Rising Against Fate

A loud cheer echoed throughout the arena when Itsuki was announced the winner.

If one were to listen carefully, the majority of those cheers were from the female audience. This showed that the magic tournaments were popular among both males and females.

There was a fifteen minutes break before the start of the next match. And during this break, the event management committee was going to fix the stage and prepare it for the next match.

When the committee members started cleaning up the stage, Razak turned towards Yasumi. "You guys stay here, we will go and grab something to drink."

"Okay," Yasumi replied with a nod.

Kat and Razak stood up from their seats and walked towards the Vending machine. There was a moment of silence between them, but Kat broke it once they walked past the seating area.

"Man… the old man knows how to keep the audience going, doesn't he? Even though he knew what the outcome was going to be, he didn't spoil it till the very end."

"Yes, though I think he didn't do that because he didn't want to reveal Itsuki's strategy."

As they were taking, the two of them reached near the vending machine. There was a short line in front of it, so the two of them joined the line.

"You saw Itsuki's last move, right? Right? He clearly had this match from the start. Not to mention how cool he looked when he used his final move."

"Nah, it was clearly a close match. Kosuke would have clearly won if it wasn't for that Ice Arsenal."

Instead of making their orders, the two girls at the front were debating about the match. And because of that, the spiky-haired guy behind them looked pretty annoyed.

"You two, you are too slow. Get out of the way."

After he said that, the two girls stepped aside.

He then stepped forward and quickly made his order. After his order dropped, he quickly picked it up and left.

"Hey, was that Raiden?"

"Yeah, he looks as rude and violent as the rumors say."

"Oh, by the way, did you hear that he proposed to Asa in front of everyone and got rejected?"

"Obviously, the whole school knows about it at this point."

Instead of making their orders, the girls just kept on gossiping. So, Razak stepped forward and turned towards them.

"What do you girls want to get?"

The two of them were startled at the start, but they soon hid their surprise under a slight smile. They then looked towards the Vending machine.

"If you wouldn't mind, we would like to get flaming hot ch.i.p.s and two cans of cola," One of the girls said.

Razak quickly made the order. And after it dropped, he picked them up and handed it to them.

"Thank you so much," the other girl said.

"You're welcome."

After replying to them, Razak started making his own order.

When it looked like he was no longer interested in them, the two girls turned around and started walking.

"Do you know who that guy was?"

"I don't know, he is probably from a different class."

As they were walking, he could hear them talk about him. But he just ignored them and picked up his order. Both Razak and Kat then walked back towards their seats.

"Man, those girls were annoying… Though I didn't expect to meet Raiden there."

"Yeah, that was unexpected."

When the two of them reached their seats, Razak handed Yasumi their snacks and drinks.

"Thank you, Razak," Yasumi said and then passed Asa her snacks.

After the two of them took their seats, Razak looked towards the stage.

At this point, the ice on the stage had been cleared, and it looked like the stage was ready for the next match. The timer on the screen was showing that there was only one minute left before the start of the second match.

Kat leaned back in his chair. Despite the atmosphere, he looked uninterested.

"I bet the next match won't even last for ten minutes."

Yasumi looked confused when she heard that. "How can you be so sure?"

Asa was also looking towards Kat curiously. It looked like she too was interested to know.

"Well, usually in these kinds of matches, few candidates just withdraw. And then there is the obvious difference in strength of ones that are left. So, if the strong ones don't fight against each other, the match will end quickly."

"But how can you be so sure that they won't fight against each other?" Asa asked.

"Normally they don't unless they have some reason to, it's just common sense… Anyways, looks like the announcement is about to start."

Everyone looked towards the screen as the countdown ended. The screens were now showing the stage that had just been repaired and cleaned.

"Ladies and gents, we are now back for the second match of the day and the first preliminary match of this tournament."

A loud cheer echoed throughout the arena. Though compared to the earlier cheers, this one wasn't as loud.

"The first match is the match of Group A, and the participants are Ren Ongaku, Nishi Ikeda, Richi Shindo, Cade Sasaki, Isao Okada, Seiichi Fukuda, and Naoko Wada. Folks, three of the ten participants have withdrawn from this match, so now we only have seven participants. Who among these will come through, and who will be eliminated? We will soon find out."

The participants of the match entered the stage in the order of the announcement. This was the debut match of most of the students, so the crowd was looking at them with great curiosity.

"Before the match, let me brief you on the rules. You are not allowed to use any spell above the general class. You will need to make your opponents surrender or unable to continue within 60 minutes. Anyone who drops out of the stage is disqualified. Any lethal moves are forbidden, and the last two standing will win."

After listening to the announcement, every participant distanced themselves from one another and took their position.

"Now that everyone looks ready, let the countdown... begin!"