I return just in time to be summoned for my round in the finals. My opponent is Mari from WhiteWing. She uses a dagger and short sword, falling back on her high dexterity and mana. And she tends to use said mana to further enhance her damage output and speed.

“Being in the top 32 isn't that bad,” she notes.

“There are only 31 people from Hell difficulty here in the tournament.”

“You sure know how to ruin the mood.” Mari lowers her stance and more mana floods into her weapons.

At the same time, lights start glowing under her skin in whorls and patterns reminiscent of tattoos.

There’s a short burst of mana and a flash of light as she strikes her sword with her dagger. The effect of which serves to blind me and disrupt my senses.

[Perception] seems to be confused by that, so I fall back on my primordial energies to track her heat and kinetic energy, while boosting my body with normal mana.

She lashes out at me with a thrust, which I avoid with a step to the side, coating my blade in a layer of resonating mana and retaliating with a downward slash, severing her arm.

Mari spins on the spot, adjusting her grip on the dagger, and lashing out at me again as she avoids my follow up strike.

Her dagger lets off a flash of light and disruptive mana, but this time I’m prepared, and move to counter it while dissecting the skills involved. Then I send her flying with a burst of kinetic energy, followed by yellow flames to box her in.

She creates a barrier around herself and endures the flames for a while before I infuse them with [Resonance] to break through her defenses.

Congratulations, you have won your 8th duel and ranked first in your group! You have qualified for the finals. The finals will take place one hour after all finalists have been declared!

Once I’ve returned I take the opportunity to find a more secluded place so that I can focus on my training. I still watch the fights since they are interesting enough, but I can’t forget that the tournament will be ending soon, so I need to maximize my gains.

I keep my crown over my head while feeding it bits of black mana in an attempt to find the tipping point.

So far, I have learned that the crown helps me improve my control over black mana. The real problem arises when the crown turns black. Then it just starts absorbing all the mana it can touch.

My theory is that the black crown doesn’t have any stronger mana-absorbing properties than black mana. The reason why its pull is so strong is because it quickly absorbs so much mana. An amount I never use when compressing my mana to create a black orb.

So, for example, if I use 50% of my mana to create a black orb, it will be as strong as feeding the black crown 50% of my mana.

The main difference is that the black crown bears a connection to me that allows it to empty my reservoir, making it more difficult to fight its pull. On the other hand, the black crown tends to crumble faster than the orbs.

Thankfully, there are advantages even though they are theoretical for now. The crown bears a stronger connection to me than the orb. That means it should be easier to use than a black orb. Of course, that only really applies if I can solve the control issues. Right now, it’s more difficult to use the black crown than the black orb.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem to make much sense, but there is a bit of twisted logic behind it.

My goal is still to make the black crown into a tool to absorb the ambient mana around me and make it my own.

It sounds straight-up broken, too strong, and a project for the far future, but it also sounds like something that should be possible, that’s why I’m taking the opportunity to train here. When the tournament is over, I will train something else, maybe I’ll find a way to better utilize my massive reserves of mana. That sounds like it’ll be important. Constantly growing my mana is nice, but I need to be able to use it in the first place.

I need more skills that increase my damage output. Maybe even a signature move that doesn’t require charging or preparation. A single target high damage strike would be nice too, something for the stronger opponents.

There I pull myself from my thoughts as one of the more interesting fights starts. Damn, am I starting to turn into a sports fanboy? Do I need a beer and a hotdog to eat during the fights?

This fight in particular will decide the finalist for their group, Tess against Lily. I have a winner in mind, but it will be entertaining to see it happen.

And it starts strong.

Instead of putting distance between them, Tess stands in place, causing Lily to falter as she moves to charge after her with everything she’s got.

Tess can see her surprise, and it only serves to amuse her. A crown surrounded by red and white lightning forms over her head, and her blonde hair starts shining like gold as beautiful armor surrounds her body. Sleek and functional at the same time, with lightning crackling around the edges.

The sky over the floating island they stand on starts turning darker.

Lily lets it all happen, and like me, she must know why Tess has done this. It’s simple. The blonde has decided to indulge her pride and show Lily, who’s been getting very confident lately, why she’s the leader of the group and assert her strength in the process.

Lily is shorter than Tess. Her eyes are brown, unlike Tess’s gray, and while Tess seems to be releasing light, Lily seems to be absorbing it. That dangerous gray mana seeps out of her like a cloud of deadly smoke capable of destroying anything. A gray dagger forms out of it, and Lily’s hair starts shrinking, her waist-length hair seemingly retracting into her head until it stops at her shoulders.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Tess simply watches as Lily sacrifices her hair, a few of her organs, a bit of flesh, and most likely some senses too.

Both of them attack at once.

Before they crash, lightning roars through the sky and hits Lily head-on, destroying her leg and burning half of her body.

Without blinking, Lily takes a step, her wounds healing in a flash. She swings her dagger, and smoke seeps out of it, devouring Tess’s primordial lightning.

Tess moves to the side, looking more like lightning given form than a human, and Lily follows matching her speed, bolstered by her sacrifices.

Tess pelts Lily with large stones, each one the size of a car. She also pulls trees up by the roots, and a constant barrage of lightning tracks Lily as if it were being pulled by a string.

Like an unstoppable nightmare, Lily passes through it all, her flesh healing with terrifying speed. [Disintegration] devouring lightning as if it were nothing, while she nimbly dodges oversized projectiles and cuts through them with ease.

