"The tournament is broken up into four different platforms of competition. Each initial platform is comprised of its respective Class. This is the 2nd Class bracket of the first tier of the competition. The competitors have been broken up randomly and will compete one-on-one against an opponent until there are eight competitors left. This represents the first tier of disciples who will advance to the semi-final bracket. All four platforms will have eight advancing students, and all eight of these students will receive 100 contribution points. Classes two and three will then combine their eight competitors into one semi-final bracket, and the other bracket will be made up of the eight from Classes four and five. The semi-final bracket will be randomly distributed, and then the 16 competitors will have two fights each to bring the numbers down to four. The four of each semi-final bracket will receive another 150 contribution points, and then the eight remaining from the two semi-final brackets will be randomly divided together for the final bracket. The first and semi-final brackets will be conducted today, and the final bracket will be conducted tomorrow. The Grand Prize for first place overall is a Rank 1 Ki Sword. Also, there is a prize for winning first place in each Class minus the Grand Prize winner, of course. Good luck, everyone," an instructor narrated to the students.

There were a lot more people participating in the tournament than Seifr had thought there would be. The 2nd Class alone had an initial 140 participants. From the general mood that Seifr had observed from the 2nd Class students, he had assumed there would only be half that.

There's no downside to entering the competition; I'm sure some of them did on the spur of the moment for the hell of it. Indeed there was a large portion of disciples laughing and joking around, not taking it seriously at all. Seifr spied Raeq off to the side getting himself psyched up. If there was one thing that Seifr had learned about Raeq, it was that he lived to fight. He loved fighting, he did not do it maliciously, he just enjoyed the sport of it. He and Seifr were not paired up in the first bracket to square off against each other.

From Seifr's understanding of how the brackets worked, the people who advanced to the semi-final bracket were not necessarily squared off against opponents from the opposite Class. It was truly random. It was theoretically possible for it to be split down the middle and have only members from the same Class fighting each other, and if a situation like that occurred, the instructors would not step in to change it. In the eyes of many cultivators, luck was part of one's ability, or to be more accurate, natural talent. Talent was innate, and one can grow ability.

Seifr walked over to the section of the stage that was sectioned off for him to have his first round. With 140 people participating, and this only being the first bracket out of three, they were not going to do this one at a time. That would take forever and be impractical. Instead, multiple fights would take place at the same time. Nobody was coming to watch individual matches at the 2nd Class stage, anyway. All of the spectators were there to take it all in as one whole experience in the beginning stages.

Seifr had a calm and serene mind. He was not the least bit nervous as he waited for his turn to step into the ring. He watched the fighters in the section in front of him. He was not impressed.

The rules of the match were that the two would fight for a maximum of five minutes, with a clear winner being decided by knockout or technical. The technical was decided if a contestant was knocked out of the ring three times, or knocked out of the ring more than 10 meters. If the fight lasted five minutes, impartial instructors were judging each of the rounds based on technique of Kung Fu and overall fighting ability.

Seifr knew that this first round was going to last the full five minutes, and he was not proven wrong. Seifr was not sure if he wanted a whole bunch of people who were not going to take this seriously participating or not. It added to the festival feeling of it, and people were having fun, but this was a school focused on cultivation and fighting. Seifr had been in too many fights to approach it with a light heart.

After the mockery of Kung Fu that took place in front of him was over, it was Seifr's turn to get into the ring. He walked up onto the stage, and then gaped in astonishment for a second when a willowy girl came to face against him. The girl looked at Seifr and saw the absentminded look on his face and guessed at what he was thinking. She stamped her foot and pointed at Seifr before yelling at him, "Don't look down on me! If you underestimate me, you'll regret it."

Seifr shook his head and got into his ready stance. The instructor acting as referee saw that the two were in position and ready and signaled for the match to begin. The girl instantly charged towards Seifr to take advantage of the other's most likely apprehension about hitting a girl. She was utterly stunned when Seifr did not hesitate at all to strike her right in the face with a quick jab, and then to circle around her and kick her leg out and knock her down to the ground. He leaned into her neck with his knee, and she had no choice but to tap out and surrender the match.

The willowy girl had assumed Seifr would be apprehensive about striking a girl because of the look on his face, and she was actually used to that kind of an attitude. If she had heard what was actually going through his mind when she made her appearance, she would have kicked herself for charging in like an idiot. What was actually going through Seifr's mind was, Looks like this is the first girl I'm going to hit. Can't think of her as a girl. She's a cultivator, and she's stepped into my ring.

