( Luke's POV )
Professor Elara had high hopes from Luke, who was her star student.
She had personally mentored him right from pre-semester all the way to the end and while it was frowned upon in the teachers circle to show open favoritism to one student, Elara did not hide it at all.
Luke's growth had been simply remarkable throughout the year and in terms of ability, he was miles ahead of his peers.
If despite this advantage Luke did not clinch the number one spot in the class's final evaluation, then Elara had the right to be disappointed.
The final evaluation was done in the form of a knockout style tournament, where every student drew randomized lots to pick a number, which would then be matched up against a random opponent.
With there being a total of 120 students in the class, a few got lucky and got a direct bye into the second round, with Jerome being one of those lucky few.