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

# QUARTERFINALS: ADRIAN vs SIERRA

The randomizer's holographic display flashed and whirled before settling on a name: ADRIAN ALBRIGHT.

In the competitors' area, Adrian stood immediately, his shoulders squaring as if physically accepting the weight of expectation now placed upon them. Around him, the excited murmurs of other competitors faded to white noise as he focused on the path ahead—both literally and figuratively.

Noah clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Good luck out there."

Adrian nodded, his expression tightening almost imperceptibly. 'Luck? You don't seem to need luck,' he thought. 'And neither do I.'

Above in the dignitaries' box, Commander Albright maintained his perfect posture, not a flicker of emotion crossing his weathered features even as neighboring headmasters offered congratulatory nods. His son had made it this far. Expected, but noteworthy nonetheless.

Headmaster of Academy Eight leaned slightly toward him. "Your boy shows promise, Albright."

Commander Albright's response was measured, detached. "Every student who reaches this stage shows promise. That's the point of the tournament."

As Adrian strode toward the tunnel that would lead him to the arena floor, the announcer's voice boomed overhead:

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

The crowd erupted, particularly the female section of Academy Twelve's stands, where banners bearing Adrian's name unfurled like battle standards. Adrian acknowledged them with a practiced wave—confident but not cocky, appreciative but focused.

"Facing off against Academy Ten's final Year One representative, Sierra Veltane!"

From the opposite tunnel emerged a slender girl with silver-white hair cropped at her jawline. Her movements were fluid, almost choreographed, each step precisely measured. Sierra's pale blue eyes swept across the arena with clinical detachment, assessing the battlefield rather than the audience.

"She doesn't look like much," a spectator near Kelvin commented.

Kelvin snorted. "That's Sierra Veltane. Third generation Cryo-Materializer. She's the only Year One from Academy Ten to make it this far, and she didn't do it by being underwhelming."

Sophie leaned forward, studying the white-haired girl. "Do you think Adrian stands a chance?"

"Against a third-gen?" Kelvin's usual enthusiasm dimmed slightly. "Hard to say. Commander Albright's watching, though. That'll either boost Adrian's performance or make him crack under pressure."

In the center of the platform, Adrian and Sierra faced each other but both competitors seemed to be looking through rather than at each other, already strategizing.

"Begin in three... two... one..." The platform illuminated beneath them. "Start!"

Neither moved immediately. Sierra's pale eyes narrowed, assessing her opponent. Adrian maintained his stance, balanced and ready.

'Read her like Eclipse would,' Adrian thought, studying Sierra's posture. 'Find the weakness before making your move.'

Sierra's fingertips twitched almost imperceptibly, and crystalline frost patterns materialized on the platform floor, spreading outward from her feet in intricate, ever-branching patterns. The fractals glittered under the arena lights, beautiful but unmistakably dangerous.

Adrian leapt backward just as the fractals accelerated toward his previous position, flash-freezing the air where he'd stood a moment before.

'Fast,' he noted. 'And no traditional ice projectiles. She's starting with area control.'

He charged his right arm with energy, feeling the familiar buildup of heat and pressure beneath his skin. With a controlled detonation from his elbow, he propelled his fist forward at superhuman speed, sending a concussive blast of air toward Sierra.

She didn't dodge. Instead, her fractals reconfigured, forming a crystalline shield that absorbed the impact. But what happened next caught Adrian by surprise—the temperature around him plummeted sharply, frost forming on his gear.

'She's stealing the heat from my explosion,' he realized, watching as the fractals grew more intricate, more vibrant after absorbing his attack's thermal energy.

In the competitors' area, Noah frowned. "She's using his output against him."

On the platform, Adrian adjusted his strategy. Direct detonations clearly fed her abilities. He needed to be smarter, more selective. Activating his Shock Armor, he surrounded himself with a crackling field of ionized energy, creating a defensive barrier that would hopefully resist her freezing effects.

Sierra's expression remained impassive as she tracked his movements. With a flick of her wrist, she sent a wave of frost racing across the ground, not directly at Adrian but in a wide arc that began to encircle his position.

'She's trying to limit my mobility,' Adrian thought, recognizing the tactic. 'Box me in, then pick me apart.'

Before the frost could complete its circle, Adrian made his move. He detonated both feet simultaneously, launching himself high into the air above the platform. Mid-flight, he triggered another explosion from his palm, directing the force downward toward Sierra.

This time, Sierra was forced to move, gliding sideways with unnatural smoothness as frost trails marked her path. The platform where Adrian's blast landed cracked from the impact, but also instantly froze over, creating a bizarre sculpture of explosive force captured in ice.

