The blow that should have slammed us into kingdom come never came. I opened my eyes, still held in place. A voice from my right rang out, "I am not going to be beaten that easily. Never again." It was Lulith; she seemed to be bleeding, but in her hand, she held an orb of sorts. A memory flashed into my head—I remembered the link she had formed with Syravella, the goddess of blood, who showed off the power she granted in present time, stopping Pylus' hands. The blood had shot out like a web in front of her, stopping her hands from smashing us. Lulith gave us a look as she prepared her next spell. "I need blood to use this ability, and as luck would have it, I'm bleeding pretty badly. Sorry, Lucius, we will have to show them a bit more of our skills."
I nodded understandingly; we needed a miracle to win this match. Now I was prepared to go all out. Lulith used her other hand to conjure more of her blood and yelled out, "Hemoclysm!" The blood shot out in a straight line, erupting forth; it struck the young girl head-on. The force was so powerful from the blood-based attack that she smashed into Professor Berkley. The two of them colliding canceled the hold that Professor Berkley had on us. We were released from our bindings in a twist of fate; Lulith had caused a miracle to occur, now all five of us gathered around the two on the ground.
Lysandra lit up her fist, Quinn cracked his knuckles, I held out my gauntlet, Lulith formed another blood orb, and Yuna smiled, her hand on her sword. Professor Berkley looked up in horror as all five of us now gazed down on him like a pack of hyenas. He shouted, "Wait, wait, I give up. Please don't attack; I am not so prideful that I can't admit defeat. You hear that, Eris? We are done!" Eris yelled out, "I can't believe it, folks! From the brink of defeat, the new team Grin Reapers have shut down the runner-ups from last year! The Grin Reapers, with their extremely odd abilities, have proven why they were picked as Altaria's endorsed team. I have no way to describe what I just watched; I was speechless all the way through! The Grin Reapers move on to the next round!"
Cheers and chants roared out through the gym. I celebrated, "Yes! Lulith, that was freaking amazing! You saved us!" Without thinking, I hugged her. Once I let go, I noticed she was red in the face. "I just did what I needed to do, jeez, so overdramatic as always." Lysandra patted her on the back, "Seriously, I wasn't sure about you at first, but you're the MVP!" Quinn smiled, "Right when we needed you most, too." Yuna chimed in, "You did... serviceably, I suppose. You saved me from taking a huge hit." I nodded, "To celebrate, let's eat some lunch. I will buy you whatever you want!"
We made our way out of the gym, our heads held high. Before we could get out, though, a small voice called from behind. It was Pylus, the girl we had just faced, with small tears in her eyes. "Hey... when we rematch later, you better not hold back. I will make Altaria look my way no matter what!" I frowned. "Altaria?" Pylus nodded. "She gave me the power to fight in this school; otherwise, everyone just thinks I'm a powerless weakling." I responded, "Hey, you got a break before your next match, so do we. Let's talk over lunch."
Pylus meekly stuttered, "L-lunch?" Lysandra gave a hearty laugh. "Right, kid, you put up an amazing fight. We would have lost had Lulith not saved us. As fellow competitors, join us." Pylus nodded, "A-alright..." She followed behind us shyly. We walked back to the cafeteria, where I decided to buy us all a decent feast for lunch. We would need it for the matches to come, but we had at least an hour or longer before we began again. The tournament was an all-day event, but at the end of the day, we would prove ourselves as the strongest team here. I ordered everyone what they wanted: Lysandra got pulled pork sandwiches, Lulith had some mushroom soup with bread, Quinn had a small cutlet sandwich, I ate tuna myself, and I even got Yuna some salmon.
I offered Pylus, "Hey, get anything you want, my treat!" Pylus muttered, "But we are enemies. Are you really going to buy your rival lunch?" Quinn chimed in stoically, "Best to just accept it. Lucius has no concept of friend or enemy sometimes." I felt that as an insult, but I added, "Right, order away, plus consider it payment. I would like to pick your brain about something extremely curious." She frowned slightly, but in the end, she ordered some curry with rice. I started my questioning excitedly as I ate. "You said Altaria, right? Did she give you the sword or something? How can you pick that up anyways?" Lulith mocked, "Please close your mouth when you talk, Lucius."
Pylus responded, "No, Altaria provided me with powerful seals on my hands that could enhance my physical strength to lift such a heavy sword. She scouted me in the city when she saw my sword, Sovereign of Ruin. This sword has been passed down in my family for a long time." She was interrupted by a familiar face. "Yes, that is correct; it is one of the many ancient relics scattered around Eldoria. I scouted you because I knew your grandmother, and I knew the power that your family used to save countless lives in the past." The woman was Altaria; she pointed out, "I just came from seeing your brother Mynus. He is fine; the medical staff we have here can save anything short of a fatal injury."
