The series of events that then followed was an absolute massacre on Philip's team, no one among them even came close to damaging Ada, while she showed off her overwhelming talent in magic.
"Icicle barrage x2!"
"Lightning Charge!"
Each time her magic spells would clash with her opponents, none of them would get parried or miss, she was just that much more precise than her peers, granted that she could move while attacking.
"Lightning Spark!"
"Ice Wall!"
...
But what made her wins even more exciting, was that every time she would fight her opponents, she would deliberately find creative ways to use her magic spells to take down her enemies, one of which was her using her physicality similar to the strategy of the trio earlier, but this time she was even more fluid and efficient with her body and mana usage, she didn't hold nothing back when fighting them.
it was like she was making a statement, that whatever they can do, she can do better.
"For what reason is she going this far just to prove herself? When it was very clear from the start that she was the best among their generation?" the crowd thought.
Some of them even assumed that "Maybe she was just getting bored"
But that couldn't have been more far from the truth, because there was only one reason why she was doing this, and that is, she was in fact provoking Philip, each step she took was a clear indication of a challenge.
Because she knew that she needed to do this much to make him go all out, as she may or may not have gathered information about him.
"Icicle Spears!
"Lightning Spark!"
...
However, on the seventh round, a very interesting challenger entered the fight, at least for Ada.
It was a very average looking guy with a very average talent, but behind him was both of his parents that he brought along with him, which was cheering for him for his match.
"Go Jamie! You can do it!!"
"We believe in you!!!"
Both of his parents yelled as he waved back at them with a proud smile on his face,
"Hahaha! Thank you, Mom! Thank you, My old man..."
Such a light-hearted moment uplifted the mood of everyone and made the heart of the audience flutter, however for Ada instead of it causing a positive reaction this soured her mood, which caused her face to wrinkle and show an irritated expression.
But as if that wasn't enough, another person from the crowd cheered for him-
"I-If I you win I'll give you a kiss on the cheeks!! Go for it Jamie!!!" A girl the same age as him yelled out those words embarrassedly while she closed her eyes.
Several veins popped out on Ada's forehead, it was clear that she was really infuriated at what just happened, her thoughts could be summed up with 'A-A perfectly normal and loving parents?! Even his soulmate at his age?!! H-How could he?!!!'
The boy may not have been gifted anywhere else, but he was definitely lucky.
'Alright, now that my mom and old man is here to support me, even Maries dignity is at stake, I feel like I can do anything!!!' Jamie thought to himself with his eyes burning full of fervor, unaware of the looming danger that he was about to face.
"3!"
"2!"
"1!"
"let's have a good match Ada" Jamie greeted her with a smile before the announcer said go.
However, Ada didn't even utter a single word and was just staring at him menacingly.
"GO!!!"
"Fireball! Fire Blast!" Jamie casted his magic spell with such passion and vigor as soon as the round started.
Meanwhile pitch-black aura emanated from Ada, as she blocked all of Jamie's magic spells without any effort even though his element counters her, there was just that much difference in the quantity and quality of mana.
"Ice Wall!" A gigantic wall made of light-blue ice spawned and extinguished both the fire spells the moment it collided with it.
Whish! Whish!
Sizzle! Sizzle!
For a moment this left Jamie dumbfounded, but he quickly picked himself back up and continued on attacking.
"W-What?—Fireball! Fireball!"
However, Ada didn't even bother attacking, she just kept on blocking him, as if to show him the level he is at, that he can never hope to surpass her, she wanted to crush his hopes and dreams.
But naturally that wasn't enough to crush the spirit of this innocent boy, he just kept on trying even when nothing worked...
"Fireball! Fireball!! Fireball barrage!!!"
Even when he was hit with a third-tier magical spell from Ada which ultimately led to his defeat, he just took it smiling, happy with how the fight concluded, and hoped to improve himself so that he may be able to be her match in the future.
"Lightning Charge Barrage!"
Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
Bzzzt! Bzzzt!
Bzzzt!
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Jamie screamed in anguish while getting electrocuted and passing out for a brief moment.
...
"I-I lost huh..." Jamie muttered to himself while laying down on the ground, sadly the power of love just wasn't enough.
But right before the next match started, a girl rushed towards where Jamie is-
"mwah..."
"B-But I lost?" Jamie eyes widened by what Marie just did but couldn't express his genuine happiness and shock (Pun intended) as his body was deep fried, literally shocked to its bones.
"It doesn't matter I was planning on kissing you anyways-Silly me!" She replied with a cheeky smile on her face.
Suddenly all of the crowd cheered for them even when he lost, this reminded the adults of their youths that always looked back fondly at and had wished to return to.
It was the moment when their love when their love was beginning to blossom and when they had to make that one decision that led them to where they are now.
But they all just smiled to not ruin the canon event of the two love birds; it was just such a wholesome moment.
On the other hand, this only irritated Ada further and made the anger in her heart burn stronger, because she somehow felt like she was the one who actually lost.
Jamie figuratively ignited the hidden beast inside her.
So, in the next rounds she didn't actually show any mercy and just bulldozed through them, up until she reached the fifteenth round.
...
At this point everybody was already filled with anticipation on what the results of this bout will be, after all there is still some money on the line here.
"Will she really be able to pull it off? Will she be able to win this all by herself?!" The crowd all thought to themselves.
Meanwhile on the other side, Philip started going down from the tree that he rested on, and for a while before he came down, he weighed the consequences of the actions that he will soon be taking.
Firstly, if he just forfeited this match, he would surely receive a lot of backlashes from the villagers who betted on their faction, which will destroy his reputation, because he didn't even try fighting and they might even call him a coward. This option only seems to avoid the first hurdle of exerting himself, but what follows is actually more troublesome, so he crossed out the thought in his mind.
Secondly, would be to lose this match on purpose and to just show the bare minimum of his capabilities, which at the time seemed like the best option if he didn't want to be involved any longer in this charade.
But after deliberating between his options, he chose the last option, and that is to actually try and win the match.
Because while it may actually be more of a hassle to win, his pride wouldn't allow him to lose, she had provoked him, and he was already itching for a fight.
A mark that at the end of the day no matter how mature Philip may act, he is still a child.
...
The moment they both faced off, the sun had already reached its peak, like the skies was signifying that this is it, the deciding moment on who will come out of this duel alive, in other words, "It was high noon".
They walked like two warriors, gunning at each other's throat, ready to have a standoff,
"3!"
Then as if there was a musician playing somewhere, in the far-off distance the beats of a drum could be heard-
"2!"
It was then followed by the echoes of a person whistling, and to fit the occasion much better, one of them just needed to drop the line, "This town ain't big enough for the two of us."
"1!"
Then there were the banjoes strumming, ♫♪♫♪♪
And when the beat dropped, as if the crows nearby could sense that death was coming, they immediately all flew-
Flap! Flap!
"GO!!!"
"Hap!" WHOOOOSH! Philip jumped and immediately blinked in front of everyone's eyes.
However, as if Ada instinctively knew what Philip was going to do, she instantly casted a defensive spell to block Philip's attack.
"Earth Wall x4"
CRASH!!!
'W-What she can use the element, earth?' Philip thought while he punched the wall midair, destroying it in the process.
And she was right Philip indeed attacked her head on, instead of attacking from her behind, but that wasn't the end of his attack as he promptly blinked again.
WHOOOOSH! And right after, he reappeared behind her in a flying kick stance-
But as his foot was about to reach her back, she counterattacked by using the lightning spell that she had prepared right after she casted the earth spell.
"Lightning Strike!"
Bzzzzt!
So, Philip who was about to get hit by the spell in his abdomen, was forced to maneuver himself sidewards to change his direction by twisting the joints in his upper body, he then twisted the joints in his foot like a spring to bounce away from her without touching any surface, only the air.
