My F-Rank Sagea is Secretly an EX-Rank Calamity

Chapter 21: Desperate Embers, Frozen Crowns

[QUASAR VESTA NOTICE]

’What’s up?’ Rowan thought, instantly setting his guard for whatever Edgar was preparing.

[OPPONENT’S MAGIC HAS BEEN CORRUPTED]

[DO YOU STILL WANT A FAIR FIGHT?]

Hearing the system’s warning, his eyes narrowed. ’Corrupted, huh? People like him always end up that way.’

In an instant, Rowan was lifted violently into the air, caught completely off guard. Edgar had abruptly switched his affinity, casting an immense levitation spell. Without hesitation, Rowan was propelled across the arena.

He slammed hard against the reinforced stone boundary, leaving a spiderweb of deep cracks behind his back.

A sharp shudder ran through him.

"Ack! What the fuck?" Rowan spat, coughing slightly.

The crowd gasped in absolute surprise. Down on the sands, Edgar broke out into a fit of hysterical laughter, his eyes wild and unhinged.

Up in the lounge, the students began to whisper frantically.

"He actually landed a hit on him."

"Impossible..."

"Well, this just got fun!" another chimed in.

Suddenly, the arena bustled back into a roaring cheer, the spectators chanting in unison: "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

High above in the VIP boxes, the Lords remained dead silent, their focused gazes locked onto the unfolding anomaly on the field.

"Okay, maybe I underestimated you a bit," Rowan muttered. He pushed himself back onto his feet, straightening his rumpled uniform. He wasn’t about to give Edgar another opening.

"Cursed Chain!"

Heavy, violet links erupted from the arena floor, snaking forward to encircle Edgar completely.

"Still got any more tricks?" Rowan asked coldly.

Almost immediately, Edgar’s overflowing mana began to depreciate as the violet links slowly absorbed his energy. Yet, Edgar didn’t panic. Instead, a twisted smirk stretched across his face.

"What?! Just because you’re a top-tier student, you think you have it all?!" Edgar’s eyes widened crazily. With a violent surge of corrupted force, he shattered the chains entirely.

The backlash caused Rowan to stumble backward from the impact. ’What the hell?!’ panic flickered through Rowan’s mind.

Suddenly, the fragments of the golem that Rowan had shattered earlier began to levitate into the air. The shards of metallic stone vibrated, glowing with an ominous, sickly green hue.

"What the...!" Fang exclaimed in the lounge, leaning forward sharply in his seat.

"That doesn’t change the fact that you have a rotten family lineage!" Edgar laughed, completely consumed by hate.

"Lord Malovik, do we intervene?" Lord Ignatius asked, his arms crossed as they watched the corruption manifest.

"No," Lord Malovik confirmed, his expression unreadable. "They’ll sort it out."

Edgar fired the glowing stones in a rapid barrage, giving Rowan no time to retaliate. The dense projectiles rammed into Rowan as he crossed his arms to defend himself.

Forced backwards, he dropped one knee to the sand, bracing against the brutal impact.

[QUASAR VESTA NOTICE]

[PHYSICAL DAMAGE: 25%... 30%... 41%]

’Dang it!’

"Erebus! Now!" Rowan commanded.

Within a fraction of a second, the legendary nine-tailed wolf manifested. Erebus stood like a towering wall of shadow, shielding Rowan and effortlessly blocking the remaining stones. Rowan huffed, sliding behind his Sagea’s massive form for shelter.

The stadium marvelled at the sight; no one had expected the fifteen-year-old Umbrax to push the Auric Circle’s top student this far.

"Tsk. And here I thought I’d hold back," Rowan muttered from behind the shadow wolf. He analysed Edgar’s position rapidly. ’I can’t use Fatal Claw on him, and flying won’t work... he’s targeting just me.’

"Erebus! Interlock!" Rowan ordered.

Erebus glitched forward through the oncoming attacks, instantly closing the distance to stop right in front of Edgar. The shadow wolf let out a localised, high-frequency roar. As the sound waves materialised, they formed a square, glass-like box covered in jagged markings that trapped Edgar inside.

Instantly, Edgar’s overflowing, corrupted mana completely ceased. The strain broke his focus, leaving him unconscious on the sand inside the Interlocked barrier.#

The stadium fell silent for a heartbeat before breaking into a deafening chant.

"ROWAN! ROWAN! ROWAN! ROWAN!"

Up in the lounge, Asher let out a long sigh of relief, only just realizing he had been holding his breath.

[QUASAR VESTA NOTICE]

[THE ATTACK ’INTERLOCK’ HAS BEEN UPGRADED BY 15%]

’Yeah, sure,’ Rowan muttered to his system. He stood up straight, calmly dusting the sand off his uniform.

