Help! I'm just an extra yet the Heroines and Villainesses want me!-Chapter 36

Wednesday morning arrived with William feeling more anxious about Claire’s curse percentage than about fighting Adrian in the finals. He had barely slept, running through scenarios of what a curse activation might look like in the middle of a packed arena with hundreds of students watching.

The combat finals were scheduled for early morning, followed by essence demonstrations in the afternoon for the top four from each house. William dressed and headed to the arena, deliberately taking a route that avoided the Luminara section where Claire would likely be preparing for her own matches.

The Ascendant area was already crowded with students who’d come to watch the finals. Adrian was there, looking completely relaxed despite the upcoming match, talking with a group of upperclassmen who were probably offering encouragement or advice.

William found a quiet corner and tried to focus on his own preparation rather than worrying about things he couldn’t control. The match against Adrian was going to be difficult regardless, the house captain had years more experience, refined essence control, and combat instincts that came from countless fights.

"William."

He looked up and found Mira approaching with two cups of what smelled like tea.

"I thought you might want this before getting destroyed by Adrian," she said while handing one over.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"I’m being realistic," Mira said while sitting down beside him. "Adrian’s going to win. But making it to finals as a first-year is impressive regardless of the outcome."

William sipped the tea and found it was some kind of herbal blend that helped with essence pathway recovery. "You ready for your match?"

"As ready as I can be," Mira said. "Though I’m exhausted from yesterday. That semifinal took everything I had."

They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, and William noticed the system interface flickering at the edge of his vision with an update notification. He ignored it because checking curse percentages while Mira was sitting right next to him seemed like asking for trouble.

"Can I ask you something?" Mira said suddenly.

"Sure."

"You’ve been tense all week. More than normal competition nerves. Is something going on?"

William considered how to answer such a question with arousing suspicion "i’m just aware that competitions create problems beyond the actual fights."

"That’s vague enough to be meaningless," Mira observed. "But fine, keep your secrets. Just... if you need help with something, people actually like you enough to offer assistance. You don’t have to handle everything alone."

She stood and left before William could respond, heading off to her own preparations. William watched her go and felt genuinely touched by the offer, even though there was absolutely no way he could accept help with the curse situation.

"Finalists to platform seven," the judge announced.

William made his way to the platform where Adrian was already waiting. The house captain looked completely composed, his stance relaxed but ready, showing no signs of nervousness or doubt.

"Good luck," Adrian said simply.

"You too."

The judge checked that both were prepared. The arena had grown quieter as students focused on what was likely to be the most technically impressive match of the Ascendant preliminaries.

"Begin."

Adrian moved first, closing distance with speed that caught William off-guard. The house captain’s opening combination was fast and precise, each strike flowing naturally into the next with the kind of refined technique that came from years of dedicated practice.

William blocked and deflected, immediately recognizing that Adrian was several levels above anyone else he had fought in this competition. The pressure was constant and controlled, giving William no time to establish his own rhythm or launch counterattacks.

Fire enhancement clashed against Adrian’s neutral essence strengthening as William tried to create openings through elemental advantage. Adrian adapted smoothly, adjusting his blocking angles to minimize fire essence contact while maintaining offensive pressure.

Two minutes in, William was entirely on the defensive. He couldn’t match Adrian’s technical precision or combat experience, and every attempt to shift momentum was shut down before it could develop.

Adrian increased the tempo, and William found himself struggling to keep up. His blocks were getting slower, his footwork less precise, and his essence control was degrading under sustained pressure.

A particularly heavy strike broke through William’s guard and stopped just short of his chest, a clear winning blow that Adrian could have landed at any point in the last thirty seconds.

"Match to Vex," the judge called.

William lowered his weapon and caught his breath. The match had lasted less than four minutes and he had barely landed a single strike.

"Good effort," Adrian said while sheathing his practice sword. "You’ve improved significantly since the first tournament. Give it another year and you’ll be a real threat."

"Thanks," William managed but he couldn’t help but feel a little insulted.

They left the platform and William found himself feeling oddly satisfied despite the complete defeat. He had made it to finals as a first-year, which was better than most students managed. And losing to the house captain wasn’t exactly embarrassing when Adrian was clearly operating at a completely different skill level.

The other bracket finals happened over the next hour. Mira fought hard but lost to Patricia Crane, confirming the final four as Adrian, Patricia, William, and Mira. All four would compete in the afternoon’s essence demonstrations.

William used the break before afternoon events to rest and recover his essence pathways. He found a quiet spot away from the main crowds and practiced the dual flame technique Master Erian had suggested, managing to maintain two stable points of fire for almost a minute before his concentration wavered.

Lunch came and went without incident. William deliberately avoided areas where he might run into Claire, though he caught glimpses of the Luminara section where their semifinals were apparently happening. He didn’t see the results, but the crowd reactions suggested the matches were intense.

The afternoon session began with essence demonstrations from all four houses happening simultaneously in different sections of the arena. Each house’s top four would demonstrate their affinity control and technique precision, judged by a panel of faculty members who would score based on complexity, stability, and creativity.

