The mild afternoon sun cast a relaxing warm glow on Valenzia Arena as two people, one young man and one young woman faced each other in the middle of an enormous stage.
On their faces were contrasting expressions.
The young man had a stoic expression while the young woman looked arrogantly playful.
Her vexing attitude seemed to not have any impact on the young man though as if he was only here to do one job: to take the number one spot for his academy.
The quarterfinal matches are brutal, due to the nature of a best-of-one match type, anything could happen.
One mistake and Eusford Academy was gone from the top three.
This was also the first time the rules of the championship stages had been changed like this which was a bit of an advantageous match type for the dark horses.
After all, they only needed one win to upset their opponents.
Knowing this, it was truly unfathomable how this young woman could still look so confident, as if all of this was nothing but a farce and that her win was inevitable.
Realizing that both sides were ready, the slightly disoriented referee announced the start of the first anticipated banger match.
"Dark horse, Grumblethorn. One of the three kings, Eusford, which academy will come out on top?! Hold on to your seat folks! This banger match is about to..."
"Begin!" The referee's passionate but stern voice resounded in the entire arena, signaling the two fighters to begin.
'Oh? A greatsword user?' Shye mused, slightly surprised to see another greatsword user in the quarterfinals.
Brandishing his enormous greatsword, seemingly a bit heavier than Shye's, Toph ferociously charged towards the Eusford representative.
However, his opening blow was easily dodged by a simple swift backstep.
"Pfft! I knew it. Judging from your body size, it was evident that your brain is also made up of muscles. How could I, Abegail Fury, be hit with such a straightforward attack."
Abegail mocked, drawing her mana-powered short bow as she increased the distance between her and Toph by jumping backward for a few meters.
A little setback like this was nothing to Toph, only, as minutes passed, the fight slowly became a nightmare for Grumblethorne Academy.
The scene of Toph hitting nothing but air replayed over and over.
*THUD*
A slightly nauseating dull thud sounded as Abegail's dagger landed and stabbed deep into Toph's forehead forcing the azure mana barrier to send him out of the stage.
From start to finish, it was The Abegail Show as Toph managed to achieve nothing except invite humiliation for himself.
Realizing that he was sent out of the main stage, Toph clenched his fists in frustration.
He wished to disappear from this place right here right now.
Seeing the traumatized faces of everyone from Grumblethorne made him almost want to kill himself.
Still, he braved on and said nothing as he returned to where the other Grumblethorne representatives were.
"Hahahaha! Oh, how pitiful...."
Not forgetting to say one last insult, Abegail, and the other representatives returned to their academy station while laughing at the dejected Grumblethorne students.
Upon seeing the developments, the commentator found it difficult to speak. However, he must do his job.
"Brutal!! What everyone thought would be a banger match suddenly became a one-man–or rather, a one-woman show! Abegail, the Eusford archer representative, makes a resounding statement!"
"The three kings remain unshaken!"
After such a dominant display from Eusford Academy, the crowd yearned for the next dark horse, Poiper Academy, to pull an upset against Aslan Academy.
Unfortunately, just like Grumblethorne, they were utterly destroyed in a hunt-type match.
Aslan Academy dismantled the selected creature, a (B-) ranked Hellspawn bull-lizard a whopping ten minutes earlier than the Poiper representatives.
'Tch, I really can't stand these arrogant bastards.' Shye inwardly complained. 'Couldn't they just act nicer towards others? Why do they have to be such dicks?'
"Regrettable! Utterly regrettable! Two dark horses have fallen at the hands of two of the three kingly academies, only one remains."
"Can Colzen show us something unexpected?! Or will the competition boil down to the three kings once more?!
"Stay tuned folks! The much-anticipated semi-final draws will be posted on the center holographic screen shortly!"