Make yourselves known [Bonus chapter]

It's my loss I guess" said Amelia with a smile.

"Why don't you seem sad about losing?" asked Alex.

"Why should I be sad? In the first place, being the head of the branch doesn't interest me. Like Grandma, I thought I would rather be the head of the branch than let someone who isn't you take the position. If someone else was to be the head of the branch, who knew what would happen to you or the girls? However, the moment I learned that you wanted to be the head of the branch, I gave up on the position. Even if I won against you, I was going to reject the position," explained Amelia.

"Then why fight me in the first place ?"

"If I had given up without fighting, there were bound to be many members of the branch that would be dissatisfied, some may even contest you the fact that you become the new head. However, now that you have won against me fair and square, no one can contest your winning. That's actually why I made the explosion so big, no one would dare say that I threw the fight after seeing me launching such an explosion against you"

"That's thoughtful of you, but there's a flaw in your reasoning"

"Which is ?"

"If I couldn't survive the explosion and had to be saved by the old man, you would have given up and let me be the head of the branch, then the outcome will be the exact opposite of why you created this big explosion to begin with : some people will contest me becoming the head of the branch".

"Well, there would only be a few that would complain, even if you lost to me, you had still defeated the strongest. Plus, I was pretty sure that I would lose against you"

"What made you say that ?" Asked Alex with raised brows.

"With how confident you seemed, I was sure that you had something up your sleeve that would enable to come out of a pinch unscathed" answered Amelia.

"Smart. Still, don't you think you went a bit overboard with your explosion?" asked Alex as he raised his head to look up toward the mushroom cloud.

"Sorry, but in my defense I didn't know that the explosion would be so large; I have already made much larger orb explode, yet none of them caused such a large explosion, it seems that the reason this one was so powerful is that there are residual energy of many elements"

"Mm, I see"

'It's time to end this whole competition,' thought Alex. Using his remaining mana, he cleared away the smoke in the arena by compressing it.

As the smoke started to compress, the spectators' eyes widened because such a thing only meant one thing: it was Alex's doing.

They couldn't believe it, until the smoke has been compressed enough to allow them to see what was going on in the arena.

When they saw Alex standing behind Amelia, his hand resting on her head, their already wide eyes opened even wider due to the shocking scene before them.

They had been observing what was happening in the smoke from the beginning with their mana, but the only person they could sense was Amelia, who was standing. They never thought that Alex would be standing behind her.

'What is he doing there, and how did he manage to get there in the first place?' wondered everyone.

Even Adrian, who was relatively close to the two fighters, didn't know how Alex got behind Amelia. It couldn't be helped. Instead of focusing on Alex, everyone concentrated on the orb and the destruction it caused afterward, so how could they see what he did, knowing that he had perfectly timed his teleportation to when the explosion happened.

Now, with him standing behind her and even resting his hand on her head, everyone understood that it could only mean one thing: the fight had ended, and Alex won!

"How is he doing it? With each of his fights, he does something incredible. I wonder how many tricks he has up his sleeve," said Victoria in amazement.

"You are not the only one. At this point, I'm starting to wonder if even now we have seen his full capability," said Candace.

Meanwhile, Grace started to giggle, softly at first, but as time passed, it became boisterous.

"AHAHAHA, ALEX WON, YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEAN RIGHT ? HAHAHAH...."

"You know that he just won against your granddaughter, right ? Aren't you worried that she might think that you are playing favorite and that you prefer her brother over her?" Asked Victoria with a voice loud enough for even those in the arena to hear.

"Ahaha- ah....ehh.." Grace came to an abrupt stop, not knowing what to say next.

She glanced towards Amelia, who, in turn, was looking at her with a disbelieving expression.

"Uhm, Amelia dear, d-don't look at me like that, uhm you see-"

"Humph" Amelia turned her head to her stuttering grandmother.

"N-No, don't be like that-"

Grace turned toward Victoria with a furious face.

"YOU! IT'S ALL-"

"Cough, Your attention here" said Adrian, cutting off Grace.

"We will continue later, I'm not done with you!" Said Grace in a whisper before turning to look towards Adrian, who was speaking.

"Alex has won the final, thus winning the entire competition, which means that—" Adrian stopped talking when he felt a hand rest on his shoulder.

"I will take it from here, old man," said Alex as he stepped in front of Adrian.

Adrian didn't say anything further and just remained still, looking at Alex, much like everyone present.

'Hey, system, increase my mana by four soul points'

[Are you su-]

'Do you really fucking need to ask each time? Yes, I'm sure, do it'

[Starting the process...]

Under everyone's gaze, Alex closed his eyes and enjoyed the cool feeling of energy filling up his body, increasing his mana level.

[Process finished.]

When the process finished, Alex opened his eyes, but there wasn't any trace of the pleasure he was feeling just now. Instead, his eyes were sharp.

He extended an arm, and the smoke that had been compressed rushed to him, engulfing his whole body.

A second later, Alex appeared with full-body armor formed with a multitude of colors, each representing a different element.

Alex looked towards the members of the branch and exclaimed:

"From now on, I'm the head of this branch. Those who are against it..." Alex's gaze became sharper.

"...make yourselves known."