Don's eyes twitched a bit when he saw the old who he had locked contact with disappear. although he did not know who the old man was, the fact that he was observing the exam meant that he was not a bad person, right?
Anyways, he continued to observe the competitions and was not so surprise when he saw his siblings whip the competition. Although his siblings had a tendency to act reckless, they were actually quite calculating. As soon as they sensed their opponents coming to them, they would quickly go through all the possible scenarios of even and pick the best move. It could be said that they were experts at close combat.
Other than his siblings, Don also played close attention to the short chubby kid and the pretty girls with bangs as well. He had noticed that they would talk a lot with his siblings and concludes that they were Elijah and Maryline's new friends.
At first he just watched them to see how strong they were but at some point he started to seriously root for them.
Their styles were quite different from his sister's straight forward explosive close combat and his brother's unpredictable mix martial artist attacks.
The girl with bangs was not stingy in using her earth manipulation skills to her advantage. Instead of closing in on the enemy, she would rather trap them in her web of magic and use her fists for the final blow. Don could not help but shiver whenever she was trap someone's legs.
Out of all the fights, Don had to admit that he loved watching Drew's fights the most. In each battle he would think of a different way to beat his opponent. In one match, He taunted his opponent incessantly, and would continuously evade his opponent with his oddly agile body before he finally landed a huge blow when his opponent became exhausted. In another match, He used his innate earth abilities to cover his arms in rock and completely overpowered his opponent who was 3 heads taller than him.
Don continued to happily watch the tournament until the final match in block C began. As Don expected, Maryline was one of the competitors while the other person was the girl with black bangs. Don who had seen the crazy first clash between the two could not help but watch the match seriously.
Just as he predicted, the match became heated very quickly. Since the two have observed their opponents style in the last few matches, their attacks were more precise. by the 20th round of punches, its became obvious to everyone that this was going to be a harsh battle. They were in a stalemate for a good 10 minutes before finally, the girl with bangs ran out of mana. Without her earth manipulation skills, she quickly became at a disadvantage and was finally pushed out of the ring.
After the defeat, Vivian could only blame her in ability to save mana. As the girl was brooding about her lose, Maryline got down from the stage and reached her hand to Vivian. Vivian went into thought for a second before she let Maryline help her get back up.
"That was a great match. I am glad I got a meet befriend such a strong and cool girl. I hope we can have more matches in the future!" Maryline smiled brightly as she looked at Vivian. She was happy to see another girl who was as feisty as she was. Maryline was a rather simple minded person. If you are nice and can fight well, she will automatically like you. In just the few hours that she had interacted with Vivian, she had already considered Vivian a dear friend in her heart.
As Vivian stared Maryline's bright face she could not help but blush as she heard the complement. This only lasted a second before she soured her faced and humphed at Maryline.
"I only lost because I did not save my mana efficiently enough. Hmph. Don't think that we are friends or anything. Next time I will make sure to beat you." After saying this to Maryline, she coolly left the stadium. Since she had already been defeated, she would have to wait until the end of the tournament before she would be able to receive her results.
When Maryline saw Vivian leave, she could not help but be grateful for meeting such a cool friend. When she looked around for her brother, she discovered that he was still fighting but he was not looking so good.
Maryline gasped in shock as she saw the state of her brother.
"BRO-" Before she could yell his name, Drew had shushed her. Unlike his usual demeanor, Drew looked serious.
" Right now, Elijah is doing the unthinkable" Maryline watched in concern as she saw her brothers state. His whole body was black and blue and his right arm had been dislocated a while ago. Don and his parents who were at the stadium had already been calling his name in fear that he would be permanently damaged from this fight. Sadly, they were too far away and Elijah could not hear them.
Maryline was shocked once she saw the person that her brother was fighting. It was the teenage boy with red hair. Unlike Elijah, his hair was only a little ruffled and his body looked a bit torn but nothing in comparison to Elijah.
"You are quite impressive to have made it this far." Mark said nonchalantly as he went in for another attack.
"Yeah I am impressive" Elijah said half breathily as he went into a defensive pose. Mark smirked as he switched from a forward attack to hit him from behind. TO his disbelief, Elijah used his long legs to blow Mark across the stage. Mark quickly gained his balance as Elijah went in for another hit. Using the highest technique, he knew, tornado flame. He put in all the rest of his mana for the last attack. As Elijah was coming in for a frontal explosive attack, Mark laughed giddily.
"Ha ha ha. Thank you dear opponent. This has truly been the first time I had to face such a resilient person like you. For giving me such a treat, you can see my ultimate move!" Just like that, Mark lit up his arms with flames. Right before he was about to collide with Elijah, His flames suddenly turned blue and devoured Elijah's flames in a second. Elijah suddenly felt weak as his whole body was being pushed down on by Mark's flames. Mark then gave Elijah a powerful kick as a pay back from the one before. Elijah was kicked 10s of meters from the edge of the stage and was quickly caught by Maryline and Drew. As he was caught, he spat a huge amount of blood and collapsed from shock.
When Don saw this, he quickly flew out of his seat. He had been trying to calm himself down and hoped that Elijah would forfeit since the power balance between the two was just way too big. But knowing how stubborn his brother was, he knew that the chance of that was very slim.
