Diana's POV

  "So that's what happened," said the director, contemplating Alexander's feat. "It's surprising how much he's grown in such a short time. To pull something like that off…"

  "Still, it's unlikely that he will win the tournament," sighed the director before Diana's hopeful gaze. "But I’ll definitely help him get however many cores he needs… Now I am the one who wants to see what level he will reach if he manages to awaken his lineage."

  "Are you sure you should interfere that much?" asked the Imperial Academy director, probing. "It could have just been luck."

  "Unlikely," assured the local director. "He may seem brutal, but he is very calculating… And you haven't even seen him come close to giving his all. Am I not right, young lady?"

  Not knowing for sure whether to tell the truth or not, Diana chose to remain silent.

  But upon seeing this, the director encouraged her: "Don't be afraid. You can speak."

  Sighing lightly, Diana "decided" to tell the truth: "You are right. Alexander rarely uses his full strength against someone weaker than him."

  "And if he had given his all?" inquired the Imperial Academy director.

  "His kick would have blown your student’s chest apart," Diana replied, a strange look crossing her face—as if she had already seen him do exactly that… or something very close to it.

  Alexander's POV

  In just three extremely fast fight cycles, all 1st-year participants except Alexander were eliminated.

  When the fights were paused for lunch and rest, almost no 2nd-year students remained.

  As soon as the lunch break ended, everyone expected more balanced fights, but that didn't happen.

  The major academies were overwhelmingly dominant.

  Anyone who faced someone from the 3rd year of a major academy would be quickly eliminated.

  However, amidst such an uneven scenario, two things, or rather, two people, stood out for reversing this situation: Alexander and the 2nd-year student from the Imperial Academy.

  They simply defeated those they faced as if they were also from the 3rd year.

  The Imperial Academy student was even more wicked than Alexander. He didn't even draw his weapon to defeat his opponents.

  Alexander was surprised to see that there was an even bigger underdog than him in the tournament, but it wasn't as if he had gone all out yet.

  Under the tournament's cruel and inevitable filter, the fights began to divide into two groups.

  On one side were the secondaries, competing only to see who would go further—no one really believed they would win.

  On the other were those who truly fought for the Imperial Tournament champion title.

  Thanks to a rare smile from lady luck, Alexander reached the quarterfinals without bumping into any of the 3rd-year students from the major academies, which made him save a lot of energy. But, for some reason, upon reaching the quarterfinals, the tournament turned into a battle royale to decide who the semifinalists would be.

  "Was it Lucas who chose the tournament format?" Alexander asked himself seriously. "Whoever chose it must only want to see chaos in the arena, even if that could, in the worst case, derail the entire tournament."

  The moment the remaining participants entered the main arena together, the crowd went wild.

  But inside the arena, they all looked at each other anxiously.

  As soon as the judge authorized the start of the fight, three manas went berserk. Two Tier II spells, one of fire and one of lightning, were cast.

  At the same time, Alexander's |Water Cannon (MAX)|, almost at the Tier II level, advanced through the arena.

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  Surprisingly, even without coordinating, the three targeted the same opponent: the participant who didn't belong to any of the five major academies.

  Alexander didn’t target him out of any bias. He was simply the easiest opponent to eliminate—especially among those likely to band together against the Imperial Academy and the Twin Combats Academy, since both still had two members left.

  Targeted from all sides and without time to react properly, that unlucky participant was forced to give up the fight to avoid being hit amidst that dangerous barrage of attacks.

  With the number of participants dropping so quickly to 7, all who remained had to start reassessing the situation.

  "What do you want to do?" asked Alexander, without any scruples or shame, to the 3rd-year student from Twin Combats Academy, thus breaking the tacit silence inside the arena.

  "If no one here turns this into a team fight to win, I will fight alone," replied the 3rd-year student loudly so everyone could hear.

  "I wish you luck then," said Alexander, moving away from him as much as possible for a basic reason: water's a bad matchup against lightning. "But don't forget that now it's everyone against everyone."

  With the tension increasing inside the arena due to Alexander's movements, which forced the others to move as well, the competitors began to slowly approach each other.

  Tired of that stagnation, Alexander concentrated a large amount of energy into his spear and used |Ascending Flow| to create a quick distortion of his image.

