Lord of Charm

A wall made of stone was raised in front of Drake to protect him from any further injuries, and the match ended.

"Gale Stormborn wins the tournament and takes first place! How long has it been since a kingdom won this bracket?!"

The crowd went mad; the cheers and screams filled the colosseum and overtook even the commentator's voice.

"Gale showed us his fire magic, and it was beautiful! Second place goes to Drake Smaug, and third place goes to Jack, congratulations to the winners!"

The young bracket was concluded with Gale's victory, making him famous throughout the kingdom. His name and achievement will arrive in every noble's household within days, and those present have already sent their intelligence agents to discover his origins.

"Tomorrow we will host the intermediate bracket, and in two days the older bracket and the awards ceremony. Don't forget to come back!"

Steve announced the end of the day and everyone got up and started leaving. Although the fights started in the morning, it was already after sunset. Not only the fights took a long time, but they also had to take breaks between rounds to heal the participants who were wounded in their previous fights and replenish their mana.

To prevent the fans from swarming the fighters, the fighters went back to the waiting area where they could use a different exit. Gale found Lena and the girls waiting for him with an unexpected guest; Donne came to watch the tournament.

"Great job Gale, it was a spectacular fight."

"Thanks brother."

"Why are you so formal with each other? You were awesome!"

Jay and the girls were already carefree around Gale and they all started hugging him in turns. After finishing with all the compliments and good words, they headed out only to see the exit blocked; the crowd found the 'secret' exit.

"GALE! I'M YOURS TONIGHT AS PROMISED! YOU WERE AMAZING OUT THERE!"

Fangirls screamed at the top of their lungs as soon as Gale's team could be seen, and a huge crowd, mainly consisting of girls, was revealed to the team's astonished eyes.

Lena's face twisted in annoyance; she had enough thirsty girls around her, and seeing hundreds more was beyond her limit. Powerful winds started brewing around her and hit the crowd, granting dozens of humans the ability to fly.

"AHHHH!"

The screams changed from heated to scared; almost all the girls were only magicians. Mages were rare and esteemed in the kingdom, so they had too much self-respect to scream like degenerates.

The group quickly left through the opening Lena created and headed home.

"That was overreacting, sister."

Gale complained to Lena about injuring those women for no reason. He liked his fans, they supported him and cheered for him through the tournament, and he thought it was wrong to hurt them now.

"Hmph, you're already bedding three geniuses here, why do you need all these women now?"

Banters, laughter, and conversations could be heard as they rode home on a carriage until they finally arrived.

"All right, go to sleep early today and rest well before tomorrow's fights. In the intermediate tournament tomorrow we have Jay, Nina, and Dion. Gale, stay away from those three."

"Hey, I never slept with him!"

Nina protested when Shana included her in her warning, but her mother just shrugged it off.

"It was just in case."

"Don't worry Gale, I'm free tonight."

Violet smiled flirtatiously at him, and Gale held her hand and led her to the bedroom with a plan in mind to release the stress he accumulated that day.

The next day everyone got ready and left again. This time, Gale was sitting with the audience. He got a seat next to Shana on the top floor at the front.

"Do you think they have a chance at winning?"

Violet asked with a concerned voice. They could easily get so many spots in the intermediate bracket simply because no kingdom had 10 mages before 35 to send. They'd all send 4-5 mages who were their best geniuses in that age group, and fill the remaining slots with magicians.

"Welcome to the tournament everybody! I'm your man, Steve Howard!"

Steve opened with his usual line and everyone applauded.

"Friends, we gather today to see which of these mages, these fighters, have the right to call themselves true champions! Only the last one standing will have earned that honor."

All the participants went on stage and Steve introduced them one by one. This time the empire sent 14 mages ranging from 28 years old to 35. The ones under 30 were mainly newly advanced mages who weren't expected to win and were just sent on vacation to have fun.

"This is Lara Crowell. She is 35 years old now and famed to be a promising water and air mage in the empire."

Steve introduced one good-looking female mage who was wearing a gray tank top and brown pants as her combat outfit and waved to the crowd.

"Is she the one sent to win this tournament?"

Gale asked Shana with curiosity. He already understood that the empire would send one of their geniuses to secure first place in every bracket, and she seemed the one for this bracket.

"It's her. But there's also someone strong from the Igrebah Kingdom who might win. Jay is the strongest in our group and she is an experienced mage, she might win too."

Lena who just entered the booth answered Gale instead of Shana.

"Where have you been?"

"Lady Shana gave us 1000 imperial gold coins, so I went to bet on Jay's win."

"Are you sure that's a responsible thing to do? You won't have much more money if they take us to the empire."

"I betted 4000 coins on Jay and 4000 coins that our kingdom will have 2 spots in the top 3. Each bet is like a 1:10 ratio, so I'm gonna hit the big time. Just like I turned those 1000 to 10,000 by betting on you."

"Heh, if you're so confident, why not bet everything?"

Lena kept her right to remain silent; she really wasn't completely confident of Jay's victory.

"The draws are out, let's see the bracket!"

Steve's shout brought their attention back to the stage and they searched for their friends' names.  Dion, Nina, and Jay got the numbers 2, 16, and 18 respectively, which meant Nina and Dion would meet in the semifinals assuming they can both get there, and Jay would meet the winner at the finals.

Nina's future in the tournament seemed bleak though, Lara was number 50, meaning she was facing number 15 and Nina would be next.