Once he leapt out of his chair, his worried parents tried also tried to get to Elijah but were stopped by Teacher Zen who told them that doctors were on standby. Sadly, he was not able to catch Don in time as he rushed towards the ground. The guards who were on standby tried to catch him so he would not intrude were shocked when Don slipped through them. More guards tried to Apprehend Do as he agilely dodged them and ran to Elijah's side. The guards were shocked at the sight. They were all level E masters in their fields yet they were somehow unable to catch one kid.
Once Don reached the scene, he could see Elijah's injuries more clearly. Maryline cried out to Elijah as she saw him in this state. Don quickly grabbed on to Elijah to see how he was doing. To his surprise, Elijah's body was not as ragged as he thought. Most of his injuries were external. he most likely fainted due to shock from lack of mana rather than being ruthlessly battered. Don sighed once he saw this.
"That son of!" Before Don could tell Maryline that Elijah was fine, she quickly sprang up to the stage. Mark who was planning to get down was shocked to see Maryline staring at him with fiery eyes.
"You will pay for this!" She said in anger.
"Hey wait little girl. Why are you here all of a sudden?" Mark, who had not put anyone in his eyes did not realize that the girl in front of him was a sister of the person he just beat up. He also did not realize that this same girl was his next opponent.
"Since you two are already in the ring, let the semi finale begin for Block C-D" Mark almost did a double take when he heard Miss Valentine say this. 'I am supposed to fight her?' He thought in his mind. He took a lazy stance as he saw Maryline come in for the kill. The closer Maryline was, the more sweat dropped from his head. He quickly decided to get in a serious stance but was still too late and was dealt a heavy blow to the face.
Mark quickly got up after the shock and was then given a few more wounds in his confusion. Finally, Maryline gave him a good kick sending him a few meters away. Right before Mark hit the edge, He quickly stopped himself and spat out some blood from his mouth. His was not relaxed anymore as went into a serious stance.
Don who was still holding Elijah as he was waiting for the medical team to arrive could not help but worry for Maryline. Drew who was standing beside him told Don to take care of Elijah as he was called to fight the block A-B semi finales. While Don was watching the block C-D fight, he could not help but contemplate on if he should help Maryline a bit. This idea was quickly dismissed as soon as he thought of it. Maryline would not like it if see knew that someone was helping her win her fights. Besides Don could not heal a person when their moving, he could only do so when the person was lying still so he can concentrate better. As Don said this in his mind, he suddenly remembered the day he was mistaken as the mystical Aegis. While he was flying, he was able to heal people from a far and even when they were moving. His abilities were also far greater than the might his powers showed before. Even after training for 3 months, His abilities have never gotten to that level again.
"Excuse us boy, we are going to take this contestant to the academy hospital if you don't mind." Don's thoughts were quickly disturbed once he saw that the healers had arrived. He let them take Elijah away and saw Elijah off. Just when he was about to leave, he saw about 4 or 5 guars walking towards him. They looked a little annoyed at just the presence of Don. What could Don do? He had damaged the poor pride of the guards by passing through all their approaches in catching him. They knew that their leader who was one of the judges would severely punish them once he has the chance.
As they thought about all the training runs they would have to do, their face became darker and they walked closer too poor defenseless Don. Before they could release all their anger, (By yelling of course, they would never hurt a little kid in front of an audience) they were stopped by a kind looking old man. Although he looked harmless, as soon as the guards saw him, they saluted to pay respects.
""Principle Cruise!"" They all said in unison. Principle Cruise smiled as he saw this and nodded at them.
"Hmm. It seems who kids still have some respect for your elders yet you don't have the strength to block a kid from entering the ground level. tsk tsk tsk. I wonder what Teacher Brooke has been teaching you all." Cruise sighed as he said this. The guards were scared shitless as they saw the look of disappointment in the principle's eyes. If they thought their punishment was going to be bad before, now they knew that they probably would be bed ridden for a week.
"tsk tsk tsk. and now they were planning to actually confront this poor kid. 5 grown men hmm. Maybe i should advice Teacher Brooke on his ways in picking students."
"No Principle Cruise there is no need..." One gaurd said.
"We were only here to advice this ... lovely kid to get back into the stadium." Another guard said. The old man rubbed his chin as he smilled.
"That is a good idea." The guards relaxed as they let out a breath.
"How about you 5 take your own advice. You 5 should be guarding the stadium so that no one else runs lose. Do you understand?" The guards quickly nodded as they realized they have been away from their spots for too long. They quickly bowed to the Principle and ran back to their spots.
Don who had seen the entire scene was flabbergasted. The whole way through, the old man who was supposedly the principle had kept a calm smile and did not even raise his voice above a causal talking level. Even so, the guards acted as if every word the man spoke could kill them and kept their guards up.
The old man smiled once he saw Don's face close up. He had been thinking of a way to get close to this odd ball but who would have thought that the boy would actually make it easy for him. So he may have scared a few young stragglers so that he could get to the boy, he had done worse before to quench his curiosity.
"Child. I have been meaning to talk to you"
Don blinked when he heard this. He looked around a bit to see if anyone else was there before turing back to face the old man.
"Me?" He asked a little confused. Principle Cruise smiled as he nodded.
"You are quite the oddball. Your perception is frightening and your speed is also peculiar for someone your age. I would not be shocked if a kid like you had a mysterious background. But none of that really matters right now. My only question is; would you like to attend Crescent Borne Academy?"
"Not really"
"..... what?"