Yorsha tried her hardest, but her fire could not burn someone that not only had a Fire Essence Soul, but also was talented enough to reach the top 32.
Within a few minutes of the fight starting, she was beaten by her opponent. The referee had to come in and stop the flaming swords of her opponent's Essence Soul from reaching her in the end.
She returned to the hall with some disappointment in herself, but she had already expected the failure, so she couldn't be mad about it.
"You did great out there," the teacher said as soon as Yorsha arrived.
"Thanks," she said meekly.
The others went on to congratulate her too for reaching Top 32. That wasn't something so easily reached by many.
"Don't worry," Ning said. "You're young. You'll do far better in the future."
Yorsha's eyes narrowed. "You're only 3 years older than me at best too," she said.
"Uhh… yeah," Ning replied.
One last match took place and then the top 32 were over and they moved onto Top 16. For top 16, the matches changed a bit. The host announced that this time, instead of 5 minutes per battle, everyone was going to get 10.
With the extra bit of time, everyone could slow down their pace and fight better. Since there weren't that many fights remaining, the committee saw no qualms in doing that.
The very first match of Top 16 was called out, which was Ning's match. However, since his opponent had been disqualified, they moved onto the 2nd match.
The 2nd match took some time to finish and Ning saw that his next opponent was going to be a person with Earth Essence core.
The third match began between the Prince and someone from the Grand Will academy. After a somewhat difficult battle that was only difficult because the Prince didn't go all out from the start, the match ended with the prince's victory.
After the 3rd match was over, the fourth match started between the prince's bodyguard Hyandus, and someone from the Peace World academy.
This was the fight that took the most time yet conclude. The opponent in this match was someone with a Water Essence Soul and he covered himself in water, making it difficult for Hyandus to properly attack him.
His Wind Essence soul didn't give him much offensive strength, so it took some time for him to use his spear to weaken his opponent, while dodging every attack, to gain his victory.
3 out of the 8 fighters in the Quaterfinals were confirmed to be the Black Hawk academy members. At this point, they had already won the entire competition.
Now, all that left was to see who had won it exactly.
Hyandus was breathless, and by other people's senses, Essence-less when he returned back to the hall again. He was congratulated on his hard-earned victory and allowed to rest while the next two fights took place.
The 5th and the 6th matches were won by two people with Fire Essence and Water Essence.
Then, it came time for the 7th match.
The young man from the Peace World academy stood up and looked toward the Black Hawk Academy's direction. He was the 2nd person in the entire competition to reveal to have a High Essence Soul realm.
He was without a doubt the second strongest person in the entire competition.
He looked toward the princess and bowed. "Let us have a fun match, princess," he said. His words were polite, but his tone was not. He was simply taunting the princess as he knew that he would win.
Alena stood and walked toward the door without even acknowledging him. The young man followed next to her, but even as they went to the stage, she did not show any sign of noticing the man.
And that pissed him off.
"Well, at least the princess reached Top 16. That's one better than me," Yorsha said.
"Hmm?" the prince turned around. "What do you mean?"
"I mean the princess did good to reach where she's reached, nothing else," Yorsha said. "It would've been better if she continued moving on, but this is the last of the line for her."
The prince gave a small smile. "Are you saying my sister is going lose this match?" he asked. Even Hyandus shook his head when he heard that.
Ning and the teacher got a little curious at where the conversation seemed to be headed.
"Are you saying she has a chance to win?" Yorsha asked as she looked back at the live image of the princess on the stage.
"Why not?" the prince asked.
"But… but her enemy is a rank above her and has an Earth Essence soul. The princess is only in the Low Essence Soul realm, and on top of that, she has Moonlight Essence core, one of, if not the worst when it comes to offensive capabilities. Are you saying she's going to win through that?" Yorsha asked.
The prince gave a wide smile. "Did you think Alena has shown all of her skills in this competition when she hasn't even been pushed as hard yet?" he asked before chuckling.
"She has something hidden?" Ning couldn't help but ask. He was truly curious about the princess's fighting capabilities.
The prince laughed some more. "You guys better get seated then. You will soon witness something incredible," he said.
Everyone turned their eyes to the screen.
The princess took a deep breath while her opponent seemed to have his Earth Essence Soul ready to fight.
"I'm sorry, princess," he said. "But your puny moonlight and light essence isn't going to work. This is the end of the line for you."
"Fight!" the referee shouted.
The young man rushed toward the princess all of a sudden, wishing to end the fight all at once.
However, when he got close, his eyes widened as something happened.
The princess breathed out and all of a sudden her aura changed. That which was only at Low Essence Soul suddenly reached a higher level at High Essence Soul.
The audience's eyes went wide as they realized taht the princess had been hiding her powers all this time.
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