The five of us contenders were guided to a walkway that led to the center of the arena. I could still hear the announcer’s loud deafening voice even now.

“We of the Illusion Seeking Sect welcome the Young Lords and Ladies that are here today! We meet once again to decide which Tribe and their backer will have special access to the Sect’s training facilities for the year! We may be only a mere third rank Sect, but thanks to the Marshall Family, we have prospered for several hundreds of years!

“As always, those who have the most contenders at the end will have access to everything we have for 1 year! This includes classes, the library, and even the right to purchase the equipment we have! Last year, the Tribe backed by the Third Young Lady, the Thunder Tiger Tribe, won with 3 members! As always, if there is a tie, there will be a tie breaker! Who will it be this year?”

Soon, whispering from another Tribe reached my ears. They had white pelts on their shoulders and what looked like sabretooth tigers on their heads. I guess these are last year’s winners.

“It sucks that the Young Lady already finished her training and left us to go find a school.”

“Right? Things look really bad this year. I overheard one of the Elders say that Second Young Master is coming back.”

“Why?! He is already close to 30 years old! What need does he have for permission to use a tiny Sect?”

“I don’t know.”

After that, it was quiet. Damn, I wanted to listen some more. After walking for some more, we came across some stairs. There, one of the Sect guys split us up. We were actually last to go up since the brat is probably the youngest here of his siblings.

I think I heard some boos from the crowd of tribe members and Sect members. I guess they don’t like the idea of a non-human coming to participate.

So there was only going to be 3 sections, the quarter finals, the semifinals, and the finals. There were five separate sections so the members of the contenders were split. Each stage was numbered 1 to 5 so I picked 1 and Little Brother picked 2. The little leader picked 3 so the other two were decided by the last kids.

Sure enough, the strongest ones selected 1 and 2 as well.

Before me stood a boy that reminded me of a gigantic grizzly bear, saliva dripping from his slightly open mawmouth. It seems instead of underestimating me, he is going all out. Even a lion uses all of its energy to catch a rabbit, and this guy looked hungry.

“Thank you for the battle, I look forward to learning from this experience.”

His eyes opened wide and the battle started. Well, I actually waited for the guy to adjust himself. I bowed and noticed he did as well. The hungry look in his eyes left and he seemed to actually laugh a little, though not in a bad way.

Once we were both ready, I Strengthened my body and leaped, leaving a small crack in the stone from the pressure. The boy was slightly caught by surprise, but quickly recovered and threw a fist aimed at my head. I, however, spun around and landed on his fist before jumping back away, gracefully landing back on the platform.

His eyes looked like they were on fire as his grin stretched from ear to ear.

Great, this kid will be some crazy battle maniac, but I have to agree, this fight seems fun!

I guess I can take it up a notch. Instead of Strengthening my whole body, I just focus on my legs, slightly increasing their size. I gather the energy of wind, and imagine it spiraling down my legs like a spring would, coiling it and tightening it before letting it loose, practically shooting straight towards the kid.

He had started some spell and an image of a great bear appeared from behind him before entering his body and making the boy change. His hair became shaggier and showed up more on his arms and face, looking more like an animal. His finger nails elongated and looked more like claws while his arms seemed to ripple and grow larger.

He had transformed!

Sure enough, he had actually managed to protect himself, though I did hear him clench his teeth when we collided. I jumped back and once again calmly landed, looking as if I wasn’t participating in a dangerous fight. I hope I didn’t break his arms. Hm…how to ask without appearing condescending?

“Yo, you still good to fight?”

Hearing my taunt, he grinned and nodded before charging at me, his arms raised. He was really slow, however, and I easily jumped out of the way and landed a kick under his knee, knocking him down. Instead of striking while he was down, I walked away a bit and gave some advice.

“Focus, did you really think that attack would hit me?”

With a face full of rock, he mumbled something I almost couldn’t catch.

“Fine! I didn’t want to use this!”

