Most of the matches in the third round lasted longer than 20 minutes since all the opponents this time were much stronger. Ansel's and Maeve's matches were exceptions to that, and ended before the clock had a chance to strike 10 minutes, once again showcasing the immense scope of their abilities.
Nova, despite having won her match, was beginning to dread going up against Maeve in the semi-finals if she got there. Maeve still had not revealed what type of magic she used and had beat her opponents until now using only her absurd acrobatic skills.
She jumped all over the place and put her opponents into submission using various holds and grapples. If Axel had to assume, then he'd say that her power was similar to how his enhanced the body. But he couldn't be too sure since there wasn't any visual evidence to back it up.
Ansel, like always, was towering over his opponent who had picked a shield as their item of choice. It was a smart choice since they essentially had to go against a giant. But the shield was rather useless against Ansel's consecutive quick jabs, each one causing a dent in the shield's surface.
Ansel felt disrespected because his ideology suggested that such external tools or weapons were a coward's way of fighting. The fact that his opponent would bring something so 'impure' into the fight enraged Ansel to the point where he couldn't hold back from using his powers. A blinding light and the ear-shattering crackle of electricity filled the air as his fist came into contact with the shield for the last time.
The match was halted immediately by the referee after the brightness settled. The opponent still cowered behind their shield, or whatever was left of it anyways. A gaping hole had been carved out in the centre of the shield, the edges of the hole bright red and melted.
The judges' and audience's reactions were a mixed batch of shock and impression. The shield was moulded using high quality bronze whose melting point clocked out at nearly 1000 degrees Celsius. The fact that Ansel produced such a high amount of heat in one punch shook everyone to their core.
"You defeated THAT?" Wolfe exclaimed to Axel when the two met at the end of the day. Axel had built up quite the sweat during his third match and this worried Wolfe since he would have to go up against Ansel soon.
"Don't worry about it." Axel said. "He's grown stronger since the last time we fought, but I can still take him on."
Axel fell asleep early that day. Both him and Ansel were on the same side of the bracket like Nova and Maeve. The two pairs would face off directly in the semi-finals.
"TODAY MARKS THE BEGINNING OF THE END OF THIS COMPETITION. I WELCOME ALL OF YOU TO THE QUARTER FINALS! THE NEXT THREE DAYS WILL BE LONG AND GRUELLING, BUT I WISH ALL OF THE PARTICIPANTS ALL THE BEST!"
As per usual, the crowd went wild. There were many more people attending today since the last three days of the competition always had the best fights.
"The rules for today are mostly the same as yesterday, except for one slight change: The time limit for the matches has been removed. The match will only end if the opponent is knocked out or if the judges or I interfere.
"So without further ado, let's call upon the stage the first two fighters!! Nova Emblaze and Gunther Weber!"
A roaring cheer exploded throughout the Arena as the two participants took their place at the opposite ends of the ring. A whistle indicated the start of the match and Gunther lunged forward immediately, swinging his short, top-heavy mace at Nova in a horizontal arc.
A thick ice shield formed on Nova's side to block the mace, but it cracked shortly after impact. Without stopping for even a second, Nova transformed the ice to surround the mace, lodging it into the frozen shield and leaving her opponent open.
Nova's combat style until now depended solely on her skilful usage of weapons. She wasn't as physically strong as many of her peers, and therefore focused more on weapons that could easily slice through the resistance her opponents put up.
But since her encounter with Maeve, she had given her fighting style some thought. Watching as the girl masterfully grappled her opponents and made them immobile despite her size was truly astounding and Nova's weapons would surely be overpowered by Maeve's free style of fighting.
Though it was the most obvious usage of her powers, Nova Had never tried it before. Using ice to stop her opponent's movements was a simple yet effective way to use it. All she had to do was let go of herself and let the ice just flow outwards and consume whatever came in its path.
Nova let go of the ice shield she had created as her opponent pulled the mace backwards to dislodge it. As nova's magic dissipated, Gunther was flung backwards due to the inertia.
"Just let go of the control." Nova said under her breath as ice began forming all around her. At first it slowly creeped along the ground, but as Nova let go of her caution, the ice sprung outwards and rushed towards Gunther.
As Nova got a hang of it, she directed the ice solely towards Gunther instead of letting it consume the whole ring, hoping to catch his arms and legs in the attack to restrain him. But she was too slow. The boy was already on his feet and had used his earth magic to lift himself off the ground.
The ice, however, creeped up his mud pillar as well. Since he was still connected to the ground, Gunther could freely control the structure of the pillar. He focused for a second and placed his hands on the pillar. The ice was slowly making its way up so he had very little time to come up with a plan.
But there was a reason Gunther had made it this far. His creativity soared higher than most of his peers. Just like Wolfe, he was one of the outcasts of Zychs so winning against a royal like Nova would surely bring him into the limelight for quite some time.
As the ice creeped closer, multiple platforms jutted out of the pillar at different heights, extending all over the place. Gunther jumped forward and began running along one of the platforms, escaping the ice that had nearly caught him.
Nova redirected the ice to follow Gunther, but the boy jumped over to another platform adjacent to the current one. His tactic was simple, tire Nova out and knock her out when she's catching her breath. It was clear even to him that Nova had never used her ice in such a way because of her strained posture. Her hands were wide open, fingers outstretched and twitching as the ice changed direction. The royal composure she had held up in all her fights was now replaced by a primitive greed for the ice to consume all that came in its path.
As he jumped from platform to platform, he created globes of mud and threw them at the unprotected Nova. He made sure to create a bunch of them before throwing them all together since he was sure that Nova wouldn't be able to block them all. Since he had to focus on escaping the ice as well, the balls he created were imperfect and jagged. Throwing them wasn't an easy task either since Gunther couldn't stand still and aim them properly in fear of the ice catching up to him.