Something that he had learned to do while he was playing with the trio.
...
'I-Impossible could she actually follow my movements; this was the second time already that she managed to defend against my attacks' Philip thought, dumbfounded by what just happened.
Philip, again altered his direction while in mid-air to bounce back at her, this time attacking her flank-
Swoooosh!
But the same thing happened again, right as he was about to punch her, she had already casted a defensive ice spell.
"Ice Wall! x4" However this time, she wasn't just about to let Philip go, because as soon as his fist punched the ice wall, she resupplied it with her own mana to make it regrow, for the purpose of getting his arm stuck right where she wanted it to be.
She then conjured another lightning spell that is more advanced-
"Lightning Charge Barrage! x2!" It consisted of coagulated balls of lightning that explode lightning sparks upon impact to completely paralyze the receiver's entire body, temporarily.
However, what she didn't expect was that Philip was actually strong enough to destroy the entire ice wall, by just pulling his arm that was stuck.
Crackle! Crackle! As the entire wall started to show some cracks, until finally, it wholly crashed in a span of not even a split second.
Crack! CRASH!!
Then as Philip got away from Ada's creative usage of attacking spells as a combo, he was caught off guard at how good she is at first and that she was still holding back.
But it matters not, as he was able to confirm the thing he needed to-
'That girl, she was following me with her eyes, I saw it as soon as I was about to throw a jab, although she may not be able to move as fast me, her eyes were definitely good enough to catch up with my movements, I guess it's time to test her limits.' Philip thought of all that in a span of milliseconds.
So, Philip then continued relentlessly attacking her, going faster and faster each time he would strike, while Ada was forced to be on the defense to look for ways to counterattack.
But both of them are still not going all out, they were still feeling each other out.
'Heh! What a fun guy!' Ada thought to herself.
...
The entire crowd was baffled at what is happening, none of them was able to follow Philip, it was as if she was only battling up against herself, the only guide that they had to follow the fight was through Ada's spells and eye movements.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
"Earth Wall! Earth Wall!"
...
Then they reached a certain point where it favored Philip, as he was able to gather more information than Ada, because her abilities are much more diverse, there were more of her that can be analyzed, whereas Philip's defensive and attacking moves are much more straightforward, he was like an open book that uses both his strength and speed to perform combos.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
"Lightning Strike! Earth Wall!"
But as much as Philip was getting a rough idea on what the limits of Ada are, she was also getting used to Philip's attacking pattern, because although it may seem like Philip has no weaknesses to show, she noticed that every time Philip would alter his direction mid-air, there was that slight incontinuous movement to lose a bit of the momentum in order to change his course, meaning there is a delay in the midst of transferring from one attack to another that she can take advantage of.
However, Philip was already aware of that gap within his movements, so before she could even take fully advantage of it, he started altering his direction in the middle of him altering his direction, so it looked like he was doing two short bursts of dashes in a rapid succession.
Whoosh-Whoosh!
Swoosh-Swoosh!
Originally, he didn't plan on pushing himself this much, but the situation called for it, so he needed to do what had to be done in order to win.
"HUH?!!" Ada was surprised at what he just did, she thought that she was catching up to him, but now she wasn't, so in a moment's desperation she used her final trump card.
"Fire Blast! Wind Cutter!"
"Water Wall! Lightning Strike!"
Double casting or conjuring two elements at the same time, and she had also revealed that she had awakened all six of the elements.
"S-Since when have we ever heard news of someone who awakened all six elements?!"
"What the heck? How is that girl so lucky?!"
The crowd shouted as they were stupefied at the sudden reveal, they felt like they were side characters just living off in her world, which isn't actually far from the truth.
...
And now this fight was actually getting into a more serious territory, since Philip can't actually fully control himself while pulling such a stunt, as the momentum that he keeps on gathering was steadily becoming too much, even for him.
