Chapter 55: Lucky Bastard The arena of the Lunar Academy was filled with the little students they had. This tournament would decide the remaining eleven spots for the competition. Grey hadn’t battled with anyone from the Academy except for Alice, Reynolds, and Klaus. He was quite expectant towards the students of the Academy, he knew almost all the students of the Academy were talented due to the strict rules of the Academy. Within the first month of entering the Academy, all new students were required to break through to the Collection Plane, or they would face expulsion. All new students were also required to break through to the Arcane Plane within three years. The rules for other Academies were less rigid, but it didn’t change the fact that the other Academies also had talented individuals. The Starlight isn’t the publicly acclaimed number one for nothing, they had won the previous two competitions comfortably. But this time, the Lunar Academy seems to have more geniuses compared to the previous times. During the last competition, the Starlight Academy had three people in the top ten. That was the highest number of students a single Academy had in the top ten in the history of the competition. The Lunar Academy grabbed two spots in the previous competition with both students being in the top seven, one was placed second while the other was seventh. The Academy aims for the top spot, but the Starlight Academy wouldn’t be that easy to defeat. Grey and his friends came to the arena, Alice also came to watch to support her friends who were participating. She would love it if they all could participate in the competition, so she came to cheer them up. When Grey and his friends went to register, they were each given plaques with numbers on them. Since they registered at the same time, their numbers were close. Grey’s plaque had the number fifty-five, while Klaus had fifty-four, Reynolds had fifty-six. The number of students registering was still increasing. Soon an instructor came to the platform, all the students ceased their conversations on seeing the instructor on stage. “The registration has ended, now each student who registered for the tournament should come towards the platform,” The instructor said in a clear and resonant voice. All the participating students got up from their seats and walked towards the platform. “One hundred and seven students are participating. The tournament would last for ten days, with twenty battles taking place each day” The instructor said. “One student will be exempted from this first round since we can only have fifty-three battles in the first round. The student who has plaque number one will battle the student with plaque number one hundred and seven, number two would battle number one hundred and six and so on” The instructor continued. “The student with the plaque number fifty-four would advance automatically into the next round. After this round is finished, those who advanced will get new plaque numbers” The students all knew their numbers, some of them started searching for who their potential opponents were. When Klaus heard the student with the plaque number fifty-four advanced automatically, he was over the moon with joy. Reynolds looked at him with envy, even Grey couldn’t help but click his tongue at his luck. Grey was supposed to be the first one to register, but Klaus jumped in front of him and therefore collected the lucky number as it seems. The instructor ordered them all to step down from the platform, there were four platforms in the arena altogether and battles would take place on each of them simultaneously. The students with plaque numbers one to four and plaque numbers one hundred and seven to one hundred and four all stood opposite their opponents on the platforms. “Remember to give up once you feel you can’t deal with the attack of your opponent. This is not a life and death battle so there is no need to endure till your last breath, although we encourage your courage, it doesn’t mean you should get yourself killed” “Once you see your opponent can no longer fight back, you are not allowed to continue attacking. After your opponent admits defeat, you are not allowed to attack them” “Are we clear?” The instructor asked after telling them the rules. “Yes” The fighters answered together. “Alright, begin” The instructor nodded his head before leaving the platform and going to the side. He would step in immediately any of the students is in danger. Instructors were also assigned to the other three platforms, after they were all ready, the battles commenced. Grey and his friends decided to stay and watch the battles, there would be twenty battles today, and they weren’t among the fighters. Watching the battles of others was a good way to also learn. The students who weren’t participating in the tournament because of their low levels were all watching the battles with interest. They were all excited at the thought of the battles since they all enjoyed watching battles. There would be five sets of battles taking place today on all four platforms which would make a total of twenty battles for the day. They sat till the third set of battles before Grey decided to leave, since he wouldn’t be participating in any of the battles for today, he wanted to train. He first headed over to meet with Chris, he