Chapter 188 - Start of the Preliminaries

It was finally the start of the preliminaries. Of the five thousand students who made up the first year, one thousand wouldn't participate since they were supporting martial artists. Considering that there were 32 groups, for each group, there were a total of 125 people. Only one of these 125 from each group would advance to the main phase of the tournament.

The students were eager to get started. As the preliminaries approached, their excitement had increased dramatically, and now that the day had finally come, it had reached the peak.

"Good. You are all present. We can start the preliminaries." Song Yazhu announced. He was responsible for overlooking all the matches. Even if he was a single person, the sight and perception of a Spirit King were such that he could keep an eye on all the fights at the same time.

"4000 first-year students participate. As I said earlier, there will be 32 groups. Each group will have 125 people. The groups have already been decided, so there is no point in worrying about it. The person with the most wins from each group will move on to the main phase of the tournament. However, the top 500, top 300, top 100, and top 50 will be rewarded with a certain number of contribution points based on the number of your wins. The rewards are cumulative; therefore, if, for example, you should finish in the top 50 positions, in addition to the reward of your positioning bracket, you will also receive the previous ones. For the top 32, the relative prizes will be given once the tournament's main phase has ended. Therefore you should aim to win each match even if you don't end up winning your respective group."

"Teacher Song Yazhu, what if I don't have to qualify for the main phase of the tournament but get more wins than the winner of another group? How will the calculation of the positions be managed?" asked one of the students.

"The top 32 equals the winners of each group, regardless of the number of wins. Even if you had to have a number higher of wins than some winners, you would not enter the top 32, and you would be considered in the top 50. At first glance, it will seem unfair, but life is like this; however, many calculations you can do, there will always be the possibility that something will happen that will completely ruin your plans. In a sense, luck is one of the martial artist's abilities. If you are unlucky, you can only curse yourself for your bad luck.

However, considering that the academy tends to reward who is willing and show commitment, you will be allowed to challenge the winners with a lower number of wins than yours. If you win, then you will be admitted to the main phase. Otherwise, you will have no excuse for why you weren't admitted."

Song Yazhu carefully explained the details of the preliminaries. It was important for the students to understand the dynamics behind the ranking so they could proceed with their strategies. Indeed, these rules made it possible to have a chance even if you were unlucky and ended up in a group like that of the Imperial Prince, Long Tian. Because of this, you could also decide to forfeit specific matches to focus on maximizing the chances of winning over easier matches, giving up wasting energy on the first year's big shots.

Song Yazhu finished speaking and motioned for the students to divide into their respective groups. To help him, some older students had come. They wanted to observe potential recruits for their future units in the Sun Army. In particular, they were interested in the strength of the Imperial Prince and the children of the Eight Big Families.

"Then, we will see each other later. Remember, aim to win but don't aim at victory at all costs. It doesn't make sense to use all your energy just to win against a single opponent. The important thing is to accumulate the most wins." Hei recommended it to his companions.

"Yes! We will definitely move on to the main phase!" the others confidently answered.

Leon was assigned to group 24. Mareo was with him as a supporting martial artist. Since Leon possessed the highest amount of spirit power among all, it was decided that Haruno, who was a martial artist chef, would accompany him. Although he couldn't assist him directly in combat, he could speed up the recovery of his spirit power with fast preparing delicious dishes.

Lang and Fenrir were assigned to group 25. Mareo would be accompanying them as a musician martial artist. Given Lang and Fenrir's fighting strength, the tamer and spirit beast duo was the least likely to get hurt. Consequently, Mareo was assigned to them. Although he couldn't intervene directly in the fight with his music, he could influence their emotions and bring them to their peak battle condition in no time.

He Fen was assigned to group 16, and Lilian was with him. Fire and Lightning were two Elemental Laws that bonded well together, so it was decided that Lilian was more suitable than Mia as his supporting martial artist.

Lian instead was placed in group 50, and as a supporting martial artist, she had Mia. The young medic martial artist possessed the Light Law and therefore was better suited to Lian, who owned the Water Law and the Wood Law, two elements known for their peaceful characteristics. However, the Water Law also possessed destructive features.