He pushed himself up using his large forearms and looked at me with fire in his gaze. He opened his mouth and I could feel the magic forming another spell. This time, however, I can’t interrupt like during the heron, since this is a duel. Have to keep up my image, after all.

The image of a well-mannered and honest frog thing. Pbbt, what a joke.

He started to growl, but the place seemed to be shaking with every move he made. I found it hard to remain balanced…wait, what is this? There is something making me unbalanced! I quickly focus my attention to my body and circulate some, drawing the foreign energy up and out of my body.

Immediately, I felt the wobbling stop and saw the goofy face of the kid stare in bewilderment at me. In fact, mostly everyone except for Little Brother were looking this way. It seems most people were slightly affected by the kid’s spell. But to see me, someone who was so close, dispel it so easily must have been quite a shock.

He was about to attack me while I was distracted, but I had recovered before he could start. He threw his hands up and sighed.

“I give, you are stronger than I am.”

“No, I am just a better fighter. Grow and gain experience. Then you too can be a better fighter, not just a strong one.”

He bowed to me and I slightly bowed back. It was a sign of respect, after all. Besides, he looked really happy.

I walked off stage and saw the next group of people go to participate.

We didn’t lose anyone in the first part, which was great. However, one of the weak kids lost in the second round. Little Brother seemed to be having little difficulty. Then again, he hasn’t fought for real yet. I wonder how far he can actually go. Maybe we can see once we return home.

My second round was simple. I walked up and showed my respect, but the little snake kid in a gray outfit attacked when I wasn’t paying attention. I quickly kicked him off stage, earning me an immediate win. No one said anything since he had made a cowardly attack first.

He may have tried to catch me unaware, but I wasn’t stupid. First, I was fighting kids. Second, they were under a lot of pressure to win.

But the third round was pretty difficult. We lost the other kid, but the leader actually won his! He is literally the strongest native tribe member under 15 years of age on this mountain. For some reason, Little Brother and I both had to go against the kind of guys who were really big for fifteen. The last two people wore green and even though there was no breeze, their cloaks billowed as if there was.

I give a look at Little Brother and said through the soul,

“It is okay to use the power of water.”

He nodded, and then turned to his opponent. So I turned to mine. He was really arrogant looking, but seemed respectable enough. I bowed, but he just sneered and stood still. But he didn’t attack, which was a sign.

A sign that he didn’t respect me even as an enemy.

The bear kid realized I was an opponent and the snake kid wanted to defeat me at any cost so he realized I was stronger than he was. He respected me as well, in a way. But he did break the etiquette.

However, this cold blooded kid was a jerk. He didn’t even see me as someone worth fighting. So I started. I gathered the water and created the drills. He was caught off guard and readied a protective spell. I waited for it to be created before striking, directly competing against his defense with my attack.

At first, the kid seemed really upset that I was treating him in such a way, but that face changed to fear when a crack appeared in his barrier. The arena didn’t allow weapons so there was nothing to do when the kid brought out a dagger about a forearm long.

I heard people crying out in alarm but no one stopped the fight for some reason. I turned and saw the referee giving me a suspicious look. Was he bought? Or was he perhaps wondering what I was going to do next?

Fortunately, I had a shield.

When he struck, I had already erected the Whirlpool Shield. The dagger was actually sent flying by the force, landing outside of the stage. The kid looked at me with astonishment and fear in his eyes. He fell down and began to crawl away, but the Sect member referee was right there. He grabbed the youth’s arm and pulled him away.

It seemed that the other kid didn’t do such a thing so when his shield gave out and his attack spell was warded off by Little Brother’s Whirlpool Shield, he quietly gave up. I looked up at the place where the Young Masters were sitting and only saw one person with a screwed up face. He was older than the idiot with the bulging vein and had extremely long golden blond hair and a small scar on his cheek.

Upon noticing that I was clearly watching him, he shot up and stormed off, not turning back.

Besides us three, one of the members of the Drifting Dragon Tribe and someone from the Wood Bear Tribe took the other places. Yep, the Dragon Tribe was the group those two wind users came from.

Forget that, now it’s time to get our rewards!

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