The contestants from Noble House and Magic House carried an entirely different air the moment they stepped onto the stage.
Their inner strength couldn't be judged from the outside, but the Noble House contestants radiated luxury just standing there.
The Magic House contestants, meanwhile, all carried the bearing of scholars, an intellectual air hanging about them.
In truth, everyone on that stage was among the chosen few — even Pandora Dragon, standing among them, couldn't be said to tower above the rest.
As they took their places, the entire audience erupted into unceasing cheers.
Clearly, every single one of them commanded a massive following.
Dark felt the atmosphere, several times more fervent than even the Easter Dueling Festival, and narrowed his eyes slightly.
Watching a duel and fighting one himself were two entirely different feelings.
He'd once been someone who preferred to watch from the sidelines, but ever since tasting the thrill of dueling firsthand, he'd grown to prefer standing on the stage.
Unfortunately, this wasn't his stage today.
If he could still stand at the top of the second-years this time next year, representing Noble House in the Academy Cup shouldn't be a problem.
For now, though, drawing experience from watching and preparing himself for future duels was something he was happy to do.
Amid the feverish atmosphere, the first round of duels officially began.
Second-years from both houses fought first, followed by third, fourth, all the way up to sixth-years.
Dark watched with growing focus, trying to enrich his own dueling strategies and his approach to deck-building.
The matches between second-years didn't offer him much surprise, but starting from the third-years, his eyes were opened wide!
Senior Winnie Skadi of Magic House's third-year class showed a level of overwhelming pressure once she got serious.
Dark had once faced Tom Nixon, the man who'd eliminated her at the Easter Dueling Festival, and had won that duel.
But sitting in the audience now, he had only one feeling — even with his current deck, facing this descendant of the Sage of Winter might well end in being crushed like a leaf in a storm.
That already formidable Noble House third-year simply wasn't enough in front of Winnie Skadi.
Winnie Skadi's strength completely surpassed what one would expect of a third-year.
"After the first six rounds, we'll probably see her attempt a cross-tier challenge, won't we?" Dark couldn't help but think.
This year's third- and fourth-year contestants from Magic House were beings who transcended their grade entirely.
For Noble House to win in such an environment was genuinely difficult.
With Winnie Skadi's utterly one-sided victory, it was finally time for the fourth-year duel.
Pandora Dragon's entrance stirred up another wave of frenzy.
Dark waved at Senior Pandora as she glanced over from the contestants' platform, then watched her thoroughly demolish the Noble House fourth-year in a rather pitiful display.
"This year's Magic House lineup is just too dominant!" Dark thought.
Watching closely, he noticed Pandora hadn't used "Fusion" in this match — whether she hadn't finished completing it, or simply chose not to, he couldn't tell.
In any case, Pandora's victory came as no surprise at all.
After these two consecutive losses, Noble House's momentum sagged further.
Still, neither side's contestants seemed to let it affect them.
In the fifth-year duel, a Noble House contestant finally defeated their Magic House opponent, evening the score.
And in the final, decisive sixth-year duel, the Noble House and Magic House contestants fought a brutally intense battle.
Both sides were nearly equal in strength; the field-clearing techniques were countless, and the chain of Special Summons was dazzling to watch.
Only after more than a dozen rounds did this evenly matched struggle finally draw to a close.
The Noble House sixth-year won by the narrowest of margins, taking the round!
Such a hard-fought victory sent Noble House's supporters into an instant frenzy of celebration.
But Magic House's supporters were no less spirited, cheering their contestant on with thunderous encouragement.
One round's result couldn't decide everything.
The matches still to come mattered just as much.
After the first round ended, Senior Judy summoned the symbols of the four houses again and spun the pointer, which landed on Fool's House and Knight House.
This too proved to be a spectacular round of duels, thrilling to watch.
In the end, Fool's House pulled off a dark-horse victory, defeating Knight House three matches to two!
In the audience's common perception, Fool's House had never been much to look at.
For the mighty Knight House to lose to Fool's House on the spot was, without question, humiliating.
Those who'd bet on Knight House as a safe, low-risk pick suffered heavy losses and cursed furiously.
A ripple of chaos broke out among the spectators.
But security across St. Marian's various branch halls was never lax — it was far from something one or two impulsive people could disrupt.
