While the other teams fought among themselves, a battle of another level took place in the very center of the arena. Jorik and Myrthil moved to the left of Mahon, letting him enough space to evolve on his own while being close enough to help or be helped if the need arose.

In front of them, the two giants didn’t seem to pay any attention to their strategy. They had eyes only for Mahon, and they directly charged at him without further ado.

Their attacks were crude, and Mahon moved in such a way he would easily avoid the two swords coming at him.

Did I overestimate them? They only seem incredibly strong, but…

Mahon was cautious by nature, and it was what saved him. At the last moment, the two colossus diverted their attack in such a swift way it seemed impossible for men of their stature. Their clumsiness disappeared all of a sudden, and they moved with the grace of dancers performing for the thousandth time.

The two swords sandwiched Mahon and placed him in a very difficult situation, his options suddenly becoming very limited.

His Flow picked Jorik and Myrthil still a step behind, too surprised to help him. Thanks to his sharp instincts and battle experience, Mahon managed to stay in the move and didn’t stop in the slightest while facing the sudden switch of his enemies. In fact, he had started pivoting the instant they showed the first signs of their real target.

Still, they had managed to force Mahon to take risks, and he didn’t like it at all.

Clenching his teeth for the incoming shock, Mahon bent forward at the last moment and directly into the sword of one of his opponents. He angled his body and sword to mitigate most of the damage, but the blow still sent vibrations in his whole body as he was pushed back brutally.

The energy borrowed from the attack allowed him to move further away, and the second sword came at his arm instead of chest.

The Flow allowed him to seize the perfect instant to deflect the attack as he was still in the air. Given his situation, the second strike carried less strength, but it still sent him five meters away.

Mahon rolled backward and stood up in the same fluid motion, his guard up and eyes unwavering. His right hand was still shaky from the confrontation, but Mahon steeled himself and spoke out loud to Jorik and Myrthil.

“Careful! They’re as strong as a reaper-cat and twice as cunning.”

The two giants turned towards him, completely ignoring Jorik and Myrthil that were now retreating to Mahon’s side, and their smiles seemed to grow even wider.

Crazy lunatics. But now I know what to expect.

The two men charged at him like bulls, and this time, focusing on their rhythms, Mahon saw the moment they switched their strategy. This time, he was ready.

At the last instant, the two giants turned and charged towards Myrthil and Jorik instead. They thought they could catch them by surprise, and in a sense they did.

Myrthil was surprised.

But Jorik had felt something fishy with his Flow, and he was able to move to a defensive posture in time, the sword pointed forward threateningly.

On the other hand, Mahon had always been one step ahead. He had read the situation before it played out under his eyes, and it had allowed him to reach the leftmost giant even before the latter could reach Jorik and Myrthil.

He swiped at the titan’s chest in a way the man couldn’t both avoid Mahon’s sword and Jorik’s one. At the speed he was going, there was no way he could stop in time to change his course and avoid Jorik.

And the giant didn’t.

Without even flinching, he used his bare arm to deflect Mahon’s sword, his eyes still focused on Jorik. Mahon immediately reacted and, switching the grip of his sword to dodge the arm, he followed with a quick stab that touched the giant on his back, igniting his armor.

At the same time, though, the giant’s brutal attack perforated Jorik’s defense, and the noble was eliminated.

Myrthil didn’t face any better in front of the other giant’s fury, and her armor caught fire in unison with Jorik’s one.

As the three burning chests obscured most spectators’ vision, Mahon rushed to the last giant standing. The man turned to face him, but Mahon didn’t dare hold back anymore. Conscious of the shroud of smoke partially hiding him from the spectators, he performed the thirteenth Step and blinked.

Mahon chose not to move far and only skipped one step forwards. But by doing it twice in a row and with a real step in between, Mahon gave the illusion he had run at incredible speed instead of teleporting.

The trick was enough to foil both the spectators and the giant’s perception. Though the latter still raised his sword in an attempt to parry, Mahon glided below and raised his own sword at the last moment, triggering the giant’s armor.

That was way too close. They were just seven stars, but we were not ready for their ruthless fighting method.

As his mind automatically analyzed the situation, Mahon paid attention to the rest of the arena. The other trios weren’t even looking at him, considering Mahon’s team and the two giants too strong for their league, they hadn’t even noticed they had almost killed each other to mutual elimination.

Mahon then had less than half a minute to wait before only eight other trios remained in the arena beside him, at which point the clerk intervened and announced the end of the fight under a thunderous applause.

Jorik and Myrthil’s armors went back to red as a clerk pushed them forward to join the rank of the winners. Soon, all the eliminated teammates of the winning trios had been resurrected, and they too joined them in front of the king’s balcony.

“All hail to the first batch of amazing warriors that stood victorious among all the other fighters!” The king stated out loud as the trios bowed low.

The yells of the crowd made their ears buzz, and it didn’t stop until the nine trios exited the arena. A clerk then guided them to a small room where they noted their numbers for the next rounds.

Mahon took the time to observe the survivors, and once again he was satisfied with their strategy. Only one group of seven-stars had passed the battle royal, and their cooperation was too clumsy to pose any threat to any of the Protector’s top trios. The other winning trios were only made of six-stars, and were even less of a problem.

