Help! I'm just an extra yet the Heroines and Villainesses want me!-Chapter 34

Monday morning arrived with grey skies and the kind of cold that made William immediately regret getting out of bed. He dressed quickly, grabbed his gear, and headed down to the House Ascendant common room where students were already gathering for the preliminary registration.

Adrian Vex stood at the front with a clipboard, checking names as students arrived. The atmosphere was tense with nervous energy, some students looked confident, others looked like they were reconsidering their decision to compete.

"Cross," Adrian said when William reached the desk. "You’re in bracket C for combat. The draw will take place in thirty minutes at the arena. Don’t be late."

William nodded and moved aside to let the next student register. He found a quiet corner to wait and noticed Mira already there, looking far more relaxed than most of the other competitors.

"Morning," she said. "Ready to make me some more money?"

"Still betting on me?"

"Why not? You’ve got better odds than people think." She leaned against the wall and studied the crowd. "Forty-two students competing for five spots. Most of them will get eliminated today in the combat bracket alone."

"You sound confident about your own chances," William observed.

"I’m a fourth-year student. I’ve done this before." Mira smiled slightly. "Plus shadow manipulation is good for tournament formats. People underestimate it until they’re already caught."

The thirty minutes passed quickly, and the group moved as a collective mass toward the main arena where the combat brackets would be drawn and posted. The arena was one of the academy’s largest facilities, capable of hosting multiple matches simultaneously on different platforms.

All four houses were running their preliminaries at the same time, which meant the arena was packed with students from across the academy. William spotted Liam in the Luminara section, and further away he caught a glimpse of silver hair that probably belonged to Seraphina in the Arcturus area.

The bracket draws were conducted by house captains using a randomization array to ensure fairness. Students gathered around as names appeared on large display boards, showing the matchup tree for each house’s combat competition.

William found his name in bracket C like Adrian had said, paired against a third-year student named Derek Moss for the first round. He didn’t know anything about Derek, which meant this would be a completely blind matchup.

"The first match starts in twenty minutes," Adrian announced to the Ascendant group. "Bracket A fights on platform three, bracket B on platform five, bracket C on platform seven, and bracket D on platform nine. Winners will advance immediately to second round matches this afternoon. Losers are eliminated. No second chances."

The format was tough but efficient. By the end of the day, half the students who entered the competition would be eliminated. By the end of tomorrow’s essence demonstrations, only ten would remain. And by the end of Wednesday’s written exam, they’d have their final five.

William made his way to platform seven and found it already occupied by two students finishing their warm-ups. The platform was a raised circular stage about thirty feet in diameter with protective barriers that would prevent techniques from hitting spectators. Simple, functional, and designed for quick matches.

A judge sat at a desk beside the platform, a stern-looking woman in academy faculty robes who would officiate the matches and call winners. She checked her roster and called the first two names.

William watched the match while trying to get a sense of the competition level. The fight was competent but was not an exceptional one, both students were clearly well-trained, but neither showed the kind of refined technique or tactical awareness that separated good fighters from great ones.

The match ended after six minutes with one student overwhelming the other through persistent pressure and superior stamina. The judge called it, the winner left the platform, and the loser walked away looking disappointed but not particularly surprised.

"Derek Moss and William Cross," the judge announced. "Take the platform."

William climbed up and found himself facing a tall, lean third-year with earth affinity markings on his uniform. Derek had the build of someone who relied on defense and endurance rather than speed or overwhelming offense.

"I heard you made the semifinals in the first tournament," Derek said while taking his stance. "Let’s see if that was just luck or skill."

William didn’t bother responding, just drew his sword and settled into a ready position. The judge checked that both competitors were prepared, then raised her hand.

"Begin."

Derek immediately reinforced his defense with earth essence, creating a visible layer of stone-like hardness over his skin and weapon. It was a classic earth affinity technique, trading mobility for durability and forcing opponents to either exhaust themselves or find weaknesses in the defense.

William enhanced his sword with fire essence and opened with a testing strike. Derek blocked it easily with the impact sending a small shower of sparks but not penetrating his reinforced guard.

"You’ll have to do better than that," Derek said.

William ignored him again and adjusted his approach. Since raw power wasn’t going to break through earth reinforcement quickly he needed to either outlast Derek’s essence reserves or exploit the reduced mobility that came with that much defensive enhancement.

He increased his tempo, forcing Derek to block repeatedly while William circled and maintained pressure from different angles. Each strike was enhanced with fire, not trying to break through but rather to force Derek to spend essence maintaining his defense against the heat.

Derek caught on to the strategy and tried to counter with heavy strikes that would force William into defensive exchanges. William avoided them rather than blocking, using his superior speed to stay mobile while continuing the assault.

Three minutes in, William noticed Derek’s earth reinforcement starting to show cracks, small gaps where the essence flow wasn’t quite consistent. The defensive technique was draining his reserves faster than he could sustain it.

William pressed the opening, focusing strikes on the weak points in Derek’s defense. Fire essence carved through the degrading earth reinforcement, forcing Derek to commit more essence to maintain protection.

"Damn it," Derek muttered while reinforcing his guard.

But the damage was done. Derek had spent too much essence on defense and didn’t have the reserves left to maintain it while also mounting an effective offense. William kept the pressure constant, and after another two minutes Derek’s reinforcement failed completely.

