"Stall him!" Jason commanded the other two representatives. "Don’t let him touch you! Just keep moving!"

"Rahhh! Take this!" Junior lunged toward Lance and swung his fist downward.

But just when his foot entered the radius of Lance’s tactically placed gravity-anchors, an artificial force field multiplied the gravity by tenfold, unexpectedly slamming Junior’s boot into the stone, cracking the ground beneath him.

It only delayed him for a second, but that moment was exactly what his opponents needed.

From his left, Yumi channeled a high-tier earth-and-water combination attack, conjuring a massive swirling pit of quicksand meant to stop his movements and sap his momentum.

["What a brilliant defensive pivot by the international students!"] Commentator Ken excitedly shouted.

["It seems their plan is to stall him, and it’s now become a race against their own survival."] Princess Faye analyzed, her gaze tracking her little brother’s subtly flickering aura.

"Such cheap tactics won’t work on me!" Junior easily escaped Yumi’s quicksand by effortlessly jumping out.

He emerged from the earth like a vengeful god and immediately locked onto Jason Campbell, who stood waiting with his double-sided sword held in a readied guard.

"Jason! You’re the one pulling the strings! So I’ll take you down first!" Junior shouted, driving forward with a thrust of concentrated holy energy.

Jason waited until the very last microsecond, and then, with a hypnotic spin of his blade, he utilized the dark half of his sword to slash a crescent moon attack that absorbed the kinetic force of Junior’s momentum, while his light magic flared to deflect the prince to the side.

VREEEEM—BOOM!

The golden light gouged a fifty-foot trench into the arena floor, missing Jason by just an inch.

Junior leapt out and prepared to swing again, but suddenly, the brilliant white-and-golden light connecting him to the divine sputtered, flickering on and off.

"H-Huh...? What’s going– G-Gah!"

In an instant, the glowing golden light in his eyes died out, returning them to their natural violet, and his hair snapped back to its light blue color. A wave of extreme exhaustion hit him like a physical freight train. His knees buckled and a pained grunt escaped his throat as he fell to one knee, panting heavily with his hands trembling against the stone.

"No... not yet... It hasn’t even been five minutes yet... damn it, just a little more...!"

["LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THE PRINCE HAS RUN OUT OF STEAM!"] Commentator Ken roared to the stadium. ["The divine power has evaporated! Prince Maxwell Junior has transformed back to normal!"]

"Now, Jason!" Nichole screamed from the Riverton sidelines. "Take him down!"

"Loud and clear, Captain."

Not hesitating for a single moment, Jason transformed into a streak of black-and-white lightning. He closed the distance instantly and spun his double-sided sword in a lethal arc.

"N-NO!" Junior, driven by desperation, forced himself back onto his feet. He clapped his hands together and tried to summon an icy defensive wall, but his core was completely spent. The ice wall was hollow and brittle.

SHATTER!

Jason easily shattered the ice into millions of sparkling shards with a single, devastating slash. The impact cut directly into Junior’s chest, sending the prince flying backward across the arena.

Before Junior could even recover his footing, Jason materialized in his blindspot, delivering another slash across his back, followed by a sweep of his legs.

Junior hit the ground hard, his breath exploding from his lungs as landed face first. The second he turned around; he was met with a blade to his throat that he could do absolutely nothing against.

["ELIMINATION!"] Commentator Ken screamed, sending a massive shockwave of pure shock through the entire stadium. ["I cannot believe my eyes! The Crown Prince of Eldoria, Maxwell Dorothy Junior, is the first in this fatal four way to be eliminated from Match Nine!"]

The southern stands went deathly silent.

The home crowd was completely paralyzed by the sight of their prince lying down, unable to stand.

On the field, Lance let out an ecstatic laugh, leaning on his broken bow as he wiped the sweat from his face.

"Oh, thank the Goddess above! That monster is down! We actually survived!"

Yumi let out a soft sigh of relief, dropping her guard for a brief second to catch her breath.

But Jason didn’t share the sentimentality.

"You two haven’t forgotten where we are, have you?" Jason asked in a tone devoid of any pity. "This is still a fatal four-way. And you are my enemies."

Before Yumi could even process his words, Jason burst forward. The Myrian sorcerer, already completely drained from fighting Junior, could barely raise her hands before Jason’s blade swept through her defense, striking and sending her flying out the arena and crashing onto the protective barrier.

["K.O! YUMI YUMI IS OUT!"] Faye announced, trying to keep her commentary professional despite the lump in her throat. ["Jason Campbell is moving like a reaper out there!"]

"Wait, wait, wait, Campbell, let’s–"

Lance desperately tried to pull a back-up small crossbow from his thigh holster, firing a frantic stream of iron bolted arrows, but Jason was entirely out of his league.

He effortlessly dodged the incoming projectiles with minor tilts of his head, closed the distance in a blur, and delivered a swift, crushing strike with the flat of his blade to Lance’s chin, followed by a powerful gut check and an upwards kick to his chin again that propelled the Tricean right out of the arena.

""""YEEAAAHHHHH!!!""""

["AND THAT IS THE MATCH!"] Commentator Ken shouted as the Riverton stands erupted into a madhouse of cheers and flying confetti.

["The winner of Match Nine – Jason Campbell of Riverton!"]

"""RIVERTON!! RIVERTON!!"""

The moment Jason crossed over back to his fellow representatives, Nichole completely lost her mind. While laughing hysterically, she leaped over the bench and jumped right onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"I knew you could do it, you split-haired bastard! You fucking crushed them!"

