I was entering a state where my sole existence revolved around winning the fight. I was more like a machine rather than a person. No distractions, no emotions, no thought unrelated to the task at hand. I was a man on a mission.
Without thinking, strings manifested by magic erupted from my fingertips. I manipulated my strings to tightly wrap around the opponent's sword, effectively stopping it in its path and preserving my life. The sudden appearance of my strings shocked everyone watching some members in the VIP section.
My opponent was an experienced fighter. Although the sudden appearance of my strings had taken him by surprise, he had recovered very quickly. Immediately following his failed attack, he swung at me again with his other sword. However, this time I was prepared for his attack. I successfully dodged his sword by a length of a hair and launched a counterattack for the first time this fight.
I flung my arm sideways, carrying a streak of sharp strings behind it. The strings flew in the direction of my opponent, cutting his chest. The cuts on his chest looked as if a bear had clawed it instead. It was a very effective attack. I attempted to follow my attack by swinging with the strings attached to my left hand, but my opponent managed to dodge it. However, that wasn't the end of my attack just yet. When I attacked with my left arm, my right arm had not been at rest. Moving my fingers rapidly in several directions, I fluently wrapped my opponent's right leg with my strings.
My opponent's balance was destroyed from the sudden tug on his leg from me pulling the string towards me. In that moment of weakness, I elbowed his face with the entire force of my body. A loud crack sound echoed across the stadium. My opponent stumbled backward several times before blood started spilling from his mouth.
The fight had taken a massive turn. In just a single exchange, I had flipped the tides of battle. My opponent was clutching his mouth from several footsteps away from me. I could feel the madness that was taking over him. From the small slits over his eyes, I could see that his eyes were now dyed scarlet red with pure, uncontrolled rage.
I didn't let this "peaceful" moment to waste. During the time it took for the madness in my opponent to take over. I spread my strings all around me, creating an invisible fortress. I was the spider, and my opponent was the fly that was about to walk right into my webbing. The strings connected to the ground, the walls, and any solid surface it could find. Although they might seem harmless now, with a slight clench of my hand, any one of them could spell your doom.
My opponent's madness had now fully taken over himself. He slowly lowered his body with all four limbs on the ground before launching off the ground like a rocket.
I used my opponent's force against him. Before he launched towards me, I tightened all the strings around me by clenching both my hands into a fist. When he crashed into the now tightened strings, the combination of his inhuman momentum and the sharpness of my strings cut his body into several chunks, killing him immediately.
Even without waiting for the announcement of my victory, I walked back to the stands, next to Vesemir, whose eyes were tearing up and collapsed from sheer exhaustion.
[Anonymous Perspective]
"That boy. What was his name again?" said a woman with an intoxicating voice, wearing a scarlet red dress and held a golden mandarin fan with several mythical creatures drawn on it.
"Gideon, I believe." replied a hoarse, elderly voice belonging to an old man standing behind the woman dressed in a butler's attire.
A man with an obscured face and with an artificial voice, "Is he from an assassin bloodline?"
"No, he isn't. The school record says that he is an orphan. Additionally, he doesn't share enough physical traits to suggest that he is related to any of the known assassin families." Replied a blondie dressed in formal business attire standing behind the man with an obscured face. Her clothes did little to hide her massive racks, which seemed like they could burst out at any moment.
The man replied, "Maria, keep an eye on him."
Maria, the secretary, standing behind the man, nodded, and the woman wearing the scarlet-colored dress gestured towards her butler to do the same.
[Gideon's Perspective]
That was the most mentally exhausting fight I have had so far. Vesemir recomposed himself from his earlier, uncharacteristic burst in emotions.
I felt too tired to spectate the remaining matches, so I ended up napping during the many fights that followed mine.
Not long after, and now it was time for Vesemir to enter the ring once more.
[Gideon's Perspective]
Even now, I still felt embarrassed from my emotional outbreak from earlier. I don't know what got into me. I've always been a stoic person but seeing how close Gideon brushed against death triggered something. An emotion that is foreign to me (Author: Not love).
I pulled myself out of those irrelevant thoughts; I had to focus on winning this current duel.
I looked across the ring to see my opponent entering the ring. At first glance, they didn't come off as anything special. I would say that they looked average. However, since they have managed to get his far into this tournament, they had something hidden up their sleeve.
The announcer quickly announced the start of the fight, and I proceeded to hurl a small fireball towards my opponent to see their reaction.
Probably understanding the intention of my attack, my opponent purposely showed as little as possible of their actual ability by purely using their physique to dodge my attack.
Unwilling to concede, I hurled a few more fireballs towards them and discretely added a different attack in the mix.
My opponent showed minimal difficulty dodging the attacks. Judging from their movements so far, they were by no means an evasion expert. But, they were skilled enough to be able to dodge my smaller fireballs confidently.
This exchange of me hurling fireballs and my opponent dodging them was broken when the magic I secretly cast in the middle of throwing fireballs at them took effect. The magic ensnared my opponent's foot just when they were about to dodge one of my fireballs.
Since my opponent couldn't dodge the fireball as they had done with the others, they were forced to face it directly.
The fireball exploded from crashing against something solid, hopefully, the opponent's body. As the dust settled, I saw that my opponent was standing unscathed without having moved an inch. In front of them floated a large, transparent octagon that had a tint of green to it. The octagon possessed multiple unique symbols, which I knew not the meaning.
It came as a surprise that I would be fighting against a fellow magician this early in the tournament. Learning magic was a tedious and challenging task. Magic was one of those things where natural talent played a significant role. Not many of the first years were able to use magic in a combat scenario yet.
I stared my opponent down, waiting to see what they would do next. Meanwhile, I started to prepare the new technique Gideon had inspired me to create.
The greenish magical circle in front of my opponent silently faded away. As it faded away, my opponent started to murmur several incomprehensible words while rapidly shifting their hands into different symbols. That was my cue to start.
I ran towards my opponent, hoping to interrupt their incantation. Understanding my intention, my opponent started to skip backward while continuing to chant their magic. Unfortunately, I couldn't stop my opponent from successfully casting their spell.
