The coliseum was filled with life as usual.
The spectators were loud, their voices reaching the highest volume possible as they screamed with excitement.
Throughout the tournament, both swords and magic were utilized.
While swords were the primary focus, magic was not forbidden.
However, it was frustrating for Aleksander to observe that in some fights, there was no use of swords and magic was relied upon entirely.
The fights were intense, despite not being much in terms of scale.
Some battles were gender-neutral, allowing some of the girls to showcase their impressive abilities.
They easily defeated their male counterparts in battles involving swords and magic, making for a truly impressive spectacle.
"That's a wrap! And Rosemarie Lunette takes it! Yowzah!" Jendi spoke emphatically through the mic.
"The finals will be between Miss Rose and Miss Belitha!" He updated the spectators.
The two would be progressing to the rookie bracket during the inter-school Magic Sword Tournament (Sword Mage Tournament) but the spectators seriously wanted a winner.
So in the end, even if one of the two lost they were both still winners.
Yet they planned to give it their all.
"I must say Miss Belitha has shown tremendous potential in every match! As for Miss Rose, it was expected, the other students can't even lay a finger on them!" Jendi commented on their progress so far.
"Yes, she did splendid, all thanks to determination and even Miss Rose, as the eldest daughter of the Lunette house it'd be a travesty had she not made it to the finals.." Sir Kylian remarked.
He gave both his daughter and Rose ample praise.
"Okay! The much anticipated final round of the preliminaries is about to commence!"
While Jendi and Sir Kylian kept the spectators entertained, Elena had her focus entirely on sketching designs similar to the academy's new uniform.
Aleksander snoozed continually.
...
The final round began.
"Sorry Rose, but I don't plan on losing.." Belitha confidently spoke.
Rose didn't have any words to say.
She preferred to let her aptitude for magic and swords do the talking.
In the bleachers, "This has been interesting, but now I'm really excited," said Lady Ophelia, she maintained her composure although excited.
"Indeed, this is what everyone's been waiting for.." Alaric stated.
Even with how skilled he was with a sword, he didn't participate in the tournament.
For some reason, because Nyx didn't take part, he didn't want to either.
Back to the battle, the referee had yet to give the signal to begin.
Maybe he was building some suspense, "Now prepare yourselves, I want a clean fight!" He demanded.
Both girls assumed their battle stances.
Their swords were held firmly and forward.
The entire coliseum was silent.
They awaited the sound of the buzzer that would mark the start of the battle.
A man wearing a black hooded cloak stood up in the stands, emitting an ominous aura that even the girl next to him felt.
She screamed in paralyzing fear, causing a commotion in the otherwise quiet coliseum.
The man underwent a gradual transformation, his human form giving way to that of a blue demon with horns on his forehead and jaws.
He laughed cynically throughout the process, his black cloak tearing as bat-like wings emerged from his back.
The end result was a grotesque lower-ranking demon.
Many others like him in the stands underwent this same transformation.
There were about twelve in total.
"Huh! What's that?!" Jendi exclaimed.
The townsfolk panicked and dispersed haphazardly from the stadium.
They collided like atoms with each other looking for a way out.
Who wouldn't be terrified by the true nature of these creatures.
Explosions erupted throughout the coliseum, sending shockwaves of panic through the crowd.
People were screaming and running in all directions, desperately trying to escape the chaos.
Unfortunately, many were injured in the process, including both townsfolk and students.
Blue demons seemed to be the source of the destruction, and the terror they brought with them was palpable.
Everyone was filled with fear and anxiety as they continued to flee from the explosions.
...
"It looks like this place wasn't their only target, unfortunately.." Miss Elena informed Lady Ophelia who was with Alaric at the time.
They did well to listen to what she said.
"For now we should focus on deploying teams to different wings of the coliseum to cover more ground... I'll take Alaric and Laia with me, Lady Ophelia can handle herself, sound good?" She inquired.
Ophelia had no qualms to the strategy presented.
She may have been higher in rank compared to Miss Elena who was a platinum sorcerer, but she respected her tactical prowess.
"Alright! Let's head out!"
They all split up on the words of Elena.
...
Rose and Belitha did their best to hold off the demons that attacked them within the ring.
They were doing fine so far, these were lower-ranking demons so they could handle themselves.
