In a barren plain far from any town, a gigantic coliseum formed, thousands of people appearing to fill the seats, a thrill of excitement filling the air. The round robins were completed in Chris's world, since it was just easier to have fifty-six simultaneous matches there, rather than creating a stadium large enough to contain them all, so everyone was gathered to see which of the sixteen finalists would take the final prize of almost two thousand points. Smoke whirled into the coliseum and formed into Greg in the middle of the arena. “Welcome people of the Eternal Sect! We've had an exciting morning choosing our top sixteen competitors, and I gotta say, we have more talent here than I ever expected. I mean, I could have predicted Ursa putting on a good show, the dude's a beast, no pun intended, but Flynn?!? Who would have thought a simple Knife Rune would turn that dude into one of the scariest mofos around!?! Honestly, the Hunters have made a fantastic showing today. I'm beginning to think some of our ‘official’ cultivators were coasting on their high cultivation.” Greg shook his head in disappointment. “Of course, I didn't make it into the elimination round either, so I'm not exactly one to talk… But enough commentary, let's get into the competition! For each group we have a champion and a runner-up, so the first round will pit the champions against the runner-ups of different groups. Our first match is the champion of group one, Chris the World Eternal, against the runner up of group eight, Buck the Hunter!” The crowd cheered as Chris and Buck appeared in the arena, Buck shifting nervously while Chris just watched him with a bored expression. “Ready?” Greg called as he rose into the air over the arena. “Three, two, one, fight!”
The moment Greg called the fight, Buck let out a roar, hefting his gigantic hammer and charging at Chris, rapidly closing the distance between them, while an arrow flew out of the quiver on Chris's back and shot towards him. He gritted his teeth and twirled his hammer around, using the haft to strike at the Spirit thread controlling the arrow, breaking the delicate connection as he continued to charge. Two arrows shot out next, and Buck managed to strike them down once again, though the second one skimmed along his Essence armor as he barely broke the connection before the Spirit threads could drive it through. Then four arrows flew out, and Buck went pale, swinging his hammer wildly in an attempt to fend them off, managing to smack down three before the last drove through his chest. He fell, coughing up blood, before they both disappeared.
“And the winner is Chris the World Eternal!” Greg announced to the cheers of the crowd. “Better luck next time, eh Buck? Now for our next match, Victoria the Soul Eternal and Sydney the Cultivator!”
Victoria appeared with a giant sledgeblade on her shoulder, while Sydney faced her with a spear. The moment Greg called the match, the two charged at each other, two daggers flying from their sheaths on Victoria's waist, shooting ahead to strike at Sydney, forcing her onto the back foot as Victoria swung in with her sledgeblade. Sydney smacked one of the daggers away and dodged the other, stepping back to avoid Victoria's swing then rushing in to strike at Victoria before she could recover. Victoria allowed the sledgeblade to carry her to the side, avoiding Sydney's strike as she stepped closer and slammed her shoulder into Sydney's chest, sending him stumbling back as she swung her sledgeblade back around and slammed it into him. Sydney barely got his spear up to block, but it didn't help anyway, the sledgeblade breaking through the spear with little trouble, before breaking him as well.
“Oof, that looked painful.” Greg commented as the two disappeared. The rest of the first round passed pretty much the same way. Andrew went next, crushing his opponent by using his Spirit threads for mobility instead of attacking with them, practically flying around the arena as he used a staff and kicks to hammer them into submission. Tiffany's match finished almost as soon as it began, the woman disappearing at the start, only to reappear behind her opponent moments later, flashing through the distance between them and driving her dagger through their back. Ursa's style revolved around healing and strengthening his body, all his Qi and Essence going towards regeneration so he could ignore his opponents attacks while he tore them apart with his warhammer and Spirit claws. Foratuna had the most… unique style. Her Spirit Rune had ended up being Shame, and she specialized in bringing out the shame in others, distracting them and weakening their mentality to create openings for her to go in for the kill.