William’s next strike broke through and stopped just short of Derek’s chest, a clear winning blow that would have connected if this were a real fight.

"Match to Cross," the judge called.

Derek lowered his weapon and nodded with grudging respect. "That was a good fight. You knew exactly how to counter earth defense."

"You fought well," William said.

They left the platform and William checked the bracket board to see when his next match would be. The second round was scheduled for early afternoon, which gave him a few hours to rest and observe other fights.

He found a seat in the Ascendant section and watched matches from the other brackets. Adrian Vex was competing in bracket A and dispatched his first opponent in under four minutes with overwhelming essence control and technical precision that showed why he was house captain.

Mira fought in bracket D, and William watched with interest as she demonstrated exactly what she’d meant about shadow manipulation being effective in tournaments. Her opponent spent half the match fighting darkness constructs while Mira attacked from unexpected angles, securing a win without taking a single hit.

The morning progressed with matches happening simultaneously across all four platforms. William noticed the skill level varied significantly, some matches were close and tactical, others were complete mismatches where one student clearly outclassed their opponent.

Lunchtime arrived and students dispersed to eat before afternoon matches resumed. William grabbed food from the vendor stalls set up near the arena and found a quiet spot to eat while reviewing what he’d learned from watching other competitors.

"William."

He looked up and found Lyanna standing there with her own lunch tray. She looked composed despite presumably having her own matches to worry about in the Luminara preliminaries.

"Lyanna. How’s your bracket going?"

"I won my first match," she said while sitting down across from him. "The second round is in an hour. How about you?"

"Same situation. I won this morning, and I will fight again this afternoon."

They ate in companionable silence for a few minutes before Lyanna spoke again.

"I saw your match against Derek Moss. Your fire control has improved significantly since the expedition."

"Master Erian’s been helping with refinement training," William said.

"It shows." Lyanna hesitated, then added, "I also wanted to apologize for being distant after the Vale incident. I overreacted to... the situation with Seraphina."

William knew she meant walking in on what had looked like a compromising position. "It’s fine. That was weird timing."

"Still, I should have just talked to you instead of avoiding the conversation." Lyanna picked at her food. "I’ve been researching something related to essence interactions and emotional responses. There are documented cases of cultivators experiencing temporary behavioral changes during high-stress situations or when essence pathways are damaged."

William felt his stomach drop slightly because this was exactly what he’d been worried about—Lyanna was smart enough to research the problem and potentially get too close to the truth.

"And?" he asked carefully.

"And I think Seraphina might have experienced something similar during the expedition. The cave incident with the crystal bear, combined with whatever stress she was already dealing with, could have caused a temporary essence imbalance that affected her behavior."

It was a reasonable conclusion that had nothing to do with the actual curse, which meant Lyanna was headed down the wrong path but in a way that would keep her from discovering the real problem.

"That makes sense," William agreed. "Essence imbalances can definitely cause unusual behavior."

"I’m planning to suggest she get checked by the medical wing," Lyanna continued. "Though she’s been avoiding everyone, so actually getting her to agree might be difficult."

"It’s probably best to give her space for now," William suggested. "Pushing too hard when someone’s embarrassed usually backfires."

Lyanna nodded thoughtfully. "You’re probably right."

They finished lunch and went their separate ways to prepare for afternoon matches. William felt relieved that Lyanna’s investigation was leading her toward medical explanations rather than curses, but he also knew she wasn’t going to drop the subject entirely.

The afternoon session began with second-round matches. William’s opponent was a second-year wind affinity user named Teresa Lin who fought with speed and evasion tactics. The match was closer than his morning fight—Teresa was fast enough to avoid most of his strikes and kept creating distance whenever he got too close.

William adapted by using fire essence to create zones of heat that limited Teresa’s movement options. She could dodge his sword, but avoiding persistent flames while also maintaining her wind enhancement drained her essence quickly.

The match lasted eight minutes before Teresa made a mistake and moved into a corner of the platform where William’s fire techniques could cut off her escape routes. He pressed the advantage and forced her into a defensive position she couldn’t maintain.

"Match to Cross," the judge called.

Teresa looked frustrated but accepted the loss with reasonable grace. "Damn. I thought I could outlast you."

"Almost worked," William admitted.

Two wins meant he’d advanced to the quarterfinals, which would happen tomorrow after the combat bracket concluded. William checked the board and saw that only sixteen students remained from the original forty-two, the competition was already narrowing significantly.

Adrian had also advanced, as had Mira. The other Ascendant students still in the running were mostly upperclassmen William didn’t know well, though one first-year named Cole Rivers had made it through with apparently solid performance.

The rest of the afternoon passed with William watching remaining matches and noting techniques that might be useful. By evening, the combat bracket’s first day concluded with the quarterfinal matchups posted for Tuesday morning.

William found his name paired against Cole Rivers, the other first-year who’d advanced. The match would be interesting—two students from the same year and house, both of whom had apparently improved enough to make it this far.

He headed back to his dormitory feeling satisfied with his performance but aware that tomorrow would be harder. The students remaining were the ones who’d won twice already, which meant the skill level would be noticeably higher.

Kai was in the room when William arrived, reading as always.

"How did it go?" Kai asked without looking up.

"Two wins. I have the quarterfinals tomorrow."

"I told you the preliminaries wouldn’t be a problem."

William dropped onto his bed and closed his eyes tired from all the stress he had gone through today.

’We go again tomorrow ’

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