Rising Against Fate

"I guess I have no choice."

Amaya stepped back and joined her hand. This gesture was her way of focusing on a spell. This meant that the spell she was about to use now required a lot of consternation and mana manipulation.

"Rock shower!"

Everyone, including the judges, looked surprised when they heard the name of the spell she was about to use. It was an advanced class spell that was known to cause wide area damage.

After she said that, several concrete blocks on the stage started floating in the air. She then used her abilities to break them into smaller pieces, and after they were broken, she fired all of them towards Yasumi.

The rocks were small and could easily pass through Yasumi's String trap. Considering the scale of this attack, it was apparent that Amaya wasn't holding back at all.

Yasumi was in a difficult position. She could neither dodge nor block the attack of this scale using her strings. Her best option was to do both and avoid being hit at the vital parts, which would make her incapable during the rest of the match.

However, she wasn't here to win. Today, the loss was her victory.

She just wanted to make it look as realistic as possible and collect as much sympathy as she could. She had to make it appear that she was trying her hardest, but her opponent was simply too powerful for her.

She used her strings to block as many rocks as she could and leaped from one string to another to avoid the attack. But despite all her attempts, a stone that came from behind got past her defenses and managed to hit her. Consequently, she fell on the floor.

The crowd looked more worried than disappointed when that happened. There were people shouting how unsuitable her abilities were at this venue and how a beauty like her shouldn't be fighting a match like this in the first place.

"Mudball!"

She tried standing up, but Amaya wasn't planning to wait for her to recover. Without wasting time, she fired several mudballs at Yasumi.

Yasumi dodged the three of them while still trying to recover from the hit earlier, but she couldn't escape the fourth one. As a result, she was thrown backward.

There was a moment of silence since she wasn't showing any sign of a moment after falling on the floor. After around thirty seconds, the medical team quickly rushed to the stage and checked her condition.

When they found her unconscious, the organizing committee was signaled to end the match.

"Ladies and gents! The winner of this match is Amaya Tsuchi."

A loud cheer was heard, but there were plenty who were silent in disappointment. They felt sad that this happened to Yasumi, and some just thought that the luck wasn't in her favor today. That wasn't a wrong assumption, considering how the match was decided solely by a single move.

She was quickly taken inside, where the medical team examined her condition. It was concluded that she was just knocked unconscious during the second hit.

The stage was damaged heavily during the attack earlier, so they had to extend the break time for the repairs. The usual 15-minute break was now extended to 30 minutes.

During the break, the audience gossiped about how the match ended that soon and how Yasumi lost despite the judge's prediction. There were few among the crowd who were disappointed, but most of them were sympathetic towards her.

"Now that the stage looks ready. Let's call the participants of our final match — Souta Arasi and Daichi Kyoujin."

There was a massive cheer for Daichi as he entered the stage. Most of his matches up to now have been exciting since they involved brute strength, and there were plenty who were fans of his muscle expansion techniques.

In comparison, barely any cheers were heard for Souta. There were still some controversies flying around regarding the fairness of the wild cards.

After the match started, Souta quickly went on the offensive. It was apparent that he had some kind of grudge against Daichi.

Daichi responded to his attacks head-on and quickly gained the upper hand. It looked like Souta was trying hard while Daichi was just enjoying the thrill of the battle.

The match turned out to be a long one, but it was a predictable match since Daichi dominated the stage from the start. And at the end of it, Souta was knocked unconscious by a punch by Daichi.

----

Yasumi, who was resting in the medical room, quickly composed herself when he heard the knock on the door.

Since her condition wasn't that bad, the medical team was now taking care of Souta, who was heavily injured during the match against Daichi.

"Can we come in?"

It was the voice of a man whom she was a lot familiar with. Since he used 'we', that must mean he was here with Kat. Almost every time they met, Kat was always there, so that was an obvious assumption.

"Yes, the door is open."

The medics had left the door open when they left, and since she hadn't gotten off her bed, it was still open.

Razak opened the door, and it wasn't just those two who came in. Asa was there with them as well.

"How are you doing? What did the medics say?"

Asa quickly walked up to her and took the seat next to Yasumi. She could have checked the condition herself, but she still hadn't seen the scan reports, so asking her directly was convenient.

"They said it's because of the shock during the second hit. It wasn't because of injury of any sort, so I am fine."

"That's good to hear."

There was only one stool nearby, so the other two just kept on standing.

"I was at least hoping to make it through this round. But I am happy that you two made it through. Congratulations."

"Well, you could have if you hadn't been hit the first time. I was damn sure you would dodge that."

The wound on Kat's cheek was gone, which meant he already had it treated. And Razak looked no different than usual even after the match.

"Yes, but there are often instances where one fails to ascertain the directions and speed of projectiles coming towards them. It is common when one is manipulating too much mana at the same time. Anyways"—Razak looked at Yasumi—"it's good to see that you are doing okay."

"Yes, thanks," Yasumi said with a smile.

Razak looked at his watch to check the time. "Something important came up, so I need to leave early. See you guys the day after."

"You are always in such a rush, dude. Anyways, see ya."

"Thanks for coming here. See you in the next round," Yasumi said, to which Asa nodded.

After the conversation, Razak walked out of the room, leaving the three there.