Pylus sighed with relief. "Th-thank you! I knew with your capabilities he would be fine." Altaria added, turning to us, "Right now, I want to say congrats on your first win, but don't get complacent; this is just the first battle. I want to add that Pylus here is one of my exceptions that I allowed to enroll here. There is one other mage in this tournament to keep your eyes on. A more recent student I have personally scouted, and your next fight. I am sure you noticed the boy in the back on Team Phantasm. I won't give away his secrets for fairness's sake, but I want to point out he is not to be taken lightly. I almost never make exceptions for students unless it is a case like Pylus here, who did amazing as always. The other being that boy you saw. The boy's name is Pilot; I scouted him shortly before you came here. He is blind in both eyes and is only a single type mage, not a dual caster like every other student."
Her face became serious as she said, "I want you to pay very close attention when I say that I have never met a rarer mage in all my life. I have lived for 72 years now, but this boy is not something I have ever encountered before. I won't tell you his history, but his parents are no superheroes. I have personally adopted him for fear that, without proper guidance, he could become this generation's greatest bane. I won't say any more than that; to do so would be an insult to the competition. But keep your eyes open out there, okay?" I nodded. "Right, I won't take my eyes off him in our match." The rest of our break was spent chatting and eating. Pylus seemed to warm up to us a bit as we parted from her. Finally, she thanked us, "You better make it to the finals, but my team will be waiting for the rematch!" I smiled. "Right, we'll be there. Just watch from the stands as we sweep Team Phantasm."
Apparently, there was a break between the first and second rounds for the medical staff, but our match was approaching. With our own team getting treatment we would then move on to watching the next matches. My heart beat in antiicpation for our own next match Team Phantasm versus Grin Reapers, with Altaria warning us about the team having a hidden card up their sleeve. We got back to our seats just as the next battle was beginning; it seems they had an announcement to make. Eris began, "Alright folks, now that you're back in your seats, it's time for the second round starting with the losers' bracket. Your first match for round 2 is going to be Team Dream versus Team Starlight. Whoever wins this match will move on in our losers' bracket. The tournament favorites, with a bit of a rough patch, versus the light that still clings to hope. Who will move on to the semi-finals? Place your hopes on one team."
The two teams were already on the field. I asked Quinn next to me, "So, do you think Prince Charming there has his act together now?" Quinn frowned. "One thing is for sure: I can feel that his teammates blame him for the loss, especially that Kaiser boy. He doesn't seem very happy about that loss to Team Phantasm. I think this match will be decided by whether they work as a team around the prince." Lysandra chimed in, "Ah, that rich boy really made his team hate him already? Something I've learned in my time as the leader of a gang is if you can't work as a team, you have to have something else to rely on. My guess is that he thinks he can handle everything himself. I was like that once myself, but I learned to rely on others a bit after I lost a fight or two."
Their team looked a little rough, as they seemed to have been given treatment only recently for their wounds, but similarly, Starlight wasn't at their best either. Eris shouted, "Alright, the moment has finally come. Can the dream live on, or will it be erased in a beam of light? Let your losers' bracket start with a bang!" Team Starlight held the same positions as last time, but Team Dream seemed to mix it up this time. They appeared to put Prince Sorbek in the front; I guess they figured if he wasn't going to fight, he could at least absorb damage.
Professor Princeton was in the middle, with Gwen to his left and Arthur to his right, with Kaiser in the back. With Eris giving the signal, the next match began right away. The match started with Professor Rosewald, seemingly learning from last time, starting off with a powerful spell. He yelled out, "X-Ray Atomic Burst!" Something we didn't get to see in his last fight that Quinn had pointed out to me at lunch was his concentrated spells. From what I could see, he shot something out of his hand.
I didn't see anything, but it seemed he shot it at Prince Sorbek; the stage exploded as energy pulsed out of Professor Rosewald's hands. Quinn nudged me; I turned to him as he explained, "Radiation—his wind and light elements created radiation energy. He fired out a supercharged X-ray. My eyes could only pick it up because I am a mimic; I can change my vision to pick up on anything visible or non-visible. For the prince it would appear invisible. Such an attack is completely unavoidable." I nodded as I looked at the stage. The blast seemed to clear, and I expected to see the prince lying face down. My expectations were not met; the prince, still looking bored, was in the exact same spot he was before. Rosewald's mouth was hanging open as Sorbek mocked, "Is that a breeze I felt, or was it your attempt at a spell? Perhaps I should show you what a real concentrated spell looks like."