Match 5
Ron the Geocrusher Fighter vs. Adrian the Blazing Ravager.
Both of them were considered super rookies due to their primary S-rank class and specialized S-rank class, along with powerful performance.
Ron was from the 8th rank Crimson Aegis guild, and Adrian was from the prestigious and powerful Reben family, famous for their hand-to-hand combat style, which was now refined to a new level with their signature clan skill—Geoheart Suit (S), learnable if one had Earth elemental mastery.
As the battle began, Adrian was wrapped up in an Earth-attributed semi-crystalized suit around his body.
Ron had asked for a chakram weapon, so he used it, enhancing it with Flame-style Weapon Enfold as he had Fire elemental mastery.
Ron was able to duplicate his Chakram into three more ones appearing as real as the original one, and their impact also seemed real as they crashed into the barrier Adrian erected for the defense.
‘Dune Trap.’
Adrian used his skill, Dune Trap as he defended himself from Ron’s attack.
Ron suddenly felt the earth beneath him binding him and turning sandy, forcing him to jump.
‘Fuck,’ Ron knew he would be attacked, so he also unleashed a long-range class skill—Pyroclastic Bomb.
A round bomb-themed orb shot at Adrian as he jumped, but Adrian enriched his Geoheart Suit and continued with his plan as he attacked Ron right as he became airborne from the jump.
Geolance Strike—Quad style!
Four big spiky semi-crystal earth lances from four directions shot at Ron as Adrian’s finishing move worked, successfully striking Ron while he was in the air and ringing his badge.
Match 6
Jemma the Waterloom Haze vs. Finn the Thundering Might.
Jemma was already known to have an S-rank Primary class and an S-rank specialized. She was a Super Rookie belonging to the 10th rank Dusk Rain guild.
Finn was from the guild ranked one above it—9th rank Lightstrike Guild.
Jemma was mainly a mage, using projectile skills and her refined movement skills to use unleashed water-attribute attacks, be they defensive, attack, or debuffing. Both of her classes were mage-type and mainly water and mist-attributed.
Finn had lightning elemental mastery and used a giant hammer that came with his specialized class, mainly lightning, but he also had some good projectile skills.
After an intense battle of two minutes, Finn emerged victorious.
Match 7
Anya the Silverbolt Whip vs Mira the Silent Shadow.
Anya Fuego was a super rookie of rank 5th guild—Silverfang Guild, one of the favorites for the rank one spot. She had no elemental mastery, but her S-rank primary class—Dominion Whipmaster, and A-rank specialized class—Star Predator, were powerful.
She had displayed a powerful performance and was one of the favorites for the rank 1 spot, her combat style being dynamic and powerful.
Mira Nilok was an assassin-type with dark elemental mastery, but mainly the shadow attribute of it as she wasn’t at as high rank as Lily.
The battle began with Mira vanishing and ten shadowy daggers shooting at Anya.
But Anya’s whip crackled silverly as she whipped in the air, crashing a silver slit that forcefully absorbed all the daggers, nullifying Mira’s attack.
Her eyes glinted silver as well, easily finding Mira because her specialized class—Star Predator, was tailored for hunting, and assassins already had a disadvantage against her.
Anya’s whipping resulted in silver crackling projectiles that clashed with Mira’s dagger and her skill projectiles, but Mira was shortly overwhelmed by Anya dominating the pace and finishing the battle within half a minute.
Match 8
Lily the Dreadspire Harbinger vs Talia the Spellbound Gunslinger.
The audience was fully excited for this match, but only because they wanted to see Lily in action.
But Talia had lost against Marcus despite being the heir of the famous gunslinger expert—Graves family, so she was extra determined to clutch the victory.
Alas, the match ended and resulted in the expected outcome—Lily won with complete domination!
Dreadspire Warlock was too powerful in her hands! An assassin with overpowering debuffs and attacks!
She walked to the winner line at the platform’s edge and stood beside Almond while the 9th Match began between two sword experts.
Noah the Dreadsteel Swordsman vs Kira the Crescent Stormblade!
“Gelato did dirty by giving you that title,” Lily said with a pout. “I think it’s my fault. I told him to give you a good title with a despotic tone, and he deliberately gave you a bad one.”
Almond chuckled and gently rubbed her hand, “Nah. It’s my fault because I also taunted him, saying that he would need to do mental gymnastics for my title.”
“Well, he’ll have to change my title by the end of today’s matches,” Almond grinned.
“Who do you think will win?” Lily asked as she observed the intense clash of sword skills between Kira and Noah.
“Depends, but with the way things are going, Kira will nab the victory unless Duncan improvises his sword style and predictable moveset,” Almond said as he watched the battles. “Not to mention that Ryugiri clan’s Sword Bending Motion is quite powerful.”
“Duncan family has a focus on self-power up and absolute stances of attack and defense, so he indeed needs to show a higher mastery and better swordplay since they are roughly equally matched in stats,” Lily nodded.
Noah, wrapped in his steel-style Fortitude, was dishing out sword-slash projectiles and defending against Kira’s attacks in equilibrium.
Meanwhile, Kira was progressively changing her attack patterns due to her flexible style.
