Semi-Finals

After everyone got healed from round 1, the next rounds flew by. The matches were intense but there were three people who hardly struggled, Jason, Ivory, and Fiona. 

Eventually, it was the Semi-finals.

Jason was facing a powerful woman who specialized in Wind magic, Maria Snowdell.

Hearing that name, Jason's eyes flashed with a cold glint. The Snowdell family has been causing him so much trouble but it seems that this Maria is unaware of it all. She loves war and has been fighting the Thorkell empire at the border for a long time. She was known as the #1 Genius of her class and generation before Fiona became popular.

She is also the reason why I haven't destroyed the Snowdell family yet, unlike her useless father and brother, the empire still needs someone like this.

He breathes in and then breathes out, now is the time to focus. 

"My apologies your Highness, I have to take you down so I can prove that I'm not worse than that Flamor Woman" Maria says as she gets into a battle stance.

Jason's face twitched, She only sees me as a stepping stone to gain the qualifications to fight Fiona? 

He couldn't believe what he was hearing!

The referee started the match and two blades of win quickly made their way towards Jason.

He quickly reacted with his barrier but it got pierced and almost hit him.

He whistled in surprise, this woman is quite powerful!

More air blades shot towards him and Jason put his hand on his body and made it lighter. He then evaded all the wind blades with grace and elegance while slowly approaching Maria. Maria gritted her teeth and then put her hands out toward Jason.

Jason then felt a huge force suck him in and Maria dashed forward with a punch. 

Jason took a deep breath and then spit out a lot of mana right before the punch landed. He gets hit but the smoke hits Maria's face.

Jason was sent flying back but quickly caught his balance while Maria was left coughing and wheezing. She wasn't sure what that smoke was and her face lowly became sticky.

Her vision starts to get distorted.

"What did you do?" Maria said as she tried to free herself.

Jason didn't say anything and just dashed forward with an attack. 

Maria could barely see him and sent out an air shockwave that expanded in all directions. Jason quickly used his barrier but was still pushed back a bit.

He noticed that Maria was panting a little bit. He smiled and increased the pressure as he dashed towards her again.

 Maria, who could barely see, could still sort of sense where Jason was and punched the air which let out a powerful air force aiming at Jason. 

He quickly dodged and then used some magic to create many mirages of himself around Maria.

Maria, who already could barely see, noticed that there were many different Jasons now surrounding her.

Panic in her heart starts rising as she starts generating more magic on her fists and keeps punching out. She got rid of a good amount of the mirage images but eventually, she felt a sharp pain coming from her blind spot.

Her face contorted in pain as she was sent flying.

She landed on the floor and was nearly passed out. The punch just now affected her internal organs and the pain she was feeling was unimaginable. She wasn't even sure what Jason did to her.

"I thought Fiona was all I had to worry about, how do they even call him a counterfeit prince? He's incredible" Maria thought to herself as her vision started to blur. She passes out and the referee calls the match.

Jason tries to catch his breath, the matches are getting harder and harder but luckily he can still handle it without too many problems.

Catching people by surprise with his new magic is a good strategy but he's unsure if it would work on...

His eyes then glance towards Fiona in the stands. She meets his eyes and then they both slowly look away.

After the crowd finished cheering, the next match started.

Ivory walks forward and stares at Fiona with cold eyes.

As happy as she was for Selena to be doing well, she wanted to avenge her. The hole in Selena's body was too much and Fiona even blasted her in the face at the end.

Can she still call herself a best friend if she lets this slide?

"Fiona, Today, I will make you fall," Ivory said with a cold tone.

"I'll do you just like I did your little friend," Fiona said in a mocking tone.

Fiona has no intention of making fun of Selena, she just doesn't agree with Selena's viewpoint on magic but outside of that, Selena isn't much of a problem or threat to her.

Ivory is the one who actively tries to take her down and thus Fiona would never give her a good face when confronting her. Just because she comes from a better bloodline and uses her dispute with Selena to take the moral high ground and condemn her, it gives Fiona the feeling that on the day she can't suppress Ivory anymore, her smooth life will instantly change for the worse. 

"No, I can't let that happen. I have made it too far to lose to this woman. I'm not a duke's daughter like those two so I don't have a strong background to cover for me if I don't do well. A Marquis house is still powerful but I don't aim for mediocrity, I want to belong to the top!" Fiona says as her eyes get colder.

The referee starts the match and both the girls dash towards each other.

One palm glowed red while the other's palm glowed blue. They both clash as fire and ice converge.

Steam rises up where the two women clashed. They both stare at each other's eyes, many different emotions circulate around their pupils. Selena usually stays in her room and studies but when it comes to the women who represent the class in the open, it has always been Ivory and Fiona. One with the greatest Status and the other with the Greatest Potential. They have been getting compared all the time ever since their first year in the academy.

Fiona usually takes the edge during battles but Ivory wins in many other areas. It is hard to decide who is the better mage when we look at all the factors outside of just fighting. These two women were born to be rivals.

