The rest of the deans were in disbelief of the quick match that resulted in a victory for the human Prospects earlier.
“Hmph, that silver-haired girl was sure lucky.”, James mocked.
William’s passion was re-ignited.
`Maybe I doubted these Prospects too much. William, you sure have gotten old and stupid.`, he cursed himself.
He adjusted his posture, bending forward while clasping his hands together, hoping that Sabrina would win this match.
…
Sabrina wore a navy-blue battledress today. The skirt went below her knees while the sleeves went as far as her forearms.
Swing!
She unsheathed her small sword.
Labeled on the cross-guard was the name of her household, ROSSI.
A cold layer emanated from within the sword, cooling the temperature 2 meters around her.
“Heh, what a petite girl, you are!”, the devil named Al’dous commented.
His towering figure pressured Sabrina.
The well-toned and developed muscles.
The red miasma flowing out of his eyes.
And the two-protruding devil-horns that were as sinister as a demon beast.
`Can I win?`, Sabrina asked herself, `I can win! I need to win! So that I could prove to him that I could catch up, and become better than him!`
She gathered the courage and diminished all the pessimistic views she had on her mind.
Al’dous felt the changes in her behavior, making him react with a smirk.
The tail behind him wriggled around.
Nobody knew what it implied.
“Hey, I’ve never seen this guy before. What’s this devil all about?”, Zachariel asked.
Luiz sat up straight and introduced Al’dous to him.
“He’s Al’dous Sal’gin, a devil from the Great Elden Conglomerate.”
“It’s said that he has supreme physical strength and he could blast a 10-meter stone to powder with just a single punch.”
“Rumors spread out that he and Princess Thessalia are great rivals. One is the heir to the Sal’gin Devilish Family, while the other was the princess of the Elden Royal Family!”
Zachariel became interested, `Rivals?`
Seeing the look on Zachariel’s face, Luiz continued.
“I feel sorry for Sabrina though, that guy is really one heck of a powerhouse when it comes to physical strength. I just hope that Sabrina would come out of this match unscathed.”, he said with his mouth twitching.
…
“Are you ready?!”, the announcer loudly asked.
Both of them nodded.
“Well then! The second match begins!”
Bang!
Sabrina made the first move, dashing at Al’dous while sending out an attack.
`Slashing Wave!`
A cold wave was sent out, leaving a cold trail of ice behind its path.
Al’dous stepped back, readying his fists, and threw a punch.
“Good!”
Bang!
The two forces clashed but Al’dous’ fist won.
The residual force continued towards Sabrina.
`What strong qi essence power!`
She was shocked, but threw away the thought and became serious.
Sabrina and Al’dous exchanged swords and fists against one another. Each time they attacked; Sabrina was slowly being pushed back.
Her sword also chipped at some parts and her momentum was slowing down.
Al’dous threw a punch but Sabrina jumped away, landing his fist on the floor.
The force from his punch cratered the ground where his fist landed.
Sabrina sent out a slashing wave.
“Useless! Do better than that!”, Al’dous insulted while punching at the slashing wave.
The fragmented ice mana essences drifted through the air.
Sabrina stomped the platform.
`Frozen Ground!`
Al’dous’ movements slowed down.
He smirked again, forcibly stomping the frozen floor.
The ice sheet cracked, rendering Sabrina’s spell useless.
“If this is all that you’ve got, then step back down now. I don’t want to bully a weak person like you.”
His words infuriated the human spectators.
“What a daring elden Prospect! How about you show us what your fists can do first before saying s*** like that!”
“Yeah, you can’t even hit a weak person like her! You should step back instead!”
Al’dous’ became impatient.
“I’m going to give you five seconds, human.”
“Shut up and fight me! I don’t give a damn about your strength, elden!”, Sabrina immediately replied.
“Well then, don’t blame me for making things hard for you!”
He has yet to finish his words when Sabrina felt a fist land on her lower chin.
“Ah!”
She was thrown mid-air with her hands letting go of her sword.
`Wha-what just happened?`
Something bounded her arms and body, pulling her towards the ground.
Crack!
The ground below her cracked.
She struck deep as she felt her spine and back aching severely.
Al’dous trampled on her stomach, making her vomit blood.
His last strike knocked out Sabrina.
The courage she had before vanished into nothingness.
Al’dous snorted.
“I told you I don’t want to bully a weak person, but you forced my hand.”
One could feel the guilt in his voice.
He turned around and left without waiting for the announcement.
“Uh…”, the announcer stared blankly at the scene.
Both of them were on equal footing a second earlier, then things turned drastically different the moment Sabrina didn’t concede her defeat.
