The next few days were spent in tie dilation chambers where all present worked to better themselves at the last minute. Most of the time was spent in deep meditation as most of the team focused on enhancing their soul to allow them to reach a new level of power. As it turned out, the process was easier for those without bodies, and doing so in a physical world was limited at best. How Ander surpassed Rion in only a day made no sense to the latter. Aside from that, Rion’s teammates wouldn’t be able to use these changes in battle just yet.

The start of the second half came quickly; with the seeding for the tournament complete, it was time for the brackets.

“To spice things up the Bracket will not be revealed until the end of the first round!” Meh Thod Spoke to the audience. “Why are we doing this? Because there are currently an uneven number of participating teams and we don’t want to reveal who will be moving on to the next round without fighting. Giving them another two days to rest and relax.”

A few participants protested, only to find they landed on deaf ears. Rion, of course, was one of the people protesting. Although not with the crowd.

“Oi! You better not be thinkin bout making me sit out! My blood has been hungry for combat for days. If I don’t light someone up today I’ll lose it! If It goes to us I say give it to that Other Guy….Uhh… What was his name? The guy who won the tournament! I want to fight him myself!”

Meh Thod scowled as he adjusted an earpiece. “Got it. The First match will be Drisil against the Tetsan Acadamy of Gabon! Format? Lot draw!”

Ander and Tiffany gripped their weapons. Both had their reasons.

Rion vaguely recalled that name but couldn’t recall where or when he heard it.

“Lot draw is where two team members draw from lots. The first represents the amount of participants available, the second dictates half of the environment.” Meh Thod snapped his fingers, and two boxes appeared.

Bastion shot up and looked at the box, ready to run forward. “I want to draw!”

Eden realized it was a bad idea and clearly tried to stop Bastion. That happened as both Eden and Bastion stopped in front of the boxes.

Meh Thod looked at the children and sighed.

“Looks like Drisil has sent up two people for the first pull!”

Rion stood there as the announcement was made. Not even attempting to stop them. What was the worst that could happen? He thought.

Bastion walked up to the box, climbed atop the table it rested on, put his left hand in it, and started digging.

Eden turned to see if anyone was going to stop her. Nobody from her team moved, so she also climbed atop the table to reach.

After a short span of time, Bastion pulled out a blank sheet of paper. While staring at said blank paper, the crowd was deathly silent.

Rion slapped himself in the forehead as Basition turned it over, trying to get a better view. He had no luck. Bastion saw no squiggles.

“Turn it over!” Yelled the crowd.

Bastion did so and saw a big 1.

“We’re number one!” Bastion roared.

Eden pulled out a light blue sphere. “What’s this?”

“Drisil will have 1 fighter on an island surrounded by water!”

“Gabon is up next.”

“I’m going. End of story.” Rion stated.

“I need to avenge my brother.” Ander protested.

“I need to show my fiance that I’m strong.”

“One,you both had a chance to fight in the solo matches. Two, Tiffany, you proved your power already, also, you’re a tactical fighter. If the island is as small as I imagine, you won’t have much space to manuver and swimming during a fight like this is suicide. 3, Ander you have the versatility and power but you lack the endurance to fight multiple enemies, and you’re angry. I don’t want you stopping any hearts. Finally, this is the perfect scenario for me to show my power.”

“Who are you? That sounds like you put thought into it.” Max stated.

“Yeah, it’s strange.” Tiffany squinted.

“If you wanna fight, then just go fight. Not gonna stop you.” Ander pouted.

MInah crossed her arms. “You better not lose.”

Kyrion watched as a young man in plate armor pulled out a slip that held the number 8.

“No way… It’s over.” Hel fell to her knees.

“Does no one remember my fight against twenty people?”

“Twenty of our weakest.”

“And I didn’t break a sweat. I did break some wrists though.”

Minah scowled. “I thought that was a rumor.”

“I am what the kids nowadays call a raid boss.” Rion summoned his chain greatsword as wings of flame shot out of his back. Summoning his wings used mana but took little to maintain. He didn’t extend his horns, however.

