45 Tournament Battles
Yale's sword clashed with his opponent's rod, but Yale's strength was on the weaker side since he still didn't use Bloodline Force.
However, Yale wasn't planning a clash of strength.
Using a rod required both hands while using a sword like the one Yale wielded only needed one.
Yale had planned to win the battle with his spare hand and not by wielding another weapon but by using a spell.
The spell Yale chose was Spark. That spell wasn't very powerful but could stop his opponent for a few seconds.
Just after their weapons hit each other, Yale used his Spark spell on his opponent.
The opponent let off his rod just after being hit by the spell, Yale's plan was successful.
Then, Yale used that instant to send his opponent outside the stage, winning the first round without too much effort.
When one had a weaker strength than the opponent, using a strategy was better than foolishly battling straightforward.
After all, the matches weren't only for warriors, so using spells was something normal, and Yale couldn't be blamed for using them since his public status was that of someone who practiced the two Paths.
That was his opponent's fault for not noticing Yale's spare hand and neglecting the possibility of Yale casting a spell.
"The winner is Yale, congratulations!"
After the referee announced the results, the system reacted.
[Dynamic Quest's reward for winning the first battle: Intelligence increased to 17 points.]
[Dynamic Quest's reward for winning the first battle: Wisdom increased to 17 points.]
[Dynamic Quest's reward for winning the first battle: Dexterity increased to 15 points.]
Yale was happier for the system rewards than for winning the battle itself.
The spectators applauded Yale, and then he went out of the stage.
Yale was quite famous, so he didn't show anything that his opponents couldn't have investigated before.
On the other hand, most of the opponents weren't famous due to the most famous ones in their promotions being already in the 4-star Mortal Rank and thus unable to participate in the tournament.
The exceptions were the ones who entered three months before Yale and some of the ones who remained in the beginner grade after more than a year.
Yale observed all the other students who battled in the first round; there were few who he recognized because they had quite a fame in the academy.
However, Yale felt that he could beat all of them only based on the strength they had shown.
Of course, Yale didn't believe that any of them showed everything they had. Unless they had no other way, no one would want to show all their prowess in the first round.
The one who caught Yale's attention the most was a tall boy who won the last match of the first round because the opponent forfeited before the battle started.
He was also quite famous, and Yale even knew his name, Heruk.
Heruk was the oldest student who participated in the tournament, and the oldest student at the peak of the 3-star Mortal Rank in the academy.
However, that was because he overfocused on learning too many Battle Skills and Spells, not because he lacked talent.
Heruk was famous for being narcissistic, always telling that his way of training was the best, and all the other students were fools compared with himself. He said things like that despite the fact that all the students in the intermediate grade, students that had joined the academy at the same time as him or later, mocked him.
Heruk also had the fame of being a womanizer despite being only twelve years old. However, he was good looking and had an important standing in his clan.
Being a wealthy young master with good looks, getting girls wasn't difficult for him even if some of them were older than him.
That made his fame already quite bad, but that wasn't all.
He was also known for being ruthless with his opponents and had almost killed some of them.
Furthermore, that wasn't because of any grudges, only because he disliked their faces or how they trained.
Killing a fellow student was a taboo in the academy, and no one would go as far as nearly killing anyone because the academy would still punish them.
However, Heruk's clan was the most powerful clan in Nacesai City, although they were weaker than the Nacesai Academy, the academy didn't want problems with them because they also had a figure at the level of Sainac and Swordmad.
Moreover, that powerful figure was Heruk's ancestor, and Heruk was his favorite descendant, so he spoiled him a lot.
That made Heruk rampant and daring. As long as he didn't kill someone inside the academy, the academy would also remain without punishing him. They could only do their best to heal the victims.
Unless the situation was critical, the academy didn't want to start a war even though they were confident that they would win in the end.
Since the last battle of the first round ended without a fight, the second round started ahead of time.
Yale was still the first one to battle in the new round.
His new opponent was a weaponless girl, Yale had heard a little about her before and knew that she was very talented at casting spells.
The reason she didn't reach the 4-star in more than a year was that she tried to also practice the Warrior Path, which slowed her down since she didn't have any talent to practice Battle Skills. On the day of the tournament, she was still a 1-star mortal in the Warrior Path.
