The atmosphere was at its peak as the first round of the tournament was about to commence. However, due to the arrangements of the organizers, the ambiance was much more intense than some had expected.
"Can't believe we would be seeing two of the Seven Pillars start off right away!"
"It's the young lord and the young Graham lord!"
"Young lord, we are rooting for you!"
"It's the young lord. Look how dashing he is. Kiyaaaa!"
The appearance of Wendel Castellan and Ashton Graham had raised the atmosphere by a bar as everyone was excited. While both students had their fans, Wendel undoubtedly had the most especially amongst the other gender, despite his young age.
In the Great Dawn kingdom, the age of fourteen was seen as a start to adulthood and so, children at this age could be betrothed to others, so long as the age gap didn't exceed six years.
Wendel was only fourteen years old this year and with his blonde hair, smooth face, dashing looks, and background as well as nobly aura, he was the dream of many girls his age and even some older than him. As such, he has the most fan girls in this contest and the most supporters in this round.
However, Wendel didn't just appeal to the ladies alone...
"I had bought the single-day ticket because that's all I can afford, but who would have thought that I'd get to see these match-ups?" A young teen stared at the stage where Wendel stood with flaming eyes, his thoughts only kept to himself.
For the first battle, Wendel was facing a regular student and by a regular student, the student wasn't a direct descendant of a marquis, duke, or a high-ranking official. As such, many predicted the match to easily go in his favour.
As for Ashton, his case was the same. His burly figure, which ought to belong to someone older than his age, made people more convinced that he would win or even top his group, despite the presence of a direct descendant of another duke.
"Begin."
When the overseeing mage who was in charge of officiating the tournament called out, all the other contestants immediately sprung into battle, but the opposite was true on Wendel and Ashton's stage. Not only was the duo fixed at the spot, but their opponents similarly were yet to make a move. Regarding Wendel and Ashton's opponents, this couldn't be helped as their adversaries were popular figures so they would naturally fret at the spot.
"I surrender."
Ashton's opponent suddenly called out when he noticed that Ashton was about to make his move.
The student was merely one of the lucky four that got added to make up the 160 headcounts. He was at the early rank of the second-stage and so, couldn't compare to the rest of the competitors in terms of raw power, much less Ashton who was at the peak rank of the second-stage of the Guardian realm [1]. Giving up and saving his strength was by far the best course of action for this match-up.
"Stage 6 winner, Ashton Graham."
A voice sounded from the stage as the two contestants stepped down.
On Wendel's side of the battle, however, his opponent was unwilling to step down. The gap between them couldn't be described as so large since it was merely one rank. The student also believed that if he played his cards, although winning was a luxury, a draw was still doable. All he had to do was hold out for ten minutes.
"You're aiming for a draw, huh?" Wendel spoke with a smile.
"Too bad. This will be over in half a minute."
Wendel's acknowledged strength was at the peak of the second stage, lacking compared to his twin sisters but that didn't matter. It was well known that he had a special 'dual elemental' physique and although his constitution wasn't as impressive as the twin godsouls, it was still above-average. And just like his sisters, Wendel's constitution focused on one element, the Metal element.
What was quite interesting to note was Wendel's 'dual elemental physique'. It wasn't actually a physique that enabled him to use two elements but two special derivates of a certain element. In this case, they were Gold and Silver. Since Wendel's constitution also bumped up the power of his Metal element, this meant that both his Gold and Silver spells were stronger than an average mage's with the same derivatives.
For this reason, Wendel was nicknamed the Son of Metal; possessing the two most powerful derivates of the Metal element and a constitution favouring them to boot. Defeating an opponent one rank below him within half a minute was very much doable for a genius of Wendel's calibre.
The young mage who faced off against Wendel suddenly retreated and widened the gap between them. As he did so, he also cast some wind elemental spells, forming wind blades and sending them toward Wendel.
They fought on the main stage of the arena which was slightly bigger than the other nine, so this gave more space for the opponent to utilize to his advantage. From how he had constructed a strategy based on his environment and opponent, one could see that the students of the First Dawn Academy were well-trained and intelligent, at least battle-wise.
"Widening the gap won't change the result." Wendel opened his palm and pointed it in the direction of the young mage.
A round silver plate suddenly formed in from of Wendel and spun in mid-air with one side of it facing the student.
The wind blades struck the plate but failed to pass through it as the spinning force of the plate weakened them and its thickness blocked what was left of the attack.
Under the onslaught from his opponent, Wendel had no intention to constantly remain on the defence. Half a minute he promised and half a minute it would be.
Wendel closed his open palm to form a fist and the metallic plate in front of him crumbled to form a ball. He then punched forward and the ball dashed to the young mage at an incredible speed despite its dense form.
With eyes widened, the young boy abruptly jumped to the side to dodge but that was when the ball suddenly exploded. Miniature metallic spikes shot from the ball in multiple directions. The majority of them were blocked by an invisible barrier set up around the stage and some of them managed to find the young mage.
"Ahhh!"
Gory screams sounded as the left side of the boy got pierced multiple times by two inches long 'nails'. If the force wasn't controlled properly by Wendel, there was no doubt that the young boy would have died from the attack.
Much less continuing the battle, the young boy was now in a state where it would be difficult to ascertain whether he could continue the tournament if not properly treated.
"I surrender!"
Without any hesitation, the young mage yelled as he was afraid that he would get injured further which would in turn affect his progress in the tournament.
"Stage one winner, Wendel Castellan."
"Young lord!"
"Wendel-sama!"
Screams and cries of celebration rang out loud as Wendel stepped down from the stage.
It was undeniable that in the mini-tournament for group A, Wendel Castellan would come out as the undisputed champion and group topper.
[NB] I realized I made an error in past chapters and used 'late rank' instead of 'peak rank'. I'll try and correct as much as I can