The range of the cold weather grew, and the temperature kept dropping.
Alice landed in the middle of the arena, the eye of the blizzard moving with her. Her hair was floating in the intense wind.
A fierce light blue orb levitated in front of her. It throbbed violently, its pulsating core kept releasing blasts of freezing energy that sliced through the air, turning everything in its way frozen. The ground below Alice buckled and cracked, like the eye of this blizzard couldn't be supported by the very thing she stood on. The orb's light flickered erratically, glowing stronger and pumping faster. It felt almost like a heartbeat in Alice's hands.
"Quick! Group up!" Richard could easily tell that it wasn't something he was able to stop anymore. He ran towards Cid and Rhazes. "Use the strongest fire you can to shield us!"
They didn't sweat under the pressure. Not because they were calm, but because any liquid would immediately freeze.
His teammates nodded and created a veil strong enough to shield from the cold. They were just in time as the attack hit.
"ICE AGE!" Alice screamed at the top of her lungs. It didn't boost her spell's power in any way. But it sounded super cool in her head.
Alice cast the source of this cold weather, summoning an enormous iceberg. The intensity of it blew everyone away. The crowd around it could feel the scale and freezing temperatures as they stood in front of it. No one dared to take a step closer.
"Just a little bit longer..." Alice pushed herself as much as she could to hold the iceberg in place. So it could fully manifest. She lay on the freezing ice; normally she would try to warm herself up with fire, but she had to use all of her magic on the iceberg. Her mana core and the smaller clumps of mana easing the consumption spun rapidly, doing their best not to fail Alice, like someone pushing their legs beyond their limits.
And just like someone pushing themselves, she had reached the end of how much she could force from herself. She completely exhausted herself in all aspects. Physically and mentally spent, she lay there, trying to stay awake, blaming herself for not gathering more power earlier, and scared that she wouldn't really be able to defeat the task Monika has given her. This made the victor of this fight unclear as the three swordsmen were still engulfed in ice.
The whole crowd was shocked. No one dared to speak because of the display of power in front of them. They just stared with their mouths wide open.
"Everyone, melt the ice. I'm ending this round right now!" Prince Charles ordered the students. He bent his knees before jumping upwards, easily getting on top of the iceberg and slowly walking towards Alice. He picked up her sleeping body and descended outside the arena. He laid her next to Tania and Jasper.
"Thank you, Prince Charles." Tania ran towards Alice and hit her on her head. "Why are you always so reckless?" She scolded her.
Alice woke up due to the punch and Tania's yelling, "Did we win?" She ignored the personal matters for now. She put in so much effort, so she at least wanted to know if they had won.
"We will see in a moment. But no matter if you did or not, your team won't continue in the tournament," Charles announced.
Alice was taken aback by this. "What do you mean? I'm over here working my ass off, and you will just kick us?" She pressed the Prince. Not caring about his position.
"It's because your fights are too stressful and unorganized to watch." He scratched his cheek. "Also, you are hurt, and your clothes are barely covering anything." He averted his gaze.
Alice looked down; the front of her compression shirt was completely fine; the only part that was torn was the back, where the sword left a slash wound. "Really? You can barely see any... ugh." She stood up, still pushing herself harder. "... there is barely any skin showing." She pointed to the wound on her back.
"That's not what I was referring to." He covered his face with his hands. "Your clothing is... very suggestive." He was red like a tomato, pointing to her chest, which was barely being contained by her clothes. He gave her his robe to cover herself.
Alice got red on her face too. "T-thanks, you pervert." She hit him in the shoulder with her elbow. Her face turning a bit red.
Tania was right next to her. "Let's go, Alice." She dug her nails into her skin. "We can't interrupt Prince Charles anymore," her expression sour and her lips tight as she said that.
The duo went to Jasper. Staring at the iceberg being melted to find out if Alice's last attack knocked the swordsman out.
"We found them!" One of the students torching through ice shouted.
Everyone ran to see for themselves. The entire trio was still breathing and conscious.
"And the winners are!" Charles was about to crown Richard and his teammates as victors. But someone stopped him.
"Can you even move your small fries?" Valen appeared out of nowhere and asked the knights stuck in ice.
Neither of them could. They were frozen solid everywhere from their shoulders down. The veil only stopped their heads from being affected.
"Both teams lose this. Just like Mister Student Council President said, "The magic instructor appeared in front of Charles. "You got it from here, right? I will borrow one of your students for a while.
It was the first time that Charles heard Valen having such a request. "Yes... sure... Not that you did anything anyway." The prince narrowed his eyes, suspicious if Valen had any ulterior motives.
"You promised me a win." Jasper had a pout on his face. "You owe me for this suit. It's too stretched out for me to even fix it. He crossed his arms and looked away. "But I have to say that it was impressive."
Alice chuckled. "Sorry for that, Jasper. I was just very tired." Deep down, she was jumping with joy that she could keep this suit. "I will be sure to repay you for that someday."
"Alice, stop talking right now and go to the infirmary." Tania pulled Alice's arm. "You are in no state to make more empty promises." Luckily Alice didn't have any fighting left in her, so she couldn't stop Tania.
...
When they got to the infirmary, Alice wanted to take a bath.
"I won't let you do it by yourself. What if you fall asleep again?" Tania protested. Putting a firm foot down, afraid of her friend's well-being.
"Then just watch me over." Alice shrugged as she started undressing in the bathroom.
Tania couldn't object to her reasoning and just stood there. Making sure she is okay. And TOTALLY not glancing whenever she had the chance.
"Oh, this feels so much better!" Alice said after finishing bathing herself. She changed into some light clothes made for patients as she wanted to take a nap.
"Will you watch over me while I sleep?" Alice asked Tania.
"Of course I will do it. Now go to sleep. She put her hand on Alice's forehead.
She hummed happily as Alice started to sleep. When she made sure that she was already out, she lay down next to her. Feeling her heart flutter happily from how close they were.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
"Hey, uhh...." The voice pondered deeply. "Screw it. Whatever your name is, this is me, Instructor Valen.