The closest matches were Flynn against Semloh and Jade against Beatrice. Flynn's Qi was specialized in hiding, while Semloh's Spirit was specialized in finding, so the two essentially countered each other, turning the fight into a competition between their Essence skills, which was essentially just Knife versus Sword. It was a close match, but eventually Semloh's superior experience in fighting people instead of Rune Beasts gave him the edge he needed to win. As for Jade and Beatrice, their match was close because both of them lacked experience, and their Runes weren't exactly combat focused. They probably shouldn't have even made it to the elimination round, but for some reason people were hesitant to hurt them. It may have had something to do with the two Eternals showing up and watching every single one of their matches. The match eventually went to Beatrice since she at least had Obanonos support and Jade couldn't make full use of her Archery Rune.
The second round pitted those with the highest number of wins against those with the lowest, so Chris had to fight Beatrice, Andrew had to fight Semloh, Tiffany faced Foratuna, and Victoria faced Ursa. Just like Buck, Beatrice managed to fend off the first arrow and the second wave of two, her ability to use Spirit threads herself giving her a slight edge in that department, but once Chris sent four, she was done. Semloh couldn't do much against Andrew since his Spirit was focused on investigating and Andrew wasn't hiding, and his Sword Rune couldn't hold up against Andrew's mobility and combat skills. Foratuna pulled off the first upset of the tournament as her Shame Rune seemed to be particularly effective against Tiffany, the woman going into a daze the moment she entered Foratuna's Qi field. Even Foratuna could hardly believe it, waiting almost half a minute before finally taking advantage of it and ending things.
The match between Victoria and Ursa was the most intense. Both of them had a similar style, using heavy weapons supported by their Spirit abilities, the only difference being that Ursa focused on regeneration while Victoria focused on her Essence armor. Unfortunately for Victoria, Ursa's superior physique and experience won through, his warhammer fending off her sledgeblade while his Spirit claws outmaneuvered her daggers and tore through her Essence armor. She managed to land a few blows with her daggers while his claws tore into her, but he could just shrug them off with his regeneration, giving him the win.
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In the third round, Chris faced Foratuna and Andrew faced Ursa. Foratuna didn't even manage to fend off Chris's first arrow. Her Shame Rune was completely ineffective against him, and since she was using her Spirit field for that she couldn't see the thread to break it. As for Andrew and Ursa, that was the longest match of the tournament. Ursa couldn't touch Andrew, but none of Andrew's attacks were strong enough to overpower Ursa's regeneration, turning the entire match into a contest of who would tire out first. Unfortunately for Ursa, it took more energy for him to heal and swing a big ass hammer around than it did for Andrew to swing around on his Spirit threads and beat him with a stick, leaving the finals to Andrew and Chris.
“Well folks, this has been an amazing competition, but we've finally reached the end!” Greg announced. “Can Chris manage to pin Andrew down? Can Andrew finally make Chris use more than four arrows? Let's find out!”
Chris and Andrew appeared in the arena facing each other. “You better start with four this time, or you'll lose your chance.” Andrew commented.
“I might.” Chris shrugged.
Andrew shook his head. “You've been warned.”
Greg chuckled. “Alright, let's get this thing started! Three. Two. One! Fight!”
Spirit threads immediately flew from Andrew dragging him towards Chris at lightning speed! As Andrew rushed towards Chris, a single arrow flew at him, and Andrew let out a snort, smacking it away with his staff. Another two arrows shot towards him, and they were knocked away just as easily, Andrew finally closing the distance and swinging his staff down at Chris. Chris took a single step back as the staff whipped through the air centimeters from his face, four more arrows rising from his quiver and shooting towards Andrew, forcing him to pull his staff back, whirling it around to fend the arrows off, smacking them away. Andrew backed off as Chris threw another four arrows at him, arcing them so that they were coming from four different directions, moving quickly to force the arrows to chase him, taking them down one by one. Chris simply continued to send arrows after Andrew, chasing him around the arena and forcing him to keep his distance, picking up the fallen arrows once his quiver was empty.
