"Hal!!" exclaid two young ladies in unison.
The crowd, on the other hand, cheered wildly as blinding lights covered the entire stage, making it difficult for everyone to see what was happening.
All they knew was that Hal Fennec had been consud by his own light.
Slowly, the light spell dissipated, revealing the body of a young man.
Everyone watching froze at the sight.
Lying on the ground, in Hal’s position, was not the freshman but the top sophomore, Vyse Vandralis.
"What?!" the majority exclaid in utter disbelief, clutching their heads in bewildernt.
"H-Heavens!! What are we witnessing?! Apparently, it wasn’t Competitor Hal who was annihilated by his lights, but the darkness elent wielder, Competitor Vyse! How did this even happen?! Instant replay!! Operators, we need a slow-motion replay!"
Akari was losing her mind in excitent and curiosity.
She wanted to know how Hal had turned things around.
Heck, even the replay operator was scrambling to figure out what had just happened, working his magic and playing the replay a mont later on the huge holographic screen above the main stage.
The recording began with Hal unleashing a Radiant Decimation upon Vyse, who absorbed the attack with Dark Reversal and initially ca out on top in the exchange.
The plate of darkness managed to withstand the light spell’s power, viciously firing it back at its caster the next mont.
This was when the replay slowed to a fourth of its original speed.
The [Radiant Decimation] slowed to a crawl in the eyes of the onlookers, inching its way toward Hal.
Then, just as the annihilating lights were about to make contact with him, Hal suddenly disappeared, replaced by a wide-eyed Vyse.
Akari was young, and her experience in comntating battles and knowledge of spells was limited.
So, the older and more experienced Jhow took over and explained what had happened:
"S-Spatial Swap!! Competitor Hal outwits Competitor Vyse, using the Spatial Swap spell at the last second to reverse their positions! What a display of cunning from the dark horse! In a stunning turn of events, the freshman Hal Fennec pulls off an upset and eliminates the Grand Magic Academy’s top representative and fifth seed, Vyse Vandralis!"
The crowd thundered with cheers and applause at the explanation.
Most were now aboard the Hal Fennec Dark Horse Express after the display of wits and depth.
While most of the bandwagoners could only regret not being bold or crazy enough to bet on him making the top eight, the few who did were on cloud nine, making a fortune off their insane impulse.
One would have to have a few screws loose to bet on an unknown freshman, after all.
It wasn’t only the regular audience that was in disbelief.
The people watching from the Gaora VIP Hall approached and congratulated Korvus and Isolde one by one, though the frown on the latter’s face only deepened with each greeting, each one a reminder of her deputy’s blunder.
Everyone was still unable to move on from the massive upset even after a minute had passed, and most remained dazed as the seventh battle began between another dark horse, the originally twenty-eighth seed Fernan Fidomar, and the sixth seed, Amir Aghanim.
Fernan, from the barely-holding-on Fidomar Wizardry Clan, was a Fire Elental Wizard whose mana-bound artifact granted his fire spells a solid sixty-five percent boost in power and allowed his flas to evolve into a rarer type known as Soulfire, tying his very soul to his flas.
He could ignite a portion of it to trendously increase their temperature, turning them blue in exchange for enduring the ntal burden of having his very soul burn.
There was no permanent damage to him whatsoever.
However, the sheer ntal fortitude and grit required to wield this power were no joke, and Fernan would certainly need to use it if he wanted to stand among the special few.
Amir, on the other hand, was an extrely rare Battle Augur who excelled in physical enhancent spells.
This was why the seventh match of the top sixteen gradually pulled everyone’s attention away from Hal’s victory.
Fernan’s blue flas raged across the stage, posing a serious problem for the brawler-type wizard and preventing the sixth-seeded Amir from launching a reckless onslaught of fists and feet.
After a series of explosive exchanges on par with Hal and Vyse’s battle, the match edged closer to its conclusion.
The sixth seed from the Aghanim Wizardry Clan suffered severe burns across parts of his body.
On the other hand, the dark horse bore a few broken ribs and a crushed left hand.
But in the final clash, it was ultimately Fernan’s flas that burned brighter, devouring and eliminating Amir from the tournant just before the latter’s lethal fist could reach the forr’s face.
Another dark horse had advanced to the top eight, throwing the entire arena into pandemonium.
The crowd showered the victorious young master of the Fidomar Clan with glorious cheers and thunderous applause.
Everything Fernan had suffered was well worth it.
With this, he had surely secured much-needed support from a few of the empire’s higher-ups.
He had finally done his clan proud and saved them from their desperate situation.
Inevitably, though, the cheers died down, and it was ti for the final battle to decide the top eight.
A white-haired young maiden, who should have long been eliminated from the tournant, ascended the stage with a composed expression.
Across from her stood a tall, handso young man with brushed-up indigo spiky hair, a ring earring on his left ear, a toned physique, and a deadpan, aloof expression.
This was most certainly Liora’s most difficult battle yet.
While she was already satisfied with a top sixteen finish, the maiden planned to fight Felix Dargon to her heart’s content, believing it was a once-in-a-lifeti chance to hone her skills.
It wasn’t every day that one got to have an all-out fight with such a high-profile individual.
Arriving at the center of the main stage, Felix cast a lazy glance at her before his eyes wandered elsewhere.
Liora naturally didn’t appreciate being looked down on, but she also understood that the slightly older youth was qualified to act this way.
After all, even if you flipped the empire upside down, there would only be a few dozen wizards specializing in Void Magic—and among them, not a single one possessed a mana-bound artifact that provided a staggering one hundred twenty percent boost in that particular elent like Felix.
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