Final…

Kyle returned to his seat as he continued watching, excited for the other semi-final battle that was going to occur in a bit, with both contestants being people who have stood out so far, the winner of Group A, Cole Warner, and the winner of Group G Hector Cole.

Although Kyle was sure that Cole was going to win, with both his combat skills and rank surpassing Hector's, he was still excited about such a battle.

As soon as the Professor announced the start, Kyle noticed for a split second a change in Hector's face.

Cole rushed at Hector, going all out from the start, hoping to end the battle quickly and face Kyle in the finals. Yet the moment Cole came close to Hector, he was stabbed in the chest by a sharp object.

Cole's eyes faded as he was losing his life, he thought he was stabbed with some kind of sword, yet it was only Hector's hand, yes his hand went through Cole's chest almost killing him.

The Professor instantly rushed Cole to the infirmary, in hopes of saving him.

Kyle couldn't grasp what just happened, as everything happened too fast. Before he knew it, he saw Hector's bloodied hand coming out of Cole's chest.

Everyone at the arena was scared, shocked by the current events.

The Professor came after a while, breaking down the tension by announcing that Cole was fine, as the injury was far from his heart, yet he won't be able to continue on his path as a mage.

He then announced Hector's win and left. If Cole had died, Hector would've been expelled from the Tournament and the Academy. Luckily, he didn't, making Hector break no rules and advance to the finals.

Kyle felt fear for the first time since the start of the tournament, he was sure that he was going to easily win his way up to the champion as the only people who would've given him a hard time would've been Henry and Marco, that were both in a different tournament.

Although for a split second, he felt Hector's rank rise from low-tier 3-circle to high-tier 3-circle. Kyle took a deep breath, shaking off such thoughts and returned home.

At home, he reviewed all of Cole's and Hector's battles so far and realized that Hector had never once displayed skills of such level, he was going to lose no matter what he had done based on his previous matches, yet that didn't happen.

That night, Kyle instinctively trained his techniques. Even he didn't know why he did that, he just did. Maybe it was from fear, scared that he'd be met with a similar fate, so he just trained as a way to keep those thoughts from consuming him.

"Hmmm, That kid..." said the same middle-aged man who was previously playing chess with the Emperor.

"Yes, he's weird. Before today, even I couldn't see him being at high-tier 3-circle" replied the Emperor.

"Not only that, he clearly attacked the descendant of Warner with intent to kill!"

"Hoooh, I'm starting to feel useless, even though I'm standing atop the world!" added the Emperor, with such a serious situation, he didn't know what to do, whether to call off the tournament, or let it continue with such a threat.

"Well, don't worry. Even if something bad happens, you can just stop it instantly,"

"HAHAHAH, You're right, I will!"

The next day, at the arena, Hector arrived before Kyle, looking all worn out, with dark bags under his eyes, and a gloomy vibe surrounding him.

As the Emperor was spectating, he wondered why, as it happened all of a sudden. The Emperor was spying on Hector all night and never noticed him doing anything special that would make him end up in such a state, yet he felt like there was an invisible force protecting him from his complete detection.

Today's battles were all at the same time so although Kyle was disappointed with not being able to see the final battle between Henry and Marco, he was still more focused on his own battle, as it was not an easy one.

Kyle entered the arena looking all ready and everyone cheered for him, even those who were rooting for Hector previously switched up today after what happened last time.

Kyle was surprised by the amount of people present there, as he expected more of them to leave for the main families tournament. He guessed what happened yesterday only worked as fuel on fire for the audience to come see it.

Kyle's focused and resolved look masked his excitement.

The Professor appeared in the arena and announced the start.

Kyle took a battle stance while Hector seemed to be lost in thought as if he was wandering in a different world. Kyle felt disrespected as after preparing all night for this battle, his opponent was ignoring him.

Kyle had already decided to go all out from the start, and so he did. He instantly chanted to bring out his fire sword and took the first stance of the 'Thousand Movement Sword' technique and sent out countless slashes coated with fire that could easily burn any 3-circle mage and leave nothing but ashes behind.

Hector felt that he could neither dodge nor block them, his eyes looked focused as he did some weird gestures with his hand which let out the fire. Kyle was surprised, as he didn't expect him to be able to block a full-powered slash from this technique, well he didn't fully block it as he only let out the fire and still felt the slashes cut through him.

Hector suffered several serious injuries from Kyle's technique. As soon as Kyle thought he won he realized that Hector's injuries were already healed.

Kyle smiled as he said while rushing to him "Interesting!"

Kyle was chained with 'vine chains' which he instantly cut through, yet he kept on getting chained by them.

'How is he casting 3-circle spells without chanting??'

Kyle used the second stance of his sword technique as he lunged at Hector with countless stabs.

The lunge he performed closed the distance with the stabs eating away at Hector's newly summoned earth shield. Hector was getting pushed back, as he was feeling the impact of the stabs through the shield

Kyle used the time Hector was occupied with blocking the stabs to his advantage and used his movement technique for the first time which made it seem like he instantly teleported behind him.

One day, while training this movement technique, Kyle realized that it belonged to a higher rank, meaning that he could never truly master it while being a 3-circle mage, as even with his current mastery, whenever he used the technique his thoughts wouldn't be able to keep up with his body, so he developed a fighting style in which he would turn off his thoughts while using this technique making him fight off of pure instincts. As such a style was dangerous, Kyle refrained from using it. However, He didn't see another way of winning now, so not using his fastest technique would only make the chance he found slip away, and possibly turn the tables.

Kyle was fighting off pure instincts now, his body was fuming with heat, such a technique would obviously harm him the more time he uses it, and the side effects were already showing, Kyle's body felt that Hector was a threat, so this time he truly went all out without holding anything back, all while Kyle wasn't able to think. The next second Kyle regained his consciousness, he opened his eyes, seeing Hector's bloodied body held up by his flame sword stabbing his heart after performing another set of stabs.

Kyle's eyes screamed as he instantly unsummoned his sword and held Hector's lifeless body, Kyle shuddered as the thought of him actually killing Hector crossed his mind.

"NO! NO! NOOOO! HECTOR! I'M SORRY I-I-I DIDN'T MEAN TO DO THIS, NOT THIS!" cried out Kyle in disbelief, regret, and guilt.

The Professor instantly came down to check on Hector, yet was repelled by some mysterious dark energy coming out of his body...