Chapter 723

723: Quarterfinals

After her victory, Fran was walking slowly down the aisle back to the waiting room, but her movements were sluggish.

『Fran, are you okay?』

「Nn……」

She had taken very little damage from her opponent since we always either avoided her sword or blocked it with nullification. Both Sibylla and I used telekinesis quite a bit during the fight, but they canceled each other out so neither was effective.

Sibylla definitely has split thinking. She was always hitting us with her telekinesis in the heat of battle. So much so that I had no time at all to divert my telekinesis for offense. Well, it's not bad considering that I was able to keep her busy.

Fran was not seriously injured, but she used Brilliant Lightning Rush for a long time, and she used the divine attribute on herself. This seems to have worn her down more than expected.

She is frowning as the pain creaks through her body. And even if I used heals, it didn't seem to get rid of her fatigue. Would a good night's sleep help?

We managed to get a foothold in the area beyond Heavenly Judgment, but using the divine attribute still has too great of a cost. I hope I can learn to use all of these abilities effectively……

And it's not just exhaustion. She looked unhappy and was biting her lip.

『What's wrong?』

（They gave it to me.）

『Oh.』

Sibylla was trying to do something at the end, and I'm sure she stopped herself. It was more as if she didn't want to expose her abilities to the public than as if she had run out of steam.

Assuming they were spies for Raydoss, that would be understandable. Fran, however, felt as if the victory was handed to her.

『It's a serious match, but it's also just a match. She probably thought it was not the right time to play her cards. We all have our tricks that we don't want to show to others, don't we?』

I have no plans to use Potential Release or Skilltaker in the tournament. I hate to say it, but these are fights we can afford to lose.

「Nn……」

『Well, we won when both sides sealed away their trump cards. Let's think of it that way. Come on now, we made such a formidable opponent admit defeat.』

Sibylla was even more of a battle freak than Fran. She must be very frustrated. Maybe she's even rolling around in frustration as we speak?

Fran must have realized that too and began smiling.

「Nn.」

『Anyways, we need to get ready for our upcoming match.』

First, we watch the next match, Eiworth's apprentice Abarb against the guildmaster Diaz.

「Phew.」

We return to the seats and Fran sinks down into into her chair. Like I thought, she is still feeling the exhaustion.

『Fran… if it's too much for you, you can go back to sleep, okay?』

「No problem.」

Her face shows fatigue, but her eyes are bright and shining. Perhaps the excitement of the battle has not subsided. It was after all, only a few minutes ago that she was fighting for her life and pumped with adrenaline.

『Anyway, do you want something to eat?』

「Curry. Spicy.」

It's not the best food to eat in a place like this, but it'll do for now. I can disperse the smell with wind magic. I take out a big bowl of curry from my storage, under the pretense that Fran has taken it out.

But still… you want it spicy. That's rather unusual.

「Mmm. It's starting.」

As Fran muttered, the second match was just about to start below us. She was scooping the spicy curry to her mouth at a steady pace and staring at the match with serious eyes.

The black haired skinny man with white skin as pale as a ghost is Abarb. He faced Diaz with his scimitars at the ready. Was it a sign of confidence that he could smirk nastily in the face of such a powerful enemy?

「I've always wanted to fight you, Diaz-sama, the 'Dragon Repeller'.」

「Oh? That's an honor, but why?」

「A young and inexperienced man such as myself, will humiliate the man whom my arrogant master has such a high opinion of! Hee-hee-hee! Just thinking about it makes me tingle with glee!」

「Uwah. Your smile is just like that fool's. I wonder if that's something that your master teaches to all his apprentices?」

「Hee-hee-hee! I'll melt your smug face into mush! Besides, there's another reason I wanted to fight you!」

「Oh? And what's that?」

「Kukuku. You are the only one among my master's former comrades whom I can defeat!」

The weirdo, Abarb, pulled out a test tube from his pocket.

「Hee-hee-hee-hee! Die! It's master's special poison!」

Upon appraisal, the poison that Abarb pulled out was known as the "Seven Blinks". I guess the name comes from the fact that a person who is poisoned will die within seven blinks of an eye.

The test tube was slammed on the stage, and a tremendous smoke instantly erupted, just like the magic potions that Eiworth had used.

Abarb has poison resistance at level 8, so this poison must be ineffective to him. Diaz, on the other hand, does not have such a high resistance skill. Is he going to be okay?

「You are indeed formidable! The best illusionist of the age even! But alas, your defenses are not up to par. That's exactly why you can do nothing when hit by an unavoidable attack!」

That's certainly true. Even if you have the illusions, Thought Guidance, and Eye Guidance to avoid the opponent's hits, you can't do anything against massive area attacks that are impossible to avoid.

Could Abarb really pull off the underdog win?

「Gugah!」

「Hee-hee-hee! This poison can enter through the skin even if you don't inhale it!」

「Kuh……」

「Diaz the 'Dragon Repeller'! I, Abarb of the 'Vicious Blade', hereby claim victory over you!」

He looked up to the heavens and shouted, but immediately after, Abarb's body tilted forward. Then, he falls to the ground with his eyes turned inwards.

「Only a second rate would take their eyes off an enemy in the middle of a fight, you know?」

『T-This is! What's going on! I thought Diaz-sama fell down coughing up blood, but after that, he appeared right behind Abarb! Was it all an illusion?』

Exactly like the commentator thought, the one who fell down must have been his doppelganger created by illusion magic. He had skillfully used Thought Guidance and such to get close to the target without being noticed. Then, he struck a blow with his fist to a vital point.

『Did you see it?』

「……Kinda?」

『I could see it from this distance, but……』

If we were face to face in the arena, I couldn't be sure whether or not I would be able to see through Diaz's trick. He was just so good at concealing his movements. After the poison smoke failed to work, it was pretty much just a free smoke screen for him.

But how did he prevent the poison? A skill? Or a magical tool? The smoke cover made it impossible for me to see what he did.

『This isn't going to be so simple after all.』

「But we'll win.」

『Yeah.』

As a result, Diaz ended the second match in mere seconds.

The next match was also a near instant kill. But there was plenty to see.

Hilt and Klikka fought, and in contrast to the Ladur match, Hilt chose a more defensive stance.

I could see Klikka's tongue clicking in response. She would much rather prefer to deal counters after avoiding her opponent's attacks.

They stood there staring at each other. If that were all, it could be called a stalemate. But as time goes by, Klikka became more and more impatient.

The magic in Hilt's body kept building up. Even if you were not familiar with the Dimitris school, it's easy to see how dangerous that would be if left unchecked.

Even so, Klikka remained poised and continued to watch Hilt. She was prepared to dodge any kind of attack.

If this happened in the qualifying rounds, some of the crowd members would have yelled out, "Fight faster!" at them. However, the audience just stared silently at the arena, and that the tension that Klikka exuded was even spreading to the audience.

「Hah……」

「!」

Hilt released her magic power all at once. The magic covered the stage, but it had no offensive power by itself. This was only a blindfold.

When the arena is covered with such a dense magic, magic sense is rendered meaningless.

Immediately after, Klikka was blown away. Her body, which had been thrown into the air, changed its trajectory unnaturally several times. Hilt was attacking her with ki.

With her surroundings covered in magic power, Klikka could not read Hilt's magic release at all. She had no choice but to take the barrage of attacks.

Finally, Klikka was shot down onto the stage and laid motionless. It was over.

Hilt was indeed strong, but that is not all. Her current strategy was the same one that Ladur had used against her in the previous match. In other words, she was also learning and growing.

Fran was not the only one who is getting stronger. That fact was shoved into our faces.

That's another strong opponent moving up in the ranks.

『Next up…』

「Nn. Felmus and Neidhart」

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