Seifr knew that you could not take a cultivator's looks alone and judge his or her ability to fight. A prime example was his friend, Seth. Seth was on the small and skinny side, but he fought with a ferociousness that took his opponents completely off guard. Almost like he has some sort of... I guess I would call it "little-man syndrome." Always feeling like he has to prove himself. That might not be because he's small necessarily. It could also have a lot to do with his background of coming from a merchant family. Seifr kept that he was also from a merchant family a secret, but young Seth had not yet learned to moderate the volume of his voice around cultivators. Naturally an enhanced physique would be accompanied by enhanced senses.

Seifr exited the stage and walked over to his friends, who both had strange expressions on their faces.

"Wow, Seifr," Seth began. "You were so.... mighty, beating up on that little girl. Hahahaha." Seth couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing at his friend's misfortune of being paired with a small, willowy girl. Especially considering Seifr's temperament about the tournament, Seth knew immediately when he spotted what was going on that he was going to have to needle his friend about this... forever.

"Ha. Ha. Just because some of us don't underestimate our opponents when we really could get away with it." Seifr was nonplussed. Seifr then added under his breath, "I am mighty."

Seth's face started to turn red from trying to hold the laughter in, and he eventually failed and ended up bending over at the waste and holding his stomach as he laughed in his friend's face. What are friends for, if not to laugh at your misfortune? Seifr cracked a smile on his lips as well. He could admit when something was funny even when it was embarrassing.

The next match that Seifr was in was actually one of the students from the first match right before his. The disciple saw who he was going up against and turned to the instructor, lifted his hand up and said, "I concede." He wanted no part of what Seifr was bringing to the ring.

Seifr did not actually mind the other teenager bowing out. He had seen him fight. There was no contest there. He exited the ring and then identified where Raeq was currently fighting in a match. Seifr was surprised to see that he was not going all out to destroy his opposition. Seifr pondered on it for a minute as he watched them circle each other on the stage. Oh I see, he wants to actually fight as much as he can and not have his opponents concede, so he's hiding his ability. Seifr had to hand it to Raeq, he would do just about anything to fight as much as he could, even hold himself back from fighting. It was actually pretty amazing when he thought about it.

The matches became quicker as the weaker chaff were removed from the competition. Seifr found himself back in the ring very quickly. He knew that the other disciples he would be facing off against now would be much tougher than the previous two he had encountered. He eyed his opponent warily as he got into a ready stance and waited for the signal to begin. The other boy had a weird look on his face as he looked at Seifr. Seifr knew what was coming before the boy made his move: "I concede," the other boy said to the instructor.

Seifr was not like Raeq. He was not disappointed that he did not actually have to fight, instead he was actually somewhat happy he could conserve his strength for the semi-final bracket. Seifr walked over to check the bracket to see who his next opponent was. He only had two more matches before he was in the top eight. It looked like Raeq and Seth were going to accompany him to the next bracket as well. They had been extremely lucky to not be put in the same tree facing off against each other.

Seifr took a moment to take in the crowd and the atmosphere. It was a very lively day, with students and parents walking about carefree. It was a day off for everyone from their responsibilities of exercise and lecturing, regardless of whether or not they were involved in the tournament. It was like a fair. There were even instructors putting on impromptu demonstrations of their control of ki for the younger children accompanying their families.

Looking at all the happy faces everywhere, Seifr could not imagine any place he would rather be. One might think he was lonely away from his father so much, but he had gotten used to it at a young age. He had never even known his mother, and he had no siblings or even distant relatives that he knew about. All he knew was the KTH was his father's baby, and it would one day be his, so he actually enjoyed all the work he had to go through alone to be worthy of it one day.

Seifr did not have many people who could offer him real competition in the 2nd Class, and he made quick work of his last two bouts without much effort. He, Seth, and Raeq walked together towards the 3rd Class area where the semi-final bracket was located. Seifr turned to the other two as he said, "You know, I was expecting more from such a hyped-up event."

Raeq smirked as he replied, "Speak for yourself. I'm having a blast so far." Raeq was sauntering along with his hands clasped behind his head next to his two friends. Seth kept poking at Seifr trying to bring up the point about Seifr smacking around a girl, but eventually gave up when Seifr consistently ignored him whenever he tried to steer the conversation that way.

The trio approached the bracket for the semi-final that had already been set up while still conversing. "I'm just saying, I felt it was anti-climactic," Seifr continued.

Seth got a strange look on his face when he looked at the bracket. He turned to Seifr. "Maybe you won't think so anymore," he said as he pointed at the bracket. Seifr followed where his friend was pointing and read one of the first matches on the tree.

"Seifr, 2nd Class verse Kohl, 3rd Class."