“BANG!!!”

A huge explosion transpired, an enormous wave of wind rippled across the Coliseum, remnants of the attack collided with the invisible energy barrier covering the ring. Smoke covered the ring, clouding peoples vision, no one could see what was happening within the ring, all they could do was wait for the smoke to clear to witness the result.

The spectators were holding their breath, every second caused the tension to rise, everyone was on the edge of their seats, wondering who would come out on top after the exchange of attacks.

Anyone could tell that they both wanted to end the match with the previous exchange.

Elder James, couldn’t believe what was happening anymore, Leon made him feel helpless, at the beginning of the tournament he felt that Leon would not be able to show such power. He was furthermore embarrassed at the fact that he couldn’t see through this kids power hiding his power until now.

Leon had been constantly surprising him, when he thought Leon would definitely lose, he’d jump back with a bigger over the top revelation. “This boy… He’s created his own External technique, he’s created his own techique… What a… monster… What a monster…” Each word came out as a mumble. Elder James knew how difficult it was to create an attack, this was something those at the level of a prime would dream of making and it would take a few decades for those individuals to master External Techniques to Leon’s Level. Elder James continued to murmur as he stared at Leon.

“IMPACT!” Echoed a voice in the dust as a huge bang occurred within the smoke, a huge gust of wind, swept the smoke away leaving a figure whose fist was connected with the other figures chest. The spectators gasped as they saw the sight of Leon’s fist connecting with Romeo’s chest. Behind Leon you could see that the Wind bullet’s and the Bullet Missile disintegrating into energy.

Romeo immediately coughed a mouthful of saliva, the Bullet Missile had taken most of the force of the previous attack, but now Romeo felt energy well up inside him causing his internal energy to fall in turmoil.

“ONE!” Leon’s voice echoed through the silent Coliseum.

“BANG…” It was heard on Romeo’s shoulder as it was crushed, Romeo was sent soaring through the air as he coughed a mouth of blood.

“TWO!” Said Leon.

“BANG…” Another explosion occurred in the silent Coliseum on Romeo’s other shoulder, preventing him from landing as he soared out of the stadium, the pure force of the attack caused people to shiver thinking what would happen if they were in the exact same situation.

“Three!”

“BANG…” This third explosion was like a clap of thunder, it went off where Leon’s fists connected with Romeo’s chest. Romeo was shot into the Arena’s wall smashing into it, clusters of rubble fell crashing onto Romeo’s body, dust scattered around him as he coughed more blood, his clothes were stained red, a small pool of blood lay at his feet, he was a sorry sight to behold… However Romeo stared at Leon, even though he was bleeding severely, had some broken bones like his shoulder bones and ribs, his injuries only looked horrible on the outside and his internal’s weren’t damaged heavily.

Romeo knew Leon held back a great deal of power… If Leon released its full power… He couldn’t help but quiver at the thought, Romeo stared at Leon gratefully, this techniques frightening power would’ve killed him or severely injured him.

Romeo stood up very slowly and said: “I give up.”

The spectators were silent for a moment and then burst into a wild pack of beasts as the Coliseum went into an uproar, firstly because they had thought Romeo was severely injured and would not be able to stand up for weeks, secondly because of Leon’s power that betrayed everyone’s expectations and finally because Romeo just conceded wholeheartedly.

“What a powerful external technique, to cause three more invisible attacks to consecutively strike him without losing a bit of strength when compared to the first attacks power. What did this child do create such a horrifying technique.” Mumbled Elder James to himself, to create such a powerful technique Elder James knew that constant practise and failure would be needed.

I need this Kid, even without a Vision he’ll definitely be a terrifying existence if he is able to master External Techniques to the highest level and also if he learns to train with a weapon, Elder James thought.

“Izak I want your son, I want him in the Institute,” said Elder James resolutely, out of nowhere.

Izak was shocked, staring at the serious expression of Elder James, he couldn’t believe Elder James was inviting Leon to the institute. “Of course Elder, of course we’d be grateful if you accept him into Sarien Institute.” said Izak with excitement. Elder James must have been really impressed by Leon’s performance, Izak thought to himself.

Aster, Lerdo and even Niel was surprised by what Elder James requested.

“The winner of the First match is:… Leon Kaiser!” Suddenly announced the referee.

