Eventually, I did manage to find what I had been looking for before Reana’s situation had distracted me; some pork ribs glazed with honey. Something about the combination of flavors had always made my mouth water.

When I arrived at the participant’s booth, I found Cerion chatting with Gaius, the earthbending monk from the previous round. Reana was seated there as well, but she made it a point to ignore me. Surprisingly, she wasn’t the only participant that was keeping to themself. Arcellus had yet to break out of his contemplative mood, which stood in stark contrast to the attitude he had had when we first met less than a week ago. Something about his loss to me must have brought about this change. Either that, or his faction’s tier 6s had given him a severe reprimand after his loss. Regardless, it wasn’t any of my business.

Down below, the battle was still raging on. I couldn’t remember either participants’ names, but I recalled seeing their faces in the battle against the hive queen. The two classsers were giving it all they had and using a variety of skills, but the battle was well below what the seeded participants were capable of. I had hoped for some more upsets or a dark horse or something, but besides John I hadn’t been impressed by the unseeded participants. The difference between their strength and ours was like that of a chasm, and the poor fools probably already knew that no matter who won, they were bound to lose to Gaius in the quarter finals, since he would be up next.

I sat down next to Cerion and handed him a paper bag that was leaking some sauce, though he didn’t seem to mind. As I greeted the monk I offered him some of my own sweet pork ribs, but he refused, stating that he practiced vegetarianism or something. I couldn’t imagine the nightmare of not eating meat, but to each their own, I supposed, before chowing down on Helios’ greatest gift to man.

Halfway through my meal, I decided to make some conversation.

“Gaius, you’re up next, right?”

Still holding his hand in prayer, Gaius nodded.

“Indeed, you remember correctly.”

“If your opponent is as tough as these guys, I don’t think you’ll have much trouble…” I mused, before tearing off another chunk of meat and noticing some of it getting stuck between my teeth.

Gaius frowned a little when he heard my assessment, but agreed in the end.

“Not to speak ill of my fellow competitors, but if your assessment of my future opponent proves to be correct, then I believe I will be able to defeat them rather quickly.” he lamented while sighing. After a moment, he recovered and that inviting smile returned to his face. “There are more important things than strength, of course! Did you know that one of the elders at our temple is just tier 1 and practices pacifism? His wisdom is deferred to by many in their hour of need!” he described animatedly.

Thankfully, his explanation was interrupted by the announcer, who announced the end of the match. One of the classers had thrown some kind of acidic bolt that had finally gotten past her opponent’s defenses and sent him sprawling in pain. Acid turned out to be surprisingly effective at that kind of thing. Who would have guessed?

Realizing that it was his turn to go out there, Gaius stood up and saluted us as he left for the waiting area, allowing Cerion and me to focus on our food, which we gorged down in a matter of minutes.

Eventually, the start of the next match was announced. Monk from the East versus local knight yada yada. After the announcer finished his usual song and dance he gave the signal to start.

Perhaps as expected, Gaius was the first out of sheath* and he stomped down with both feet, one after the other. Two large clumps of earth sprung out of the ground and floated in front of him, as if they were waiting for his command. Then, Gaius threw some kind of standing kick, which somehow let the boulders know that they were supposed to fly towards the knight. Unfortunately for the knight, these inanimate objects flew with almost religious fervor, because they covered the distance in less than a second and crashed into him at the same time, sending the man sprawling on the floor. Stunned, he wasn’t prepared for the earthly limbs that Gaius commanded to cover him from top to bottom, burying him alive. In what would end up being the last five seconds of the fight, he used as many skills in as many seconds, to no avail. Attempting to break out with his stats and skills simply wasn’t possible. With that, the shortest match so far ended in a record breaking 12 seconds, which might even stay the fastest fight of the entire tournament when all was said and done.

Unfortunately for Gaius, his speedy fight faced stiff competition. The rest of this round’s fights were all 1 versus one battles where a seeded competitor would face a non-seeded one, which meant that they all had a shot at the record. That meant that there would at least be some competition taking place, because the battles themselves would no doubt be landslide victories for the seeded classers. Oh well, at least that meant that I would be allowed to fight sooner.

~scene transition~

Sure enough, my guess had turned out to be somewhat accurate.

First, Arcellus had cooked his opponent, a lith archer, with a single sun. The archer had attempted to set some kind of trap for Arcellus, but he was calm enough to see it coming and burned it before it could catch him. From that point on, even the archer himself had given up, the light vanishing from his eyes as he stopped hoping for a fluke. He was teleported away before his body became medium-rare, I think. All in all, the battle had lasted just under a minute. Fast, but not quite a competitive time compared to Gaius’. Even the monk himself seemed smug when the twelve second mark passed, though he hid his pride well.

