429 Clash of Talents
The End Year Tournament continued as in the later days; the Rankers battle began.
"Damian Seymour vs Amelia Greville,"
As the crowd cheered loudly, Damian stood there awkwardly as he didn't expect to fight Amelia of all people.
"Don't go easy," Amelia said as she held her daggers.
"Sigh, fine," Damian scratched the back of his head.
After the awkward moments between them, Damian didn't expect to have a confrontation like this.
It was certainly not a scenario he wanted, but it happened so he prepared to fight.
Amelia took the first chance as did multiple augmentations in the start that surprised many of the spectators that were of high rank.
Multiple augmentation required a lot of skill, and she did all of it in a few seconds.
Summoning multiple fireballs, Amelia rained them down at Damian who dodged and blocked them.
But despite doing all that, his eyes were on Amelia. Unlike a normal mage, Amelia used both close combat and physically augmenting herself.
Her precise control over her mana, and the fact that she was skilled enough to make Damian watch out for her.
"Don't worry, Amelia is going to be fine," Kevin commented in the Rankers VIP Room.
"He isn't strong enough to defeat her," Kevin said.
All four of them had trained a lot as they were in the same team so they knew that Amelia was powerful.
Although she acted like a support, her combat ability was high as well. Just by having Amelia on their team, Kevin's team always grabbed the first spot.
But as the fight progressed, Amelia grew even more frustrated as Damian kept the same pace.
"Fight seriously!" Amelia said as she swung her dagger.
Damian slammed his shield on the growth causing a shockwave and dashed towards her as he threw his shield at her.
Amelia's vision got blocked as a kick emerged from her left and she used wind magic to propel her backwards, barely dodging Damian's strike as Damian grabbed his shield mid-air.
His handling of the shield was impressive for a lot of Hunters who were watching this match.
"He is a good tanker,"
"His awareness is good as well."
People complimented Damian, but others also acknowledged that Amelia was strong as well for a supporter against Damian and taking control of the flow.
It was an extremely hard thing to do.
Damian noticed cracks at his feet as he jumped in the air, and he saw multiple wind blades propel towards him.
He used his aura to brace the impact, but Amelia's spell wasn't weak either.
He got a cut on his arm, despite his cladding himself in aura.
Amelia clenched her fist, as she dashed at Damian.
"You are being too reckless, Amelia," Damian muttered as he blocked her strike with his shield.
Amelia didn't reply and kept striking again and again.
Each strike would push Damian back by a thread but the barrage of attacks coming were extremely fast and precise.
"Amelia Greville is the winner!" The Referee announced as Amelia stopped and realized she had pushed Damian outside the boundary.
Many people cheered for Amelia, as Damian stored his shield in his storage ring, and looked at Amelia who turned away in anger and left the stage.
Damian sighed as he also turned and left the stage.
Amelia clenched her fist as she went toward her waiting room, she was pissed because she knew that Damian didn't fight her to his full potential.
"Do I look weak in his eyes?" Amelia was unhappy.
But as one Greville stepped off the stage, another stepped up, and against him was Sam Allister.
He swung his spear in the air as Sam walked on the stage, his eyes looked dull as he stared at Asher.
Sam was confident but at the same time, he raised his eyebrows as he noticed the look on Asher's face.
'He is not focused,' Sam concluded but it was odd to him.
Being in Asher's team for so long he knew that out of all students in the World Academy, the concentration and focus Asher showed was incomparable.
But it didn't matter to him, just like Asher wasn't motivated to win, it was the same for Sam.
The duel started as Sam raised the earth below the foot of Asher who moved to the side.
Sam charged while changing the terrain around him as he appeared near Asher.
In the whole academy, after Kevin, Sam was considered the best with the spear, even gathering Farnus's attention.
He stood in the higher ranks among the rankers, some even said that if Sam Allister wanted, he could rival Matthew.
There was no way of knowing, because Sam didn't care about his rank much, as he knew trying too hard to stand out would only trouble him, and his purpose.
Sam raised the ground and vines started erupting, his style of fighting was focused on limiting the movement of his opponent.
Sam had observed Asher for a long time so he was confident that he could win.
Asher who was stepping back, saw a vine erupt as Sam used the rising earth below his foot to propel himself toward Asher and attack him.
It was a calculated, but Asher whose eyes were on the vines slipped past as Sam frowned.
'What kind of movement is this?' Sam thought.
As he saw Asher move to his side and swung his sword downward toward him.
Clang!
Sam stopped the sword using his spear, but he felt the aura around his spear weakening.
'What is this?' Sam questioned.
He suspected that Asher might have a strange artifact on him, but it was Asher's black sword that was doing that.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Asher struck the sword in multiple causing Sam to parry all the attacks hurriedly.
As Sam was not a mage, using his mana to alter the ground around him took time, but it was impossible to do when his mind was focused on Asher's movement.
He had never seen such a sharp movement from Asher, it was something he didn't consider Asher could do.
Even the crowd was surprised to see Asher going against Sam Greville equally.
But what they failed to notice was that Asher had already taken the upper hand from Sam.
He was being pushed back as he felt the strength of Asher, which was slightly higher than him.
Asher had reached the C+ Rank, and his speed was fast considering the fact he awakened much later than his peers and it took time for the mana core to stabilize after awakening.
But Sam could feel that they weren't equal, Asher slowly started overpowering him, and Sam gritted his teeth and tried to push back.
But he felt his hands slip as Asher attacked his elbow with a kick and used that opening to use the same foot and kick him in his guts.
It was painful, as Sam raised his aura even more but before he could regain his footing properly, he looked at the black sword that was pointed at his neck.
Sam stopped as he lowered his spear, and the Referee looked at both of them.
"The Winner is Asher Greville," He announced.
Sam and Asher both turned to leave as they went their ways, but this didn't help the crowd of students who were shocked.
A Rank 8 Ranker, winning against Rank 5, was something that no one expected to happen. The match was supposed to go in Sam's favor.
"I guess, he wasn't showing everything when we hunted together," Sam muttered.
Losing didn't sit right with him, but he didn't let the loss get to him.
He knew whether he lost or won would create problems for him as a certain brother of his didn't like it when Sam got a lot of attention.
"Maybe, losing here was better," Sam muttered.
"He might even go further," Sam thought.
And just as he thought, Asher defeated his next opponents as well in a similar way.
First was Elena Rothschild who lost to Asher as he used his movement art and her barrage of magic to create an opening and put his sword on her neck.
And the next person to get defeated was Matthew.
CLANG!
The sword dropped on the stage Matthew looked at the tip of the sword pointed at him.
'So that wasn't a fluke,' Matthew thought.
Right now, even using his aura and all his strength, Matthew still lost to Asher and the whole crowd was shocked.
They couldn't believe the person who wasn't even a ranker in the First Year was going to the finals to fight against the current Rank 1, Kevin Whiteheart.
And that person himself couldn't believe it.
Kevin frowned as he looked at the stage.
'How did he get stronger?' Kevin thought.
Kevin had fought against Matthew so he knew Rank 2 wasn't someone that could be easily defeated.
"Well doesn't matter, your streak of wins ends now," Kevin said.
The match was about to begin, the Final Match between Kevin Whiteheart and Asher Greville.
