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Shortly after Vincent's decisive victory, the next round was about to commence.
This time, it was a far experienced group since each individual has had some internship with at least one member of the Council of Mages.
The group members included Maki Sumeto, Damian Hemlock and Shisui Karmegan.
...…••••••••••••••••••••••....
Shisui Karmegan was a tall young boy who had a winning mentality, though he tends to use extreme methods in order to achieve his goals.
He wore a red outfit and had long black hair side-parted in the middle and a cold but smart look.
Damian Hemlock is another bright young lad who has been nicknamed "The WonderKid" since he's the first and only known individual currently to possess a Beta-Class Mana level.
He wore a brown trench-coat and had black blinding bangs for his hairstyle.
Not much is known about him and he's not an interactive person.
...…••••••••••••••••••••••....
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Just as the last group did before they fought, Maki's group surrounded the proctor as he gave the rules again, and they waited for the signal to begin.
As the gong was struck again, Maki and Shisui were the first to advance towards each other -except Damian, who had a calm but emotionless look on his face.
Maki was so distracted by his looks -obviously since Damian was very handsome- that she didn't notice that Shisui had laid out an ice wall around her.
"Dammit!! I got distracted!!," Maki yelled at her self as she realized her predicament.
"What's the matter, sweetheart? Trapped so soon?," Shisui mocked, lying down on his side, from the top of the wall.
"This is a special trap I planned earlier, to catch that kid over there," he continued -probably suggesting Damian.
"Oh!! Here he is!!," he said and got up as he and Maki saw Damian on the other side of the wall.
"It's really ironic that you said that-," Damian said, "-because I'm been hunting you down for a very long time!!"
As soon as he said that, flames started revolving around his body.
Shisui then licked his lips and an ice cloak appeared around his right arm- in a similar manner to Damian's flame cloak.
"I've waited a long time for this moment!! Finally I can fight you without that big guy around to protect you!!," Shisui said to Damian as he poised himself to fight.
Damian just got angry and threw his flames towards Shisui, who laughed and sent his ice towards the incoming flames.
They both collided and produced a lot of steam, which clouded the entire spot.
Maki -still oblivious to the two boys fighting each other at the moment- then took the opportunity and ran towards the wall.
All of a sudden, ice golems started emerging from the ground and stood in the way!!
Maki was caught in her tracks and heard laughter from above.
She then looked up and saw Shisui looking at her as he was fending off Damian's flames.
"I see you've met my Ice Golems. And I said, you're not leaving anywhere," he said with a creepy look on his face, which irked Maki.
She then looked back the golems and started walking slowly, which they started producing ice spikes as she got closer to them.
Suddenly, she made a dash for the other side, and immediately, the ice golems started shooting their spikes at rapid speed.
Maki saw this and immediately spawned her Earth Golem to shield her from the attacks.
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As the Earth Golem was continuing to take damage from the ice golems, Maki realized that she doesn't have a lot of time left.
"I need to find a solution to get out of here, and fast!!," she said and started looking around the wall, for any possible weak spot.
She then stopped at a location directly under Shisui was previously noticed something peculiar.
That spot was a layer thinner that the other parts of the ice wall and thus, was vulnerable to attacks.
After seeing this, she got up and then smirked.
"Gotcha!!," she said and then started summoning another Earth Golem, but smaller and much more compact as compared to her first one.
"Clear the way for us and take care of these Ice Golems!!," she told the second Earth Golem which rushed for the Ice Golems and was attacking them.
She then took a kunai and threw it at the spot and motioned the first one to advance towards where she threw the kunai.
The first Golem took Maki onto its back and charged towards the kunai.
But when she was close to approaching it, another ice layer covered her kunai and made the wall completely harder than earlier.
Nonetheless, that didn't stop Maki and she made the Earth Golem she was riding gain more speed to ram through the wall.
It finally reached the wall and then tried to ram it down -unfortunately, it proved to be too strong and knocked Maki off and destroyed the golem in the process.
Maki suffered a head wound -a bleeding wound but not severe- from the impact and she looked back to see her golem destroyed and only three out of the seven Ice Golems remaining.
"Hahaha!! As expected from a woman who can't do anything because she's weak on the outside as she should be!!," Shisui mocked her as he still fighting Damian.
She then crawled up and put her head on her knees as she wondered how she would get out of the ice trap.
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Maki then had an idea and walked up towards the wall, and started focusing her Mana onto it.
As a result, the wall started cracking from her point but not from the outside.
"I see, this wall can only be broken from the inside and only by concentrating Mana onto it!!," she hypothesized as she adjusted her glasses.
"I hope this move I learnt would do the trick," Maki said as she started manipulating her Mana onto her right hand, which gave a blue aura.
Maki touched the wall with her Mana-coated hand and started focusing.
The wall started cracking and she got pleased.
Unfortunately, the other Ice Golems remaining were advancing towards her from behind and she knew she had not enough time.
"I don't have a lot of Mana to keep using like this-," she said as she liked at her hand and then the golems, "-but let's test my strength here!!"
She ran towards the golems and suddenly, her speed was enough to quickly dodge the attacks and she smashed each one of them into tiny pieces.
"It's similar to Jason's Aura Hand, but I bet it's much stronger!!," she thought as she looked at her result and started advancing for her target.
Shisui quickly realized her plan -he was still fighting Damian throughout but had the upper hand- and tried reinforcing his ice wall with much more ice.
But it was too late, and as Maki finally reached to the wall and then punched it so hard it knocked both Shisui and Damian off balance and completely crumbled the entire wall.
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The debris finally settled from the ice wall being completely destroyed, with Maki holding her right hand, which looked like it got heavily injured in the process.
"Unfortunately, I don't have the physical strength as compared to both Vincent and Jason, but at least it worked," she said, pleased to herself despite the injury she received.
She then heard a loud noise from the rubble from the ice wall and suddenly, Shisui got up from the rumble, furious.
I'm gonna kill you, woman!!," he said angrily at Maki, which she was expecting.
But Shisui started releasing ice spikes towards her at a fast rate, but Maki was able to dodge each of them.
She then rushed for Shisui, who was nervous, and as such, used his ice to lift himself off the ground.
Unfortunately for him, Maki leaped off the ground and charged her hand with Mana.
She then said, "And for the record, it's Maki Sumeto, not woman, you dumb idiot!!," and punched him so hard, it made an outline on the ground as he laid there unconscious.
Maki finally landed on the ground and looked around for Damian.
Suddenly, a fireball was coming from behind her and she immediately dodged -but Damian appeared from out of nowhere, grabbed her leg and tossed her onto the ground.
The impact injured her badly and made Maki practically immobile for a while.
As soon as she tried moving, Maki looked in the direction of Jason and Vincent and smiled at them -bruised and battered but very optimistic.
"I might not join you guys in the final, but I wish you luck!!," she thought to herself -which coincidentally, Jason and Vincent individually heard from their point of view.
And as she gathered strength and tried crawling her way back up, Damian was suddenly standing in front her, with that emotionless look again, but this time, a black spiral mark was all over his left arm.
"What….are…..you?," was all she could mutter before dropping unconscious.
"The winner of the second round: Damian Hemlock!!," were the words that announced the winner and a large uproar of excitement greeted it as Damian quietly walked out of the arena.
Vincent and Jason were disappointed about the result and even more terrified for their teammate, but a female proctor suggested that she would be fine.