Both of them destroyed and nullified each other’s attacks. Duncan let himself get hit a few times in shallow ways as his metal-style Fortitude absorbed the damage.
He dished out a powerful and cunning attack after letting himself get hit, but Kira managed to avoid it barely and gained the upper hand with the counterattack, finishing off the battle.
“I win this time,” Kira grinned.
“Yeah, yeah,” Duncan rolled his eyes.
“That last move was good, but he failed,” Almond wryly smiled, his head shaking. “He didn’t consider the possibility of failure to hit Kira. Mindset is very important during battle to bring out more possibilities.”
“Serves him right,” Lily snorted.
Gelato announced the winner as Noah walked back to the loser’s line with an ashen face that he tried to hide and keep a carefree smile on his face.
‘Focusing on appearance more…he is on the wrong path,’ Almond narrowed his eyes as he observed Noah. ‘It’s fine to show the expression of defeat and frustration, but he is suppressing them and killing his own spirit…’
It was different from Julian, who showed his expression and frustration truly and used it to fuel himself, and Marcus, whose defeat fueled his fighting spirit and spirit of getting better.
On the other hand, Noah dismissed his loss by telling himself this was just a spar in the end and not a real battle, lowering the importance of defeat and dousing his own spirit of improvement.
Silvester Duncan, who sat on the VIP seat in boxes, also fumed as he watched the battle.
“There, your grandson sucks. I am not bragging, but he is a far cry from Almond when it comes to swordplay.”
Rudra flatly commented. “Have you been paying attention to him or not?”
“That brat is going train with me until the Labyrinth opens without a break!” Silvester snorted. “I’ve been too lax and gave him too much freedom last month just because he won against her a month ago.”
Rudra smiled and said, “If you want to shatter his arrogance, then I have a better way. If you train him now, then he’ll only get more arrogant after improving a bit.”
Silvester raised his eyebrows and turned to his friend, “You mean Almond? That…is not a bad idea, but I am afraid he will lose his confidence even more after that. Almond’s genius in the sword is terrifying.”
Rudra snorted, “Weak. Are Duncan family’s heirs raised with such a weak mentality that they would lose confidence upon seeing a better sword? Even if he can never attain that level, the spirit and desire of reaching that level must never be lost.”
Seeing Silvester hesitant, Rudra added, “Fine, no need to let him do sparring matches with Almond. I have a better candidate.”
“Who?” Silvester blinked. “Is there someone even better than Almond?”
“No,” Rudra shook his head, “But he is a better candidate to pair with Noah. He is a gold-rank adventurer in GAA who triggered an awakening here yesterday.”
“His sword was not bad, but worse than Noah,” Silvester frowned. “How is he a better candidate?”
“Julian was training with Almond, under his subtle guidance, and he improved tremendously because his thirst and desire to reach a high level never waned despite his bad classes,” Rudra’s eyes glinted. “Julian has entered a phase of rapid improvement in terms of his swordplay.”
As if he understood, Silvester’s eyes shone. “If Noah practices with Julian, he will see how Julian improves, and he will also get affected by him. Good idea, indeed. That Julian brat is a perfect candidate, alright. Both will improve fast.”
“Then I’ll send him to your family,” Rudra smiled. “Make sure you teach him everything, including your family’s techniques and the main skill. This price is nothing compared to shaping up your heir’s psyche and improvement.”
“Of course,” Silvester laughed. “He will get the chance to learn them.”
On the other hand, the final match also ended when these duo ended their discussion.
Natalia the Chaos Symphony vs Eliara the Steel Fortress.
Eliara was a super rookie and favorite for rank 1 from 4th rank Ironclad Guild. She was an off-tank, having metal elemental mastery and being a warrior with defensive and offensive powers.
Natalia fought hard, but Eliara’s combat expertise and overall arsenal of power overwhelmed Natalia in the end, as the battle ended within a minute.
Eliara knew that Natalia had high Mana based on her previous fight, so she had planned beforehand to go all out midway when given the opportunity since Natalia didn’t have a good movement skill and her combat ability wasn’t that refined.
“Aw, look at her,” Almond chuckled as he saw Natalia walking back to the loser’s line with a downcast expression. “But she did good. She has less training time and experience than others here, so she just needs to spend more time in training.”
“Mhm,” Lily nodded with a smile. “She wasn’t expecting to reach this high, but now she is disappointed, haha. I guess she will train even harder now.”
“And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we have finished this round!”
The audience cheered loudly, chanting the names of their favorite contestants, resulting in a chaotic, cheery uproar.
“We are going to have a longer schedule today, so sit tight and get some food during this break! After half an hour, the ranking battles to determine the 11th to 20th rank begin, and then the semi-final round to determine the top 5 will start!”
“My dear little rising stars, we have a feast for you during this break, go and enjoy. It’s prepared in the underground hall.”
Almond looked at these Adventurers yearning to become stronger and had an idea. ‘I’ll announce this to them after I enter the top 5. It will fire up their minds more that way, haha.’
As everyone got onto two stone elevators and descended into the hall, Almond was immediately approached by two people.
Marcus and Kira.