Death Mage with an SS-Rank Talent-Chapter 159

The matches continued, one after another. Sometimes they were boring, sometimes they were flashy and sometimes, not many would understand how the match ended so quickly.

There were all types of students present, and Aaron came to feel that his decision about staying low-key when unnecessary was the right move. There are many ways that one can surprise you, even when it appears as if the situation is under your control.

It was exactly what happened in one of the matches, which opened many students’ eyes.

One of the students from Valiant Academy was matched with a student from a small academy, which was ranked in the last ten of the top hundred. The student didn’t think much about the match. He believed that the match was his, and there was no reason to worry.

It should have been, but something else happened which surprised many, but to the old timers, that wasn’t surprising at all, as they had seen scenes like that many times.

The student from the Valiant Academy wanted to vent some frustration and relieve pressure that his compatriots were feeling, but that backfired.

Instead of eliminating the opponent quickly, he prolonged the battle, which was a mistake that everyone cautions against. No one would estimate what would happen next second. So, it was never a good thing to prolong a battle if you could eliminate your opponent.

If one were on the losing side and had to defend to wait for reinforcements or see if, by chance of any opening appearing, then prolonging may be good but when you are about to win, prolonging means you are giving the opponent a chance at defeating you, which was what happeend to the Valiant Academy student.

The losing student found a small gap, which was only possible due to the prolonged battle, and he made use of it. He won the match, and now his academy, which was on the verge of elimination from the tournament, was able to stay a while longer.

Though it is a shallow win, which only saves his academy for this round, and can lose in the next round, it didn’t matter to him or to the academy. With this, they can improve their ranks and that means they can recruit better ranks than before.

---

The day ended, but more than a hundred matches were held. All two hundred and twenty-five participated, well, not all, except for the one who got a bye. Number 87 got a free pass to the next round.

With one hundred and twelve matches held on the day, round one of Stage Two ended. There are too many matches held, even when it is dark. The stadium was illuminated with lights, and the matches continued till all matches were held.

"Okay, everyone, it is dark, and everyone wants to return to their homes. So, I will keep this brief. Round one has ended, and the winners of this round will participate in Round Two, which will be held the day after tomorrow. That’s all, thank you for attending the tournament", the coordinator ended his speech in a few words.

Afterwards, everyone left the stadium for their places.

---

While returning, the Dusk Academy were happy, while Valiant and Mirth were not so.

Valiant now has only two students, while Mirth has only one who proceeded to Round two of Stage Two. Valiant should have one more, but because of the idiot’s stupidity, he lost the match, and that cost the academy a lot.

The staff were fuming over the match. If they had lost to a superior student, then it would have been acceptable, but he lost a match that should have been a win for the academy. It was not just a match, but his performance is also evaluated, which determines how many points the academy gets when they lose a match.

Now, because of how the student performed, the points allocated would be less, which was why the staff were angry. It was not just that, but they were also afraid of the headmaster, who might punish them along with the students if the remaining two don’t perform well in the next rounds.

At least one has to make it to Stage Three for them to be outside of the Headmaster’s Wrath.

Though they wanted to vent their anger on that bastard who might have cost a lot to the academy, they are still staff of a higher academy. They couldn’t do anything in public. So, they suppressed everything inside them.

They said nothing during the matches, nothing during their return to the hotel and nothing during the dinner, where others were present.

The rivalry between Valiant and Dusk Academies was known to many and now Dusk Academy has all five stiil in the game while Valiant has only two. This is a huge slap for them and they didn’t want to lose any more face.

The wrath of the staff came down on the bastard after dinner, where privacy is guaranteed. No one would know about it.

---

After dinner, the whole team was assembled in Lyanna’s and Aaron’s suite.

"I believe everyone saw and observed many things from the matches. Remember that there is always sky above the sky. So, you need to improve yourselves every day. Now, about Round Two, there are only 113 students present. It means 56 matches would be held, and one would get a free pass".

"Out of these 113 students, we alone occupy five numbers, and so do two more academies, Capital and Military Academy. It was not surprising that they did. There are four more students from Luminar Academy. These fourteen are our main competitors, unless we are unlucky, where we have to fight each other".

"Even though those fourteen were the only ones we needed to look out for, you saw what happened today and what happened in the previous stage, so don’t look down on anyone. Now go and take a rest. You need to be in perfect shape for Round Two. If we want to take a higher rank, you all need to be in the best shape", Lyanna advised them once more and sent them out.