Adrian VS Kyle

The referee was a magic apprentice from Gryphon Academy as well, so he was naturally rooting for his own juniors. On top of that, if they lost, the prestige of the academy might just be lost along with the championship title.

Hearing the announcement, Sam couldn't help but let out a loud roar in triumph.

He had always been the expressive type, and feeling the adrenaline in his blood, he had to let out the steam immediately.

Cheers like thunder erupted from the Gryphon Academy apprentices!

It was already widely recognised that Henrik was the strongest among the Sand Academy participants, yet he was beaten, and not even by Kyle. This gave the Gryphon Academy apprentices a massive surge of pride.

So what if he was the strongest of them all? He doesn't even deserve to fight our strongest!

That was the thought running through most people's minds right now, but of course, the same could not be said of the Sand Academy apprentices.

Dismay was apparent on their faces as their mouths hanged agape, clearly unaware of how to react in this situation.

Even the professor from Sand Academy was shocked speechless for a good few moments before recovering.

"That was a wise decision. Is Sam Richwald his name?" he asked after calming his nerves.

While he was not expecting Henrik to lose, Henrik was eventually still a freshman at his academy. Having only seen him for a year, it was not as if they had a bond close enough for the professor to have complete confidence in Henrik's victory.

After living a life as long as his, he clearly understood that it was not rare for underdogs to beat the favourites, and this just happened to be one of those many occasions.

"Yes, that is indeed his name. This is truly a surprising result. I believe other than himself…no, probably even he himself didn't expect to win this fight," Professor Lenington mused.

"It seems Kyle and Adrian would not be able to have it easy," Professor Xen laughed.

Adrian spun around in astonishment to see Sam roaring on the fighting platform, his opponent cutting a sorry state as he continued lying on the ground.

I guess Sand Academy is nothing much after all.

Adrian silently thought, basking in the warm light of healing magic as he walked off his own fighting platform.

It was another easy victory for him, completely dominating the opponent with his Spiritual Aura bursts.

At their level, fights could be over in an instant as long as one party managed to land a perfect hit. Not because their offensive capabilities were astounding, but because their defensive capabilities were horrendous.

As a magic user got stronger, they would start placing more emphasis on defensive spells. That would also be the main thing which made magic users so terrifying when confronting normal warriors, since most normal attacks were completely worthless in the face of their defensive spells.

Kyle won his fight as well, and the remaining person who won was from Sand Academy.

Including Adrian and Sam, there were only four participants left.

The remaining participant from Sand Academy was clearly shaken after realising that Henrik had lost, and it was to none other than his opponent in the following match.

However, theirs was not the match that everyone was excited to see next.

Adrian vs Kyle.

The two favourites from Gryphon Academy were right about to battle!

Kyle had been the favourite since before the ranking tournament started, always leading the freshmen of Gryphon Academy in terms of combat capability.

His body was well-trained, his martial skills were well practised, and his spells were well suited for him.

No one would have doubted that he was the strongest among the freshmen of Gryphon Academy before today, but now that belief had been shaken by none other than his coming opponent, Adrian.

Before the ranking tournament, Adrian had been none other than a genius who had a bright future ahead of him if he continued on his current path. Being 5 years younger than all his peers, saying that his physical capability was lacking in comparison was a gross understatement.

However, he had more than made up for it by displaying an incredible feat of attacking from range after spending less than a year in the academy, an unprecedented achievement. With that, he had easily beaten his opponents up to now.

The question was – would he be able to do the same to Kyle?

After a brief rest, the four once again found themselves standing on the fighting platforms.

No words were exchanged during the break, not even words of congratulations towards Sam. All of them knew that they were now competitors, and a tense atmosphere shrouded over them.

"There are only 2 rounds left and you are this close to the title of champion. However, do not let the chance to obtain glory cloud your reason. This is but a friendly competition and under no circumstances are you supposed to bear true hatred towards your opponents. There had been no serious accidents so far, and let's have that trend continue untill the end. Understood?" Professor Xen had walked down from his seat to the side of the fighting platforms, and spoke solemnly to the four remaining participants.

"Yes, professor!"

"Yes, sir!"

The four resolutely replied.

"Now then, you may begin!" Professor Xen announced.

"Haste! Shadow Image!" Kyle did not hesitate for a single moment as he immediately sprang into action.

As its name suggested, Haste was a spell that increased his speed. Shadow Image was a spell that created afterimages all around him as he moved.

Kyle's movement was a blur as he varied his movements, crossing left and right as he steadily made his way towards Adrian. He had a plan against Adrian, and now it was time to test its effectiveness.

With a spell in place that was meant to confuse his opponent, it was already expected that Kyle would choose not to charge straight at his opponent. Otherwise, it would be meaningless against Adrian who had a ranged attack.

Bang-!

There was a loud clap as dust flew up from the ground beside Kyle.

It was not possible for such a strong impact to be caused by Kyle's light movements.

In other words…Adrian missed!

It was actually the first time since the start of the ranking tournament that Adrian had missed with that strange ranged attack of his.

Before this, every attempt by his opponents to throw off his aim had failed, leading people to wonder if it was truly possible to dodge his attacks. But now Kyle finally proved that it was the correct choice to continue pursuing this line of thought.

