The next day arrived and William couldn't help but feel like he was walking into a minefield. The quarterfinals would reduce eight competitors to four, then semifinals would narrow it further to two. After that came the specialty challenges that would determine final rankings for the Inter-Academy team selection.
Three of his remaining seven opponents were sitting at dangerous curse percentages. Claire had exceeded the secondary threshold and was apparently on the verge of a violent activation. Seraphina was one point from her previous activation level. And Lyanna had jumped dramatically from yesterday's match, showing that combat engagement triggered stronger curse responses than normal proximity.
William dressed and headed to the arena, trying to figure out how he was going to navigate the day without triggering a catastrophic incident in front of hundreds of witnesses.
The quarterfinal brackets were already posted when he arrived:
