Once again, as the final match of the Top 64 rolled around late in the afternoon rolled around, the question came forth for everyone to consider.
Was the top 32 going to be taking place today as well?
To everyone's expectation, it was.
The committee responsible for the competition had decided to go on for half of the Top 32 matches, which was 8 matches. And of those 8 matches, Ning's was the first one.
Ning sighed and stood up to leave.
The teacher tapped him on the shoulder from behind and gave a great smile as Ning turned around. "Both you and Yorsha have done a great deal for the academy already. Having 5 members in the top 32 is already more than great. Don't worry about winning, just fight to your heart's content."
Ning smiled back at the teacher. "Thanks teach, but I'm going to do my best to win anyway," he said and walked out. He arrived on the stage with a girl that was his opponent.
"Where did you learn to use Space Essence?" the girl asked as they walked onto the stage.
He looked at the girl with her blue uniform that belonged to the Blue Spark Academy. "My academy," he said. "It has quite the repository of techniques."
"I see," the girl said. "It's not a bad technique to catch people off-guard. You can be happy you made it this far, but I'm afraid your run ends now."
Ning smiled at the girl, saying nothing else. He went on to stand on the other side of the stage with only his sword in his hand.
He didn't even have a sheathe for his sword anymore, so he had to keep it tucked under his armpits where only he wouldn't be hurt by it.
He let the sword drop down and swung it around a few times as he got ready for the battle. His opponent, the girl looked at him with an Earth sword of her own.
She had been taught by her teachers how to handle Ning in the battle. Due to his fights being unexpected thanks to his Space techniques, she was told how to get rid of that variable.
Make the spatial technique irrelevant.
An armor of rocks appeared around the girl, covering her in a thin layer of protective Earth Essence. At the same time, she got ready to fight.
As the fight began, she did what she was told to do to make the spatial technique irrelevant. She went into close combat.
Ning was taken aback a little, but he had expected his opponent to do something wacky to go against his space technique. That was understandable given how he had won twice against Low Essence Soul opponents due to that very technique.
He dashed forward as well and swung his sword at the girl. The girl dodged and threw out a rock spike from the ground.
Ning cut the rock in half before moving in, but the girl threw more rocks at him, and he had to create an Earth wall to protect himself.
Ning realized only then that even though the girl had come close enough for a sword fight, she had never intended to have one at all. She was instead there to just stop him from catching her off guard with his spatial technique.
Ning smiled when he realized that and continued fighting against her. She continued throwing around her earth attacks but Ning easily defended against them. She needed to do something better if she wanted to defeat him.
She ran around Ning, never lingering in a place long enough for him to use his technique. She threw out attack after attack trying to catch an opening where she could use her main skills.
Ning was also getting tired of the constant fight that resulted in nothing and thought of taking a more daring approach.
The wind picked up around him as his speed and control suddenly increased by threefold as he zipped around the stage going after the girl.
The girl dodged what attacks she could and used her Earth armor to stop the rest. The armor was deteriorating for the most part, but there was still enough to protect herself.
Ning created spikes around the girl, making her have to dodge or destroy them each time. As he continued doing so, he ended up creating a long corridor-like pathway in the middle of the stage, surrounded by large spikes on all sides.
The girl realized that and frowned, but this would work well for her as well. A human-like Essence soul appeared from behind her that grabbed onto one of the nearby spikes.
Ning used his technique at the same time.
The girl sensed Space Essence being used where Ning was and immediately attacked behind her, hoping to either stop the attacks coming for her or catch Ning himself in the act of sneaking at her.
However, to the girl's surprise, there was no portal behind her. It was simply used by Ning to get rid of the rock spike that was thrown at him.
The girl turned around in time to see Ning with his finger pointed toward her as a tremendous amount of Essence gathered on his fingertip. He smiled at the girl.
"You shouldn't have looked away."
He let the attack out.
Light flashed and thunder rang as a massive lightning bolt left Ning's finger and struck the girl right on her chest. She was thrown away backward where she struck the earth wall and fell to the ground.
A gaping hole was left in her clothes that was singed, while a small dark spot appeared on her skin inside her as well.
The lightning bolt had completely knocked her out in a single attack.
Ning slowly put down his hand and raised his other hand in a victorious pose as he had once again won against another Low Essence soul opponent.
Now that he had won, he was going to move up into the top 16 of the competition.
