Zavier was the first to see her as she made her way into the place that had been designated as the venue for the battle between Merion High and Caesar High.
He looked at her from afar and waved towards her so she would be able to notice him easily but Shiranui seemed to have not seen him at all. This disappointed him a little and Zavier even wondered where her mind was wandering as she made her way towards them slowly.
All it took was just this one look for Zavier to deduce that something had gone terribly wrong. This wasn't the shy girl that he was familiar with. This was the same girl who had put her life on the line to win a trivial class fight. This was the emotionless battle maniac he had fought the first time when they had met.
Her beautiful smile that used to softly caress his heart all the time had vanished and in its place was an expressionless face that was cold like the winter chill. Looking into her eyes, he was unable to feel the love that she had had for him and instead her gaze was like daggers about to pierce his body.
Zavier felt uneasy and wanted to ask her about what had happened to make her like this so he called out to her when he felt that she would be able to hear him out.
But to his surprise she looked towards him for a second but then turned away from him without a single thought or change in her expression. It was as if she hardly knew him.
Shiranui went towards the place where the rest of the girls were gathered and took her place beside them. There was a cold determination in the way she just stood there without even greeting the rest of them. She felt like a battle machine to Zavier at that moment. All his attempts to talk to her fell at deaf ears as Shiranui refused to even look at him.
Zavier didn't know what had happened but he knew that this wasn't the time for him to ask her about that; after all, they still had to keep their relationship a secret from everyone else.
Opposite to their team, Rebecca was already raring to go in the field. She was already done warming up as she stood in a battle ready stance waiting for her first opponent from Merion High School.
This was a match among the top four and that was enough to warrant the appearance of several big shots who wanted to keep their eyes on budding talent. Some of them were even looking for future disciple candidates for themselves or were scouting for someone else. Apart from Galen the principle, Harry the illusionist and the Royal Princess Rachel, some of the senior most professors and their assistants were also there to witness the spectacular showdown that was about to ensue.
This was the best time to get an inkling about the next batch of students so they could be ready when it was time to grab students with potential. Therefore, quite a majority of the senior professors had come for witnessing the event.
"Has the first participant from Merion High School been chosen yet?"
The referee looked at Calista as he asked in a stern tone as if he was dissatisfied with the delay.
Calista had been waiting for Shiranui to make an appearance before sending out the first participant of the match from their side.
She nodded towards the referee and then pointed to Kacie.
"Kacie, you should go first and test out her weaknesses at the very least even if you are unable to beat her. Fight with everything you have got but don't rush in blindly. She is not your average opponent. Her skills are genuinely good."
Kacie appreciated her kind advice with a nod of her head. Zavier was dumbfounded that she was still being miserly with her words.
Even though Calista considered Shiranui to be the best in terms of offensive skills among her group, she didn't send her at the start because she knew that Shiranui would only push herself too hard. She wouldn't easily give up even if she was told to. Therefore, Kacie was her best option. Kacie was not only cool minded and sensible, but was also very good at poking the enemy. Her skills were very suitable for drawing out the various abilities of the enemy. Moreover, Kacie was also the most skilful mage after Shiranui in the group. Calista felt that she would be able to hold her own against the enemy.
Moreover, Calista was trying to take advantage of the number of participants that they had. She was opting for a battle of attrition since the opponent was especially skilled in defense and it was almost impossible to break through that defense without a lot of effort. A single fight was far from enough to break Rebecca's shell.
Rebecca walked towards the centre of the field with a confident stride as if she was sure about leaving Merion High's team in tatters. The huge clamour caused by the audience upon her entrance was a testament to her popularity among the crowd. No other school was eligible of such a fan following as this was her home ground; after all, Caesar High school was right behind her and all of them were shouting and encouraging her to win the fight beautifully. This was the benefit of playing at the home ground.
Listening to their voices, Rebecca's determination to win surpassed anything that she had before. For them she was willing to fight till the end no matter how desperate the situation might have seemed. For the pride of the Caesar High school she had even paid such a heavy price during the first competition. There was no way that she would let anything waste her efforts anymore.
On the other hand, the Merion high team were the only ones from their high school within the area. They had arrived from so far away to take part in the entrance test that no fan of theirs had been able to make it for witnessing their struggles. Zavier felt that they could be thankful if only they didn't receive boos and jeers from Rebecca's supporters upon their entrance. The crowd could be really cruel at times towards the away teams.
The morale of the Caesar High school wasn't as high as it had been at the beginning of the competition. The reason was the dwindling trust that others had in their elite students at the beginning of the first round. The reason was that all of those elite students had ended up getting eliminated from the test during the first round. Only Rebecca had made it to the second round. Had it not been the case, the fan following of the Caesar High school would have been even higher.
At this moment Kacie entered the field and walked with stern steps towards the centre and stood exactly opposite to Rebecca who had a confident expression on her face which had been solicited by the fans that were currently supporting her from the back.
"Are you two ready?"
Referee turned towards each of them and asked them politely if they wanted to start the match.
The two of them nodded scruffily and the referee let out a slight spark from his hands that rose up in the air before extinguishing with a loud noise. This signalled the start of the match and the referee backed out of the field to stand at a place that was not too far from the participants. This way it would be easy for him to intervene if one of them was truly in danger and not to mention that he would be able to determine if any of them was using any unfair means to get an advantage in the match.
At the indication of the start of the match, Kacie didn't hesitate and put her hands into her clothes. As she brought them out, there were three exquisite daggers in her hand that were about the size of her palm. Despite their small size, their design looked exceptionally dangerous and Zavier had the feeling that their penetration power was definitely not a joke.
She flicked her wrist and the two daggers left her hand while the remaining was still in her hand in a reverse grip. The two daggers that she was controlling through her mana threads were responsible for the offensive measures while the one in her hand, she intended to use for defense against any kind of attacks that she might encounter from her opponent.
The two daggers that had been launched in random directions acted according to the will of Kacie as they turned mid air and headed straight for Rebecca.
Rebecca perceived the trajectory of the daggers and waited for them to get close to her. She had accurately analyzed the places on her body that were being targeted by the opponent. Even so, she didn't prepare any defensive measures before hand. The reason was that the opponent was able to freely manipulate the daggers in the air so she either had to consume a lot of mana to perform a full body diamond transmutation to completely render her attacks ineffective from the start. But this was impossible for her at the moment because she had to fight more opponents after this one as well.
She was unfortunately facing four similarly strong girls in succession so she had to be smart about it.
The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr𝒆e(w)𝒆bnovel