Chapter 470: The Grand First-Year Combat Festival: The Elegant one and The Wild one

"THREE!"

The crowd began the countdown, their voices spreading through the Arena and mixing together as Hundreds of thousands of spectators watched the two sisters standing opposite each other.

Elena Galehart looked quietly at Selena, her expression remaining completely blank.

But Selena Galehart still kept a soft smile on her face as she looked at her sister, and for some reason, that smile seemed to make Elena even more irritated.

Why the hell is she smiling?

Elena thought to herself while maintaining her expressionless gaze.

Does she think this is some kind of game?

She couldn’t understand it.

From the moment they had stepped onto the fighting platform, Selena had looked at her with that same gentle smile, as though this were nothing more than another ordinary day between sisters.

But Elena didn’t feel the same way.

For her, this match meant far more.

"TWO!"

The crowd continued shouting, their voices overlapping with different emotions of excitement.

"Lady Selena Galehart!!!"

"Lady Selena Galehart!!"

Even with the countdown continuing, smaller cheers could still be heard from different parts of the Arena.

Every one of them.

Not even one...

Tsk.

Why does it always have to be her?

Elena’s fist tightened slightly as she took her fighting stance.

Her fingers wrapped around the handle of the nicely designed fan in her hand. The Galehart family’s logo had been imprinted neatly on its surface, but the fan itself remained closed.

She hadn’t opened it yet.

Her eyes stayed on Selena.

There was no admiration in them.

Only the frustration she had carried for years.

"One!"

The crowd shouted the final countdown together, and their voices echoed through the entire Arena.

"Let’s have a good fight, sister."

Selena said in her usual light tone.

She also took her fighting stance, but even that movement carried the elegance that people had come to expect from her.

Her posture remained straight, her movements controlled, and she held her closed fan close to her lips.

Elena narrowed her eyes on Selena.

She didn’t reply.

"BEGIN!!!"

The crowd shouted excitedly as the match officially started.

Immediately, Elena opened her fan.

She passed Cognis through her veins and directed it toward her fingers, allowing the energy to flow into the circuits built into the weapon.

Emerald-green light traveled through the circuit system of the fan.

One line after another lit up until every circuit was glowing with the same green light.

Then six blades extended from the edges of the fan.

The weapon changed in an instant.

The elegant fan had become a weapon designed for battle.

Today...

Here and now...

I will show the world why Selena Galehart is nothing compared to me.

Elena thought to herself as she dashed forward.

Her boots struck the platform as she accelerated, and just before she reached the proper distance, she jumped slightly while increasing the amount of Cognis flowing into her fan.

"AHHH!"

She swung the fan downward.

The movement of the fan and the six blades cutting through the air created a sudden pressure that gathered in front of her.

Six visible wind blades formed from the force and shot toward Selena.

They moved quickly, cutting through the air with enough force to disturb the dust around the fighting platform.

Selena remained where she was.

She simply watched her sister’s quick movement.

She’s using a Circuit Weapon, huh?

Selena’s emerald eyes remained steady as she watched the incoming wind blades.

Since when did she buy one?

She hadn’t expected Elena to bring a Circuit Weapon into this match.

Well, she seems really prepared.

Selena’s gaze briefly shifted toward the First-Year stands.

She searched through the crowd until she found Ezra.

Her eyes rested on him for only a moment.

I can’t afford to lose, at least not in this round.

Her smile remained soft.

Even though elegance is supremacy, I still have to be strong as an Alchemist to be the perfect Elegant Lady.

Selena looked back toward the incoming wind blades.

They were already closing in.

She brought her hands together.

Clap!

The Wind Alchemy Circle formed quickly between her hands.

Selena then elegantly placed her palms forward while opening her fan.

Her wrist moved.

The fan swung vertically downward, then upward, before cutting horizontally and diagonally through the air.

The movements happened so quickly that Elena’s eyes could barely follow them.

To Elena, Selena’s hands had become nothing more than a blur.

Every swing pushed air toward the Wind Alchemy Circle hovering in front of Selena.

The wind entered the circle.

Then the Alchemy ignited fully.

BOOM!

The six wind blades collided with a solid ball of wind that rotated around Selena, covering her entire body like a shield.

The impact caused the wind around the barrier to scatter outward, but Selena remained standing inside it without being pushed back.

"There it is again..."

Liliana shouted with excitement from the commentator’s section.

"That perfect control over the wind, and that elegant swing to execute her Wind Alchemy!"

She explained the way Selena had executed the Alchemy, drawing attention to the precision of every movement.

The crowd also went wild.

Just like Ravenor, who had continued using one Flame Alchemy attack throughout the beginning of his matches in the Combat Festival, Selena had also displayed something close to that.

However, there was an important difference.

Selena was controlling two types of Alchemy simultaneously.

She would first create a Wind Barrier to shield herself from her opponent’s attacks.

Then...

Clap!