“The second half of the arena will be.the hill of tragedy! 1 Vs 8. Anyone not involved in this round is to exit the arena.”

Rion didn’t move as Bastion approached with teary eyes. “I’m sorry Mr.Rion”

“It’s fine. If anything, this allows me to hide quite a bit of our power.”

“But you’ll need to show them everything to win a fight like that.”

“If I lose then you only get one scoop of ice cream. If I win you get two scoops, how does that sound?”

“Hurry up and win Mr.Rion.”

“Can I get three scoops if you win and none if you lose?” Asked Eden.

“Now that’s what I call faith. I’ll be back before Bastion can think of two flavors.”

The two kids ran off as only 9 people remained. The stone floor turned into the sand as a vast lake appeared to spread to another shore a hundred feet away. Near the beach was a cliff with a drop that led to an area with large and sharp rocks below.

“Believe it or not, this fight marks the start of the first team tournament. It may look like a beatdown but thats due to poor luck for a certain tea! Ready? Fight.” Meh Thod yelled.

Much like Cecil’s fight, the world was covered in flames moments after the match began. Unlike Cecil’s fight, the flames didn’t stop. Unrelenting flames shot from Kyrion’s body and covered the entire arena. Plants burned, rocks melted, the lake boiled and evaporated, and sand became molten. Yet only two members of the Gabon team were eliminated.

It appeared as though when the battle began, two of Gabon’s fastest began to move through the water. One ran on top while the other was swimming quite fast. The swimmer was boiled to the point the wards triggered while the runner nearly fell to his death after being scalded.

“Curious. Only two insects were slain. That’s a powerful barrier.” Rion stated in a monotone as he flew over a pit that was moments ago a vast lake.

As quickly as the torrent came, it began to fade. Large clouds gathered in the sky above due to the strangely rapid movement of moisture. In about two minutes, the torrent of rain and lightning would begin, and anyone out of the loop would assume this was a natural occurrence, given the amount of evaporated water.

“Come down here and fight us fairly!” Yelled one of the students inside the barrier.

“Did you forget that you outnumber me quite a bit? I wasted too much mana for you hiding behind a barrier.” Fire gathered at his back as Rion pushed against an invisible wind platform. As the flames went from vermillion to white. Kyrion shot off like a rocket, propelled at high speeds, and the sky almost shattered behind him.

Rion’s body slammed through the barrier and into one of the warriors holding it up, and like that, only five more people were in the ring.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Looking about, Rion saw a knight with a sword and shield, two magic types, one a supporter and another a high-damage dealer. The fourth was a tamer type with martial arts training, a gray goose at its side. The fifth was a fledgling holding a longsword.

Rion clicked his tongue, slipped through the warriors to the fledgling, and poked him on the side of his head with a finger coated in flames; it was enough to trigger the wards.

“Jhonny!” The tamer yelled, aimed two punches at Rion’s body.

Rion didn’t dodge; he leaned into the blow and shattered the tamer’s wrist with his body alone. Such a thing wouldn’t work on someone like Volain and Noah, but to Kyrion’s trained eye, he could tell that the man may have skimped bone enhancements.

The tamer commanded their goose to strike with a pained squelch.

The evil bird went for every male’s weak spot to end a dynasty.

Rion decided that taking blows was good when he was in a guarded stance, as wearing a skirt into combat with a goose involved wouldn’t end well if he didn’t. So, of course, he dodged. Later, he would look back on the matter and realize he had forgotten the first aspect of Gamodren’s training, which was misdirection.

“He dodged! His core must be in his lower body!” Yelled one of the mages with a feminine voice.

Three of her teammates looked at her for half a second. Then, a spear of glass shot up from under Rion’s legs.

Jumping into the sky instinctively, Rion looked down at them all with horror.

“He dodged again! He must be vulnerable!” Yelled the other mage.

The captain of the Gabon team looked like they were going to say something when the goose took flight aiming for the exposed weak spot.

At that moment, Rion decided that the goose would get cooked. Sending a cone of flames downwards into the demented avian.