Lastly, Hei was added to group 7. He had no supporting martial artists, but it wasn't a problem. Indeed, he wouldn't participate alone. As a beast tamer martial artist, he had signed his little sisters with him, and they would fight with him.

Once the groups were finished, the fighting started. For each group, a stone stage was built as a battlefield. The fights would take place in unison and would see two students from the same group, for a total of 32 battles taking place at the same time. Once the winner was decided, two more contenders would go up until all the students had fought 125 matches.

Since it was also a test for assessing endurance and their ability to formulate strategies, the preliminaries would take place relentlessly. For this, the presence of supporting martial artists was indispensable. After all, the sooner the attacking martial artists learned that they couldn't survive without the supporting martial artists, the better it would be.

"Ye, Xing. There are 125 matches. I'll leave you 60 matches each, okay? For the other five, instead, I will take care of them. Take advantage of this opportunity to familiarize yourself with fighting other martial artists. Remember, though, that I won't intervene. Your defeat is equivalent to a defeat for me, have I been clear?" Hei turned to his little sisters.

'Hahaha, big brother, you underestimate us. How could we ever lose!? We'll show you how strong we became.'

'Ye is right. For who did you get us?! We will win without problems!'

The two little divine beasts briskly responded as their fighting spirit awoke. However, calling them little wasn't the proper adjective since they were now in their original forms. As they had to fight, Hei told them to take away their petite form.

"Show it to me with the facts then. If you win all the fights, then I will reward you properly." Hei answered, smiling. Although he had warned them to pay attention, he wasn't so worried. As expected, the academy had divided the students with the most potential into different groups. Although there were several strong students in his group, Hei was confident that his little sisters could beat them even if they were unable to use their Elemental Laws.

The clashes followed quickly. The various fighters would exchange dozens of blows, and when the strength gap was evident, the weaker would admit their defeat. When considering the modalities of the preliminaries, in this initial phase, it was better to keep one's strength as much as possible even if they had the help of a supporting martial artist.

"Group 7, Hei against Jin Norogumi!" one of the older students who supported Song Yazhu in the supervision called out.

Hearing his name, Hei went on stage. His first fight had finally come. As he walked, the other members of his group unconsciously withdrew from his path. This reaction was due in part to the demonstration of skill shown by Hei months back but was mainly due to the presence of the two terrifying beings next to him - a spider and a snake three and a half meters long. Such spirit beasts gave off such pressure and a sense of uneasiness that it was difficult to think they were mere second-level spirit beasts.

"As a beast tamer, you are allowed to use only one spirit beast," the older student reminded him.

"Yes, I know," Hei replied briefly. His gaze then fell on his little sisters at his side, "Have you decided who will go first?"

'I! I will go first! 'Ye said happily.

'Yes, Ye goes first. She was lucky enough to win rock paper scissors.' Xing added disconsolately.

Incidentally, since they didn't have human hands with which to reproduce the rock-paper-scissors shapes, they played roshambo using their minds, screaming the name of what they wanted to play.

"Alright. Then you go first, Ye. Xing, and I will wait for you here." Hei said to his little sister, who lively crawled to the ground.

His opponent, Jin Norogumi, had also taken the stage. Hearing that Hei had been given as his first opponent, he cursed his bad luck. He didn't want to have such a difficult fight from the beginning, but he decided to try it anyway. As a student of the Southern Royal War Academy, he was still a genius in the total panorama of the empire. So, as a genius, he couldn't run away without even trying. However, what he saw was happening on stage almost made his eyes drop from his orbits due to anger.

"What does this mean? What do your actions mean?" Jin asked loudly to Hei.

"What do you mean? We have to fight, right? As a beast tamer, it is natural for my spirit beast to fight." Hei replied without giving too much weight to his opponent's words.

"No, I don't mean your spirit beast. I want to know what intentions you have? Why aren't you on stage fighting me?" Jin shouted, spitting saliva from anger.

Hei had sat on Xing's head, who was off the stage. In practice, he gave up fighting, sending only his spirit beast in his place. It was an attitude that said that he simply didn't put his opponent in his eyes, letting someone else handle it for him.

