same page as the other girls, her expression only showed disgust as she glared at him.
