As soon as the fight began, maful sighs could be heard from the surrounding audience.

  Had Yuna been at 100%, it may have proved to be an equal battle. Unfortunately, she was anything but.

  The moment the fight began, Faye directly overwhelmed her, not giving Yuna a moment to breathe.

  Yuna tried desperately to use her whip and magic to keep Faye at a distance, but the club-wielding teen was relentless. Within a mihe match was over.

  “Kannal, it’s back to you,” Mathias announced. “Would you like to tinue challenging or forfeit yht?”

  Although he would’ve preferred a little more time to rest, Kannal quickly leapt on stage, standing in front of Faye.

  “I challenge Faye,” Kannal decred.

  “Haha, e on then, brat!” Faye grinned fiendishly. “It’s been a while sihis big sister of yours ruffed you up!”

  Mathias quickly annouhe start of the fight, and although he faired better than Yuna, Kannal also ended up losing vingly. Still, whether it was the audience or Faye herself, they all khat at this rate, it wouldn’t be long before Kannal surpassed the club-wielding teen.

  “Alissa, you’re up ,” Mathias decred as Faye hopped off the stage. “Who would you like to challenge?”

  Everyone looked at the elegant silver-haired teen curiously. It was clear that eighth pce didn’t suit her current strength; the only thing they didn’t knohether she would py it safe and challehose above her one rank at a time or…

  “Joel,” Alissa decred with a fident grin as she leapt on stage.

  Even though they had half expected Alissa to jump a few ranks, no ohought she’d directly challenge Joel, who was currently fourth.

  A sombre expression took shape on Joel’s handsome face. Even though he was at the Early stages of the sixth rank as both a mage and warrior, he didn’t dare uimate the petit teen on stage awaiting him, ay proved he was right not to uimate her.

  As soon as the fight began, glistening white fur with jet-bck stripes coated Alissa’s body granting her a one-rank increase as a warrior, bringio the mid-stages of the sixth rank, surpassing Joel by one sub-rank.

  Despite the difference being so minor, Joel uandably wao py it safe ahe fight at range using lightning spells, knowing that Alissa remained a mage of the fifth rank, but the young Tigerstriped Warrior had other pns.

  Despite being in the sixth rank, the speed she dispyed had reached the seventh. Using Soru, her body moved like a blur allowio calmly evade Joel’s barrage of spells and rapidly close the gap.

  As soon as the fight became a close-quarters battle, Joel quickly found himself outcssed in every possible way. Not only was she faster and stronger, like him, Alissa had also prehended both states of wielding, the difference being in how they used it.

  Although Joel could use both, Alissa was able to seamlessly go from oo the other with a graceful fluidity that her oppo couldn’t match.

  “Her training with Cesar these st couple of months really paid off,” Ace sighed.

  “At this rate, she should be able to fuse both states of wielding within another month or two,” Amira calmly assessed.

  “True, but I wasn’t just referring to her near fwless trol of ‘wielding’,” Ace said as he watched Alissa domih clear appreciation. “Haven’t you noticed the ge in how she wields her daggers?”

  Hearing that, Amira’s brows furrowed as she took a closer look at Amira’s fighting style. “Now that you mention it, each of Alissa’s strikes are a lot more…

  Deadly!”

  Though Alissa’s former style was still very deadly, there was a lot of wasted movement, and it cked its current decisiveness.

  It made Joel, who was the one fag her feel a lot more pressure mentally as each strike was aimed at a vital an.

  Ace couldn’t help but think back to his former oppo – Sis. Although he wielded a single short sword, there was a distinct simirity between their current fighting styles.

  What really made him look at Alissa in appreciation was that it had only been two months, ahe silver-haired Tigerstriped Warrior was able to use this new fighting style with such proficy that it looked like she had been using it for years already.

  He khat Alissa’s natural talent for bat was likely the highest amongst their cohort, including himself – if he didn’t have his [Observation] to assist him – but this firmed it.

  “I give up!” Jned helplessly when he felt the cold steel of Alissa’s bde against his neck.

  A sigh escaped his mouth when he saw the grin on the face of his younger oppo. Siheir enrolment, Joel had sistently been ranked fourth behind the three freaks that were Ace, Julius, and Amira. He khis wouldn’t st forever as although he would be sidered a genius to the rest of the world, here in the Pavilion, he was distinctly average. Still, he didn’t expect that time to e so soon.