The rest of the Riverton representatives swarmed and hoisted him onto their shoulders, cheering and slamming their fists against his armor in a roaring celebration of their massive victory over the host nation’s prince.

Meanwhile, on the southern side of the arena, a deeply somber scene was unfolding.

Junior laid on a white medical stretcher with a body that was completely limp. A team of church healers in white robes hurried alongside the stretcher, administering basic soothing magic to stabilize his mana veins as they wheeled him toward the dark stadium tunnel.

Once out of sight, he raised a trembling, heavily bruised forearm, covering his eyes completely as tears of shame and frustration leaked down his cheeks.

"Damn it... *Sob* Even though... even though I trained so hard... so that I’ll never lose again... So that I could protect Kiana... I still lost. I couldn’t do anything... I’m so... useless!"

Up in the broadcasting booth, Commentator Ken let out a deeply sympathetic sigh, ["An incredibly heartbreaking loss for the local fans here today. Both the prince and the princess of Eldoria had lost their respective matches. Princess Faye... as their eldest sister, what are your thoughts on this outcome?"]

Faye sat rigidly in her seat with her golden eyes fixed on the empty tunnel. She leaned into her microphone, her voice carrying a powerful resonant tone.

["On a true battlefield, Ken... your title, your lineage, and your royal blood do not matter. The dirt does not care who your father is, as we have clearly seen here today. The world is an incredibly big place, filled with hidden monsters and relentless warriors...

["As their older sister, I sincerely hope my siblings take today’s pain not as a defeat, but as a harsh lesson and a powerful motivator moving forward. Use the lessons this tournament brought to them to better themselves and grow even stronger than before."]

["Well spoken, Your Highness,"] Ken agreed solemnly, nodding his head.

He then checked his glowing ledger and his face instantly shifted back into his classic showman’s smile as he looked out over the stadium.

["And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the final event of Day 1! No randomization shuffle is needed for this one, folks! Will the final representatives of the day please enter the stage!"]

The massive holographic projection screens shifted, displaying the profiles of the last four combatants who had yet to taste the dirt of the arena.

Match 10: Amber Strongwill (Eldoria) vs. Rin (Myria) vs. Loen Finlay (Tricea) vs. Drew (Riverton).

Down at the Eldorian bench, Amber stood up and stretched her arms above her head with a bright grin. Her bubbly personality seemed completely unaffected by the heavy tension hanging over the home crowd.

"Well, it’s finally my turn! Jeez, I can’t believe they saved me for the last match. My legs were starting to go numb from sitting so long!"

Victor, sitting with a thick ice pack taped to his bruised ribs, offered her a tired but genuine smile. "Good luck out there, President Amber."

Zack pulled his black scarf down slightly, nodding. "Yeah, don’t overextend. Good luck."

Lily Mathers and Summer Wingard waved gently, ""We’ll be cheering for you, Amber!""

"Mess them up good, Prez!" Autumn pumped her fist upwards.

"Thanks, guys!" Amber beamed, adjusting the collar of her white uniform.

Then she slowly turned her head toward the front of the bench where Emelie stood. Amber pouted playfully and nudged her shoulder. "Hey, Emelie~ aren’t you going to wish me good luck too?"

"No need." Emelie stated with a small, knowing smirk tugging at the corner of her lips. "You’re going to win anyway."

"Hehe, I’ll take what I can get from you!"

With a bouncy, energetic stride, Amber marched out and stepped onto the wide stone pit.

Looking over the crowd, her grin widened as she spotted a few lively people who found their voice amidst the somber of the last match.

"Go get ’em, Amber! We’re rooting for you!" Sadie cheered while jumping up and down.

Beside her, Hope was cupping her tiny hands around her mouth as she squealed, "Go, Amber, go!"

Amber waved back at the girls enthusiastically. Her eyes then shifted slightly to the left, locking directly with Kurt.

Kurt simply offered her a cool nod of approval, wishing her good luck.

Amber’s smile turned distinctly mischievous. She raised a gloved hand to her eye and gave him a deliberately playful wink.

"... Huh? Did she wink at me?" A random person in the crowd asked.

"... Pretty sure it was for me."

"... Who the hell are you!? It was obviously for me!"

"... NO, ME!"

"... ME!"

"... ME!"

Crack

"Ow–!"

Suddenly, without warning, Kurt felt a bone-crushing grip clamping down onto his left hand.

He turned his head slowly to his left. Sitting right beside him, Diana was staring blankly at him – as if to look into his very soul.

"Rosie? What, pray tell, was that about?"

".... What was what about, Chief?"

"She winked at you," Diana stated, her voice entirely flat and her grip on his hand tightening even more. "Specifically. At you."

"Oh that? Psshh, come on, Diana. She wasn’t winking at me. She was winking at the sad people in the crowd. Probably to cheer them up. Which it did. Her winking specifically at me wouldn’t make a lick of sense. But never mind that—look, the final match is about to start, let’s watch."

Diana kept her eyes on him for a silent three seconds, thoroughly eyeing his relaxed profile. Slowly, the terrifying pressure evaporated from her demeanour, and a satisfied smile graced her lips as she released her tightened grip on his hand. "Very well. Let us watch."

From the seat next to her, Kurt glanced over only to see Christy trembling as she desperately tried to suppress an amused snicker at his expense. Her blue eyes gleamed with a mischievous mockery, at which he simply rolled his eye over and ignored.

High up above, the massive crimson numbers materialised in the sky one final time as the countdown for the final clash of the day began to pulse.