"Now, we have the last semi-final matches. This match is going to happen between Team I, consisting of Wilhelm, Nils, and Ruben, and Team P, consisting of Yuno, Noelle, and En!" Julius announced as the screen displayed each of the team.
From the screen, the coldness of Yuno and Wilhelm, along with Noelle and Ruben's nervousness was clear.
"Go Noelle! Go Wilhelm! GO Yuno!!"
"Why are you rooting for both teams?" Magna asked Asta, who shrugged his shoulder and replied, "I want to fight them all. That's why!"
"Ya' do know that both of 'em can beat yer' ass anytime, right?" Magna said as if he were talking to a simpleton.
"Hey, have some confidence in me!" Asta cried for one last time, while on the battlefield, unlike Wilhelm's team, Yuno's team was busy strategizing.
"What do we do? He is your squadmate, so you must know something." En asked Noelle, who, with a half-troubled face, replied.
"I don't know. He has been to God knows where for the past month, and is suddenly using magic I have not seen him using before."
"What about his magic before?" Yuno followed up, which put Nolle in a hard place.
'I don't want to tell them everything about Wilhelm, but I want to put up a fight as well.' Two thoughts clashed in Noelle's mind until she decided to share what was already known about him and some things that would not upset Wilhelm as well.
Looking at Yuno's bland face, along with Sylph, who had been oddly quiet, she said.
"From what I recall, he can use Illusion Magic, Fire Magic, Spatial Magic, and summons that Golden Lion. Watch out for illusions."
At her reply, En stroked his chin and said in his sickly tone.
"He has been winning quite easily, which means he is hiding more powerful magic with him. This fight is going to be a tough one."
"Hmm…" Yuno hummed in agreement as he took a protective stance towards the crystal, on the lookout for any attack that could strike it from thin air.
On the other hand, Wilhelm sat leisurely as he gazed at Yuno using Spatial Magic.
'He is certainly strong…for an average magic knight, but this fight is not going to be a problem. The only variable is Wind Spirit. I don't know how much power she harbors, but if push comes to shove, I can certainly use that…'
He thought as he pressed his hand over his grimoire, which thrummed with mana.
As for his teammates, they have long since realized the correct plan of action.
Sit and do nothing.
After a while of waiting, when the teams had planned, Julius took a look at Wilhelm and thought.
'He seems…more carefree.'
With this brief thought, he announced the commencement of the match.
"Match begins!"
As those words fell, Wilhelm, even though he was feeling confident of his abilities, decided to hide the crystal deep inside the earth using Earth Magic. In mere seconds, his magic crystal disappeared into the ground, following which he turned his attention to his enemy.
On the side of Yuno, as the match began, without needing any command, En covered the Magic Crystal with mushrooms and tried to hide it as well, when suddenly…
"!!!"
…a weapon shot at the crystal at speed far surpassing what both En and Noelle's eyes could catch. But Yuno, who had been sharing Slyph's sense, felt the change in mana and had already blasted the weapon with a huge amount of wind magic, staggering it, before it disappeared into particles.
But before he could relax.
'Now there are 5 of them?!'
Yuno thought with alarm and quickly dished out a huge amount of wind, which knocked En and Noelle over as well, but if it was to protect the crystal, then it was an acceptable plan of action.
As he parried them, more appeared, which caused his expression to crease.
'This cannot go on.'
"Sylph."
"Understood."
The little wind spirit replied as she controlled the wind around the crystal to ward off the weapons, when Yuno used his wind magic to flee with the crystal instead of hiding it.
'There is no use in hiding it. He is somehow able to detect it. It is better to keep on moving to make his aim hazy.'
Yuno planned, which worked perfectly for the whole 7 seconds, when…
*ZOOM*
"Argh!"
…he barely dodged a very intense heat wave, which still created a sizeable dent in the magic crystal.
"Sylph! Merge!"
"Got it!"
Yuno said in a hard tone, following which Sylph squeaked in ecstasy, glowed in a green light as she merged with Yuno. As it was happening, the wave of heat still tried to follow him, but their collective speed was increased far too much, not to mention how abruptly they changed direction.
'Now, I am fast enough to surpass his attack. It is time to take the fight to him.' Yuno thought as he tried to sense Wilhelm with Sylph's mana sense, and he found him.
'Behin-!'
Behind him, a fist crashed onto Yuno's face, crackling with lightning, that deformed Yuno's face and knocked out three of his teeth, launching him at breakneck speed.
