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

Chapter 22: The Second and Third Rounds

"What the hell?! It’s eating up my mana?!" Seraphina panicked.

"Wolveria! Lightning shield!"

Wolveria’s jagged horn sprouted from her forehead, channelling lightning directly from the roiling, dark clouds above and shaping the electrical currents into spherical, crackling bubbles of protection.

The abrupt defensive shift caught Kael off guard, causing Gale’s Counter Blaze to deflect wildly.

"No! No!" Kael yelled, his eyes widening as his own scorching attack roared back toward him.

In a frantic rush, he activated his fire-resistance cloak. A crimson shimmer enveloped him, rendering him immune to the searing feedback of his own flames.

The crowd let out a thunderous cheer.

"Looks like Kael refuses to go down that easily!" Lady Vespera announced excitedly, her voice booming through the magical amplifiers. None of the competitors was backing down.

"Is it just me, or are the lower-ranked students actually insanely powerful?" an Argentum student muttered to another in the stands.

Down in the dirt, Seraphina let out a sharp huff.

’Sorry, but I need to make it to the Semi-finals,’ she thought, her expression hardening. "Let’s get this over with!"

In an instant, her feet left the ground. A sudden, bone-chilling frost wind swept through the arena.

"Frost Closure!"

Even the students high up in the crowd shivered at the sudden drop in temperature.

Asher, however, remained completely unfazed, his gaze locked onto the frost spreading rapidly across the stone.

The arena floor froze in a heartbeat.

Before Kael could react, his boots were violently fused to the ice-slicked ground.

"A battle between Fire and Ice!" a student screamed over the howling wind.

Monolithic walls of ice surged upward, rapidly curving to form a massive, suffocating dome around Kael and Gale.

"Seriously?!" Kael panicked, the shadows of the closing frost-dome looming over him.

"Gale! Counter Blaze again!"

Gale unleashed another volley of blazing heat, but Seraphina’s Frost Closure was too dense, absorbing the fire and continuing its relentless advance.

With a sharp, commanding snap of Seraphina’s fingers, the icy sphere collapsed inward, completely freezing Kael and his Sagea to the spot.

"WOAH!!"

The stadium erupted into a mixture of terror and awe.

"I really thought Kael was going to counter that!"

"I guess that makes Seraphina the winner of the second round..."

"Tragic," Seraphina whispered, her voice carrying a terrifying, sub-zero chill.

She raised a single finger. With a sharp Crack! the thick ice encasing Kael and Gale shattered, sending Kael collapsing onto his knees, gasping for air. The falling shards didn’t hit the ground; instead, they levitated in mid-air, reshaping into thousands of razor-sharp, crystalline needles. Every single one of them pointed directly at Kael’s exposed throat and his shivering Phoenix.

Kael froze, the sheer cold seeping deep into his lungs.

"I... I concede," Kael choked out, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.

At his words, the lethal storm of ice needles instantly dissolved into harmless, drifting vapor.

"And the winner for round two is Seraphina Malovik! She will be progressing to the Semi-Finals!"

Up in the glass-fronted participant lounge, the remaining eight students watched in silence as Seraphina walked back toward the entrance, completely calm.

Asher sat back against the wooden bench, a cold bead of sweat rolling down his temple.

’The matches are moving too fast. Rowan is an absolute monster, and Seraphina is a literal force of nature.’ He glanced across the room. His eyes locked onto Marnie, who was already tightening the leather straps of her gauntlets. Her gaze was fixed entirely on him, burning with an intense, unreadable mixture of iron resolve and sheer desperation.

The Aetherscope flickered to life once more, bathing the lounge in a low blue glow.

"I shall be taking over the referee duties for this one," Lord Ignatius’s booming voice echoed. "Round three: Fang Richter versus Xana Valerius. Descend to the arena."

Asher clutched his knees, his mind racing as the glowing interface of his Nova Vesta flickered faintly in his peripheral vision. ’Two more matches... and then it’s my turn.’

