Nine days had passed since the magicademic year had begun, and the selection process for the Combat Contest had arrived. Despite having just been finalized by the Student Council a week prior, the executive wing of the magicademy aggressively worked to make the preparations for the selection competition.

The means that they had settled for was an elimination tournament that would filter out the best combatants among the students in the magicademy in both years.

The air in the magicademy was charged and electric with anticipation.

The students were only more excited than they had been at the start of the year, knowing that the selection process had finally begun.

CLACK

Cæ locked the door behind him as he headed towards the competition venue. The crowd of students in and about the corridors began parting as he made his way through, and the senior students began directing eyes of anticipation towards him.

Everybody expected that he would at least be one of the more dominant challengers for the spot of representative in the Combat Contest. This was despite the fact that he was well known to have only learned magic a year ago, making him one of the strongest favorites.

He departed from his dormitory as the bright light of the morning Sun illuminated the entire campus, and a cool breeze brushed past him. The selection tournament had been scheduled for a holiday for the students, ensuring that they had plenty of time to decide who would be representing the magicademy without impeding their academics.

"Cæ!" Natana and Kelton were waiting for him on the way. "You're here! We came to cheer you on!"

Yet, they could feel the state of mind he was in as he drew closer.

His stormy eyes were steely with focus.

His body language was intense.

It made him even more intimidating than normal, as it made his features come across as scarier than they normally were, even when he was simply calm and composed. He had already donned the athletic attire of the magicademy for the competition from the get-go, ready to participate immediately.

He simply nodded at them with quiet acknowledgment before continuing on to the venue.

"Woah…" Kelton murmured under his breath. "That's heavy. He's impossible to talk to."

"He's so focused and immersed in the selection tournament," Natana realized as she watched him walking towards the venue holding the facility. "He might actually win it."

"Hmmm… I love Cæ and all, but…" Kelton shook his head. "It's not happening. Nobody in this magicademy can beat Virlyd."

"You think so?" Natana raised an eyebrow at him before her gaze returned to Cæ. "I feel like nobody can beat Cæ as he is now. He's so cool!"

"He is," Kelton admitted. "But Virlyd is even cooler. He's just the strongest guy around because of how long he's been fighting and practicing magic. Well, we'll see what'll happen this time. Let's go. I don't want to be left behind."

The two of them excitedly followed Cæ as he headed to the venue.

Cæ, on the other hand, remained entirely focused, avoiding all distraction.

Magic came from the mind, and that meant that it was subject to the flaws of the mind. Getting distracted could be fatal and weaken his magic in this contest. That was why he avoided engaging with any stimulus that could distract him and weaken his magic.

The closer he got, the harder this was to do.

The students who converged upon the combat facility that served as the venue for all the battles all threw pointed gazes at him, making it more difficult for him to entirely focus on himself.

Many of them simply had come to spectate, hoping for a variety of good battles and some good entertainment. The participants also converged upon the combat facility, having donned the athletic uniform as he had. They, too, directed pointed eyes at him with a hint of dismay, fear, and even a challenging fighting spirit.

Although Cæ was regarded as one of the best participants, the fact of the matter was that nobody had seen him fight against a senior student before. Most of his claim for being extremely good at fighting came from the fact that he had participated in the security teams of the Elendir Institute of Magic, had partaken in the Slum Wars, and had apparently done well.

He had also defeated Silian Sylvester in the final exam a few months ago in the Apprentice Program.

However, neither of those things directly meant that he would necessarily do well against the best of students in the Senior Program, since there wasn't any direct comparison. This had given some of the participants hope that they would be able to overcome him and that all the hype surrounding him was merely hot air.

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STEP

He arrived at the combat facility as the incessant noise of arriving spectators gossiping with each other echoed through the air across the massive facility that stretched a large distance.

There were dozens of larger combat arenas than what was normally used in training and practice that were spread across the entire facility, while a massive spectator stand occupied the surroundings, hosting much of the student body.

The anticipation that weighed down on the atmosphere was so dense that one could almost cut it with a knife. The students of both the Apprentice and Senior Programs were charged with excitement and alacrity, eager to get to the event already. They loudly gossiped and conversed with their friends, discussing the event and the participants involved.

"I'm betting on Virlyd!"

"Nahhh! Sierra is definitely going to bag the win!"

"My money's on Silian; he may be seventeen years old, but he's a prodigious genius at magic. He has the most potential out of everybody here!"

"Hah, you're tripping if you think potential equals power. I don't deny the kid is good and will eventually become the strongest in this magicademy, but there's still a year or two for that to happen. For now… It's Virlyd who is top dog!"