Healers marched towards Sabrina, carefully inspecting her wounds and injuries.
“How is my granddaughter?”, Leonardo worriedly asked.
“Most of the bones in her upper body are broken, Sir Leonardo. It might take her 2 weeks for at least recover minimally.”, a male healer replied.
He was extremely terrified of Al’dous’ physical power.
`A young man like that could cause destructive injuries like this. And that wasn’t even his full power, was it?`
Sabrina was brought out of the coliseum.
Her defeat dampened the mood of the spectators and William himself.
`Damn the elders. She could’ve conceded defeat earlier and still be in good condition! What a stubborn girl, she was. Definitely the likes of her grandfather.`, William thought.
He glanced at Emperor Marcus.
`He doesn’t care, huh?`
Staring at the indifferent expression on the emperor’s face, William was conflicted in his heart.
`I know that his Imperial Majesty puts much importance to his son’s match, but he should consider the matches of everybody else. If this behavior of his continues, people might become upset over the lack of attention against the other human Prospects in the Imperium.`
Favoritism was the most damnable offense William could do to his students in the Great Magic School.
He had always treated each of them as equals, not daring to praise the talented, nor berate the stupid ones.
However, because of this, he gathered the ire of the noble households, particularly those who were loyal to the emperor, though he garnered praises and gratitude from those who were less talented and from the common families.
On the other side, Matthias sighed.
`Our Prospects are still too naïve. Maybe the fights in the arena have made them complacent.`
He had given them the task to fight in the arena at least 5 times per week.
He even consulted the seniors to look after them.
`Maybe if Zachariel was still here, things would’ve changed for the better.`
Zachariel was the best training partner they could get. Unfortunately, his status limited his interaction with his ex-Prospect buddies.
…
“Achoo!”
Zachariel sneezed, rubbing his nose.
`That devil sure is strong. I wonder if I could fight him sometime in the future.`
Sabrina’s defeat didn’t put him in a bad mood.
He only felt sorry to her for being matched against a formidable opponent like Al’dous.
“Oh, damn. Sabrina was beaten to a pulp? Why would she force herself against someone like Al’dous?”, Luiz complained.
“It’s the pride as a human Prospect, Luiz.”, Luka interjected.
“Pride? Why pride? I think my life is more worth it than my pride.”, he said while putting his hands to his chest.
Luka was at a loss for words.
Luiz had a point, though it was easy to say it than to do it.
Regardless, he let his friend babble out and complain.
Iria no longer hold it and lashed out at Luiz.
“You shut up! Our classmate has been defeated, why can’t you stay put and hope that she would recover fast and well instead?”
“Come on, I’m just speaking out my opinion, okay? No need to be so worked up about it!”
Iria rolled her eyes.
“Whatever…”, she ignored him and went back to his seat.
…
The announcer gulped nervously.
He didn’t know what words to say next.
“Al… all right, everyone!”, he stuttered, “The winner of this match is Al’dous Sal’gin from the Great Elden Conglomerate!”
He took a deep breath and calmed his tensed body.
“Now, for the next match! We have…”
“Helena Summer from the Great Human Imperium! Versus!”
“Veidora Gorforoni from the Great Elden Conglomerate!”
The humans cheered again, though this time, it wasn’t as energetic compared to the previous ones.
“You can do it, Helena!”, Victoria patted her shoulders.
Helena took a deep breath, “Thanks, Victoria. I will win this match!”
Kane snorted on the sides.
`Win my ass!`
…
On the right side of the platform, a tall burly hooded man walked slowly. Each step he took was loud and steady.
His hood had a large horn of a deer attached to it as if it was part of the hood itself.
He held a staff 2 meters long with green swirls appearing on it from time to time. The top of the staff swirled towards inside, with a dark-green ball hanging from it through a thin short thread.
The face underneath the hood emitted a gloomy aura. One couldn’t clearly see his facial expressions as it was darkened to the point that only his eyes could be seen, emitting a yellow-green light.
On his neck was a thick white scarf that covered both of his shoulders.
`So this is a druid, huh?`, Helena carefully observed the massive figure in front of her.
She hasn’t seen one in her entire life. The books’ descriptions were vague, at least from her perspective.
Moreover, his figure didn’t match his age.
A 16-year-old druid, even with just the figure of the body alone, could be similar to any other middle-aged man one could find in the streets.
`Something’s off about this guy.`, Helena thought.
The human spectators were dumbfounded as well, whispering with one another about what happened to the druid below.
On the Elden side, Thalanil palmed his face alongside Elder Gorfo, who massaged his temples as well.
