Erebus was currently inside of his cave, more specifically, in the large alcove designated as the library. He sat on the edge of the opening, his legs swinging as he read an old book with yellowing, wrinkled pages. The language was that of the dragons.

Books were placed haphazardly on the stone shelves, many threatening to fall off. The binds of the books were worn from age, many were wrapped in cloth to preserve the ancient knowledge.

Erebus spent a decent quantity of his lifetime reading. All varieties of books littered the shelves. From tall tales of heroes to biological research. He enjoyed all of them equally.

The current book he was reading was a very, very old fiction about a hero who united the entire Main Continent. It was full of pathos and melodrama.

He read it nonetheless. Its cliche settings didn’t bother him in the slightest, not even the damsel-in-distress love interest.

Ah, classical literature.

He continued to read in the dim, green light provided by the mana stones. The only sound was coming from the rustling of the pages as he would flip them. Erebus would trace the fading ink with his elegant fingers as he read.

A small smile twitched at his lips.

He felt as if he had been whisked away into this world.

Sadly, his happiness did not last for long. He had to attend the Dragon Tournament.

Erebus marked the page he was on and set the book down, he had read it countless times before.

But everytime he read it, it felt as if he learned something new. It was beautifully written.

He placed the book on the stone and leaped down from the risen alcove. The fourth day of the Tournament was to be starting soon, and Eirlok forbid he was late.

Erebus exited his cave, walking leisurely towards the volcano where the Tournament was held.

Below the cliff he walked on, a river of lava was flowing smoothly. The brilliant red liquid rarely cooled down enough in the Dragon Continent to the point where it would solidify.

Small dragons played with each other in the liquid, they would splash each other before lifting up in the sky, giggling. Then they would descend again into the lava.

It was a rather adorable sight.

Alas, Erebus completely ignored it. He continued to stride without batting a single eyelash at the heart-warming scene.

Within minutes, the Dragon Tournament’s volcano was within his sight. Erebus quickened his pace.

A long line was formed at the volcano, dragons in the human forms were climbing the steps that would lead them up and over into the seating area. Lucky for Erebus, he was a member of the Council.

The Council received their own special staircase where not a single soul walked. Erebus ascended the thousands of stairs without breaking a sweat or growing tired.

He did so in a painfully short amount of time.

Erebus then descended the steps that lead to the private seating for the Council. He took his seat between Weryn and Azure, who both greeted him in their respective ways.

“Good morning, Master!”

“Wow, I’m surprised a bum like you managed to wake up early so many consecutive days.”

Erebus, needless to say, only responded to Weryn’s greeting with his own. Azure smirked at this and leaned back in her seat, satisfied.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to the fourth day of the Dragon Tournament!” Shouts and whoops, the announcer allowed them to finish before saying, “The first game occurring today is Snatch!”

The crowd once again went wild, without even knowing the details of the game. They didn’t really care, though, everything was so exciting!

The announcer waited till they quieted down. “The rules are as followed: Every contestant will start off with the amount of points that they earned yesterday. The contestants are wearing plates on their bodies, where every time it gets hit, they will lose twenty points!

“The match time is twenty minutes. Begin!” The announcer stopped speaking, but his voice continued to ring throughout the entire volcano.

His words were followed by shouts and calls of exhilaration.

Contestants that were had seen before in this round were: Lucas, Tye (formerly known as Blondie), and Myra.

Similar to yesterday, each group had ten people. And five would not pass. Since there were fifty competitors left, there would be five different rounds. Only twenty-five would move on to fight in the battle royale.

In this match, Lucas was favored to win. He was incredibly adept in keeping his enemies away from him and keep any magic from hitting him.

Since he knew this, the ghastly man smiled cruelly. All he had to do is keep the others away from him and lower their points so that he would have the highest.

For the first few seconds of the match, the opponents all appraised each other. They weren’t allowed to watch the other matches, so they didn’t know what they were up against and couldn’t prepare in advance.

And it was also against the rules to gather information on their opponents. The match was completely random.

The first to charge was a dragon with shimmery blue-green hair and vibrant lavender eyes. Her skin was tinted slightly by a yellow color. Other than her extravagant coloring, she was average in every way.

Her name was Jura, and she was able to manipulate gravity.

As amazing as the skill sounded, she couldn’t manipulate it very much. She could only increase it or decrease the force by a small amount.

Still, it was a rather helpful skill in combat. She could weigh her opponent down so that their movements were extremely slow, or she could cause them to float in the air, rendering them incapable of fighting.

The dragon she charged was Chelse, a female dragon with a cherubic face but deadly skill.

Chelse had come in first place for her match on the third day.

Jura had a vengeance against Chelse because she came in second. The two clashed.

Chelse grew vines from her palm that shot out at Jura, hoping to entrap her and cease her movements. Jura narrowly dodged the vines and continued to run at Chelse.

Since those two had engaged each other, the rest of the competitors began to fight each other.

Lucas versus Tye.

Tye began to utilize his specialized magic which he hadn’t use in his battle against Xalor (Baldy). His speciality was earth magic, stone, to be more specific.

Lucas blocked the attacks deftly and sent his own blades of compressed air at Tye. If any were to touch the blonde man, he’d surely be gravely injured. He would need instant medical attention, thus, disqualifying him from continuing.

This damn freak is trying to kill me! Tye thought as he barely avoided the near fatal attacks.

On another side of the huge platform, it was two versus one. Myra was currently handling two people who had teamed up against her. Lagios and Saphira, two fire mages.

Myra attempted to fend them off desperately, but it was hard. She wasn’t nearly as skilled or proficient in water magic as Azure.

After all, Azure’s magic was technically called [Lost Magic: Ruler of the Water].

Myra, however, received assistance from a righteous man by the name of Deneth. He was a fresh-faced newbie in the Tournament.

The others had competed at least once before, but not made it to the battle royale.

There were two others fighting each other, but their battle was not nearly as extravagant as the other’s.

Jura and Chelse were combatting each other with the best magic out of them all. Their execution was near perfect, and struck awe into the audience.

These two were amazing!

Not far behind Jura and Chelse, in terms of skill, was Lucas.

Lucas had managed to scrape Tye, but it wasn’t enough to incapacitate him. Tye was bleeding from multiple minor cuts, yet he wasn’t disheartened.

Lucas, unlike everyone else in the round, had managed to not be hit in one of his plates.

He had the highest points out of them all. The air mage smirked and chuckled to himself quietly.

These idiots had uselessly charged each other, but the best option was defense! Not offense.

As long as you managed to keep your points, you would inevitably make it. Since it was only possible to lose points and not gain points, the wisest strategy was to maintain your original points.

They were all so focused on fighting each other, they had forgotten about the main objective.

The members of the Council had also noticed this. They were watching, their eyes full of laughter. The competitors had just made it harder on themselves by fighting and losing points. Lucas’ strategy was the best out of them all. He didn’t put himself in any danger, and as long as he was able to protect himself, he would pass.

Thus, when the time ended, Lucas was in the first place.

Followed by Chelse, Deneth, Saphira, and Jura, who barely managed to beat Myra in terms of points.

On a side note, Erebus had slept through the entire match.