Selena’s hands came together again, igniting another Wind Alchemy.

She placed her hands forward as the wind moving around the environment began flowing toward her.

The air around the fighting platform changed.

Dust lifted from the ground.

Loose strands of hair moved around Selena’s face.

Even the edges of Elena’s clothing fluttered as the wind was drawn toward the Alchemy Circle.

The winds entered the circle rapidly, making the whole fighting platform fill with violent gusts.

Elena watched her sister.

She saw Selena moving just like she had during her earlier matches in the competition.

That sight caused Elena to laugh.

"Hahah..."

Her laughter started low.

Then...

"Hahahahaha."

The laughter grew louder.

There was something different about it now.

It wasn’t the laughter of someone who found something funny.

It was the sound of someone who had finally reached the point where the frustration inside her could no longer remain quiet.

Suddenly...

Whoosh!

The wind around Elena began moving violently.

It didn’t simply pass around her.

The air seemed to be pulled toward her body before bursting outward again.

Selena, who had been preparing to fully ignite her second Wind Alchemy, looked toward her sister.

Her emerald eyes widened slightly.

"Elena!!! What have you done?!"

She shouted, her voice filled with worry.

The change in Elena’s body was obvious.

Emerald-green lines had appeared across her arms, neck, and face.

The light moved beneath her skin like glowing cracks.

But that wasn’t the most worrying part.

Her entire body was going through Excessive Generation of Cognis.

The amount of Cognis inside her was far beyond what her body should normally have been able to contain.

Those among the crowd who could see what was happening on the stage immediately understood what Elena had done to herself to reach this state.

At the First-Year seating section in the stands...

"She must have drunk many bottles of Ese before she came onto the stage."

Ezra said calmly while looking at Elena’s body as it reacted to the immense flow of Cognis.

His plain black eyes followed the emerald-green lines spreading across her body, already understanding what was happening to her.

The excessive Cognis wasn’t appearing from nowhere.

Elena had prepared herself before the fight even began.

"Why would she do something so stupid?"

Willow asked while looking at Elena with a serious expression.

She could see that Elena was forcing her body to contain more Cognis than it was supposed to handle.

But she couldn’t understand why she would even do something like that to herself.

"That’s because there isn’t any other way she can face Selena at her Alchemist Rank."

Veda said in a low tone.

His eyes remained fixed on Elena.

The way he looked at her made it clear that he could feel what Elena was feeling.

That pent-up frustration from always being compared to her sister.

The anger of having good work constantly overlooked.

The feeling of always hearing Selena’s name first and last while her own name wasn’t mentioned even once.

Veda understood it.

Perhaps not every detail, but enough.

Cyrus also stared at Elena quietly.

And Ezra continued staring at her plainly.

Out of all the First-Years sitting in the stands, only those three could truly understand why Elena was doing something like this.

Not because they thought her actions were right.

But because they understood the feeling behind them.

Back on the fighting platform...

"Shut up!!!"

Elena shouted aggressively as she clapped her hands together.

The moment her palms met, the Cognis flowing through her body sparked outward with even greater force.

Clap!

Green sparks jumped from her arms.

The emerald lines across her skin brightened.

Her body shook badly under the pressure.

Blood had already begun to flow from her nose and mouth, running down her chin before falling onto the platform.

Even so, Elena didn’t stop.

The fact that she had been able to hold the gathered Cognis inside her body before the match had even begun was already something worth noting.

But now...

She was pushing it even further.

Her breathing became rough as she forced more Cognis toward her palms.

"I’m going to beat you, Selena!!"

Her voice echoed across the fighting platform.

The Wind Alchemy Circle began forming between her palms.

Green light gathered around her hands while the surrounding air began responding to the massive amount of Cognis she was releasing.

Selena stood opposite her.

Her earlier worry hadn’t disappeared.

She could see the blood on Elena’s face.

She could clearly see the way Elena’s body trembled.

And she could feel the pressure coming from the Cognis being released around her sister.

Yet Elena’s eyes remained fixed on Selena.

For once, she wasn’t looking at her sister as the elegant girl everyone praised.

She was looking at the person she had spent years trying to surpass.

The wind around the battlefield grew stronger.

Selena’s skirt and hair moved in the current, while Elena’s clothes were pulled in different directions by the unstable air surrounding her.

The two sisters remained several meters apart.

Between them, two different Wind Alchemy Circles were taking shape.

One came from Selena’s careful control and graceful movements.

The other was being formed through Elena’s excessive Cognis and the frustration she had carried for years.

The crowd could feel that the battle had changed.

The elegant lady who had calmly defended herself from Elena’s first attack was now facing a sister who had pushed her own body beyond its safe limit.

Selena’s expression slowly became more serious.

Elena tightened her hands.

Neither of them looked away.

The final match of the day had only just begun, yet the entire Arena was already waiting to see what would happen when the two Galehart sisters finally unleashed their full strength.