The alarm resonated through my ears once more. Slamming my hand down onto it, I ended up breaking it.

Shit.

Groaning, I pulled myself out of bed. I'm extremely tired after yesterday. I didn't get as much sleep as I would have liked.

After my win against Sophia I was going to be dragged out by the girls, but I was able to dissuade them by telling them that I needed to study my opponents for the semifinals.

After all four matches were concluded, these were the results.

Bianca Tsuki

Souta "Stryker" Teshima

Ken Kage

Iris Aegis

Three students from Legacy High, and one from The Adventurer Academy of Osaka.

I already know Iris' fighting style due to being close to her for quite a while and watching her matches.

Bianca uses a style which involves mostly on her exceptional skill with the spear with the abilities of her Arcana acting as support.

Stryker also uses a spear, though not at the level of Bianca. He also uses his abilities more often.

With examination it seems he also has the water element, which he uses to disorient his opponents. For example, making them slip, block the water, or let it get into their eyes into temporarily blind them.

He's also very quick, using his spear to pierce non-vital areas to quickly end the match. He can also throw his spear with it returning to his hand like Bianca demonstrated when she fought that Lesser Dragon.

Those are all of the abilities that he has shown so far, though I heavily expect that there are more that he hasn't used.

Either way, I should now be prepared to fight any of the three. However, if it ends up being Bianca I'll lose.

I've already made it plenty far, much further than how much I bet the Principal expected, and Bianca has already shown an interest in me by patting my head after my wins.

Don't want it to evolve to even more by beating her in a fight. However, with my luck she'll become yandere anyways.

After getting ready for the day, I went down to the lobby and checked the poster for the semifinals.

Match 1

Souta Teshima

VS

Ken Kage

10:00

Looks like I'll be versing Stryker, the person I know the least about. I know Iris the most for obvious reasons, and Bianca decently due to watching her fights and memories from the anime.

I don't know as much about Stryker though. Well, I should be fine anyways. And even if I don't win, there's not really a detriment for me.

Doesn't mean I'm not going to try though.

"Hey." I heard Stryker say from behind me. "Good luck."

"You too." I said, nodding at him.

He smiled, before walking over.

I best get ready too.

After getting a good luck wish from Iris I left for the preparation room. Getting myself mentally prepared for the match, I waited in front of the gate for the announcers to start.

"Hello everybody!" The first announcer exclaimed. "Welcome to the fourth day of the JSAC Tournament, the Festival of Snow!"

"Today are the semifinals!" The second announcer stated. "There will only be two matches today, and two of the four remaining contestants will be eliminated!"

"As per the last three days, we have both Mister Sato and Miss Kato with us today!" The first announcer added.

"Let's spin the wheel to find out the stage for our first match!" The second announcer said, grabbing the wheel and giving it a hard spin.

The wheel spun, before slowing moving to a stop on a symbol of a...volcano?

"Looks like we have a new stage that hasn't been picked before!" The first announcer exclaimed.

"This is the 'Volcano' stage!" The second announcer added.

The stage changed, a new one moving up from underground. It had a large volcano in the middle, with a small forest surrounding it.

"Don't worry, the volcano isn't real and doesn't have real lava." The first announcer explained. "Rather, the inside of the volcano is hollow with a special interior."

"If the contestants do end up fighting inside of the volcano, we have cameras inside that will transfer to the arena's screens, giving real-time footage." The second announcer stated.

"For our first contestant, we have the Second-Year Souta Teshima!" The first announcer exclaimed.

The crowd went wild.

"And for our second contestant, we have the First-Year Ken Kage!" The second announcer added.

The crowd went wilder.

The gate in front of me moved up, letting me out into the forest outside of the volcano.

Judging by how Stryker fights, he'll likely head straight to the interior of the volcano, the main, major area.

He specialized in head-on-head combat. As I also specialize in direct combat, it would be foolish to attempt an attack like an assassination.

And the forest holds no sort of advantage for me. And there's no point burning it down, as it would end up as a direct fight between Stryker and I anyways.

So straight to the volcano I go.

Rushing through the forest, I quickly reached the volcano. It had an opening which led to an area inside the volcano.

I headed towards the opening before a faint sound entered my ears. I quickly dodged as Stryker appeared close to me, stabbing his spear where I just was.

He was quick enough to traverse through the whole volcano?!

My armor quickly appeared in front of me as I summoned my own Arcana. Stryker leap red towards me, sending his spear in a stab towards my side.

