Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner

The crowd's roar turned almost primal as the announcer's voice cut through the stadium.

"Ladies and gentlemen, our next quarterfinal match brings us Academy Twelve's Lila Rowe!"

Lila stepped onto the platform, blonde hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, her usually bright eyes carrying a cold, distant look that even those in the upper stands could feel. Her movements were fluid but tense, coiled like a predator assessing its surroundings.

"Facing off against Academy One's Eliara Elias!"

From the opposite entrance came a girl with copper-brown skin and short cropped hair dyed electric blue at the tips. Eliara strode forward with casual confidence, rolling her shoulders as if preparing for a light workout rather than a tournament quarterfinal.

The two combatants approached the center of the barrier-enclosed ring—a circular platform thirty meters in diameter, reinforced with multiple layers of shock-absorbing materials and surrounded by a shimmering forcefield designed to protect spectators.

In the competitors' area, Noah leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "Something's off with Lila," he muttered, just loud enough for Adrian beside him to hear.

Adrian nodded. "She's not usually this... quiet." He said staring at Noah a second too long before facing the screen they watched from.

'So observant huh? Is that how you do it? Win all your fights? By paying real close attention? There can only be one of us in the end Eclipse. Only one!!' Adrian thought before he looked at Noah again and back at the screen.

Up in the stands, Kelvin nudged Sophie's arm. "Look at Lila's stance," he said, gesturing excitedly. "She's keeping her weight on her back foot. That's new for her—usually she leads with her right. Damn, Noah is such a bad influence. I'm starting to do that thing he does where he notices everything. Not on his level but damn..." Kelvin went on and on.

Sophie said nothing, her eyes fixed on the blonde girl below.

The platform beneath the fighters illuminated as the countdown began. Lila's face remained emotionless until, just as the announcer shouted "Begin!", the corner of her mouth twitched upward into a crooked smile that didn't reach her eyes.

Eliara wasted no time. She dropped to one knee, pressing her palm against the metallic floor. The surface rippled outward like water, transforming from solid metal into a mercury-like liquid that surged toward Lila in a wave.

Lila's eyes flashed. With a flick of her wrist, she tore a section of the still-solid flooring free and launched herself upward, hovering three meters above the transformed surface.

"Cute trick," Eliara called up, "but gravity's still your enemy."

She clenched her fist, and the liquid metal below Lila instantly solidified into dozens of jagged spikes that shot upward.

Lila's response was almost lazy. She extended her hand, and every spike stopped mid-air, vibrating with the opposing forces of Eliara's manipulation and Lila's telekinesis.

In the competitors' area, Noah's eyes narrowed. "She's not redirecting them. She's holding them in place."

"That's... a lot of individual points to control at once," Adrian whispered.

The air around Lila shimmered as she pushed outward with her mind. The spikes reversed direction, surging back toward Eliara with doubled velocity.

Eliara smiled, clapping her hands together. The spikes dissolved into metallic dust just before impact, swirling around her in a glittering cloud. "Predictable," she called out. "You're strong, but basic."

The dust cloud suddenly compressed, forming dense metallic projectiles that shot toward Lila from multiple angles.

This time, Lila didn't try to stop them. Instead, she created a ripple in the air around her—a distortion that slowed the projectiles to half-speed. Her Zone Slow expanded outward, enveloping a five-meter radius around her body.

"Time manipulation," Noah murmured. "She's using it earlier than usual."

"She's not messing around today," Adrian replied, leaning forward intently.

In the stands, Kelvin was practically bouncing in his seat. "Did you see that?" he asked Sophie, pointing frantically. "She just bent time around those projectiles! The acceleration differential between inside and outside her field is at least 50%!"

Sophie's fingers gripped the edge of her seat, knuckles white. "I see it," she said quietly.

Inside her time-altered field, Lila plucked the now-languid projectiles from the air one by one, assembling them into a rotating ring around her body. The objects accelerated as they left her field, becoming deadly orbiting weapons.

Eliara rolled to the side as the first projectile smashed into the platform where she'd been standing. The impact left a crater in the reinforced surface. The second and third followed in quick succession, forcing her into constant motion.

"Stop running and fight me properly," Lila called down, her voice oddly cheerful despite her cold expression.