"What you're seeing, ladies and gentlemen," Kelvin said to the spectator who had doubted Sierra before, "is Sierra Veltane's signature Fractal Freeze Field in action! She's not just creating ice—she's mapping and capturing energy itself!"

Adrian landed on the edge of the frozen impact zone, nearly losing his footing on the slick surface. Sierra didn't waste the opportunity, sending a barrage of ice spikes erupting from the frozen ground toward him.

With no solid footing to dodge properly, Adrian crossed his arms and detonated outward, creating an explosive sphere that shattered the approaching spikes. Fragments of ice sprayed across the platform, glittering like deadly diamonds under the arena lights.

But again, the temperature dropped precipitously. Adrian could see his breath now, clouding in front of his face.

"She's borrowing your heat," Noah murmured from the competitors' section, though Adrian couldn't hear him. "Every explosion makes her stronger."

Up in the stands, Kelvin was explaining the same principle to Sophie. "It's called Thermal Borrowing. She doesn't generate cold—she steals heat. Every time he uses his power, she siphons the residual energy."

Sophie watched with growing concern. "So his greatest strength is literally fueling hers."

"Exactly."

On the platform, Adrian was coming to the same conclusion. The more power he expended, the colder the environment became, and the stronger Sierra's abilities grew. Her fractal patterns now covered nearly half the platform, creating a treacherous landscape of ice and crystal that severely limited his movement options.

'Need to get close,' he thought. 'Her defensive ice walls suggest she's weaker at close range.'

Adrian initiated what appeared to be another frontal assault, detonating forward with explosive force. Sierra responded predictably, raising a thicker ice barrier to absorb the attack. But at the last moment, Adrian changed direction, using a smaller, precisely angled detonation to propel himself laterally around her defenses.

Sierra's eyes widened slightly—the first real emotion she'd displayed. She pivoted, sending frost tendrils lashing out to intercept him, but Adrian was already within striking distance. His fist, charged with explosive energy, drove toward her midsection.

Just before impact, something caught his wrist—a nearly invisible filament of ice that had materialized at the perfect angle to redirect his momentum. More filaments appeared, wrapping around his arm, disrupting his aim just enough that his explosive punch discharged harmlessly to the side.

Cryo-Marionette technique. She was using microscopic ice filaments to control her opponent's movements!

Adrian found himself momentarily entangled, his punch diverted and his balance compromised. Sierra stepped back methodically, her hands weaving complex patterns as more ice filaments formed around Adrian, threatening to immobilize him completely.

'Breaking free will cost energy,' Adrian calculated quickly. 'But staying trapped is certain defeat.'

He made his choice, concentrating explosive energy throughout his entire body. "Shock Cascade!" he shouted, detonating in a controlled but powerful wave that shattered the ice filaments and pushed Sierra backward several meters.

The respite was brief. The temperature dropped even further as Sierra absorbed the massive heat output from his technique. Frost crept along Adrian's jawline and fingertips despite his Shock Armor. The platform was now a winter landscape, completely transformed by her power.

In the dignitaries' box, Commander Albright's expression remained neutral, but his eyes had narrowed incrementally—the only sign he was paying particular attention to the match below.

"Your son seems to be struggling against Veltane's control techniques," Commander Owen observed.

"He's gathering information," Commander Albright replied coolly. "As any competent fighter would."

On the platform, Adrian was indeed gathering information—and he didn't like what he was learning. Sierra's fighting style was methodical, patient, and seemingly designed to counter explosive power types like himself. Each blast he produced only strengthened her domain.

'I need to change the rhythm,' he thought, remembering how Lila's unpredictable movements had destabilized her opponents. 'She's too composed, too calculated. She needs chaos.'

Adrian began a series of seemingly erratic detonations—small ones from his fingertips, larger ones from his shoulders, random bursts that sent him zigzagging across the frozen platform. The pattern was deliberately unpredictable, designed to disrupt Sierra's careful calculations.

For the first time, Sierra frowned. Her fractal patterns struggled to anticipate his movements, branching in multiple directions but failing to intercept his chaotic trajectory.

"He's breaking her rhythm," Noah observed from the sidelines, a hint of approval in his voice.

Adrian felt a surge of satisfaction. 'Even Eclipse would have to acknowledge this strategy.'

But Sierra was far from defeated. She planted both palms on the icy floor, and the temperature plummeted to levels that made the previous cold seem mild by comparison. The air itself began to crystallize in patches—small pockets where molecular motion slowed to near-stoppage.