The match started, and the girl cast a lot of small fireballs, in a way that was quite similar to Aizu's main spell.
However, the opponent's fireballs were slower and more powerful, the balance was different than in Aizu's spell.
She had prepared the spell before the start of the match, that was something that those who focused on the Magus Path did a lot in the matches to avoid the opponent nearing themselves while casting. The Origin Qi made it easier to cast spells and use skills, but ordinary magic power and inner Qi weren't so easy to control, so having the magic power or the inner Qi ready beforehand was quite typical.
Anyway, as long as the spell wasn't executed before the match started, it wasn't against the rules.
That time, Yale didn't cast the Water Battle Armor since it needed too many Origin Points. To deal with that spell, he decided to rely on his liquid Frost Claw.
Yale used all his agility to avoid the fireballs while hitting those he wasn't able to avoid with the Frost Claw.
However, since the speed of those fireballs were slower than the speed at which Yale was accustomed, avoiding them was also easier. His experience from his time training spells with Aizu was giving him a great advantage in that battle.
When the girl saw Yale nearing her while avoiding and repelling her fireballs without effort, she decided to cast a new spell. That one was the Water Ball spell, which she used simultaneously but with a different rhythm.
The Water Balls were all small and very quick, although their power was also too low to harm the opponent. Their true use was to distract the other party to let the fireballs hit.
Yale got new insights into his own spells after seeing that combination of skills. He needed to admit that his opponent was really talented in the Magus Path.
[The user upgraded the Magic Skill "Fire Ball" to Level 3.]
[The user upgraded the Magic Skill "Water Ball" to Level 3.]
Yale didn't practice a lot those two skills after learning them. They mostly were upgraded due to the insights he got.
He was happy about the increase, but he didn't let it distract him.
Anyway, he was relaxed because the opponent's strategy was still useless against him.
Yale only avoided and blocked the fireballs and let all the water balls hit him. The damage was that low that Auto-regeneration restored him before a wound managed to appear in his body.
Furthermore, the pain wasn't any problem due to Pain Tolerance.
Yale reached his opponent and pointed his sword towards her neck.
"I lost."
The girl gave up the match when she saw Yale's sword pointing her neck. She knew that Yale avoided hurting her, but if she was stubborn, that might change, and it wouldn't be Yale's fault.
Moreover, with her personality, she couldn't be so shameless as to attack someone who had showed goodwill towards her.
Furthermore, as she was only a 1-star mortal in the Warrior Path, at the moment Yale reached her, she had lost any hopes to win.
The referee announced Yale's victory, and he officially entered the top eight, securing a prize no matter the results of the rest of the combats.
As Swordmad had guessed before, reaching the top eight wasn't a difficult task for Yale.
[Dynamic Quest's reward for winning the second battle: Strength increased to 16 points.]
[Dynamic Quest's reward for winning the second battle: Agility increased to 16 points.]
[Dynamic Quest's reward for winning the second battle: Origin Points increased to 15/15 points and restored.]
After smiling at the rewards from the system, Yale started to watch the next battle.
He enjoyed it quite a bit since the two boys battling were wielding swords.
Moreover, he knew that the winner of that match would be his next opponent, which excited him.
The next one to battle was Aizu. Her opponent was also a girl who had focused on the Magus Path.
That was a long-range battle as it was typical for a fight between Magus Path practitioners.
However, what decided the battle wasn't any spell, it was Aizu's sword.
She waited until the opponent was casting a spell to attack her with the sword, sending her outside the stage.
That was a typical fault of a Magus Path practitioner when battling another Magus Path practitioner. They tended to forget the possibility of a physical attack and concentrated only on casting their best spells quickly. Highly experienced magus might have methods to protect their bodies if they weren't practicing also the Warrior Path, but those at the Mortal Rank had enough with trying to get Rank 1, so if they weren't practicing both Paths, they tended to have weak bodies compared to someone who practiced the Warrior Path.
Aizu used that flaw to win the battle.
However, she had to admit that her own spells were still worse than her opponent's, but Aizu had more battle experience due to her continuous practices with Yale, so she won the battle.
