Chapter 183: Phase II Tournament Continues
Chapter 183: Phase II Tournament Continues
The tournament moved forward without delay. Over the next several hours, the floating big screen announced the inter academy matches between Beacon Academy and Heather Academy.
Unlike the high level matches involving Aether and Void, these fights were long, grueling, twenty minute wars of attrition.
The students from Beacon and Heather did not possess transcendent traits or cheat rings, but they fought with desperate, bloody determination.
In Match Seven, a Year 4 Fire user from Beacon Academy faced an Ice user from Heather Academy. For twenty excruciating minutes, the arena was turned into a cloud of scalding steam and melting frost.
Both fighters pushed their mana pools to total exhaustion, throwing fire spears and freezing needles at each other until their skins were blistered and bloody.
In the end, the Beacon student managed to land a desperate, close range fire punch that knocked the Heather fighter out of the ring, securing Beacon’s single victory of the day.
Matches Eight, Nine, and Ten were a complete disaster for Beacon Academy. The remaining Heather Academy students brought heavy Earth, Ice, and Lightning affinities to the stage.
They systematically dismantled Beacon’s fighters in grueling, bloody battles that left the arena floor stained dark red. Bones were broken, armor was shattered, and stretcher after stretcher carried broken, bleeding students toward the infirmary.
High up in the stands, Emily turned her head away from a particularly brutal exchange where a Heather Earth user crushed a Beacon student’s arm under a heavy stone slab.
"This is so violent today," Emily murmured, her face a bit pale. "They aren’t even holding back a little bit."
"They can’t hold back," Isabel replied quietly, her calm eyes tracking the medics on the floor. "This isn’t a friendly school match anymore. Everyone knows the Void Blessed Academy is wiping out anyone in their path. The other academies are fighting for their lives just to qualify for the next round."
Down in the Aether enclosure, Lynx stood with his hands resting casually in his trousers pockets. His heterochromatic eyes, one bright or deep blue depending on the circumstances, one clear silver, watched the blood being washed off the stone stage by the Void Empire workers there.
Beside him, Lira Verne clutched his arm gently. Her green hair rested over her shoulder, and her lush, voluptuous body was pressed against his side.
Her wide hips and full bust in her petite frame made her uniform top tight. She looked up at his handsome, calm face.
"Lynx," Lira whispered softly, her green eyes filled with concern. "The Void students... their aura feels different today. When I look at them across the floor, it feels like I’m looking at wild beasts."
Lynx reached down, his fingers gently squeezing Lira’s hand to reassure her. A small, confident smile appeared on his lips. "That’s because they are wearing cheats, Lira. Those obsidian rings on their fingers are pumping external energy into their bodies, multiplying their baseline strength by four times. They think they are gods right now."
Kira Lewis stepped up on Lynx’s other side. Her deep orange eyes flared with anger, her sharp tongue itching to speak. "If those Void bastards try using those cheap rings against us, I’ll burn their faces off. I don’t care if their stats are four times higher. A cheat is still a cheat."
"Be careful, Kira," Ava Musk said, stepping forward. Her cold blue eyes narrowed as she looked toward the Void enclosure. "Kimberly Vane hasn’t even used her full power yet, her base strengths were already ridiculous. If you get matched against one of their top seeds wearing a ring, you won’t have time to burn anything unless you fight from step one."
"Ava is right," Lynx said, his voice dropping into a serious, low tone that made all four of his girls look at him instantly. "I don’t want any of you trying to be heroes. If you face a Void student wearing that ring, give it everything you have from the very first second. Fight dirty, fight hard, and if you are in real danger, do not hesitate to fall back. I will handle the rest."
Before Kira could fire back another witty comment, the main arena horn blasted across the stadium once again, making the stone walls vibrate.
The big floating screen overhead flickered violently, glowing with deep blueish letters as it displayed the first matchup for Day 3.
MATCH ELEVEN: LIRA VERNE - AETHER BLESSED ACADEMY VS. JAMES SHANTEL - AETHER BLESSED ACADEMY
The entire almost two thousand people crowd gasped as the names appeared on the board.
In the Aether enclosure, silence fell like a heavy stone.
James Shantel, Julian’s second escort, sneered as he saw his name next to Lira’s. He looked over at Lira’s thick, curvy figure and laughed under his breath, crossing his arms. "Looks like I get to put Lynx’s little wind girl in her place tomorrow."
Julian Frostborne didn’t laugh. He stared directly at his own name, placed right next to Lynx Azarion. His ice blue eyes shook with a mixture of deep, burning jealousy and bitter rage.
He had waited for this moment, a chance to crush the Year 2 upstart in front of the entire empire, to prove to Queen Eleanor and the rest of the world that he was the true King of Aether Blessed Academy.
Lynx turned his head slowly, his heterochromatic eyes locking onto Julian across the enclosure.
He didn’t release a single drop of his transcendent aura, nor did he leak any bloodlust, because he knew that if he let his true aura loose in this enclosed stadium, half the students in the stands would die instantly from the sheer pressure.
Instead, Lynx simply offered Julian a lazy, breathtaking smirk.
"Get ready, Julian," Lynx murmured quietly, his voice carrying clearly across the quiet enclosure. "Tomorrow, you find out what happens when you play king in my world."
