The following fights were more subdued when compared to Aegon’s previous match.

Soon after, the second round started.

It began with the winners bracket where each fight lasted longer than before, it was to be expected after separating the wheat from the chaff, the competition became more balanced. Well, there was an exception, Haris once again won in dominant fashion by taking advantage of his illusion techniques.

The losers bracket fights started right after. Aegon wasn't really paying attention to them, that's because he started to notice a pattern. Normally in these types of tournaments there would be some lucky people who would get matched against weak opponents leading to an overestimation of their fighting prowess. But here it seemed that there was no one who got to the winners bracket by luck. Actually, it looked like everyone in the winners bracket was indeed stronger than their loser counterparts. Such a perfect division was unusual but it wasn't impossible. However, during the second round Aegon noticed that the matches were once again made in a way that everyone who won was indeed stronger than everyone who lost. It was too perfect to be a coincidence.

Aegon shot a glance at Mentor 1 who was beside the black stone:[ Does that black stone somehow evaluate fighting skill? Or is Mentor 1 behind this?]

His theorizing was cut short when his name was called.

Aegon’s opponent was a youth around 15 years old with worn out clothes which clearly indicated he was also from the countryside. His pet though… was majestic to say the least. A beautiful black horse stood tall in the arena, its posture and demeanor were akin to a noble. It made for quite a contrast when standing next to his owner.

They didn't know each other so the fight started immediately.

Aegon rushed straight towards his opponent while screaming with a knife in hand, it wasn't imposing at all, it was actually kind of silly. The opponent found Aegon's behaviour strange but he couldn't quite pinpoint what it was.

With no answers he could only match his opponent's move by jumping on top of his horse and running full speed with a sword drawn, towards this apparent fool.

Seeing this, a vicious smile blossomed in Aegon's face and he suddenly rolled to the side dodging the incoming horse. From behind the place Aegon had just rolled away from, Kuro appeared, jumping over the horse's head and throwing its master to the ground. Before the boy regained his footing something cold touched his neck.

“Its over.”

The nameless youth for lack of a better term, showed slight unwillingness but in the end admitted defeat.

With this win Aegon got the right to challenge one of the losers of the winners bracket however he wasn't too confident because he knew that every single person that made it to the winners bracket was stronger than him, his chances were not good.

“So, now that the top 13 and the last 13 have been set in stone it's time for the winners of the losers bracket to try and take a spot in the top 26”

Aegon considered forfeiting, every single possible opponent was stronger than him both in battle experience and coordination with their partner, not to mention that Kuro was still a pup.

Well to be fair, Kuro was a Direwolf pup so he was already close to the size of an adult wolf...

[What the hell am I thinking?! The thing I lack the most is experience and here I am pondering about wasting this opportunity to gain more of the very thing I need. I have to be more dedicated if I really want to increase my potential or else my motto would just become empty words to justify my lack of strength. ]

With his battle spirit rekindled Aegon's face once again showed yearning, yearning to fight and try his luck, maybe, just maybe he could win.

Names were called once again, every winner of the losers bracket had some hope while heading to the centre of the arena, but even though there were some close fights, in the end there were no surprises.

Seeing this, Aegon's recently renewed battle spirit was bordering on extinction once again so he decided to close his eyes and just recite his motto over and over again.

“My current potential does not take into account my future encounters.”

“My current potential does not take into account my future dedication.”

“My current potential is only based on my present self.”

“My current potential does not take…”

This continued until his name was finally called for the last time.

“Aegon Silver vs Vincent Armstrong”

Aegon's opponent was like a giant, with a bulky body almost 1.90 meters tall at only 15 years of age. His last name fit him like a glove.

A pained smile appeared on Aegon´s face. [ Well maybe he is slow, that might just be his weakness.]

Because of his theories regarding the matchmaking made by Mentor 1, Aegon didn’t pay much attention to the fights and now he was paying the price since he could have known that while his adversary was indeed slow, his pet made up for that flaw perfectly.