Chapter 364. Semifinal.

  A system prompt confirmed the promise the system had made earlier. It wasn’t going to be a huge windfall, but every bit of experience the system wanted to dole out was fine with me.

  You have defeated your opponent in the first match of the tournament. A reward of 4 experience points has been awarded.

  Experience/experience needed for the next rank: 38/50.

  For my bracket, the fight between Brielle and Islis Direshorn was next. I had already seen Brielle in action, and thought she should do well against an opponent that was a couple of ranks lower than her. I could be fighting the winner of this match in the next round, so as much as I wanted to watch some of the higher tier matches, the smart thing was to see how this one ended up.

  As their match started, Brielle began to conjure her army. I’d seen her forest creatures in action already, and was more curious about what her foe would bring to the table. Islis Direshorn was an interesting species. I wasn’t sure what they were called, but to me, she resembled a minotaur from Earth mythology.

  With her physically imposing size, I had sort of expected Islis to summon burly monsters of some kind, but instead, a small puddle of slime appeared at her feet. The green puddle that was probably only a couple of gallons of volume, but the second, and final, minion she summoned was a gelatinous cube, much like Melvin, and even bigger than my friend. I could feel my companion send an image into my mind of him cheering on the team with the cube.

  “I’ll bet you lunch that Brielle wins,” I said. Melvin confirmed that he was taking the bet, even though he didn’t have any money, and I was likely going to be the one buying lunch whether I won or lost.

  Brielle’s troops seemed to know how to deal with the slime and the cube that were slowly crawling across the field toward them. The mage in her army cast a spell that created a green glow around the small vegepygmy troops she had. At the same time, the elves in her army began to pepper the slime and cube with arrows.

  “That seems like a waste, the arrows aren’t even going to slow them down,” I said, beginning to worry about how Brielle’s chances. It turned out the arrows weren’t a waste, and the mage cast a new spell, igniting the arrow shafts all at once. The magical flame burned deep into the bodies of the slime and cube, but both minions were able to push the shafts from their bodies and continue their slow approach toward the opposing army.

  Holding their fire until the mage was ready, the elves unleashed another volley. This time, the arrows ignited before they hit the target, and all seemed to be targeted at the smaller slime. With burning arrows landing across its body, the slime was unable to push them all out before it suddenly went still and dissipated into mana vapor.

  The smaller vegepygmys gathered around the gelatinous cube, poking ineffectually at it with their spears. Finally having a foe in reach, the cube created a gooey limb that swatted and stuck to one of its attackers. The cube drew the body of the vegepygmy into its mass, rapidly digesting the hapless minion, who robbed the cube of its meal by turning into mana vapor.

  Brielle’s vegepygmy mage was just standing there chanting, and as I watched, I realized that he must have blown all his fire spells and was using an ability similar to Elida’s Channel Mana. Another vegepygmy was destroyed before the mage had finished its work. A barrage of burning arrows lanced into the cube, who managed to expel the missiles before they did too much damage.

  Havin much more mass than the smaller slime, the cube was able to tank the damage. It grabbed a vegepygmy that got too close, killing it as well. Melvin sent me feelings of frustration. If the cube had been able to eat the enemy minions, it could have rapidly healed the damage it had taken from the flames.

  Aggressive, but not smart, the vegepygmy swarm was slowly cut down. The elves in Brielle’s army, each riding a wolf, and the vegepygmy mage, were shrewd enough to keep out of reach of the gelatinous cube and a slow speed chase ensued. It wasn’t long before Professor Gelbman stepped in.

  “I’m going to have to declare this fight a draw. Neither force seems to have the means to engage and destroy the other,” Gelbman announced. Both Brielle and Islis looked disappointed as a draw on their win/loss record would probably mean they weren’t in the running to win this.

  “Hold on, Professor,” Brielle said, getting the man’s attention. “I’ll concede and Islis can be the winner. My minions couldn’t beat her gelatinous cube in a stand-up fight, and all they could do was stay away,” she selflessly offered.

  “If you wish, we’ll declare Islis the victor, and she will advance to the next round of the tournament. Might I also say that you have earned my respect for your actions today young lady,” Professor Gelbman said as the next two contestants in my bracket, Abax Custinov and Ikbla Barterman, took the field.

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  “Rico, how did your first match go?” Melody asked after she spotted me on the side of the field watching the fights.

  “I won, so it’s on to the semifinals for me. How did your match go?” I asked.

  “I won, but it was a tough fight,” Melody said.

  “Congrats, and I’m sorry that I missed your fight. Maybe we can have our minions spar one day? I’d love to see how your minions operate,” I said.

  “That sounds like a plan, at least whenever we get some downtime. I know you’re busy with a lot of other things when you’re not working here at the academy,” Melody said. She was right, I was busy, but not too busy to get some practical experience sparring against someone that was a higher tier and rank than me.

