2nd December.
Reljord City. It was the top 10 biggest city, and also where the current no.1 guild’s base was located.
The tournament committee had built a massive arena on the flat plain at this city’s southern outskirt. Just the battleground of the arena was 400 meters in radius, with eight big screens in the air facing eight directions for the audience to watch.
There were four floated platforms on the battlefield that some frontline Adventurers built a few minutes ago using their Earth elemental masteries and a bigger platform in the center where the 2nd round was going to take place.
Due to the arena’s massive size, the number of seats reached 500,000, and it was already fully packed with the audience waiting for round 2 to start.
The underground below the battleground was a big hall where the one hundred participants had gathered.
Round 2 was simple. The one hundred participants would gather atop the central floating platform wearing a special badge on their bodies.
The badge would absorb damage dealt to them to a certain extent and then break. Any and all kinds of items, including their skills, were prohibited in this round. If used, the badge would detect it and disqualify them.
In this round, the participants must purely fight using their Mana techniques and combat ability. This information was on the committee’s front page so that participants would train hard.
The ones to push for this round were Admiral Rudra and some other top Adventurers because they wanted Adventurers to become truly powerful instead of just relying on their class skills. Only when they were physically dexterous and developed combat sense would they excel and survive.
The one hundred participants would fight in an all-out brawl until 50 of them were eliminated.
The 50 losers in this round would fight five-minute-long battles with each other on the other four smaller platforms to determine their ranking from 51st to 100th of the new Rising Star Leaderboard’s silver bracket.
Round 2 started, and it was over within 10 minutes as 50 of them were eliminated. Almond, Lily, and Natalia naturally advanced to the next round.
The tournament committee then showed the rules of Round 3 on the screen, letting the audience know how it would progress.
[Structure]:
— 50 Participants are divided into ten groups, each consisting of 5 contestants. Within their groups, each participant will duel every other member in one-on-one battles.
[Rules]:
—Each duel will last a maximum of 5 minutes.
—Victory will awarded if one opponent’s badge absorbs enough damage and glows, voluntarily conceds, or if the time limit expires, in which case a panel of judges will declare a winner based on performance metrics (offense, defense, strategy).
—Every victory will earn the participant 2 points, while a draw awards 1 point to both competitors.
[Outcome]:
—The top 2 scorers from each group will advance to the next quarterfinals, creating a pool of 20 participants who will go home and wait for the next round to be held tomorrow.
—Meanwhile, the remaining 30 would fight ranking battles to determine their ranking from 21st to 50th.
Almond was in Group 2, Lily was in Group 5, and Natalia was in Group 9.
The central battlefield was dedicated to each group periodically to determine the two winners from them.
Group 1 finished their battles within 28 minutes as two people advanced, one of them was a Super Rookie that Almond had defeated before—Xavier.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Group 1 has finished battle, and we have our two winners advancing to the quarterfinals! Xavier the Piercing Light, and Amir the Tempest Gale! I hope I am not too bad in my title game!”
The audience erupted in cheers.
Amir snorted, his blue hair faintly shining in the sunlight, “I don’t like that title.”
Xavier rolled his eyes, “It’s perfectly suitable.”
Xavier, Amir, and three others from Group 1 went down via the floating stone elevator while another lift went upward parallel to them, containing five people from Group 2.
Xavier’s gaze was on them, and he eyed Almond, who also happened to see him. ‘I will defeat you.’
Almond had a carefree smile that slightly widened upon seeing Xavier’s gaze.
“Now, let us welcome the Group 2!”
The audience erupted again, with many shouting a participant’s name.
“Jian! Jian! Jian!”
Gelato looked at the white-blue hair pretty boy whose name many were chanting.
“We have the super rookie from Blackstar Guild in this group—Jian Ranford, who is also said to be one of the favorites for rank 1 position!”
“However!” Gelato’s gaze went to Almond before he grinned at the camera. “We have a dark horse here who has the record of defeating Xavier—Almond Crowshade!”
The majority of the audience wasn’t aware of him, but there were some who were, as the people erupted in mixed talk.
Jian looked at Almond and indifferently said, “Don’t waste your energy against me if you want to pass this round.”
Almond wryly smiled. This guy was as haughty as he was when he saw him on the TV.
But he didn’t want to waste his breath on someone he could easily defeat.
“Sorry, you three unknown ones. We have no info on you, but this is your stage to shine, so all the best!” Gelato said as he looked at the other three—two girls and one boy in their late teens, one year older than Almond and Jian. They were Silver level 30, like Jian.
“…”
Without further ado, the five of them stood at the corner of the platform before Gelato looked at his wristwatch’s hologram that matched the first two names of the group.
“And we have our first battle’s participants here! Hahaha, please come to the center, Jian Randford!”
