Boom!

The ground shook and a gust of wind swept out as Bryan's and Alice's attack collided against each other.

Smoke and dust shot up and covered the two.

Swoosh!

The crowd was waiting for the dust to clear up so that they could see the outcome of the match. They patiently waited while looking at the thick smoke.

"Well, that's not bad." Souta sighed as he shrugged his shoulder. He already knew the outcome of the fight. To think that Alice would put up a fight like that with little words. She exceeded his expectations during this battle.

After a few moments, the smoke dissipated and it revealed the two participants. Bryan was standing and his fist was covered in blood, and Alice was lying on the ground. Her breath was ragged as she stared at the ceiling of the training ground.

"Huff... I... won..." Bryan said between his breath. He slowly turned his head and looked at Alex.

Alex saw Bryan looked at him so he declared that Bryan won the battle.

"Hmm... I lose..." Alice muttered in a low voice. She turned her head and looked at Bryan before looking at Souta. She wondered how Bryan going to fight Souta in his current condition.

Bryan was exhausted while Souta was still full of energy. Ever since the first match, Souta hasn't met anyone that could put up a decent fight to him. So it's natural that he still has a lot of energy left.

...

Souta looked at the time and saw that there were still ten minutes left before Bryan's next match. With this time, Bryan would recover a bit of his strength.

Souta delayed his match and he didn't finish it quickly so that Bryan would recover. He needed Bryan's strength to probe Brando so that he could widen his understanding of Brando's power.

He already concluded that he would fight Brando in the finals. If Brando was stronger than he expected then the fight would become trouble for him. If not, then he would win the tournament and received the rewards of the quest.

If not for the quest then he wouldn't even bother himself with this kind of tournament. He wouldn't even receive benefits from winning.

He smiled and approached Bryan. "You're stronger than I expected."

"See... I told you before that I'm strong." Bryan said as he showed his muscles.

Souta shook his head and turned to Alice. He extended a hand and said, "That was a good fight."

Alice looked at him with a dumbfounded expression. She then turned her gaze on his hand.

"Don't hesitate..." Souta said.

"Yeah, yeah, you're strong too Alice!" Bryan said at the side.

"Hais..." Alice sighed and took Souta's hand. "...thanks."

Souta shook his head before he helped her stand up.

The three chatted for a while as they went to the corner.

Alex looked at the three before he said the next match.

"It seems that there are quite strong first year in this batch."

...

The tournament continued and it entered the semi-final.

Bryan won his match and Brando too. These two were going to face each other in the finals.

Unexpected things happened, Souta opponent in semis quickly surrendered as soon as the match started. This was outside of his expectations. He planned to delay the battle until the last seconds but his opponent surrendered without putting a fight.

Souta glanced at his opponent as he walked towards Alice and Bryan. He will remember his face.

Yujin Drune was the name of his opponent. He was also a student of Class 1-B.

"Hmm..." Since both of them were classmates, there were a lot of opportunities to interact. He would know something about him in the future.

He shook his head and he was greeted by Bryan.

"Hoho, you enter the finals Souta! Wait for me and we will fight in the finals!" Bryan said enthusiastically.

'You're going to lose in your next match and that's without a doubt.' Souta thought as he looked at Bryan. He knew that Bryan was exhausted but Bryan was still cheerful despite his condition.

"Go..." Souta pushed Bryan's back.

"Right, I'm gonna win this and show you my power," Bryan said as he raised his fist before he went towards the center.

"Do you think he will win?" Alice asked while looking at Bryan's figure.

Souta glanced at her. He was surprised for a moment that she took the initiative to talk. He shook his head and answered her question.

"No."

He looked at her and saw that she wasn't asking why he thought that Bryan wouldn't win so he added, "You can think of this. We're Mage and we're forbidden to use our mana in this tournament so we have a huge disadvantage. Bryan couldn't use his mana and he's clearly tired after your battle. If he's going to fight without any of those disadvantages then he will probably win this fight."

