The requirement for moving onto the semi-finals is to win at least three matches, which is the reason for the decline in participants, or really the more space available within the transition rooms that Elijah is happy about.

  His entire group Including Niko, was still standing, and had yet to lose a single match. Novius’ name was the first of the group to appear on the board, while Elijah’s and everyone else followed.

  In the end, Elijah’s imagination paved his way to victory. The longest fight was with a wind mage because instead of going all out, he chose to observe while focusing on defense. The wind mages emotions got the better of him as he began to leave himself wide open over and over again. Elijah made sure not to take the first opportunity, but instead one of the last opportunities before the poor kid ran out of breath, not mana.

  Two spells were casted one after the other. A wave of water that was sent directly towards the wind mage, and a simple wall of water that toppled on top of his opponent and sent him outside the arena only to be knocked out from not breathing.

  One disadvantage that every contest had within the arena was when an attack from another fight interfered with their own fight. No warning was given to Elijah as it was uncontrollable, but if it were to intentionally occur, it would be an immediate disqualification.

  Chatter amongst the group stopped when Emery and his subordinate Bell, walked over to the group.

  “What do you want Emery…” Novius didn’t bother staring, and solemnly voiced his question.

  “We aren’t here for you, only Elijah.”

  No words were spoken from Elijah, but the turn of his head that looked towards the board confirmed everything.

  Bell Saurswift versus Elijah Veran.

  Side by side, the two walked out without a single word. The tension felt like the opposite of two magnetic poles because of the silent hatred they had for each other. A water mage thinking they can be a combat mage, and a privileged noble thinking the kingdom is their oyster.

  “GO!”

  Bell didn’t waste a single moment and began a barrage of wind blades that he threw forward with alarming speed. While slowly taking steps forward, Elijah moved his free hand with a water shield attached to his palm and blocked as many wind blades as he could with the flat side of his sword.

  During the daytime, these wind blades were slightly hard to see, and were only blockable if enough surface area was able to stop a portion of the attack. Composed of air, they imitated wind as they were thrown. Each block sprayed a small amount of wind into his eyes making it difficult to not blink. As he closed in on his target, small slashes of wind against his arms and legs caused him to shake his head in pain.

  However, one fact about Elijah is how he is always thinking about the future — as if a wheel of time fueled by his imagination played a movie in his head. Water appeared underneath Elijah’s feet and quickly moved him to the left in an arc. Elijah knew he couldn’t stab or slice the head off of Bell, but instead used his momentum to deliver a left-handed punch aimed right at the chest.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Bam!

  Contact was made, but not with what he had hoped for. A burst of wind came from Bell's left hand that slightly clouded his vision before contact, and instead of hitting Bell’s chest, his shoulder was hit instead.

  Dirt and stone covered the light clothes of Bell as he stood up. His right shoulder was clearly injured.

  Elijah was not terrified for his life by any means, but was worried Bell’s unwarranted hatred would cause him to receive some illegal hits. Cautiously, Elijah began creating and slowly expanding a ball of water. With his sword in his right hand, and his water ball behind his body in his left hand, he advanced with desire to stop whatever was about to be created.

  Towering above Bell’s head was his left hand raised to its highest point. A torrent of wind was being concentrated, and with a single wave of his hand, it was released. Preemptively, Elijah turned his ball of water that had now become the size of his chest into a shield that laid a couple feet above his head.

  ‘This is gonna hurt…’

  The instant the torrent of wind collided with the shield of water, Elijah let go of his control and rode the waves of water created by his feet. A tornado had built up within an ocean, and breathed down Elijah's neck as he traversed the unstable environmental winds.

  A quick thought came into Elijah’s mind. ‘He is using my magic against me.’

  “HAHAHAHA! IT’S POINTLESS TO KEEP FIGHTING! EVERYTHING YOU DO WILL ADD TO MY SPELL!!”

  ‘This guy is really something special huh? But with that large spell that you keep wasting mana on, it leaves you wide open…’ Beneath Elijah’s feet was a pool of mana slowly concentrating. Knowing Bell would not be able to see behind his own uncontrolled spell, it was the only option.

  Within just a few seconds, Elijah had rode his arc of water while also adding more speed with his flight ability — only enough for spectators to think he had used a lot more mana than necessary.

  The heartbeats of both of the children eyeing for the top were thumping violently within their chests. A single slash of Elijah’s sword caused Bell’s hold of the tornado to be released due to his focus of blocking a sword flying towards his face.

  “BE CAREFUL!” The ref saw everything, and assumed Elijah had gone for something more than a knockout.

  In reality, Elijah’s sword had involuntarily left his grasp after a moment of readjusting his grip, and naturally moved towards the rotating winds.

  Seconds later, Bell was being thrown in circles as a wave of water coalesced around his body. Victory was assumed, but when the water exploded into a radiance of turbulent winds, Elijah was forced to block his own water from clouding his vision.

  Elijah looked back to his first fight with a wind mage and how different Bell and Taylor fought. The difference was crude and was clearly the reason why Bell was powerful.

  Bell had adapted to fighting against humans.

  Knowing this was more than likely going to be a match with time to recuperate afterwards, he did not even think about how much mana he expended.

  “GET HIM!!” While the arena stands were practically empty, there were a few people who had access to watch. Nobles and council members. Within the stands in the very front row close to where Elijah’s match was taking place was a singular person.

  Adorned in a long purple robe with straight black hair that fluttered in the excess wind, was Maeve Saurswift. Her curved smile began to return while witnessing Bell regain control of his spell.

  Elijah’s attacks as a water mage were very limited in the fact they had no momentum besides the pushing force. There was nothing to be done with a large area of effect attack like the one Bell had surrounding him besides running away.

  Slowly but surely, the tornadic waterspout was lifted to reveal the wide grin on Bell’s face before the hand had gestured its release. The last scene Elijah saw as he began running horizontally was Bell’s finger pointing towards his face. What came after him brought back the memories of the whirlpool, only this time, the whirlpool transformed into a slithering snake with a hole that led to the other side of its body.