Eliara's response was to slam both palms onto the platform. The entire floor beneath Lila transmuted, turning from solid metal into something resembling glass—fragile and transparent. Before Lila could react, it shattered beneath her telekinetic hover.

The crowd gasped as fragments exploded upward. Lila's concentration broke momentarily, her hovering field disrupting as glass shards sliced across her arms and face.

Blood trickled from a cut above Lila's eye, but instead of wincing, her smile widened. "There we go," she whispered.

The glass shards halted mid-air, suspended all around her like a frozen explosion. Blood dripped from countless small cuts on her exposed skin, but Lila's expression was almost ecstatic. A rather disturbing smile remained on her face.

With a thrust of both hands, she sent the cloud of glass fragments hurtling toward Eliara at lethal speed.

This time, Eliara couldn't transmute fast enough. She managed to convert the front wave of glass back into harmless dust, but the remainder tore through her defenses. She cried out as shards sliced across her shoulder and thigh.

"First blood on both sides," the announcer's voice echoed. "These ladies aren't holding back!"

Lila descended to the solid portion of the platform, landing gracefully despite her injuries. "You're better than I expected," she said, her voice carrying an unsettling pleasantness. "Most people don't make me bleed."

Eliara wiped blood from a cut on her cheek, matching Lila's smile with her own fierce grin. "Oh, I'm just getting started."

She pressed her hand to her injured thigh, and the fabric of her gear suddenly hardened, forming a makeshift splint. Then she touched the platform again, but instead of transforming the entire surface, she focused on a two-meter circle around her feet.

The metal softened, then reshaped itself into what looked like a suit of armor that crawled up her body, encasing her in gleaming plates.

"Material enhancement," Noah observed from the competitors' area. "She's not just changing its form—she's altering its fundamental properties."

The armor didn't slow Eliara down. If anything, she moved faster, charging toward Lila with augmented strength. Her first punch came with such force that even when Lila deflected it telekinetically, the impact sent shockwaves through the air.

Lila's eyes widened slightly—the first genuine surprise she'd shown. She attempted to establish another Zone Slow, but Eliara was already inside her perimeter, landing a solid blow to Lila's stomach that sent her skidding backward.

The crowd of school one roared its approval as Lila doubled over, momentarily winded. But when she straightened, there was blood on her lips and an even wider smile on her face.

"Yes," she whispered, almost too quiet to hear. "Make it hurt."

In the stands, Kelvin grabbed Sophie's arm. "Did you see that hit? The force distribution was insane! Her armor must be amplifying her striking power by at least—"

"Kelvin," Sophie interrupted, her voice strained. "Not now."

Back in the competitors' area, Noah tensed in his seat. "This is bad."

"Why?" Adrian asked. "She's still in control."

"Look at her eyes," Noah replied quietly.

'That's not Lila right now. I know her well enough to know she's doing that thing again,' Noah thought.

On the platform, Lila's demeanor had shifted entirely. The calculated coldness was gone, replaced by something feral and hungry. She launched herself at Eliara with reckless abandon, not bothering with telekinetic defense.

Eliara's armored fist connected with Lila's jaw, snapping her head back violently. Blood sprayed from Lila's mouth—but she laughed, a high, unsettling sound that echoed through the arena.

Before Eliara could withdraw her arm, Lila grabbed it with both hands. The air around them distorted massively as Lila deployed her Zone Slow at maximum intensity.

Inside the field, Eliara's movements became torturously slow, as if she were pushing through concrete. Lila, operating at normal speed within her own field, methodically began to strip away Eliara's armor piece by piece using her telekinesis.

The material resisted, attempting to reform under Eliara's control, but Lila wasn't just removing it—she was compressing it, crushing each piece into dense, unusable lumps before discarding them.

"Come on," Lila whispered, blood dripping from her split lip as she worked. "Show me what else you've got."

Eliara struggled against the time distortion, her movements reduced to millimeters per second. With tremendous effort, she managed to press her palm against her chest plate. The entire armor suddenly vibrated at an impossible frequency.

The resonance disrupted Lila's Zone Slow, shattering the time field like glass. Both girls were thrown backward by the energy release, tumbling across the platform.

"Holy shit!" Kelvin yelped from the stands. "She just broke a time field with resonance frequencies! That shouldn't even be physically possible!"

Sophie leaned forward, no expression on her face."She's figured out Lila's weakness."