  Then, he fired a gigantic energy strike at all the other participants using |Sweep| while retreating safely.

  In a normal situation, an attack as wide as that wouldn't be a threat to anyone in the arena.

  But in that specific situation, it forced everyone to move even more, which started the fight.

  The dragonewt from the eastern region flew to avoid the attack and lunged at Alexander.

  The tiger demi-human, coming from the west of the Empire, charged against the 3rd-year student from Twin Combats Academy.

  The dwarf from the south tried to attack the 3rd-year elf from the Imperial Academy, but was intercepted by the 2nd-year student from the Imperial Academy.

  Finally watching the true beginning of the battle royale, the spectators shouted and cheered for their favorite fighters in an indistinct mass of sounds, but which transmitted a powerful euphoria.

  The dragonewt Alexander was facing was large and had thick dark-green scales covering most of his back.

  On his front, however, it was still quite human, except for some scales coming from his back, horns, tail, and some other small draconic traits.

  When they began exchanging blows with their weapons, Alexander was pushed back. The dragonewt was stronger.

  Not convinced, he activated his |Magical Body Strengthening| and energized his spear, which allowed him to no longer be pushed back.

  But in the following exchanges of blows they had, the dragonewt's energy density proved superior to his and broke his flow.

  Feeling the rebound from the forced rupture of his energy flow, Alexander exchanged one last blow and began to retreat. Direct confrontation didn't seem like the best idea.

  However, as soon as the dragonewt tried to follow him, he, who was already expecting it, turned around, delivering a succession of |Thrust|.

  Upon feeling the danger each thrust brought, the dragonewt dove, closing his wings, rolled on the ground to avoid the attacks, and counterattacked with his sword.

  Once the fight hit the ground, Alexander began pressing him, using the reach of his spear to keep him in check—leaving him unable to retreat or advance without running risk.

  The plan of winning using his weapon's range was solid, but suddenly a large fireball came towards them, forcing them to stop and defend.

  With the advantage of initiative and the water element on his side, Alexander managed to defend well.

  The dragonewt, however, didn't have the same luck and was launched far away by the fireball.

  Taking advantage of his "free" moment, Alexander looked around and noticed that all the others were already facing different people.

  The 2nd-year student from the Imperial Academy, the tiger demi-human, and the 3rd-year student from Twin Combats Academy were fighting among themselves. Whoever was being most pressured was his academy companion.

  "I wanted to use this to defeat that conceited little prince, but now I'll use it to finish you," said the dragonewt upon returning to Alexander.

  The moment his words echoed, the dragonewt flew and roared in fury.

  His nails transformed into claws of almost 6 cm, lighting up with an absurd amount of energy.

  Feeling that he shouldn't be hit by those claws, Alexander used |Run| to flee while trying to drag him into the middle of the other fights.

  However, even after passing through two fights, the dragonewt kept him as a target and the others decided not to interfere.

  Outraged that no one had taken advantage of the chaos he himself created to attack the dragonewt, a strategy that normally worked, Alexander realized he would have to resolve this alone. He then began to concentrate a gigantic amount of energy into his spear.

  As soon as the dragonewt dove and attacked him near the ground, Alexander used all his boost skills to close the distance between them and used a |Thrust (MAX)| almost at point-blank range.

  To his surprise, the dragonewt's instincts spoke faster and he managed to dodge by spinning while still hitting him with a counterattack.

  Fortunately for Alexander, due to his adversary's hasty dodge, his |Mana Barrier| mitigated most of the damage.

  On the other hand, the deflected attack was not lost. It hit the 2nd-year student from the Imperial Academy, who was pressuring the 3rd-year student from Twin Combats Academy.

  "Enough!" roared the 3rd-year student from Twin Combats Academy when he had this chance, furious at having been so pressured. "|Lightning Dome|!"

  The instant he summoned the spell, his arm shone in blue-violet. Then the dome emerged.

  A colossal electrical mass expanded from him, devouring everything in its path.

  The ground cracked under violent snaps, and the air was taken over by the acidic smell of ozone.

  That was a Tier III spell.

  Seeing the dome of lightning advancing towards him and noticing the dragonewt partially turned towards it, Alexander reacted without hesitation.

  He threw himself onto the adversary's back and used him as a shield against the spell.