Honk

The demonic creature let loose a sound from the depths of the abyss as it flew out of the fire completely unharmed.

At that realization, Rion spun in the air and punched the goose in its neck. Killing it in one blow, much to Rion’s surprise.

“You killed my pet!” The tamer yelled.

“You tried to end my family line!” Rion was no longer playing around. Aloft with his wings of fire, he brought out his sword, released the chain, and spun it in the air.

Within seconds, the torrent of rain and lightning came.

Each bolt struck the blade repeatedly as though it were some kind of lighting rod.

Rion had little control over lighting. Very little, in fact, at best, he could create it through weather manipulation. The sword, however, has the ability to absorb an absurd amount of mana and release it should it have a trace of his mana.

“Falling Dragon!” As the lighting abated, Rion slammed his sword into the earth, sending out sparks of lightning everywhere, removing the two mages and tamer. Leaving Andres alone in an empty arena covered in rain. Lighting shot through him, and his armor and the glass he stood on had gotten slippery.

Andres realized he would lose and not even get a chance to fight back. The match was so one-sided that his team had been decimated within moments. He was primarily defensive with a single retaliation technique. Said attack required his target to be in melee range and take the blow.

Rion dropped his sword a few more times, noticing that he was near the limit of mana he had available to use. As he let loose a final blast of lightning, his wings vanished instead of hitting the ground. The last bolt, however, had a bit of space mana on it. When it struck Andres, it immediately triggered the ward and teleported him out of the battlefield.

“And the winner of the first round is Rion of Drisil Academy!”

The crowd clapped in applause and cheered. While they expected a one-sided victory. The crowd had assumed it would be the other way around. Rion hadn’t bothered with the solo matches, so they assumed he was a puppet. To everyone present, Rion had proved why he was the captain of this team.

“It was a good fight! Next time, bring an army, and maybe not try to end my family line.”

Rion turned and walked into the locker room where a certain Siegfried awaited. Rion took two more steps forward. The door closed, and the young man passed out from mana exertion. Evaporating that much water took a lot of mana and covering that area with fire.

Siegfried moved forward, knowing the sighs, and caught him. “Kyr, no matter how much you grow, I can tell when you’re near a limit. Now get some rest.”

The headmaster entered the room. “I’ll teleport you out of here. That way, his competitors won’t see him like this. If he hadn’t been that offensive, I doubt he could have won against all of them.

“His opponents were not as weak as he made them look. Well the fledgling was a low blow but still.” Siegfried sighed as the three of them were taken to their viewing booth.

“That is not the power of a practitioner! If he is then he’s well over the age limit. No way can he make a fool out of us and walk out unharmed.” The Gabon headmaster had called for a meeting with the organizers to make a complaint.

“According to our measurements, his physical age is fifteen, and based on our sight, he is a practitioner. I do understand why you are concerned, but that power was all practitioner tier. Just think, if he’s this powerful as a practitioner, how storing will his expert tier be. I made sure to get a proper measurement of his capabilities prior to his entry into the tournament.” An elven man with twin blades said from behind an elven woman.

“Drisil has been poaching all the talents. Hopefully this one isn’t assassinated as well.Would be a shame to lose another promising talent.”

“Another? Right. The tragedy where a student was kidnaped while visiting after beating the best Norn had to offer. Looks bad on everyone involved, that incident did no one justice.” The elven man added as he looked towards the Drisil headmaster.

“It shames me that a student of mine was wrongfully imprisoned then taken in the dead of night to be assassinated. It also irritates me that Welhiem had been invaded by those parasites. When they are so close to the center of our continent. Worst of all, there was another incident, someone unaffiliated with a school, sent someone to hold another of my children hostage. Rion was so enraged that it seems he gained access to imbuing his flames with his soul. Three experts seemed to have died that day. Such an awakening could only mean that he’s obtained that power without reaching the Expert Tier.”

The headmaster of Gabon wiped blood that had begun to leak from his mouth. “Are you saying he had an epiphany? Guess fighting three experts as a practitioner would force anyone to reach for that deeper well of power. Given the hidden training chambers, he could have had enough time to get a handle on that power. Once it’s there it is intuitive.”