"And there you have it! For the second time in our brackets, Rowan Flynn is declared the winner and has progressed to the Semi-finals!" Lady Kaelen announced over the arrays while medical droids carried the unconscious Edgar away.

When Rowan returned to the lounge, the other students immediately offered their congratulations. Seraphina, however, sat with her arms crossed, not even glancing in his direction. Her pale blue eyes were narrow, entirely focused on mentally breaking down the exact technique Rowan had just used to command Erebus.

After a short recess, the second match was called out.

"Participants for the second round, please step forward." This time, Lady Vespera took over the amplification array.

Seraphina stood up. As the granddaughter of High Lord Malovik, she carried the oppressive, innate aura of absolute royalty. She was a lethal prodigy, and she knew it.

Beside her, Kael Vane rose. He was a tall, broad-shouldered youth whose family boasted generations of high-tier military vanguards. He cracked his knuckles, a ruthless, battle-hungry spark igniting in his eyes.

As they stepped onto the open arena floor, the chanting from the crowd reached a fever pitch.

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

"Match two! Seraphina Malovik vs. Kael Vane! Begin!" Lady Vespera ordered.

Kael didn’t waste a single breath. He knew that against a Malovik, hesitation meant instant defeat. With a sharp exhale, he triggered his sensory synchronization. His body erupted in violent, jagged streaks of gold lightning, and with a high-pitched screech, his Phoenix Sagea, Gale, manifested above him.

Its wings, permanently evolved by the Resonance Feather, caught the arena’s wind currents flawlessly, generating a massive vortex of crackling, electrified air.

"Storm Sovereign: Aegis Overdrive!" Kael commanded.

The majestic phoenix roared, beating its wings with blinding, high-frequency speed. Instantly, the atmospheric pressure between the two competitors plummeted. The air currents whipped into a violent, roaring tornado that ripped across the arena floor, carving a massive, swirling trench into the sands as it hurtled straight toward Seraphina with the force of a natural disaster.

Seraphina didn’t even blink as the howling winds threatened to tear her uniform. She merely tapped her foot against the sand.

"Wolveria! Glacial Frostbite!" Seraphina summoned.

A glowing magic circle manifested beneath her. Wolveria appeared from the light, letting out a deep roar that instantly built a flawless, hyper-dense wall of dark ice to intersect the storm. The raging tornado collided with the ice wall, resulting in a blinding explosion of shattered frost and sub-zero vapor.

Kael gritted his teeth. His opening attack had gotten nowhere.

"Alright then. Let’s switch it up! Astral Vesta!"

[ASTRAL VESTA AT YOUR SERVICE]

’Unlock Gale’s battle mode.’

[REQUEST RECEIVED]

[UNLOCKING GALE’S BATTLE MODE...]

[REQUEST COMPLETE]

There was a sudden, blinding spark of essence, followed by a terrifying, sky-rending screech.

The crowd stood completely stunned.

Gale grew massive, a flaming crown of pure heat levitating above its majestic head. Its wingspan expanded, radiating a suffocating, ambient heat from every inch of its body that began to melt the nearby sands.

"Counter Blaze!" Kael ordered.

Gale flapped its massive wings twice, sending sweeping, fiery gusts of hot wind directly toward Seraphina.

Seraphina’s eyes widened slightly at the sudden shift. Unable to completely counteract the sheer speed of the updraft in time, the wave of suffocating heat enveloped her. She winced, shielding her face as Wolveria’s paws dug deep into the arena floor for support against the thermal backdraft.

"Still standing? No way!" Kael yelled out, surprised by her durability, though a satisfied smile spread across his face. "Such an honour. Increase Counter Blaze!"

[ASTRAL VESTA NOTICE]

[INCREASING COUNTER BLAZE BY 15%]

Gale flapped its wings once more. The impact was significantly greater than the last, creating a concussive shockwave of heat.

"Whoa! He’s strong!" a student in the stands exclaimed in genuine surprise.

The sheer force of the gale blew Seraphina backward, forcing her to slide all the way to the very edge of the arena boundaries. She gripped the stone floor, her boots skidding to a halt just inches from the line.

"If she goes past that point, she loses," Asher blurted out to himself in the lounge, his eyes glued to the screen.

The entire crowd fell dead silent. Was the granddaughter of the High Lord really about to lose the second match?

Beside her, Wolveria let out a strained howl of pain.

[ZENITH VESTA NOTICE]

[TOTAL MANA RESERVES: 87%]

’What the hell?! It’s eating up my mana?!’ Seraphina thought, a rare spark of panic finally hitting her eyes.