Dion, Nina, and Jay got the numbers 2, 16, and 18 respectively, which meant Dion was in the opening fight.
Dion's opponent was one of the geniuses of another kingdom who was a mage as well. Unfortunately for him, Dion's fire broke through her attacks and finished the fight within seconds.
"Wow, the Miyena Kingdom keeps surprising us today! Will they own this bracket as well? Let me tell you a secret, friends. Dion was seen coming to the arena along with yesterday's champ, Gale!"
Steve said the last sentence in a whisper as if he was sharing a great secret, only that it wasn't quiet at all; his voice was empowered by magic. The crowd cheered as soon as they heard the gossip and there were talks about the possibility that they were an elite squad of the Miyena Kingdom.
Nina faced a magician, so she didn't get to showcase her talent in that battle. Lara faced another mage of the empire and won pretty fast too, leaving the crowd unentertained.
"Now we are having another member of the Miyena Kingdom's group who came along with Gale and Dion. Jay is coming!"
She fought against a mage and overpowered him with her fire magic expertise. Shana's students were all geniuses she picked up carefully even from commoner families and groomed from a young age. She was strict and forced them to train for most of the day, and the results were apparent.
The second round started and there were 20 mages left and 12 magicians. Dion eliminated one of the younger empire's mages and Nina's battle against Lara arrived.
"THIS IS EXCITING! A battle between one of the Miyena Kingdom's geniuses, a mage at only 28, against the empire's strongest – Lara! I've been told Lara advanced to the mage phase when she was 28 as well. Can Nina win?"
Nina and Lara faced each other, and the judge signaled them to start fighting. Lara opened with water dragons and Nina had to use her second element, earth. Nina summoned large boulders and shot them into the dragons.
Lara knew Nina's intentions to deform the dragons from within by making the boulders explode inside them, so she made the dragons slither like snakes and dodge the boulders. However, Dragons weren't snakes; they were bigger. The boulders changed their routes and entered the dragons and exploded.
The stones deformed the water and a huge hole was opened in the dragon's bodies, making everything beyond that fall to the ground.
Nina sent additional boulders, this time against Lara herself, who used a sphere of water to change the boulders' route with the current, sending them crashing behind her. Her water dragons started to regenerate their upper half while she blocked Nina's spells.
Nina sighed and realized she can't really deal damage to Lara with earth magic, yet she didn't mind keeping the stalemate. Dragons were a costly animal to maintain, and Lara couldn't afford to play a game of exploding and regenerating.
Lara had other plans. She had been a mage for a few years and enjoyed great teaching, she could cast spells from different elements simultaneously by now. She canceled her water dragons and kept the water sphere to protect her while shooting air blades that kept changing directions.
Nina tried blocking them with earth, yet they cut right through it. She only advanced lately and still didn't master compressing to the maximum, and she also didn't have time to switch to fire.
She braced herself and generated earth shields as hard as she could and moved between the air blades. She tried taking them on at the right angle, yet it wasn't as easy against mages since the blades kept changing directions and angles.
It was looking like she was performing a dance, with the blades and shields surrounding her.
"You're more slippery than a fish!"
Lara was getting annoyed as she controlled the air blades. She couldn't hit Nina, and Nina was manipulating the air blades and deflecting them in ways that made them clash against one another, forcing Lara to keep generating more and more blades, eating her mana away.
"This is amazing! Nina still has much to learn as a mage, but her fighting skills are superb. This must be the most beautiful fight we've seen so far!"
Although it looked impressive, moving so much was eating at Nina's stamina slowly, and she was lucky to have the earth mana affinity to boost her endurance when she strengthened herself.
Coupled with her fire affinity which gave her speed and the power both elements added to her, she kept at it for a few more minutes, dancing and pivoting between the blades and avoiding serious injuries with every move.
Suddenly, Lara felt the mana stirs under her feet, and she quickly focused back on her water sphere. A pillar of stone came out of the ground and tried to pierce through her sphere. Lena's attribute wasn't heaviness like Gale's so she preferred pillars with sharp edges.
When Nina felt like she figured out Lara's pattern and could divert her attention from the blades, she used the pillars to attack Lara, making her reinforce her water sphere and waste more mana. She aimed to raise the mana-draining speed and to have a better chance of exhausting Lara first.
In turn, the blades' attacks turned slower and more predictable when Lara had to focus on defending and not just attacking.
Although Lara was stronger as a mage, she didn't have Nina's proficient footwork and could attack and defend only with magic.
10 minutes later, Lara started feeling burdened mentally and she felt the mana was getting a bit lazy when answering her calls, making the spells a tad weaker.
Nina, however, didn't fare much better. She was breathing heavily and her sweat dripped from her body to the floor. Her clothes were drenched in sweat, and she was only forcing herself to move at that point.
"This fight has been a crazy performance! I don't know who will run out of steam first, but even if it's Nina, she has shown us enough talent to earn our respect!"
