Chapter 361: The Final Bracket
’He is so strong!!’ Nirvana thought with tightly gritted teeth, her inner energy reserves burning as she desperately channeled a massive surge of her remaining spiritual energy into her struggling dark energy beam.
’Huh?’
She was suddenly stunned, her multi-layered vision stuttering as she stared intensely at Hitachi. The young master of the Azul clan casually raised a single finger to his chest, pointing it directly upward toward the sky, and calmly closed his celestial eyes.
’What the hell is he up to now?!’ She thought, her pupils widening in sudden panic. Hitachi wasn’t only holding her down with his maximum-output runic sword formation; his calm demeanor indicated he was still actively getting ready to deploy an entirely separate, lethal attack.
BOOOOM!
The structural space directly behind Nirvana’s back violently cracked and split open. To her absolute shock and horror, her own previous catastrophic attack—the dense, black demonic energy ball that Hitachi had effortlessly swallowed into his defensive rune moments prior—shot out from the spatial rift, heading straight towards her unprotected blind spot with apocalyptic speed.
’Shit!!’
She was completely trapped in a flawless pincer movement. The front of her position was being ground down by a very dangerous, spinning runic sword formation which would definitively kill her if she relaxed her guard for a fraction of a second, and from her back, her own massive attack was rushing to immolate her. Both converging attacks were entirely devastating, and her depleted energy weren’t ready to take them both on simultaneously.
’Shit!! Am I seriously going to die right here?!!’
BOOOOM!!
"....?!"
The entire stadium watched in absolute disbelief as a massive, localized shockwave neutralized the dual blasts. When the blinding smoke rapidly cleared, Jessica was standing directly before Nirvana, her physical posture straight and her unfeeling silver eyes perfectly calm. She had intervened effortlessly, absorbing the catastrophic clash of forces into her own baseline defensive barrier.
"You?! Why did you save me?" Nirvana asked in deep shock, her voice cracking as she stared at her mother’s prize pupil.
"Your mother is the one who directly ordered me to step in. She is highly impressed by your unsealing." Jessica said in a flat low voice, completely staring forward, not looking over her shoulder at Nirvana for even a fraction of a second.
’Mother? She is actually... Impressed?’ Nirvana slowly turned her head toward the high, velvet-lined Sword Empire royal box. Seeing her mother watching her intently, a small, genuine smile of emotional validation finally appeared on her bruised face.
"Okay." She nodded softly, accepting the immediate outcome of the duel.
’I didn’t have anywhere near enough spiritual energy left to block those two massive attacks simultaneously, but Jessica blocked them both without a single hint of hesitation... How strong is this girl? Can I truly ever surpass her?’ She thought to herself, a lingering trace of her deep-seated envy resurfacing.
"Wow! Didn’t expect the Sword Academy’s captain to violently interfere! Anyway, everyone knows the rule! This round, Hitachi won!!" Davy yelled, gesturing toward Hitachi, who fluidly sheathed his flawless blade back into its scabbard with a sharp click.
"I thought you are strong." Hitachi muttered coldly as he walked past Nirvana, his tone dripping with dismissive boredom, and calmly walked out of the ruined arena.
Nirvana glared intensely at his retreating back, her teeth grinding: "That boy is completely ruthless! Absolutely all his combat abilities are ruthless!" Nirvana cursed under her breath, her boots landing heavily on the staging area.
"Okay!"
Davy moved his sharp, experienced gaze around the massive, cheering arena, waiting for the arena to reset the cracked stone floor, and continued:
"Due to the previous point brackets, Mirabella automatically advanced! Now, I will officially list the names of the five elite students who are still standing in the active match!! If you hear your name, step forward immediately!!" He said, staring down at the remaining competitors with professional pride.
"Carl, Blade, Hitachi, Jessica, and Mirabella!!"
He stared intently at the five top-tier students standing before him at the edge of the stage, and asked:
"Do you want to have a standard restorative break or continue immediately?"
