Leah and Vann were standing apart a couple of hundred meters away from each other with the former being serious while the latter being relaxed.
The Proctor who was standing in the middle reminded the finalists and the audience of a few rules that are exclusive to the finals of every Champions League.
The first one is regarding the habitat. For every 12 minutes, the habitat within the barrier will be randomly changed. So, the finalists must also focus on the timer.
The second one is the temporary gravitational field. The gravity within the barrier will be doubled that of the original.
The third one is the role of instructors. The respective instructors of the finalists cannot interfere in the match. Only the Proctor has the right to stop the match. However, they retain the power to give up the match regardless of the decision of the finalists.
The fourth and final one is the killing. Unlike before matches, the proctor couldn't interfere in the match based on his judgment at any time. He could interfere and stop the match only when one of them or their instructor calls for withdrawing.
That means if a finalist and his instructor are too stubborn to admit defeat, then, the proctor couldn't step in even if he/she were to be killed. In this case, deliberate killing is allowed.
Of course, in case the finalist isn't in a position to move his/her body like being unconscious and the Proctor feels that he/she is about to die, he could still interfere in the match without considering the opinions of their respective instructors.
This is why Wesley was worried about the tactics of Dragon Academy.
Now, upon listening to the rules, some of the audience became worried for their support, remembering the provocations between Leah and Vann, an hour ago.
Meanwhile, Leah's eyes were fixed on Vann who was standing amid hundred thousand people without any fear of getting caught.
"This is a good chance to bring out its real personality. Don't waste it." The Excalibur spoke in her head to which she nodded in agreement.
After informing the rules, the Proctor took out an eight-star activated skill card unleashed it.
A huge silver-colored barrier appeared before everyone's eyes.
Like the blue barrier from earlier, this cuboidal-shaped one also covered 200 meters length, 100 meters width, and 200 meters height.
However, there are also a couple of differences apart from their color. One is that this barrier is provided directly by WAMO and the other is its property.
Unlike the blue barrier of Barton, which automatically absorbs any energy that touches it, this one just blocks it like a wall whether it's made up of energy or a physical object.
So, the concept of out of bounds doesn't exist here unless one is powerful enough to destroy a peak-rank-8 barrier.
The explanation about the barrier brought mixed reactions from the audience. Some thought it was amazing while others thought it was too wasteful as the barrier need to be removed and then, cast a new one for every match.
Meanwhile, Vann flinched a little bit. He started to feel a little bit suffocated as he hates the thought of being trapped under something. After all, his objective is only to become a free being.
On the other hand, Leah was just staring at him in silence, waiting for the match to start.
The Proctor then took out the item card and threw it on the ground, changing the barren field in the arena to turn into a water habitat with 3ft depth.
Unlike during the Quarterfinals, there are no islands provided inside this artificial lake. Instead, several tiny stones are floating around. They are only big enough for one person to stand on them.
While Leah didn't care about them, Vann checked whether they could hold his weight or not by trying to stand on them. It turned out not only they could withstand the weight, but they could also still float around.
*Whistle*
The Proctor gave the signal to start the match without giving any preparation time like before as the organizers believed that those who reach such a stage don't need such things as preparations.
"Come out, Excalibur," Just as the timer started, Leah summoned the sword from her soul card.
Meanwhile, Vann summoned a ten-meter Gold Dragon, which appeared like an Arcana but in fact, it was just the materialization of his soul energy based on the tiny speck of soul of the Gold dragon that was trapped within it.
"Let's see how long you will continue to pretend." Leah let out a snort and poured her soul energy into the sword, pointing towards the dragon. The dense purple energy not only covered the sword but also became bigger.
She then pushed her leg against the ground and dashed towards him, making the water splash around and the islands float away from her.
Looking at her, Vann smirked as he raised his hand, "I'm not like those weaklings that you can bully around."
Under his control, the Gold Dragon let out a powerful roar before flapping its wings.
It flew towards Leah.
By the time they almost neared each other, for the spectators, it felt as if Leah was handling a three-meter large purple sword in her hand.
As the Gold reached its target, it started to spew out flames. Leah raised her sword and blocked the flames.
The flames hit the sword energy and got split into two directions, although it stopped Leah's advancement.
As the force generated by the flames turned out to be quite stronger, Leah was pushed back quickly, making her grit her teeth and pour more soul energy to power up her physical body strength.
She managed to stop getting pushed away after being pushed back nearly ten meters away. Leah then started to advance once again, step by step.
Vann narrowed his eyes and then, snapped his finger. "Let's see how you handle this."
All of a sudden, the red flames turned blue, heating up the temperature to nearly more than 2000 degrees centigrade.
With the temperature same level as lava, the temperature in the barrier increases abruptly while the water started to boil and turns into vapor.
Meanwhile, Leah was once again getting pushed back. Along with that, the purple energy around her sword started to get diminished as it was constantly trying to block the blue flames.
The spectators were shocked to see the princess who always defeated her opponents with overwhelming power now found herself in a disadvantageous position.
In the meantime, they also realized that they have been underestimating Vann's strength all this time. It made them wonder whether Azzy was really too strong or whether he was just going easy on that 13-year old kid.
The people who were the most shocked were the two Generals from Hildegard who are keeping an eye on him for a few weeks by now.
As far as they were concerned, Vann was genuinely a mid-rank-6 Arcana Master, and yet, they keep seeing him suppressing his soul power to the 5-star realm even including the finals.
Until now, they felt strange about it. But, now they felt like their prince is indeed suppressing his strength because he was probably too strong for the tournament.
Several higher realm experts and scouts also thought that his participation in the tournament is indeed unfair for others.
Many VIPs are now looking forward to seeing his full strength as they knew that the Princess of Camelot will not be defeated so easily.
As the Dragon was flying forward while breathing out the seal of blue flames, Leah continued to get pushed back.
Her face started to become redder with each second as the rage slowly built up inside her.
With just 20 meters away from the barrier, Leah roared on top of her lungs, "Izarok, wake up."
Suddenly, a soul card was summoned before her and a tremendous volume of water started to flow out of it like a beam, passing through the Excalibur and colliding with the blue flames.
Looking at the water beam pushes all the flames in its path away, Vann was taken aback and hurriedly ordered the dragon to move away.
Since it was just made up of his soul energy, it actually doesn't matter. He could even return it again but he was cautious of raising suspicions in the spectators, especially those VIPs of the eight-star realm.
Following his order, the Dragon stopped spewing flames and flapped its wings to fly higher.
It managed to successfully dodge the water beam.
However, right then, the water beam that just was traveling straight suddenly turned its direction as soon as it missed the dragon.
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