I can see the surprise in Lily´s eyes as Tess stops dodging and crashes into Lily head on, her lightning zaps the girl, causing her to freeze for a moment.

Lightning spears appear from behind Tess’s back and pierce through the black-haired healer, then Tess’s armor disappears, collapsing into a spear of red and white lightning before piercing Lily’s neck.

Yet, the healer doesn’t vanish in a cloud of particles.

Gray mana explodes around her, devouring everything: air, lightning, Tess’s leg, and the ground she stands on. A big chunk of the area around her disappears, leaving a smooth surface.

And Lily stands there, her wounds fully healed and hair even shorter, even one of her arms gone, sacrificed.

Once again, a gray dagger forms in her hand, but before she can take a step, two stones as big as buses crash into her from the sides, squishing her in between. Still, she almost dodges the blow, only her lower body managing to get caught in between the stones.

Lily swings her arm, cutting herself off from what remains of her body. Then she stumbles as her body regrows, one of her eyes disappearing, and she seems to have gone deaf, sacrificing her hearing.

Tess, standing on a single leg, still dodges Lily, using a lightning-based prosthesis instead of her leg to move. She destroys Lily’s leg and dodges a strike from the dagger made of gray mana along with its follow up.

Lily charges her, letting go of the dagger, and strengthening her body instead, but one last bolt of lightning falls from the sky, damaging her even further, her wounds seeming to heal slower as a result of dwindling mana reserves.

Tess hasn’t even used her [Declaration] and even chose to fight up close, giving a huge advantage to Lily.

But now, a barrage of projectiles and spears hits Lily for the last time. The black-haired healer continues to push through, her grey mana devouring the attacks and her limbs regenerating, though more slowly now.

Step by step, she moves closer with determination on her face, but to no avail. Lacking mana reserves and running out of things to sacrifice, she hits her limit, which becomes even more noticeable due to her inexperience, impatience, and overreliance on two powerful skills. So, Tess wins.

The black-haired girl disappears in a burst of shimmering particles even as she sacrifices more parts of her body in an attempt to heal.

Under the dark sky, the lightning crown over Tess’s head finally flickers and disappears. Even tired, wounded and with her golden hair plastered to her face Tess looks very regal right now.

She then disappears, teleported by the system, returned to the roof with the rest of group 4.

Lily and Tess, fully healed, face each other, but before anything can be said, Maya jumps on Lily from behind, hugging her and calling her terminator. Tess also smiles and compliments Lily, while giving out a few pointers.

Lily doesn't seem too happy about it, but she can use it as fuel for her determination to improve. That and she needs more mana, yup.

The next fight is Brainiac versus Adam. The tall redheaded boy quite easily beats Adam. Both clearly know each other’s skills, and Brainiac shows surprising skill not fitting his nosy and extremely cheery personality. He fights cleverly, using ranged attacks that have clearly improved since the second event. As per my advice, they are smaller, sharper, and contain less mana, making them harder for Adam to track.

Brainiac fights from a distance, shooting them through the trees even as they pierce easily, leaving finger-thick holes. Gradually, he tires out the older man, emptying his reserves, and takes the win.

Biscuit is in the finals against Aaron. The best doggo of the tournament floor shows no mercy from the start, bombarding Aaron with mental attacks and tentacles that extend a great distance.

Aaron is quick, often leaving very convincing afterimages of himself that even contain mana, heat, and the feeling of weight.

For Biscuit, they are easy to destroy, but it takes some of his reserves while Aaron moves around, blending with his surroundings by using [Sensory Deception] and relying on [Haste] to move quickly.

That way of fighting has helped him so far, easily dealing with hard difficulty and even one guy from Hell difficulty. He can also use mental attacks, but they don’t really seem to work all that well on Biscuit, who merely responds by shouting louder the moment someone tries to connect to his mind.

In a last-ditch effort, Aaron dodges through the tentacles and mana projectiles and reaches Biscuit, only for it to be revealed as a projection, and the real one attacks from the side, a dagger in his hand.

Even so, Biscuit reacts in a flash and envelops him in his purple tentacles.

The gentle corgi then shakes Aaron until the boy forfeits, Aaron surrenders to escape and to avoid throwing up from all the shaking before appearing outside. There, he curses under his breath while Biscuit leaves my lap, wobbles up to him, and nudges Aaron with his small head until the boy relents and pets him.

Gareth faces Dennis in the finals, the second twin sharing a combat style with his brother.

I think it’s great they got so far, only losing against strong opponents. But both of the twins are much stronger when they can fight together. When they fight alone, it’s like most of their skills can’t be used properly. It's a weakness they need to work on.

Gareth, having some knowledge of Dennis, acts gentle but firm and allows some attacks to hit that fail to damage him at all before changing his armor, moving quickly, and defeating the second twin.

Then Sophie disappears with Tacita, and the two women face each other on the floating island. The common area becomes eerily quiet for a moment before the conversations resume at a much quicker pace. People bet as quickly as possible, trying to guess the winner of the fight.

Sophie has a terrible reputation as a mind manipulator, and Tacita is a crazed girl, barely even a young woman, who kills people if they get too close.

Tacita’s nonchalant bearing changes one second after the duel starts. Before she even moves, blood seeps out of her eyes and ears, and her arm moves. Tacita stabs at her own neck, only managing to redirect the dagger at the last moment and burying it just over her collarbone.

It becomes quiet once again as Sophie’s green eyes shine coldly and a swarm of dozens mana constructs surrounds her.