Jian walked to the center calmly.
“And the one who will be fighting him is….Almond Crowshade! The most exciting battle of the group will start right off the bat!”
The audience erupted into cheers, eager to the fight.
Gelato looked at the duo and asked, “What weapons do you two use? You are not allowed to use any items, but the committee will provide you with common-grade weapons.”
“A sword.”
“Gauntlets.”
Gelato took out two common-rank plain weapons of their choice and handed them.
Jian had worn a loose black karate-like robe due to his skill and his badge was on the right side of the shoulder.
Almond had worn a long black trench coat with a high collar and slim-fitting black pants paired with matching black boots, maintaining a streamlined and elegant silhouette. As soon as he held the sword and entered the front-sword-holding stance, he gave off a sharp and commanding presence.
“Almond, since you are a summoner, you can summon your pets right now if you want to,” Gelato said.
“No need,” Almond shook his head.
A digital countdown of 10 seconds appeared in the middle as both of them stood at a distance of 10 meters between them.
“Huh? You think you will defeat me without using your summons?”
Almond blinked and smiled, “Indeed. I have my specialized class as well, which is not related to the summons.”
“Humph, suit yourself,” Jian coldly snorted.
Almond simply smiled in response and seeing that, Jian narrowed his eyes, his aura turning wild. ‘I’ll one-shot you right off the bat, so you won’t be able to summon your pets even if you want to later.’
As soon as the countdown hit zero, Jian’s body suddenly became twice as big and bulky muscled as he used his S-rank specialized class skill while already dashing towards Almond with crimson glowing fists as he used another skill.
‘Not even using Fortification and Aura Enfolds?’ Almond was speechless. ‘So arrogant…he thinks he can one-shot me.’ Enjoy more content from empire
But it was understandable as Almond saw that Jian was very fast and given his current physique and status boost he got with his skills, very powerful too. It was no wonder he was arrogant.
‘Too bad your opponent is me,’ Almond’s eyes glinted with a flicker of lightning.
He dashed and dodged past Jian’s incoming assault while his sword crackling in lightning swung a simple horizontal slash.
*Beep!*
Jian’s expression turned to disbelief as he heard the beep sound from his badge and saw that it glowed, signifying that the duel was over as he lost.
All eight screens showed the exchange and the arena turned silent for a few seconds before erupting into crazy loud cheers.
“T-This…” Jian stammered. “No way…”
“And we have the winner of the first battle! Almond Crowshade! That was amazing!” Gelato shouted. ‘Bwahaha, that Jian kid dug his own grave. If he had used Fortification and Body Enfold at least, that slash wouldn’t have defeated him.’
Jian also realized the same, and it increased his frustration to no end.
“Let’s look at the exchange in slow motion, ladies and gentlemen!”
The screen showed the exchange between them in slow motion, which was what people wanted to see more.
And it showed how simple and precise Almond’s movement and slash were.
Lily who was in the underground hall couldn’t help but chuckle, “Almond is being naughty.”
“Eh? Why?” Natalia asked.
“He held back and attacked with just enough power to make the badge beep. This will make that haughty brat think that he lost because he was careless.”
“Oh…well, that bastard deserves it,” Natalia snorted. “He is too arrogant.”
A long dark violet-haired girl not too far from them raised her eyebrows, “That was a beautiful slash.”
She wore a slender silver-white layered frock outfit with a blue rose design and white leggings. Her figure was slender and ample in the feminine area, her beauty on par with Lily’s.
Kira Ryugiri—eighteen years old. The youngest heir of the Ryugiri clan and one of the favorites for the rank 1 position.
“So-so,” commented another eighteen-year-old with silver-blond hair not too far from her—Noah Duncan, the youngest heir of the Duncan clan and likewise one of the favorites for rank 1 position.
“So-so?” Kira turned to him and softly chuckled with a mocking tone, “You mean better than your slash, right?”
“Better than my?” Noah laughed out loud and shook his head, refraining from commenting further.
Natalia and Lily obviously saw their exchange as Lily’s eyes sparked with flames. ‘This bitch better not have any ideas on Almond.’
“Lily, those two talk as if they are better than Almond in swordplay. Is that true?” Natalia tilted her head. “I mean, those two are famous, but still…”
“Nah, Almond wipes the floor with them,” Lily sneered. “But before that, I’ll wipe the floor with them. At least against Noah since he is in the same group as me.”
“Kira is in my group,” Natalia wryly smiled. “Well, two people pass, so I hope I pass.”
“Be confident,” Lily slapped her butt.
“One more slap, please.”
“…”
…
Group 2’s battles were over as each one of them fought with one another. Almond had the highest points and Jian had the second highest points, so both of them qualified for the next round.