"Then, why?" Alice asked.

"Why?" Souta repeated her.

"Why are you encouraging him to win even though he won't win this battle?" Alice elaborated her question.

"Hmm... Why..." Souta rubbed his chin and decided to tell her his reason. "It's because he will help me grasp the strength of his opponent. With his strength, he still could put up a decent fight. Well, it doesn't matter as I'm going to win in the end."

Alice looked at him and saw his carefree expression. She opened her mouth and said, "You're pretty confident in your strength."

"It's not that I'm confident in my strength. It's just that I know clearly how powerful am I. I know my weakness and strength so I know if I could defeat someone or not." Souta said as shrugged his shoulder.

"Never mind that, the fight is going to start."

"Hmm..."

...

Bryan was looking at Brando with a serious expression. Even though he said that he was going to win this fight, he still knew that his opponent this time was strong, unlike his previous opponents.

Brando was a tall man with a large build. He has short messy brown hair and blue eyes. Some parts of his body have green scales indicating that he was a half-beast. He was armed with a meter silver-colored shield. Just like Bryan's gloves, his shield was also blue grade.

Brandon smiled and said, "I saw your fight before. I will say that you're strong and it's making me eager to fight you."

"Me too," Bryan said with a smirk. He then clenched his fists tightly.

Both of them waited for Alex to start the match.

"1... 2... 3... Go!!"

Bryan disappeared from his position and instantly appeared in front of Brando. He pulled back his fist and threw it towards Brando.

"Ah!!"

Brandon was surprised but he quickly reacted by moving his shield.

Clang!!

When he blocked the punch of Bryan, Brando immediately used his skill [Shield Bash].

Bang!!

"Argh!!" Bryan flew away and crashed on the ground. He wiped the blood on his mouth and a shadow covered him. He looked up and saw that Brando was going straight at him.

"[Shield Smash]!!"

Bryan quickly moved his body sideways to avoid the attack.

Boom!!

Brando smashed his shield and it hit the ground. Spider web cracks appeared on the ground.

Brandon looked up and saw that Bryan was gone. Then, he felt something on his back. He tightened his grip on his shield and waved it behind him.

Swoosh!!

Unfortunately, Bryan reacted as fast as him so Bryan avoided the shield.

"Argh!!" Bryan raised his fist and smashed the ground.

Boom!

Smoke and dust shot up in the air.

"Not good!" Brando quickly waved his shield to disperse the smoke but Bryan was faster than him.

"What?!" Brando felt a pair of hands grabbed his waist. He turned around saw that Bryan was grabbing him with a smirk on his face.

"I finally got you!" Bryan said with a smile.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

...

"Hmm... Brando's going to release his full power." Souta muttered while looking at the two.

"What do you mean by that?" Alice asked him.

"Do you really think that's Brando's full strength? No, that's not his full strength! In his previous battle, he hasn't released his full strength, you can see that by seeing how he breathe and how tired he is! In the battle, it's okay if you overestimate your opponent but you must never underestimate them! It will cause your downfall!" Souta said.

"Hmm..." Alice glanced at Souta's face. After a few moments, she opened her mouth, "Is it coming from your experience or not?"

Souta lowered his eyes and looked at her.

"You can also say it like that."

...

[Shielder's Aura]

Brando emitted a greenish aura. This skill was one of the important combat arts of a shield class. It raised the user's defense by one hundred percent and damage reduction by twenty percent.

Although it was a low-level skill, the effect was higher compared to other high-level skills.

Brando turned his eyes to Bryan. He opened his mouth and slowly said, "It would be great if you could use your spell but unfortunately you can't, so there's no doubt that you will lose against me."

"Hehe, then I can only use my combat arts." Bryan smiled. Even in this situation, he could still smile.

"You will not be able to damage with my [Shielder's Aura] on," Brando stated.