Lord of Charm

The judge had to raise a wall and put an end to the fight, and Jay's victory was announced. The crowd cheered in craziness; their home kingdom won two brackets!

"Can you believe it? The Miyena Kingdom won two brackets! And not only that, but they also have two spots in the top three again!"

Gale clapped along with Violet and Shana, yet Lena seemed disturbed. She wasn't clapping, and there was a frown on her face.

"What happened?"

Violet asked Lena with concern. She wasn't sure why would Lena be upset that Jay won the battle.

"There's a rule that third place can challenge second place for their spot if it's not the same person who defeated them in the semifinals."

Shana explained and Gale understood the crux of the problem and explained further.

"Then there's a good chance that Jay would lose on purpose, so Lara won't be able to challenge Dion. But Lena bet 4000 on Jay's victory, which she is going to lose. Lena, just go and claim your 40,000-gold prize for betting on the Miyena Kingdom having two contestants in the top three and bet them on Dion's victory."

Lena nodded and left. The ratio was 1:2 for Dion's victory and 1:1.2 for Jay's victory. She claimed her prize and put it all on Dion, making the ratio go down to 1:1.9.

The fight for third place started and Lara was getting the upper hand as time passed. A few minutes later, her dragon caught her opponent between his teeth and swallowed him into his body.

Everyone could see him being slowly crushed inside, unable to execute any spell amidst the water pressure and the mana movement to support the dragon.

Half a minute later, the judge used an earth spell to break through the dragon and save him from too much damage, and Lara was announced as the winner. She still had a chance to get second place if Jay won the finals, and she was planning on it.

"Now for the finals; Jay from the Miyena Kingdom against Dion from the Miyena Kingdom. I heard they were fellow students as well; does it mean they already know all about each other's weaknesses?"

The referee signaled the girls to get ready and the fight started. The girls started exchanging fire spells, each was canceling the other. To the crowd's bewilderment, Jay was pushed back by the explosions and was slowly stumbling back to the end of the arena.

"What is going on? The fight seems so one-sided, is Dion stronger than we thought? Jay doesn't seem to be as physically active anymore either!"

Steve shouted out everyone's thoughts as they watched Dion claiming the advantage by dodging some of Jay spells while Jay tanked all Dion's spells head on. They already watched Jay controlling her positioning and displaying her dodging skills in her match against Lara, so it made no sense now.

They kept watching when a pillar came under Jay's feet.

"Oh, no!"

Jay exclaimed as the pillar raised and hit her in the ribs, throwing her in the air.

"Eh, isn't this… too fake?"

Steve's voice wavered as he watched Jay's bad acting skills when she pretended to be unable to get up from the last hit. The acting was too obvious; the impact was too weak, she should've been able to dodge it, and Dion was supposed to use sharp pillars in the first place, not blunt ones.

Meanwhile, many discussions could be heard from the empire's booths in the crowd. Many clans and academies come to watch the contest whenever it's hosted in order to pull talents to their sides.

In one large room that was spectating on the arena from the top floor, 5 people sat next to one another. If Shana was present and tried to sense their stage, she might be stressed to find out she couldn't sense any of them. They were all Magus.

"Charles, did you set your eyes on anyone yet?"

"Hmm, this time all of us might pick someone. There was the boy who won the young bracket, the three girls from the Miyena Kingdom, and the darkness user from the Igrebah Kingdom."

Charles wore a thoughtful face; in every tournament, there were only 2-3 people who piqued their interest, and they'd have to compete with their offers to pull those people to their sides. Now, they all had a good chance to get one talented person.

Although they weren't desperate to get those people, it was embarrassing whenever someone preferred a competitor force over them. For them, the recruitment was more about competing rather than about the kingdoms' talents.

"I'm getting the pretty boy, don't even dare try to take him away from me."

One woman looking in her late twenties said with a dreamy voice. She didn't seem to care much about the rest of the talents.

"Hmph. Alice, you're more than ten times older than him, are you sure he will be interested? He will be better off by my side."

Another woman who was looking in her middle twenties mocked Alice as she munched on a local dry snack.

The room was getting dangerously hot when one of the men intervened and coldness seeped from his skin.

"Chill, Alice. You're already hot enough as you are. Isobel, you're only 10 years younger than Alice, why are you capitalizing on this difference all the time?"

"Shut up."

Both women answered. Lucas was a renowned skirt chaser, and neither of them liked him. He had been courting Alice for a few decades now, but Alice would decline every time; rumors said he slept with dozens of the female students in his academy.

"What about you, William?"

Charles asked the man who started the discussion.

"I'm waiting to watch the older bracket. There's still the young mage girl who decided to compete above her age."

William answered and the rest's expressions turned into surprise. They all came late and missed the drama in the beginning, so they weren't aware of it. They normally came late to the young bracket and left after the intermediate.

They were interested in watching the weaker magicians in the young bracket, and they picked their favorites after the intermediate bracket as they believed the contestants from the older bracket were too old to groom.

"That's interesting. Young people should be more hot-blooded!"

Charles laughed and the five decided to wait until the mentioned girl showed whether she had the skills to back her courage.

Those five people were the representatives of the top 5 academies in the empire, and normally nobody declined their offers.