"Wait, so Essence Heart Academy is done?" the prince asked with a surprised look.
"Yes, they are done," the headmaster said. "Gone from the competition. All 3 of their remaining players are disqualified."
"Oh!" Ning cried in surprise. "So does that mean I get to go to Top 8 now?"
"Hmm? Did you have an Essence Heart academy student as your next opponent?" the headmaster asked.
"Yes," Ning said, pointing to the board. "It was the guy we met yesterday outside of the gate. So I can now skip him, and go to the Quarterfinals, huh?"
"That is amazingly lucky for you then," the headmaster said.
"I suppose I'm somewhat lucky too then," the princess spoke all of a sudden. "My current opponent was supposed to be a girl from that very academy too."
The headmaster looked at the board again with surprise in his eyes. "Haha, our academy sure is lucky. This is fate helping us for the bad start that we received."
"Would've been better if it was Yorsha that got the next fighter," the prince said. "She could've skipped to the Top 16 easily. My sister could've instead just fought her way through."
"Well, we can't all ask for miracles," Yorsha said. "I'm fine with where I've reached. If I am capable, I will go forward on my own."
"Good, good," the headmaster said. "Good luck to you all. I will head over to the audience stand now."
The headmaster left, leaving the group of 5 students with a single teacher. They remained in their corner of the hall that was better fitted to hold them all.
There were too many participants the last time around to make good preparation as that could make it difficult to move around in the hall. But now that there were no more than 30 people left, they had prepared a more formal section for all the school.
The Essence Heart Academy's section remained empty, however.
The host for the day started by welcoming everyone to the competition and then explained to them the actions that the competition holders had taken against the Essence Heart Academy.
They didn't give the exact reason, other than a vague implication that they had broken the committee's trust by breaking some of its rules. As a result, they would be keeping all the points they had acquired until the day of the competition, but everything afterward would be invalid.
Participants that had lost to a student of the Essence Heart Academy would gain the next round's points if they had lost to someone from that academy.
Once that was done, the remaining half of the top 32 continued from where it was left the last time. The 9th match began with two students from other academies going up to fight.
Everyone watched the matches carefully, as any of these people could be their opponents today. One needed to be ready for anything that came so that they couldn't miss out on any fights at all.
The next 2 matches took place within the next 15 minutes as well, all of which resulted in making a clear demonstration of just how strong the ones that had reached this rank were. The 12th match was a freebie as one of the participants in that match was someone from the Essence Heart Academy.
The 13th match came around, and two people went onto the stage. Within the next minute, the match ended.
Everyone watched in silence as they realized that there was someone strong that had been hiding until then. It was a fighter from the Peace World Academy, and he was someone in the High Essence Soul realm. He had been hiding his rank all this time, and that had taken everyone in the hall by surprise.
The only other person that had shown such a rank until now was the prince.
"You've got stiff competition up next, sis," the prince said, looking at Princess Alena, who was glaring at the illusory screen that showed the fight in the air. Her eyes shifted to the young man that walked in all high and mighty and gave the prince a look of mockery, telling him that he wasn't the only strong one there.
"Ohh… he's annoying," the prince said while keeping his smile. "You need to kick his ass, sis."
"You can't tell me what to do," the princess said.
"Uhh… then don't kick his ass," the prince said. "Will you be doing the reverse now?"
The princess sighed and looked away. It was her match now, but because it was against someone disqualified, she didn't even need to go to the stage.
"I still can't believe how lucky you've been, sis," the prince said. "You've only come across fighters with Essence Manifestation realm or with weak Essence souls. You haven't had to fight seriously until now."
"That's going to change next," the princess said.
"I suppose," the prince said.
"Well," Yorsha suddenly spoke. "This is me then."
"Good luck," the prince said, and the others followed.
"I'll… do my best," Yorsha said.
Everyone nodded. No one expected her to win at all, but they wanted her to do the best she could.
As her name was called out Yorsha stood and walked to the stage alongside her opponent, a girl from the Crimson Wings academy.
Yorsha frowned the entire time she made it to the stage. She knew she was going to lose, but there was nothing wrong with trying to win.
They arrived on the stage and went over to the opposite side, waiting for the referee to start the match. While waiting, they each brought out their weapons and got ready.
"Start!"
As soon as the match started, Yorsha activated her Burning Sun skill as she increased the temperature of the entire surrounding.
However, it was then that her opponent brought out her Essence Soul that made Yorsha immediately lose all hopes of victory.
It was a Fire Essence Soul, which took nearly no damage from her fire attacks. Which meant, she was up against the worst type of enemies the members of her family could.
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om