The Coliseum went into utter pandemonium. The Genius without a Vision, Leon Kaiser of the Kaiser Clan beat a 7th rank awakened with his strange power, this was something that would spread throughout the city even to some other cities. Leon proved all the doubters wrong, he surprised all those people that didn’t believe in him, he was definitely the first non Visionist to have such powers in all of the Kingdom.

Leon was standing in the middle of the ring bathing in the cheers of the spectators, he gave a happy smile and walked off the ring, what he didn’t notice was that he was glanced upon by a large amount of young girls, unexpectedly he became very popular with the young people similar to his age and gained many admiring gazes from young boys.

Leon arrived next to Lumios and smiled, Lumios raised his fist and tapped it onto Leon’s shoulder.

“Oh… You did really well Leon… but I would’ve won that fight in half the time,” mocked Lumios jokingly.

Leon rolled his eyes as Lumios smirked. “Let’s just watch the rest of the fights.”

“Yeah, but one question: What was that attack and how’d you pull it off? you were being held down and then you suddenly gushed out a huge amount of energy. I can use the same power as you, but when you compare the power, it’s like an Ant facing an Elephant.”

“Hehehe… The power that me and you use is called ‘External Techniques,’ it’s really powerful but it only trains you’re body. The only reason I got this far is because I trained like hell to reach this level.”

“External Techniques, so that’s what it was called… then what about that attack you used?”

“I created it while I was training, it’s called ‘Tremor Impact,’ there are two components to it: First is Tremor, it causes ripples and diffuses the power of an attack in battle, that’s how I easily took care of that bullet missile; The second component is Impact, when I punch the person it continues causing three invisible attacks, each invisible attack does not lose out in power compared to the first punch.” explained Leon.

“But to use it during the fight I had to store a large amount of energy. It took me quite a while to gather the energy very slowly so that Romeo wouldn’t detect it, that’s why when I released it a large amount of energy appeared.”

“Aren’t you afraid that I’ll use this when I face you?” smiled Lumios.

Leon grinned, “Just because you know what it does doesn’t mean you can stop it… Anyway the second fights starting lets watch.”

Lumios nodded.

The rest of the fights were rather anticlimactic unlike Leons. Even Lumios’s fight ended with his opposition giving up before he entered the stadium.

In Leon’s second fight, he fought against a 19 year old who was a 6th rank awakened. It didn’t take long for Leon to beat him, but he found it slightly difficult because this was a fully grown young man who was innately stronger than the small Leon.

Kline and Ed both won their fights with ease, their arrogance and power sparked the interests of the organisations that came to watch the tournament and recruit some talented young individuals.

The Quarter-finals took place with the last 10 participants left in the tournament in the afternoon after a break for the participants, this tournament wasn’t just there to see who was strongest, it was also there to test the endurance of the fighters. The semi-finals were to take place on the fourth day and the finals were to take place on the fifth day.

The fights for the quarter-finals were finally decided on :

Match One: Leon Kaiser Vs Lison White

Match Two: Kline Rauber Vs Christopher Veruth

Match Three: Edward Rauber Vs Drake Lucius

Match Four: Lumios Rakel Vs Samdris Hart

Match Five: Fauder Feuer Vs Harrison Darris

———————-

Leon and Lumios were strolling through the Coliseum and were heading for the booth that Izak and Elder James were in. The corridors of the Coliseum were well taken care of: the walls were white, hallway was well lit and enough space for ten people standing side by side to easily walk through.

The doors for the VIP booths were marked with numbers.

“Why are we heading to meet your father?”Asked Lumios.

“I don’t know…” said Leon as he checked the numbers on the door “17…18..19…20…20 is the booth that Elder James and father are in.”

Leon and Lumios stopped in front of a white door that had a gold ’20’ nailed into the door.

“Knock…Knock…Knock…” Leon knocked on the door three times.

It was quiet for a moment then a familiar voice spoke, “Come in.”

Both Leon and Lumios entered the room, a gust of cool air hit them, because of the air conditioning it was much cooler inside the booth than it was outside under the rays of the sun. The booth was well lit and had an open balcony for those within the booth to watch the fight clearly, there was a table set with extravagant food and expensive drinks and wine.

Sitting in the balcony was the group of people from the Sarien Institute, Leon’s father, his grandfather Aster and his great-uncle Lerdo. They all turned to face Leon, Izak’s face was brimming with joy and Elder James looked at Leon, observing him.