"Are you sure about your decision? If you don't go on stage within ten seconds, I will consider your spirit beast as the only fighter. If you try to intervene later, I will consider it an infringement of the rules, and you will be judged instantly defeated. Is it okay for you?" even the older student raised his eyebrows.

Hei's behavior was far too arrogant. Although the tournament rules allowed it, it was surprising that there was a beast tamer who was really willing to send their spirit beast alone. After all, spirit beasts didn't have laws, so the tamers themselves would be a better candidate even if their battle skills weren't the best.

"I have no problem with it," Hei replied regardless of the gaze of others. He wasn't arrogant; he simply had so much confidence in his little sisters that he didn't feel the need to intervene. He wasn't even forced to explain it to other people; in any case, they could hardly understand his thoughts.

"Okay, let the fight begin." the older student announced. While Hei replied, he glanced over at Song Yazhu to ask how he should act. The Spirit King simply nodded to say there was no problem; after all, he had already said that it was allowed. Besides, as the first-year teacher, he knew well the strength of his students and their characters. So he knew that Hei wasn't an arrogant person at all.

"I will make you regret making fun of me. The incident with cockroaches and termites was different since they were too many, but I won't lose against a mere spirit beast in a one vs. one fight. Initially, I thought it was unfortunate to have you as an opponent in the first round, but the luck seems to be with me instead." Jin shouted with furious joy as he activated his spirit power. As a young genius, what he hated most was being looked down upon by others, especially those of his age.

Hei didn't answer but just fixed his eyes on his little sister. Ye, on the other hand, wasn't like Hei; during the fight, she liked to taunt the enemy and tease him. In a sense, her playfulness was an excellent psychological weapon that stabilized her opponent's mental defenses. The problem was that it didn't work much against humans since humans didn't understand the language of spirit beasts without the help of an external translator. But Ye still didn't give up on raging with words.

'You cannot lose against a mere spirit beast? I, Ye, your mother, will knock you down in no time. So you will learn not to underestimate the strength of spirit beasts.'

Ye activated her spirit power and advanced rapidly forward. Despite her long body, her speed of crawling on the ground reached a terrifying speed. Spectators couldn't help but be surprised because the speed of many of them was even slower than the one shown by the black snake with golden patterns.

"Don't underestimate me!" Jin, therefore, used a footwork technique, increasing his speed. His body was zigzagging to confuse Ye so that he could hit her with the next blow.

'You're still too slow!' Ye replied.

Whoosh! Peng!

There was the sound of something whipping the air followed by a dry sound of something being hit. The next instant, Jin was sent to fly to the other end of the stage. If he hadn't regained his balance at the last minute, he would have fallen out. Although you wouldn't lose if you were to hit the ground off the stage, it would still be a stain on his honor if that had happened.

Nonetheless, Jin's heart was pounding as his ears became hot from the anger he was feeling. A single blow from that snake had swept him away as if he were a mannequin. And the biggest problem was that he hadn't even seen how he had been attacked.

'Fool. The danger of a snake isn't so much in the bite of their fangs but in their tail speed. Ye's tail can move faster than her entire body speed.' Hei thought to himself. Although he trusted Ye, he couldn't help but be a little worried since he didn't know the strength of all his classmates. But after this first confrontation, one concept became clear to him - that Jin Norogumi couldn't beat Ye.

Jin tried to use various attacks, using his weapon and his Elemental Law, but nothing he used served. Ye was simply too strong, and more tail blows were enough to send the human out of the ring. Blinded by his anger, Jin had ended up using too much spirit power than expected, which would affect his second fight.

"The winner is Hei." declared the older student who was surprised by the snake's fighting ability. Now he understood why Hei was so relaxed.

"You did well, come back now," Hei said to his little sister as she urged Xing to turn around. Ye nodded and followed them from behind.

As before, the other students unconsciously moved out of their way as they suddenly realized something. Hei was already powerful and dangerous enough, and now that snake was added. However, the spirit beasts he had with him were two. Did it mean that the dark purple spider was as strong as the black snake?

Thinking about this, everyone took a breath. It meant that there were potentially three strong opponents who fought as one. Consequently, the most likely to win in group 7 was Hei with his spirit beasts.