"Haha, your opponent is me, Gwenyth" a young boy confidently stepped forward and looked directly at the white-haired girl.
'One of the other two with the power level of 6' Why did he come up to this stage? He should know that coming up right now on this platform would mean that either he or the white-haired girl's team will remain standing while the other would be disqualified.
Who knows, maybe he doesn't care about his score. With his power level right now, it should already be enough for him to enter good high schools.
In response to the person, Gwenyth, the white-haired girl didn't say anything. Instead, she stepped forward and gestured for the other two to not interfere.
"Take care of the rest" The other two gave their affirmation by nodding their heads without saying anything.
"If you want a fight, I can give it to you" chilly air gradually began to be released from her as not long after, three sharp icicles formed midair and then shot towards the other person with a fast speed.
The other raised his hand in preparation. What came was a huge gush of wind that slowed down the three icicle that came towards him. Seeing them not slowing down at all, he pushed his hand even stronger than before, making much wider and more powerful gush of wind to surge forward.
Due to the amount and density, one could even see light green wind particles forming in air and gushing forward. Its size was easily several times of its owner; as for its power, even from here, Kirt could feel the residual wind brush past his face.
He wasn't far from the fighting platform, but he wasn't near either, showing how powerful that one move was.
With the last move, the icicles that had formed lost all their speed and soon even began to be dragged back to their owner. With the blunt side facing Gwenyth, it wasn't much of serious danger to her at all.
However, it would still be dangerous if they were to hit her considering the kinetic energy they would accumulate eventually.
But, it proved to be no problem to Gwenyth as she raised her hand slightly, forming three orbs of snow in the air. The three orbs were directly in the path of the three icicle coming towards Gwenyth.
When the orbs and the icicles met, the orbs deformed slightly and devoured the icicles into themselves. Soon, the entirety of the icicles were devoured by the orb completely, with nothing coming out of the orbs' other sides.
"Tch" seeing this, the boy snickered before pushing his hands from the outside to the inside. It was like this: his palms were first facing outwards and the range between his arms was also big. But gradually, as the boy closed his hands, his palm also slowly turned to face inward.
As soon as the boy started with his hand gesture, violent wind formed and then headed towards Gwenyth just like how his hands did.
They first closed in from the outside, but then, their direction changed, and was now at the right and left side of her. It was sandwiching her from both sides.
But, the attack failed as a snow wall formed out of the air and blocked their way. Between them, her expression was completely cold, and detached. She looked coldly to the boy as her left hand moved, along with it, also formed 6 icicles.
It was twice the amount than before.
This time, the boy's expression turned graver but he didn't give up. Instead, he controlled the wind around him to block them once again. The icicles weren't sent back to her this time though, as they just fell onto the ground.
The boy and Gwenyth exchanged attacks just like this and even after two exchanges, no one seemed to be winning.
"Hn!" however, the boy noticed a crucial detail at the last moment. Snow had covered almost the entirety of the platform and was creeping in closer and closer to him; it already a few meters away from him now.
If he hadn't noticed this, at this rate, the snow would've already reached his legs; and then, the opposing girl would've controlled them to create a deadly trap, eventually leading to his defeat.
Therefore, knowing the result, he immediately retreated to the back. With his training as a martial artist, it wasn't hard, and only required a few moments for him to get away completely. Unfortunately for him, the snow immediately lunged forward once they saw him noticing.
Their speed wasn't slower than the boy and with its swiftness, it was quickly able to surround and circle the boy. He had nowhere to run now, everywhere he took a step, there would be a bundle of snow forming and then trapping the boy's legs.
"Anemo!" with no other choice at hand, he decided to push away the snow with his abilities. But when he tried to do that, the snow had already caught one of his legs. Apparently, there was no use trying from the start.
Wherever and whenever he went, he still would've been trapped - as long as he didn't fly.
Without any moment to spare, the snow hardened and quickly became ice, trapping the person's leg in an ice shackle. After they got hold of one of his legs, they immediately moved swiftly towards his other leg.
However, with the desperate struggle of the boy releasing his anemo powers, the snow was pushed back; it was unable to advance forward.
One had to say, this was only on the first try of the snow. Who knows, maybe Gwenyth even lowered the its power seeing that it will definitely be pushed back.
He had no way of knowing whether this was true or not but for now, it was reality that the boy was unable to prevent the second advance of the snow, eventually making himself a man covered in ice all over.
Even when he used his anemo powers to cover his body, with it being seen to be slightly shaking, the ice would just get more snow from the platform. He can't do any powerful large-scale moves to eradicate the snow once for all too. Not to mention he would have difficulty just controlling the elements in his current state, but the Anemo powers he used were weak against Cryo.
Unless their strength had a large difference, he wouldn't be able to dispel this thick ice.
Alas, he just didn't think this person ould be able to harden snow so quickly and efficiently. Without anything working on, it just tired the young boy endlessly.
Hence, he made the most suitable decision for then: surrender.
