Lord of Charm

The first round passed quickly and there were no surprises; Gale, Drake, and Zach all won their fights.

During the second round, Gale enjoyed the crowd's cheers and wanted to hype the crowd. Besides, his opponent was a fellow competitor from the Miyena Kingdom, and he wanted to allow him to showcase his talent.

"Come at me."

He wasn't stupid enough to reveal his trump cards before the finals just to amuse the crowd, but since he already revealed his earth affinity, he could use it in different ways.

His opponent, a male fire magician, was grateful for getting the chance to show his spells. He feared going down like the unlucky magician Gale faced in the first round without a chance to fight back. But now, if he fought well enough, he still had a chance to be selected to be trained in the empire, and it was all that mattered to him.

The magician started multi-casting fireballs at Gale. Gale didn't move, as a Mage, He could perceive everything easily. Exactly a meter away, round shields appeared in front of him, blocking every fireball with precision. Every shield was big just enough to block a fireball, and if it missed by a centimeter, the fireball would hit Gale.

"We get to see the best youths in the Miyena Kingdom duel today! Gale lets his opponent attack first, showing off his defensive earth magic with great precision. How long will this fight last? Will he finish it quickly as he did in the first round?"

Steve's commentating helped the less proficient crowd to understand the impressive technique Gale used. Steve focused on Gale since he was the one the Crowd really cared about.

When the magician felt he couldn't show much more by sending fireballs he summoned a small pillar of fire under Gale's feet; he didn't know when Gale will put an end to the fight and wanted to use this chance to display all his best moves.

"Gale doesn't attack back yet and remains defensive. Is he doing it to let his fellow Miyena's representative display his talents? It seems he would be a great friend, folks!"

The crowd finally understood why Gale 'struggled' against a magician for so long. The fight went on for another minute during which the magician did his best to display all his best moves, and Gale decided to put an end to the fight before the crowd gets too bored.

Gale started with weaker attacks, to let the opponent struggle with defense first instead of knocking him out instantly. Half a minute later, Gale felt he allowed his opponent enough screen time and used his stone barrage spell.

The magician quickly got hit a few times and was eliminated.

"AH!"

Judging by the magician's painful scream, Gale still wasn't that good at holding back against weaker opponents.

The second round passed and the third arrived. This time Gale faced someone from the empire, so he just eliminated him swiftly with a pillar stone to his ribs. He used a different spell to keep the crowd entertained.

In this round, it was Drake faced someone from his side, and everyone had expectations from him to behave the same way as Gale.

"Will Drake go easy on his fellow empire fighter? Fight!"

However, Drake didn't think it was necessary to prolong the fight; the other fighter was going back to the empire anyway. He cast a powerful wind that instantly knocked his opponent out of the arena, and the fight was over.

"Ooooh!"

The crowd let out a loud sound of disappointment. Although the opponent didn't need the favor, Gale already set an example of how to behave against a friend. Drake's eyes twitched in annoyance; he didn't expect the crowd from the kingdom to let out a sound of disappointment.

Finally, the fourth round arrived – the quarterfinals. Gale and Zach went into the arena and faced each other. Zach sighed while lamenting over his bad luck that brought him to face a mage before the semifinals.

He was going to fail the mission he was given to secure second or third place in the tournament, which also meant he lost his prize. Those lands generated tons of gold for the empire every year, and the more he could secure, the better rewards he'd get.

"This is exciting! The empire's second-strongest fighter against our local young hero. Will Zach be able to contend against a mage? Will Gale end it quickly? Fight!"

The fight began and Gale didn't want to make such an important fight too boring. He summoned earth pillars; if he was as good as described, he should be able to survive for a while as long as Gale doesn't multi-cast.

Zach didn't disappoint; he used his water to push himself from the pillars and he stumbled from pillar to pillar, performing a weird ungraceful dance of sorts.

The empire's participants all felt embarrassed to see their fighter being treated like that and felt the urge to yell at Gale to finish this painful sight.

Gale suddenly noticed the way it must have seemed to people outside; it looked like he was toying with Zach on purpose!

"Ahm, you can attack."

Gale let out an embarrassed cough and invited Zach to attack him. He didn't mean to look down on Zach or humiliate him in this fight, it was out of good intentions.

Zach glared him at in response, feeling even worse about the fact his opponent had to stop attacking to let him fight back. He should've at least done it in a more subtle way, to let the crowd think Zach performed a comeback!

Zach started barraging Gale with spells, yet Gale summoned a wall that blocked everything, and nothing could pass.

"Zach's spells can't go through, did Zach run into a stone wall?"

Steve's comment made the crowd chuckle, and Zach felt aggrieved. Why were they expecting him to fight on equal grounds against a 20-year-old mage anyway? This guy would be considered a monster even in the empire!

Soon, Gale took pity on him and decided to end the match. The next moment his stone barrage appeared again and disqualified Zach in a few seconds.

The semifinals weren't much different for Gale and Drake, and the time for their fight in the finals has almost arrived.