"What about Mirosi Margud? If I remember correctly, he is a noble from the Vrannouan Kingdom. He is supposed to be super strong."

"He's pretty good too, but I was most in support of President Mileila personally. She's the best!"

"Unfortunately, she's not participating in the combat contest. I heard that she's participating in the artificing contest."

"It makes sense, even though she's strong in combat thanks to her family's metal magic, she did choose to specialize in artificing."

"You guys are all wrong. The one to win will be none other than him."

"Ah… you must mean Cæ. The upstart who learned magic just a year ago is a combat genius. But… he's quite old. I feel like he has more limits."

"Maybe in the future, but for now, he is one of the strongest!"

"We don't actually know that. There is a lot of hype, but I want to see how well he fares in this competition."

Students turned into analysts who began dissecting each of the favorites of the selection competition in detail, carefully going over everything they had to work with, while participants gathered in the center of the facility as time ticked away for the start of the event.

Students continued pouring in as they began taking their places across the wide facility. The combat arenas at the very center of the facility shuddered as the enchantments that they had been enchanted began to show, as massive magic circles began appearing across the entirety of each arena.

These enchantments had effects that protected the audience from the magic of the participants to ensure that they didn't get hurt, as well as had emergency healing magic to tend to critical injuries.

Soon enough, the time had arrived.

"Please be seated and remain silent," the announcer addressed the student body, who promptly turned their attention to the event that was finally beginning.

"We will soon commence the Combat Contest Selection Tournament," she continued. "Before we begin, we will revisit the rules of the tournament once more. First, the tournament is an elimination-style tournament with three duels per round between two contestants. Victory will be attained with resignation, incapacitation, knock-out, or ring-out. All equipment and weapons will be provided by the magicademy. Match-ups will initially be decided by numbered balls. And the structure of the tournament will be decided by the number of participants. In this case…"

She turned to the gathered participants.

"We have one hundred and twelve participants at the closure of entry."

The one hundred and twelve of them were gathered at the very center of the magicademy.

At the very front of them was none other than Vice President Virlyd himself, towering over the others like a giant boulder.

"Thus," the announcer continued. "We will have a tournament structure with seven different blocks, with five different rounds. The seven participants to emerge from the seven blocks will then face each other in a final round featuring all of them, where the final victor will be crowned the winner. However, please note that the final selection of the potential candidates will still be left to the discretion of the Student Council. The purpose of the tournament is not to finalize the outcome but to have a scrupulously meritocratic evaluation of all participants and isolate the most optimal candidates who will all undergo training over the span of the year."

This was to ensure that if two potential favorites met early on in the tournament, the eliminated favorite was not simply thrown out of consideration. It was possible that the second strongest participant would get disqualified very early on in the tournament.

That was why the student council decided not to make the outcome of the tournament absolute, but still extremely influential in their decision. The strongest would undoubtedly make it to the very end, and the tournament was a good and elaborate way to clearly identify the strongest among the entire student body.

"Then," the announcer upon the podium at the very end of the facility continued. "Let us begin with the placement process."

Immediately, several assistants walked towards the participants with several props and items for them, smoothly setting them up before the participants.

One of them was a tournament with the structure that had been announced with empty slots.

Another was a box filled with named slots for each participant.

Another was a giant bag woven out of a mana-conductive material containing one hundred and twelve numbered balls; on it were magic circles with encrypted runes that had enchanted anti-surveillance and anti-sensory effects.

"The contestants may form a line and pick out a ball at random," the announcer began. "The number on their ball will then determine which match-up they fall into in which block. Please commence the selection process."

One by one, participants formed a general line, heading up to the counter as they picked up numbered balls one after another from within the bag.

"Moren Milwen: number sixteen, block one."

"Naria Sorel: Number seventy-eight, block six."

"Miliar Koel: Number Ninety, block seven."

…

One by one, the participants began taking their numbered balls.

"Virlyd Mir: number four, block one."

All the participants in block one shivered as they realized that they would be the first to face the bona fide strongest student in the competition. From that point on, any student who got placed in the first block could be seen with a grim expression.

STEP

Cæ arrived at the giant bag as he reached into the hole, picking the first ball he reached and pulling it out.

[24]

"Cæ: number twenty-four, block two."

He glanced at the tournament chart, realizing that his opponent was already chosen; number twenty-three had been picked by a student.

[Cæ versus Callou Marthen]

"I guess we'll be going against each other in the first round." A friendly voice drew his attention from behind.

He turned to find himself gazing at a woman with short silver hair, just like him, and bright orange eyes.

"Pleasure to meet you," she remarked with a friendly smile. "And looking forward to a good fight."

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