“That Veidora… shouldn’t he use his elder form transformation ability a bit later?”, Thalanil was at a loss.
“Eh, Your Highness, Thalanil, perhaps this could be better than having him walk out on his original form, isn’t it?”, Elder Gorfo took a while to reply.
Thalanil’s eyes twitched.
Veidora’s original form looked like a child who was still in preschool.
`I guess it’s better this way…`, Thalanil sighed.
…
Zachariel asked who was Veidora again.
“People don’t really know much about him, instead of the fact that he’s a druid. That form must be his elder form, as what I’ve remembered from the books.”, Iria chose to answer this time.
“Elder form?”, Zachariel was confused.
“A druid’s original form is way too childish and embarrassing to be shown in public. That’s why they always use their elder form when participating in these matches to look more mature and intimidating.”, Iria replied.
She spoke based on her previous observations when she fought against druids yesterday.
“This elder form must’ve increased their fighting capabilities, right?”, Kaela leaned out and asked.
“Yeah, their affinity to all the primary mana essences increases, making them able to use those mana essences where they haven’t condensed a mana core to store those essences yet.”
Everyone was dumbfounded when they heard her last statement.
“Then aren’t they a bit too powerful?”, Luka wondered how could such a form exist.
“Not really. Even if they can manipulate all the primary mana essences in their elder form doesn’t mean they could use it at will. For example, the dark mana essence would still prove difficult for them to control because of its nature.”, Iria corrected.
Zachariel thought about it and he felt that it made sense.
Otherwise, the druids would’ve ruled the land long ago.
“So, if they mishandled the fire mana essences in the surrounding, they would be exploding themselves instead.”, he remarked.
Iria nodded at his comments.
Because of this, enlightenment dawned upon their classmates, thanking Zachariel for his intelligence.
…
“Are you ready?!”
Helena and Veidora nodded.
Bang!
Veidora quickly lifted his staff with his two hands and struck the ground.
“Nature’s Grasp!”
The ground quaked.
Roots sprouted below the platform and rapidly extended towards Helena.
Helena jumped away, “Rain of Fire!”
The fireballs burned most of the roots Veidora sprouted.
Veidora extended both of his hands, chanting loudly.
“From ashes to life, Nature’s Blessing!”, clasping both of his hands in quick succession, then rotated the staff twice before pointing it at the burnt roots.
The burnt roots started to come back to life, slowly wriggling in place before extending towards Helena again.
The spectators were dazed.
Reviving dead plants back to life was a very advanced skill.
`For this young elden Prospect to do this…`, William shivered.
Helena gritted her teeth in annoyance.
`Then I’ll burn them back to ashes again!`
Veidora calmly observed Helena’s crazy bombing of his roots using her fireballs.
`She’s narrow-minded.`, he concluded.
He extended his left hand, sneakily launching a root underground, targeting the area behind Helena.
While Helena focused her attention on the roots in front of her, she didn’t notice a small root sprouting below her feet.
Veidora gathered his focus towards that small root, infusing a lot of wood mana essence to it.
The large root grasped Helena’s left foot and pulled her underground.
`Wha-what’s going on?!`
Having half of her body sunk below the platform, preventing her from moving.
In less than a moment, several branches pointed at her.
The sudden turn of events dumbfounded the human spectators.
“Woah! We have a winner! Veidora Gorforoni from the Great Elden Conglomerate!”, the announcer shouted.
The humans let out shouts of disappointment, shaking their heads over such a defeat.
Veidora waved his hands, calling back all of the roots, and left the stage without uttering a word.
Helena was helped by the Imperium guards later on.
She sulked and didn’t dare to look above her.
`I lost… again! Why can’t I win?!`, gripping her robe tightly.
Her older brother won before.
Her elder sister even won before too.
Now, as the current generation of the Summer Household’s Prospect, she lost.
It was a big shame in the name of the Summer Household in their long line of Prospects.
Tears fell on her eyes.
Victoria approached her, “Helena…”
She hugged her and slowly patted her back.
Matthias watched the two emotional girls.
`Her sense of inferiority is growing in her heart. We need to do something about this.`
He knew the history of the Summer Household’s previous Prospects. Although some of them lost at some point, the main branch had never suffered defeat, in the case of the annual skirmish event.
He stood beside Helena, looking down with his brown eyes.
“Helena, the pressure of victory shouldn’t be weighed down on your shoulders.”
Helena heard him and stopped crying.
She looked at this face with dumbfounded eyes.
“Sir Matthias…”
“You are different from your elders. You shouldn’t compare yourself to them.”
He turned around.
“If you insist that it is that way, you would only find defeat till the end.”