William entered the demonstration area and found Adrian, Mira, and Patricia already there along with the three judges, Master Erian, Professor Ashcroft, and an instructor William didn’t recognize.

"Welcome to essence demonstrations," Master Erian said. "Each of you will have five minutes to showcase your affinity control and technique application. You’ll be scored on precision, stability, creativity, and overall mastery. The order is determined by your combat bracket placement, which means Adrian goes first, followed by Patricia, William, and finally Mira."

Adrian stepped forward and began his demonstration. The house captain had lightning affinity, and his control was immediately impressive, he created multiple lightning arcs that moved in complex patterns without interfering with each other, then shaped them into geometric forms that held stable for extended periods.

The judges watched carefully and took notes. Adrian’s demonstration lasted the full five minutes and ended with a technique that combined multiple lightning constructs into a single coordinated display that was both technically impressive and visually striking.

Patricia went next with water affinity, demonstrating fluid manipulation that showed excellent control and artistic sensibility. She created water shapes that flowed and reformed continuously, never losing cohesion despite the complex transformations.

Then it was William’s turn.

He stepped forward and drew on his fire affinity, starting simple with a single flame hovering above his palm. He shaped it into a sphere, stretched it into a line, compressed it into a concentrated point, then split it into two separate flames.

The dual flame technique took concentration to maintain, but he’d practiced enough to keep both stable. He moved them in opposing circular patterns, brought them together and separated them again, then attempted a third flame.

The third flame wavered but held for about fifteen seconds before William let it dissipate and returned to controlling two flames with greater complexity. He shaped them into spirals, created heat patterns that interacted without merging, and demonstrated fine control by writing his name in fire that persisted for several seconds.

The five minutes ended and William let the flames dissipate. The judges made notes without visible reactions, making it impossible to tell how he’d performed relative to Adrian and Patricia.

Mira went last with shadow manipulation, creating constructs that demonstrated excellent control despite her visible fatigue from the earlier matches. Her technique was different from the others—less about creating stable forms and more about demonstrating the versatility of shadow essence in various applications.

"Thank you all," Master Erian said when Mira finished. "Scores will be calculated along with your combat performance and tomorrow’s written exam results. The final rankings and top five selections will be announced Thursday morning."

The demonstrations concluded and students dispersed. William felt reasonably confident about his performance, it wasn’t as technically sophisticated as Adrian’s, but it had shown solid intermediate-level control and the dual flame technique had been executed cleanly.

He was heading toward the exit when he heard raised voices from the Luminara section.

William’s instincts screamed danger, but he found himself moving toward the commotion anyway because one of those voices sounded like Claire.

He rounded the corner and found a scene that made his stomach drop.

Claire stood in the center of a group of students, her hand gripping Liam’s arm with visible intensity. Her eyes had a wild, unfocused quality that William recognized immediately from Seraphina’s behavior at the Vale.

"You fought well," Claire was saying, her voice strained. "Better than I expected. You’re impressive, Liam Hemsworth."

Liam looked uncomfortable but was trying to handle the situation diplomatically. "Thanks. You fought well too."

"I did, didn’t I?" Claire’s grip tightened. "I did well. For you. Because you were watching."

Several other students were backing away slowly, clearly sensing that something was wrong but not understanding what they were seeing. Lyanna stood nearby looking concerned and confused.

"Claire, maybe you should sit down," Lyanna suggested carefully.

"I don’t want to sit down," Claire snapped without releasing Liam. "I want to talk to—"

Her eyes found William in the crowd and her entire demeanor shifted. The grip on Liam’s arm released immediately and she moved toward William with frightening intensity.

"William," she said, and the way she said his name made everyone in the vicinity turn to look. "You’re here. You came to watch."

William forced himself to remain calm even though every instinct told him to run. "Claire. Are you alright?"

"I’m perfect," she said while closing the distance between them. "Better than perfect. I won my match. I demonstrated excellent essence control. And you’re here to see it."

Her hand reached out and grabbed his wrist, her fingers digging in with enough force to hurt. William felt the curse percentage climbing in real-time with the system interface flashing warnings he didn’t need.

"Claire," he said carefully. "You need to let go."

"Why?" Her eyes were wild now, all pretense of composure gone. "Why would I let go? You’re mine. You’ve been mine since the expedition. Since the tent. Since you held me when I cried."

The surrounding students went dead silent. Lyanna’s expression shifted from concern to horror as she apparently recognized what she was seeing—the same behavior Seraphina had shown at the Vale.

"Claire, this isn’t you," William said while trying to gently extract his wrist from her grip. "You’re not thinking clearly."

"I’m thinking perfectly clearly," Claire insisted. Her other hand came up to his chest, possessive and demanding. "For the first time in my life, I’m thinking clearly. And I know exactly what I want."

"What’s going on?" someone in the crowd whispered.

"Is she... drunk? On something?"

"Get a faculty member," Lyanna said urgently to someone nearby.

But Claire heard and her expression turned dangerous. "Don’t you dare. This is between William and me. Everyone else needs to leave."

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