“Congratulations! All of you who are still here deserve to qualify for the next round!!”
The loud voice of the female magus standing at the center of the arena resounded vividly in the air, followed by boisterous cheers from tens of thousands of people aimed at the 110 best acolytes that had been handpicked from among the thousand.
Among these one hundred and ten people, the figures of Klea, Chumo, and Thrax could be seen, indicating that they had qualified. As for those who were part of the Platoon 3 of the missions of Andora planet, only Gerri, Aiko and Lodos managed to make it through.
These 110 strongest acolytes from the regular and elite classes were all ready to be tested against the 90 privileged acolytes that await them tomorrow.
With a total of 8,000 entrants, grabbing a seat in the top 200 was certainly an accomplishment worth celebrating, and that was exactly what Thrax demanded as soon as the group made their return to the Terra Castle.
Thankfully, Magus Silica was generous enough to prepare the group another feast, but were not allowed to overdrink – just enough to have a good rest. After all, they still had the all-important tournament.
However, even with the Terra Castle’ magus and dozens of captains joining the banquet, with the absence of both Emery and also Julian, make the celebration much less festive.
“The Sage has been helping Julian for a while now,” said Magus Silica to Klea when she inquired about the Roman’s condition.
Noticing the prevailing mood, Thrax swiftly raised his glass in the air and shouted loudly in an attempt to change the atmosphere. “Everyone, cheers!! To fight for another day!!”
After the celebration was over, the three of them returned to their room, to rest and prepare for tomorrow. Their hearts were pounding as they all knew that difficult opponents were waiting for them.
Without the three knowing, in one corner of the room, the Eastern Sage was seen creating a particular formation on Julian’s body.
“Keep in mind, it’s only a competition, with your last successful mission, you will still graduate with a good mark”
“Yes senior” said Julian with a mixed feeling.
*****
Day three since the start of the Magus Tournament.
Julian walked out of his seclusion in a state of readiness. Dark red armor suit [Solar Suit] covered his torso and back, while his beloved weapon of hammer and [Titan Shield] were ready for action.
Seeing the healthy complexion of their Roman friend, Klea, Thrax, and Chumo – all three were glad to see Julian seemed to have returned to his prime condition.
“Let’s go!”
Once again, as they entered the majestic venue, they were all greeted by the sight of crowds of excited people and enthusiastic cheers. This time the number of people present, the fireworks and commotion had become much more lively.
“Looks like there are more guards too!”
The group could see that the guards deployed for today’s tournament were not only the golden armor guards, but there were also hundreds of enforcers roaming around the Grand Hall maintaining order.
Before long, Magus Serena appeared on the podium and recited similar to things she said on the first day of the tournament, and immediately afterwards the screen above quickly scrolled through pairs of names, indicating that the matches were about to start.
Today, all 200 acolytes would go through two matches in total, while the remaining two would be held tomorrow. Win all four matches and they would get themselves a ticket to the top 32 of the Final Round.
“Just like the first day, each of yesterday’s winners would be up against privilege class acolytes!!” Said the Magus followed by another cheer.
The screen started to randomly give a match and all 110 elimination winners were anxious to see which rank.of the privilege acolyte would they fight first.
Closer to rank 100 or rank 11.
It didn’t take long for the pair who would be fighting each other to be determined.
Chumo would be fighting against Starburst who was currently [Rank 88] in the privileged class leaderboard rankings, while Thrax would be faced against the [Rank 79] Median. On the other hand, Klea got to fight someone familiar – the water element acolyte Trish who was [Rank 60].
As for Julian, as a privileged acolyte, he got to fight against an elite class acolyte. His opponent was Sparse – the earth acolyte that Emery fought in last year’s game.
Looking at the results, the Earth group could be said to be fortunate from this random draw system. The others were not so lucky. For example, Aiko who got a match with YunXiao the Dragon Spearman who was [Rank 53]; Lodos that had to stand against Diyoo the Devil Nunchaku [Rank 36]; and Gerri who had to face a very familiar red-haired girl, Annara Vermont [Rank 28].
“Annara?!” Klea immediately turned her head towards the Bat bloodline girl across the arena. She was naturally curious about the girl who had been out of radar lately.
Unfortunately, since the match was about to start, they didn’t have time to talk.
Although they were fortunate enough able to match with lower-rank privileged acolytes, it didn’t mean that they all could underestimate them.
Their opponents were still privileged acolytes, after all. Someone who had spent the last year consuming privilege-level facilities, thus none of them was a pushover.
The match started with Klea against Trish.
Despite their beautiful appearances, the fight that erupted between the two girls was far from delicate. The arena was riddled with cracks and holes as Trish tried to overpower her opponent using her [Heavy Water] spell, creating multiple explosions much stronger than fireballs.
However, Klea managed to minimize her impact by stopping most of the water from exploding using her ice element spells.
With the deluge of water she unleashed frozen, Trish gradually lost momentum as the fight progressed. She tried to wrestle control of her spell, in the end, she was forced to surrender as the entire arena had turned into a field of ice.
In other arenas, Chumo and Thrax had also claimed victory over their opponents, meaning the three of them managed to win their first match once again. But then, the three of them were surprised when they saw Julian was actually cornered by his opponent.
Julian was suppressed and found himself being tackled and smashed onto the arena floor. The Roman’s body was hunched in it as he coughed up blood.
A haughty laugh rang out in the air.
“Hahaha, are you really a privileged acolyte?! You are weak!”