-————-
The third morning of the tournament broke with a cold, biting mist hanging over the grand stadium. The sky was grey.
Two hundred thousand spectators roared from the spectators area, their pounding feet making the massive arena vibrate like a drum. The stone floor was still dark from yesterday blood.
High up in the regular spectator stands, Isabel, Amira, Eira, and Emily sat close together on the long stone bench. Emily leaned over the stone wall, her eyes glued to the arena floor below, hands tight on cold stone.
"Look, Lynx is down there with Lira and Kira," Emily said. "Lira is going up against that Year 4 guy from Julian’s group first!"
Amira adjusted her position on the bench, keeping her eyes sharp. "James Shantel. He’s an S Rank Lightning user. Lira has the advantage in fluid speed, but if she takes a direct hit from his electrical output, her wind defenses will collapse. She needs to stay close."
Down in the Aether enclosure, Lira tightened the green braid hanging over her shoulder. Her dark blue academy uniform hugged her lush, voluptuous figure, her wide hips and full curves and massive round ass drawing plenty of stares from nearby students.
Her heavy bust made the top tight. She turned to Lynx, her green eyes shimmering with quiet resolve.
"He called us ’decorations’ back in the main hall," Lira said softly, her hands resting on her hips. "I’m going to make him take every single word back."
Lynx reached out, his long fingers gently patting Lira’s cheek with a calm smile. "Don’t just make him take it back, Lira. Break his posture. Show him that a Year 4 rank means nothing when your affinity comprehension flows like water. You are faster than him if you stay fluid."
Across the bench, James Shantel cracked his knuckles, a smug grin plastered across his face. Sparks of blue lightning flickered around his fingers and up his forearms. "Don’t worry, Julian," James sneered, adjusting his collar. "I’ll handle Lynx’s girl in five minutes. I’ll show this crowd why Year 2s are Year 2s even if it’s Lynx girls."
Julian Frostborne didn’t reply. His ice blue eyes were fixed completely on Lynx, his jaw clenched tight in bitter anticipation. His hands were cold with Ice mana.
The horn sounded, calling both fighters to the center of the ring.
MATCH ELEVEN: LIRA VERNE - AETHER BLESSED ACADEMY VS. JAMES SHANTEL - AETHER BLESSED ACADEMY
The translucent barrier hummed to life around the massive stone platform, sealing the two inside. James stepped forward, his body instantly surging with bright blue electricity that cracked loud.
He didn’t wait for a formal greeting. The moment the referee’s hand dropped, James blasted across the stone floor, leaving scorched black boot prints behind.
"Lightning Palm!" James roared, thrusting his right palm forward as a thick bolt of concentrated electricity shot toward Lira’s chest, aiming to burn straight through her.
Lira didn’t panic. Her Wind Affinity flared within her mana circuits, and her blessing, Zephyr Step, ignited instantly. Silver light bled from her ankles up to her knees, completely erasing the natural air drag around her body and making her feel weightless.
She didn’t dodge backward. She stepped into the air currents created by James’s incoming lightning blast. To the crowd, she looked like a leaf caught in a gale, effortlessly sliding millimeter by millimeter past the roaring bolt of electricity, her hips twisting, her ass shifting as she turned.
BOOM!
The lightning bolt slammed into the barrier behind her, spraying hot sparks across the stage and leaving a black burn mark.
Before James could pull his hand back, Lira was already in his personal space. Her emerald eyes were cold and focused.
She rotated her hips, driving an open palm wind strike straight into James’s diaphragm, using her whole body weight.
Compressed Burst!
BANG!
A localized shockwave of dense air exploded against James’s chest armor. The sheer kinetic impact shattered his lightning shroud, knocking the air clean out of his lungs and sending him skidding thirty feet backward across the cracked stone, boots scraping.
James coughed violently, blood dripping onto his blue uniform. His face turned a deep, embarrassed purple. "You little bitch!" he screamed, his mana surging out of control as he forced his lightning into a wide area shockwave around his body.
For fifteen intense minutes, the stage became a continuous war of elemental pressure. James threw violent, wide range lightning arcs across the arena, trying to force Lira into a corner.
He made lightning spears and threw them fast. Blue electricity cracked everywhere and left burn marks on stone.
But Lira’s movement was pure flow. She didn’t overthink her paths, her Zephyr Step allowed her to ride the heat waves and air pressure of James’s own attacks, executing zero delay turns that left James striking empty air.
She slid, she ducked, she spun, her voluptuous body moving like wind itself, her thighs flexing, her hair whipping.
She cut him three times with sharp wind blades to his shoulders and thighs. Blood poured down his arms. She kicked him in ribs with wind foot and he coughed more blood.
By the eighteen minute mark, James was panting heavily, his mana pool severely depleted, his lightning reduced to weak, flickering sparks on his hands. His uniform was torn and bloody.
"Is that all your Year 4 power?" Lira asked quietly, her body light on her toes despite her own breathing being heavy and sweat on her forehead.
James lunged forward in a desperate, wild punch, putting all last mana into his fist. Lira feinted left, forcing James to overcorrect his balance, then slipped underneath his raised guard like a silent breeze.