The two finally jumped back and Ivory put her hands together as Icicles formed around her. The icicles then dart quickly toward Fiona who puts her finger out and a small fire beam comes out and quickly melts each icicle. 

Ivory then punches hard towards Fiona and a huge stream of water follows. Fiona uses her shield and cuts the water right in the middle. The water blocks her vision and then her shield then gets pressed with a huge amount of pressure.

She looks and sees the water turned into ice and Ivory is skating on it.

Ivory jumps up and then slams right on Fiona's shield. Fiona jumps back causing Ivory to slam the ice which breaks into many pieces and rises into the air.

Ivory then puts her hands together and the ice stays in mid-air aims at Fiona and then shoots quickly. Fiona's eyes bulge as she spins around quickly and makes a small flame tornado around her. The icicles melt before they reach her and Fiona eventually stops when it is all over.

Ivory stares at Fiona while Fiona stares back while panting and sweating. It is clear that Fiona used more than she should have during that interaction.

She gritted her teeth, she is not sure what happened with Selena and Ivory today. She never had to work this hard to suppress them before. It was never easy but now it's reaching the point where she might need to rely on trickery to win instead of just superior power.

She takes a deep breath and then stomps the floor hard. A piece of the floor rises up and then she hits it towards Ivory. Ivory quickly puts up her barrier but she realizes that Fiona shot many of them at her.

Ivory's shield is getting weaker and weaker. She grits her teeth and then attempts to dodge. She barely makes it as a piece of the attack grazes her hand. 

Fiona dashes towards her with cold eyes.

She jumps up and then slams down quickly. Ivory dives forward to dodge and quickly turns around.

She shoots multiple ice blasts at Fiona but Fiona uses her great reflexes to dodge them calmly.

Ivory grits her teeth, she then quickly puts her hands on the floor and freezes it.

Fiona quickly explodes the area behind her to propel herself towards Ivory. Since she was in the air, she avoided Ivory's attack and then landed a punch straight into her gut.

Ivory's face contorts as she flies back. She's about to land on the floor but freezes ice to make a pathway for her to slide.

She slides and loops around then goes to charge towards Fiona.

Both of them wind their arms back and fill their fist with mana. They then crash towards each other making another explosion. The power was almost equal but Fiona was slowly losing due to the extra momentum coming from Ivory's ice slide. They both get blasted away but Fiona flies back a bit further.

Fiona's face turned gloomy. Ivory is a very big problem. She is losing some confidence.

Fiona takes another deep breath.

"I almost never have to resort to risky moves but it seems you're not a guaranteed win anymore" Fiona says.

"Am I supposed to thank you?" Ivory mocked.

Fiona didn't say a word and then just connects her thumb and index fingers together with both her hands. The gap between her hands starts glowing golden.

The mana within that gap starts cackling and filling up with mana. The density grows stronger and stronger, the aura it gives off is very powerful.

Ivory takes a step back, she's unsure what Fiona is about to do. 

Fiona's hands starts leaving some signs of light burns. It's easy to tell that this magic is very dangerous. The aura keeps climbing and climbing to the point that it's getting unstable.

"Ivory, Begone!" Fiona said lightly and then a huge boom is heard.

A light beam flashes from Fiona's head right towards Ivory.

Ivory quickly slams the ground with all her mana and multiple ice walls appear in front of her like a row of dominos. She then puts up her strongest barrier as the attack starts heading towards her.

Fiona's attack goes hits the first ice wall and it shrinks by a little bit. The attack continues through all the ice walls and shrinks to about half its size before it crashes onto Ivory's barrier. The barrier slowly cracked under the pressure and Ivory attempts to put even more mana into it.

Slowly but surely, the cracks spread and then shatters before blasting Ivory. 

Fiona was super unstable and her hands are covered with intense burns, she can't even move them anymore. Ivory was wobbling after taking the attack, she seems like she could fall at any moment.

"W-what... was... that?" Ivory starts to say before she falls on the floor and passes out.

Fiona fell as well and couldn't move but her eyes were still open. 

The ref looked at the two women and then announced Fiona as the winner.

"Fiona! Fiona! Fiona!"

The crowd cheers as Fiona once more is able to show her dominance in the trio. Her prestige is growing even higher as she became a finalist in this competition.

The medic team took the two ladies in and slowly healed their health.

Jason's eyes was solemn as he recalled the match. That magic Fiona did was close to Light magic. Extremely powerful magic that handles heat so hot that even the user is affected. The risk of self-harm is so high that many people die just trying to attempt to use it. To think she could pull off something like that in such a risky situation.

Jason stared once more at the room Fiona is getting healed at. Very soon, it will be his turn.

He clenches his fist, "There's too much at stake, I cannot lose", he swears silently in his heart.

"Fiona, I will meet you soon at the ring" Jason says as he turns his gaze back to himself and starts focusing on himself.

Next, is the finals!