As expected, Maeve, Ansel and Axel also moved onto the semi-finals that day. All of their quarter final matches were shorter than Nova's, Axel's being the second longest of the four.
All four of them slept early that day for different reasons. Since Nova had struggled against Gunther, it was a no-brainer that her fight against Maeve would be much harder. There hadn't been even the slightest glimpse of Maeve's magic throughout her quarter-final match either, and that worried Nova. Her only choice was to fight offensively so that Maeve would finally reveal her magic. It was useless to play defensively since she needed to know her opponent's limits to construct the right defence.
Maeve had no trouble falling asleep. She knew that her fight against Nova wouldn't go as easily as she hoped it would and it was impossible to hide her magic any further, but she wasn't mentally prepared to reveal it either. She slept on the topic that night, hoping that the answer would come to her when she woke up.
Axel was tired from the excessive usage of his magic. His fight had luckily been against a water magic user, giving him the slight advantage element-wise. But to fully make use of his elemental advantage, Axel was forced to use his magic externally and electrocute his opponent. He was exhausted because his stamina had been depleted. His usual way of fighting employed very little magic to be used and therefore allowed him to retain most of his stamina, but in exchange it took a toll on Axel's body. Using techniques that externalised his magic depleted his stamina much faster, but kept his body out of harm's way.
Ansel on the other hand was as fresh as ever. His fight had been the easiest out of all four of them since his opponent had quit halfway through. Ansel hadn't had a chance to use his magic at all, and chose to expel his remaining stamina by jogging around the campus multiple times. He took a shower before heading for dinner and fell onto his bed soon after.
He didn't fall asleep for a few hours since his mind was occupied with Axel. Axel was nearly a year older than him, and for as long as Ansel could recall, Axel was the greatest friend he could have wished for. Axel was always the smartest kid in class and was always teaching Ansel different ways to use his abilities. But the two drifted apart after Axel's father decided to move out of the Filgor family house. They changed their last name to Fulgur, leaving behind their Filgor lineage - an act that was seen as an insult to the rest of the family.
Ansel didn't understand why his uncle did this, but his father advised him to distance himself from the Fulgur family. The thought of never talking to Axel ever again was unbearable for the child, but he couldn't do anything against his father's wishes.
Over the years, Ansel left the mansion more often and one day he ran into Axel. The two talked about their new lives, but the awkward gap between them was still un-breachable. They had drifted apart, and nothing could bring them back together. Axel, especially, was reluctant to continue talking to Ansel. He had learnt the truth as to why the Fulgurs separated from the Filgors, but did not have the gall to tell Ansel why. He didn't want to ruin the perfect image Ansel had of his father.
So Axel took the opportunity to distance himself further from Ansel. Ansel of course interpreted this as Axel hating him and that led to his drastic shift in attitude. The two met a few more times, not as friends but as competitors in tournaments. Axel defeated Ansel in every one of them, unintentionally deepening the boy's hatred.
"Tomorrow is the day I finally beat Axel. I've completely changed since our last fight so I'll definitely win." Ansel slept like a baby that night, snoring loud enough to wake up everyone else on his floor.
"WELCOME TO THE SEMIFINALS EVERYONE!! I HOPE YOU'RE ALL HOLDING ON TO YOUR SEATS BECAUSE THE NEXT TWO FIGHTS ARE GONNA BLOW YOU ALL AWAY!!" The announcer wailed with excitement. The audience had significantly grown in size from the previous day
"Before we begin, I'd like to answer some of the questions many first years seem to have. The most frequently asked question comes from a few curious first years and is as follows: 'Why is the competition held after just a week of starting the year?'
"There's two reasons for that. This competition is held in all the five Zychs campuses one after the other. It just so happens that Fothesi is the first one to hold it this year. Our judges will be travelling to all the other Zychs campuses and judging those matches as well to keep up a consistent grading system.
"All 5 campuses should be done with their competitions within the span of a month and half. This brings us to the second and most important reason.
"The main reason is that your seniors, the third and fourth years, will be having their exams later into the year. We try finishing the fights as quickly as possible since these students are relatively free at this time of year. This tournament is held to find the strongest first years and doubles as a means for the seniors to catch a break before they get to studying hard."
The announcer went on answering questions he had written down on a piece of paper and once he was done the stage was shrouded in a thick fog. The announcer smiled as he continued the routine at the top of his voice.
