Isla's combat was going well, but she had been dealt a difficult opponent.
The opponent in front of her was a bit more powerful than she was in terms of pure vampiric power.
That was hard to deal with, but this guy also noticed that Isla was more capable than he thought.
They were resting now, staring at each other after several moves where they couldn't land a decisive blow.
'...I must use what Matt taught me so I can take him out.' Isla thought and slightly changed the stance in which she held her sword.
At the same time, her aura changed slightly as she began to employ it differently.
She had been fighting as she had always done to fulfill what Matt had told her, not to show its power so quickly, but she hadn't expected someone to show up and force her to fight the way Matt had trained her.
The guy before her frowned as he saw this, 'Did her stance and power change?' He thought, confused, but after taking a good look at her, nothing seemed to have changed.
'It must be my imagination...' He thought and tried to reassure himself.
'...I can do it.' He thought and, without hesitation, moved quickly towards her to attack her.
Isla looked at him, rushing to where she was, but she kept calm and didn't move.
She breathed softly, trying to lower her presence as much as possible before moving.
It was a little trick Matt had taught her.
'Not moving?' thought James, who was attacking her.
Still, he didn't let his guard down and launched a firm attack with his sword, seeking to knock her out of the fight with a single move.
But, just then, Isla ducked as if she had already been waiting for him and, from below, jumped towards him, leaving him stunned, 'What the hell!?' He thought and quickly tried to throw a kick at her, but realized his mistake then...
Although she jumped toward him, it wasn't to pounce on him but to hide the attack of her sword, which hit him squarely in the stomach...
The impact sent him rolling across the fighting arena tens of meters, but he managed to stabilize quickly and looked back.
He was shocked to notice that Isla had followed him with firmness and determination; he saw her so close to him that his arm moved instinctively out of fear, trying to hit her.
But Isla's attack came before him, and it was not a simple attack...
Three powerful attacks hit different parts of his body then, causing his body to shoot backward once again.
Soon, he fell hovering on the ground...
Shock filled him and covered his mind as he realized he had lost.
That clean and powerful attack had knocked him out of the combat arena.
'Did I lose so easily?' he thought, but soon the pain made him spit blood, and he fell to the ground.
Isla looked at this in shock, and an incredible smile appeared on her face. It was so beautiful and radiant that it attracted the attention of anyone who looked at it.
It was a smile of unbridled happiness, rarely seen on a vampire.
'I really won!' she thought and quickly looked for the tile where Matt was fighting.
As she expected, he had finished his fight rather quickly, and right now, he was looking at her with a calm smile.
She couldn't help but run towards him at high speed, leaving the tile that belonged to her and jumped on him to hug him.
"Matt, I really did it! I did the attack you taught me!" she said happily as she hugged him tightly.
Matt was slightly surprised by her overflowing happiness and acting, but he still hugged her so she wouldn't fall and smiled at her.
"I saw it; you did pretty well; congratulations. You see? I told you to have confidence in yourself; you are strong." He replied.
She nodded repeatedly but didn't get off and continued to hug him.
Right now, she was so grateful she didn't know how to put it into words, but she still thanked him continuously.
"Thank you, Matt... Thank you..." She said, repeating herself several times.
Still, she soon got off of Matt, noticing that she had attracted everyone's attention. Her pretty face turned slightly red with embarrassment, and she lowered her head quickly.
"I'm sorry, Matt..." She said softly at the time, but Matt stroked her head a little.
"It's okay. I'm glad you were able to exert that move. If you keep it up, I think you can move into the top 16, but you have to be careful when you get an opponent then. I think among the top 16, most of them are strong." He replied, and she nodded.
"That's okay, Matt. I'll be careful." She said, and after that, they stood and watched the rest of the combats.
As they had won their respective combat, both had moved into the top 32 and accumulated two wins, so they were getting closer and closer to the heavyweights of this battle of the halls.
Many of those heavyweights didn't even have to show their powers or fight. As soon as they touched their arenas, their opponents gave up. None of those powerful guys were unknown in the Second Academy, and perhaps only Matt and Isla were unaware of their exploits.
However, Matt was also making waves, especially when it became known that he could beat a person with 4,000 power, one of the second-year geniuses.
'So strong, but he's barely a first year... This guy is really good.' Thought several of the most powerful people in the fight and made a mental note of Matt.
Some were surprised, as Matt was not supposed to be so powerful when he participated in the mountain battle a few days ago.
'Had he been hiding his strength all this time? Tsk, what a cunning guy.' Several of them thought, but they still smiled.
If they didn't have strength, they wouldn't be here, so they were confident.
Matt and Isla watched the combats one by one until they finished; it was already dark by that time.
Once finished, the referees again started calling the opponents for the next round, although this would not occur today but the next day.
'Worst case scenario, I could be up against Isla in this round...' Matt thought while waiting for his name to be called.
In those moments, they finally called his name.
"Matthew Dietrich vs Liam Brown!" shouted the referee and continued to name more people.
Matt frowned and looked sideways to see which opponent had been named, as he didn't know him.
His frown deepened when he saw who he was...