At last, the day of the Battle Exchange’s start arrived.
The strongest Awakened of the Tritan Alliance’s youngest generation would face each other in various disciplines for the next 30 days. The annual event was held to allow the Tritan Alliance to grow closer and learn more about each other. At the end of the Battle Exchange, the strongest members of the Tritan Alliance would be picked to spend two months of time training together to participate in the Interdimensional Flag War together.
The Tekur race’s influence in the Lumina Stellar System wasn’t that high yet. However, their influence expanded slowly. It was about time to close the Lesser Dimension Gate.
Everyone participating in the Battle Exchange knew about the importance of the event, but not everyone joined the Battle Exchange with the same goal in mind. Some were more interested in establishing a strong network with the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs while others were more interested in crushing their allies’ confidence.
They wanted to establish dominance and instill a bit of dread in the hearts of the youngest generation of Awakened to assert their race’s superiority over others.
Michael thought that something like this was stupid, but he saw it happen quite often in the last few days. In the five days he spent training in the Ulran Arena, Michael saw eight groups of humans barge into the Arena with the intention to humiliate the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs.
Of course, there were also pleasant encounters with other human Awakened, but they could be counted on his fingers. It was quite disappointing. Michael could clearly see how the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs grew more distrustful of the human Awakened after every unpleasant encounter. If not for Michael training with them, pointing out their weaknesses, and giving his utmost to guide them, the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs might have ended up considering every human Awakened as distrustful, and honorless.
Even though most encounters with human groups were rather unpleasant, the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs learned a lot fighting them. The war-loving races were quick learners, allowing them to defeat some of the most annoying brats from the human race. Other than that, Michael asked Lincoln, Zeke, and Kaleb to come over to train as well.
They were busy with their own stuff, but they came over one day to spar with Michael, the Berserkers, and Warlock Centaurs.
On the day of the Battle Exchange, Michael met up with the three descendants to then walk towards the underground arena. The underground arena had been closed until today for the authorities to prepare everything needed for the Battle Exchange.
It was a humongous underground Colosseum that could easily fit tens of thousands of spectators. A total of 25 combat rings were installed in the center of the arena, ready for the 4500 participants of the Battle Exchange to be used.
Despite the small number of combat rings, Michael was quite pleasantly surprised. The underground Colosseum was humongous. It looked majestic, and almost like it had been carved out of a single piece of stone. There was not a single gap that indicated how many bricks had been used to construct the humongous structure. This piqued Michael’s curiosity. However, even more so did the dense origin energy permeating every inch of the underground Colosseum.
No other arena in Piloq released as much origin energy as the underground Colosseum. It was the perfect place to train tirelessly for tens of hours, and to fight without the need to hold back.
Once Michael and the others arrived in the Colosseum, they searched for a place to sit down. They arrived a bit early, but there were already hundreds of participants occupying the first two rows. Some were chatting lightly with each other, while other groups were visibly worried about the Battle Exchange and their performance.
Thaor, Mekhaz and a few other Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs, who Michael got to know in the hardcore training of the last few days, were already seated as well. They motioned to Michael to come over. There was enough space behind Mekhaz and Thaor for others to sit, so they did just that.
“Urgh…” Kaleb cursed the moment he sat down. He looked ahead, only to realize that his sight of the combat rings was blocked by a massive red wall of muscles.
“How am I supposed to see anything?” Kaleb asked quietly, looking over to Michael who began to grin.
“Thaor, how about switching seats with us? We can hardly see anything but your back,” Michael asked loud enough for Thaor to hear. He turned around and saw the small group of four little humans fully engulfed in the shadow of his back.
He didn’t stand up. Instead, he scoffed and motioned to the Berserker seated in the first row. Thaor said something to the Berserker, who turned around. An expression of displeasure appeared on the Berserker’s face but he got up nonetheless. Thaor turned back and pointed at the empty seat in the first row.
“You guys won’t see much if you don’t sit in the first row. Jugh is more than willing to switch places with you and your friends,” Thaor said, ignoring the growling Berserker in front of him.
Michael nodded and got up. He walked over to the first row and sat down. Kaleb and the others followed him and sat down as well.
“This will be interesting,” Zeke mumbled in a low voice, making his friends raise an eyebrow.
“I don’t think anyone except Michael spent enough time with the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs to get on friendly terms with them. I don’t think any Berserker or Warlock Centaur would be willing to switch places with the Awakened who annoyed and humiliated them before,” Zeke explained when he noticed that his friends’ attention didn’t move back to the center of the arena.
“You think fights will break out even before the Battle Exchange starts? Because of seats?” Michael asked, which Zeke reaffirmed with a simple nod.
He pointed to their right side where three Berserkers and two Warlock Centaurs were in a heated discussion with a group of humans, who were forced to sit behind the huge Awakened – where they couldn’t see anything but broad backs covered in well-trained muscles.
