After Zane got the money from Old man, he and Bella went out shopping for clothes. Bella was with him because she couldn't risk him getting killed before the tournament.
After a few hours of shopping, the duo went back to the house and as expected, Bella suggested they start training. However Zane replied by "It's still my spa day"
In the end, Bella went back to her home and Zane spent the rest of the day relaxing and trying to cook, which he failed miserably.
Old man was sure that if he wasn't a High Mage, Zane's cooking would have killed him. Zane then went to bed at around sunset and finished his relaxing day.
That night he slept the best sleep he ever had, of course it was cut off by someone....
"Zane wake up!" Bella shouted in his ear.
Zane woke up with a start and complained about having human rights, which Bella found quite amusing. After dragging him off the bed the duo made their way to the underground training hall.
"Do you know what tomorrow is Zane?" Bella asked.
"If I'm not mistaken, its Sunday"
"Funny, you should be a clown. No Zane tomorrow is the day of the tournament." Bella said.
"Ohh yeah" Zane nodded.
He hadn't really forgotten that the tournament had arrived, he just wanted to mess with his teacher.
"Wait which tournament?" he asked seriously.
"The main one"
"So when are we going to have our tournament to find out who fights in the tournament?" Zane asked.
"Today at noon" Bella answered.
"Ohh shit"
"Exactly so let's get to work and polish up on what you already know."
For the next few hours, the teacher and student duo trained furiously. Zane could now go up to 3 hours without needing a break to heal.
His fighting style had also evolved slightly over the past few weeks. He had found out that his right hand was the stronger of the two so he began using almost solely it for attacks.
Zane had also gotten good at kicks, even Bella had complemented the speed and power of his kicks.
Overally Zane had become an above average fighter and he was now confident in meeting Kieth or Ken in the finals. He only hoped he won't be paired with Charlotte.
Every time he thought of fighting Charlotte, he would feel a slight pain on his nether regions.
.
.
.
.
A couple of hours passed and Bella told Zane to freshen up, the other students had begun arriving and the tournament was about to commence. Zane quickly went to his room and took a quick shower before changing into his new clothes.
They consisted of white slim fit jeans with two black lines running along their length on the side. A long sleeve turtle neck shirt, also white in color.
Black boots which went half way up to his knees. White fingerless gloves with black metal on the knuckles and a white bandana which he tied on his forehead.
"I know i can't see myself, but damn I feel good" He said while dramatically removing invisible dust off his shoulder.
"Yes you do" A voice said from the entrance of his room.
Zane almost jumped in fright "Ch... Charlotte, h...how are you" he stammered. Zane had never been this embarrassed in his life.
"Ohh i am very fine" Charlotte smirked.
"How long have you been standing there?" Zane asked as he tried to regain his composure.
"Not long enough unfortunately, come the tournament is about to start" Charlotte said and started walking towards the basement, with his head hung, Zane followed.
Upon reaching the basement, Zane was surprised to see how much the place had changed. In the center was a fifty square meter large one meter high platform and there were also rows of benches on the side, they increased in height the further back one went.
The whole place looked exactly like the arena Zane had been to although it was smaller, so it was more like the mortal arena under the Sleeping Rum tavern.
Zane followed Charlotte to Keith and Ken on the side and the three companions immediately engaged in conversation. Of course Charlotte brought up the incident she just saw.
She went as far as imitating Zane's voice, effectively turning Zane's pale face redder each passing second. Zane's embarrassment only stopped when something else caught the attention of the group.
That was when a group of people Zane had never seen before entered the hall, from their clothes, Zane could tell they were quite wealthy.
"Who are they?" he asked the others.
"Nobles, probably friends of teacher" Ken hypothesized.
"Old man has friends who are nobles?, that surprising" Zane mumbled.
"It's not so surprising given the fact that teacher is part of a noble family himself" Kieth revealed.
This information was news to Zane, he never thought that Old man was a noble. However now that he thought about it, it wasn't that surprising. After all, Old man was wealthy and powerful, the two things necessary for nobility.
Zane put the matter behind him and turned his focus to Buck who had just got onto the stage. "Hello everyone, thank you all for coming to see my student wipe the floor with you all" he greeted.
Zane noticed Ken looking away in embarrassment at his instructor's words.
"I will now state the rules, there will be no biting, please don't bite each other we don't want what happened last year to repeat itself" Buck said and the other instructors laughed.
It seemed something interesting happened the previous year.
"A participant is eliminated when he or she is knocked out or thrown off the stage. We will be here to avoid any fatal injuries but please try not to go for the kill"
"This tournament was going to be easy since we only had eight people taking part, but unfortunately someone just had to come in and break our even number" Buck glanced at Zane.
A bucket suddenly appeared in his hand "Can everyone come an pick a plaque from inside here" He said. Everyone did as instructed and walked up to take a single plaque from the bucket.
Zane felt the number 3 carved into the plaque he picked.
"I got 5" Kieth said.
"I got 4" Ken said.
"I got 9" Charlotte said.
"I got 3" Zane said.
"Since we have nine people, there is going to be a three way fight with the last man, or woman standing advancing to the semi finals"
Zane, just like Kieth, Ken and Charlotte wished not to be part of that three way fight. They knew that their group had the favourites to win so as soon as they got into such a fight, the other two opponents will gang up on them first.
What was worse is if they were unlucky enough to have all three members of the fight come from their group. Then they would have to eliminate each other on the first round. It was better to meet in the semi final or final match.
"The fighters with the following numbers will fight in the three way match, number 1, number 8 and number 6" Buck said.
Audible sighs of relief were heard from the students who were exempt from the three way fight.
"Without further ado Can number 1, 8 and 6 come up the stage"