Whoosh-Whoosh!
Swoosh-Swoosh!
Meanwhile, Ada was also becoming desperate, she was using her spare mana without any reserve, and the complexity of casting two elements continuously was taking a toll in her brain.
So, both of them have decided that for this battle to not escalate any further and become dangerous, they needed to end this fast...
Philip opened his attack with a double kick to her upper torso, in which Ada promptly blocked with an earth spell-
Swish! Swish!
"Earth Wall x4"
CRASH! CRASH!
Crumble!
Although she managed to block the brunt of the impact, some fragments of the earth wall that was destroyed ricocheted towards her, causing some minor bruising, but she did not stop there and did an unexpected move, which was throwing back those stones that hit her right back at Philip.
She was actually physically strong enough to throw such huge and heavy rocks with speed, but of course, she was sure that it wasn't enough to distract Philip, so right after she throwed it, she quickly casted a wind spell which was then followed by a fire spell.
"Wind Tornado! Fire Tornado!" And since both of the spells were compatible elements with each other, together they had combined to make an even stronger spell.
Whish! Whish!
Sizzle! Sizzle!
The wind tornado formed first to enclose Philip, and then right after sucked in the flames of the fire tornado that was casted second, but at the same time as both tornadoes had different mana, they retained both the properties of the fire and wind.
The combination of the tornado spells created a sight similar to matches being set ablaze.
...
It was a tricky spell for Philip, he can't jump upwards since this tornado that is made of fire was shaped weirdly, there was no opening above it, instead it was like the bottom of the tornado was also at its top.
Another thing was, the wind properties of the spell forced the air around him to rotate in a single direction, meaning he cannot dash in any other way but only in the direction where the tornado was going, because him twisting his joints wasn't enough, he still needed something to step on i.e. the air.
But that wasn't all, the fire properties of the tornado also worked against him, because the more he runs into the same direction, the more gusts of air he gathers that only serves to add more fuel to the fire, and to further strengthen the blazing tornado.
This had made him stuck in the eye of the tornado, and he was sure that he needed to get out fast, because he knew that Ada will be firing another spell that is even more fatal than this.
Whoosh-Whoosh!
Swoosh-Swoosh!
...
After using those two spells as a diversion, she was indeed casting her strongest spell, which was from the ice element.
"...Oh, ice who freezes life and anything on your tracks..."
Meanwhile, Philip who was in a bit of a pickle, had decided that there was only one path forward, and that is to keep moving to gain enough speed to breakthrough the walls of the tornado.
So, he steeled himself.
...
For a moment, Ada was gloating towards her victory, after all she was just seconds away from casting her spell-
But right as she was just about to finish the last words, "Ice Ham-No you don't"
Philip grabbed her from both of her wrists and pushed her down to the ground, cancelling her ice spell for good, she wasn't even able to catch a glimpse of his body, it was like he had turned into an air bubble and that was the only thing that she saw.
CRASH!!!
Philip won; he was in a dominant position, where a single strike from him could knock her out.
"Are you satisfied with the conclusion of this bout?" Philip asked Ada sarcastically to insult her as he was pinning her to the ground.
Philip's manner of speaking and action insinuated that for him, this was all just a big waste of time and to not bother him again with anything of the likes, thus proving to her that he thoroughly crushed her and that this was his complete victory.
However, Ada just ignored what Philip's words insinuated and grinned back at him,
"Although it is faint you can't hide that smile on your face, that means you've enjoyed our fight, didn't you?"
Philip then blanked out and came to a sudden realization, 'S-She's right, I've enjoyed going all out and fighting with her to my limits." As he touched his mouth with his left hand, feeling whatever unconscious reaction his face was having right now, but also to cover it up.
However, in the end Philip just opted to remove the hand covering his mouth, as he felt like he really didn't have any need to hide it in front of her, "So, how exactly did you manage to make me fall for your plans?"
"Well about that..."