"Absolute Zero Stasis," Kelvin whispered in the stands, his voice hushed with a mixture of fear and awe. "Her ultimate technique. It creates pockets where molecules almost completely stop moving."

Adrian recognized the danger immediately as one of these pockets formed directly in his path. He veered sharply, but another pocket materialized exactly where he redirected. Sierra was anticipating his evasions now, reading the pattern in his supposed randomness.

'She's adapted,' he realized with grudging respect. 'Time to show her what an Albright is truly capable of.'

Adrian stopped his erratic movement, planting his feet firmly despite the slippery surface. He spread his arms wide, and his Shock Armor intensified visibly, crackling with increased energy.

Sierra seized the apparent opening, sending a convergence of frost fractals racing toward him from multiple directions. At the same time, she created three Absolute Zero pockets in a triangular formation around him, cutting off his escape routes.

The crowd held its collective breath as the attack converged. Even Commander Albright leaned forward slightly in his seat.

At the last possible moment, Adrian smiled.

He brought his palms together in a thunderous clap, triggering a precisely calibrated detonation that sent a shockwave outward in all directions. The force wasn't explosive heat that Sierra could siphon—it was pure concussive pressure that shattered her advancing ice formations and disrupted the Absolute Zero pockets before they could fully form.

The disruption created a momentary opening. Adrian capitalized immediately, using a series of rapid, controlled detonations that propelled him directly toward Sierra like a human missile.

Sierra attempted to raise her defenses, but Adrian's approach was too fast, too direct. He crashed through her hastily formed ice shield, closing the distance entirely.

Up close, Sierra's advantage diminished substantially. Before she could create the microscopic filaments of her Cryo-Marionette, Adrian grasped her wrist—not to strike, but to establish contact. His Shock Armor extended partially over her arm, disrupting her ability to form ice directly from her skin.

"Checkmate," Adrian said, his voice low enough that only Sierra could hear.

Sierra's eyes widened as she realized what was coming next. "You wouldn't dare. The backlash would—"

"Controlled Resonance Detonation," Adrian announced, channeling energy not outward but into a tight, oscillating field between them.

The explosion that followed wasn't massive or destructive—it was precisely calibrated to disrupt Sierra's control over her powers without causing permanent harm. The resonance vibrated through her body at exactly the frequency needed to shatter her concentration, temporarily severing her connection to her cryo-materialization abilities.

Sierra dropped to one knee, frost melting from her fingertips as her powers momentarily failed her. The fractal patterns across the platform began to fade, the temperature slowly normalizing.

"Incredible!" the announcer shouted. "Adrian Albright has somehow neutralized Sierra Veltane's powers with that precise strike!"

In the dignitaries' box, Commander Albright allowed himself the smallest nod of acknowledgment.

Sierra looked up at Adrian, her composure finally broken. "How did you know the resonance frequency that would disrupt my abilities?"

Adrian offered his hand to help her up. "I didn't. I cycled through probable frequencies until I found one that worked. Simple trial and error."

'Just like Eclipse would have done,' he thought, though he kept this to himself.

Sierra accepted his hand, rising with dignity despite her defeat. "Impressive adaptation," she conceded. "Though if we fought again, that trick wouldn't work twice."

"Then I'd find a different one," Adrian replied with confidence that wasn't entirely fabricated.

He was officially declaring Adrian the winner as medical staff checked Sierra for any serious injuries. Finding none, they escorted her from the platform as she walked with her head held high despite the defeat.

As Adrian turned to exit through his tunnel, his gaze briefly met Noah's in the competitors' area. Noah gave him a single, respectful nod—acknowledgment of a well-fought battle.

Adrian returned the nod, satisfaction flowing through him. But as he walked from the platform, his thoughts were already racing ahead to potential semifinal matchups.

In the stands, Kelvin was animatedly explaining Adrian's winning strategy to anyone who would listen. "Did you see that resonance detonation? He basically created a vibration that canceled out her ability to control molecular motion! It's like noise-canceling headphones but for superpowers!"

Sophie smiled at his enthusiasm but her eyes drifted to the competitors' area, where Noah was watching Adrian's exit with an unreadable expression.

"What do you think Noah's chances are if he goes up against Adrian? I mean, the bracket is looking real slim and I hate to say it but it has happened before with the former top 25. They had to face themselves," she asked Kelvin.

Kelvin hesitated, unusual for him. "Hard to say. Adrian just showed he's more strategic than we've given him credit for. But Noah..." He shrugged. "Noah's Noah."

The stage was set. The semifinals were approaching. And the real drama, everyone sensed, was just beginning.