Chapter 756: Chapter 756: Speedrunning Through The Competition
The continuous victories using a re second-year duo hadn’t gone unnoticed. So far, of all the colleges, Dark Moon was the one to keep most of their top 5 players concealed.
The others have only had an opportunity to get info on 2 participants so far. Well, technically 3. But Ren (?)…Reese (?)…Red (?), whatever his na was, was easily forgotten by everyone (including the author) and so next to no information had been collected on him by the end of the match. Even when people would attempt to rewatch past Dark Moon matches, they would often forget to watch the ones he was in, imdiately forget the details of said match as they watched—making it difficult to take notes on—or even fall asleep during the segnts where he appeared.
While most tournant watchers had already expected Dark Moon to advance, the manner in which Kain and Serena (and Reed!) had dismantled their opponents left many wondering if this was the year First Celestial’s reign at first would finally co to an end. Certainly, if not this year, then the next, when Cassian Lysander has graduated.
The thought sank the hearts of many First Celestial fans watching.
Unfortunately, the match against First Celestial wasn’t next.
No, the next opponent was from Glacial Crown College—a school from the Northern Province with a fearso na, but a reputation that was… underwhelming. Despite managing to scrape their way into the Top 8 this year, they were clearly outclassed.
Kain didn’t even need to use his full strength against the first two opponents, but still chose to step down.
Serena had gone next, sweeping through the next two opponents in a flurry of precise, elental attacks. Her ice was colder, her illusions more refined, and the way Prismarin sent them scurrying around in a comical manner, chasing its illusions, made it clear just how large the gap in class really was.
Reed followed up with his usual understated approach. By the ti the final, strongest, opponent realized who they were fighting, they were already sprawled on the arena floor, wondering how gravity had turned against them.
PrematureFinisher barely caught it.
PrematureFinisher: “Okay, I swear this guy is literally just… skipping forward the match. Like, how do you fast-forward in real life?! Does he have a ti-related gift?”
VoidInTheChat: Every ti I watch this Reese guy’s matches, I feel like my brain is stuck on a loading screen 💀
StillReelingFromKain: Where’s the fight?? Where’s the struggle??
CrownDownBad: I didn’t expect them to win but… ouch. They perford way worse than the last College.
Dark Moon’s win was never in doubt.
Then ca Frozen Sun. Their first match-up against a top 5 college.
On paper, this match should’ve been a challenge. Frozen Sun had been climbing in rank steadily the past couple of years after implenting their plan to better nurture the incoming students, and their lower-year talent had earned them plenty of attention in Phase One. But talent didn’t always scale evenly.
Their fourth-years—the ones filling most of the Top 5 slots—lacked the explosive talent, growth and refinent of the younger generation. Maybe they had grown complacent with their current status of safely being in the top 5 colleges and not striving for more. Maybe the school simply hadn’t invested in them as aggressively so they couldn’t strive for more even if they wanted to.
Either way, Kain barely felt the difference between fighting Frozen Sun’s fourth years and their second years—the main difference being the number of blue-grade spiritual creatures they had due to the ti accumulated. But each of their blue-grade spiritual creatures was less difficult to deal with than Arlen Cirae, whom Kain fought against in the 1v1 match in Phase One of the tournant. Certainly, if Arlen had even just one more blue-grade contract, he would have qualified to displace this fourth-year in the top 5.
He and Serena dismantled all three of Frozen Sun’s fourth-years on their own
However, the third years, despite being younger, were stronger than their seniors, and so Reed boarded the stage again to close out the match.
Overall, the first match between the top 5 for Dark Moon, was not as close as they, or the audience, had expected.
Top8JustTop5: the difference is crazy
SerenAndKain: the gap in talent is NOT fairrrrr
The next match, against Starfire College, was different.
Unlike Frozen Sun, Starfire’s Top 5 was built from four fourth-years and one prodigious third-year. They were strong. Aggressive. Relentless. And for the first ti in Phase Two… Kain saw the possibility of a slip.
Serena went first, but had to expend more effort than expected to bring down her single opponent. A surprising number of counterasures had been prepared specifically for her contracts. Not to ntion due to not having a fifth contract yet, and strategically keeping Balens hidden, Serena had been fighting at a severe nurical disadvantage for the majority of Phase Two—often only her 3 against their 5. With her overpowered gift of inexhaustible spiritual power, she was able to even the playing field by exhausting her tougher opponents. But long drawn-out battles were also physically and ntally taxing for herself and her contracts—and she did not have an unlimited amount of ntal strength.