"Continue." Hitachi said flatly, his shoulders already healed.
"Same." Mirabella added, her calm voice carrying over the wind. Upon hearing Mirabella’s decisive answer, Carl immediately nodded his head:
"Continue!"
"Well, seems you two don’t need to say anything, the absolute majority wins." Davy said with a small chuckle, turning his head to Blade and Jessica for form’s sake.
"I am fine with any choice." Blade added nervously, adjusting his grip on his sword, while Jessica just gave a silent, apathetic shrug.
"Okay! I am guessing some of you in the audience already know exactly who will face who next!! Hahaha!! This will be incredibly interesting! After this specific round, they will be another before the absolute grand finale! I wonder who will meet the top one on the global ranking board!!" Davy yelled, building the dramatic tension before he turned dramatically towards the massive holographic screen:
"Let’s see the ultimate setup!!!"
The digital screen lit up instantly with the freshly generated bracket lines: "Carl, from the Dragon Academy Against Blade from the Eagle Academy!!" He yelled enthusiastically, as the next set of names aggressively flashed onto the display:
"Hitachi, from the Dragon Academy, against Jessica from the Sword Academy!!" He said, and turned his torso directly to face the massive audience section:
"I should make something absolutely clear about this specific stage of the tournament! If Carl and Hitachi both successfully win their respective matches, the Dragon Academy will automatically be declared the overall winners of this entire global competition!! And if that historic event happens, they will receive a massive bonus of one million personal points!!" He yelled, his staggering words instantly stunning absolutely everyone present into a frenzy.
One million personal system points—if they could successfully secure that massive bounty, these three Dragon Academy students would mathematically occupy the Top 1 to Top 3 spots on the world leaderboard.
"Take absolute note! If one of them loses, no personal bonus points are awarded to the team!! Yes, that’s the true competitive spirit of this match!!!" He stretched his hand widely towards the combatants:
"Now!! Everyone, leave the stage immediately. Carl and Blade, your match starts right now!!" He yelled, his voice signaling the activation of the localized boundary barrier.
Mirabella slowly walked towards Carl as the rest of the team exited the arena. She gracefully placed her delicate palm on his shoulder, bringing her mouth close to his ear, her scent filling his senses.
Carl completely froze, his heart skipping a beat. This was the absolute first time in either of their lives that Mirabella had gotten this physically close to him. He deeply took her as his sister and supreme commander, but which young man would not feel something profound with such an exceptionally beautiful girl so close to his face.
"Go all out... You can even completely let go and bring out your true bloodline." She whispered softly, her blue eyes boring into his soul. She lightly tapped his shoulder, her icy demeanor softening as she smiled lightly:
"Don’t lose." With that definitive decree, she turned around and walked away.
Carl swallowed hard, cold sweat breaking out on his neck as he looked at her departing back: ’Why do I feel like I will be in severe physical trouble if I lose this match?’ He thought, swallowing hard once more to steady his erratic breathing.
"It’s an absolute honor." Blade said, breaking the silence as he stepped onto the center ring, bowing his head respectfully at Carl, acknowledging the Dragon team’s terrifying momentum.
"Oh?" Carl turned to him in genuine surprise, shaking off his nervousness:
’Bro, I honestly don’t know if you accidentally offended Big Sister in the past, or anything... But she explicitly asked me to go all out right now.’ He exhaled a long, heavy breath:
’I wonder what Big Sister is planning? My parents strictly told us we should hide my true ancestral powers, but she explicitly wants me to let it all out right here... Why?’ He thought, his internal logic trusting her strategic vision blindly.
"Here I come!" Without even wasting a single second to allow Carl to prepare, Blade drew his blade, his physical form vanished completely, heading straight towards Carl who was still seemingly lost in thought.
’Oh well, I guess I will just go all out then.’ Carl muttered under his breath, stepping out of his relaxed posture as his human blue eyes violently turned a brilliant, unyielding golden hue.
