Elena had created a brand new colosseum-like structure inside the royal academy. This place was also the venue that would host the freshers tournament for the newly admitted students of the battle division to determine who would be able to get the prestigious position of freshers' representative.

The result came out just yesterday and it shocked everyone. The reason for the shock was the extremely good performance from commoner participants and noble participants lackluster performance. All the positions in the top 3 were taken by commoners from remote places. And that was a little unbelievable for most.

Shuri was happy as she was able to get 5th position overall and for which she was able to get Elena's praise. The top scorer was actually Colette as she got a very high score in the written examination where Lucian barely passed that one. Rose was also able to get the 9th position and she was happy to get a position in the top 10. Including her only 4 nobles were in the top 10 so they were determined to wash this shame off in the tournament.

...

Shuri, Rose and Colette were all waiting together for their turn to draw lots. They would be given a number in random and would be divided into 16 groups. Only the top 80 students were eligible for the tournament. And from each group 2 students could go to the second round where they would again be matched against a random opponent. The last one standing would be the champion.

Shuri got the number 44, Rose got 19 and Colette got 79. After groups were declared they found out that all of them were in different groups. Shuri was in the 1st, Rose in 15th and Colette in 6th. They all wanted to go for the champion position so in the last two days they practiced a lot. Even tho two days were normally not enough for anyone to improve a lot, they weren't normal as they had the support of Elena.

After Rose became good friends with Shuri she was astonished to know that her friend was living with her idol, the headmistress. Elena was also happy with Rose's character and she casually gave her some advice. But those casual advice were very helpful for Rose and her fire control. She was confident that if she were to challenge the puppet again in a battle she would be able to score a lot more than her last time.

After everyone's groups were declared the girls decided to analyse their opponents. Rose had the easiest group among them as she was not only the highest ranking student in her group, the other students were all below the top 30. Rose was very confident to clear her group as the first position holder.

Shuri's group was a little harder as one of the participants, a boy named Xander was ranked 13th in the test and his combat strength was very high. So, she was determined to give her all and win. As for Colette, she was the topper of the test so there was no way anyone could outrank her. Her group also had 2 people whose ranks were in the top 20 but she was very confident that even without using her special eyes she would still be able to easily beat everyone.

...

There were eight stages inside the colosseum so eight fights could take place at the same time. The first one among the girls to go on stage was Rose. She was facing off against a girl with light blonde hair. She was using a longsword as a weapon. As Rose was not a physical fighter as soon as the battle stated she used a fire magic spell "combustion steps" to create some distance.

This decision was proven correct because as soon as the battle started the girl named Coney launched toward Rose. If she hadn't dodged from there then she had to fight her opponent in close quarters combat. After creating some distance between them Rose started throwing fire magic spells non-stop toward Coney. She tried to dodge and defend against some of the attacks but soon she was overwhelmed and admitted defeat.

Next to go on the stage was Shuri and her battle was against a boy who was an elemental magic user. So, at the very beginning of the battle, she summoned an earth spirit to protect her and a fire spirit to attack her opponent. The boy named Conner did his best to hold on against the fire spirit using water magic but as soon as Shuri started helping her summon with her own magic spells, Conner was unable to hold on anymore and was defeated swiftly.

Colette's win was even more swift. She just attacked once using her destructive light magic and that was enough for the safety mechanism of the stage to start and her opponent was teleported out of the stage giving her the victory. The stage had a life saving enchantment that could teleport a student out of the stage when their life was in danger. Colette's flames were very destructive, so she was able to force the stage to use this skill.

After that the girls journey in the tournament was smooth sailing. Colette was able to win every match in her group with one strike. The only one who was able to withstand one hit for her was using a secret item to save his life in a critical situation. Rose also had an easy time with her fights as her opponents were not very strong.

The one who was having a little hard time was Shuri. As she was not very well versed in group battle she intensely watched the fights to learn new skills. But still she was able to win all the battles without summoning her trump card, Magestro. Even against Xander, who was a strong opponent she was able to win without Magestro's help, which she would not be able to do two days prior. That means she had also grown after her fight with the puppet.

So at last all of the girls were able to reach the second round while being the top of their own respective group. Other than them, Lucian and Andric were also able to reach the second round as the top of their own group. But other than them other talents from a commoner background suffered quite a lot in the tournament. High level equipment was allowed for the competition as someone incapable would not even be able to use it at all. So even to use strong equipment you need talent and practice. But obviously, one time use equipment was banned.

But still the nobles used this small loophole that was created intentionally by Elena, to literally throw money at the commoner students to win. They went all out and had given the best possible equipment that the noble students were able to use. It was undeniable that strong equipment was a very important source of strength for anyone. That was the reason why most of the students, who were able to reach the second round were nobles and only a few very outstanding commoners were able to join their ranks.

Elena didn't do anything in this situation because she wanted to give the commer students a test of the noble's oppressive nature. That would be beneficial for them in the long run.

The competition was getting into the second phase and everyone was getting more excited. So, who would be able to stand victorious in this tournament ?

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