Shit! How am I not hitting him? I'm sure I got the right one out of all those afterimages!

Adrian frowned as his next few attempts repeatedly failed to strike Kyle. Every time he expected Kyle to move in one direction, Kyle ended up moving in another, and this was frustrating him to no end.

No doubt, this meant that Kyle was approaching Adrian at a much slower pace than he could have if he simply charged forward, but at least he was steadily closing in on Adrian's position.

Adrian did not move from his spot as he continued to fire off bursts of his spiritual aura.

No, it wasn't that he did not move.

It was that he could not move.

Solely controlling his crude and fundamental form of Spiritual Aura was already a test to him, doing so while moving to create distance was simply beyond his limits.

As long as I could hit him one time! Just one time!

Adrian continued to bank on the same move that had brought him victory till now.

But Kyle was not considered the strongest of the Gryphon Academy freshmen for no reason. He had been groomed from young, and his senses and intuition during a fight was unparalleled among his peers.

Adrian might have lived a longer life, but the experience accumulated over multiple years spent in his previous body was of zero use to him right now.

After all, he was but an ordinary office worker. What good was that in a duel between magic users?

In terms of combat experience, he was far outstripped by his adversary, and by stubbornly sticking to a single move, every attack of his was read plainly by the opponent.

As Kyle continued to draw nearer, Adrian's mind completely broke down, doing nothing but sticking to firing his bursts of spiritual aura even at such close distance.

"Foolish!"

Kyle exclaimed out in disappointment as he finally pounced towards Adrian.

Although he was not in the best mental state at the moment after continually missing multiple attacks, Adrian's instinctual reflexes still screamed at him to bring his arms up in front of his chest as a guard.

Bang-!

The kick from Kyle landed right at the centre of the cross made by Adrian's two arms, sending out a resounding clap as Adrian winced in pain.

What kind of kick was that?

Adrian was in disbelief as his cross-arm guard was forced open instantly with a single kick. His tiny 10 year old body was completely picked off the ground and sent flying backwards for a good two metres.

He was completely blown away by that one kick even though he had his guard up!

Adrian had been in dismay after missing every single one of his Spiritual Aura bursts, but that kick just now had completely revived his focus. He knew immediately that if he were to treat this fight in the same way he treated all his previous ones, then he would lose without a doubt!

Adrian was about to land flat on his back, but regaining his focus allowed him to break into a backward roll and recover into a kneeling position, though just barely managing to do so.

However, Kyle was not done with him yet.

After Adrian managed to recover and look forward, the first thing that came into his vision was a knee that came straight towards his face.

This time, Adrian managed to dodge it.

He had finally regained his senses, and was barely able to muster all the strength within his legs to forcibly push himself to the side right before Kyle's knee strike connected.

"Oh?" Kyle was clearly not expecting Adrian's evasive maneuver. It was just a moment ago when he could only barely guard in time in reaction to Kyle's kick.

Adrian gritted his teeth and pushed himself up from the ground after dodging. He had to exert far more strength than usual just to get back into a standing position; his arms were definitely feeling the effect of blocking the kick from before.

Having his last attack dodged, Kyle instantly turned cautious and did not continue attempting to chain his attacks together. Instead, he returned to what he was doing initially, and started to approach Adrian in an unpredictable manner once again.

The previous trade-off was definitely in his favour, just that he was not able to completely convert the opportunity into a deciding factor. The last thing he wanted now was to be defeated because of underestimating his opponent's firepower.

Thus, he chose to reset the playing field, and strived to slowly gain the upper-hand once again.

This time, he would not let Adrian get away with just numbness in his arms.

It was a wise choice. One that could only be made by a person who was extremely level-headed and at the same time fully understood the arsenal of his opponent.

After seeing one's opponent barely block an attack, and scampering to barely dodge the following attack, most people would have just gone in for the third or fourth attack in a bid to strike down the opponent before the opponent could regain his stance.

However, Adrian was someone who possessed an attacking range that was far wider than Kyle's. If Adrian were to just attack randomly in desperation and managed to get a lucky shot in, it would completely throw Kyle off his rhythm.

If that were to happen, there was a chance that Adrian might simply continue firing at him before he regained his stance, ultimately knocking him out of the tournament. Kyle knew that was the exact winning pattern that Adrian had utilised up till now, and Kyle was not taking any chances with that.

This again!

Adrian frowned in displeasure as he faced this confusing maneuver once more.

As could be seen previously, he had no way of hitting Kyle accurately when he was in that form, so relying on his Spiritual Aura bursts was out of the question.

If he managed to shock Kyle with a sufficiently charged electric attack, he might be able to paralyse Kyle and bring him under control.

But In terms of close combat, Adrian truly had no confidence of beating Kyle even if Adrian was in his top condition. Yet now he could faintly feel that his arms were already moving slower than normal after absorbing the huge impact from Kyle's powerful kick.

Either way seemed to have a low probability of success, so he could only try to think of something else.

But what else was there? What other cards did he possess?

There was nothing else.

If there was nothing, then he would just have to come up with something new!