Novel Full Chapter 219: Day two
Chapter 219: Day two
“Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome back to Day Two of the academy tournament!”
The crowd cheered loudly as the massive arena filled with noise once more.
“We hope you all rested well last night, because we are starting immediately with the first matchups of the day!”
The many large screens flickered, showing the battlefield below.
“And please welcome our second group of first years in this tournament!”
At once, the twelve raised platforms were filled with contestants. Twenty-four students stood ready, facing their opponents as the proctors floated nearby.
This time, Elion was among them.
Curiously enough, Aria had also been called up in the same rotation, though she stood several platforms away from him, facing another girl.
Elion’s own opponent stood across from him.
She looked like a cute girl from one of the other first-year classes. Elion didn’t recognize her at all. She held what looked like a small wand in her hand, gripping it nervously.
Elion stood relaxed.
His plain sword rested lightly in his right hand.
Since he had only placed the order for his new sword yesterday, there had been no chance for the crafter to finish it yet. So he had no choice but to use the simple sword he had bought from the system for now.
The proctor raised his hand.
“Begin!”
Around the arena, other fights started immediately.
Spells fired, steel clashed, and platforms shook. But on Elion’s platform…
Nothing happened.
He had decided to give the girl the first move, yet she simply stood there, frozen in place.
Her face was bright red as she squirmed awkwardly, clutching the wand with trembling hands.
Elion blinked once.
’Is she nervous?’
He tilted his head slightly. The wand in her hand caught his attention again.
If he remembered correctly, only ancient mages used wands. That practice had mostly disappeared long ago as people learned to channel mana through their bodies directly more efficiently.
Not that wands were forgotten completely, but they were rare. And Elion had never personally seen anyone actually use one before.
“I–” the girl stammered quietly.
Elion heard it clearly despite the noise of the arena. His senses were sharp enough to catch even a whisper.
“I—I…”
She squeezed her eyes shut.
Then suddenly—
“I CONCEDE!”
She squealed the words and immediately turned around.
Without even looking back, she ran straight off the platform and disappeared into the tunnel.
Elion stood there.
“…Huh.”
He slowly turned his head toward the proctor.
The proctor looked just as confused.
“Uh…”
He cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Winner… Elion Nova!”
The hostess laughed through her device.
“Well, that is certainly new! A participant has conceded her match for reasons we do not quite understand!”
The crowd chuckled.
Elion sighed quietly and stepped off the platform.
“Well,” he muttered under his breath, “that was disappointing.”
He had been looking forward to actually stretching his limbs today. Apparently, that would have to wait.
When he returned to the waiting room, he looked around briefly to see if he could find the girl who had just fled.
But she was nowhere to be seen. Instead, his attention quickly shifted to the screens. Aria’s match was still going on.
On the screen, Elion saw her get blasted backward by a powerful wind spell. The gust slammed into her body and pushed her several meters across the platform.
But Aria reacted quickly.
She stomped her foot down and conjured a small stone foothold from the ground using her earth magic, stabilizing herself before she could be blown off the platform.
Her opponent immediately followed up with another attack.
Sharp blades of compressed wind shot toward Aria like invisible knives.
Aria rolled sideways, letting two of them slice past her while raising a quick earth wall to block the third. The spell shattered against the stone barrier with a loud crack.
Then she countered.
A wave of dirt rose from the platform as she slammed her palm down, forcing her opponent to jump backward.
The two girls began exchanging spells rapidly.
Wind blasts.
Stone spikes.
Dust clouds.
Aria dodged a sweeping gust by sliding under it, then answered with a barrage of small stone shards. Her opponent cut through them with spinning winds that scattered the projectiles in every direction.
The crowd cheered as the fight intensified.
But the exchange did not last long.
Aria suddenly planted both hands on the ground.
Mana surged.
The stone beneath her opponent began to tremble violently.
Then—
A massive boulder erupted from the platform and shot forward.
The wind mage tried to push it away with a gust, but the rock was too heavy.
BOOM!
The boulder slammed into her and knocked her straight off her feet. The proctor raised his hand immediately.
“Match over! Winner—Aria Moon!”
The crowd applauded politely.
Back in the waiting room, Elion nodded slightly.
“Not bad.”
Still…
Compared to the seventh-year battle from yesterday, the first-year fights felt rather anticlimactic.
But that was only natural.
Those monsters had set the bar absurdly high.
Aria returned to the waiting room not long after her match, and the moment she spotted Elion, she ran straight toward him without hesitation, jumping into his arms as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
She wrapped herself around him and pressed her lips against his in a firm kiss that drew a few glances from the others. Elion caught her easily with one arm and let out a small, amused chuckle as he returned the kiss briefly before pulling back.
“That was a good fight, you did well,” he said simply.
“Hmph,” Aria responded, clearly pleased despite trying to act otherwise, her arms were still loosely looped around his neck as she leaned closer, “I expect a reward tonight.”
