Chapter 40: Victory and Defeat

The audience became confused at the two figures on the stage.

After a while, they finally saw some movement on the stage.

The first one to move was Rowen.

She stood up slowly staring at Daniel's figure

A smile was on her face as she walked slowly towards him

The scene dumbfounded all the audience who were watching.

Even Teo thought that his sister was crazy, because she walked slowly with no guard at all!

When Rowen arrived in front of Daniel, her smile really wide.

Daniel who was in front of Rowen as panicked

"What.. What did you do!?" Daniel shouted

The audience could hear Daniel's shout. It became clear to them that it wasn't that Daniel didn't move, it was because he couldn't move!

"Nothing much, I just added something on your armor" Rowen replied

Daniel could not see it, but the tiny metallic shavings filled up the tiny joints of his armor. It made it so that Daniel could not move his armor at all.

As Rowen barraged him with attacks earlier, the metallic shavings slowly moved without being noticed, as if being carried by the wind. The metallic shavings slowly approached each joints outside of Daniel's line of sight, but there was still one area that Rowen needed to become accessible to her metallic shavings.

She baited Daniel by giving him an opening to attack. His own attack allowed Rowen's shaving to completely fill up the important joints and prevent him from moving! The reason why Rowen did not initially move from the hit was because she was concentrating her control of the metal shavings!

Daniel tried to struggle but with the joints blocked, it was as if he was struggling against his extremely dense armor.

Rowen looked at the judges.

The judges still did not call the match. They hoped that Daniel would somehow find a way to turn the tables on Rowen.

Rowen took her sword and hit the inscription on Daniel's armor. When Daniel did not move, it was quite easy to destroy the inscription with 30 or so quick and accurate strikes at the same point on the armor.

After the inscription was destroyed Daniel could no longer lift the armor with his strength. The only ting that kept him up was the metallic shavings interlocking the joints. Rowen gave a light push and immediately dropped on the ground.

The ground shook from the denseness of the armor.

He was like a rat trapped in a metal can but he still did not surrendered. As long as he stayed in the armor, how could he get hurt? At worst this match would be called a tie and the time would eventually run out. There was around 4 minutes left before the match could be called unfinished.

He just needed to stall for time!

The judges also hoped for this. These judges were specifically chosen to oversee all of Daniel's matches. They were planted there by the headmaster to judge biasedly in favor of Daniel

Rowen brought her thin sword up to Daniel's face and using her metallic energy the sword's form changed. The sword became animated as if it was a snake. The size turned thin and quickly entered one of the slits in Daniel's helmet, leaving the special Qi absorbing gel outside.

A thin sword swiftly entered inside the helmet and cut a thin slice across Daniel's cheek. Blood flowed down his cheek as he felt the thin blade cut him. The thin sword quickly wrapped around his neck.

It happened so fast that by the time the he felt the blood running down his cheek, the blade was already around his neck.

This was all done in one quick motion, the audience could not react, not even the judges could react. By the time they noticed the piece of sword was already inside the helmet

The whole Colosseum turned silent...

Suddenly a voice shouted

"I concede!"

It was Daniel's voice.

The judges did not know what to do and did not stopped the match because it was only a few minutes before the time limit was over.

But little did they know that the sword wrapped around Daniel's neck started moving back and forth like a saw, slowly digging into Daniel's skin. Although he knew that Rowen would not kill or maim him, shave his head, and even carve up his face. Even if somehow Daniel was crowned winner of the match due to points, everyone would know who really won.

Thus, he could only concede before Rowen had a change of heart.

"Winner, Rowen Char"

The majority of the audience erupted into cheers, although they did not know exactly how Rowen paralyzed Daniel's movements, they knew the unfair advantages Daniel had throughout the tournament. A good portion of them were rooting for Rowen to win.

Hearing the result, Teo sat down and finally relaxed. It was as if all his energy was drained from his body. Although he was only watching, he could feel the intense match and worried about Rowen throughout the whole thing.

The 8th day, the finals was held. The rules of the final match changed, no time limit.

Everyone expected another exciting match like yesterday, but Rowen decided to forfeit the number 1 spot. Her opponent, Tordin, was the first place from last year, she knew her own strength and knew his. He was even more powerful this year, so she conceded without a fight.

It was a disappointing result, but even the bookie who took people's bet did not dare bare against Tordin. No one did. He was on a different level than the rest.

On the 8th day, the first tournament finished.

2 days were given so that students could rest and recuperate.

....

Teo and the others celebrated Rowen's second place win

Teo insisted on paying as well since he was not lacking on funds.