Seeing his surrender, Gwenyth didn't push the matter either. Soon after he admitted defeat, the snow stopped climbing his body and the ice also advanced, now locking the boy's arms, hands, and practically, his whole body below his head was engaged in ice.
After the showdown between the two top-ranked students ended and Gwenyth's side came out victorious, the result of the round had already been decided.
With her control, the snow on the ground trapped everyone they touched encased in ice, at least by their legs.
With their movement limited, the people also admitted defeat one after another and the round concluded.
The teammates of the girl managed to take down the two other teammates of the boy and even destroyed one other team before Gwenyth won the fight.
This proved that they weren't a weakness to the girl at all; instead, they even seemed to be suitable to her.
'Seems like it was indeed she herself that made the elemental spirit become like that' after the battle, more people of their section believed that it wasn't a rigged competition, but truly indeed because of Gwenyth's own capabilities alone.
This platform's fight has ended. The other one's already did too. The winning team was obviously the one with the power level 6 student in it.
There weren't many extraordinary people with a power level of 5 to begin with. Just a few and with most of them going to those with power level 6, there was only one left.
And that person ended up going to the second match, winning the round to himself.
After them, went the power level 4s, and by the 7th match, there weren't any power level 4s anymore. This wasn't because there were that many who had the power level 4; instead, it was because they divided the matches for themselves.
They forced the lower leveled people to participate, and then beat them up, making themselves the winners. There was no need for them to fight against each other at all, only those that held some grudges between themselves entered the same platform even if they had the power level 4.
The judges didn't stop this either, the second part of the competition was unfair from the start. From how they hadn't been given a number and then matched with other people depending on their scores and power level.
However, the whole competition can't be unfair; otherwise, the present state of the nation wouldn't have been the same.
The main score was really evaluated on the first stage, as the control of students were the most important. The power level of students could be changed easily when they haven't become adults yet so what they really seemed were people that had good control.
Of course, the higher the power level of a student at a young age, the more it said that they were compatible with the elements. If they had a good power to back it up, the high schools won't dislike it either.
So, testing control would be the crucial meaning in the competition. Of course, the second stage also mattered, but it could only be based off as a subsidiary score evaluating stage. The same for the third stage, but, it was different from the first or second stage seeing that only the students at the peak remained on this stage.
Therefore, high schools would especially look into this part and the participants of it, or rather, the successful ones of it, would be given various advantages depending on their performance.
It was just like getting into colleges, getting higher scores would give you more of a chance in getting into it.
...
Of course, the stronger end teams among the power level 3-4s could do the same for what those with power level 4 did; however, they wouldn't get any recognition at all, and might even become detested or the public enemy.
They aren't qualified to do so, even if their power may be enough to suppress them.
After waiting for a few more rounds to secure their place, their team went on the 13th round.
They weren't really confident about winning the match; but at least, they were sure they could at least show a good performance considering how the others were mostly of their or of a lesser level.
However, just as they were stepping out, Kirt suddenly noticed another person coming up.
The person was a boy that had slightly revealing white hair extending from his cap and pale white skin for those that were revealed. His skin was very pale, sickly pale, and combined with his striking pitch black eye, it made people unconsciously distance themselves from him.
On his badge was currently the number 3, and the element described was the psychno element.
Due to the uncomfortable feeling this person, or should I address him as 'it', gave me, I decided to stop the team and notify them of his presence.
I didn't want to face this person at all, not that he was worried that his team was going to lose if they really went onto the platform.
The reason why I addressed this person as 'it' was because of the... dead feeling he gave? He was still unsure.
Not alive; right, he felt as if he was a moving corpse. At this moment, only a tiny bit of life force could be felt from him; and even that life force felt weird to Kirt. It was as if it was not active at all. It would be better to describe this life force as purely just energy and not life force.
Therefore, I put out my hand and reached it to the sides, indicating for the group to stop.
"Mm?" puzzled, the two turned to face towards me, but I only just pointed at that deathly person and said, "He doesn't feel good. Let's not participate in the platform he's heading"
"Now that you mention him, he indeed does not give a good feeling to a person. Okay, we will participate on the next platform then." indeed sharing the same feeling, Elen also wanted them to not participate in the same platform.
"Un" Bedwyr also agreed on the point.
It was strange that not many people noticed him tho. Perhaps, it was only because of my high soul strength that I was able to notice him, saving me from a dilemma.
After we had successfully gotten onto the platform next to the boy's, we carefully inspected our competitors. There was only one person with the power level of 3.5, while the others were like them, having a power level of 3 or below.
If they use the right tactic, they might even be able to win this match! Of course, that was a delusional thought.
It was just a small probability and almost all of the people here had the power level of 3 anyways. Only the 2.5 of Bedwyr seemed to be the exception, making others look down on their team slightly.
With how people functioned, they had no chance to secretly cooperate or reach a tacit understanding with another group, forming a team. In fact, it was highly likely they might even just be the first prey of the other teams.
So, all they can do is be on the extreme offensive and try to show off as much as possible in a short period of time.