Briar quickly arrived at Madam Rothema’s viewing room, and swiftly snatched the scarf off her head, returning to her male disguised form. She nodded at Madam Rothema and Helen in greeting before looking to the Martial stage. She was just in time to see a quintuplet smash a muscleman into the center of the stage with a blazing fist, knocking him unconscious. The medical crew started climbing up on the stage.

Realizing she had enough time for a few words, she asked Madam Rothema. “How did Laura do?”

Rothema waved her hands. “That girl is fine! Believe it or not, while she struggled for a bit chasing that Dumpley-whats-his-name around, she won the match with just a few well-placed words.”

Briar was surprised. “Words? What kind of words could help her win a match like that?”

Rothema placed a hand over her mouth, clearly amused. “Perhaps I should let little Helen tell you.” Briar looked at Helen, who’s eyes were shining, clearly wanting to tell her about it.

“Thank you, Teacher!” Helen smiled cheerfully.

“Ah, isn’t it nice to finally have a student who acts their age...” Rothema sighed aloud.

Briar’s eyebrows twitched at that. “What is that supposed to mean?”

Madam Rothema simply smiled. “Well…I wonder about that.”

Briar decided to ignore the pointed jab at her personality and turned back to Helen.

“So? What happened?”

Helen nodded. “It happened about five minutes ago. Neither of them had any solid advantage over the other. Then, Laura stopped in the center of the stage and suddenly started laughing. Dempsey was confused and asked ‘Weird girl. Are you finally going mad?’ But Laura shook her head and said ‘No! But I just can’t help noticing what a huge pimple there is on your face!” Well, that got him super worried for some reason, so he quickly snatched his mirror out to take a look. But when he took out his mirror, she blasted him out of bounds with a jump kick.”

Briar lifted her head up and looked at Madam Rothema with a ‘is that really true?’ expression on her face.

“It’s true.” Madam Rothema chuckled. “Now his face is even more unsightly than a pimple. He smashed headfirst into the protective barrier, so his whole face must be one massive bruise at this point!” Rothema started chuckling as she remembered the scene.

“Well, looks like someone’s collecting enemies.” Briar grinned. Helen stared pointedly with a look and retorted “This coming from the one who just seriously angered your opponent not two minutes ago?”

“Well, it was unavoidable! I didn’t know if I’d have enough time to make it to both matches if I didn’t hurry!” Briar replied, with a sigh. “Also, if I had used my full power, she would have been mortally injured to the point where I’m not sure if [Heal] would be able to fix everything, and that’s something I’d like to avoid in a mere contest-wait how did you know about what I just did?”

Rothema pointed to a crystal mirror that was once more displaying Briar’s battle.

“As expected of Briar~ So packed full of power that she even needs to take care not to overdo things even with her opponents!” Helen cheered in admiration.

“Well….” Briar thought to herself. It’s a far cry from Madam Rothema, though. If I am at the level of C4, then Rothema is at the level of a Hydrogen Bomb. Hah. I’ve got a long way to go yet!

If Madam Rothema could hear Briar’s thoughts, she would long have smacked her in the head for trying to make a comparison between them. After all, Madam Rothema had taken decades to get where she is today, while Briar had barely even lived past one decade, and already she wanted to be on the same level? Ridiculous!

Glancing down at the stage, Briar saw that the healer team had removed the defeated muscleman from the area, and it was time to go. “Ah, it’s time. I’m heading out.” She politely told Madam Rothema. “We’ll talk more after I beat this guy, okay?” Briar told Helen, patting her on the head. Then Briar jumped down onto the platform, standing at ready.

Her opponent, another muscleman, smirked when he compared his own large frame to the small stature of his opponent. But Briar simply watched the musclehead quietly, waiting for the start of the match. The Muscleman pointed at her, then drew a finger across his neck. He was clearly conveying ‘you are dead meat’ to Briar.

Briar simply smiled as she purposefully misinterpreted the sign to mean: ‘You, please kill me!’ Very well. I shall grant you your wish~ She thought, her eyes sharpening in focus.

“Begin!” The announcer signaled. This time for sure, that brat’ll be flattened! He thought to himself not even bothering to announce the combatants at this point.

The Muscleman immediately brandished his sword and dashed towards his opponent on the other end. The previous fight had made him aware that appearances were deceiving. Someone who was able to get into the semi-finals would not be a simple lad. It would be best to take him out before he could pull out any of his tricks.

“[Monte Caesus]!” Muscleman cried out, as he swung his sword. Briar noted that this was a martial technique, and paid full attention to the man’s every move. No one noticed that her golden eyes began to shine with a faint green glow. She stood there, as the sword approached from above, not even trying to get out of the way.

I’ve got him now! The muscleman grinned. Even if he blocks, it’ll do him no good. He’ll be torn in two pieces from th hidden vacuum blade overlapped upon my sword blade.

The sword continued unimpeded to the ground, and buried itself deep into the stone, a result of the vacuum blade’s aid. Several drops of blood fell to the ground.

“Huh?” The muscleman could not seem to understand why his sword had not cleaved the youth in two. Looking down at his hands, he noticed a small hole had been punctured in his hand, from which blood dripped down slowly.