But not to the one to give out easily, Yuno tried to use his control over the wind to control himself mid-air, when he suddenly felt Wilhelm appearing beside him.
'NOT THIS TIME!'
Yuno screamed internally, his face creased in concentration, though pain still throbbed in his jaw.
He brought both of his hands and blasted the space in front of him with winds moving at high velocity.
Seeing the winds approaching him, Wilhelm did not get fazed at all and just moved his hand, which had a card, and cast his magic with a calm look.
'Arcana Magic: The Magician: Reverse'
As his magic was activated, high-velocity winds crashed into him and…
*WOOOSHHH*
…he absorbed them. This caused Yuno to falter for a second, which was all it took.
The attack that Wilhelm had absorbed, suddenly originated from his body, this time aiming for Yuno.
'Damn it!'
Yuno cursed internally, even though his face remained as creased as ever, when he had to counter the winds thrown at him using his own, which gave way to another window that Wilhelm exploited.
Suddenly teleporting behind Yuno's back as another card glowed in his palm, he punched Yuno's back, this time his fist blazing in fire and crackling electricity at the same time.
"AHH!!!"
*BOOM*
As the attack landed, it caused Yuno's body to become taught like a bow with the spot that was hit to be the forefront of the arc, and he was sent pummeling into the ground with lightning coursing through his body that caused his body to spasm and forsake his command, and despite the best efforts of Sylph, to crash into the ground face first.
'Yuno, get up! He is going to attack you once more!' Sylph cried, as if her cry could move Yuno's body, but what she wanted did not happen.
What she expected did happen.
*ZZZZZTTTT!!!!*
Yuno, who barely got his hand to respond to his command, was suddenly struck with a torrent of lightning and water at the same time, which caused not for him to spasm more, but made it hard for him to even breathe.
Sylph, who was desperate seeing the state of her beloved, could not hold herself any longer and was about to blast the figure of Wilhelm in the distance with every bit of mana she could call, which was…a lot.
"YOU WILL PAY FOR MESSING WITH MY YUNO!!" She screamed, though it sounded like a squeak.
But before her attack could form…
'Arcana Magic: The High Priestess: Reverse'
…all of her magic fizzled out.
"Impossible." Sylph muttered, seeing the figure of Wilhelm draped in armor as black as death, looking at her and Yuno with golden slitted eyes, with blood red hair moving in the air.
And then…
*BAM*
…she passed out.
'Well, this was disappointing. I thought he would be something special, but Asta is much more of a threat than he ever could be, especially with that Devil Magic of his that I read in records in Diamond Kingdom.' Wilhelm thought as he looked at a gaze that screamed to say, 'Is that it?'.
Then he shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the Magic Crystal that Yuno was carrying a few moments ago, which had cracks all over it due to the collision Yuno suffered with the ground, and looked as if it would break with a touch.
Without any magic, he just gave the crystal a normal kick that caused it to shatter like glass.
Just as this happened, the announcement came.
"Match between Team I and Team P ends!
Team I wins!!!"
At Julius's words, those behind him gawked at the display of power. While the fight was short, it let them peek into a bit of Wilhelm's abilities.
How he hurled those weapons at such speed that it would have been nearly impossible for anyone who was not Yuno. How he shot a heat wave imperceptible to the human eye that could very well kill anyone without leaving anything behind.
How he used Yuno's attack against him, combined different magical attributes, and used them as if it were nothing.
And he did it without being hit even once.
Kira was clutching his armrest as his knuckles were pale.
'What is this?! How is it possible?!
How can a commoner have this much power?! This is not fair! This is not possible! I-I need to do something! This cannot go on much longer! He needs to be taken care of, just like Conrad. Yes, yes…first, I will let him serve his nation graciously as he should, then I will punish him for his crimes against nobility by daring to surpass them.'
Kira thought, completely unknown to 3 facts.
Wilhelm had killed an entire kingdom's nobility and royalty without anyone knowing about it.
Wilhelm is stronger than Julius and all of the Magic Knights combined.
Wilhelm can read minds.
And this same Wilhelm, from the screen, was seemingly staring directly at Kira, which gave him the chills.
'No, what I am thinking. I am the King of Clover Kingdom. I will not be scared of a mere commoner.'
Kira tried to calm himself, not knowing that his days were numbered from now on.
******
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