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*Clang*

"Why," Matthew thought in his head.

Every attack he made was easily countered by Asher.

"I was the one who should have won," he muttered.

Matthew had thought this tournament would be the place where he would show the world that the elite families were nothing without the tremendous amount of resources they spent on their children.

He wanted to prove that his talent alone was enough to overcome the barrier, but Asher was not someone he could even fathom competing with.

Asher indifferently kept countering but decided to end it. Matthew saw Asher slashing down with his sword, and the force behind the attack made Matthew\'s sword cut into the ground.

Before he could remove his hand from the hilt to guard himself, Asher kicked him in the face, immediately activating the barrier.

Asher looked in another direction towards the forest.

"Tsk," he got annoyed that the test conductors had activated the barrier before he could mess Matthew up more.

Asher looked behind to see Damian, who was cracking his knuckles.

"You wanna start?" Asher asked Damian, knowing what he wanted.

"Of course, I wanted to test the gap between us," Damian spoke.

Asher did not reply. He just quietly stared at Damian before he sighed and dropped his sword.

"You are still a fool," Asher thought in his mind as he remembered a certain event from the past.

Damian saw Asher dropping his sword as he got ready for hand-to-hand combat.

"Hehe, don\'t go easy on me," Damian dashed as he swung his fist at Asher.

Asher simply blocked his fist, but Damian\'s strength and endurance were a bit lower than Asher\'s.

Damian saw Asher doing an overhand right, but Damian ducked as he tried to do a jab at Asher\'s stomach. Damian thought he could connect his jab, but Asher knee kicked him, making him lose his balance.

"Argh, *spit*," Damian spat out blood.

Despite knowing that he would lose to Asher, Damian was smiling. His goal was not to win, and Asher knew what Damian wanted to show by this brawl.

"Asher Greville has confirmed his spot for 1st position, but it seems Damian Seymour is now challenging him," Gazil spoke.

This duel was happening before Alyssa\'s arrival, but it was pretty much clear for everyone who would win now.

"Another monster in the Greville family, the future high council will get affected by this," a man in one of the VIP rooms spoke.

Many people became more cautious about the growing power of the Greville family.

Damian took a deep breath as his eyes focused on Asher. He dashed towards Asher but stopped his punch and did a roundhouse kick on him. Asher blocked the kick as he grabbed Damian\'s leg.

"Too slow," Asher grabbed Damian\'s leg and threw him towards the stone platform.

Damian landed on the ground as he looked at Asher who was coming at him.

"Strong," he muttered as he got up.

Damian changed his stance and started to punch him, but Asher was dodging every strike that Damian sent his way. Asher instead of dodging the last punch tilted his body to the right and sent an uppercut on Damian.

Damian felt the punch and lost his balance, but Asher grabbed his head and lowered it as he kneed him in the face.

Asher kept kicking Damian in the face, but after five solid knee hits, Damian stopped the last one with all his strength. He pushed Asher\'s body and tried to grapple him, but Asher shook his grip off.

"Huff, huff, huff," Damian looked messed up, but fortunately, all the screens shifted to show Alyssa\'s fight after she showed her space element.

Damian barely opened his left eye and looked at the blurry figure of Asher.

"It seems I am still too weak," Damian muttered as he fell to the ground, and the barrier activated, giving Asher all his tokens.

Asher\'s indifferent face looked at Damian, who was now unconscious.

"Only if you were not obsessed over her, but who am I to say this," Asher muttered quietly to himself.

Meanwhile, in the girls\' tournament, Venessa was watching Alyssa fight the others.

She had arrived just after Ria Ardel, but she did not rush into the situation and decided to watch them fight.

"Pink hair," Venessa squinted her eyes to see Alyssa.

"Another advanced element?" Venessa was surprised to see Alyssa use ice magic.

She saw Alyssa as she floated above the ground and summoned many ice lances. She saw all of Alyssa\'s struggles and her winning against all the participants.

*Clap* *Clap*

"What a splendid performance," Venessa Baker spoke.

Alyssa looked up as she glared at Venessa.

*Cough* *Cough*

She coughed, and blood came out of her mouth, covering her pale face and hands.

"You are so strong!" Venessa told Alyssa.

Alyssa thought that Venessa was making fun of her.

\'I tried my best then, why? Why? Why?\' Alyssa thought as her hands gripped the ground.

"You would have all of their tokens, right?" Venessa spoke.

"I will protect you until the end of this tournament then," Venessa spoke as she proudly put her hands on her chest.

"Huh?" Alyssa looked at Venessa, who took her sword out and stood beside her.

"Why?" She asked, ignoring the pain she was feeling right now.

"Oh, a fortune teller helped me today. He told me to help someone pink, and it would help me in the future," Venessa spoke as she tried to remember the face of the fortune teller, but she couldn\'t remember it.

"Strange, I met him today, but I don\'t remember his face!" Venessa tried to remember as she sat beside Alyssa and put her hand on her head.

"Purple... Yeah, his eyes were purple," Venessa clapped her hands and smiled brightly as she looked at Alyssa.

"Ehh? Venessa Baker is doing something... strange?" Gazil tilted his head as all the audience were confused why she was not attacking.

"I don\'t deserve this..." Alyssa muttered.

She wanted to win but with her own efforts. Having that potion made her think that her body would be able to hold on for a bit more, but she overused her mana due to her lack of experience.

"What is she doing?" the audience got confused.

"Is she her friend?" Many people were discussing the reason Venessa was just sitting beside Alyssa.

"Why is this girl even here?" James spoke as he was angry from Elena\'s loss while Filia was silent and kept watching.

"It would be better for her to lose," Sylvia sighed, seeing Venessa not eliminating Alyssa.

She was bitter that Alyssa defeated Amelia but she knew that it was Amelia\'s own fault for being weak.

Livia was sad Amelia had lost, and she wanted Venessa to eliminate Alyssa.

"Oh, I don\'t know, but my instincts say to believe in the fortune teller," Venessa shrugged her shoulders.

Alyssa did not know how to reply to Venessa. Her whole life growing up, she was alone and discriminated against everywhere she went. Getting help from others was not a concept familiar to her.

"Why is she helping her?" Ria said with a frustrated voice.

"Don\'t know, maybe they are friends?" Elena replied.

She looked at Alyssa as she tried to remember where she had heard about her.

"Doesn\'t matter, she defeated us all," Eva said, but her frustration was visible on her face.

But among them all, Amelia was silent. She just watched Alyssa and remembered who she was finally.

"How did I lose to this girl?" Amelia thought in her mind.

She remembered how she thought that she could win this easily and got eliminated by a girl like Alyssa. Her pride did not allow her to accept her defeat.

They all had common thoughts about losing to Alyssa as they could not accept their loss by a girl who could not even stand on her own.

The timer kept decreasing the whole time; Alyssa and Asher were almost confirmed for their 1st spot.

Alyssa looked at Venessa, who just stood there and even defeated three participants who arrived at the final location.

Alyssa raised her hand after her mana recovered a bit. She looked at Venessa who was fighting with another participant.

"Lance," she spoke as an ice lance appeared behind her and attacked another participant.

"Whew, thanks for the assist," Venessa raised her thumb at Alyssa.

"Why is she helping me?" Many doubts arose in the head of Alyssa regarding Venessa, but she did not voice it.

Winning this was her only chance to execute her plans, and if she was indebted to Venessa for it, she didn\'t mind it.

"I will repay this debt," she thought, looking at Venessa.