Her ntal strength went especially fast since, due to the nurical disadvantage, she had to constantly be on her toes and think of new ingenious thods of using her contracts skills to beat back the stronger opponents.
She still won, of course—but she was visibly exhausted when she stepped off.
Kain was slotted second and t a contract specialist with spatial mobility and reflective shields. A bad matchup since most of his contracts were unable to attack them physically. Even with Vauleth burning hot, and the Vespids adapting their formation, Kain was pushed to the edge of losing. Only Bea’s last-minute burst to pierce their ntal shields and impede their responses to attacks was able to turn things around.
Third up was Reed.
And for once, soone had co prepared.
Starfire’s third opponent had studied gravity types before. And while Reed’s figure was blurred during the matches, and this extended to his contracts, the higher-level professors could ignore the effects of his gift enough to at least rember that they mostly all seed to be related to gravity.
This opponent’s contracts were of the earth-attribute and had their own skills to minimize the effects of gravity. The match dragged on nearly six minutes—an eternity in Reed-ti—but eventually, the Sinkmaw Tortoise’s gravitational zone stabilized long enough for the other contracts to land finishing blows on all the opponents. To date, Reed had only summoned 5 contracts, making Kain curious on if he had a sixth as a 6-star beast-tar. Like him and Serena, it seed that everyone was holding sothing back in preparation for the match against First Celestial.
He eliminated another, leaving Dark Moon up 4-3 with just one opponent remaining.
This was by far the closest match of Dark Moon’s so far, and the first ti a fourth team mber would be taking the stage.
Appearing for the first ti in Phase Two.
Theo stepped lightly into the spotlight. He offered no flashy entrance—just a simple wave that seed to have a strange effect of hypnotizing the viewer unconsciously.
The crowd went quiet briefly before breaking out into even louder chatter.
As one of the 9-star beast-tars made public, everyone in the empire knew of Seraphina Mindshade. If they didn’t, then they were definitely a spy.
Looking at this young man’s similar dark brown skin, violet eyes, grey-violet tinged hair, and ability to induce a ntal effect on the viewer with a casual wave of his hand… even without the infamous Mindshade na on the scoreboard, everyone watching would have known who he was related to.
What followed wasn’t just a victory.
It was practically a lecture on how to use ntal attributes, spiritual creatures and tear down the opponent’s ntal defences efficiently.
Even Bea, prideful as she was, didn’t get recalled into the star space and instead watched the battle with Kain, internally taking notes.
In less than a minute, Starfire’s last mber had forfeited with hands raised and face pale.
Dark Moon advanced again.
SeraphinasAdoptedChild: Ahhh, the Mindshade lineage carries on!
MirrorMirror: what was that skill?? ntal attribute attacks are so annoying to watch since you can’t see them working!
IHeartTheo: I FEEL LIKE HE WAS HOLDING BACK FOR A REASON 🥵
Their only remaining non-top-five opponent—Silver Sky College—barely warranted a ntion.
Kain didn’t even fight.
Serena went first. Reed finished it. Theo napped. Jade drank tea and made a comnt about being the team mascot at this point.
All five matches were over in ten minutes flat.
And then…
The final match.
First Celestial.
The crowd knew it. The announcers knew it. Everyone in the livestream chats knew it.
This was the real fight.
The one they’d all been waiting for.
Not just because of rankings.
But because of pride.
Because First Celestial hadn’t taken the close call to losing their first-place position last year very well. They’d ended in first place, but it was too close for comfort.
They were used to dominating victories over all the other colleges with an overwhelming skill gap.
However, to their horror, this year could very well be their last year in first place for so ti.
Looking at the current trend among the underclassn, Dark Moon with Serena and Kain are projected to secure first place until they graduate.
But even more worrying, the extrely talented Frozen Sun younger generation may end up bumping First Celestial to third.
Heck, after Serena and Kain graduate, many are predicting that it will be the beginning of a new era where one school dominates…
Not First Celestial’s. Not even Dark Moon’s. But Frozen Sun’s.
Until that new era dawned, both Dark Moon and First Celestial were hellbent on racking up every last win they could.
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