Leon and Lumios slowly greeted everyone in the booth, including his Great-uncle Lerdo and the arrogant Niel.

“Leon you’ve brought Lumios here as well, it doesn’t matter. Elder James has something to tell you,” Said Izak.

“Ah yes… Leon you’re performance today was outside of my expectations, so I’ve talked with your father and you’ve been permitted to join Sarien Institute… Both you and Lumios will join the Institute and you’ll both be my Personal Disciples.” Said Elder James.

The last words Elder James spoke of caused everyone in the room to have dumbfounded look, even the three middle age men were startled. They never thought that Elder James would make both Leon and Lumios his Personal Disciples, this was something totally unheard of.

Since Elder James first became an Elder in the Sarien Institute he has only taken one disciple and that disciple is now a general of the Sarien Kingdoms army. There have been many that have begged Elder James to become his disciple, sacrificing their families entire wealth for such a chance. Not even Niel was able to become his Personal Disciple, despite begging for many years he was denied such a privilege but he was granted the chance to travel with the Elder to Reon.

Elder James picking two disciple that he will personally train at the same time was unprecedented. Izak was thunderstruck his son was becoming a Personal disciple of Elder James, this was amazing.

Leon and Lumios stared at each other in awe, the both of them were going to go to the capital to join the Sarien Institute, they never knew what Elder James meant by Personal disciple but they were both happy that the both of them were going to become Personal disciples together.

“Elder… Elder James you can’t do this, I’ve waited for so many years but you’ve never accepted me and now you accept these two commoners how can I accept this.” Said Niel frantically, to him this was a major blow to his pride.

“Niel…” Elder James warned coldly…”Not now.”

Niel stopped talking in fear that he’ll anger the Elder, this was a figure that was in the process of creating a Vision Conscious.

Leon and Lumios weren’t bothered with what Niel said, they were still excited at the fact they were joining the Sarien Institute.

Elder James then spoke warmly, “When the tournament ends both you and Lumios will come with me to the Capital to join the Institute. The both of you will be personally trained by me.”

Both Leon Lumios immediately cupped their hands and said in unison: “Thank you for taking us as disciples, Master James.” This caused Elder James to give a heartfelt smile.

————————-

Both Leon and Lumios returned to the arena, the quarter-finals were about to start. Leon was preparing to face Lison a 7th rank Awakened, he was a 20 year-old who came from a small sect in Reon.

The spectators didn’t seem too interested, because they expected Leon to win.

“tap…tap…tap…” footsteps were heard closing in on Leon and Lumios who finally arrived in the Arena.

“Hahaha… I didn’t expect trash like you, to reach this stage in the tournament…” an arrogant voice spoke out.

Leon looked up to see the towering figure of Kline walking towards him alone, “Kline…”

“You better hope that you lose this round… or next round you’ll face me.” Sneered Kline, “Better give up or I’ll cripple you and there’ll be no one there to stop me.” He smiled coldly.

Leon was about to rebuke at Kline, then abruptly, “if you cripple him, I’ll break every bone in your body, but I’m sure Leon will do that himself, so go run back to your master like the loyal mutt you are,” said Lumios coldly.

Both Leon and Kline were shocked by Lumios’s statement.

“Hmph… We’ll see,” Kline simply turned around and walked away after being harshly refuted by Lumios who was clearly stronger than him, this caused him to slightly fear this young boy.

“Thanks… I couldn’t of said it any better,” said Leon.

“You’re obviously going to win, if you want to face me in the finals,” grinned Lumios.

Leon nodded gratefully.

———————-

“Quarter-Finals, First Match: Leon Kaiser Vs Lison White.” The voice of the referee abruptly echoed around the Coliseum.

The atmosphere of the Coliseum instantly sparked into a flame, Leon stood up.

“Watch me win this.” Exclaimed Leon.

Lumios simply grinned and said, “You better win.”

Leon turned and headed towards the ring under the watch of the other finalists, Kline coldly stared at Leon. The crowd was enchanted by the unexpected Black horse of the tournament and were cheering their hearts out.

Leon jumped onto the ring, he was dressed in full black training apparels, the colour quickly became his signature colour. Stood in front was a man who looked like he was 19 to 20 years old, who was focusing on his hardest fight so far.

A voice echoed in the ring, igniting the roars of the crowd:

“Fight Starts… NOW!”