“GOOD luck, Prince Zeke!” shouted Sasha from the spectator seats.
Zeke was fighting against a third year named Terios Flandel. He was the son of Viscount Flandel of the royalist faction. His equipment consisted of full plate armor, a tower shield, and a spear, and his skills were optimized for a tank.
The fact that he was taking part in the tournament despite being a third year was because he’d lost last year in the second round. Even so, he’d spent two years training in the Academy, meaning he was not an opponent Zeke could take lightly.
“Prince Zeke, I will not be pulling my punches,” Terios stated.
“I wouldn’t want you to. And I’ll be giving you my all too.”
Zeke was still wearing his half plate armor and using his longsword, but this time he had a mace in the other hand. He was trying out different things in his off hand, but it looked like he’d chosen the mace this time, a weapon that didn’t need much practice to be able to use, to increase his number of attacks.
“Bulwark of Steel!”
Terios activated an intermediate shield skill that blocked attacks coming from head-on, but allowed the user to still attack through it. It coated the shield in mana, creating a bulwark of light.
“Water Missile!”
Zeke cast a tier-one Water element spell. Three compacted bullets of water flew toward Terios, but they were blocked by the glowing wall, resulting in no damage.
But Zeke wasn’t thinking this spell would cause damage. As Terios was busy blocking the missiles, Zeke circled to the side not protected by the wall of light.
“Water Missile!”
Zeke cast the spell again. Terios turned to block them, but Zeke was clearly the faster of the two. Terios wasn’t able to block the third missile, and it struck him square in the back, making damage points appear over his head.
“Not a bad attack. Now it’s my turn,” he shouted. “Stone Spear!”
Stone Spear was a tier-two Earth spell. The ground beneath Zeke’s feet undulated, then extended into a sharp spear point.
Zeke leapt backward, but he couldn’t dodge entirely, so he took damage. He then closed the distance between him and Terios, then swept past his flank.
“Flowing Slash!”
Flowing slash was a beginner one-handed sword skill. Water-elemental mana grew from Zeke’s sword and cut deep into Terios’s side, followed by a series of attacks from Zeke using both his sword and mace. But Terios’s defense was high. The attacks were getting through, but only doing about 20 points of damage each. Terios, of course, countered Zeke’s attacks, dealing damage with both spear and magic.
They continued to exchange blows, the points adding up above their heads. Zeke was hitting more times, but doing less damage, so it was hard to tell who would win.
The audience watched with bated breath as the fight continued. After twenty minutes, it ended at long last when the Special Barrier cracked from the accumulated damage, resulting in Terios’s defeat.
“Well done, Your Highness,” Terios congratulated. “It was my loss. Good luck in your next match.”
“Thank you. It was a really close fight.”
Sasha stood from her seat and applauded. Zeke waved back as he returned to his seat. He looked tired, so he must have been close to running out of stamina as well, but he also looked happy.
“You did it!” Milia cried.
“I did. I somehow pulled off a win.”
“You did a good job all the way to the very end,” I complimented. “It looks like all that trial and error paid off.”
The thing that’d won the fight for Zeke was his high number of attacks. The damage that mace had done wasn’t something to sniff at.
“Yeah. All I’m doing is what I can with everything I have,” Zeke responded.
“You won too, Prince Zeke! Good luck in the second round!” praised Vern with a big thumbs-up and a grin that flashed his pearly whites. He was definitely a bit much.
Next was the last batch of first-round matches.
“Good luck, Sophia. I’m cheering for you,” Milia encouraged.
“Thank you. I’ll give it everything I have.”
Her expression was set with determination as she headed down to the arena.
“Should the fiancée of Prince Eric really be participating in the tournament? I don’t care who you are, I’m not going to hold back.”
Sophia’s opponent was a second year named Cecile Chromia. She was the daughter of Count Chromia, who remained neutral among the factions, and looked rather haughty. Cecile wore her hair in a ponytail, and her equipment was a set of scale mail and a saber.
I knew from Evaluate that her skills were set up to make her a dedicated physical damage dealer. All the spells she could use were support spells.
“I’ll do my best and use this opportunity to practice against a stronger opponent. Please do come at me with everything you have,” Sophia claimed.
She had on her cloth armor and was holding a small sword and a main-gauche. Since Sophia primarily fought using magic, the weapons were for defense.
“I like your attitude. All right, we’ll both give it our all!”
Cecile cast her support spells and then rushed toward Sophia. She kept herself low, ready to react if Sophia threw a spell at her. She seemed pretty used to combat.
“Shadow Thorns!”
Sophia’s tier-two Dark spell created shadows from the ground to grab Cecile, but she leapt to the side out of reach. Her reaction speed and physical abilities were not to be taken lightly.
“Dark Missile! Darkness Spear!”
Sophia let off a series of offensive spells. Cecile reacted, but couldn’t dodge completely, and some damage points appeared above her head. It wasn’t a lot, but the secondary effects of the Dark spells were slowing her down.
“Shadow Thorns!”
Sophia laid on more spells, and this time the shadows wrapped around Cecile.
“Tsk, Sever Magic!”
Sever Magic was an intermediate one-handed sword skill, cutting through magic and allowing Cecile to slash the Shadow Thorns binding her.
“Dark Missile! Dark Missile!”
Sophia followed with another series of attacks.
“Full Recover!”
But Cecile restored all her physical functions with a spell that canceled out debuffs, then dodged Sophia’s attacks. The ones she couldn’t dodge completely, she knocked down with her Sever Magic.
It was hard to slash those spells flying at her at high speed, but Cecile’s physical capabilities and keen senses made it possible. She’d already closed in on Sophia. It was evident that if this turned into a melee fight, Sophia was at a disadvantage.
“Barrier of Darkness!” Sophia cast a defensive spell, forming a cylindrical wall of darkness around her.
“There’s no point struggling!” Cecile shouted as she cut the Barrier of Darkness with her Sever Magic.
But there was a point in Sophia gaining those few moments that the defensive spell bought her.
“Dark Flame!”
The tier-three Dark spell was the one area of attack spell Sophia could use. There was no dodging a point-blank spell.
Black flames rushed toward Cecile, and the damage points above her head ticked up. The Dark-element spell’s additional effects also reduced Cecile’s stats.
But that was all it did.
“Moonlight Blade!”
As a physical attacker, Cecile’s abilities in close combat far exceeded Sophia’s, even with her stats reduced. The damage points above Sophia’s head rapidly increased, then the Special Barrier snapped with a ping.
“I’m sorry, Sophia,” Milia murmured when Sophia returned to her seat.
“I’m not unhappy with that result. I did my best. Now I know exactly how strong I am.” Sophia was smiling, but there was something different about it.