Expectations

Asher stood on the stage with the same indifference in his eyes.

Amelia walked onto the stage, and just as the Referee was about to start the match, she raised her hands.

"I will forfeit," Amelia declared.

Many weren't surprised but hoped to see a battle between the two siblings.

"And here I thought every Greville was a battle maniac," Xarax remarked with a disappointed expression.

He wasn't the only one curious about the rumors of the two Greville siblings not being on good terms. However, with Amelia admitting defeat so quickly, perhaps the rumors weren't true.

Osbert began tapping his finger on his elbow, reflecting on the same thoughts.

"It seems you are disappointed by this?" Alfred inquired, glancing at Xarax with a smile.

"Haha, I just wanted to see a good fight. What did you think I meant?" Xarax retorted, the smile fading from his face.

"If you insist, then it must be true," Alfred responded, shifting his gaze to the stage.

Alfred's nonchalance irritated Xarax. Alfred was the sole SS Rank Hunter among all the SSS Rank Hunters sitting here.

"I hope everyone remains peaceful," Farnus interjected before Xarax could react further.

Xarax backed down, seeing Farnus's warning as he didn't want to escalate the situation, but it was true that he wanted to push Alfred into a corner.

After all, he had never seen fear in that man's eyes, even after sitting between so many SSS Rank Hunters, and every single one of them was at odds with each other publicly, at least.

Dexter and Silvus were neutral, while Farnus stayed out of the picture, and the rest were publicly at odds with each other.

Farnus looked at Xarax as he backed down without creating a fuss.

'Don't get riled up now; there will be an opportunity later,' Farnus mused.

Onstage, Asher was declared the winner since Amelia had relinquished her intent to fight him.

Some of the first years could fathom her reluctance, as facing Asher Greville was daunting. Asher had a reputation of being someone best avoided—someone even the Student Council struggled to manage.

Yet, someone in the VIP Room was particularly relieved the siblings didn't clash.

"Thank God they didn't fight," Damian exclaimed.

It was clear Amelia would lose, and Damian suspected that Asher wouldn't have shown her mercy.

There was a deeper reason for Damian's apprehension about their potential fight, even though he often sparred with Asher.

"He's changed since the past," Damian murmured.

He had been thinking about it for a year, but somehow, he felt that Asher had changed greatly from the Asher he had remembered before going to Desmar with Amelia.

He knew that Asher didn't express himself like others, but he felt something different when he saw Asher's eyes.

They remained normal when he interacted with Asher, but sometimes, he would glance at Asher, even if he felt a bit scared.

But Damian didn't want to think about Asher like that, so he never confronted Asher about this. "I hope they can just talk it out," Damian sighed as he looked at Amelia and Asher leaving the stage.

"The next fight is between Rank 3 Alyssa Astaria vs. Rank 5 Lishia Halcyon," Gazil announced as he pointed at the stage.

Lishia walked towards the stage as she looked at Alyssa, who was hovering above the ground wearing a mask that covered half her face.

Alyssa took her position as the Referee and started the countdown.

Lishia was prepared to give it her all because this match and tournament were important for her.

"Start!!" The Referee said out loud.

"It's a pity that a certain someone is not here," Xarax said as he looked toward a particular VIP Section Room.

Everyone sitting there knew that Xarax Hargrave was talking about the VIP where Alexander Astaria was present yesterday.

"It seems you are missing Astaria Head too much," Osbert asked looking at Xarax.

"Hahaha, maybe I am," Xarax replied, looking at Osbert.

This was the way all the SSS Rank Hunters interacted with each other. The situation that involved Calamities was dangerous enough to make them work together, but internally, all of them were vary of each other.

"Just watch the fight," Dexter spoke out as both of them turned towards the stage.

'What a cold-hearted guy,' Xarax smiled as he found the situation funny.

After all, the man who killed an entire elite family in a single night was sitting here calmly, seeing the only survivor of that night's fight.

Alyssa summoned 10 Ice Spears behind her, and Lishia summoned a wave of fire all around her.

Lishia had two affinities; one was Black Element, and the other was Fire Element, and she would use her Fire Magic as a defense against Alyssa.

"Defeat her!!!"

"You can do it, Princess!!"

Students were cheering against Alyssa, and although Lishia didn't like how she received the attention, it was the best situation she could have asked for.

