"Sorry, Kiko bro looks like this is my lucky day. Hehe," Marco said to Kiko, then laughed. He was meaning to say that Yman was good as finish in his hands.

Kiko knitted his brows. "Hah!" He sighed. "I wanted to be the one to finish that toad. Unfortunately, the opportunity was elusive to me."

Kiko was at a loss.

"Or maybe that toad was just so lucky to avoid facing me. Tsk!" he added and clicked his tongue at the end of his words.

If only the opportunity to face the toad befalls him, he would make sure to burn him like firewood, until Almina lost her feelings for him.

Regrettably, he could only sigh inwardly.

"Don't worry, my friend. I'll make sure to take good care of him. Fufu," said Marco with a menacing laugh.

"Kill him if you have the opportunity. Do it like it was an accident."

Kiko believed that no matter how strong Yman had become, he was still from the lower section. A trash section. Although some of them showed good matches against their opponents, in Kiko's eyes, they were still trash. Nothing more.

On top of that, he wasn't born with an abundance of mana. That's why, no matter how strong his physical strength was, he was still the toad they used to know. Jugo was just an idiot. He did not use his brain. He could have defeated Yman if he used his advantage efficiently.

"No, problem."

After learning who his opponent was, Yman just smiled.

But before he could take a step forward, Almina and the others cheered him.

On the stage, Marco opened his mouth, "Don't you ever think that you can win against me. You won't be as lucky today as when you faced Jugo and Bruno. A frog-like you can only shine in a tiny pond, so be grateful to me because I'm planning to send you there, to where you belong. In that smelly pond of yours! Ptui!" Marco spat.

"Heh…" Yman sneered. "Don't eat what you can't chew, sissy hypocrite! Fufu."

"S-sissy hypocrite?!" Marco darkened his vision from Yman's words. "No one ever dared to call me that, you know that?! You dumbshit!" He bellowed.

"Oh? Then, I dared to call you that. Fufu, the name sounds good to you, Sissy."

Marco never thought that this frog was so pretentious for provoking him! "F**k off!" He yelled.

"You two, don't forget you're here to duel not to banter," Goki meddled when he noticed the two participants' words had some crispy element on them that might lead to a worst-case scenario.

"Okay, fight!"

Yman walked towards Marco who was preparing a strong Ice element attack. The Ice Blades resembled different kinds of blades. There were knives, daggers, spears, javelins, arrows… etcetera.

They rained towards him without showing an ounce of mercy.

"Haha! How about starting to beg now, frog. Maybe I'll change my mind!" Marco laughed confidently.

Together with his good control of the wind element, the blades were dancing around them like a snowstorm.

Woah!

Ice element and wind element!!

Weren't ice elements a rare element a magician could have?

Yeah!

There were only a few of them that were recorded to have an affinity for it.

And look at that! He could also muster the wind element! Which in total combined to form a snowstorm!

A-Amazing!

The audience was screaming in amazement.

However,

"The Match is over!"

Amid everyone's amazement, they heard an unusual announcement.

The referee Instructor Goki was waving his hand, saying that the fight was already over.

What?!

Everyone was puzzled, even the VIPs were no exception.

This announcement was too surprising.

Wait, did the referee make a mistake?

Sure enough, that should be.

Everyone had almost identical thoughts at this moment.

But sooner, they heard a dull impact. Along with it, was a gushing fountain of blood that turns to light particles before falling to the ground. It should have been a gruesome scene if not because of the Photonocules element to replace the blood.

With a shock, a shock expression, a head fell from its torso.

From the noisy whispering, the crowds fell silent as they had no idea what was going on or what had happened.

"The winner of the match, Crimson!"

Instead of a loud cheer, there was only staleness in the air as he left the stage without caring for their dumbfoundedness.

Goki, on the other hand, was staring at his back while showing an imaginable admiration. 'Truly a mysterious kid!' He thought inwardly. Even Goki himself had no idea how it happened. He just noticed that in the monitor above, the health points of Marco were already at zero right after he announced the start of their match. At first, he thought there was a bug.

However, he caught something at the corner of his eyes, a thin string of crimson mana dissipated right before Goki caught sight of it. It was done so quickly that even someone like him who already reached the 3-star False Path failed to see it.

If Goki's estimation was right, the fight ended in 0.5 seconds.

To abate the confused crowd, in the monitor, they started replaying what happened. Everyone could tell that the video was done in a super slow-mo effect.

Right after Goki, announced the start of the fight, like a lightning speed, a streak of crimson thread whipped—-

However, the monitor screen went blank before the viewers could see what truly happened.

Then there was an announcement that followed after. It was an order from the elders to not show any further than that.

Inside a room, the three elders had widened their eyes.

"How was that kid able to use that? That's already a super-advanced level that can only be taught for the third year!" Said Elder Gatan as he sounded confused.

"Wait, that's the kid who has hazy black mana in the preliminary test right?" Asked Elder Paan.

"Now that you've mentioned that, it was him, Mr. Coolman," added Elder Nitan.

"Mr. Coolman?" Elder Paan asked with a frown.

"No, no, it's nothing special, it just so happened in the past demonstration…"

The three of them were watching the competition through a very large monitor. Like, watching inside a cinema stadium.

At this moment, something leaped out from the glass of water that was in front of Elder Gatan.

SPLOOSH!