Whoosh.

Lightning flew swiftly toward Jurian. The snow-white lightning itself was very dangerous, but the presence of water and metal around Jurian made it several times stronger.

There was no way Jurian could avoid the lightning coming at him. He was restrained by iron rods and imprisoned in a watery prison.

Bam.

The lightning almost reached Jurian, but at the very last moment it was blocked by a glass shield.

The girl in black clothes waited until the last moment and realizing that Jurian had no trump cards she decided to stop this fight.

Unlike Katlyn who was rejoicing at her victory, there was no emotion on Roland's face. He didn't even bother to wait for the girl to come up and declare him the winner. He simply walked away from the arena, which at that moment was in complete silence.

Everyone had already known who would win in the third round, but no one would have thought it would end so quickly. Roland did not give his opponent a chance to win.

What's more, everyone was surprised by how quickly Roland cast three spells of completely different elements. Each of them required control and a certain skill to immobilize his opponent so easily.

It should be noted that Roland didn't use the water spell of the Creation Magic to attack, but to further immobilize the Jurian.

Of course, Gilbert and the other strongest magicians of Mossy Vulture were surprised neither by the outcome of the fight, nor by Roland's performance. Each of them knew very well how talented this young man was. In addition, during the fight Roland always became really serious, which made it impossible to beat him.

Evan watched Roland leaving the arena and thought to himself,

Roland was the first contestant who managed to impress Evan. Sure, Katlyn and Fien were strong, but Roland stood out among them.

Since Roland outdid his opponent, their fight was over in no time at all. None of the competitors were injured and the arena was completely intact. That's why the next, fourth, round began a few minutes after the end of the third one.

Like all the other times Evan had hoped Fane would finally call his name, but unfortunately it was not what he wanted.

The contestants for the fourth round were announced. They were two girls from noble Families, their fight was very long and in Evan's opinion incredibly boring. He almost fell asleep while watching them.

The thing was each of the girls had three spells of Summoning Magic. They tried to immobilize each other and find a chance to attack, but time after time, they failed. It was like a battle between two shield-bearers who could only defend themselves.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh rounds followed. They weren't as boring as the fourth, but they were still a long, long way from the Roland`s battle. Evan had already lost all hope of a quick exit, and in fact, he had to wait a long time.

...

Bam.

Another fight was over and the girl in black clothes announced the winner of the sixteenth round.

Like all the times before, Fane pronounced the names of the contestants for the next - seventeenth round:

"Soren Whitehead and Evan Lynch!

"

As soon as these words reached Evan's ears, he felt an unprecedented relief and joy.

It's always nice to get something you've been waiting for.

A satisfied smile appeared on Evan's face.

.

Whoosh.

Evan gripped Reverse Death tightly and headed for the center of the arena.

Evan was a no one to most of those present, but Marcel, Zak, and Koen were watching him curiously. They all wondered how he would perform.

"You know, Zak, from the first time I saw that boy he's changed a lot. What's more, Fane has put them in the same round, as if fate itself wanted to see a confrontation between these two.

"

Marcel said calmly, looking at Evan. The young man walked slowly, holding his weapon tightly in his hands, and his long coat fluttered in the wind.

Zak smiled and replied,

"Yes, we're really lucky, the contestants are picked right. It's going to be exciting - I'm sure!

"

Soren also entered the arena after Evan.

He had thick blond hair and bright green eyes. What strongly caught everyone`s eyes was that he differed from all the previous contestants by the large number of Magical Artifacts he had.

Soren was, literally covered in them. He had rings on his hands, bracelets, an amulet on his neck, and earrings in his ears and all of them were Magic Artifacts. He was also wearing a full set of silver colored Magical Armor, from his boots to his shoulder pads.

In his right hand, there was a snow-white long sword with a square guard and in the left hand - a large triangular shield with a blue gem in the center. Naturally, both the shield and the sword were

"Catalysts.

"

The Whitehead family had done everything in their power to make sure Soren won this tournament. They`d spent a lot of money to purchase Soren's equipment.

You could tell at a glance that Soren was a very arrogant man. He knew he was strong and rich and he was going to take advantage of that. Soren looked at Evan as if he were a bug he could easily crush.

He couldn't even entertain the idea that anyone other than Roland would be able to compete with him in this tournament. Soren was sure that with the help of the Whitehead Family he would never lose.

The participants of the seventeenth round stood in front of each other, and Evan once again examined his opponent. He was amazed that a man could look so pretentious and ridiculous.

Nevertheless, Evan was only happy about it. He could see perfectly well that Soren was looking down at him with a smug grin. Putting people like that in their place was true bliss.

Whoosh.

Suddenly Evan swung his spear and pointed it at Soren.

Everyone in the arena was surprised by his action, no one had ever behaved so boldly before.

Evan said coldly:

"Take off all your armor and artifacts or I`ll break them into small pieces.

"

Soren didn't expect this development, but he quickly pulled himself together and rudely replied,

"Huh? Wearing Magical Armor is not forbidden by the rules. If you're a miserable pauper, that's your problem!

"

Evan answered nothing and simply lowered his weapon.

At the same moment, Fane said loudly:

"Wow! It looks like this fight is going to be different than the previous ones. None of the contestants had ever greeted each other like this before. Well, let's hurry up and get started!

"