During his walk to the arena, Alexander saw various people.

  However, no one caught his attention as much as a young woman who was grooming and touching up her appearance, always smiling cheerfully, as if she were waiting for someone.

  When Alexander arrived at the academy’s main arena, it looked more like a coliseum than anything else.

  There were various fighting platforms, containing the main one and several smaller ones around it.

  He headed to the competitors' area and saw that there were people of various races among the participants, ranging from elves and dwarves, to the large and burly demi-humans.

  As was to be expected, the younger ones seemed anxious and/or scared; the older ones exuded their confidence, even if it were vain; and there were those who seemed indifferent to all of this.

  When the drawing ended and the matches were revealed, most competitors became apprehensive. Many ran to check their matchups.

  Soon some were celebrating and others cursing their luck for being so bad—which was normal. But what followed could only be described in one word: massacre.

  The participants who were in the 3rd year overwhelmingly decimated most of the students from lower years.

  It was as if they were just playing with children to pass the time.

  With fights so one-sided, the vast majority of 1st-year students were eliminated immediately, leaving only a few who had the luck and talent to face 2nd-year students from inferior academies.

  With such a one-sided massacre, Alexander's turn to fight came faster than he expected.

  The moment his opponent entered, he felt a strong malice towards him, even though he was sure he didn't know the person.

  "I'm happy that you are my first opponent," said Alexander's adversary with a half-smile. "It would be a pity for you to be eliminated by someone else when they asked me to take special care of you."

  Alexander didn’t need to think long to figure out who disliked him and had ties to a noble scheming against him, but he didn't care about that and merely waited for the fight to begin.

  As soon as the fight began, Alexander's opponent raised his arms. "Come on. Try anything and I will show you that your luck of being born with a good {Talent} is worth nothing compared to that of someone of noble blood."

  Not deigning to respond, Alexander simply unleashed his mana at the opponent, while feeling a strange power affecting him.

  As his mana approached the adversary, it seemed to begin to "break."

  "I told you, you idiot. Commoners like you shouldn't rebel against nobles just because you got lucky," mocked Alexander's opponent. "My family and our {Talent} serve to restrict the {Talent} of insurgents like you for the good of the Empire."

  Upon hearing his words, Alexander began to laugh very loudly. "Your ancestors must be rolling in their graves for you reducing your own family to fat and fearful dogs who fear the development of tiger cubs."

  Alexander's opponent was obviously furious with his words, but he didn't give him time to respond. "Let me explain something, little dog: what makes me win is not luck..."

  "IT'S POWER!" completed Alexander, breaking the light mirage he created in front of the opponent and kicking him in the ribcage, launching him backward.

  His {Evolutionary Metamorphosis} wasn't really active yet; the opponent's {Talent} wasn't affecting him that much.

  The moment his opponent flew, Alexander used |Ascending Flow| again.

  This time he used the technique to reach his adversary and grab his leg.

  As soon as the people of Twin City saw Alexander grab his opponent by the leg, odd smiles appeared on their faces.

  They knew what would happen.

  True to the crowd's expectations, Alexander began to repeatedly smash his opponent on the ground—from one side to the other until he was completely dazed.

  "Weak noble," scorned Alexander before throwing his opponent into the sky and jumping after him.

  Upon seeing that "poor guy" being launched much higher than the last one and Alexander jumping after him, the crowd soon divided between the confused, the scared, the irritated, and the excited.

  "I kept myself as discreet as possible for several months and yet you didn't leave me alone," complained Alexander. "So let's see if being a bit more incisive will solve the problem."

  When his words came out, he grabbed his opponent's legs and began to spin in an extreme rotation.

  "The fight is over. The participant Alexander is the winner due to the need for interference," announced the judge upon confirming that the other side would no longer be able to turn the fight around.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  This time, however, Alexander did not stop and continued to gain speed as he approached the ground.

  When they got very close to the ground, Alexander felt several different energies and manas approaching.

  He then locked the movement instantly.

  The sudden interruption affected his own circulation, but provoked something even worse in the opponent with a devastating pressure on his internal organs.

  The moment they touched the ground, both were already completely immobile.

  Someone's energy held them, preventing them from moving or getting injured from the impact.

  "Take our student for treatment now," sounded an unknown but powerful and incontestable voice.

  As soon as his opponent was taken away, Alexander, under the furious gaze of the judge and several other people, steadied himself and raised his fist in a sign of victory, making most of the city applaud.

  He was, after all, one of the city's representatives... He was one of the "home teams."

  Diana's POV

  Diana was watching the tournament waiting for Alexander's match to start when Lucas came to her accompanied by two middle-aged men who seemed very vigorous and emanated an aura of power. "It's her, professor."

  "..." Diana's family (in unison).

  "I'm sorry to ask so directly, but who are you and what do you want with my daughter?" said Diana's father.

