She waited until the end and grasped the timing of the attack in order to transmute only the parts of her body that were about to be hit by the daggers into diamond.
The result was as she had expected, the daggers bounced off of her diamond defense and the opponent didn't get enough time to change the direction of the attack at the last second.
This gave her a feeling of satisfaction as she felt that she had found the way to defeat the first opponent without expending a lot of her own energy.
In reality, Rebecca was thinking too much. Kacie wasn't an opponent that she could deal with so easily. The most important aspect of Kacie's skills was her flexibility. She had various different methods of attack and on top of that her intelligence was amongst the top of her peers. The combination of intelligence and flexibility could prove to be very dangerous for any individual.
Rebecca soon learned the meaning of that as the attacks soon became invisible to her. It was like a stealthy ninja was preying on her from outside her vision. Her perception skills were already too bad so she was unable to sense the attacks until they were very close to her. Her earlier expectations had been shattered completely. This was not an easy opponent at all.
The more Kacie changed the pattern of her attacks, the more it expedited her rate of consumption. Nothing was going according to her plan so Rebecca decided to be a little wasteful in order to eliminate her opponent as soon as possible.
Rebecca waited for the next ambush of the daggers and successfully defended herself against the unforeseen attack but this time she didn't just defend, she rushed towards Kacie and launched her laser attack at her from afar. The mana laser had been intensified using her diamond skin so its intensity was very high and dangerously sharp.
The laser had been too fast for her to dodge out of the way so this was the best defense she could have mustered in that small window of time but managed to somehow divert it from its original path that was headed straight through her body.
Both Rebecca and Kacie had been amongst the best of their peers. They were both elite students from their respective institutions and the difference between their strength wasn't much. And after fighting each other for a while, they had confirmed each others' strength. They had come to the same conclusion that it was almost impossible for them to take down their opponent at least in a short amount of time if they continued to play at the same pace.
Rebecca knew that she was the one who was at an utter disadvantage because she was the only participant from her school. If the opponent managed to drain her mana it would be an utter loss for her. Therefore, Rebecca needed to improvise her current strategy since it was clearly insufficient if she wanted to defeat the rest of the opponent team as well.
She had to go all out with the attack. The best defense was usually the best offense. Rebecca was clearly aware of the principle. She had been playing it safe so far and was trying to prevent stamina loss during the initial fight but her mana was being consumed at a faster pace. She decided to throw caution to the wind and took risks that she never would have before. She launched an offensive that clearly took Kacie by surprise who had been expecting Rebecca to play back and forth with her for a little while longer.
Although Kacie managed to defend against the surprise offense, she was so taken aback that she didn't try to counter attack and went on the defensive to gather her scattered wits despite the fact that Rebecca had left herself quite open to a counter when she recklessly attacked her with her fists transfigured into diamond brilliance.
It wasn't that Kacie didn't want to attack Rebecca as soon as she showed her a flaw because she had been waiting for such an opportunity ever since the start of the match. But unfortunately, Rebecca never took the bait whenever she tried to lure her into her little traps. This was the first time that Rebecca had been careless but Kacie had been too flustered to make that opportunity count.
Rebecca felt frustrated at how easily her attack had been rendered useless by the opponent. She slightly envied those who had perception abilities and had higher level senses than she did after all those skills provided an uncanny advantage when it came to high level battles and survival. Rebecca had found a very difficult opponent because of their incompatible battle style. While Rebecca preferred close combat due to her physical superiority, Kacie had a stealth based battle style. She used her ranged skills to target enemies from their blind spots and was a very skilled ambusher.
Therefore, both of them were having trouble taking the other down when their showdown never truly took place in all seriousness. They were similar to each other in terms of overall combat potential since their strength couldn't truly be compared with each other as they were totally different kinds of mages.
Another reason that the result of their battle had been so inconclusive till that moment was because Kacie had never been interested in beating her opponent in the first place.
Kacie's only goal had been to consume Rebecca's mana and to tire her out through her strategic and calculative approach towards battle which not only thwarted Rebecca's goal of beating her as quickly as possible, but also fulfilled the task that Calista had given her. The match was being pushed into a battle of attrition with no side any closer to winning the match.
In the audience, Gabby was trying to analyze every move that the two of them made. He had come here to watch the match since it was possible that one of the two on the field now would become an enemy that Gabby and his team would have to face. He wanted to see through all their trump cards before battle to eliminate any surprises. Gabby analyzed the pace of the battle and slowly let out a sigh. He had come to a conclusion as well.
Rebecca was fighting a losing battle. She was bound to lose since the other side had the numerical advantage and she was only able to fight against the first participant to a stand-still at best.
Wallice had been sitting right beside Gabby. In fact it had been her idea that Gabby being the team leader should try to learn the tactics used by the upcoming enemies. Information was power and knowing everything about the enemy might come in handy. She was pleased to see that Gabby was able to see through the intentions of both the teams through the rhythm of the battle. This student of hers was not only strong but was also keen in his analytic judgement and had a cool and calm mind which made him quite a threat on the battlefield.
Wallice agreed with Gabby about the outcome of the battle being in favour of Merion High School since Rebecca seemed to be on the losing side and had no trump cards hidden whatsoever.
On the other side of the battle field, the Royal Princess Rachel's knight, Scott turned towards Rachel and slowly whispered what he thought would be the result of the battle between the two high schools. Rachel had asked him for his expert opinion regarding the battle.
"Although the tactics being used by the Merion High team are a little dastardly, the chances of them winning the match are very high since their tactics have been devised very accurately. Rather it is already a given that they are going to win since their first participant has already managed to consume her opponent. There are still four of them remaining."
Harry was on the sidelines but he managed to hear Scott's analysis even though there was quite a lot of whispering and many a shouts from the audience. His perception skills were really fearsome.
"Do you think that you have the right to claim whether some plan is dastardly or not? Every single instant on the battlefield is can be the difference between life and death. Do not undermine the effectiveness of the tactic by saying that it seems rascally or against morality and ethics because when it comes to survival, nothing matters more than winning or losing. Therefore, it would be better if you judge a strategy by analyzing the odds of success or failure through its usage. It has nothing to do with morality, nothing at all."
Scott listened to the advice that was being delivered straight into his mind and humbly accepted his criticism. Harry wasn't someone who would just say things without any basis or logic.
By this point there was already a clamour in the audience that Rebecca was going to lose. She had been tired out by the first opponent; of course no one thought that she had any chances of winning at all. The Caesar High audience was trying to cheer her with all their might but the audience didn't just contain the Caesar High students. The others had already come to a conclusion that the match was about to end. There were still four more players off the field in the Merion High School team while Rebecca had been by herself.
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