“I’m sure it is. You know how restricted we are when speaking on this subject?” Caeden looked at the other headmaster’s left shoulder.

“Fine. I have one concession.”

“You sent out a fledgling, it wouldn’t have been surprising if they died in the crossfire.”

“Peak fledgling. Don’t act innocent, you had at least three on your team as well.”

“So Gabon doesn’t have enough talent to produce ten practitioners?”

“We have more than ten, it’s just that the three we brought proved to have great potential and power even for their tier. I hadn’t expected to need to use them so early.”

“What made the swordsman special?”

“Our swordsman was blessed with the power of the legendary sword, Demon’s End.”

Caeden leaned back far enough for an ordinary person to fall out of their seat.

“Last time a version of that sword appeared as someone’s spirit the continent was whole. Are you certain?”

“The weapon allowed him to beat enough practitioners to be eligible as a core team member. Alistar Greedwell, is quite strong for his age and tier. Sadly his weapon is very selective of what cores he can use. As in, it rejected everything that we have given him.”

“He isn’t lying, I could sense the blade’s power despite its shape being shrouded,” The elven swordsman added.

“So your heavy hitter can punch into the practitioner tier while a fledgling, and mine can punch into the expert tier while still a practitioner. He is around the same age as Kyrion, may his soul rest well. Why did you want him to begin with?”

“It was clear that he was descended from that Siegfreid. The one that killed nine of the Dragon Lord’s pets. Given his physical condition, an inability to participate due to injuries. I was certain he would have been the last. More power than a human body was made to handle, along with control over plants.”

“So he was on your radar for a while.”

“His limited display of power was also interesting. Being able to supply so many plants with power at that age was astounding. Plus he was a healer. To someone from a desert country those with the ability to grow plants where there shouldn’t be plants, and return a desolate land into a habitable location is prized. A shame he chose Drisil.” Gabon’s headmaster knew Caeden was hiding the truth but wasn’t pushing as hard as he could.

Caeden clicked his tongue and looked about briefly. “What tipped you off?”

“When he used both water and wind abilities, under the guise of a powerful inferno. The water would have taken longer to boil as it isn’t easy to boil a lake that deep from above at that speed. You also made him your captain without testing him against your previous choice. At least not publicly. Finally one of my spies spotted him before he created that persona.”

“You had eyes on the port. Gabon is a major port trading partner. So, what do you want?”

“I want to send Ten of my students to Drisil to learn in preparation for that.”

“We can speak of the ipp…Huh? A new restriction?”

“Yes. Which means we’re close. Very close.”

“Is that why we were told it would be happening five years earlier than it should…”

The elven woman who had been watching nodded. “Now hurry up. No one cheated, nor broke any rules.”

Caeden thought. “You’d lose standing doing something like that and we have no reason to agree.”

Gabon’s headmaster pulled out a small red chest and set it on the table.

“What is this? Wrong question. How did you get this?” Caeden raised his guard.

“One of my excavators encountered them in a previous event. Still alive, but placed in a type of stasis. Just in case you wanted them alive.”

“You’ve had this for fifty years…”

“Technically. The Tetsan Empire has alot of resources, Gabon is no exception. We work hard for our Alumni, and teachers. Sadly you left right after we found it and before we confirmed.”

“You old bastard.”

“Oi, I’m two years younger, don’t play the young card on me. I also didn’t have the authority to hand it over then. A certain incident allowed me to gain this position. Ten of my students learn from the one who currently goes by Rion, after the tournament for six months to a year. In return you get access to your number eight.”

“Fine. One thing, was this supposed to be the bargaining chip that made me stay for another ten years?”

“Gabon trusted your judgment for the most part. If you had stayed, it is likely that you would have my position and I’d be the one building a school from scratch.”

“Doubt it. You all covet money, too much for that.”

“That we do.” The headmaster sighed.

“So. You know I’ll either need an oath or a contract.”

Caeden clicked his tongue and summoned a scroll.