Perfect. Well, almost perfect, since we still lost both Jorik and Myrthil in the last fight.

Among the winning teams, two of them were from the Protectors Circle while one was from the Pack of Hawks. In this round, counting Mahon’s trio, they had outperformed their direct competitor three to one.

As they moved to the spectator side of the arena reserved for the warriors, they regrouped with the other Protectors, and together they watched the other rounds to get a better sense of their incoming competitors. Each time a round finished, more Protectors joined them and congratulated them for their victory before clapping the shoulders of each other in a strong spirit of camaraderie.

No other round scored as much as Mahon’s one, but the Protectors still managed to qualify five of their six best trios. Adding their trio of sorcerers, the two trios that had qualified with Mahon, and three others that had earned their places in the next rounds, there was a grand total of eleven Protectors trios qualified for the main event. As a comparison, the Pack of Hawks only got itself seven places, and the third organization only three.

The Protectors exited the arena all together, arm in arm, singing their success loud and clear for all to hear. Having been the first to enter the arena, Mahon, Jorik and Myrthil had long recovered their strength from the harsh fight and they followed the other eagerly as they entered inside the first tavern they found on their way home. They didn’t plan to drink themselves to death, but they could still enjoy a bit of their crushing domination.

Tomorrow would be a rest day to give everyone time to prepare for the second part of the tournament, a classical elimination tree. The clerks would reveal the tournament’s tree in the morning, but otherwise the whole day was free. The first fights would only start the day after.

The day-break between the two parts of the tournament was also the perfect occasion for every warrior to rush to the taverns without any second thoughts about being fit for the next battle. The spectators had even less problem joining the drinking since they wouldn't be fighting, anyway.

Ailluin still went to see every winning Protectors trio to warn them about not going too wild tonight, but the Protectors were well aware of the stakes at play, and even though they celebrated their victory, they stayed on the soft side of it.

Hence, the next morning wasn’t difficult for them, and every single one of the eleven qualified trios stood at the ready in the main arena just after the sun’s first lights. Ailluin had sent a runner boy even earlier to go check the tournament tree for tomorrow’s fights, and they were all waiting impatiently for him to come back.

Obviously, Ailluin would never allow them to just wait patiently, and he had given them some exercises to pass the time. They weren’t very physical and mostly focused on stretching and light cardio instead to make sure the Protectors wouldn’t be too exhausted for tomorrow.

When the errand boy finally arrived, exhausted but with an eager smile, Ailluin took some time to calm him and recollect all the information. He then went to meet with the other instructors besides those that had qualified for the second round, and they discussed the tournament tree together.

By the time Mahon and the others finished their exercises, most of the Protectors had come back to the bodyguard center too, and they waited with them, as eager to know as the true competitors. Fortunately, the instructors exited their meeting almost at the same time the Protectors finished their exercises, and Ailluin walked to them immediately after.

“So, let’s resume this. There are sixty-four teams, and eleven are from the Protectors Circle. Even if we had been lucky, we were bound to meet some of us in the first rounds, but this time we’re quite unfortunate.” Ailluin announced while unfolding the tournament tree.

It wasn’t the official one, though, as only one version existed in the middle of the tournament village. The errand boy had copied all of it, but the instructors had added everything that was useful to understand it plainly. For example, the Protector teams were all highlighted clearly.

And when they saw it, most of the Protectors sighed loudly. Eight groups were so close to each other in the tree, that they would all fight against each other no matter what, and by the quarter-finals there would only be one left. And their group included the trio of sorcerers. It was almost the guarantee that not one of them would pass the quarter-finals.

For sixty-four people to get down to one trio, they would have to fight six rounds. By the fourth one, at least seven groups of Protectors would be out, no matter what. It was a huge blow to the Protectors Circle. It means if they wanted to hold the top three spots to show everyone their supremacy, they only had three groups left to secure the second and third one.

“In our misery, there’re still some good things, though. Our trio of sorcerers shouldn’t meet any powerful opponents before the semi-final. However, by then you will meet a group with at least one sorcerer, but more probably two.”

Ailluin pointed to multiple parts of the tournament tree as he explained to the three sorcerers.

“The winner of the branch you will fight in the semi-finals will come from the hardest group. We took track of the trio numbers, and most of the tags in this branch didn’t appear in the arena battles yesterday, so it can only mean they have at least one sorcerer. The winner of this will have to fight at least two or three teams with a sorcerer so only the best of the best will escape. We don’t know yet, but we can probably assume they will have two sorcerers.”

The head instructor continued for the other groups.

“As for the other half before the semi-finals, we have Horith and Ylindar’s groups in the same branch while Mahon’s group is alone in the last branch. It means we can still secure the top three spots if you win your respective branch up to the semi-finals. It’s not impossible as there seems to be no sorcerers in Hortik and Ylindar’s branch, whereas there are only two in Mahon’s branch. Unfortunately, there, you also have Luvon’s group.”

“Luvon?” Mahon asked with a frown. It wasn’t a name he had heard before.

“An old crazy man that we haven’t seen for a long time. He seemed to have ended his seclusion and came with two of his own apprentices for this tournament. He fought in the last round of the arena and played it low, so you might not have noticed him. Five years ago, however, he was the only eight-star warrior of Finem.”