His forehead began to sweat. He hadn’t even seen when the boy had attacked. With that sort of speed, even if he used his [Monte Caesus] (Mountain Cleaver) multiple times, he would never be able to hit him even once. Moreover, with such a speed, he would surely be killed at least five times over before he could even let loose another skill.

He instantly made a decision. “Little brother, I acknowledge your skills. Thank you for going easy on me.”

Briar nodded, acknowledging she had heard him. “Likewise. Thank you, as well.” For the demonstration of your skill. She added in her head. The muscleman then turned and walked off the stage.

The audience erupted in a frenzy of shouting. One skill move and all of a sudden the muscleman gave up? What sort of trickery is this? Some were even accusing this of being staged. The announcer’s face was twitching uncontrollably. The black classes, who were scattered throughout the stadium, were not saying anything against the match.

The audience continued to rage in an uproar. Finally, the announcer received a message, and his face looked like curdled milk.

“Those who are unable to remain calm, please remove yourselves!” He announced. “Since there are so many of you who are unconvinced, the recording of the match will be played over again for everyone to see.”

“This is the fight seen at its regular speed.” The audience watched as the muscled swordsman swung his sword, then started bleeding from his hand. The fight was displayed on the magic screen. It was only one sword move, after all, so it ended rather quickly.

Then, the scene was played over again, at half-speed. This time, when the sword had almost reached Briar’s head, her arm blurred for a moment.

“This is the fight seen at half speed.” The announcer broadcasted.

“But if we lower even this speed by half.” It was played over one last time, at a quarter of the normal speed. Finally, they could see as Briar’s hand clearly emerged from her sleeve, and punctured the swordsman’s hand with a needle, then retracted it. The puncture force moved up the swordsman’s arm, creating an involuntary muscle spasm which changed the direction of the sword strike slightly.

“As you can see, neither was it a staged act, nor was it a matter of cheating, but of pure and genuine skill. And with that being said, I announced that Briar is the winner of this match!”

The announcer was grinding his teeth in dismay, but the audience thought for sure it was due to the fact that people believed Briar’s win had been staged. They didn’t know it was because he truly hated to admit that Briar was actually a highly talented youth due to his grudge.

Briar nodded and leapt back up into Madam Rothema’s observation room.

Helen looked at Briar, wide-eyed. “Briar, was that you doing something at your full power? I knew you were powerful, but to be that fast-”

“Is something that should not happen again unless you wish to ruin your body.” Madam Rothema interjected. I can see that you are trying to hide your arm, over there. Come. Show me.”

Briar could only smile painfully and present her arm to Rothema, who ran her mana through it as she examined the damage. Even now, Briar’s arm was inadvertently twitching from the pain of overuse. When Rothema had finished her examination, she sighed.

“Congratulations. You managed to sprain each and every one of the muscles in your hand and forearm at the same time. If it weren’t for the fact that you were already red class, then the damage might have even extended to the point of tearing the tendons from the bones.”

She slapped Briar’s arm, causing Briar to involuntarily inhale with the pain. “This arm is sealed for the rest of the day.”

“But, it’s just a few bad sprains. I can heal that up in a jiffy-” Madam Rothema interrupted Briar’s words. “That arm is sealed as punishment for going overboard.”

“Yes, teacher.” Briar sighed ruefully. She had only been observing the man’s skill, when she had inadvertently perceived everything was much slower. Who knew that she could do so even without even trying to use a spell? As long as she used both MP and SP to use her magic eyes, she could induce a temporary boost in brain speed at any time.

Briar had simply reacted to the approaching sword by reflex, but a reflex from an accelerated point of view actually turning out to be so dreadful had surprised even Briar.

-------------------------

“Well, that’s another match finished! Shall I go place this recording in storage?” One of the workers asked the other one, holding the crystal with the recording of Briar’s match.

“Wait, can I borrow that crystal for a while? I’d like to examine it.” A voice came from behind them. They turned around.

“Ah! Council-mage Syrel!” They both bowed. “If Council-mage Syrel wishes for a copy of the match, then we are only too willing to give you one. But, according to the rules, the original cannot be given away.”

“…Understood then. But if you could please give me the best copy of all the angles of the fight that you captured, then that would be quite helpful.” Syrel agreed.

“Of course! Where should I send the copies to?” The worker asked.

“It shouldn’t take more than a few hours, right? I’ll watch the matches in the meantime and wait for you to finish them.” Syrel replied.

“Understood! I’ll go make them immediately!” The worker saluted, and retreated down the hallway. The other worker glared after him.

Darn you! You left me to work the crystal recorders all on my own! He thought resentfully. But neither worker could afford to offend a great mage like Syrel, so they had no choice but to do so.

Council-mage Syrel nodded and returned above to watch the semifinals. But, throughout them, he couldn’t help but think of Briar’s match. Playing it over and over inside his head.

“There’s something about that match, that I can’t quite place….” He muttered to himself.

Hopefully, the recording could help him resolve the strange impression he had about the boy named Briar.