Andrew grimaced as he was forced onto the defensive, finding himself in another stalemate, but one he was definitely on the losing end of. His stamina would run out long before Chris's would. He needed some way to stop Chris from sending arrow after arrow after him… Andrew blinked, starting to grin as he smacked away the next arrow, one of his Spirit threads immediately lashing out to grab the arrow and pull it back. It was Chris's turn to frown as Andrew continued to collect his arrows. If he let this continue, he'd be left with nothing to attack him with. He stopped attacking Andrew, pulling the arrows back and placing them back in his quiver, only leaving four out as he waited for Andrew to get closer again.
Andrew landed a good distance away from him, frowning. If he got close, he wouldn't be able to avoid Chris's arrows. “Stalemate? You can't attack me, I can't attack you.”
“No stalemates!” Victoria called out. “The task says to win, not to draw! If one of you doesn't win, no one gets the points!”
Chris cocked his head. “I drop the arrows, you drop the staff? We can settle this hand to hand.”
Andrew paused, considering it for a moment, before nodding and tossing the staff away. “Let's do it.”
Chris shrugged off his quiver and dropped the arrows, and the two began walking towards each other. The moment they were close enough, Andrew immediately jumped into the fight with a barrage of kicks, which Chris dodged and blocked almost mechanically before returning a set of punches. Andrew ducked and weaved between the set, before lashing out with his knees and elbows, which Chris blocked and returned, the two going back and forth in a match of attacks and counterattacks. Everything Chris did was precise and well executed, while Andrew's actions were more instinctual, but equally effective. The two fought like that for a good four minutes, only to end up with no result but sore limbs.
“Fuck!” Andrew cursed, stepping away and rubbing his arms.
“Done?” Chris asked, massaging his wrist.
Andrew scowled. “No, but this is getting us nowhere.”
Chris paused. “Rock, paper, scissors for it?”
“Ha!” Greg laughed.
“One of you just win already!” Victoria grumbled, the rest of the coliseum rumbling in agreement. At least when Andrew and Ursa were fighting there was always a chance that Ursa would get a lucky hit in and pull through. Watching Chris and Andrew do nothing to each other was getting boring.
Andrew sighed. “Fine, whatever. Ready?” Chris nodded and they both held their hands out. “Rock, paper, scissors, shoot! Fuck!” Andrew immediately cursed as they both chose paper. “Again!” They shook their hands again, only to both choose scissors this time. Then rock. Then scissors again. “Okay, we're flipping a coin.” Andrew grumbled.
“Here.” Greg tossed one to him, suppressing a smirk.
“Thank- damn it, Greg!” Andrew snapped as he saw that the coin was both heads and tails on both sides.
Greg snickered and fixed the coin. “Sorry, couldn't resist.”
Andrew glared at him, before turning to Chris. “Call it in the air.”
Chris nodded and Andrew flipped the coin. “Heads.”
Andrew caught the coin and slapped it down on the back of his hand. “Tails, I win.” He paused as the task completed and his points jumped up by almost two thousand. “That… was incredibly unsatisfying.”
Chris shrugged. “You could send me half the points and we'll officially call it a draw.”
Andrew blinked. “Done.” He agreed, sending him half the points he'd just won.
“Alright then, we have our champions!” Greg announced, before dropping down next to the other two as the crowd cheered and began to head back to Chris's world. “You know… I don't think that was worth it.”
“It's nice adding two thousand more points of energy to our supply.” Chris shrugged.
“Sure, but if we just had all the people who competed meditate for an hour or so instead, we would have made the same, wouldn't we?” Greg pointed out.
Chris frowned. “Huh…”
Andrew shook his head. “Yeah, I'm not doing this again.”
Greg nodded. “It's just like they always say. Tournament arcs are stupid.”