Eight separate arenas and sixteen huge screens scattered across the Grand Assembly Hall, showcasing shots sent by dozens of flying drones over the area in the efforts of obtaining and broadcasting the best and comprehensive coverage of the ongoing tournament.
With five hundred being the total number of acolytes hailing from the elite classes, it meant that half of the thousand participants that came from the regular classes certainly had to give their all if they wanted to earn their places among the top 500 and win the 100,000 contribution points reward.
All the participants knew that the momentum they had to reach such a goal all depended on the first match they got. It was a fight with a long history of rivalry, between the elite acolytes against regular acolytes.
Of course, with their opponents being better nurtured throughout the last two years, chances were slim at best for these regular acolytes to trump over the elite acolytes. Even so, it was not an impossibility.
This was soon proven as there were still particular individuals within the regular classes whose determination was like a hungry beast preying on its prey, and managed to create an unexpected victory against their foe.
But of course, none of this ‘miracle’ happened to Emery’s three friends. After all, Klea, Thrax and Chumo were in the top elite acolyte echelons and considered some of the strongest among their peers. Hence no regular acolytes had managed to give them any trouble.
Before noon, all first matches of the Elimination Round were over. The result was that from the 500 regular acolytes participating in the tournament, as much as 465 people lost their fight, meaning only less than ten percent managed to win against their elite class counterpart.
Emery and the others, who were watching the ongoing tournament, waited for the second match to begin. He naturally focused his attention on his friends, and under some sort of bizarre fate, the three of them had to fight with familiar names.
The screen above stated that Chumo would be battling the proud crystal user Micah, whom Emery had fought in the past, while Thrax would have to fight one of the Goat bloodline Igor. On the other hand, Klea would face Lodos the Maniac.
These matches caused some anxiety to Emery, as those names were easily among the top elite acolytes. For a moment, he couldn’t help but think there was some reason behind suh pairing by the academy.
Julian who had been sitting quietly beside him since arriving voiced his thoughts out. “No, they will definitely win..They have to.”
Emery observed Julian’s unusual expression for a while before returning his attention to the arena as the fights were about to begin.
First, it was Chumo’s fight against Micah, an elite acolyte who was considered by many to have the strongest defensive spell.
Micah quickly started his aggression with multiple crystal shard attacks, while Chumo used his agility advantage to dodge and shoot some arrows only to create scratches on the crystal barrier.
At this point, Emery couldn’t help but imagine what kind of weapon needed to break through Micah’s defense. Because now it seemed that none of Chumo’s arrows, even his new pair of Tier 5 dagger, were not able to pierce through the barrier the latter had erected.
“Hahaha, if you think I am the same person 6 months ago, think again!”
In the past, the crystal acolyte’s main weakness was a powerful physical attack. But now, apparently, the light blue-haired acolyte had managed to counteract it.
Emery could also see that Micah now had much improvement in his casting speed, which made it much more difficult for Chumo to get a hit on the man since their attacks would always be stopped by a wall of crystal.
“I might not be able to defeat him, but not you! ..Yes, I shall start with you!” exclaimed Micah confident in winning this match.
In spite of his repetitive fruitless attempts, Chumo didn’t give up. Instead, his struggle became even fiercer, even to the extent of adopting a fighting style that he didn’t normally do – fighting in close distance.
With his Mythical Beast Aura, Chumo obtained the speed he needed to dodge Micah’s offensive spells; but this was still not enough to break through the latter’s strong defense. Not giving up, he decided to press on.
[Cursed Blades]
Eight small dark blades flew rapidly through the air and assaulted the crystal defense around Micah’s body. However, none of the blades managed to inflict anything substantial, nor make as much as a single dent.
“Hahaha, what a joke!”
Micah laughed boisterously when he saw his opponent’s stupidity. The latter couldn’t even make a dent when using a high-grade weapon, yet still foolishly attacked him with a weaker weapon. In his eyes, what Chumo was doing right now was simply a waste of time.
Chumo had launched hundreds of attacks using the blades when Micah was finally able to break the stalemate between them by successfully embedding a crystal shard on the former’s back with a concealed attack.
Seeing the blood dripping from his opponent’s back to the arena floor, the proud Micah had a wide smile on his face as he was ready to claim victory.
“For old time’s sake, I will allow you to declare yourself surrender!”
As if he didn’t hear what Micah said, Chumo acted nonchalantly and continued his seemingly useless attacks.
Even though what Chumo did didn’t hurt him at all, Micah was annoyed by his persistence. However, just as he was about to put an end to this farce, a smile suddenly appeared on Chumo’s face.
Chumo started to move between the shadows, taking out his arrow once more.
With his Beast Aura, he channeled all the power he could muster into this one shot. Even more surprising, he then dashed forward and fired the arrow in such a short distance from the crystal walls protecting Micah.
Swisshhhh
Craackkkk!!
A loud shrill sound resounded in the air as the crystal shattered into pieces like glass. While Micah was stunned by the abrupt destruction of his protection.
The sudden break of his crystal spell managed to hurt Micah and as soon as he tried to distance himself, Chumo had already arrived on his back with a dagger touching his neck.
“Wha– No… How… not possible.”
Unfortunately for Micah, what was happening now is not an illusion. This was the price he had to pay for his arrogance – a defeat.
What he saw as ‘useless attacks’ was actually what Chumo wanted him to think. In fact, Chumo had been secretly using his special pair of eyes to find the weakest point of the crystal – the breaking point.
Chumo utilized his exceptional precision to control the blades and struck that spot continuously until it reached its limit. Of course, he concealed his true intention by attacking other spots in the crystal.
The moment his eyes saw his preparation was complete, Chumo promptly took decisive action and seized the victory.
[Chumo wins]
As soon as Chumo returned to the group, Thrax stood up from his seat and patted his shoulder saying, “Good job! Now it’s my turn!”
The crowd waited with anticipation as Thrax and his opponent made their way to the designated arena. They were standing on opposite sides of the arena, and when they looked at each other, they both knew that they were both impatiently waiting for the fight to begin.
As soon as the fight started, Igor transformed into a three-meter giant and stomped on the arena floor, rushing to tackle the Immortal Gladiator. Seeing such a charge, Thrax had an excited smile on his face as he dropped his weapon and charged forward as well, stopping the huge half-blood with his two bare hands.
“Hahahah, Igor! Is that all you got?!”