Sure enough just as Lupos predicted, Dante easily beat his opponent Ophelia Reich who was currently being comforted by some members of her school who had lost in earlier rounds and matches. Lupos smiled as the announcer have his last announcement "Congratulations to our two winners Lucio Illio and Dante Cayton, the two will be facing off in half an hour for the chance to win our sixty third annual inter schools competition!!"

The announcer paused for a moment to allow for the cheers the crowd was emitting. "Until then we ask our eliminated competitors to relax and get some refreshments to help them recover from their matches, as well as giving you time to talk to and congratulate our finalists before their big match, this is also your last chance to bet on the final outcome so make sure you hurry!"

As the announcer finished hordes of betters immediately rushed to the nearest bookie desperate to make some money by betting on their favourite. Lupos stared intently at the door to the viewing area willing for Dante to come through, and several seconds later that wish was granted. Smiling at his chance Lupos approached Dante "good job in your matches, your magic is amazing!"

Dante gave a smile half arrogant half satisfied "Thanks, it was really easy though, after all it's not like there's anyone out there more powerful than me even that last kid with variant magic was easy enough to deal with," Lupos' fists clenched again "although..." Dante trailed off as he stared between Lupos and Lucio "I could tell you let the Noble kid win."

Lupos secretly groaned inside, the downside to Lucio's lack of fighting experience and "pretty" swordsmanship is that any experienced fighter who was close enough would immediately pick up on the "accidental" openings Lupos was giving. It wouldn't be so obvious if he'd only had to do it once or twice but having to do it continually so Lucio would notice made it very hard to make it look natural.

Luckily there were not that many experienced fighters nearby and most wouldn't even assume that the competitor who used so many dirty tricks to win earlier would just give up on a match like that. Lupos sighed and leaned in closer to Dante while whispering in a conspiratorial voice.

"Please don't tell anyone about that, in truth my family lives on the edge of the Illio's territory and though Lucio isn't a bad sort and probably wouldn't do anything, I've heard his father is a bit power crazy and might not be to happy if I did any damage to his son. The win isn't worth the potential damage it could do to my family."

Dante nodded looking happy with the explanation. "Anyway," said Lupos an encouraging smile in his face "go out there and wipe the smile off his face." Dante grinned and Lupos slapped him in the back, for a second Dante thought he felt a pinprick worth's of pain when Lupos hit him but it faded soon after so he just contributed it to Lupos' strength.

"Wish me luck." said Dante smiling cheerfully, Lupos smiled just as cheerfully "Good luck." As Dante walked away to go and prepare for his match Lupos let out a wolfish grin and hid the small dagger he had just pricked Dante with back in his sleeve "Let the show begin." he cackled wickedly, sounding almost worryingly like Hugin.

..................................................................................

Dante's POV

"There was something wrong with that kid, Gale" thought Dante as he walked away to prepare for the final. Although he seemed friendly enough and his story sounded true there was something about the other boy that put him on edge. If he had to say what it was it would probably be the other kids eyes, they contained a darkness and a warning urge to them.

They reminded him of the snakes back home, the ones that calmly slithered near only to viciously attack when you least expect it. Yes those eyes scared him, and yet despite this he still couldn't find a logical reason to be scared. "I mean despite Gale throwing the match he still would have lost if he came up against me." was Dante's thought process's but he still couldn't shake the uneasiness he felt.

Finally shaking off his feelings of unease Dante began to feel very thirsty and suddenly had a dizzy sensation at the back if his mind, not enough to do any harm but certainly inconvenient "What the hell? I felt fine two minutes ago, is this due to nerves?" Dante muttered under his breath attempting to figure out the cause of such a feeling with no avail.

He was just about to go consult a doctor when the announcers voice rang out "And now for the final match of the competition Lucio Illio versus Dante Cayton. Can both competitors make there way to the ring." Dante stood up and moved towards the ring when a sharp pain rang out in his stomach "What the hell is happening to me?" wondered Dante once more as he moved wincing towards the ring.

..................................................................................

Lupos' POV

As the announcer called for the final duel Lucio rushed off down the stairs as Lupos watched in satisfaction as Dante halting joined him. "How long does the poison take to kick in?" asked Fenrir in mindspeak as he also stared at Dante "Give it five minutes for full pain and five days until he stops feeling the...side effects."

Fenrir let out a small barking laugh while Lupos continued to stare at the ring. "The real question will be if Dante can still use his variant magic throughout the pain or whether he'll be forced to rely on combat skills. In truth, both are probably superior to Lucio but at least it'll give Lucio an opening."

Fenrir nodded just as the announcers voice called out "Ok now to begin our last duel of the competition, Lucio Illio versus Dante Cayton, let the match begin!" Dante started to use blood magic on Lucio who was forced to stand still and deal with the pain, unfortunately the backlash was now too great for the already poisoned Dante who begun sweating profusely while trying to remain upright.

Up on the balcony, Lupos grinned as Lucio became free of the effects of Dante's blood magic and began moving towards him. Unluckily for him Dante wasn't harmless, taking out a small knife Dante mad a small cut on his skin them used what was left of his magic to condense the blood into a long curved sword.

Now fully armed with a familiar weapon Dante attacked with Lucio barely managing to defend. Fenrir gave an impressed whistle in mindspeak "that kid is good, you can see his pain from here if you look for the signs yet he's still fighting. If he'd been in peak condition Lucio would have lost immediately." Lupos grinned "That's true enough, it's a good thing he's not in peak condition then isn't it?"

At this Fenrir also grinned and returned to watching the match. Dante's face had sweat dripping down it and his teeth were clenched to keep him from screaming. Other than this it was hard to tell there was anything wrong with the boy by the way he was fighting. Unfortunately, for him that didn't last.

The poison finally took full effect, Dante stumbled and let out a hiss of pain which for once was not missed by Lucio who took the opportunity to call for fyre heart, who had spent the match flying around to avoid a very small but very deadly snake. "Burn him!!" letting out a huge fireball Dante automatically dove backwards to avoid it, backwards right out of the ring, oops.

The crowd stared for a minute in stunned silence before cheers broke out from the crowd from those who had bet on Lucio and curses from those who didn't, "Winner Lucio Illio!!!" in the viewing area Lupos let out a sinister smile.

..................................................................................

Author's note

PLEASE READ

Hello to everyone reading o just want to put in a small note to say I'm really sorry but I can't put up another chapter for the next few of days because I'm visiting family but have to camp so i'm not going to have any wifi and I've used up most if my data, so because I write this novel on my phone I probably won't have interest acces. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'll post another in three days max.