Alyssa was the source of hatred for many, and if Lishia could gain favor by going against her, she didn't mind that.

Alyssa was unfazed by the loud cheering as she sent the Ice Spear towards Lishia, who defended by creating a wall of extremely hot fire from the waves around her.

"She is using a lot of mana from the start," Elsa said, looking at the match.

Today, she was in charge of the matches with a few other S Rank Professors.

Lishia made the whole area around her black as the same black mist started to cover the area around her.

But Alyssa had already watched the match yesterday, and she simply shifted the gravity to the left side as the mist started to gravitate towards the left.

Lishia felt the pressure on herself, but she covered herself with mana, making it easier for her to stay in one place.

Lishia cast a restriction spell as a chain appeared from the huge black shadow, and they went towards Alyssa, who simply pointed her finger downwards.

Bam!

The chains fell on the ground, creating a loud noise while Lishia didn't stop as multiple small fireballs approached Alyssa. All Alyssa did was slightly shift the gravity around her to dodge them, but she was constantly using Gravity Magic for it, which required quite a bit of mana.

But most people weren't happy that Alyssa was showing such a performance against Lishia.

Lishia raised the staff in her hand as the number of Fireballs increased by five times. She targeted Alyssa's current location and every other place she could dodge back to.

Now, Alyssa had no choice but to use Ice Magic to nullify the fireballs, but it was hard to do so if the numbers were so high.

But she knew that there was a limit to what she could showcase her power here.

'Just enough, Just enough,' Alyssa was repeating these words in her head.

"Ice Lance," Alyssa muttered as Lishia noticed multiple Lances in the air, and all of them were coming her way.

"Merge Globe," Lishia chanted with the help of her staff as the shadow of black elements around her turned into a globe that covered her from Ice Lances.

It was a defense spell that most Black Element mages used, but people needed good control over the element itself to pull this off.

"Not bad," Silvus commented.

There were rumors that said that Lishia Halcyon had a better talent as a mage than Elena Rothschild, but nobody could confirm those rumors.

Elena had the potential and the versatility to use multiple elements, but Lishia had high control over her own element.

But in Silvus's eyes, right now, Alyssa was performing much better than Lishia. To make so many Ice Structures without compromising the strength of the structure itself required a lot more than talent.

And the fact she was constantly using Gravity Magic was indeed impressive.

'She might be the second strongest mage of this generation,' Silvus thought, but he wanted to see the end of this duel before coming to a conclusion.

Suddenly, Lishia chanted a big spell that she had learned recently, and she took inspiration from her meeting with Helena Raven.

Suddenly, a lot of black energy started to appear behind Lishia as the chains from the Restriction spell started dissipating.

Alyssa looked ahead, and she could feel the mana Lishia was putting in her spell.

Alyssa raised her hand and used Gravity Magic to interrupt Lishia, but the spell didn't work as Lishia's mana was covering the small area around her.

'Should I use more?' Alyssa asked herself.

"Counter it," Asher's voice came inside Alyssa's ears.

It was to follow the plan they made, and Lishia made it easier by using a Pseudo Tier 3 Magic instead of a half chant.

The Globe burst as a translucent black cylinder barrier appeared around the stage, and it was increasing Lishia's power as Lishia's air started fluttering with all the rampant mana around her.

Suddenly, that barrier faded, and Alyssa felt something heavy on her body.

"Chase the Mark that Shadow left behind.." Lishia completed her chant as a big hand appeared from the massive black energy.

It was an undodgeable attack, something that marked the opponent, and it chased them in the entire area that the Cylinder barrier covered.

Suddenly, Alyssa summoned a huge Ice Needle that had a purple spark around it as she influenced it with Gravity Magic, and her spell surprised many people as the Large needle went towards the hand.

Even Lishia was shocked by the large needle, and due to Alyssa using Gravity Magic, it went towards the black hand as Lishia immediately summoned a mana barrier in case Alyssa destroyed her spell.

But she didn't know that Alyssa could do something like this.

But suddenly, the ice structure was destroyed as it shattered into pieces, and Alyssa, who was in the air, fell and hit the stage.

"Wait, what?" Lishia panicked as she could not stop her spell that was going towards Alyssa.

It happened so quickly, and most students were confused about how Alyssa's ice structure shattered instantly.

Updater's Note: The author is making no promises today, just like nothing happened yesterday. This is good.