So that brief flare of chaos quickly died down.
Then the third round began, and it drew the audience's attention firmly back to the matches themselves.
The fated showdown between Noble House and Knight House sparked heated discussion.
After three rounds, the arena entered its midday break.
Dark and his classmates headed to the Canteen together, the boys along the way unable to hide their excited murmuring.
The fated clash between Noble House and Knight House ultimately went to Noble House, who edged ahead by a single point.
In the morning's three rounds, Noble House had won two rounds outright, while Knight House had lost both of theirs.
Such a result was exactly to the liking of Noble House's students.
Those Noble House students who'd fought bitterly against Knight House for years wished nothing more than to see Knight House fall to the very bottom.
But knights were resilient and unyielding, never staying down — they were bound to have the conviction to climb back to the battlefield even from rock bottom.
When lunch break ended, the fourth round — Knight House versus Magic House — saw an unexpected reversal, with Knight House defeating Magic House three to two!
But right after, in the fifth round, Magic House crushed Fool's House by a comfortable margin, reclaiming lost ground.
In total single-match wins, Magic House actually surpassed Knight House.
With Knight House at seven total wins and Magic House at eight, both turned their attention to the final round — a cross-tier tie-breaker.
Noble House versus Fool's House!
...
Since Fool's House had failed to beat even Noble House's earlier defeated Magic House, logically it shouldn't have been able to beat Noble House either.
And yet the facts spoke louder than logic. In the Noble House versus Fool's House match, Noble House suffered a crushing, humiliating defeat.
Fool's House rose against all odds, its reputation surging, and knocked Noble House straight down to earth!
In the end, Noble House finished with eight wins, tying with Magic House for a temporary first place.
Knight House and Fool's House each had seven wins, trailing behind with a weaker record.
But between fourth place and first place, the actual gap was only about ten thousand temporary credit points.
A single successful cross-tier challenge could easily close that gap.
To truly win it all, a successful cross-tier challenge had become the key.
Contestants from all four houses now had their eyes fixed on the cross-tier reward, quietly gathering their strength.
...
At dinnertime, the students argued fiercely, students from different houses provoking each other across several tables, each looking as if they wanted to smash the other's skull in.
By the end, it had turned into private duels, with students facing off on the open ground outside the Canteen — the intensity rivaling anything seen inside the arena.
Students from second through fifth year were the most worked up; though they stayed within the letter of school rules, the shouting match only grew louder and louder.
The sixth-years held back somewhat, being close to graduation.
The first-years, meanwhile, simply couldn't muster the strength to fight at all.
Dark and Doron and the others wandered through the crowd, munching on snacks with a bit of excitement, looking very much like they wanted to see the world burn.
Just before things got fully out of hand, Professor Silf, having finished dinner, sauntered past the edge of the crowd, and instantly everyone fell silent.
Then someone shouted something — no one quite knew who — and the students suddenly realized the next round of matches was about to begin, and hurried back to the Open-air Dueling Arena.
At exactly seven o'clock in the evening, the new round of matches officially began!
Unlike the students fighting within the school, the audiences across the various arenas were mostly fans of individual star contestants — as long as their favorite performed well, they'd be thrilled beyond measure.
And after being thrilled, of course, came spending money.
And when sad, spending money was just as much needed to vent those feelings.
So the arena naturally saw an abundance of food, souvenirs, and figure-model surprise eggs!
Especially the figure-model surprise eggs.
After two months of red-hot sales, the popularity of these figure-model eggs had, if anything, only grown — every duel served as another advertisement for them.
Fans, desperate to pull the Magic Guide Spirit of their dreams, had at times fallen into an outright frenzy.
And after pulling an ordinary figure, they'd start thinking about pulling a moving Magic Guide model, sinking even more money in.
In an age when wealth was still concentrated among a small few, the fortunes of nobles and great families were beyond estimation — once they started spending, it became a river of gold and silver.
The personal trading market that sprang up around these figure eggs unexpectedly ended up stimulating the flow of the economy.
As the market value of rare figures kept climbing, some people began treating them like lottery tickets — a chance to strike it rich overnight.
Naturally, "gamblers" followed close behind.
But this was an unavoidable phenomenon in any similar industry.
Just as behind the dueling economy lurked countless betting operations.
