Scarlet

It takes about five or so minutes before the announcement goes through the arena declaring that Tempest was defeated by Shifter, following which I find myself teleported from my lovely tree to a large tower once again. And immediately upon doing so, I find thunderous cheers echoing throughout the stadium, along with a certain Knight floating down towards us again while shouting, “Absolutely amazing! This has been an extraordinary semifinal round! And now we have our two finalists!”

Extraordinary? I almost took a nap.

“However, we have some news as well,” Black suddenly says, catching my attention and making the audience begin calming down. “Due to some unexpected complications that have arisen, the three hour long break between the semifinal round and the final round has been shortened to a mere twenty minute break instead.” Black floats down to me and Lucas as he finishes, “I would like to express the tournament’s staff’s apologies for this change. They assure me that you will be compensated for the loss of preparation time, so I hope you will forgive them for this.”

I blink in surprise before glancing at Lucas. We both then nod and turn back to Black again.

“I’m fine with this,” I say at the same time as he says, “That’s okay.”

Not sure what this news he’s talking about is though. Normally a tournament is only delayed due to a Demonic Assault starting. A tournament or a round has never started earlier before because of anything.

Maybe it has something to do with what surprised Tar earlier? That would make some sense. And he said it wasn’t a pressing issue, so it can’t have been anything that needs immediate attention. Couldn’t have been a Demonic Assault either because we would’ve been kicked out of the magical reality if that were the case.

“Excellent!” Black shouts with a clap wile floating up into the air again. “In that case, the final round will commence in twenty minutes! Please stay tuned for that everyone!!!”

Then I find myself teleported into my private booth again where Aria and Allen are waiting for me along with Cynthia this time. And just like usual, Aria runs up and jumps into my arms.

My gaze quickly locks with Allen’s as he says, “We have a lot to go over in these twenty minutes if you want to be ready.”

I nod my head in agreement.

“Let’s start then,” I tell him while moving over to my seat and letting Aria sit on my lap again, ignoring the ‘aww’ noises Cynthia is making at the sight of us.

After discussing and planning around Lucas’s known skills and strength for the entire time, I’m eventually sent back to the arena again on that very same tower along with Lucas. Then Black appears again while spreading his arms out and shouting, “The final round of the very first Primary tournament for this year’s Interschool Tournaments is finally upon us!!! It has been a long wait for a lot of you, and I’m sure you’re all just bursting with excitement!!”

The crowd goes wild at his declaration, having grown more and more impatient over the last twenty minutes. Especially because they knew the wait was shortened, and people tend to feel even more impatient over shorter waits than they do for longer ones for some reason.

“On one side, we have Shifter! The strongest user of Shapeshifting magic within the current Class I Guardians, and the representative of Aquatic Pride Guardians University!!!” Black shouts while motioning with one arm towards him, making another roar echo through the crowd. He then turns and motions towards me as he says, “And on the other, we have the Scarlet Wolf, also recently known as the Apex Predator of Humanity thanks to having the highest capabilities in all of human history! She is an incredible user of blood magic, with a particular strength in transformation and berserk blood magic, and she is the representative of Lion’s Heart Guardians University! The number one ranked Guardians University in the world!”

The crowd gives an even louder response for me than they gave Lucas, not that the man seems to care.

“And now!” Black continues while shooting up into the sky and then snapping his fingers, making a fog roll over the entire arena, following which I find myself along with Lucas standing in the middle of a clearing of trees underneath the light of a blood moon at night. “Let’s get this final round uuuunndddeeeer waaaaay!!!!”

I can’t help but grin a little as I see the blood moon hanging above us.

Now that’s just perfect. Giving me the terrain advantage.

I don’t think most people actually realize that my healing is even faster under the light of the blood moon, particularly because the people selling the stupid recordings captured by security cameras during Fractures don’t exactly sell the recordings of me recovering from a fight. Only the recordings of me fighting. So they don’t really see me healing.

And there hasn’t been any blood moons in the duels I’ve done or in the Tower Siege tournament. Meanwhile all of the second round of the ranking tournament had a blood moon hanging from the sky, so there wasn’t much to compare it with. Especially since I never really got hurt much except when I almost died to Nick.

Unlike the quarterfinals, we can’t hear the audience as the two of us begin slowly circling each other, the both of us shifting one of our arms into that of a beast. Mine becoming a werewolf’s claw, and his becoming that of a bear. And both of us have a grin on our faces, showing just how much the two of us are looking forward to this fight.

“Good luck, wolf,” Shifter says while flexing his claws slightly. And I respond in kind, “You too, bear.” Purely because the majority of his shapeshifting seems to follow along the lines of bears for some reason. Despite his ability to shapeshift partially into other animals as well.

Guess bears are just one of the strongest animals available to him?

He snorts in amusement at that, showing more reaction than normal.

Then we both break into a sprint straight towards each other, the fight beginning.