Chapter 187: Reaching the final round

The elegant girl who had seemed completely untouchable only moments before was sent hurtling across the arena, crashing several meters away in a decidedly inelegant heap.

For a heartbeat, the entire platform went silent. Then the crowd exploded.

"What the hell?!"

"He punched her!"

"No, seriously, he actually punched her!"

"Who the hell punches a beauty like this? This bastard must be executed!"

"Ah, shut it. I still can’t believe the talisman guy actually had the guts and abilities to do this!"

"Nah. Girls are weak, dude. He should have had the decency to take the attack like a man."

"Maybe he used another talisman?"

"He is definitely cheating in some way."

The girl rose to her feet, wiping the blood from her lip with the back of her hand. This time, the wooden staff in her grip gave off a faint pulse of mana, and the air around her began to distort.

Ethan’s gaze sharpened. She was clearly preparing to launch some sort of powerful attack. Why the hell would he stand around and let her finish? His hand immediately disappeared into his robes.

By the time the girl lifted her staff, Ethan already had another handful of talismans between his fingers.

The crowd went wild.

"SHAMELESS BASTARD!"

"He’s doing it again!"

"Does this guy have no sense of honor?!"

"Honor doesn’t win fights!"

"Neither does setting your entire fortune on fire!"

Ethan ignored them all. Three talismans ignited at once.

Wind Slice.

Lightning Bolt.

Nature Bind.

The spells erupted almost simultaneously, streaking toward the girl from three different directions.

Ethan immediately pulled out more talismans. The girl’s eyes widened. "You cannot possibly be serious."

"FIVE MORE?!"

"Someone stop him!"

"At this rate the academy store is going to name a building after him!"

Before long, the elegant duel that everyone had expected had turned into something closer to magical bombardment. In the end, the match ended without any surprise. The guy who spammed the talismans won.

The token above the arena immediately flashed.

[Match concluded.]

[Winner: Johnny Vincent]

The spectators stared at the exhausted girl, then at Ethan, and finally at the scattered remains of burned talismans that now covered a considerable portion of the platform like expensive confetti.

A miserable voice eventually drifted down from the stands.

"I hate this guy."

Someone beside him sighed.

"I hate that it works."

The day ended just like that, and the crowd was forced to disperse. Ethan did not plan on returning to his room. He knew that he had somewhat become infamous today, so he ended up in the dungeon portals. Besides, he needed to train more anyway.

He took several short naps inside various dungeons while his army leveled up. The next day arrived soon enough.

By the time morning arrived, Ethan had barely noticed the passage of the night. Unfortunately for everyone else, Johnny Vincent had returned.

And, to the collective horror of the spectators, he still had talismans. A lot of them.

"What the hell?!"

"He still has more?"

"How rich is this bastard?!"

"I thought he would run out yesterday!"

"So did everyone else!"

The second day began almost exactly as the first had ended. Ethan entered his matches, immediately overwhelming his opponents with far more magical ammunition than any reasonable student should have been willing to purchase, and then calmly moved on as though he were doing nothing unusual.

Some students tried rushing him before he could reach for a talisman. They were blasted backward. Others tried defensive barriers. He simply used more talismans.

A few attempted to drag the battles out in the hope that his supply would eventually run dry, only to discover that Ethan seemed perfectly willing to spend an obscene amount of gold purely to prevent that strategy from working.

By the end of the second day, the boos had become considerably louder.

Ethan advanced anyway.

The third day followed.

Then the fourth.

With every passing round, the number of competitors dwindled while the quality of the remaining students rose dramatically, yet somehow the same infuriating pattern continued.

Ethan entered the arena, someone confidently declared that they had figured out how to counter him, several talismans ignited, and a few minutes later Johnny Vincent was announced as the winner.

By that point, practically the entire tournament audience had united around a single goal. They wanted him to lose.

It no longer mattered whether they knew his opponent, supported their faction, or had even heard of them before.

Anyone standing across from Johnny Vincent immediately gained thousands of temporary supporters simply because they represented another opportunity to finally remove the most irritating participant in the tournament.

Which was precisely why anticipation surrounding the final day had become so intense.

The bastard might have bullied his way through the early rounds by throwing money at every problem that appeared in front of him, but the final stage was different.

Only the strongest students in the academy had survived this far, and the remaining competitors were no longer ordinary first-years or mediocre upperclassmen who could be overwhelmed through sheer surprise.

These were monsters in their own right. Students whose names had already spread across the academy long before the tournament began.

Against opponents like these, everyone believed that Ethan’s ridiculous strategy would finally reach its limit. He could carry a hundred talismans, perhaps even a thousand, but there were some differences in strength that money alone could not overcome.

At least, that was what everyone desperately wanted to believe. So when the final day arrived, the stands were packed long before the first match began. For perhaps the first time in the tournament, thousands of students were united in genuine anticipation.

Someone was finally going to beat Johnny Vincent. They were certain of it.

However, the last day had a big surprise in store for everyone. Instead of the matches starting on time, the black-hearted head master arrived. Everyone could immediately feel that something was amiss.

And just like they feared, the man opened his mouth and made an announcement.