Tournament (5)

"As for the winner, he will get a grade F house on the campus."

When the last reward was announced an uproar went through the participants. A grade F house may sound like nothing special, but one had to know that one had usually be a member of the alliance for at least ten years, as well have a high enough rank, to buy a house on campus. And then the prices weren't small at all. As such normally this was a great reward for the first time. But if as expected Miss. Tang would get this reward, then it would just be wasted. After all her grandfather was the grand elder and as such she would surely have a much better place to live in.

"Alright, now that the rewards are announced, it is time to continue with the fights for the best five. We will start this with the fight between Ivan Hope and Miss. Tang."

When Ivan heard his name he hurriedly ascended the platform, while his opponent elegantly walked towards it too. Her face still held the same ice cold expression she had on since the start.

When she ascended the platform there was a loud cheer from the spectators, as well as loud shouts, encouraging Ivan to help them see a flustered expression of her. It seems like he wasn't the only one who wondered how she would look if her face showed another expression.

"Both of you greet each other."

As before they greeted each other with a small handshake, allowing Ivan to feel her smaller but ice cold hand in his. * Is this girl an iceberg?*

"And, start.", the referee announced the start of the fight, after the both of them had arrived at their starting positions.

Since he hadn't gotten any information about his opponents fighting style, Ivan thought that the best way to go forward was to stay true to his tried and tested methods. As such he summoned Vlada and together with her he shot towards Miss. Tang.

At the same time his blade did slide out of its scabbard, she too had her staff in her hand, while already starting to cast her spell.

While closing the distance to her in a sprint, he applied his flame enchantment and hacked down on her with as much speed as he could muster.

"Bang", with a loud bang his sword hit the just coalesced ice shield surrounding her. The backslash of this swing was then used to make a circular movement at which end his sword was once again slashing towards her.

There was no facial reaction, but a small glint of surprise flashed through her eyes, unseen by nearly everybody. But on one tribune he grandfather managed to catch it. *It seems like this young boy of Carl isn't that simple.*, he mused.

While his second stroke was still on it's way, Vlada arrived behind her and used both her wing to slash powerfully downwards.

The ice shield was already weakened by Ivan's unexpectedly strong first stroke and was unable to fully defend against the might of this slash. Of course it was only a hastily casted skill and as such from the beginning much weaker. Still even though it crumbled it had still managed to stop Vlada's strike.

Thanks to the perfect coordination between him and his pet Ivan's strike reached her directly after her shield had crumbled, leaving her without time to finish the skill she had already started casting. She could only hurriedly use her staff to block to blade. Of course since the quality of the staff was so high this was no problem for it and there wasn't even the smallest nick left on it.

Her first instinct was to create some distance from her opponent, but his pet blocked her escape route.

"Good, seems like she has to call out her pet.", on the elder tribune Van Bergen cheered, when he saw the situation. Even though he and the Grand Elder were friends, they still had some friendly competition going on. And as such it was always a happy thing for him, if something managed to push that granddaughter and grandfather pair. Who told the Grand Elder to always gloat about his granddaughter when they were enjoying a bottle of wine together.

And as expected, Miss. Tang called out her pet. It was a five meter big bear, that looked like it was made out of crystals. As soon as it appeared it stormed towards Vlada with a seemingly unstoppable momentum.

*Damn.*, Ivan could only curse inwardly, when he saw this monster. Even though Vlada could become much bigger her fighting prowess was much lower. After all this was one of the feared Crystal Bears. A species that lived deep inside the Crystal Mountains at the north of the empire.

The reaction of the spectators weren't much different from his, except for a few who hadn't recognized the bear.

"What the.....", when Van Bergen saw the bear first appear his chin nearly fell down in surprise. "That fucking old man. How the hell could he give his granddaughter something like this? This is just plain cheating."

The elders around him looked at him with pity. His and the Grand Elders relationship was well known, so nobody was too surprised about the way he addressed him. Besides they too wanted to question the sanity of their Grand Elder. Crystal Bears were ultra rare and he wasted one on his granddaughter who wouldn't be able to make full use of it for a long time.

The Grand Elder on the other hand had a satisfied grin on his face when he saw the expression on his friends face.

On the stage the fight, that had looked to be going well for Ivan had completely changed. Vlada was completely outclassed by the Crystal Bear and no help in dealing with Miss. Tang. But luckily with the ability to take flight she was able to keep him occupied. This enabled Ivan and Miss. Tang do duel without any of their pet's messing up the balance.