Leon and the others didn't watch the battles until they ended, choosing to leave as the sun began to set and their stomachs began to rumble. They were not the only ones, however there were plenty who arrived to watch late at night and replace them in the audience.
Leon, Jin Li and Maimai headed back to the alchemist schools while Sun, Bowyer and Pike headed to the martial arts schools; Sun with the enlightenment that he was returning to an empty room again. Actually, he was a bit used to this now, so didn't think much of it anymore. Instead he chatted to Pike and Bowyer as they, in turn, revealed their own interpretations of the battles knowing the youth was like a sponge and would absorb it all. They liked this little brother of theirs and were not stingy in sharing their understandings.
"Why were there jeers when that beast tamer took to the field?" Sun asked, curiously.
"You know that the top twenty martial artists are discouraged from joining the matches?" Bowyer pointed out to him. "It's the same for the top twenty beast tamers and top twenty mages. That one ranks something like fifteen or sixteen."
"Oh, so he broke the rules?" Sun was aghast, his expression reflecting his surprise.
"Actually he'd not broken any school rules," Pike advised him. "The reason we don't participate is more of an unwritten thing and due to a few factors. For one thing, we've already had our chance at glory in both the Standings and the team challenge. While the Institute promotes strength, it also encourages growth, but if to consistently have to stand in others' shadows can cause dissension, harm confidence and restrain development."
Sun scrunched up his nose pondering for a while then likened it to what he experienced in his own home when he couldn't break through to secondary stage. It was very depressing and disheartening. If he had remained in that situation, likely any potential he had would have remained stagnant and asleep. Those false smiles of reassurance he'd given his mother back then and the false stance of confidence he'd shielded himself with when facing the cousins who were talking cruelly about him behind his back once more came to the forefront of his memory and he found himself nodding.
Fortunately, he no longer had to face his relatives for a while; his Grandfather had returned home with Carmen in tow. Sun suspected that she wouldn't have time to cause anyone trouble for sometime and perhaps in half a year, he'd even be notified that she'd been engaged to someone.
As for that Beast Tamer, it turned out that he'd ignored the unwritten rule as he was dissatisfied with his and his team's performance in the other challenge and was seeking to redeem himself. He did not make himself popular by doing this, but he and his Striped Wolf made it into the top twelve to battle again the following day.
This 'shameless' man didn't withdraw from his claimed spot either, just continued gaining momentum until the final four. It was at this point that he came face to face with a small mage. The little mage had an androgynous air about him; one could only tell that he was male from his name and style of robes. Yet Leon fancied, despite the distance from where he watched this battle, that the little mage had a dark twinkle in his eyes as he faced the beast tamer and his wolf. He bowed to his opponent, seeming to be flustered and the beast tamer's stance became even more confident.
But it was really stupid to underestimate a mage via his appearance.
The beast tamer couldn't totally be blamed for his stupidity; he'd already defeated several mages using either pincer attack technique or a mix of long ranged attacks while his beast stood as a deadly shield for himself. This unassuming mage was also very youthful, he'd already confirmed that the boy was nineteen and only in his second year of school. His place in the Standings was in the lower half of the inner school, so while he had some talent (he was in the inner school after all), he likely got this far by luck.
This surface knowledge failed to take into consideration that the little mage before him was a sore loser, who having earned only a lower position in the Standings (which was still quite good for a second year), spent the next half a year working extremely hard to develop his abilities. He'd expanded his array of spells, perfected the ones he already knew and worked on gaining battle experience in both theoretical and practical situations.
The foregone conclusion was; the small mage wiped the floor with the beast tamer. He trapped the paws wolf with his Earth magics, created a small wall of defence in front of himself and pelted the beast tamer with a short shower of pebbles. These spells were all small spells, none of which took more than a second or two to cast, thus the overconfident beast tamer, who'd lost momentum the moment his wolf began to sink in a pool of quagmire, had no time to prepare against. The pebbles hurt, but didn't cause any real damage, however they were hard for the burly beast tamer to avoid. He certainly couldn't aim his cross bow while being pelted by them. And his arrow wouldn't do much but cause a crack in the wall the mage was hiding behind!
The effect of the spells were short, though. The wolf managed to dig his paws free and the rain of pebbles stopped not long after they began. So the wolf continued to run to a target place behind the mage, while the tamer rushed to the side in an attempt to find an opening. Was the little mage standing there awaiting to be defeated though? Of course not! His small spells were for one purpose; time. Powerful spells required time to cast and although the time gained was not great, it was enough for the small mage.
The ground surrounding the mage began to shake; both the tamer and wolf were caught in the localised quake and were unable to stay upon their feet. The tamer was then once more pelted by stones, while the wolf once more began to sink downwards. The mage formed more walls as his spell duration ended, but he left an opening for himself to escape from while the wolf and the tamer were distracted by his temporary fortress.
The wolf was slyer than his master and caught the mage's scent upon the air, so stopped futilely attacking the walls to chase the mage. Only the path was one of sharp thorns made of stone and the paw pads of the wolf could only handle so much before being pierced through, slowing the pained beast. The tamer had followed his beast and shot bolts towards the fleeing form, one did pierce the flapping sleeves of the mage, but the next was caught by an Earth wall that suddenly burst from the ground.
Almost in petty retaliation, the tamer found himself once more pelted with stones. Consistently bruised and harried this way would cause a mental exhaustion to almost anyone and a Cultivator of secondary stage was only two steps above an ordinary mortal after all. If the Cultivator's state of mind was not already exceptional, he would likely be unable to endure. Some would become sluggish as their mind admitted defeat, others would explode in temper and exhaust themselves further, the beast tamer was one of the latter. He rushed towards the mage, tossing aside his crossbow and reaching for his long dagger, ready for close range combat. He jumped over the quagmires that appeared at his feet, ran around the slowly growing spires that appeared from the ground, even burst through thin dirt walls and raced towards the small mage with the dark twinkling eyes.
He didn't think that all these small obstacles were to once more boost his confidence in defeating his opponent, to narrow his vision completely, he didn't think that the squishy mage had more tricks up his sleeve. He ran through one thin wall and another, using his muscles to remove the obstacles in fierce rage, only to run hard and smack face first into a several feet thick wall of solid stone. Dazed and confused, he still rose to his feet only to realised he'd been entrapped by four walls of stone, unable to get out. Plus, the mage really was petty and clicked his fingers as he created another localised stone rain to fall just above the tamer's head; these had been his favourite robes and now they were torn and stained with a bit of blood!
The small mage was declared the victor and went on to win the competition. The beast tamer finally settled for third.
The main competition was over, but the day was not. Especially, it seemed, for one small alchemist who'd been observing from the platform.