Unlasting World

"Here it is, here it is!! The one thing that will decide our rankings!"

Jericho said cheerfully as we approached the wall paper in the lobby of the class building. There seem to be quite a few people here, and we will have to barge into the crowd in order to see the wall paper.

Right now, I'm with her and Manda, and we just heard some rather interesting news.

The first day of the battle arena of the semester will arrive tomorrow, and they released the schedules for the battles on the wall magazine located on the first floor of the class buildings just today. 

A lot of students seemed to be reading it and crowding up next to the wall magazine, so I won't bother approaching it too close. Instead, I enchanted my eyes and looked at the wall paper from far away since I'm capable of doing that.

The listings for the battles are pretty much randomized, which means every single student in the academy were randomly chosen to fight at a certain time and the enemies they will fight shall also be randomized.

To make the tournament simple, they made it into two large groups, and they split between generations so that first years won't have to fight the third years.

In our first year alone, group A has 64 contestants and group B has 61. Not sure why the number was one sided, but we shall see how it will turn.

"Hmm, let's see... For tomorrow's battle, Manda from group A, Alden, Bonzie, Maneil, and Elmone from group B. Me and Jericho will go on the second day, and we are also group B."

I explained to them, and they quickly became surprised as to how I could see from this far away.

"If you enchant your eyes, you can see everything from far away."

Jericho whistled after hearing that trick, and she tried it for herself. Her vision was zoomed in rather intensely.

"Oh... That's neat!! Now I can peek on... -Ekhem!"

Jericho quickly coughed before she finished her sentence. It does sound like she had some bad intentions going on in her head, but me and Manda simply ignored her. This thing is way more interesting than her cheeky thirsty intentions.

Looks like most of the students from class E are in group B. Manda is the only one I found in group A, so far.

The first and the second day will be the first stage of elimination round, and the third day will be the second stage of eliminations. There were so many students, that the first stage of the elimination round had to take two entire days to remove the students.

The fourth day is the round of 16, and the fifth day is the semi-finals of each group. And then next week on Monday will be the finals of each group. Finally on Wednesday is the champions battle, where the champions from each group will battle one another on a single large arena, to prove who is the strongest among that generation.

Which means this is going to be quite a long tournament. After all, the school is the one holding this, not the student council.

I continued on reading the list on the board and found myself and Jericho on group B, while some others were in group A.

I kept on reading, and it looks like... 

He is in group A.

Which means if things go well, the two of us will face each other in the champion arena, at the very final battle. 

A grin formed on my face as I thought about how interesting this situation is. Someone definitely planned this out, to make sure me and him are not in the same group.

Well… whatever.

Interesting… 

Don't let me down, Arfius!

After reading the list, the three of us then headed to the canteen to grab something to eat. We talked about what kind of strategy we will use as we eat, as well as various other things.

Jericho said she won't be using her full strength unless she has to, because her opponents in the future might learn her abilities. I agreed with her and told her that I will be using only my physical skills until the finals.

Manda said she will be going all out from the beginning, because she doesn't like being limited during a fight.

Me and Jericho chuckled hearing her answer. In the end, it is all preferences.

The next day, the battle arena event is in motion.

It is held in the gymnasium and the back court, where the gymnasium is for group A and the back court is for group B.

One by one, the list goes down and the students battle one another. Elmone was the first from class E to battle, and he won pretty easily after fighting a class C student. And then Manda at group A, who somehow won the one sided battle by nearly going all out. Maneil, too, defeated her opponent by simply shooting an extremely powerful and unavoidable water bullet.

In group B, Alden and Bonzie are also doing pretty good. They managed to beat their opponents pretty easily.

On the first day, none of the class E students got wiped away. Everyone moved to the second stage, which was already a great victory for us. But, I know very well that being wiped out is merely luck-based.

The first day went well. And now for the second day.

"Good luck Jericho!"

"Learn to hold back, Jericho!!"

The class E students cheered for Jericho, but I know she doesn't need it. She can win pretty easily.

Her opponent is a member from class B who is known to place the middle ranks on his class, so this should be easy for her.

Let's see just how far you will be holding back, Jericho.

"Begin!!"

Her opponent from class B quickly casted a powerful fire magic, and a five meters fire blaze quickly made its way towards Jericho and ate her full.

Seeing our friend getting eaten by flames like that normally would make us panic. But, this is Jericho we are talking about.

While the flames were bursting out from her opponent's hand, she calmly took a deep breath and released the wind force from her palms. The wind ball grew bigger and bigger until it destroyed the fire blaze completely from the inside.

That's Knight tier wind magic for you… it is simply too powerful.

"W-Wha-"

BAKK!!

Jericho closed the distance in less than a second and smacked the guy's face at high speed, throwing him out of the arena in an instant.

"Winner, Jericho from class E!"

The referee announced as Jericho calmly left the arena and approached me at the side.

"Wow... That was overkill."

"Did I do too much? I could have dodged that fire, but I'm too lazy to move in the beginning."

"No, you did the right thing. I was talking about the punch."

"Oh... Well, he was ugly."

The two of us chuckled as the others slowly approached us and congratulated Jericho. Some even called her scary, and Jericho shot them with a fearsome glare.

Well, they aren't wrong.

"Next! Rize Violet from class E! Against...-"

The referee called me to the arena and I quickly bade farewell with the others. This shouldn't take long.

"Oh dear."

The person standing in front of me is Jericho's boyfriend. Or at least, someone she stripped naked and hung in the air a few months back with me. That person is Bejmin.

"Oh, it's you?"

I said to him, and he immediately bowed in front of me. Looks like he remembered me.

"P-Please go easy on me!"

"... If you want, you can give up."

"Then I'll give up!"

And just like that, I have my first win.