"Sister is too amazing!" Teo praised

Rowen liked being praised by her brother, but she looked humble from her win

"Senior, how did you know to bring those metallic shavings into the match?" Windle asked

He wanted to learn more about battling against cultivators and elementalists so he unhesitatingly asked

"Oh that was just luck, you see I can use those shavings as a defensive barrier as well"

A string of metallic shavings flowed out of her bag. The shavings rotated very quickly Rowen slowly took a wooden stick and pushed it through the rotating cloud of metallic shavings.

The wooden stick became wooden dust as it came in contact with the rotating shavings. Windle, Lia and Teo became even more surprised. They didn't know that those shavings can be used like that.

"These shavings are quite strong. If I put enough Qi, I can even chip through swords, but I would quickly run out of Qi"

"You have to learn the ins and outs of your element, you also need to be creative during battle. Be confident but not reckless. Be cautious but not scared."

She looked towards Lia and said "Even if you are not an elementalist, knowledge is power. If you know what your opponents can do, you can easily plan a counter for it. Battles are not just about strength, stamina, speed and Qi, its also about your head"

The 3 of them nodded earnestly. I was a wise lesson given to them by the number 2 senior within the academy.

Riss on one side yawned from Rowen's lecture and then stuffed her face with the many dishes on the table.

....

The sign up for the second tournament commenced.

A 1 gold sign up fee was needed from students who wanted to participate. The second tournament would only start if there were at least 200 people who signed up, but there was also a maximum limit to the amount that can sign up. They would only allow a maximum of 512 students to participate. Students who did well on the first tournament had higher priority.

For guests and outsiders, the second tournament was more important to them.

These guests were usually all scouts from the nearby sects and factions, looking for any talented youths.

A large majority of students who became top 16 of their respective years did not choose to participate in the second tournament, especially most of the top 16 of the eighth years. The rewards of being a top 16 did not stack, and considering the earlier competition they had no hopes in getting into the top 3, so it was not very appealing to them to participate again. They have already proven themselves as being the top 16 of their year.

For others though, they still participated. It was another chance to get to the top 16. There were also scouts that could invite them if they perform well.

The younger participants were there to show their abilities to defeat their seniors. Of course there were still many senior students who signed up to participate.

For Rowen and Gina, they would also sign up. There were less competition from the same year as them, so getting to top 8 or higher should be easier for them. They headed to the Arena's office to sign up as well as receive Rowen's reward.

Upon entering the office, Rowen gave her identification stone to the staff member. The staff member went to the back of the office. After a while, the elder came out and Rowen became surprised. It was because the headmaster also came out, with a small bag.

The headmaster smiled at Rowen, but there was a hint of anger in his eyes. Rowen could only vaguely sense this anger and became a little uncomfortable.

"Congratulations for placing second place. Are you also signing up for the free for all tournament?"

"Yes, we are"

"I see" The headmaster took 1 gold form the bag and gave the bag to Rowen

When she received her reward she took out another gold and placed it on the table.

"I'm paying for her too" She said

Gina took out her identification stone as well. They were so close that she didn't mind being casually given 1 gold.

The staff member wrote down both of their names to the list of participants.

When the 2 students left, the headmaster had sneered.

His plan was for Daniel to get second place was ruined by Rowen. Although he was annoyed by this, he was more angry about the damaged enchanted armor. Once the carved inscription on the armor was damaged, repairing it was difficult and very expensive.

....

When the list of participants were finalized, the headmaster announced the rules for the second tournament.

Unlike before, participants were not allowed to surrender. The only way to win was to knock out your opponent, knock them out of the ring, or by judge's decision after time was up. Voluntarily stepping out of the ring was also prohibited, similar to the first tournament that ruled that if a participant stepped out of the ring before the 1 minute was up, they would be sent back to the ring for the remaining time. In this case, they can only be knocked out of the ring by the opponent or they would have to continue the fight.

Of course there was many ways around this rule, like pretending to be knocked out, or placing yourself upon the edge of the ring, but in this tournament all participants were invested. They had to pay 1 gold, so giving up before any benefits was not an option.

After participants' opponents were decided randomly, they would be posted on a large bulletin board so everyone could see who they were up against before hand.

Teo and the group went to check out the board. Rowen and Gina who were leading the group were first to see their opponents. Seeing such a thing, both of them became speechless

"Is this really random?"

[Author's Note: As I have said before, I am currently revising (editing/proof reading) the previous chapters before.I have revised chapters 1 to 5 now, and plan to revise other chapters as well. So expect a minor slow down to releases (and because I am still planning the up coming plot's details). Thanks for reading]