Lena returned to the stands and took her seat next to me.
Even though she only used her mana once, I could tell she was still exhausted after such a long fight. As she closed her eyes to focus on trying to replenish her mana core, I noticed a thin film of perspiration on her forehead.
I thought to myself, "It seems some of your exhaustion is transferred to your real body after the fight".
I then returned my attention back to the matches. Honestly, the matches were pretty boring since out of the 500 new students about 200 of them still had F-grade mana cores and couldn't afford to upgrade them yet since they came from poor families. So they still couldn't really use their mana to do anything productive after only a month. So most matches in the first round were just a brawl by untrained fighters. Hopefully, the start of next year's individual tournament would be more entertaining to watch. On the bright side, the 10 gold even the lowest-ranked student received as a yearly allowance would be enough to buy the lowest grade elixir to upgrade their mana cores to the D-rank. After around an hour of spectating the matches, it was time for another of my future teammates to fight in the 187th match.
Charlie Everwood stood up and started walking towards the arena. He was about 5 feet and 11 inches tall with long green hair and hazel eyes and a well-built frame and soft features. Like most nobility, he walked with an air of confidence, but he didn't come off as arrogant thanks to his soft features.
In the crowd, you could hear a few of the female students discussing him as he approached the stage.
Charles stood across from a very tall man for his age, who stood around 6 feet and 1 inch tall with spikey black hair and brown eyes.
Charles and the unknown man entered the formations to begin the match. The unknown man started to slowly approach Charles with his fist held up he didn't seem to be using any mana so I assumed he was another F-grade mana core who hasn't learned to manipulate his mana well enough to fight with it yet.
Charles accepted the challenge with a light smile on his face without circling his mana. When they closed in on each other the unknown man threw a wide punch with the most force he could muster, Charles taking a step back to dodge the punch quickly stepped back in and followed up a jab with his right hand at the unknown man's jaw causing the man to see stars noticing the dazed look in his opponent's eyes. Charles followed up his jab with a left hook into the unknown man's temple causing him to fall lifeless to the ground. Upon realizing he was unconscious, the formation dispersed his body into particles of light, signaling the match had ended.
The crowd erupted into a round of well-deserved applause it was nice seeing someone who actually knew how to fight for once.
Charles walked over to the other side of the arena helping the man who had just regained consciousness up. Before shaking his hand and returning back to his seat in the stadium. I was glad that the report I received on Charles seemed to be accurate from what I could tell. His actions seemed to be those of a kind man who was humble in victory.
Although admittedly I'm definitely not an expert when it comes to understanding the meaning behind the actions of others.
I looked over and noticed Lena had opened her eyes and was back to watching the matches waiting for her next turn to fight. The next matches slowly passed until the next fight that caught my interest arrived, Towards the end of the first round in match 247, it was finally Mariah's turn to fight.
She stood up and headed to the stage her long blonde hair slightly fluttering in the wind behind her.
Her opponent I recognized immediately from the awakening ceremony he was the only SS-grade talent in this year's batch of students though I didn't know the man personally I could recognize his family crest sewn onto the sleeve of his shirt. The crest showed an azure sword stuck into a white stone. Which belonged to the ducal family that ruled over the eastern part of our kingdom.
If I remember correctly his name should be Jeremy Lionheart firstborn son of Duke Andrew Lionheart.
It was obvious that Mariah was going to lose this match. Out of all the opponents Mariah could get, this guy is definitely the worst. He's the only reason I'm not confident of taking first place. The lionheart family is extremely famous for their sword fighting and battle instincts and his talent in mana is only below mine.
As I watched Mariah and Jeremy enter the arena I paid close attention to the match knowing that sooner or later it would be my turn to face Jeremy.
When the match began Mariah circled her mana causing her fingers to catch fire before running toward Jeremy as quickly as she could. As Jeremy stood still until Mariah was about 5 meters away from him, he started circulating his mana and sending it around his feet. I could instantly tell he was using air magic, but his mastery far surpassed anyone else we had seen using air magic to increase their speed so far. When Mariah reached Jeremy she tried to claw at his face with her fire claws looking a lot like a cat trying to scratch someone. Jeremy quickly step to the side easily dodging her unskilled attempt to scratch him before pressing his 5 fingers together and circulating air magic around them slicing at her neck as she passed by Mariah tried to alter her course to dodge but Jeremy was too fast before she could dodge Jeremy's hand had already penetrated halfway into her neck like a dull blade finding its mark before pulling his hand out causing her body to crash lifelessly to the ground before dissipating into motes of light.
After the fight ended I couldn't help but let out a long sigh. Jeremy was just as strong as I thought he would be and I wasn't fully confident in winning. The crowd erupted in applause seeing how skilled Jeremy already was in air magic.
Lena couldn't help turning to me and asking, "do you think you can beat him?"
I pondered how I should reply before saying, "honestly I'm not sure but It should definitely be me vs him in the finals."
After our quick exchange of words, we watched the last few matches before the first round of the newcomers Tourament officially came to an end.