practiced for two hours before heading to his house to continue his training. They watched the battles on the second day as well but didn’t stay till the end. Klaus was more carefree among them since he didn’t have to battle in this round. The next day, Grey and his friends came to the arena early. He still didn’t know his opponent and didn’t really care, whoever stood in his way, he would storm past them. There were only thirteen battles left for this round to come to a close and Grey’s battle was the last battle. Reynolds would be battling before Grey did. He would be part of the third set to battle today, Grey and his opponent would be the only ones in the fourth set. “Do you know who you’re fighting?” asked Reynolds. Grey shook his head, “I don’t, how about you, do you know who you’re fighting?”. “Hehehe, I’m quite lucky, my opponent is Larry from the Fire Hall. He’s at the Sixth stage of the Arcane Plane, so I shouldn’t have a problem defeating him” Reynolds scratched his head before answering. Although he said this, he knew he shouldn’t underestimate his opponent. When he was in the Sixth stage, he didn’t have a problem with battling those at the Seventh stage. Even if he couldn’t beat them, he wasn’t totally helpless against them. Grey nodded when he heard this. Getting to battle someone at the Sixth stage wasn’t challenging for him. He didn’t believe anyone in a lower stage than he was could defeat him. Yes, he was that confident. “Don’t dare return here if you don’t advance to the next round. I mean look at me, I’ve already advanced. I am too awesome that my opponent had to admit defeat even before seeing me” Klaus said shamelessly. “Yes, I agree with him” Alice added. Grey and Reynolds glared at Klaus. “Lucky bastard,” They said simultaneously. “Hehehe, you don’t have to feel bad, as long as you decide to follow me for the rest of your lives, I could allow you to rub off some of my awesomeness. If you guys were awesome just by a little bit, you wouldn’t have a problem getting a girlfriend” Klaus laughed loudly. Alice also joined in the laughing when she heard this. If looks could kill, then Klaus would have already died ten times by now with the way Grey and Reynolds were glaring at him. While they were bantering, it soon got to Reynolds turn to head towards the platform. After this set of battles, it would be Grey’s turn. “Make sure to win,” Alice said. “Of course, I can’t bring shame to our group right?” Reynolds asked with a smile as he walked confidently towards the platform. Both fighters on the platform majored in the offensive, their elements were focused mainly on attacking, so it was going to be an interesting battle. The battles soon started and Reynolds charged towards his opponent before sending an orb made of lightning towards his opponent. When the orb got within ten feet of his opponent, it immediately exploded and sent lightning towards him. On seeing the attack, Larry didn’t panic and used a sea of flames to block out the attack. He knew there was no way he could match up to Reynolds in terms of speed, so he had to keep a cool head and defended calmly. The battle went on for some time and Reynolds couldn’t find a chance to deal a strong attack on Larry, he didn’t rush and took his time. He knew just like how he was searching for an opportunity, his opponent was also doing the same. Their battle was the most intense one among all the battles which were taking place. It was as spectacular as it was colorful due to the series of attacks from both fighters. “Larry is cool-headed, if he were to be in the same stage as Reynolds, he would have won already,” said Klaus. “You’re not totally right, you should know Reynolds by now,” Grey said. If Reynolds failed to defeat his opponent with his first flurry of attacks, he would immediately change his strategy to something better suited for his opponent. While they were still talking Larry suddenly screamed in pain before collapsing on the floor, shaking violently. The crowd was surprised by the sudden change, they were all enjoying the battle and Larry suddenly screamed and collapsed. Reynolds immediately stopped his attack, he smiled and walked out of the platform. Others might not know what happened, but he knew. Over the course of his flurry of attacks, he was carefully leaving behind little lightning elements on the air in the platform, if his opponent focused intently they might be able to sense the disturbance in the surrounding elements. But due to the high intensity of their fight, Larry didn’t notice it. The elements attached themselves to Larry, after it got to the required amount where it could totally incapacitate his opponent without killing him, he activated them. “Reynolds win” The instructor announced the result. Reynolds walked towards his friends confidently. “How was it?” He asked. “Not bad, your strategy was amazing, even I wouldn’t notice it,” Grey said, he was stunned by the attack his friend used. Although it took time, it was very effective. They all laughed before the instructor called out the last battle. “Next up, plaque number fifty-three and fifty-five” “They’re calling me, I’ll be back soon” Grey stood up and calmly headed towards the platform with calm and confident footsteps. “Good luck,” Klaus said. “Yeah, luck” a little smile formed on his face.