『The day of the semi-finals is finally upon us! We have a great lineup again this year!』

Not only the regular seats, the special seats and seats for honored guests, which had been somewhat empty until today are now packed to the brim.

I guess that’s just how high the audience’s expectations are.

『Advancing to the semifinals for the second time in a row, the number one seed in this year’s tournament, it’s none other than Fran the Black Lightning Princess! Will she claim the championship this year!?』

The roaring cheers that accompanied the introduction from the commentator shook the arena. The cheers had been loud enough in previous matches, but they were even louder today.

『Against her is the guild master of the adventurer’s guild of Ulmut, an active A-Ranked adventurer, Diaz the Dragon Tripper! No one ever expected an active guild master would participate in this martial arts tournament! Will his hundreds of combat experiences stop her youthful vigor! Or will her youthfulness overcome that craftiness of him!? This is definitely going to be a fight worth watching!』

Even more than the excited crowd, Fran and Diaz were also looking forward to this fight.

They exchange sharp glances at each other with no attempt to hide their killing intent. If not for the barrier that had been set up beforehand, the audience would have surely been hit by their bloodthirsty atmosphere.

「Whoever wins this match, wins the bet, as simple as that」

「Nn」

Those were the only words exchanged between the two. Even so, I could tell that both sides were serious about going for the kill from the very beginning.

Diaz needs to win to put his grudge to an end.

Fran needs to win to protect Zelos Reed and Romio and to overcome the big wall that denied her advance to finals last year.

But we also had a serious concern.

『Fran, how’s your body?』

(A little heavy)

『I see…』

She had not recovered from her battle with Sibylla as much as I hoped. It seems that the backlash of using the divine attribute on her own was more severe than I thought.

『Just like we planned, all right?』

「Nn」

Our opponent is an expert Illusion Magic user. Moreover, we were not in our best form. That’s why I’ll go all out into this too.

『Without further ado, let the first match begin!』

「Rhaaahh!」

Fran moved right after the signal is given and quickly unleashes a serious Heaven’s Judgement.

By using all her power and skills that she has developed, it’s the best strike that the current Fran can use. Although it is only about 70% of the speed it was at its peak, it’s still fast enough to be called god-speed.

Diaz is certainly strong. He could make a fool of us with his Illusion Magic.

But only at this moment, at the very start of the match, we’re sure we can reach him.

Diaz could not react at all. No matter how much Diaz may have tried, he shouldn’t be able to avoid Fran’s Heaven’s Judgement that was unleashed at this speed.

As Abbab said in their match, Diaz’s defenses are not high, so it should be impossible for him to get away unscathed from a direct hit of our Heaven’s Judgement.

In that case, this attack could even immediately settle the match, but――

「Eh?」

『Fran!?』

Fran’s Awakening suddenly stopped. The sudden drop in her physical performance caused her to lose control of her Heaven Judgement and she lost her balance.

I hurriedly supported Fran with my telekinesis as she was spun around by the centrifugal force and was about to crash onto the stage.

『Are you okay?』

「Nn… But, what happens?」

『This must be the effect of Diaz’s skill』

I never thought that skill of his would even work on awakening.

Skill Forget, a skill that makes the target forgets the existence of the specified skill for a certain period of time. With a maximum of 1 minute, the duration depends on the level and rarity of the target skill. Its cooldown also seems to depend on the same condition.

「When a beastman’s Awakening is forcefully stopped, they will self-destruct as the magic powering that skill has nowhere else to go. I knew you’ll use a big move right off the start and used my skill to stop the source of your power!」

It is not that Diaz did not react; he did not need to react. He knew this would happen if her awakening was disrupted in the middle of a big move.

「Guh…!」

『Fran!』

As Diaz said, Fran’s magic has gone out of control and is raging within her. She’s trying to control it somehow, but nothing seems to have worked for she’s not in an Awakening state.

Not letting this opportunity to waste, Diaz rushed toward us. What appears on his face was not his usual mischievous smile but the smile of a hunter who has caught his prey in a trap.

「Shyeah!」

「Geh!」

Fran got easily hit! Just after she ducked the fake strike created by his Illusion Magic, her thigh was sliced open slightly.

Just like the common technique of an illusion magic user, Diaz made his main body invisible while making an illusion as a feint. But unlike any illusion magic user we had fought before, Diaz’s technique was more elaborate.

He reproduced the presence, sounds, and even the smells on his feint. Because of that, it doesn’t feel like an illusion.

Fran jumped to distance herself from Diaz, who was trying to press for more, but she frowned slightly.

「My feet, feel strange」

『Huh?』

I checked Fran’s leg and found that the thigh that was cut by Diaz had not regenerated.

《Traces of Life Magic detected. It appears to have the effect of inhibiting regeneration for a short period of time》

『For real!?』

Is this a special property of Diaz’s weapon? I tried to appraise it, but no result comes up.

Appraisal is a skill that allows the user to reap information on a target within the user’s vision. And so, as no result comes up when I appraised his weapon, it seems the thing I saw was not the actual body of his weapon.

I had appraised his equipment before the match started, and his weapon was still the same Dragon Fang Dagger that he used before. In that case, he must have secretly changed his weapon after the match started.

『Fran! Watch out for Diaz’s weapon』

「Nn」

Having said that, I don’t know the shape, the length, or the capabilities of his weapon. There are limits to what we can tell from just watching.

Just as I thought, Diaz’s craftiness is surely troublesome.