  “Are you going to stick around to watch the rest of the matches?” I asked.

  “Definitely, when do you fight again?” she asked.

  “One more fight after these two, and then I suspect will be my turn,” I said gesturing toward the field where Professor Gelbman was giving instructions to the new competitors.

  “Great, that should give me time to get a bite to eat before your fight starts,” Melody said, waving as she left.

  I almost asked if she wanted company, but I had a fight to watch, and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to see how Melody, as a parasitic being, ate. Melvin also made himself known as he pulled my attention to several food stalls that had opened. I figured I could grab something quick for him and be back before the real action began.

  “What do you want Melvin, we don’t have much time if I want to catch some of the next match,” I said. He pointed me toward a booth that was selling something that looked like a funnel cake. A berry sauce was drizzled over the top, and I had to admit, it smelled delicious.

  I purchased one, snuck a bite, and then held the rest of the cake up against my armor so Melvin could enjoy the fruits of his victory. Only a couple of minutes had passed, but when we returned to the field, the match was over. Abax Custinov had emerged victorious, and I didn’t even catch a glimpse of how he managed to do it. At least I got a good look at the man. He was wearing professor robes, but I didn’t remember ever seeing him before.

  That just left one more match before the semifinals. It was the favored contender, Gullywallow and a poor guy named Darmen Dale that was only tier two, rank eight. While the fight with Abax had ended quickly, Gullywallow’s fight wasn’t all that much longer. It turned out that Gullywallow summoned a team of five knights in heavy armor and wielding a variety of weapons. They completely steamrolled Darmen’s minions, which were a team of primitive orcs backed up by a goblin shaman.

  We were all given a short break for those that needed time for their minions to recover. My next fight was announced right after, I was going to face Abax, the one potential opponent I knew nothing about. The instructions were short since Professor Gelbman had already gone over them with us once today.

  “Since you’re both ready, the match begins now!” Professor Gelbman announced. We both had one minute to summon our companions. My drone and Elida didn’t take that much time to summon, so I got a good look at Abax’s forces. He had a small group of six odd looking humanoids in robes with their heads hidden by a thick hood.

  The one-minute timer counted down and the six mages snapped their fingers in unison and disappeared from sight. My drone lobbed a few grenades in the area, hoping that the fragments would find any invisible or stealthed foes. Suddenly, all six mages reappeared, three surrounding each of my minions, and the mages were already well into casting their next spell.

  My drone activated the plasma beam generator that burned completely through one mage just before their spells went off. Elida wasn’t so lucky and had no chance to respond before the mage’s spells unleashed. A blast of acid, fire, and ice hit my minions, though the ice mage surrounding the drone had been taken out by the plasma beam.

  Elida’s Personal shield blocked the flames directed at her, but the acid spell landed on the back of her head, the caustic fluid seeping through the gaps in her armor. Several spikes of ice also slammed into her, most deflected by her armor, but all three spells were targeted at her face, and one of the spikes found the eye slot in her armor. She collapsed to the ground, but she managed to activate her aura which burned the mages and began to heal her.

  The drone’s armor seemed to resist the worst of the flames, but I could sense the magical flames had weakened his armor, despite the drone’s natural resistance to magic. Another blast of his plasma beam destroyed the fire mage facing the drone, but the acid mage kept up the barrage of caustic liquid, the acid proved powerful enough to start dissolving the armor of the drone.

  Elida cast a heal on herself, but all three mages unleashed their second wave of spells that took out my healer, turning her into mana vapor. My drone, his armor smoking and pitted from the abuse it had endured, extended a bladed arm that hacked down the last mage facing him.

  The grenade launcher swiveled toward the surviving trio of mages, but just as it fired, a barrage of acid, flame, and ice from the mages that had bested Elida slammed home. Hitting the magical barrage, the grenade was thrown off course and detonated harmlessly behind the surviving mage trio. I wished that I could assist my minion, but I was prevented from casting Health Bloom or even using the Ring of Final Sacrifice to take out every minion on the field.

  My drone’s natural magic resistance kept it on its feet as it fired its plasma beam, using the last few seconds of the weapon’s power to sweep it across the mage trio. The three mages were destroyed, their deadly sneak attack meeting a foe that was a hard counter to most mages. Smoking and sizzling from the damage that had been done to it, I unsummoned my drone so he could begin repairs.

  “Rico Kline has won his semifinal match and will proceed to the finals!” Professor Gelbman shouted. I received a few cheers from the students and faculty I knew, which felt nice. Even nicer was the experience reward the system doled out to me.

  You have defeated your opponent in the semifinal match of the tournament. A reward of 6 experience points has been awarded.

  Experience/experience needed for the next rank: 44/50.