  “Alissa, as the winner, you are now ranked fourth. Therefore, you have the option to carry on challenging now or wait for your urn to e,” Mathias announced.

  As the fourth-ranked core disciple, the only people left above her were the three monsters. Although she was fident in her new abilities, the psychological shadow left by the other three wasn’t so easy to ignore.

  “I’ll wait,” Alissa voiced before calmly jumping off the stage.

  up, Faye chose to challehe aloof bowman – Osiris. She khat imes out of ten, she wouldn’t be Osiris’ match, especially as he was a fifth-stage warrior and mage, but as they were limited to the stage, she felt fident. Unfortunately, Faye was destined for disappoi.

  This was the first time in a long time that many of them had seen Osiris in a, and although they expected him to have grown strohe level of skill he dispyed was still impressive.

  Like the rest of his cssmates, Osiris’ prehension had grown by leaps and bounds during his time in the pavilion.

  He was able to skilfully apply both cepts of wielding his arrows, f Faye to take each arrow seriously as with his seemingly never-ending barrage, it was sometimes hard to tell which state of wielding he applied to each arrow, and if that wasn’t impressive enough, his adept use of his darkness styled magic allowed him to yer his archery with an added yer of subterfuge.

  But without a doubt, the hardest thing for Faye to deal with was Osiris’ movement.

  Although it was true that stepping outside of the ring would t as disqualification, that was only if your foot hit the ground.

  In her pnning, she had fotten to take into at that after reag the fifth rank, Ace had taught all of their css how to use [Geppo] – a skill that Osiris, as an archer, was all too eager to master.

  She had also learnt [Geppo] and [Soru] from Ace, but she was far from a match for her oppo iher regard. As such, she was nothing more than target practice for the dark-haired archer.

  “I give up!” Faye snorted unwillingly, knowing she stood no ce.

  up, it was Osiris’ turn to challenge, but having a cursnce over at those ranked above him, he chose not to make any challenges.

  He wasn’t like the others; he didn’t have a burning desire to get a higher rank. Plus, he also knew all those above him were substantially strohan him.

  up was Killian, who was now ranked sixth, with Alissa pushing them all down one rank.

  “Joel,” Killian decred decisively before hopping on stage and summoning his axe from his ste ring.

  As soon as the match began, other than Ad Leonel, who had the clearest uanding of Killian’s strength, everyone else looked at him in surprise when they noticed how easily he seemed to be finding it to suppress Joel.

  They were both at the early stages of the sixth rank as both a warrior and mage, but it was clear after this st year fighting against one high-level oppo after the , stantly being put in life-or-death situations, Killian’s battle sense was a couple of levels superior.

  The difference was s that, despite not using a single spell, Killian was able to domihe fight.

  “I give up!” Joel sighed.

  Despite seeming so at ease with it all, deep down, Joel was overwhelmed with feelings of shame.

  When he was first accepted into the Pavilion, he had such high hopes for himself and his future. With his talent, he didn’t expect to find many who could match him, but betweeop three monsters, he was quickly humbled. Still, in terms of strength, he was h he top, but now…

  Ad Julius had long since left him in their dust. He didn’t know how strong Amira was now, but he didn’t doubt that with her talent, she wasn’t much weaker. And now, both Alissa and Killian had surpassed him. His emotions were pletely uandable.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t have the ce to stew in his emotions as up to make a challenge was him.

  Looking at the op five, he had already beeen by Killian and Alissa, he knew he didn’t stand a ce against Ace, and Julius was off-limits – not that he could beat him even if he weren’t. The only persohat he eveely stood a ce against was Amira.

  Taking a deep breath, Joel turned his attention to Amira. No words o be said; it was clear from the sombre expression whom he was choosing to challenge.

  Amira wasn’t an idiot; she could guess how Joel was feeling at that moment. Still, she wasn’t about to go easy on him because of it. One, her pride wouldn’t let her, and two, she k’d only hurt Joel more winning out of pity like that.

  “Ready when you are,” Amira said lightly.

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  P.atreon./ACoilingDragon

  Book 7: Chapter 24 - Ace Vs. Lachapelle