No matter what, it could never truly be stamped out.
...
Tonight, the stars shone unusually bright, and St. Marian's dueling hall blazed with light.
Cross-tier challenge matches were far more thrilling and full of anticipation than duels between contestants of the same grade.
And the deep night sky only stoked the emotions further.
Both students and spectators alike were swept along by the ever-rising excitement, fueling the duels to burn even hotter.
But in reality, for the contestants themselves, a cross-tier challenge was something to approach with the utmost caution.
Recklessly issuing a cross-tier challenge would waste one's only challenge slot, and there was a real risk of a crushing defeat due to the gap between grades.
A defeat too humiliating could send a star contestant's popularity plummeting, something anyone who cared about their reputation had to consider carefully.
And what people usually meant by "cross-tier" was a lower-ranked strong fighter challenging an ordinary opponent of a higher rank.
But every contestant on this stage was already the best of their own grade — in theory, none of them could be judged by grade level alone.
So a successful cross-tier challenge was exceedingly difficult to pull off.
Even those with some confidence needed to carefully weigh just how many tiers up they dared to jump.
...
The first to apply for a cross-tier challenge turned out to be none other than Magic House's third-year, Winnie Skadi!
This rising dueling prodigy had already been popular for her intellectual bearing and beauty, and her strength had been fully displayed in the daytime dueling tournament.
But what truly brought her into the spotlight was the Halloween eve ball.
Eldest Princess Eliza had chosen her, of all people, as her dance partner, and the major papers had dug deep into her story at the time.
It was from that moment on that Winnie Skadi truly entered the public eye.
And tonight, the first to apply for a challenge, Winnie Skadi, entered a dominant "no cards left to play" state, and directly challenged the Knight House fourth-year who had performed well that day!
Knight House had beaten Magic House three to two in the daytime matches.
But that same fourth-year had suffered a crushing defeat at Pandora's hands.
Though it hadn't affected his brilliant performances afterward, that one humiliating loss still gnawed at him.
Now, suddenly singled out as a cross-tier challenge target by a Magic House third-year, he couldn't help but feel like Magic House saw him as an easy mark to be toyed with.
Fired up with anger over this, the fourth-year climbed onto the contestants' stage with the mindset of teaching this junior a proper lesson.
On the other stage, Winnie Skadi remained utterly calm, her lovely face gleaming under the starlight.
Once both contestants took their places, the duel quickly moved into the Preparation Phase, then into the battle phase.
Facing the powerful fourth-year, Winnie Skadi maintained a dominant bearing entirely at odds with her usual gentle demeanor, overwhelming him right from the start.
In almost the exact same rhythm as when Pandora had defeated this same fourth-year, she took him down cleanly and decisively!
When the Magic Sphere finally hit zero, the Knight House fourth-year still wore a look of pure disbelief.
The mountain-shaking, ocean-roaring cheers from the crowd, celebrating this first successful cross-tier challenge, battered relentlessly against his eardrums, dealing him an even greater blow.
Before this duel, he'd actually been mulling over which fifth-year to challenge next.
That resolve was completely knocked out of him now!
...
Following Winnie Skadi, another Magic House fourth-year — Pandora Dragon — likewise made a dominant move, choosing a Noble House fifth-year as her target.
That fifth-year powerhouse, who had helped turn the tide for Noble House in their duel against Magic House, didn't dare underestimate the renowned "Silver Dragon Maiden" in the slightest.
The duel unfolded amid wave after wave of roaring cheers.
Both contestants' opening moves came faster and fiercer than any first-year could have imagined.
The intensity of the match was in no way inferior to any sixth-year duel from earlier that day.
That beautiful, slender white dragon — so exquisite it seemed to defy the very concept of reproductive isolation — took the stage again, driving the "white dragon fanatics" to cheer with everything they had.
Giant banners depicting the white dragon in full glory fluttered in the wind.
The whole arena chanting "Silver Dragon Maiden" in perfect unison somehow didn't feel embarrassing at all in that moment.
The entire massive audience seemed to be occupied entirely by devotees of the "Silver Dragon Maiden."
And amid that scorching wave of cheers, the "Silver Dragon Maiden" lived up to expectations, crushing her opponent with an air of unshakable dominance!
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