[Day 2 of the Tournament – Quarter-Finals]

[Location: The Arena Floor]

The steam from Lukas's victory had barely cleared before the Announcer's voice boomed again, shaking the stone foundations of the Colosseum.

"WHAT AN UPSET! CLASS F TAKES THE FIRST MATCH!"

The crowd buzzed. The narrative was shifting. Class F wasn't a joke anymore; they were dangerous. They were volatile.

"BUT NOW... WE HAVE A BATTLE OF LINEAGE!"

The East Gate opened, revealing a path of frost that formed instantly on the ground.

"FROM CLASS S... THE ICE PRINCESS, ELISE VANE!"

Elise walked out. She was the picture of aristocratic perfection.

Her silver hair flowed like a waterfall, and her combat robes were embroidered with the crest of House Vane, a silver Sea Serpent coiled around a trident.

She held a wand made of white coral, pulsating with cold mana.

She didn't wave to the crowd. She simply walked to her position, radiating a cold, untouchable confidence.

"AND FROM CLASS F... THE FALLEN ROYAL, ELENA!"

"After all, considering how low the elves have fallen, can they still be called royal?" giving a small joke, the announcer's voice lowered as he said the last part out

The West Gate creaked open.

Elena emerged. Her white uniform was spotless, a stark contrast to the battle-worn state of her teammates.

Her Photon Lens glinted over her right eye. She walked with a straight back, her chin held high, ignoring the whispers rippling through the stands about her family's fall from grace.

The two girls stopped twenty meters apart.

"My father is watching," Elise said, her voice amplified by a wind-whisper spell so only Elena could hear.

"He was quite upset that your barbaric friend burned one of our best. I intend to rectify that."

Elena adjusted her monocle. Her expression was bored.

"Then prepare to disappoint him," Elena replied.

"BEGIN!"

Elise didn't attack. She didn't launch an ice spear. She didn't summon a wave.

She smiled.

"Prince Nero told me about your lens," Elise said, tapping her own cheek.

"You need a clear line of sight to focus your light. You are a sniper. But snipers need to see."

Elise raised her coral wand.

[Water Magic: Domain of the Silver Mist.]

It wasn't a wave. It was an eruption.

Thick, glittering mist exploded from the ground beneath Elise's feet. It expanded outward at terrifying speed, filling the entire arena in seconds.

It wasn't a normal fog. The water droplets were suspended in the air by mana, each one faceted like a tiny diamond. The arena turned into a white, opaque void.

Elena frowned. She couldn't see Elise. She couldn't see the crowd. She couldn't even see the walls of the arena.

"Hiding?" Elena scoffed. "Cowardice does not suit a noble."

She raised her right hand. She didn't need to see Elise to know she was in front of her.

"Solar Ray."

FLASH.

A beam of concentrated golden light shot from her palm.

But the moment the light hit the mist, something went wrong.

The beam didn't pierce through the fog; instead, it hit the first layer of suspended water droplets.

The next was simple. The droplets acted as thousands of microscopic prisms. The beam broke apart. It fractured. It bent.

Instead of a laser, Elena's attack turned into a harmless, blinding flash of rainbow-colored light that scattered in every direction.

It illuminated the fog, turning the entire arena into a glowing white room, but the energy was dispersed instantly.

"Beautiful," Elise's voice echoed from everywhere at once, bouncing off the dense mist.

"But useless"

Elena gritted her teeth. She fired again. And again.

FLASH. FLASH.

Every beam shattered against the wall of mist. She was shooting into a kaleidoscope.

"Fine," Elena muttered, lowering her hand.

"If I cannot see through it, I will blow it away."

She switched her mana flow, raising her left hand, and she channelled the secondary affinity she had been training with Mozart.

[Wind Magic: Gale Blast.]

WHOOSH.

A powerful gust of wind erupted from her palm, striking the wall of fog.

But the mist didn't disperse. It swirled heavily, like thick syrup.

The wind pushed it back for a split second, but the heavy, mana-infused droplets rushed back in instantly to fill the void.

"Did you think we wouldn't prepare for your wind affinity?" Elise laughed.

"This isn't regular vapor, Elena. It is Heavy Water suspended by mana. You can't blow it away with a mere fan."

Elena froze. Her wind wasn't strong enough to move the mass.

"My turn," Elise whispered.

WHOOSH.

A sound cut through the damp air.

Elena instinctively ducked.

A spear of jagged ice flew out of the white void, passing inches above her head. It was silent until the moment it struck the ground behind her.

WHOOSH. WHOOSH.

Two more spears followed.

Elena dodged right, but she was too slow.

SLASH.

An ice shard grazed her left shoulder, slicing through the fabric of her uniform. Blood bloomed on the white cloth.

"I can see you," Elise taunted.

"I can feel every disruption in the mist. You are but a beacon in the dark."

Elena retreated, forced onto the defensive. She spun around, trying to locate the source of the attacks, but the mist distorted sound just as much as it distorted light.

CRACK.

An ice whip lashed out from the fog, wrapping around Elena's ankle.

"Gah!"

Elena was yanked off her feet. She hit the stone floor hard. Before she could recover, the ice whip tightened, dragging her across the ground toward the center of the mist.

"Is this the 'Saint' of Class F?" Elise laughed.

"You are just a girl with a flashlight."

Elena scrambled up, firing a burst of light blindly to break the ice whip. The light scattered again, blinding her instead of her opponent.

She stumbled back, clutching her bleeding shoulder.

She was trapped. She was blind. Her strongest weapon, light, was refracted, and her wind was too weak to move the heavy fog.

Up in the VIP box, Duke Vane swirled his wine, a cruel smile playing on his lips.

"Checkmate," the Duke murmured. "My daughter has turned the arena into a house of mirrors. Your student is going to lose."

Damien watched the screen, his face unreadable behind the mask. He saw Elena panting, surrounded by the white hell.

"Indeed she is quite strong," Damien agreed softly.

"But light is not the only thing in that arena."

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