two hours later

everyone had returned from the short break, refreshed and energized for the finals. during recess, discussions about the possible outcomes of the tournament were all the rage among the students.

and in that time as well, the most anticipated fight was the one between the academy''s outstanding first-year and his supposed rival, zen henjok.

of course, there were those who mentioned alex fighting his friend to advance; however, based on julia''s actions prior, the majority notion mentioned ross forfeiting to allow alex to move to the finals undisputed.

as predicted, ross and zen were able to advance to the semi-finals. at that stage, zen began to show much more of his prowess, making the spectators understand he had been holding back this entire time.

unfortunately, or fortunately for zen, he did not draw alex and had to meet him in the finals; something he was pleased about. his opponent in the semi-finals was a student in class a2, a female one-horned human.

even then, zen had the confidence to win without having too much difficulty. of course, anything could happen, but zen had also adopted the "finish within the first thirty seconds" approach.

what this also meant was that ross was going to face alex in the semi-finals. and knowing the possible choice ross was going to make received a boo of displeasure from the students.

eventually, it turned into a chant where the spectating students proclaimed their desire to see a fight among the top students in the first year.

"fight! fight! fight! ..."

observing the commotion, ross glanced at alex with a knowing smile.

"hmph! knowing you guys, ross has no plans of forfeiting the fight." julia snorted, knowing full well how the two could be.

they had had countless sparring sessions, and most of them had alex coming out on top. but in those fights, alex''s level matched with theirs which made things easier for julia and ross.

what''s more, alex was able to win most of them because he became a quick learner, taking in everything taught like a black hole with no limits.

even with someone like julia being trained her whole life, alex had been able to close that gap simply because he had been blessed in ways no one else was.

now, however, they would be facing each other with alex having all his strength and ross having a higher mana pool.

reaching all the way to the finals did take a lot of work but even then, he didn''t go all out. the main show will be his time to shine.

it was the only acceptable place people would truly see what he was made of.

''the goal is to show everyone i am better than alex in every way. taking advantage of passing remnants to win won''t do that, and i''m sure alex feels the same.''

after all, that is what he would have done if he was in alex''s place. being challenged to a fight only to use external factors to win wasn''t satisfying.

only life and death battles require a person to use everything they can to win and survive. in a vr world, however, things were different.

the countdown to the start of their battle began and the two friends got into their fighting stance, the wide grins being replaced with stern and serious expressions.

"don''t hold back," alex said to ross before the final second on the clock hit its mark. with their physical strength difference, ross might be left in the dust if he held back his strength.

experience new tales on empire

of course, only alex could afford to hold back a bit to match ross''s power. while he remained stagnant, the others were growing at absurd speeds.

it was only a matter of time before they caught up to alex if he continued to remain at the same level.

in the lower classes of their power system, the differences were not as pronounced as the levels in the upper tiers.

"mm..." ross acknowledged with a nod.

whoosh!

as soon as the countdown signalled the start of their fight, the two boys disappeared from their positions in a fierce burst of speed.

then....

booom!