Chapter 43 Selection Process
Next day early morning just like yesterday all the first-year students made their way toward the Hall.
Everyone was looking forward to the second round.
After everyone arrived and settled down Professor Liam walked and stood in the middle of the hall.
He glanced at the 100 students who won the first round and without further wait, he started calling different students on the stage.
The remaining 100 students who lost yesterday were now sitting in the audience seats, cheering or watching the qualified participants with envy.
Just like the first round Kyle, Alec and the others defeated their opponents easily, entering the third round without facing much difficulty.
Out of the 100 students, 50 students made it to the third round.
And just like Kyle assumed the Professors made sure to not call the top 10 students against each other. That's why all the top 10 students advanced to the third round.
The third round was also not much eventful because Kyle, Alec and the others easily made it to the semi-finals.
But because the number of students wasn't even, Elder Lu took out a big box and asked the winning 25 students to choose a number plate present inside the big box.
The one choosing the zero number plate will directly qualify for the finals.
After getting the instructions the 25 students stood making a line and started picking up the number plates present inside the box.
Kyle and Nine were standing together almost at the end of the line.
Nine took out a number plate and cursed because his number wasn't zero before looking at Kyle.
"What number did you get?"
Kyle's smile made Nine have a bad premonition. He bend down to see Kyle's number plate only to curse loudly.
"Lucky bastard. You got number zero."
Alec and Carcel also looked at Kyle's number plate with surprised expressions.
Alec walked toward Nine and after making a sorrowful expression he started patting his shoulder.
"I can feel your pain."
"What the..?"
Nine slapped Alec's hand away before looking at Kyle with pleading eyes.
"How about changing the number plate with me."
But Elder Lu who was standing opposite everyone glanced at the duo before staring deeply at Kyle's number plate.
"The participant holding number plate zero please head back to your seat."
Hearing the deep loud voice, Nine stepped back while looking at Elder Lu with a smile.
"I was joking."
Kyle and the others started laughing. Even Bia looked at Nine pitifully.
After laughing at Nine for a full minute, Kyle walked back to his seat with Bia sitting on top of his head.
Alec and the other students went to different stages after knowing their opponents and the long awaited battles of the semi-finals started.
Alec's first battle was against Nike, someone ranked 16 in the class ranking. He was having a little difficulty at first because he didn't use any of his skills but afterward, he defeated his opponent within a minute.
Carcel's battle was against Bill, someone raked 19 in the class ranking. Just like Alec he also defeated his opponent in less than a minute.
Lara and Mia's match was against Jessica and Luna, ranked 12 and 15 in the class ranking. At first, they looked evenly matched but after a minute Lara and Mia started having the upper hand and both of them won as well.
On the other hand, Nine was seen crying and running around the stage making all the students sitting in the audience seats laugh at him. He was happy that his opponent was not someone ranked among the top 6 but still, his opponent wasn't someone weak.
In the end after struggling on the stage for more than twenty minutes, he won by taking opportunity of a small gap present in his opponent's defense.
At the end of day four, 13 students made it to the finals.
The rules for the final round were a little different. In this round, all the remaining participants were required to fight 12 different battles without taking a break.
According to the number of battles won by the participants, they would select the top 7 students who won the most battles.
For the final round instead of 20, seven different stages were set up in the center of the hall.
As usual Kyle and the others arrived together. Alec and his team's winning chances were very high because all of them were in the top five.
Kyle was also determined to win because he had to enter the Tower no matter what.
Before the final round, Nine practically begged Carcel and Alec to admit defeat against him or else there was no way he would win the final round.
He didn't ask Kyle because he knew that right now Kyle needed the spot more than anyone else.
At first, both Alec and Carcel were hesitant but even if they lost 1 out of 12 fights they would still qualify for one of the spots available, that's why they agreed.
All the winning participants stood against one another and they started fighting after getting the signal from the Professors.
In the first stage Alec stood fighting Lily, ranked 6th in the class ranking. After he defeated Lily he walked toward the second stage where Carcel was waiting for him.
Carcel and Alec's fight was remarkable with both of them fighting with everything they got, but in the end Alec won and proceeded to fight on the third stage.
In the third stage, he fought with Mia and won. In the fourth stage Nine was waiting for him, but instead of fighting Alec admitted defeat and proceeded to the next stage.
Nine was over the top after Alec admit defeat. Afterward, he walked onto the stage where Carcel was present and Carcel also admit defeat.
The referee looking over their battle looked at Nine with narrowed eyes, but in the end there were no rules saying that the participants weren't allowed to help each other.
'These brats! They are taking advantage of the loopholes present inside the rules.'
The referee sighed before announcing Nine as the winner and asking him to proceed to the next stage, but the next match wasn't so lovely for Nine because he was almost beaten to death by Lily who for some reason attacked the moment Nine stepped on the stage.
The referee looked at Nine with eyes filled with mockery.
'Brat you were destined for a beating. Trying to cheat in front of me, no chance.'
Nine looked at the referee who was giving thumbs up to Lily with a painful expression. He was going to admit defeat because he knew he couldn't defeat Lily, but it seemed the referee asked Lily to rough him up a little for cheating.
He wanted to cry but tears didn't come out because his next opponent was Lara.
After accepting his fate, with tattered clothes Nine dragged himself onto the next stage. He simply made himself ready for another beating.