"I'd like to invite onto stage our first two thunderous fighters. Fighting to reach the top of the bracket with the power of his gargantuan muscles is Ansel Filgor. Going up against Ansel's reality-shattering punches is the lean Axel Fulgur with his lightning-quick jabs and reflexes.
"Will the hulk of a boy overpower his smaller opponent with ease or will he fall to his snake-like speed and precision? Well, ladies and gentlemen. Let us find out for ourselves.
"Without further ado, I invite onto the stage Axel Fulgur and Ansel Filgor!"
The audience went wild and the applause drowned the Arena as the heavy fog faded to reveal the ring. Both Axel and Ansel stood on opposite ends of the ring, Axel stretching his legs and throwing a few intimidating jabs at the air.
His intimidation obviously didn't work against the humongous Ansel who stood calmly in his end, hands crossed over his chest. He was breathing in and out slowly in order to calm the excitement of finally having another opportunity to defeat Axel that was raging through his body.
The announcer looked from Axel to Ansel and back to Axel in order to confirm that they were both ready. He yelled out once his assertion was made.
"Let the match… BEGIN!!"
Ansel lunged forward as the referee left the ring, raising his right fist and aiming directly for Axel's head. Axel twisted his body to the right and avoided the punch successfully. He shot a quick jab under Ansel's extended arm, aiming for the underside of his elbow. Aiming anywhere else would be redundant since Ansel's thick muscles would block the impact of the attack.
The bright streaking light followed Axel's fist as it cut through the air towards Ansel's exposed elbow. Ansel, despite being in a slightly vulnerable position, remained calm. He had practised hard in order to evade the sneaky blows Axel usually defeated him with.
Ansel quickly brought back his arm, just missing Axel's jab. Axel was clearly flustered by the sudden increase in Ansel's speed, and Ansel used that surprise to his advantage. He threw out another punch using his left arm, this time aiming it for Axel's torso that had been lined up perfectly by Axel's prior dodge..
Axel's judgement returned to him moments before the punch landed, giving him barely any time to dodge. Ansel smiled in satisfaction as his fist collided into Axel's abdomen. A large jolt of electricity exploded from Ansel's fist, sending Axel flying into the jute rope holding the ring together.
Ansel did not let the opportunity go wasted and rushed over to where Axel was. He just needed to get a few more hits in order to knock him out for good. Axel groaned as his hand ran over his abdomen. A huge hole had been burnt out of his t-shirt, exposing his rather flat abdomen. Unlike Ansel who proudly exposed his perfectly chiselled abs, Ansel chose not to flaunt his non-existent ones.
Axel forced himself to get back to his feet as Ansel got closer. There was something strange about the way Ansel's attack worked, and he needed to find the secret behind how it worked if he wanted to win. It was easy to predict that getting hit by it constantly would damage his body further than a series of normal punches would.
He had seen Ansel use it thrice in all of the competition, and had been hit by it once. At first he thought that it was just external usage of lightning, but getting hit by it had changed his mind.
But now wasn't the time to sit around and think about how Ansel's shocking punch worked. Ansel was approaching him quickly and Axel needed to make sure that he didn't get hit again. He doubted that he could handle another one of those heavy punches without crying out in pain.
Ansel leapt forward once he was close to Axel, raising his foot in order to pound it onto Axel. Instead his foot lodged into the ground as Axel seemingly blipped out of existence. The after-image of his greatly sped up body faded away as Ansel's foot dug into the ground, and the real Axel appeared behind the giant of a boy.
Axel threw some quick punches at several points all over Ansel's back. Imbuing his arms with lightning allowed Axel to punch multiple times within the span of 3 seconds. Each quick jab was exponentially stronger than a basic punch due to the acceleration of the lightning and even someone like Ansel couldn't handle so many at once.
Ansel fell to his knee and groaned as the shock from all of the punches hit him at once. Ansel waved his arms around in hopes of catching Axel in one of the swings but Axel backed off before getting hit by any and watched as the large boy helplessly flailed his heavy arms around. Ansel looked like a baby trying to get his mother's attention, and Axel couldn't help but laugh at how pathetic it looked.
This was the perfect time for Axel to think about how Ansel's attacks worked. He could assault Ansel now, but that wasn't a viable strategy. Since Ansel too controlled some form of electricity, all external techniques that Axel could employ were rendered useless. Using the internal techniques and hitting him straight on wasn't very smart since Axel would run out of stamina before he even made a dent in Ansel's thick armour of muscle.
The only way to beat him was to figure out how his punches worked and to use that against him. Knowing Ansel, he would surely lose hope once his main attack was negated.