I was walking back to the preparation room after a short break to the toilet as an announcement suddenly came.

"The first battle of the second round will begin shortly. Contestants Galfin, Brusken, Ageuro, ...... , Please come into the ring."

There were 8 contestants in this battle, so I assumed that all the upcoming battles will also consists of 8. So far, it seemed that it is going to be a free for all, last one standing battle, and I was spot on.

"Guess I'm up." Brusken said to me nervously.

Brusken was a new guy I met just now. He looked like he's only about 15 years old. A young boy for sure. He had red hair and yellow eyes. He was a dragonkin, a species that's closely related to the true dragons. Dragonkins looked like normal humans besides having dragon's blood flowing in them.

Brusken explained to me that dragonkins are born with affinity to a certain element or suppressive skills. Suppressive skills are non-physical skills that suppresses a target's power and weakens them. I have a personal experience of getting suppressed. It felt like a mountain suddenly appeared on my back, making movement difficult or straight up impossible.

"Do you best! Don't fail in just the first battle!" I gave some encouragement to him.

"I'll be sure to do my best!" Brusken said loudly to hopefully gain a little more confidence.

I walked to the viewing platform. I watched Brusken walked into the ring as 7 other people enter the ring from different directions. I took a look at the person next to him. There was a huge and super tall man with extremely buffed muscles. He had two big horns and a body full of dark brownish fur. He looked a lot like a Minotaur, which most likely means it's a species that's related to the Minos.

I turned my attention to the competitor right of Brusken. She was a tall slim woman, most likely my height, with long dark hair tied into a ponytail. She had chains in her hands, which I assumed were her weapons.

Before I got the chance to have a careful look at the other competitors, the huge man gave a loud war cry and ran towards Brusken. It was probably because Brusken was the skinniest and weakest looking person in the ring. But, at the moment he started running towards Brusken, I knew he did the worst mistake he ever could in the battle.

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The man swing a punch toward Brusken's head with his right fist. Brusken stood there staring as the man dashed towards him. Then, Brusken's eyes suddenly started glowing red as a barrage of explosions basically blasted the man's right arm into overcooked Minotaur chops.

Before the battle, Brusken told me about his ability. He has an affinity to a specific type of skill from the fire element. He can create burst of fire from plain air in a form of explosions. He can summon explosions in a 10 meter radius and can do it either in a barrage of smaller explosions or an extremely powerful single explosion.

"Woah, that sounds like a really powerful skill" I said to Brusken

"Yeah, it is powerful. But, I don't like killing people. I didn't even wanted to join this competition. I was made to join by my family, or else I'll be forever unacknowledged by my family."

"This competition here is super deadly, you know that right? It's either kill, or be killed."

"Yea." Brusken said in a low voice

I gave him a pat on the shoulder and said "Just do you best. Try not to engage into too many fights if you want to try to not kill as much as possible. And also, you know that it's not a must to kill your opponent, right? To win, you need to either be the last one able to fight, which means alive and still able to move, or have your opponents admit defeat."

The man was blasted backwards. He looked at his right arm, which was half gone. He gave a loud fierce roar that shook the stadium. Suddenly, I felt a great power accumulating in the man that it even gave me a shock. Then, he pointed his horns at Brusken, and rushed at him at astonishing speeds like a bull in a bull show.

Brusken didn't even flinched. He just stood there watching that man rushing at him blankly. Then, a blast of light appeared underneath the man. The man was blasted away faster than the speed be came.

The man flew upwards, crashing into the magical array. Although the array managed to stop the man from blasting into space, it didn't manage to stop the earth from shaking. Then, that man fell back down and was knocked out.

The woman with chains seemed to have an ability to control chains. She used chains as if they were just soft spears and snakes. She can aim the chain and throw it at crazy speeds. With speed and the ability to easily change directions mid air, she simply killed 3 competitors during the fight between Brusken and the man. After the fight, she easily cleaned off the remaining two.

She stood at the opposite side of the ring from Brusken, just staring at him. Both of them stood there for a few seconds, none of them showing signs of aggression or fear. She giggled and said "hey, you're strong. I like that you're cute too. Thanks for helping me defeat the only guy I thought I might have a little trouble fighting against."

She turned around and walked in random directions, just like how a bored teenage girl would do in an open space. Actually, now that I got to focus more on her, she doesn't seem all that old, she looked like someone in their teens.

"I'm sad that there can only be one person to move on to the next stage. I don't want to kill a cute guy like you, so let's have a deal."

"A deal?" Brusken asked

"A challenge. I'll try to attack you from a range with my chains. I'll only attack twice. If I managed to even touch you, I win and you have to admit defeat. If not, you win then I'll let you go on to the next stage."

"Okay" Brusken gave a nod. This deal actually helped Brusken in his favour. Since he doesn't wish to kill, taking this deal means all he have to do is defend himself. As for the girl, I felt like she could win if it was a normal fight, but maybe she wanted to be safe and have the highest chance of winning. But, I'm sure Brusken would most likely win this.