Six spheres of hardened, cracked mud shot through the air at the already weakened Nova, who stared directly at them as they crashed into her body. Trying to control the ice was taxing her body already, so the unexpected attacks had truly taken her by surprise.
Gunther knew his chance was here as he witnessed the ice getting slower. Nova had fallen to the ground and her stamina was critically low. The same went for Gunther who had used up most of his energy to keep the giant structure from toppling over.
But seeing Nova lose control of the ice had given Gunther a fresh burst of energy. He made his way to the platform closest to Nova and prepared to jump onto her. Mud crawled up his legs and onto his fists where it dried up to form jagged gauntlets. Some of the platforms at the other end of the pillar fell apart as his gauntlets formed.
Gunther's powers were very different to those of the boy who had attacked Wolfe, Nova and Axel. While the boy could freely use his earth element to materialise matter from thin air, Gunther needed the ground as a source for his own magic. He couldn't directly form the gauntlets around his fists since his hands were not directly touching the ground. Instead he had to allow the earth to come up from the ground via the pillar and his legs to finally lay onto his fists. This was a major setback when it came to quick fights where every second counted, since it took a few seconds for the materials to move to his arms.
But this was another reason why Gunther wanted to win. He wanted to prove that having significantly weaker and disadvantaged magic didn't make him inferior to the other mages around him. If he could beat a child prodigy like Nova while still having a huge setback due to the nature of his ability, then it would prove to everyone including himself that he was strong.
Gunther reached the end of the platform and jumped off without second thought. As he hovered over Nova's tired body the structure behind him began decaying, starting from the platform he had stepped off of. The cracks spread through the structure and large pieces of dried mud fell onto the ground, forming large clouds of dust that obscured the audience's view of the fight.
As the second rule of magic stated (CHAPTER 15), the user's magic will not dissipate upon loss of contact if their magic had already become part of another thing. Everything Gunther created belonged to the Earth to begin with and therefore did not disappear when he left contact, instead it just fell apart due to how bashfully he had created it. If he had carefully worked on the structure then he would have been able to distribute the weight evenly and keep it from falling apart.
Just like the structure, Gunther too came falling down towards the exhausted Nova. His fists swung downwards towards Nova's head as his legs crashed into the ground.
In those final moments Nova let go of logic, letting her instincts completely take over. While she did not fully trust her reflexes despite how reliable they were, due to how quick paced her fighting style was, her mind adapted by exponentially increasing its processing speeds. The moment Nova let her mind run astray - the moment Gunther leaped off the platform - it spun a web consisting of thousands of ways to deal with the floating opponent. And Gunther fell right into that web.
While most of the methods her mind came up with were lethal and would get her disqualified, there were also a few that ended with Gunther's life still in his hands.
Dodging was never an option since she was way too exhausted. Taking on the brunt of the force was also not a smart choice. The only way her fragile, tired body could get away with the minimal amount of damage was by redirecting the force of the attack - to use Gunther's momentum against him.
Victory had cemented itself in Gunther's mind the moment he leapt off the platform. But it was a false sense of accomplishment - one that would cost him the match. His fantasy has obstructed the movements Nova was making. The fallacy clouded his judgement just like the clouds of dust blocked the audience's view of the ring. If he had continued using his ranged attacks to make sure Nova was incapacitated before trying to finish her off, then winning would at least be a possibility. But in his passionate haste he had given up on caution and taken the leap that would cost him the match.
Nova had shifted herself a few inches behind, creating a considerable gap between her and Gunther's landing area. Her stooping posture helped in making her look defenceless and provided more material for Gunther's mind to confirm its false narrative.
A curved, smooth arc of ice shot out of the tip of Nova's toes, extending up to where Gunther's fists were. The curve was precisely constructed to follow the path of Gunther's swing and tilted back ever so slightly so that the initial contact of his fists wouldn't crack the structure. Due to her exhaustion, the curve was very thin and therefore very fragile. Even the slightest of force could shatter the ice and bring ruin to her plans.
Gunther was creative, yes. But he wasn't a quick thinker. For Nova's plan to work, she had to assume that Gunther wouldn't change the course of his swing, and Gunther stayed true to her assumption.
Gunther's fists slid across the arc freely, the momentum of the swing along with the acceleration provided by the slippery surface toppling Gunther forward while mid-air. The boy was defenceless in the air and cursed his abilities once again.
The ice shattered as Gunther's head knocked into it, disorienting him as he fell towards the ground. Not missing the opportunity, Nova extended the ice out from her feet and surrounded Gunther with it. Everything below his head lay in a thick sheet of ice that wouldn't allow even a sliver of movement.
The dust began clearing up and the scattered noise from the audience ceased as soon as the ring became clear. The cheering, however, replaced the short-lived silence and Nova was soon announced as the winner of the fight which clocked in at 8 minutes and 37 seconds.
Nova watched Gunther slowly get up as her ice melted away.
"That thing you created was truly impressive!" She said as she extended her hand towards the grumpy boy. His face lit up slightly, but the dread of losing soon took over. Him losing here would not help his situation at all. The other students would continue looking down on him even though he climbed much higher in the bracket than any of them ever could.
"Are you alright?" Nova asked as she saw the distraught expression on Gunther's face. The question was simple, but Gunther didn't know how to respond. He was torn between hating the royals who treated him unfairly due to his birth and forgiving them because of the empathy of one royal.
"We'll talk later, I guess." Nova said, a dejected tone plaguing her voice. "They need to clear up the stage for the next fight. I'll see you around, Gunther."
It was a simple act of compassion on Nova's part, but it was enough to cause a rift in Gunther's view of the royals around him.