Elion smirked slightly at that, not even surprised anymore. “We’ll see.” Maybe Mira had boasted to her about last night’s events. Probably not, though.
She pouted a little at his answer but didn’t push further, settling comfortably against him as they all turned their attention back to the screens.
The year overlaps that the host had promised began to happen across all the years, not just the lower ones, and every now and then, a participant would be matched against someone a year above them, creating moments of tension and curiosity in the arena.
But the results were consistent, no matter which year it happened in, the lower year almost always lost, sometimes putting up a good fight, sometimes even surprising the crowd for a short while.
But in the end, the difference in experience, control, and composure showed clearly, and even the spectators came to expect it after seeing it happen repeatedly.
It was clear to everyone that the overlap was a useless addition that did more harm than good.
Then the second years came on, followed by the third years, and this time Elion recognised a few familiar faces from the DC, like Lysette and Magnus, who both won their matches cleanly and efficiently without dragging things out.
Their movements were sharp and controlled, their spells well timed, and Elion watched them closely, committing everything to memory without missing a single detail.
When the fourth years came on, the fights were more intense, more refined, and clearly at a higher level, but to Elion, nothing truly stood out as extraordinary; still, he did not waste the opportunity.
He activated his photographic memory as he focused on every exchange, every spell, every reaction, carefully storing it all in his mind as he began to test a theory of his own. #
He was wondering if it would be possible to take what he saw and integrate it into his own fighting style by using this skill.
The system responded almost immediately.
[It is good to see that you can be resourceful.]
[I was getting tired of spoon-feeding you everything.]
Elion snorted inwardly at that, but he didn’t argue, because he knew it was true.
The fifth years came next, and this time Elion paid even closer attention, analysing their control, their mana efficiency, the way they moved, the way they conserved energy while still maintaining pressure on their opponents, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit of regret, thinking back to yesterday.
’I should have done this with Evander and Xavier…’
But that fight had been too overwhelming, and too awe-inspiring, and at the time, the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind because of the scale of that matchup.
Then came a few sixth-year matches, and this was where Elion truly started gaining useful insights.
He watched carefully as they channelled their mana more precisely; their movements were notably sharper and more deliberate.
Honestly, their control felt so far beyond the lower years, and it was even better when one of them turned out to be a swordsman, which immediately drew Elion’s full attention.
He studied him closely, analysing every step, every swing, every shift in weight, but after watching for a while, he realised something.
’His mastery is at the same level as mine…’
There was no clear superiority in mastery, but there were still small details, small refinements that Elion took note of, subtle improvements that could still make a difference in battle, and he stored them all away.
Then the next group of seventh years came on, and Elion immediately recognised the aloof girl from the DC, Seraphine, as she stepped onto the battlefield, her presence calm but commanding, and when the fight began, it quickly became clear why she stood out.
She was a water mage, but not just that; she could form ice from her water magic, shaping it seamlessly in battle, creating sharp constructs mid-fight and forming glaciers beneath her feet that allowed her to glide across the battlefield with smooth, controlled movements that made her incredibly hard to pin down.
Her opponent struggled to keep up as she controlled the flow of the fight, her attacks precise, her mobility overwhelming, and in the end, she won cleanly.
Elion leaned back slightly, his thoughts turning.
’So it’s possible…’
Water magic to ice conversion. It opened possibilities for him.
Soon enough, the rotation returned to the first years, and Elion’s number flashed, indicating that it was his turn to go up, and he stood up calmly, glancing at the girls briefly.
“I’m up.”
Aria nodded. “Already? Don’t take long.”
Mira smiled. “Good luck, have fun.”
Elion gave a small nod and walked out into the tunnel.
When he stepped onto the platform, he immediately noticed something strange.
His opponent… was not from the academy. So she had to be one of the exterior entrants. He had seen a few already, but all of them had been disappointments.
She stood across from him, a strikingly beautiful and curvy young woman with olive skin and cherry red lips, her black hair flowing behind her, and she wore a red qipao reinforced with light armour, and in her hands were a pair of twin sabers that gleamed faintly under the light.
But what stood out the most was her expression, because she looked angry, genuinely angry, and Elion couldn’t understand why.
He raised a brow slightly and spoke casually.
“What could have possibly angered a beauty such as yourself?” He mused with a teasing smile, “Surely it could not have been me?”
His voice was loud enough for her to hear clearly, but unlike most girls his age, she did not blush or react shyly as he thought she would; instead, her expression only darkened further, and her grip on her sabers tightened slightly.
The proctor raised his hand.
“Begin!”
She moved instantly.
Fast.
She dashed forward, closing the distance in a blink as her sabers came down in a clean, decisive strike aimed to end the fight immediately, her black hair trailing behind her as the wind followed her movement.
Elion had not even taken his sword out of storage yet.
To everyone watching, it looked like he had been caught completely off guard and had been too slow to react, and the proctor was already beginning to raise his hand, preparing to stop the match before it ended badly for Elion.
But then, Elion moved.
Clang!