Chapter 173: Chapter 173

When he reached the arena, Yui was waiting for him. The Princess nodded politely as Damien landed, and he returned the gesture.

“It’s a shame we’re meeting so early,” Damien called.

“Likewise. Your fight against Gaves was fantastic, Damien,” Yui said. “After the tournament, would you and Sylph like to have lunch with me? I’ve got some things I’d like to discuss.”

“I wouldn’t dare to refuse,” Damien said with a wry smile. “I’m sure Sylph will be happy to come as well.”

The announcer finished their introductions while they spoke and began the countdown. Damien channeled his Ether, preparing to Warp Step into the forest as soon as the round started.

“Good luck,” he said.

“And to you as well,” Yui said. Twin orbs of fire and water started to form in her hands.

“Go!” the announcer roared.

Damien vanished, taking cover within the forest. A thick tendril of water sprouted from the river, slamming into the ground where he’d been standing. Yui thrust hand at the ground and the bubble expanded around her, forming a cage.

Yui looked around, then focused on the forest. A small smile crossed her face and she snapped her fingers. The ball of fire leapt forth, expanding as it flew. Damien teleported to the side.

The fireball struck the forest and bloomed like a lotus. Flames roared, enveloping the trees and setting them alight. Even though he’d avoided the attack, the heat from the spell washed over him.

Damien briefly considered trying to take the princess out without harming her too badly, but he tossed the thought aside. She was as capable of an opponent as anyone else, and underestimating her could result in getting knocked to the loser’s bracket.

He teleported out of the forest, drawing the rune for devour before him. As he expected, another fireball shot towards him. Damien activated the spell and a dark maw opened before him, swallowing it.

Damien channeled a spell through his foot, expanding a stone under him into a pillar. It shot at Yui and crashed into the churning water around her. The spells crackled, but the water chewed through his attack, stopping it before it could strike the princess.

“You’ll have to do better than that, Damien!” Yui yelled.

She stomped her foot on the ground. A powerful earthquake shook the arena. Damien instinctively used Warp Step, launching himself high into the air. His eyes widened as the forest crackled, trees turning on their sides as the arena surged.

The entire forest section folded in on itself with a huge crash. A plume of dust rose into the air and Damien teleported once more, appearing within Yui’s forest.

Eight planes, that was insane. How much Magical Power does she have?

“More than you, I think,” Henry said. “It’s likely she’s got less Magical Energy, though. She’s not going to be able to cast something of that caliber too often.”

Wind whipped around Yui, growing in intensity until a violent gale surrounded her. Yui sent it forward and the spell kicked up another notch, evolving into a tornado and tearing through his side of the arena.

Do you think Devour could have stopped that?

“If you overloaded it, maybe,” Henry said. “But you don’t know it enough to do that yet.”

“Come out, Damien!” Yui called, mirth in her voice. She was clearly enjoying this. “I want to show you my power. After our last sparring match, I felt a bit embarrassed at my poor performance against Sylph. I’m going to show her how strong I really am, and that means I need to beat you!”

“We’ll see about that,” Damien said, his lips curling in a grin. He formed two gravity lances and teleported, appearing on a hill behind Yui. He threw both spells and teleported before seeing the results of the attack, already forming another two lances in his hands.

He threw them as soon as he arrived. The first round of spells crashed against her watery shield, tearing through it and finally cancelling it out. She spun towards Damien, thrusting her hands out as the last two attacks flew at her.

A fiery lotus bloomed around her, stopping both of his attacks.

“There you are!” Yui said. She swept her hand and a blade of wind shot out, carving across the ground and flying in his direction.

Damien cast Devour and teleported while he was covered by it. At the same time, he released the first spell she’d thrown at him. A ball of fire shot out of the dark circle. It collided with Yui’s protection and the two spells erupted with an explosion.

He sent an overloaded gravity sphere at Yui, but she shot it out of the air with a bolt of fire.

She’s better than she was last time. Was she holding back against Sylph?

“Either that or she got a wakeup call,” Henry said. “You’re going to have to start playing some of your hand. You won’t beat this girl while holding back.”

Agreed. Please get ready to suppress my mental exhaustion. I’m going to cast a few spells at once.

Damien teleported again, materializing directly before Yui. He blurred, teleporting twelve times in rapid succession in a circle around her. He placed Devour each time he appeared, then locked it in place with a tendril of mental energy.

“Are you sure you want to get close range with me?” Yui asked, cocking an eyebrow and creating two huge balls of fire into her hands.

Damien formed a gravity sphere in each of his own hands. They threw the spells at the same time. He released his lock on the spells surrounding them, and a circle of dark energy snapped to life, disks forming a ring around them.

His spells flew wide and vanished into the darkness, missing Yui completely. Damien threw himself out of the way and Yui’s own magic vanished as well. He ducked and dodged, throwing spells past the princess.

She couldn’t use her own large scale magic because she’d get caught in the blast, so Yui was forced to stick with the smaller spells that Devour could absorb. She probably could have escaped the ring if she wanted to, but the princess was evidently confident in her protective abilities.

“Move faster,” Henry warned him. “End this now before you fry your brains.”

Damien ground to a stop, sweat pouring down his brow.

“Did you give up?” Yui asked, pausing right before she cast another wind blade.

