The Tournament Rewards

"Fighters prepare yourselves...Begin!"

The spear user named Erid Von Tismad did not hesitate to immediately charge at Caxon. The thrusts of his spear were extremely fast but still more than enough to kill Caxon if he was not careful.

Caxon slowly back away as he expertly defended and dodged every strike that came his way.

The strikes came fast and Erid did an expert job of using his spear to create distance making it hard for Caxon to make a counterattack. Any time Caxon found a chance to move forward and try to attack Erid quickly moved up and opened their distance up again.

As the fight continued Caxon began to slow down as if he was fatigued, the distance that Erid's spear was missing him by kept decreasing as Caxon was barely able to block the strikes anymore.

After a long-prolonged battle Erid once more thrust his spear towards Caxon's chest, Caxon tried to block with his sword but instead of deflecting the spear away from his body he was only able to move it to his thigh. His thigh spurted blood as the spear drove all the way through his leg and out the other side.

The judges quickly stopped the fight as Caxon was brought to a medical center. As he was carried off the stage he looked around, first he saw Will standing in shock with teeth clenched in rage. Next, he saw both Alfyr and Alarat both looking at him in a questioning gaze that he ignored.

At the medical center a mage made sure his bone was in the correct orientation before he cast a healing spell that fixed his wounds. Caxon tried to understand the magic that was used on his leg but he was at a loss to what it could be.

After Caxon was dismissed, he made his way back to the arena. As he got there the final battle was taking place. On the stage stood Will and Erid ready to fight.

As Caxon looked at Will he was surprised at what he saw. Although he saw that Will was upset, he failed to realize the severity of his emotions. Will stood staring at Erid with a rage he had only felt once before in his life as he prepared himself for what he must do.

"Fighters prepare yourselves...Begin!"

As soon as the fight began Will sent out three waves from his sword instantaneously two of the waves cut off Erid's ability to dodge leaving him forced to block the strikes. The two attacks on the side would still hit him if he only blocked one of the attacks so he would have to block at least two of them to get past this attack.

Although Caxon was clearly affected by how much mana he spontaneously used he was only a small decrease in his speed. Caxon did not wait to see if Erid would be able to block his attack as he followed up and charged at him with his sword.

However, Erid formed a small wall of fire on his right and used his spear to block the middle water wave. As soon as the attacks clashed his sword was able to destroy the lead wave but his fire shield was destroyed and the wave that continued through was still deadly to him.

At this point Alfyr appeared in between the water wave and Erid to stop the fight.

Alfyr grabbed Will's sword with his bare hands before it could do any damage. As he stood in front of his student, he looked him in the eyes and noticed that the fire in Will's eyes had not gone out yet as he let go of his sword to move past Alfyr and continue his attack. Alfyr was confused by what this student was doing but when he took a moment to look at him, he realized.

Will did not see this as a tournament anymore he was simply on the stage to kill Eird.

Will tried to duck past Alfyr but it was pointless, the teacher was leagues above him in every aspect of fighting. Once again Alfyr grabbed him this time holding Will's fist that attempted to strike Erid.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING? THIS CALM DOWN!"

Will's fury turned to Alfyr after he questioned his motives. As he thought of his own motives Will unconsciously looked at the stands where he was sitting previously.

There he saw, standing in perfect health with no sign of the serious injury he had taken his only friend, the man that reminded him so much of his mother that he couldn't explain it.

Caxon stared back at the strange boy who was ready to face any consequence just to avenge a small wound on his leg. Caxon simply shook his head as he hoped that Will would come to his senses.

Once again, he had thought that maybe, just maybe Will wasn't a participant. Over the last 2 weeks he had come up with a second theory that he was trying to avoid as to not let down his guard or fall for any tricks.

Perhaps Will was really just a severely wounded child, someone who had depended on their mother completely. Until their world was broken when the person who they had loved so much died and now latched their dependent nature onto another person they had just meet.

As Will saw the signal for him to stop he closed his eyes took a deep breath and walked off the stage without saying anything else.

"This fight goes to William Ravilot, now to announce the winners of this tournament!"

As he said this a board with 12 names appeared in big letters above the main stage.

"If your name is shown please make your way down here please."

As the 8 finalists and the 4 defeated students who were determined to have earned the reward arrived at the arena the stage was lowered and was returned to being a flat surface. The students were formed into a formation as they stood in front of the head masters and waited for their rewards.

Xarhan stood as he coughed lightly and began his speech.

"You have all showed immense promise today. Every student here in fact has worked their hardest to achieve what this school was built for, to prepare us all for the harsh world after you leave. I am extremely proud to see so many promising youngsters in the academy that I started so long ago.

With that being said I would like to show everyone that doubts it the truth, that no matter where you come from it is your ambition and hard work that makes someone great. So, I would like all 12 of you to come with me to the Royal Academy where you will learn alongside the nobles of this land and show them that you are not that different from one another."

All of the students cheered as it was a dream to be able to attend the Royal Academy, the finest lodgings, feasts for every meal, learning straight from the finest minds in the kingdom, anything was possible for these students if they went to the Royal academy.

The students who had been cut out tore themselves apart wishing they had worked just a little harder and maybe they could have changed their futures as well.

There was of course one student who wished he hadn't tried so hard; they also tore themselves apart wishing they could have seen through the trap that had been laid for them.

Caxon looked at Alfyr with burning eyes, the teacher just stood leaning against the arena walls with his eyes closed. Until a smile spread across their face as if they had just pulled off an art heist. The teacher opened their eyes just to wink at Caxon before closing them and continuing his laid-back attitude as if he had done nothing.

As Caxon heard the chattering of the students beside him he knew he couldn't just refuse the offer. The attention that would attract would not be anything insignificant, not to mention the fact that if the nobles here decided to take offense to it they may simply kill him on the spot.

Instead he simply slowed his breathing as he made peace with the fact that he could not control everything, plus maybe now he would actually be taught something.