The Tournament (Part 2)

"Did you see me?! What did you think?"

As soon as Will sat down, he started to ask Caxon questions.

"Of course, I saw you, I think you have made incredible improvements, since mana is banned during weapons training spars, I have never seen you use mana so I was shocked to see you are so good at it. Although I haven't seen ever fighter, I think it is very possible for you to get first place."

Will's eyes lit up as he smiled but instead of asking Caxon more questions he simply focused his attention on the current battles making sure to keep track of anyone who looked impressive.

More and more fights went on as the two roommates silently watched.

"Arena 1 Caxon Class 1 vs Warrick Sulthen Class 2"

He smiled as this was one of the students that had made a fuss every time, he quit a spar during training and now, he would be able to fight him without risking betraying the character he had built.

"Um, I have never actually seen you fight you will be ok right?"

Right as he was about to leave Will's quite voice leaked out as he was concerned about his only friend. Caxon turned and gave a genuine smile to Will before he left.

"How could I get eliminated before we get to fight together?"

After he said this, it was as if Will's face literally glowed as he felt true friendship for the first time in his life. As he walked down the stairs to the stage he thought to himself.

'Fuck that now that the bracket has been set, I will just lose the round before I face him. But now that he is such a monster building some good relationship with him should help me at some point in the future.'

Caxon now stood on the stage as he looked at Warrick who also wielded a sword across from him.

"Fighters prepare yourselves...Begin!"

The fight did not immediately start as both fighters circled around each other.

"Can't run away this time can you Caxon?"

Warrick taunted as he smiled and sneered while looking for the right time to charge.

Caxon suddenly stopped walking around the arena and simply looked at his opponent, before he raised his arm and gave Warrick the come at me wave with his hand.

Enraged by someone he thought was always to scared and weak to fight anyone else taunting him Warrick charged as fast as he could ready to beat Caxon to a pulp no matter the consequences.

Warrick was faster than he had expected but as soon as he was close, Caxon simply dodged to the side and hit him in the back of the head with the hilt of his sword.

Warrick's momentum carried his now unconscious body clear off of the stage as his face smashed on the ground. For the first time since the tournament had started a victory was meet with total silence, well total silence apart from the one student who was cheering as loud as they possibly could. The crowd eventually recovered but they still gave a confused quiet clap for him.

As Caxon walked off the stage to go back to his seat he saw that Alfyr was standing at the bottom of the steps smiling at him. The two did not say anything to each other as they just returned to where they were before, he went to his seat and Alfyr went back to announcing fights while being sure the judges weren't slacking off.

"As I expect."

Surprisingly Will didn't say much after the fight, he simply acted as though he had never had any doubt in Caxon whatsoever and went back to watching the fights.

After a few more hours of fighting, they had both won one more round each and now only 32 students remained. Luckily the two roommates were set up to fight as the championship if they won ever round which Will could not stop calling destiny as he was very excited for this match.

Caxon was shocked at the overall strength of the remaining 32 students, there were a few left that were still mediocre in his eyes but overall, many students had surpassed his expectations. However, he was almost certain that Will would win no matter what, there was one spear user who could probably give him a good fight which was very surprising to Caxon but he would still lose in the end.

Now only two stages were in use as the fighting got more intense. An earth element mage had combined two of the stages to make one large one so the more impressive students would have more room to move around while they fought.

Then the final 32 started to fight it out. After a few fights Caxon was now up to fight.

Caxon's opponent was a fire user who focused on his element and mana rather than a weapon. This was actually a very common method of fighting in most mages. However, it was rare in the national academy since it was hard for commoners to get the materials that would really help someone like this fight.

This student wasn't even the only one with this fighting style in the tournament but he was definitely the most proficient at it.

"Fighters prepare yourselves...Begin!"

As soon as the fight started, he could sense his opponent gathering a lot of mana at his hands as it quickly turned into fire. He kneeled down on the ground right as the mana was released at him in a fiery ball.

Caxon constructed a sturdy wall of earth in front of him as it blocked the fire. Even from behind the wall he could sense another fireball being prepared.

'How does he have so much mana even I couldn't make such a large attack twice without being exhausted.'

It seemed this student was naturally gifted with having a lot of mana, this would explain why he would sacrifice the time it took learning a weapon to focus on his elemental ability and mana core since that would help him more. If this student was a tad bit lucky and was born into a noble family with mana stones and resources to feed him, he would probably be considered a prodigy.

Unfortunately, as it currently stood, he was just an untrained mage with a lot of mana. As soon as the fire user shot his next attack Caxon detached the wall he was using from the ground and kicked it at his opponent.

Because of the fire in front of him the student wasn't able to see the massive rock flying at him and was force to dive out of the way at the last second.

Before he could even turn on the ground the student felt a sword press against his back as his faced was flat on the ground. Defeated he simply raised his hands above his head in surrender.

Since this fight actually looked like a fight and not just one student knocking the other out the audience happily clapped for Caxon.

As he got back to his seat it seemed as though Will had just gotten on stage and his fight was already starting.