The battles between mages of other guilds had continued throughout the day, and by the time the sun had reached its peak, Fractured Stars had secured their victory against the Tainted Bears.

Talen had defeated Akaza rather easily, even when both their magics were at S rank strength.

Akaza's steel magic was commendable, and had such with devastating force behind but it was ultimately nothing against Talen's magic that distorted the way reality itself worked.

The fight had ended quickly, and with that victory, Fractured Stars moved to the next round.

However it was the event of the next match that came as a shocker.

The crowd had expected a spectacle. Maren of Silver Pegasus, just like his uncle Azam, had inherited their family's velocity magic, an S-rank level magic which also allowed him to move at speeds that made him nearly untouchable.

Thamoryn called the match to begin and Elian stepped onto the platform, with his expression as blank and emotionless as ever.

Maren walked forward as well but before the fight could even begin, he raised his hand and said, "I forfeit,"

The crowd had gone silent.

Thamoryn raised an eyebrow. "You're certain?"

"Yes," Maren said. "There's no point in fighting him. I'd lose." you could hear the resignation in his voice.

Gasps and Murmurs broke out through the stands immediately.

This was the quickest fight in the entire tournament, over before it had even started.

Maren turned and walked off the platform without another word, with his teammates staring after him in disbelief.

Elian didn't react either, He simply turned and walked back to his side of the arena as if nothing had happened.

Thamoryn's lips curved into a faint smile. "Grey Demons advance to the semifinals."

The crowd erupted into noise, some cheering, some shouting in confusion.

Some mages, especially the ones coming from Xathia stared at Elian with a mixture of fear and awe, and some were intrigued.

Among those staring was Talen.

He sat in the Fractured Stars section, with his arms crossed. Talen wondered how strong truly this mage was that he was able to make another give up without a fight.

Across the arena, Aiden also watched Elian with some form of interest.

Meanwhile, in the captains' section, Cassian of Fractured Stars had his eyes continually drifting back to one particular mage. "Laela"

In the first around, she was the only mage to have displayed a magic he found as powerful. The kind of magic that could be useful to their cause.

"A mage like that," Cassian thought to himself, his gaze lingering, "could be very useful."

However, he filed that thought away for later. Not long after, the next round of knockouts began.

Ravens Grave was going to go against Fractured Stars, And Grey Demons against the Starry Maidens guild.

Thamoryn stood at the center of the arena, and with her voice projecting across the field, she announced. "The next set of matches will be between Ravens Grave and Fractured Stars."

From the Fractured Stars side, Ambrose stepped forward, with a confident grin already spreading across his face.

On the Ravens Grave side, the mages exchanged glances.

"Who's going?" Innis asked quietly.

Kayden's jaw tightened, especially as he really wanted to get back at Ambrose for practically stealing their win the previous day before.

However he acknowledged that Ambrose had one of those difficult magics to counter, and then there was still that god-level supplementary spell that he could use to cancel out magical attacks

So right now, Kayden had this doubt as to whether he could really fight this mage.

That was when Elena decided to step up.

"I'll go," she said quietly.

Arianna turned to her, with some concern on her face. "Are you sure?"

Elena nodded, with this small smile on her lips.

Laela placed a hand on her shoulder. "Be careful."

"I will."

Even Katherine, seated among the other captains, focused intently on Elena. There was worry in her eyes.

She knew how dangerous Ambrose was. She also knew Elena's greatest weakness, Mana capacity.

Thamoryn gestured, and the representative of both guilds walked towards her. Then she raised her hand and casted the protection spell on them both.

Then she stepped away and to let them both begin.

Ambrose laughed a bit at Elena. "You? Really?" He shook his head, still grinning. "You're the least impressive mage on your team, why would they let you fight against me? This is going to be embarrassing."

Elena said nothing. She simply raised her staff, and without warning, she cast a spell.

"Aqua Sphere."

A ball of water formed in the air above her, and when she thrust her staff forward, the sphere shot toward Ambrose like a cannonball.

Ambrose raised his hand lazily. "Dispel Magic."

The water sphere dissolved instantly, scattering into mist.

Ambrose's grin widened. "That all you got?"

But Elena's expression didn't change either. She raised her staff again.

This time, multiple water spheres formed. Five of them, hanging in the air, and when she thrust her staff forward, they all launched at once, one after another in rapid succession.

Ambrose's grin faltered slightly. He raised his hand again, but this time, instead of dispelling, he used a different spell.

"Theft Magic: Spell snatch."

All five water spheres rushed toward him, but midway through the air, they vanished abruptly.

He laughed, then taunted. "Nice try, but you're going to have to do better than that."

Elena however was trying to understand the opponent's nature of fighting and magic.

Given her knowledge of supplementary spells, She knew the dispel spell could only cancel one magical attack at a time, which was why she casted multiple.

Which had then forced him to switch to using theft magic when she'd sent multiple attacks.

She then raised her staff and casted an advanced level supplementary spell, "Black Screen."

A thick cloud of black smoke erupted between them, blanketing their entire fighting space in darkness.

Ambrose scoffed. "Really? A smoke spell? What's the point of that?" He raised his hand. "Theft Magic."

The smoke began to pull toward him, swirling into his palm, slowly clearing the field.

But just before the smoke faded completely, a single water sphere shot through the haze from the side, slamming into Ambrose's ribs.

He staggered backward, gasping, with some pain flaring through his body.

Elena stood off to the side, panting slightly. She'd used the smoke screen to reposition, attacking from his blind spot.

Then attacked from an angle he couldn't have anticipated or countered in time.

By doing this, She'd just revealed a weakness of his theft magic. When it came to stealing other magic spells, his magic required a line of sight, and so couldn't steal what he couldn't see.

Although, she was also beginning to feel the effects of running out of mana.

Ambrose's expression contorted into a frown as he straightened up, with a faint green glow forming around his hand. "Theft Magic: Pain Snatch." The throbbing ache in his side vanished instantly.

Then he thrust his hand forward. "Mana Steal."

Elena gasped as she felt what was left of her mana being pulled from her body, siphoned directly into Ambrose.

Her legs trembled, and she leaned heavily on her staff, struggling to stay upright.

Ambrose smirked. "Give up. You're done." He was going to end it with this.

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