A bursting stream of flames erupted from a magic seal Rosemarie created, it overwhelmed one of the demons flying above them.
It was immediately scorched to an unrecognizable state.
Rose celebrated her triumph before being ambushed by a demon from behind.
She used the defensive spell [Field Wall] to create a lightning dome around her, but the demon had a strong affinity for lightning and slowly breached her defense.
In the nick of time, Belitha saved Rose by using [Spikes of Piercing Steel] to impale the demon with five black rod-like metallic objects.
"Belitha!" she joyfully exclaimed her name. Her way of gratitude for being saved.
"Let me help you up.." Belitha lent her a hand to stand upright once more.
A humanoid creature made from inanimate matter, specifically the earth, was created through some form of nature manipulation.
This creature, known as a golem, stood at an impressive height of ten meters.
It towered over the girls, who believed everything was fine and good before its creation.
"W-What's that?!" Belitha exclaimed.
It made guttering noises typical of a monster.
"Don't panic, we can take it down together!"
Rose was sure they could do it with teamwork.
While Rose used [Flames of Demolition], Belitha used [Thunderclap Arrow].
These were both Tier B+ spells.
A stream of flames poured out of Rosemarie's hands until it surrounded the golem and violently rotated in rapid motion like a twister.
Belithaʼs attack like the name dictated, first molded magicubes into visible blue hot lightning that heated the air expansively.
Jutting her arm forward caused the lightning to travel like an arrow toward the creature.
Both attacks fused to give rise to a sizable explosion that repelled the rock monster.
But it climbed to its feet immediately.
It was unfazed.
"No way!"
The girls were in shock.
Offensive spells of that caliber could not cause sufficient damage.
Before the golem could make any advances, Sir Kylian stepped in.
As a father he had to protect his daughter.
"Stay away from them!" He said valiantly.
He protectively spread his arms out in front of them.
"Father!"
Belitha exclaimed, visibly glad to see him.
"Take cover now!" He told them both.
A golem like this would be easy to dispatch.
He created his own custom stylised magic seal to perform [Pressure Crack].
An S rank wind spell he created himself.
A tempestuous wind burst forth violently, completely encapsulating the golem in a tight space of strong winds.
The wind pressure increased exponentially and with every second the compressed wind intensified, the body of the golem cracked.
Still, the golem was resilient.
"You will not harm a hair on her head... No one will!"
Sir Kylian increased the intensity of his wind magic until the dangerously compressed wind imploded, resulting in the golem breaking apart.
It was nothing but a smoking pile of rocks now.
"Wow, Sir Kylian is really powerful.."
Rose was taken aback by his strength.
An opportunity for Belitha to act smug came, "Well I am his daughter after all, what'd you expect..?"
A voice came from nowhere.
"Alright, everything is going as planned... For the most part."
The second Zaratros' immensely strong aura hit Rose and Belitha they were filled with cold sweat, daunted by the unbelievable power before them.
They were inside the ring.
But standing outside the coliseum miles away from them, Zaratros tensed his thigh muscles and jumped with the speed and accuracy of a sniper bullet straight toward Sir Kylian.
His right arm tore through chest of Sir Kylian from behind.
All of the surroundings faded to black, and our four characters were depicted in a minimalistic black and white stylization.
Red blood spouted from Sir Kylian's mouth which violently contrasted against the black and white.
It was a dramatic slow motion sequence, expressively permeated by ballistic perspectives.
Belitha intensely gasped, she couldn't believe her eyes.
Sir Kylian's body hit the ground after Zaratros removed his arm.
He was bleeding out excessively.
"Father!"
Belitha immediately attended to her father.
Her face was drenched in tears.
Zaratros had the appearance of a toned, muscular man.
He had long, dark gray hair, with the tips somewhat tinged and two strands framing the sides of his head. He also had several tribal tattoos on his upper body, mostly his left pectoral and one that covered his right arm.
For attire, he donned loose pants with a fur lining in the middle: the top is dark-colored while the bottom is light. He wore a wrap around his waist, with an apron-like cloth over his pants.
"W-Wh-Why did you do that?!" A stupid question asked by Rose.
His hand was covered in blood, "It had to be done.." Zaratros revealed a cold, bleak face.
He then approached Belitha who was more worried about her father.
In-between time he said:
"My name is Zaratros, the Chaotic King of Dragons.."
All this was so they could capture Belitha.