106 Semi-Finals

-----Kaede's POV

I felt more calm about our previous match from yesterday. I still would've liked for Yui to also advance to the semi-finals with me, but at least she can climb her way through the loser's bracket so it's not over just yet.

Which leaves me the only person in our group that is still in the winner's bracket. Fabian and Collin weren't with us since they were now out of the tournament, and instead sitting with the others at the spectator's seats. Just from our viewing portion of the room, I could see that the stadium was completely full now as the matches were about to begin. Only 8 people were in our room now and thankfully I wouldn't be fighting anyone I know.

Violet: "Please no, please no, please-"

Once again, Violet was praying to not fight against Marcus. With Fabian now out of the tournament, there's a good chance that Marcus will make it to the end of loser's bracket. So as long as I win in the winner's bracket, I can still get my chance to beat the shit out of him for putting Yui through all that pain.

Yui: "You'll be fine~ Plus you can always concede early if you need to if you do get put up against him."

Violet: "I know, but it feels wrong to run away like that."

Yui: "You lost to him already, I don't see why not."

Violet: "I- I guess."

She manages to calm Violet down, even if by a little as we wait for the matches to begin.

Leon: "Well it's just us and Marcus in loser's bracket, so it's either Marcus, Ellen or me you'll be fighting."

Violet: "...I don't like my chances."

Now that Leon mentioned it, it was just the 4 of them in loser's, with me and 3 random people who I don't know in the winner's. Looking at the 3 people in the room I didn't know, there was 1 girl and 2 guys. The guy's looked quite normal looking, far less intimidating than Marcus, or even Fabian. The girl looked quite fragile, as if she just glided all the way to this stage in the tournament. From looks alone I see no real threat, and I don't sense any strong presence from them either.

...

Lucien: "Let's begin! We'll start with the loser's bracket today, so could I please have, Leon von Ardford and Marcus von Keller come to the center of the arena, thank you."

Violet: "YES!!!"

She burst out in excitement as her fate was set in stone. With Leon now fighting Marcus, that leaves her to fight against Yui. I'm happy with this result as from what Yui and I learnt from Mai last night, Yui can't take control of Leon's magic yet, so she'll likely lose in that match up. Marcus obviously would be a little problematic now that he knows of her secret, so Violet was the ideal match up for her in my opinion.

However this current match with Leon and Marcus... This will be quite interesting.

Leon: "Well. Wish me luck guys."

Yui: "Mmm, mop the floor with him, that way Violet can be at ease with him no longer in the tournament, hehe."

Violet: "Yes please!"

Leon: "I'll do my best."

He walked out of the room as he makes his way to his match, leaving the 3 of us sitting down at our seats waiting for it to begin.

Violet: "So Ellen. Since we'll be fighting next, I want to say that I wont make the same mistake my brother did."

Yui: "Oh?"

Violet: "That is all."

Violet who was happy at Lucien's announcement now had a determined look on her face as she said those words to Yui. I pay it no mind as Violet is sweet from how long I've known her. But seeing her with this whole new demeanor is quite new to me. Maybe their family has some sort of beef with Yui's family? I'm not quite sure.

Leon's match begun as it was more or less what I expected. Leon erected his barrier, blocking Marcus' attacks with ease the same way he did when I tried to break it with my dagger. The force of his attacks hitting against the barrier was incredible, echoing throughout the whole stadium. My grudge with Marcus only increases as I could only imagine how painful it would've been for Yui to have been hit by just one of those attacks. I find it infuriating that I may not be able to fight Marcus as I'm secretly praying for Marcus to win, only to lose to me at the grand finals.

Suddenly, I noticed cracks start to appear on Leon's barrier the more Marcus attacked. I would've thought Leon had won at the very start, but is his magic weakening? Marcus on the other hand, looked fine as his attacks continued, showing no signs of halting until finally, the barrier shattered. Everyone in the audience reacted the same way, gasping by the sudden turn of events as Leon was now focusing on evasion. He tried to slow Marcus down with some ranged light magic attacks, but Marcus just took them head on, blocking them with his rock covered arms. "Just how much mana does this guy have?"

Mai: "Quite a lot from what I've gathered."

She spoke to me with her mind, seeming to have been reading my thoughts throughout this battle. I respond the same way.

Kaede: "But why?"

Mai: "I don't know. I'm not interested in humans that much. But from the look of this battle, Marcus looks to be trying considerably harder than his previous matches."

Now that she says that, it did seem like he was exerting more power and speed with his punches, even breaking a sweat from what I could see with my heightened senses.

Kaede: "So you're saying he has some distaste towards Leon?"

Mai: "I doubt that. Leon, from what I've gathered from being inside you, is quite pure and kind-hearted. I think it's more about his family. Maybe Marcus doesn't like the royal family as a whole, and Leon is just a proxy for him."

Kaede: "I see. So what, Marcus wants to be the next ruler instead?"

Mai: "Like I said, I'm not interested in humans so I don't know the reason."

So, Marcus might not have a grudge with Leon, but with his family. Then does that mean that the royal family treated him poorly growing up? Because from what I've seen from being in this academy, every noble idolizes Leon. That's unless-

Kaede: "Marcus might've been a commoner before he became a noble."

Mai: "Yes, I can see that. Then again, I don't really understand all that nobility nonsense."

Kaede: "Me either"

We chuckle with our thought communication as we continue to watch the fight. From the looks of it, Leon had used up his remaining mana as he was focusing more on evading and blocking the attacks with his sword until finally, like all the other matches, Marcus sent Leon flying back as Leon landed on the ground several meters away.

Lucien: "M-Ma... Marcus von Keller's win!"

The audience was not cheering as loud as I had thought, and the more I looked, none of the nobles who were seated were clapping. In fact, they all had a look of disgust towards the match as Leon finally stood back up. He didn't look too bad as he managed to walk out. Meanwhile, Marcus also looked to be out of breathe, panting heavily as he was first to make his way back to the room with Leon following shortly after.

Leon: "Well! I tried, haha."

Yui: "That was unexpected though! I would've thought for sure you would win."

Leon: "I did too to be honest. But I didn't expect how draining it was fighting Marcus. Got to hand it to you Ellen, I don't know how you managed."

He's right. Actually with Leon's loss to Marcus, I felt happy for 2 different reasons now. One, for the previous reason which is that I may be able to fight him myself. But also now that Leon had lost to him who had previously lost to Yui. I'm sure her parents would find her win against Marcus to be that much more impressive now.