"Duke Darius' kid seems to lack battle experience. Why does he keep on waiting for his opponent to make a move first?"
Some in the crowd began to ask after the battle was over.
"Who said so? He attacked in the first phase of the battle, didn't he? He also pushed on in the third phase and won." One of Asher's supporters, who happened to be a non-indigene of Red Maple province, retorted.
"Yeah, but those were just minor attacks and nothing out of the ordinary. Don't tell me that he's only good at dodging and close combat?"
It seemed that despite Asher's victory, the crowd wasn't convinced. Majority came to be entertained and to witness the strength of genius mages as such, they expected to see a few showy and powerful spells in the play. However, Asher had barely used any. In fact, apart from the simple basic mana manipulation, Asher had yet to cast an powerfully destructive spell which began making the spectators ask some questions.
. . .
While the audience was tied up with the topic of Asher being purportedly weak, the main character walked down from the stage and took his seat by the side with the other students. Once that was done, he began recollecting the events of the match.
Asher had decided not to use any powerful spells in any of his battles for the moment, so as to give the students a chance to show what they have. At the same time, it was his way of making things 'fair' after all, facing him meant an automatic loss as he was a reincarnated Celestial Emperor.
'Hmm. Almost there.' Asher, whose eyes were closed, thought.
. . .
The tournament went on after Asher's victory and the various competitors gave their all. Some gave up right away to conserve their strength, while others have their all to achieve a draw and win by tiebreakers.
The next day came and passed and so did the one after. As a result, it had been five days since the start of the tournament, with the qualifiers on the first day and the official start of the tournament on the second day. Finally, the first stage of the tournament was now over.
In the last three days of the tournaments, the spectators had witnessed a bunch of interesting battles, the first being Asher versus Ezra.
There was also Aurora versus Koln, which happened to be the last battle for the former on that day and she won easily.
Ashton against another duke's direct descendant, Wendel against the second strongest in his group, the direct descendant of a marquis, were also some of the notable battles on the last round of the day. Even before that though, Emma Saunters had fought another duke's direct descendant and Alex Sutton, maintaining her win streak until the end of the day.
Alex Sutton had also faced Vergil on the very last match of the day for their group, but his victory was somewhat controversial.
Prior to his final battle, Vergil had faced a duke's descendant, the same individual who faced Emma in his first match and now had Vergil in his second. In a bid to secure second place, the young mage had battled intensely with Vergil looking to take a draw. However, he had suddenly attacked without regard later on, almost as if he wanted to kill Vergil.
At the end of the day, Vergil had barely won although he got injured in the battle. Later on, this injury cost him his final match of the day against Alex who managed to beat Vergil, albeit barely too. But as it was the last match of the day, Alex Sutton had enough time to recover before his next match the next day.
Although Vergil's previous battle didn't seem strange to the eyes of the common folk, those in the VIP section where able to spot a thing or two out of the ordinary.
The first was that Vergil's opponent had lost to Alex Sutton already, so unless the young mage beat Vergil and Vergil defeats Alex in turn, it would be difficult for the mage to qualify. Also, to win against Vergil, he would have to fight tooth and nail, and there was a high chance that it would be a pyrrhic victory, which would be pountless. And since Vergil's next opponent would be Alex Sutton, pushing for such a victory would aid Alex to have an easier time against Vergil.
As for hoping for the other competitors to beat Alex, that was a pipe dream since no one apart from Vergil could beat Alex at the moment (Emma had already defeated all three). So, it could be said that the young mage had already lost a chance at qualifying from here on.
The only two options he had was to give up by losing the battle or accepting a draw, or fight for that slim chance of taking second place by pushing for a victory no matte the cost. As a child of pride and nobility, it was obvious that the young mage chose the latter option. So, Vergil had a hard time in the battle albeit he still won. Even so, he won with a serious injury. In turn, Alex had a much easier time than he was supposed to against Vergil and won the match, clinching second place firmly, since Vergil was the only obstacle in his way.
The choice of the young mage who was a direct descendant of a 'lesser duke', had created a domino effect that saw Vergil destined to take third place and Alex to take second place.
On the fourth day of the tournament, Raven faced the favourite in his group, another direct descendant of a duke[1]. The battle ended in a draw and tie-breakers were introduced. The result of the tie-breakers were shocking as it saw Raven win on default; a result that attracted a lot of attention to him.
When it was discovered that Raven was an assistant of Asher assigned by duke Darius, many couldn't help but be shocked. The Arnhaunt family seemed to have fielded in talents for this generation.
A duke could submit three recommendations to the First Dawn Academy and Darius had only made two instead, which was quite surprising. One of them was Asher and another handed over to the branch families to decide. Raven was meant to be the third one but Asher had instead sent him to the Second Dawn Academy, and made amends for that by personally training Raven occasionally. So, the third recommendation was unused.
Unlike most families who tried to profit from these free recommendations by always sending someone, Darius didn't, which shocked some of the nobles. Now however, they saw there was no need for that. Even an assistant sent over to the Second Dawn Academy could already take on a direct descendant of a duke. One couldn't help but imagine what he would become once he moved to the First Dawn Academy.
As for the other member of the Arnhaunt family, the branch member had also done well in his group which was devoid of any incredibly difficult opponent.
"Truly the bloodline of the War god."
Nicholai Saunters sighed.