  "Calm down, father. This is Professor Lucas," explained Diana. "He is the responsible professor for the hybrid combat course of Alexander's class."

  "Sorry for the lack of courtesy from that idiot student of mine," said one of the men behind Lucas. "The truth is that Alexander is participating in the tournament at my request. And, as he took this young woman with him during the training, I became curious to know how the months they spent together were."

  "Months?!" inquired Diana's father, turning to his daughter.

  "..." Diana.

  "Wait a moment, you asked Alexander to participate in the tournament? You are the director?" inquired Diana, incredulous and suddenly nervous.

  "What a head I have. I forgot to introduce myself," said the director with a friendly smile. "But you are right, I am the director of this academy."

  "Would you mind if we watched with you while hearing about his training period?" asked the director, not necessarily asking. "The next fight is about to begin."

  "..." Diana.

  "..." Diana's mother.

  "..." Diana's father.

  "I'm sorry, director," said Diana, a bit unsure how to react. "Of course you can watch with us if that's not a problem for you."

  "Thank you," said the director. "So, could you tell us how these months of training were for you?"

  "Yes, director," promptly agreed Diana. "It was like this..."

  "...And he didn't just train to improve his mana and energy control, he also purified and condensed them every day." concluded Diana.

  "..." Director.

  "..." Lucas.

  "..." Unknown gentleman.

  "It seems he really wants the cores you promised in case he wins, professor," joked Lucas, laughing loudly.

  "Which cores?" asked the unknown gentleman.

  "He’s a half-dragonewt who hasn’t awakened his draconic lineage yet... at least not fully," commented the director, sighing. "Initially, he didn't want to participate in this Imperial Tournament, not even at my request."

  "His plan was to go out to earn money, buy dragon cores at the peak of the 3rd evolution, and use the draconic energy to try to awaken his lineage," explained the powerful mage contemplatively. "But since he is a good sapling to be nurtured and won our internal tournament, I made him a proposal to participate in the tournament in exchange for me giving him cores from my personal collection based on his performance."

  "You forgot to say what you promised in case of an unlikely victory by him," provoked Lucas, wanting to see the world in chaos.

  The director immediately shot a furious look at Lucas, who was launched far away, but did not try to hide the truth: "As I hadn't decided yet, he asked me what I would give him if he managed to bring the championship title to our academy, in which, on impulse, I offered the best of my cores."

  "Will you really give that core to him?" asked the unknown gentleman.

  "Don’t play innocent. I would give it to him if he won, but even having trained non-stop, he has no way of winning this year," said the director. "Especially because there are at least two individuals who can use Tier III spells in this tournament."

  "He trained a lot, but he should still be limited to the level of 2nd evolution creatures. There's no way to win," analyzed the director. "But maybe I should give him some credit for trying so hard."

  "You are really right. He has no way of winning," agreed the gentleman, laughing. "But not because of the Tier III spells... Wait and see."

  "Hmm... Director, actually, Alexander killed a 3rd evolution {Forest King Bear}," told Diana.

  "..." Director.

  "..." Unknown gentleman.

  "I know you must be rooting for him, but you don't need to make up a story like that, young lady," said the director in an almost reprimanding tone.

  "But it's true," insisted Diana. "You can confirm with my parents."

  The director then turned to Diana's parents and they nodded. "It's true, sir. It turns out that when they came to visit us in the village where we lived, the village was in the path of a Wave and Alexander fought against it so the people could flee from there to the city."

  "I didn't quite understand the details, but he ended up saving the village and killing the bear that led the wave," explained Diana's mother. "Here's a piece of that bear's meat that he gave me to prepare our meals."

  When Diana’s mother took out the piece of meat from storage, the director’s group fell silent.

  "..." Director.

  "..." Unknown gentleman.

  "His fight is about to begin," warned Lucas, who had returned intact, but who wisely remained silent until that moment.

  After seeing a student under his responsibility being completely beaten and humiliated, the unknown gentleman couldn't help but turn to the director of the Twin Combats Academy and complain: "Your boy is very brutal."

  "He is young and temperamental. He doesn't like being provoked," said the director, clearly covering for Alexander. "Don't tell me you were never like that before sitting in the Imperial Combat Academy's director chair."

  Caught at one of his weak spots by the local director's words, the Imperial Combat Academy director couldn't say much more.

  The local director was surprised and satisfied with Alexander's performance. Diana's parents, however, were frightened. They had never seen anything like the way Alexander fought, much less up close like that.

  If the Imperial Combat Academy director himself hadn't interfered in the fight, who knows what the fate of his opponent would have been.

  "Could you tell us more about his fight with that 3rd evolution {Forest King Bear}?" "Asked" the local director to Diana's family as soon as the fight ended, clearly much more interested than before.