The Berserkers’ eyes were already bloodshot, and the Warlock Centaurs looked like they were about to grasp the leader of the human group to squash it at once. Meanwhile, the group of humans was totally unbothered by that. They continued to shout at the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs in front of them, voicing out complaints, insults, and worse.
“They’re clearly trying to provoke the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs,” Kaleb cursed silently, and the others agreed.
Even Thaor and Mekhaz took note of the issue, a frown forming on their faces.
“They hope that the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs would attack. Once one party attacks another, Party A will be held accountable for anything that happens. First of all, it is forbidden to fight in the spectator area of the Underground Colosseum. Second, the Battle Exchange explicitly forbids fights in public areas. No innocent citizens shall be wounded. Third, Party B is allowed to fight back with full power – which means that they won’t be punished even if they kill Party A,” Mekhaz explained with a deep sigh.
“Usually this rule applies to Berserkers because they’re considered short-tempered and prone to violence. But…it never happened that human Awakened provoked Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs that openly. This is not like it was last year,” Thaor added, openly acknowledging his race’s flaws.
Fortunately, a group of humans, Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs appeared in the center of the arena before unpleasantries in the spectator area turned into serious issues.
“Welcome to the Underground Colosseum. My name is Palika Mervenham, and I’m the Berserkers’ Chieftain, ” A familiar voice resounded in the Colosseum, silencing everyone with two simple sentences.
“Next to me is Silvana Zentur, the War Priestess of the Warlock Centaur race, and Franklin Wolfheart, the Dean of the Octagon Council of the Big Five Universities, and the Great Three Academies,” Palika Mervenham introduced the War Priestess standing next to him, and the Octagon Council’s dean, who stood in front of the small group of humans. 𝗇𝑜𝑽𝚎𝑙𝑛𝗲xt.𝗇𝓔t
Eight humans, probably each representing one of the Great Academies and Big Universities, stood behind the dean. On the other hand, there was also Alice Zenovia and Oliver Zeus standing a bit farther from the group. They weren’t introduced nor was any attention paid to them.
‘Is that what happens when you’re new to the Battle Exchange?’ Michael wondered, not sure whether he should like what he saw or not. The whole situation was a lot more complicated than he initially thought.
He found out recently that the Saphirelake Military Academy was rather new to the Battle Exchange. They had yet to earn some reputation during the Battle Exchange, and the Interdimensional Flag War, which was probably why the Berserker Chieftain didn’t even introduce them to everyone.
The Saphirelake Military Academy was not yet acknowledged by the Tritan Alliance. Fortunately, that would change soon enough.
“I am not the type of person who likes talking a lot. Rather than talking too much, I love to let my actions speak up for me. That’s why I won’t say much before we get started. Several messages should have been forwarded to everyone at this point. The Battle Exchange’s rules have been noted down neatly. Read through them to understand what you’re allowed to do, and what’s forbidden. Breaking the rules will result in a severe punishment,” Palika said, contradicting himself immediately.
Michael rolled his eyes when he heard that the Chieftain was not talkative. He clearly recalled how much the Chieftain spoke when they first met in the library.
“The Battle Exchange can be summarized rather simply. There are a total of five disciplines that will be tested in the next 30 days. Each discipline has a total of 200 open slots with special rewards such as Summoning Scrolls, Unique Artifacts, and the participation token for the Interdimensional Flag War. That means the top 200 of the respective disciplines will participate in the Interdimensional Flag War to represent the Tritan Alliance,” The Chieftain explained with a smile on his face.
As Palika took a deep breath, the War Priestess continued to talk about the Battle Exchange.
“It is possible to participate in all disciplines. Of course, that also means you can procure a total of five Flag War Tokens. Each Flag War Token represents one participant in the Flag War. Therefore, if you procure five Tokens, you can keep one for yourself and distribute the rest however you’d like to distribute them. You can also trade the Tokens or simply sell them,” The War Priestess explained, only for her expression to turn ice-cold as she added,
“But you can also lose your Tokens. Everyone with more than one Flag War Token can be challenged indiscriminately as long as the other party offers something of similar value in exchange.”
As the War Priestess’ words resounded through the arena, the Dean of the Octagon Council murmured quietly.
“Or you just steal the Tokens of other people.”
As the dean’s voice rang through the Colosseum, everyone and everything turned eerily silent for a few seconds.
Then some human Awakened began to smile brightly, while the Berserkers and Warlock Centaurs looked at the dean in disgust. As honorable Warriors, thievery was one of the worst sins they could imagine.
Yet, the Chieftain and the War Priestess didn’t say anything about the Dean’s words. On the contrary, they seemed to agree.
This was enough reason for Michael to open the holographic screen of the crystal watch where a few notifications popped up.
He opened the Battle Exchange Rules Guide the moment he found the message and started to read through it.
A few minutes later, his expression was distorted and he began to curse.
“The Battle Exchange will be a fucking mess…”