247 Return. (1/2)

The result for their battles was also already announced with the Ashin family winning the first position, Leonhard Dynasty placed at second, and Clara from the Church was placed at last among the initial stage Rank-8 Mages.

Needless to say, they were in the fourth, fifth, and sixth position respectively in the overall tournament.

For ranking the participants, the Mercenary Guild had set up a rather crude method.

Since there were only three left, the three of them were required to draw lots and whoever got a matching one would have to fight first. The winner of that battle would then fight the remaining participant.

And if the remaining participant won that battle, he would automatically be ranked as first even when he or she hadn't fought with the loser of the previous battle.

As such, this method didn't really guarantee whoever was first to be the strongest of all of the participants, but the Mercenary Guild had no choice because they had to end the tournament today.

Many of the high ranked officials from the biggest factions were present here, and none of them wanted to waste so much time here in the tournament. All of them had many more important matters to deal with.

Since everyone had the same opinion, the Mercenary Guild could only set up this method to end the tournament in two battles between the three middle stage Rank-8 Mages.

It had been a while since the day started, so Raven, Blaze, and the brown-haired man from the Church of light named Mikol had already drawn the lots.

Much to Raven and Blaze's dismay, the first match was between them!

Both of them instead wanted to fight with Mikol, and now their only chance to fight with him depended on who won among them.

A fire burned in both of their eyes as they stared at each other. Previously, they would aim to win for their own satisfaction, but now they wanted to win because both of them wanted to be the person who would battle Mikol.

It was precisely their battle that had gotten the atmosphere so heated even when there was Ice splattered everywhere.

Raven had come a long way from before and knew better than to hold herself back against Blaze now.

”You already fought with him before, give me a chance now!” Blaze shouted while surrounding Raven with giant ice walls.

Crack!

As if those huge ice walls were just some thin and fragile glass, Raven came out of them, scattering the pieces of ice everywhere.

There were visible signs of exhaustion on Raven's body. She breathed roughly and there was even a few shallow cuts on her left arm, but she continued to attack Blaze.

When Blaze noticed the smoke covering him, he also felt a tiny bit of depletion in his Mana pool without him even moving a muscle!

”Why do you create such troublesome spells, Raven!” Blaze couldn't help but express his annoyance.

Although he jumped away, the smoke dispelled from its original place and appeared from under his feet again!

Blaze couldn't help but curse under his breath, but he didn't lose composure and instead focused on Raven. Such an annoying spell was causing a huge drain in her Mana pool as well, and it became apparent when he noticed that she continued to chant silently.

He had just thought that he might be able to win if only he continued to stall for time and evade this Mana sucking black smoke, but his plans were short-lived because Raven started to rush towards him as well!

”Monster! How can you chant two spells at the same time!?” Blaze noticed that even when the black smoke continued to follow him, Raven also casted her spell that created blades and to make the matter worse, she herself decided to join in.

Raven smirked and looking at that smirk, Blaze couldn't help but grind his teeth.

She had learned to cast two spells at the same time long ago, but hadn't ever used it in battle because it took her all of her focus.

Now, she wasn't going to hold back anymore.

Even when she fought with Mikol yesterday, she had made the mistake of not giving it her all from the very start that had later frustrated her to no end.

Learning from her mistake yesterday, Raven didn't seem to be holding back now.

Floating blades attacked Blaze in the air, the black smoke would start to form whenever Blaze stopped at a place, and Raven herself closed in the distance. Blaze was pretty much screaming inside his mind.

However, he still had more Mana. And unlike Raven, he wasn't exhausted.

As he was being surrounded, he erected a pillar of ice under him that sent him flying in the air, and from there, he cast a spell that created strong chilly winds that kept the smoke from developing again.

The blizzard that would make people's blood run cold only interrupted Raven's attack.

But she quickly got used to the cold and continued to chase Blaze.