Miss Witch Doesn't Want to be a Diva

"The first day of the competition ended just like that, and the results seem quite good,"

At the evening dinner, the teacher tallied the day's scores, including Hexia among the total of 9 students who had participated. Six had advanced, and considering advancement required finishing in the top third of the ranking, this was sufficient to demonstrate the students of Edith Academy far surpassed the average.

"After all, we're not an academy operating in space; some of the competitors were inherently at an advantage," the teacher consoled the students who had not made it to the next round.

Though it was a competition they had come to attend, not everyone was intent on winning a prize, some were there simply for the experience, wishing to travel and broaden their horizons.

The first day involved opening speeches and performances, and since there were the most contestants, only the first round of eliminations took place. The next day, the competition sped up significantly.

After the first round of eliminations, at least the remaining competitors were all of decent strength, and many indeed had aspirations for the awards.

Clearly, the battles on the second day were far more intense than the day before, and the competitors no longer treated the clock components underfoot and the interlocking gears as mere decorations, but instead put them to effective use.

Some utilized the complex terrain within the hollow clockworks to move around swiftly, making their opponents cautious about striking too hard for fear of touching the clock parts with their sword edges, scraping off the copper layer and incurring penalties. With the added caution, blade speeds slowed, allowing the audience to see more clearly not only the physical aspect but also the mental battle, eliciting excited exclamations of "spectacular."

In the second round's sixth match, Tilan took the stage again. This time she did not face Li Qingfei, whose swordsmanship was like the misty rain, but instead, she came up against a competitor who, like herself, practiced the Withering Sequence.

Her opponent, a girl who seemed even smaller than herself, wore a gothic black dress and held a Cross Sword adorned with skulls and roses. Her pale wrists tinged with blue were wrapped in bandages, her eyes were blood-red and indifferent, as though she bore a subtle distaste for the whole world.

Upon realizing that Tilan was a practitioner of the Withering Sequence just like herself, the white-haired girl halted, simplifying her curtsey.

"Good evening, big sister with the black hair," the seemingly indifferent girl said, her lips curving into a rare smile.

"Good evening," Tilan responded with a curtsey of her own. The girl's eyes shifted, her finger lightly touching her chin.

"Big sister is very polite, it makes Shaliye a bit reluctant to strike. But Shaliye will make it less painful for you," she said.

After speaking, the girl gripped the hilt of her sword, stepped forward instantly, and then vanished from sight.

"Clang—"

A crisp sound of a blade being blocked echoed from behind. As Tilan turned around, the white-haired girl spun on her toes on the ground and disappeared again, and soon after, the Cross Sword Blade thrust through Tilan's back, piercing her chest.

A tiny wound appeared instantly, and the white-haired girl then sheathed her sword and retreated.

Threads of blood seeped out, making Tilan feel a chill in her chest, but such a wound was not a big problem for her, healing quietly within a few breaths. However, the girl in front of her took her by surprise.

She roughly understood the principle behind the girl's ghostly secret technique, which was to phase her body before using subspace to travel short distances. Setting aside the difficulty of that secret technique, let's consider phasing itself. Even for Transcendents of the Withering Sequence who possess the ability to phase, it is generally only used for dodging and not for extended periods. The human body is not a ghost. Compared to the natural phasing ability of ghosts, such a transformation consumes a great deal of magic power and puts a heavy strain on the body. Overuse would result in many hidden injuries.

Even within the Thirty-Six Upper Sects of the Third Era in The East, only the 'Violet Twilight Palace' had a swordsmanship tradition that involved using phasing to strike swiftly, then revealing oneself, which is highly unpredictable and inflicts tremendous damage to the spiritual body.

Given the girl's age and the limitations of her Sequence Five abilities, it was almost impossible for her to use this swordsmanship without injuring herself, unless… Tilan's gaze shifted to the bandage wrapped around the girl's wrist, her eyes closing slightly before opening again.

Indeed, there must be many side effects. The body of this girl seemed to be specially modified, much more suitable for the phasing secret technique, requiring much less consumption. However, correspondingly, her physical constitution would be much weaker than that of other Sequence Fives.

Seeing Tilan standing in her original spot with no intention of leaving, even breathing evenly and with stable magic power, far from looking injured, the girl's expression changed.

"Big sister is quite exceptional, huh. Then Shaliye has no choice," she said.

With her body slightly stooped, she then pivoted on her foot, disappearing from in front of Tilan once again.

Here it comes, from the left, Tilan's eyes sharpened, and she crossed swords, hitting the invisible blade that was coming at her. The opponent vanished again, this time without any immediate reappearance, as if leaving without a trace.

In response, Tilan waited patiently, and surely enough, 20 seconds later, during a breath's gap, the opponent made another move. This time it was from behind, and very sudden, with the sword tip appearing scant ten centimeters from Tilan's hair on her back.

Then the sword blade passed through the body, but this attack met no resistance, as Tilan had also phased. After that, the two repeatedly crossed swords in this space within the dial, with sword lights flashing into existence and vanishing. It was not only Shaliye who could instantaneously phase; Tilan could as well. And throughout the exchange, Shaliye's complexion grew increasingly pale, as her manner of fighting could not last long.

Facing Tilan, who could easily fend off all her moves, the white-haired girl grew more and more fearful, and the fight became increasingly dangerous and urgent. She attempted to use her most powerful sword move to defeat her opponent.

Grasping the rose-entwined cross sword tightly, she became transparent once more, then briefly entered the higher-dimensional space. After navigating the complex environment, she appeared in an instant, with the blade in her hand becoming faintly visible as it swung. Three sword lights, curved like new moons, swept out, slashing towards Tilan's back.

This time, Tilan didn't dodge but faced the attack head-on. She also swung her longsword, the silver blade following her body's flip, blossoming in the air. The phased sword edge instantaneously passed through the opponent's blade, similarly drawing three new moon sword arcs, with wisps of pale red blood spraying, and then the cross sword, adorned with skulls and roses, was knocked into the brass dial before bouncing off and falling into the gravity-less sky.

A few seconds later, Shaliye stood in place, clutching her wrist. Her previously bandaged wrist was once again stained with blood, and thin trails of blood seeped from her snow-white shoulder and neck.

"Uh, it's Shaliye who lost," she murmured, her eyes dimming as if losing their luster, dispirited and despondent.

Hearing her words and sensing the somber, deathly still emotion within, Tilan felt that the girl before her had many stories to tell. But with the competition still ongoing, there was no time to inquire in detail. With this in mind, she simply gave a slight nod.

Minutes later, the match ended. Tilan ranked first, and Shaliye barely advanced to the next round in fourth place. Although she lost to Tilan, the points from her previous victories kept her in the top four, barely scraping through.