*BOOM*
With a soul-shaking rattle, the force of Lyrian's punch tore through the wind tornado and slammed into Silvus, making his eyes roll back into his head as he was sent flying across the arena.
As he landed, he coughed up blood trying to refill his lungs with the air that Lyrian's punch rushed out.
An opponent on the floor was enough for the other side to claim victory, so as the fight announcer stumbled with his words, in shock, he stammered loudly.
"Wi-winner! We have a winner! Lyrian Theageld!" He pointed to Lyrian, who barely stood on his feet, nearly all out of energy and mana with his clothes torn and his body scratched up.
As Lyrian raised his hand in the air at the sound of victory, the crowd went wild in an array of gasps and mixed emotions.
Many wanted to cheer but knew that it was foolish to do so in this situation where the heir to the throne had just suffered defeat.
Others were just frozen in shock, astonished at how the young master was defeated in such a manner right in front of their very eyes.
All the students were stunned as well, as Lyrian caught the eye of several onlookers at that point.
He wanted to hide most of his power in order to not get targeted too easily, but it looked like that wasn't going to go exactly as planned.
Still, he hadn't shown the extent of his true power. Garmr alone was far stronger than him at this point.
If it was Garmr versus Silvus, Garmr would have lost the match in a total of 10 seconds; via disqualification from killing his opponent.
After the match concluded, Silvus was carried away into the infirmary, knocked unconscious by Lyrian's attack with several rumors of serious inner organ injuries as well.
Lyrian on the other hand, who didn't suffer nearly as much as his opponent, was given a healing elixir and was allowed to join the group of kids once again.
Looking around, Lyrian definitely noticed the far fewer number of kids in the crowd. After the preliminaries where half of the students failed, there were close to only 400 now.
As the noise and activity from the crowd calmed down, Julius finally arose from his seat, capturing everyone's attention.
Next to him, was Zysrial Yaltan who remained indifferent, and Alzen Olstrid, who was still overwhelmed by shock mixed with a hint of fear for what would happen next.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! Our preliminary disqualification rounds for this entrance exam have officially ended! As you all know by now, tomorrow will be the day the real exam begins!" He shouted out, his voice reaching all crevices of the field.
"There will be no more retakes nor chances. What you have all witnessed here today is the final showcase of the talents of these bright young embers before they face their true challenge. And for you, kids who aspire to join our prestigious academy of magic, Anaviotis, please prepare yourselves for tomorrow's exam, which will be explained to you in-depth that day!" Julius paused, making sure everyone could catch up to what he was saying.
"Understand that apart from your group, there will be one more group of students who are around the same size of 400 kids that will be joining you tomorrow for your exam. They have tested separate preliminary exams in a separate place, only for you to find out once actually in the exam. Now, with all this being said, I bid you all fair and good luck!" He finally proclaimed to end his speech, lighting a cheer from the crowd.
'400 more kids? I had no clue of this…' Lyrian thought to himself, looking around to see that no one else knew of this surprise either.
After the crowd of kids started to disperse, some wanting to meet their parents, and others following the guards back to their camps, there was a group that came up to Lyrian composed of lower-ranked nobles.
"Hey, could I please be your friend? You seem really strong and you're the black sheep out of all of us. Plea–" A kid began to say before being cut off abruptly.
"Nope. I want to go get some rest, please, leave me alone." Lyrian said, walking towards his camp as the group followed him.
"Hey! The way you defeated Silvus was amazing!"
"I don't want to be your friend!"
"You really are the black sheep out of us lower nobles!"
"What? What are you talking about? Not not a lower noble, I'm not even a noble–"
"Black sheep!"
"Black sheep!"
"Black sheep!"
The crowd began to eagerly chant.
Lyrian, frustrated and tired, stared at the camera and broke the fourth wall. "What the hell is this?" He said, unimpressed and exhausted.