In a shocking surprise for Ajax the spectators cheered a lot louder for Richard and the beastkin as they took their place in the arena than they had for any of the previous matches. He knew the reason for that was that this match wouldn’t be over after thirty seconds of people blurring around and they could actually enjoy it but it pushed the point.

Richard got into his fighting stance and waited for the signal. Unlike the previous matches this tournament and the next would have actual referees that were meant to stop anything lethal from landing and deciding the winner. The sparse trees that were part of this fight’s geography helped Richard as he quickly dashed behind a tree. Just because the beastkin specialized in close quarters magic didn’t mean he couldn’t bombard a physical fighter from range.

Ajax could feel Benedict tense up as a few long range spells thrown in a blind curve exploded around Richard. The spells weren’t all that strong, menat only to ensure Richard wouldn’t get a chance to see the beastkin approach but Ajax didn’t think that telling that to his former classmate would be of any help.

The beastkin wasted no time charging towards the tree Richard was hiding behind. The crowd loudly cheered at this as without any points specifically put into his physical stats the beastking could actually be followed by every spectator as he closed the distance.

Despite not getting a chance to look Richard wasn’t oblivious to what his opponent was doing. He had spent years fighting monsters on Gryndor’s untamed border and throughout all of that he had pushed any skill that heightened his senses, after all the most common monster found so close to the border was an ambusher.

As soon as the beastkin was close enough Richard charged out, flaring his stamina charge skill as well as the enchantments on his gear as he rounded the tree where he found the mage chanting, he couldn’t see the beastkin’s mouth because of the faceguard he wore but he knew from the look in his eyes that he was in trouble.

Richard instinctively raised his shield hoping to block as much of the spell that he knew was coming. It was the correct move as he felt a large impact put a dent in his shield. Despite not taking much direct damage from the attack thanks to his gear’s enchantments Richard was still thrown back.

Ajax watched the fight like a hawk. Every spell the beastkin threw Ajax was analyzing. Richard was holding up very well considering he had never lasted more than five minutes against Ajax in their first sparring round and the beastkin’s spells hit harder than what Ajax usually threw around.

Ajax was surprised by the breadth of spells the beastkin had at his disposal. Earth, water, fire, wind, ice and lightning all came out, not only that but he had two or three different spells for each element. Despite all this however Ajax knew that the beastkin only had the affinity for Earth mana as part of his skills.

This explained how the beastkin moved so quickly on his feet as he was using a earth slide spell to increase his mobility as he pelted Richard with spells while still keeping outside the range of his longsword.

“Those movements seem odd.” Ajax mentioned as he watched the beastkin circle Richard while he constantly chanted out weak spells.

“What do you mean?” Both Benedict and Lexi were intrigued, though one sounded a lot more desperate than the other.

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“More than once he used his earth movement spell despite having enough space and time to dodge the sword with his regular speed.” Ajax said. “Not only that but it seems odd how wasteful he is with his Earth spell considering he has the Earth mana affinity.”

“Are you sure Earth is his affinity?” Lexi asked, she was also monitoring the spells and knew what inefficiency he was talking about.

“Yes.” Ajax affirmed. “Feel how flexible his earth spells are compared to all the others after he finished his chant.”

As Ajax was trying to help his girlfriend with her [Sense Mana] acuity, Anna frowned as she watched the fight. “He’s not using the earth spells to move around” She said. “The movement component is there as a distraction. I can’t tell what he is aiming for however.”

Both Lexi and Ajax tried to overlay every single earth movement spell that was used in the fight to backtrack what it could all be for, they didn’t get a chance to put any theories together as Benedict gripped his seat as he shouted at his cousin despite knowing all too well he wouldn’t be able to hear him.

“Get away from there!” Benedict called out, even while knowing that even if Richard realized the trap the beastkins attacks would make any attempt at retreat painful if not actually lethal. “ He’s creating a massive pitfall.”

Anna, Lexi and Ajax all felt their eyes widen at the revelation. With the answer in front of them all of the spells made perfect sense but it was too late for Richard. The beastkin’s next earth spell put in three times as much mana, instead of move him away however the human felt the earth give way under his feet as fell towards pointy stone spikes.

Despite perfectly springing his trap the beastkin even went the extra mile to launch a quick follow-up lightning attack, this made sure Richard would be briefly paralyzed with no hope of reacting to the perfectly executed combo.

An instant before Richard was impaled on the stone spikes Ajax felt a strong windspell that had been charged and waiting in the background to be released. Both fighters were securely captured inside their respective wind spheres as they were taken out of the ring signifying RIchard’s loss.

Ajax wasn’t happy with the result of the match but he did feel happy with Richard’s performance. The physical fighter had been on the backfoot from the start, yet despite never managing to surprise the beastkin his defensive effort had allowed Ajax to get a very good look at his future competitions style and more importantly he got a decent idea about how the mage’s stats were distributed across his Mind Intellect and Wisdom.

The crowd was ecstatic. The whole fight lasted around five minutes, more than the four previous fights combined but it had been full of action from start to finish. With the tournament being hosted by the Republic it was clear that the beastkin was the crowd favorite. Despite all that Ajax did notice that the nobles of all three nations didn’t see the fight as one sided as it appeared. All of them knew the situation favored the mage heavily and Richards performance marked him as someone to look out for in the future.

“He did well.” Ajax patted his friend on the shoulder, Benedict’s eyes still trained on the tunnel Richard disappeared in after the wind orb pulled him out.

The action seemed to reset Benedict as he got himself under control, the future heir of house Steelblade regained his composure. “He did a lot better than I expected when it comes to his endurance and defense. I will see to it that he gets a lot more experience when it comes to strategy, he spent too long with only monsters for opponents.”

“That’s the best way to grow in levels, besides constantly delving dungeons anyway.” Lexi said.

“He made great gains.” Benedict nodded. “After the extra stat points from the dungeons we ran I think it’s time he comes back home, he'll join me in consolidating the gains I made in the academy.”

As Ajax and his friends were chatting, the next match was being prepared. Ajax hoped to get just as much information on the ice princess in this next match as he did the beastkin but it seems that fate wasn’t as kind to the human mage.

The arena had reshaped into a snowy open field. As they entered the arena the mage frowned, Ajax even noticed slight shivers run up his arms and while most common spectators with a high enough Perception to catch them would assume they come from the cold Ajax knew the mage felt warm enough. The human was going into this fight afraid.

Arianwyn imperiously entered the arena. She glided along the snowy field as the undisputed ruler of the cold. More than that Ajax noticed just how high quality her mage robes were as their enchantments were clearly trying to draw in power from the ice and snow surrounding her.

“This match will end quickly.” Ajax said with a sigh, he had deeply hoped someone would contradict his somewhat inappropriate statement. The silence that answered him felt like the final nail in the coffin.