9 Finale

"The final match shall commence in a few minutes."

The old man spoke to the crowd with excitement and fervor in his tone.

Amidst the crowd of villagers, Arthur was consoling his mother that Alex will be alright. Everybody knows how a mother can be overprotective of their kin.

"Mom, it's going to be alright, Alex will definitely be able to protect himself. Not only that, but the old man is also an expert in regards to physical combat class."

"But what if! What if he wasn't able to protect Alex?"

She was protesting with grief in her voice, as if her son would die during the fight.

"Don't worry about it mom. I will be watching near the stage, so no matter what happens, I will be able to protect Alex."

After hearing his son's words. She quickly calmed down, however there was still a trace of uneasiness on her face.

"May I call the participants to please come up the stage?"

The villagers shouted and cheered as the voice of the old man ended.

As Alex and Kael were going up the stage, they could clearly hear the voices of everyone. Their blood boiled as the crowd cheered and chanted their names.

"Ka-el! Ka-el! Ka-el!"

"A-lex! A-lex! A-lex!"

"Brother! Fighting!"

Even though everyone was like, screaming for the match to start. Alex could hear a cute voice of a girl, cheering him on. And looking towards the direction of the voice, he could see his little sister, Mari, waving her tiny fists at him. He simply smiled and nodded at her and his mother.

Upon arriving at the stage, the old man asked them to introduce themselves and greet their opponents.

Kael, as arrogant he was, started to introduce himself.

"I am Kael, the future fire king, and will be the savior of humanity!"

The crowd shouted, hearing Kael's words. They did not doubt a word the kid said, as they knew he will become someone great in the future.

"I am Alex, the first Wood Mage that will defeat you!"

Alex didn't back down at the arrogant words spoken by Kael. Everyone went crazy at the statement of Alex. This kid that only won and got into the finals by luck, was arrogant and proud. However, they didn't think much of it because they were clearly young, and just didn't want to back down against such opponent.

"The final match! Starts, now!"

The crowd went into silence as both Alex and Kael just stood at the stage, looking at each other. Kael decided to talk and weaken Alex's will to fight.

"You're no different than them."

Then he pointed at Von and the others and continued speaking.

"You! Him! Them! At the end of the day you will all kneel! It has been a nice run for you, to be here before me."

Kael exuded a majestic aura and arrogance, unbefitting of a 15-year old kid. This made the old man shocked as he only felt this kind of aura emitted by kings. He clearly remembered a similar aura from a man he once belittled that made him tremble and kneel. This was the King's Aura! However it was clearly a weaker version.

He wondered if he should report to the King of his recent findings. Maybe he will be given a huge sum of money or he could get back his position in the palace.

As for everyone present, they were oblivious to what was happening on the stage. They just thought that his words were a bit over than just arrogance.

Alex simply snorted at his words.

"Hmph! Do you think you're some kind of king?!"

Alex shouted and ran straight to Kael. He was startled as a fireball was nearing his face. He knew for a fact that he cannot dodge this one. So he quickly used his skill to block the incoming fireball.

His skill immediately exploded upon contact.

He wasn't surprised at the strength of the [Fireball], instead it was the speed of it.

He didn't have enough time to think as another [Fireball] came his way. He counter attacked with a spell of his own, but was of no threat towards the Fire Mage. He continued his attacks but to no avail. Everything he did was useless, though he only have one spell.

"Your power is meagre, Alex. Give it up! You're just like them."

Kael said while pointing at Von and the others. Then he invoked three continuous [Fireball] towards Alex. Alex summoned a tree to block a [Fireball], dodged the other, however the last one landed on his body.

He was sent flying near the edge of the stage. His white clothes was now burnt, his khaki pants was now a short pants. He looked quite pitiful now compared to his previous look, he was more like a beggar.

He looked at the peaceful sky with a bitter smile on his face.

'In the end I got defeated by a more talented kid than I am. Maybe I was relying on the system too much.'

When he said this, his consciousness was starting to fade, the clear sky was getting darker, and … greener? The blue skies turned to a mountain. Reality and his sub-consciousness were starting to intersect, it keeps on changing the scenery he was seeing really fast.

Then he arrived at the forest he saw through the awakening.

Everything he saw was clear. From the towering trees to the smallest of grasses. The forest looked quite ancient, he wondered how this forest survived the passage of time. How were they able to adap-.

'That's it! ADAPT! How was he able to have such firepower? Of course it was through mana. I'm such an idiot sandwich.' (A/N: GordonR: What are you?!)

He woke up from his dream and saw a [Fireball] fast approaching.

"See. I told you, you were weak. Much weaker than the earth guy."

Alex didn't have time to refute Kael's words, he then summoned a tree to lift him high up. The tree soon exploded into pieces. Without a support he fell from the tree.

As he was falling, he swung his arm and a tree shot out from it and reached towards Kael.

Kael obviously, dodged the incoming tree and attacked it with a [Fireball] so that Alex will fall again. But he was shocked when he noticed that his spell was only able to make a burnt mark on it. He inspected the tree, and it was much larger than before.

When he was inspecting it, he didn't notice that Alex was already above him intending to punch his head.

And the punch connected! Kael staggered back at the punch and was unable to evade the tree sweeping from his left.

His left side hurts and his mind was in a mess. But he was able to hear a series of footsteps and a cold voice.

"After all that talk, and this is what you call POWER? I told you, you're not some kind of king! You're just another stone, waiting to be stepped upon by me."

This words ignited the flames of fury in the eyes of Kael. He didn't want to be looked down on, he was a genius! Yet, he was going to be defeated by a clown? How laughable.

He tried standing up, but was unable to. He was exhausted and his body was hurt.

The old man appeared and abruptly ended the match.

"This match's winner is Alex!"

At his words, the crowd erupted into cheers of happiness; not because of who the winner was, but by the spectacle the two of them showed.

The old man carried the exhausted Kael towards the infirmary and walked back to the stage.

"You sure overdid it."

"I know. I'm sorry. I'll head to the infirmary after this."

Alex and the old man were talking in small voice, but it didn't matter because the villagers were too loud and expressive of their feelings.

'It's good that this kid knows what he has done. Or it will be trouble later on.'

"The awarding ceremony will be postponed for half an hour."

*DING*