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“I was about to ask you the same,” Damien said.

“Damien!” Henry snapped. “Now!”

Damien released every single spell, casting Expunge on them all. He teleported out of the ring. The dark circles spat out dozens of spells, all centered at Yui.

A brilliant explosion rocked the arena, throwing Damien from his feet as a plume of fire the size of a large building rose into the air. The pressure in his ears popped several times as it rapidly changed from all the gravity spheres detonating.

Wind howled outwards in a shockwave. It buffeted the leaves off trees and emptied half the river. Damien managed to warp step behind a boulder mid fall, taking cover as the manmade disaster tore through the arena.

When it died down, Damien stepped out. Yui laid on the ground, smoke rising up from her. Several healers stood around her, their golden magic enveloping her body and healing the burns.

“I haven’t seen an explosion that size in a student tournament,” the announcer said, a note of genuine awe in his voice. “What a brilliant showing by both Princess Yui and Damien! Blackmist was truly hiding their strength this year. And fear not, my good people! Princess Yui has not been severely injured. The wounds look worse than they are.”

Damien’s skin prickled. What must have been thousands of furious glares were piercing into him from the crowd.

“If you don’t want your princess to get hurt, don’t send her to a tournament,” Damien muttered under his breath.

The healers finished with Yui and helped her back up. She caught Damien’s eyes and shook her head. “You’re a monster. That hurt, you know?”

“It was mostly your own magic,” Damien said with a smirk. “It would have hurt me just as much.”

“You’re mean.” Yui blew the hair out of her face and pouted, but she gave him a wink. “Good fight. I wish I had the chance to fight Sylph. Maybe I’ll find her in the loser’s bracket, but somehow I doubt it. Don’t you dare lose your next fights. If you beat me, I expect you to take first place.”

“I’ll do my best,” Damien promised, returning to his viewing box.

“You’re out of time,” Henry warned him once he’d climbed the railing. “I’m going to drop my protection. Get ready.”

Spikes of pain drove into Damien’s brain. He staggered and the world went dark for a second. Sylph caught him before he could fall and helped him to his chair.

“Are you okay?” Sylph asked, getting him a glass of water.

“What happened?” Viv asked. “It didn’t look like you got hit by any of her spells.”

“Don’t answer that,” Mark said, cutting Damien off before he could talk. “You’re still a potential opponent, Viv. I respect you enough to know that we shouldn’t be giving you any advantages. You’ve gotten this far in the tournament without revealing anything about your true abilities, so we have no idea how strong you really are.”

“That’s understandable,” Viv admitted. “And you’re right. Sorry for prying.”

“It’s fine,” Nolan said. “You were just being kind.”

Sylph dug around in the food cabinet and found a napkin. She brought it back to Damien and poured some of the cold water onto it. After wringing it out, she put it on Damien’s forehead. He muttered a word of thanks.

Why does this hurt so much?

“You exerted yourself for too long,” Henry reprimanded. “Using your mental energy like that is incredibly taxing, and you’ve only recently started to do it. I’m going to put you to sleep to accelerate the recovery. When the next round of the tournament starts, I’ll wake you up.”

Please do.

Henry muttered in annoyance and a dark ocean rose at the edges of Damien’s consciousness. It flooded into his mind, and he accepted the release with relief. His mind went blank and he was asleep within seconds.

---

Damien blinked awake slowly. The pain was now little more than a muted ache at the back of his head. He yawned and sat up, grabbing the damp napkin as it fell from his head. Sylph sat in the chair across from him, watching him with a worried expression.

“Are you recovered?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Damien said. “Thanks for catching me there. I might have gone a bit overboard. Is this round of the tournament over?”

“No problem. And yes, it’s been over for a few hours. The next one is going to start in a few minutes. I was wondering if you’d wake up before it.”

“Did anyone we know get eliminated?”

“Eve lost, and the rank one student from Kingsfront got completely crushed by Drew,” Sylph said. “I’m not sure what magic Drew was using either. He literally walked up and beat the shit out of the Kingsfront kid with his hands. It almost looked rigged.”

“Seriously? What is it with Mountain Hall and having weird magic?” Damien ran a hand through his hair and chewed his lower lip. “Wait, does that mean every single Kingsfront student is out?”

“Yep.”

“Man, Kingsfront has to be pissed.” Damien laughed. “Imagine not even a single one of their students making it to the quarterfinals.”

“At this point, I think they’re just hoping that Drew doesn’t win,” Mark said from a corner. “Sylph was right though. His magic is weird. I don’t fancy being the one that has to face him.”

Damien voiced his agreement. He turned his chair around to get a look at the stage. Surprisingly, instead of making it even more complex, Kingsfront had reverted to a flat arena. It was the largest one yet, but they evidently didn’t want anyone running around or hiding during the final rounds of the tournament.

Viv and the other Goldsilk students had retreated to the far corner of the room and were talking in hushed whispers. Damien felt a pang of sympathy for them when he recalled Elania’s brutal defeat at the hands of Bartholomew.

The announcer began his speech to rile up the crowd, but Damien tuned him out. There was only one thing on his mind. Out of all the remaining students, Bartholomew and Drew included, the person he wanted to fight the most was Priscilla. Within his mind, Henry growled in agreement.

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