Chapter 302: Match Against Bethany

Julius was still headed toward the arena just in case he could still make his match, or if there was some reason why his opponent was also late.

Unfortunately, it seemed that he could do nothing and was met by Lily, Aubrey, and Edgar.

“We were waiting for you for a long time!” Aubrey exclaimed. “But imagine our surprise when you didn’t even show up!”

He held his hands up and tried to placate her. “I got tied up with something important. A rift had another issue and time just got away,” he explained.

That seemed to calm her down quite swiftly. “Another rift incident?” Aubrey asked worriedly.

“What do you mean? Did something bad happen again?” Lily asked anxiously.

He sighed and spent the next minute explaining to them what had happened. Thankfully, this seemed to distract them from the fact that he had forgotten his match.

“Doesn’t this seem kinda suspicious?” Aubrey said with a tilt of her head.

“I agree. What are the odds of something like this happening during the tournament? Everyone knows that this is the busiest time of the year and when the staff are already overworked,” Edgar added.

“Who do you think would do something like this, though? And what could possibly be their reasons for doing so?” Lily asked

“The Conclave,” Julius couldn’t help but mutter to himself.

“What was that, Julius?” Edgar asked.

He shook his head. “Nothing, just talking to myself,” he replied.

Edgar gave him a funny look but didn’t press him any further.

“Anyhow, we should still have time to go see Kyle’s match. If we head over now, we might get there before it begins,” Lily said with a smile.

The four of them headed off to the other arena to go and support Kyle, and for the moment, the fact that he missed his own match was forgotten.

***

Today was the last match of the prelims until everyone got paired. At the moment, he sat at three wins and one loss. The loss, which was completely his fault, as Aubrey loved to point out.

However, he had a feeling that today’s fight was going to be a bit different than his other matches. His opponent this time around wasn’t like the other people he had fought.

It was a fourth-year girl and right away he was able to tell that she was stronger than the other people he had fought as of yet just by looking at her aura. Her name was Bethany and according to Lily, she was definitely toward the top of the fourth years.

This meant that Julius found himself in Arena 1 for the first time. This also meant that he would be fighting in front of a lot of people. Previously, he had been fighting in front of a couple of dozen people at most.

However, Arena 1 was where most of the more interesting fights occurred. It was designated to people that the school believed were more ‘attractive’ to watch, which obviously caused it to be more packed than any other arena.

When he walked onto the field, he was kind of surprised by the small anxious jitters he was feeling. There were so many eyes looking at the field. Almost every seat in the arena was taken and he could hear the loud roars from the crowd as they cheered on the other fights that were going on around him. The booming cries and collective groans when someone got hit particularly hard echoed throughout the entire arena.

For the first time since the prelims began, it finally started to feel like a serious tournament.

The moment the two of them walked onto the field, he was able to sense that many of the crowd’s focus turned to watch their match. While he knew that most of their eyes were on the pretty girl in front of him, he still felt a little nervous, but he had to admit that he felt a spark of excitement as well.

He saw the Bethany girl staring at him with an intense gaze from across the field. For some reason, unlike the other students he had faced, she didn’t seem to be looking down on him just because he was a first-year student.

He didn’t know if that was because she had heard about his other fights or if that was just the type of person she was, but it was nice to see that she was considering him an actual opponent.

The official walked out onto the field between the two of them.

“This is an official match between fourth-year Bethany Jacobs and first-year Julius Snow,” he announced, though Julius doubted that many people were able to hear the man over the noise of the crowd.

However, he was soon proven wrong when suddenly a large portion of the arena went silent for a brief moment. After the stark silence, he watched as many of the spectators turned to each other and started muttering amongst themselves.

He could hear the crowd saying things like ‘first-year’ and ‘it’s a shame’. He didn’t blame them for their reaction. His participation in the tournament was still not common knowledge, and it seemed that many of the people were shocked to hear the revelation.

Although he had more pressing issues in front of him at the moment. So he put these thoughts into the back of his mind and focused on the match. The official then looked at the two of them with a meaningful glare, ignoring the crowd’s mutters.

“You both know the rules, so I expect a clean and fair fight. If one of you breaks one of these rules, you will forfeit the match and be punished accordingly. Understood?”

Stolen novel; please report.

Julius nodded at the man, and Bethany did the same from her side of the field, but he noticed that her eyes never strayed from him for a single second.

***

Bethany POV

When the official signaled the start of the match, Bethany didn’t waste any time and sent a salvo of mana spears straight toward the young boy in front of her.

She knew better than to underestimate the first year.