I deflected it with Loki in his true form, before forcing Stryker back for a moment to breathe.

It allowed me to analyze Stryker's weapon. It was a spear made out of white bone, yet despite it's look held together well and was quite strong.

Makes sense, considering that Arcana's are indestructible.

Quickly he dashed towards me again, sending his spear towards me. I sidestepped the spear, but he quickly readied another attack and sent it towards me.

His spear blurred as it stabbed at me in a rapid, feral-like attack similar to Amber's vicious punches.

Despite this, all of the spear's movement was carefully calculated, as each strike was aimed for a non-vital part of the body.

I barely dodged all of them, some small slashes appearing on my skin where the spear had grazed me.

I'm starting to understand his style. It's very similar to Amber's, but replaces her two fists with a singular spear that he can use with one hand.

His other hand opened, a hose of water shooting out of his palm. Avoiding the water, he used this to send another strike towards me with the hand holding the spear.

Morphing Loki into a shield, I barely blocked his attack. The force behind the strike sent me sliding backwards, proof of how strong he was.

He must have a strength enhancing tier...

He was onto me once more, sending another strike towards me. He wouldn't give me a break with his fighting style.

It really is like Amber's...

And that made me have an idea. I needed to do something unorthodox, like when I tackled Amber in our fight.

Stryker sent another strike towards me, but was surprised when it was blocked by Loki in a new form.

A spear.

Our hands blurred as a series of vicious strikes clashed against each other in perfect synchronization.

"You copied my technique?!" Stryker gasped.

He sent a blast of water out of his spear, but I sidestepped it and slammed my other fist into his face, sending his head to the side and making him stumble.

Using this window of opportunity I morphed Loki into his gun form, charging a blast of concussive fire. I shot it point-blank into his chest, sending him flying backwards and onto the ground, his shirt singed.

"Ugh..." He groaned.

I morphed Loki into a knife, placing it next to his neck.

"Ken Kage wins! He'll be moving onto the finals!" The first announcer screamed in excitement, the crowd going wild as well.

I desummoned Loki, extending my hand out to Stryker. He grabbed it, using it to pull himself up.

"Damn, I didn't expect that." Stryker sighed, placing his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.

Pulling his hand back out, he extended it in a handshake. "Well, good match." He grinned.

"Good match." I nodded, taking his hand and shaking it.

I then walked out of the arena, heading back to where Irene, Iris, Erica, Yui, Lily, and Amber were.

"That was amazing!" Erica cheered.

"Good job." Irene nodded.

"You did great!" Iris exclaimed.

"I really want to fight you..." Amber muttered.

"Wow..." Lily and Yui gasped, a red tint on their cheeks.

"Thanks." I lightly smiled, ignoring the red tings on Lily and Yui's faces. I didn't want to know what they were thinking.

A sudden yawn escaped my mouth as I realized just how tired I was. With my trouble sleeping and multiple days of fighting, it's taking a toll on my body.

"Damn. I'm tired..." I muttered.

"You should get some rest." Iris stated.

"But your match." I argued.

"It's fine." Iris smiled. "I'll let you know how it goes once it's over. Just get some rest for tomorrow. You made it to the finals."

"Irene?" I looked over to her for support.

"I agree with Iris." Irene nodded. "Get some rest."

Of course you'd side with your sister.

"Alright then." I sighed. "I'll see you all later."

I waved to them as I walked off. My movements started to get sluggish as the fatigue really started to hit me. As I exited the stadium someone said my name, catching my attention.

"Ken." Bianca emotionlessly said.

"Yes?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Good job." She blankly stated, patting my head once more before walking away.

I just watched as she walked away, too tired to question anything. I continued to the hotel, taking the elevator up to my floor.

Fumbling with the keys, I opened the door to my room. Heading towards my bed, my body got heavier and heavier with every step I took.

I collapsed before even getting to the bed, my vision going dark.

...

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...huh? What's going...on?

The first thing I questioned when I woke up was why did I feel something soft under me. I thought I didn't reach the bed...

Fluttering my eyes open, I was met with a ceiling that wasn't gone I should have been met with. It wasn't the hotel's.

Actually, I recognized it. For confirmation, I sat up and examined the room around me. This was a room all to familiar to me...

My old room, back when I was Kyle Johnson.

Everything was so real. I could feel the blankets. Shuffling out of bed, I checked myself in a mirror. I was back to how I used to look like.

Everything was just like how I left it. What was going on?

Was it all...a dream?