Fang and Xana made their way down the stone steps and stepped onto the arena sands.

In the stands, the Terra faction students looked incredibly tense. They whispered anxious prayers, desperately hoping Xana could pull off a miracle, even though she was facing an elite Auric Circle opponent.

"You’re a girl, so I’ll go easy on you," Fang said, his lips curling into a cocky smirk. "I call upon the eternal pact! Cora!"

The ground vibrated. The immense vibrations caused the entire audience to tremble in their seats, and Xana took an involuntary half-step back to keep her footing.

From a massive, pitch-black magic circle on the sand, Cora erupted. The forty-foot-long crimson cobra reared up, her colossal hooded head towering over twelve feet in the air, casting a massive, terrifying shadow over Xana.

The sheer scale of the beast momentarily threw off Xana, but she quickly gritted her teeth and summoned her own companion.

"Now! Rakka!"

With a low grunt, her massive, stocky Iron-Hide Badger materialized.

"Impressive," Fang chuckled, looking down at the badger. "I’d love to see how you plan to win with that little thing."

Xana’s jaw clenched. She felt a surge of cold fury at her partner being so casually dismissed.

"You may begin!" Lord Ignatius commanded, his eyes alight with excitement.

Without a split-second of hesitation, both fighters barked their commands at once.

"Seismic Iron-Slam!" Xana shouted.

Rakka slammed its dense, metallic front paws into the earth. A localized shockwave ripped forward, shattering the stone tiles and throwing both Fang and Cora off balance as the ground buckled beneath them.

"Corrosive Neurotoxin!" Fang commanded simultaneously.

Cora moved with terrifying, fluid speed. Sidestepping the fractured earth, the colossal cobra slithered in a blur, instantly flanking Xana. With a sickening hiss, Cora exhaled a dense, roiling cloud of dark, burning, toxic mist that completely swallowed Xana and Rakka.

"Don’t die on me, pretty girl," Fang called out through the haze.

The roaring crowd suddenly fell into a dead hush.

A choked cough echoed from the dark mist.

Once.

Then twice.

Xana had inhaled the vapor. Instantly, her lungs flared with an itching, agonizing heat.

Her chest tightened, her throat felt as if it were closing up, and tears pricked her stinging eyes as the neurotoxin began to sap her strength.

Beside her, Rakka stood perfectly still, entirely unaffected. Its Metallic Fortification skill had activated, hardening its thick fur into seamless plates of high-grade alloy that blocked both physical and magical damage. But a Sagea cannot fight on raw instinct alone; it needs its master’s active commands. And Xana could barely breathe, let alone speak.

Suddenly, a system interface flashed violently in Xana’s fading vision:

```

[NEBULA VESTA NOTICE]

[DAMAGE IS CRITICAL]

[FORCING OPTIMUM CLEANSING...]

```

A soft, pulsing white light enveloped Xana as she lay shivering on the ground, trying to purge the toxin.

But the glow flickered, then died out entirely.

```

[CLEANSING FAILED]

[CRITICAL DAMAGE DETECTED!]

```

Fang watched the dense fog, a sudden flicker of genuine concern replacing his smirk. "Surrender now, and I’ll disperse the poison," he offered, his tone dropping its arrogant edge.

Unable to withstand the suffocating agony any longer, Xana weakly raised a hand. "I... surrender."

"And just like that, Fang Richter moves up to the Semi-finals!" Lord Ignatius announced, waving his hand to clear the field.

In an instant, the toxic purple mist vanished into thin air, leaving Xana gasping on the sand as the medical teams rushed forward.

Up in the lounge, Rowan crossed his arms, a rare look of genuine interest on his face.

’He’s actually pretty cool...’ he thought, watching the sheer speed and efficiency of Fang’s execution.

The arena erupted into thunderous cheers once more. Down below, Fang turned back toward the participant glass, catching Rowan’s eye and flashing him a bright, confident wave.