Then, it had been Cerion’s turn. His opponent had been a little tougher, he had been a tall knight wielding some kind of mix between a kite and a tower shield. Really, it was just a giant kite shield, but it served its purpose. Thanks to some skills, the defensive tank held on as wave after wave threatened to lift him off of his feet and he even tried to counter-attack by throwing a boomerang-shaped sword at Cerion, before recalling the weapon with a skill when my friend blocked it. Eventually though, he, too, lost. One of Cerion’s water orbs used in combination with a tidal wave had been enough to finally throw him out of the arena. The battle lasted about two minutes, and I could see the competitive glint in Gaius’ eyes strengthen, even as he praised Cerion’s prowess loudly. His antics were humorous, causing me to chuckle. I liked him enough not to call him out on his obvious competitive streak, and I was sure Cerion would do the same when he returned.

Karon was up next, and he initiated the battle with a vengeance. I wondered where his anger came from, when I remembered just who he was facing. In the last round, Karon had been betrayed by one of his goons, who had stabbed him in the back to get a whole bunch of ‘revenge’ points. Karon undoubtedly took this betrayal to heart, either because his pride was hurt or because maybe, just maybe, he really did care for his goons. Regardless, the battle was short but vicious. Karon’s goon wasn’t weak by any stretch of the imagination, but because the mercenary champion went all out from the start, he didn’t last long. Not long after the start of the match, the arena had been decimated and turned into a burning oil field, Karon still heaving from the effort, eyes bloodshot in rage. Despite this hasty style of combat, it still took more than 20 seconds for Karon’s opponents to succumb to his onslaught. It was a close second to Gaius’ time, but he remained in first place, his smile now bordering on taunting.

For the final match of this series of battles, Emeri was up against a non-seeded fighter. She had been quietly seated on the outskirts of the booth, keeping to herself, but now that she stood in the arena and held her spear at her side, her dangerous side came out. Something about her stoic but deadly gaze fascinated me, and I had a hard time averting my eyes from her figure as she shot into action. Her light-affinity mana was just as sharp as her weapon and flashed dangerously every time she used a skill. There was almost no down-time in between her attacks, every skill flowed into another one. Her opponent had some kind of counter-skill, that rewarded every successful block with a fast strike. A powerful skill, even on its own, but it was heavily outmatched by Emeri’s skill.

As she twirled and twisted, dancing around the arena, I was captivated by her form. By the end of the match, I found myself smiling from ear to ear, hoping desperately that I would get to fight her.

“Arthur, are you alright?” Cerion asked, concerned.

“Of course.” I mumbled absentmindedly, only glancing in his direction momentarily before focussing on the match again. Cerion gave me a strange, overly happy smile, but didn’t say anything when I asked him what he was smiling about. It didn’t matter, anyway. The match was over, and Emeri had left the arena. The match had lasted about thirty seconds, which meant that Gaius was all but guaranteed to keep his record, as long as the tier 3s and 4s didn’t show any significant differences in skill compared to their own opponents.

Now that all the matches had finished, I made a list in my head of who would go up against who in the quarter-finals.

First, I would face Reana, the wood-using classer who knew me from somewhere.

Then, Gaius would face an unseeded classer, which might allow him to beat his own record, as long as the tier 3s and 4s didn’t have any significant differences in power compared to their opponents.

Thirdly, Arcellus would be facing Cerion, in what could be one of the best fights of the tournament. Hopefully, my friend would win, but I could only give him even odds at best. As much as I hated to admit it, Arcellus was a monster.

Then, Emeri would face Karon which, in my opinion, would probably be a clean sweep. Emeri was too skilled and methodical, too free and constrained at the same time to be defeated by a scheming idiot like Karon.

I left the stands and headed to the waiting room since, after a twenty minute break, the next quarter-finals would begin, and I was up first. On my way there, I happened across Emeri, who was headed back towards the stands. As I passed, I felt it a good idea to compliment her prowess.

“That was a beautiful fight.” I said. The blond, stoic girl paused and stared at me. I wondered whether she would be offended by me kind of giving her opponent partial credit, so I rephrased my assessment. “You fight beautifully.”

Hearing that, she quickly turned away and quickly walked off, disappearing around a corner. I scratched the back of my head, confused and afraid that I had pissed her off somehow. Shit.

Well, I couldn’t exactly run after her, since I had a match to focus on. Reana would not be an easy opponent, and I needed to place my focus on what was in front of me.