Spectral swords whizzing through the air and weapons clashing, the two fighters kicked up dust clouds everywhere. After 15 minutes of the fight, the neat and clean arena had turned into nothing more than a sand pit for the two participants.

Seth could imagine Vathon's crying face, seeing his hard work literally stomped to dust with almost every fight in the third round. But this time especially so. Seth feared that they would need to put down metal plates for the quarter-finals and up...

Lyca had been unable to overcome the stalemate so far, but the blacksmith was sure that at least Nam still had something up his sleeve. He doubted the rune-covered bandages on his body were just decoration. As for Lyca, Seth doubted that she was prepared to unseal her powers. Neither of the two seemed prone to use external stimulants either.

Suddenly, Lyca was covered in a glistening aura, charging so fast even Seth lost her for a moment, Energy swords shattered in her wake, as her aim held true and the dory spear pierced Nam's abdomen. It was the first decisive injury, yet he seemed unperturbed, slashing his sword down at her.

With a kick against his chest, she pulled out the spear covered in aura and evaded the sword coming for her neck. Nam stumbled back when the bone-shattering kick hit his chest, but what had him stare at his body, was the silver aura, burning away at the bandages.

“Urgh, shit... no you've done...” the silent cultivator finally spoke in a rough, raspy voice. His curse sounded a little annoyed and angry, but also almost defeated. Before the bandages were damaged any further, the runes on them started moving, flowing along the strips of fabric.

Lyca's aura dispersed, but the bandages loosened, falling down to his hips, revealing a terrifying sight to the audience. The abdomen and chest below the bandages were hollowed, Flesh and organs had shriveled away with necrosis. His ribs didn't end in a sternum but seemed like broken, sharpened spikes, barely holding the still-beating heart and one more thing in place. Opposite the heart was what looked like a roughly hewn jade marble, placed in the remnants of his rib cage.

Nam also removed the face mask, revealing that his lower jaw, upper jaw, and nose had mostly skeletonized with some shreds of rotten meat still holding on. Was Nam actually an undead? but his heart was still beating, what could have happened to him to disfigure him like this?

With the fall of the bandages, a wave of power rushed across the arena. The stadium was filled with the smell of old tombs and forgotten crypts. It was the smell of rotten meat, long past the time it stopped smelling like rotten meat. Even Lyca, the amazon well-versed in abstruse creatures looked at her opponent with surprise and a little bit of concern.

“Let's end this quickly...” Nam pressed out from his lip-less mouth. A transparent fire started burning on all swords, not just the ones in his hands, but also the ones he created using his Qi. At the same time, he experienced a tremendous boost in speed and attack speed. He finally used the skills of his sword.

Under the barrage of his blades, a difference finally became clear. With the unsealing of his body, Lyca was clearly at a disadvantage against the half-rotten swordsman. Twirling her spear and shield, she collected her silver aura around her, blocking all his attacks that came from every direction.

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She moved faster and faster, before the aura blasted outward with a loud shout, disintegrating the Qi swords and throwing the cultivator tumbling back. After a short tumble, Nam was already back in position, recreating the Qi swords around him, however, Lyca lifted her hands.

“I concede this match,” the amazon suddenly said with a wry smile. The cultivator squinted at her.

“Why? Is it because I look like this? I don't need your sympathy,” he scoffed at her. but Lyca shook her head.

“I know you can't last long like this, but I won't be able to beat you right now. There is no need to continue a pointless struggle,” she said carefree and shrugged her shoulders. before Umi Kaldrops could make an announcement, Lyca had already turned around, walking toward the edge of the arena.

“Th-This means we have a winner! After the surprising forfeit from one of our favorites, Lyca, cultivator Nam will go on into the quarter-finals!” she announced the result of the match. nobody had expected Lyca to give up, not even Seth. Especially not Seth. She had given up right after witnessing Nam's final form.

“This also concludes the third round! We have our final five contestants. It is now time to choose the wild card! In the following two-hour long break, we will conduct the voting for the remaining three participants of the quarter-finals.

Everyone in the stadium, please use the devices under your seats, or the screens provided to give your vote on who of the previous participants should get a second chance and enter the Quart finals!

We will announce the winners of the poll and the pairing of the quarter-finals after the break.”

With the third round concluded it was finally time for the audience to vote on which of those who lost in the previous rounds, would be given a second chance and return in the quarter-finals. Once the three were chosen, it would also be time for the last random draw. The quarter, semi, and finals would be held in a typical tournament fashion, as it didn't make sense to have a random draw with just four people left.

“Should we go out to get some fresh air?” Seth asked Mina and Fin, as he stood up from his seat. There were two hours before anything interesting was scheduled to happen. However, as they were about to step out. They found a staff waiting in the hallway.

“T-Tower Master!” she exclaimed surprised, when she saw Seth open the door. The blacksmith observed her for a moment and recognized her as one of Mary's secretaries. In her hand were a stack of papers and a crystal ball.

“Did you wait out here for Mary?” “What about me?” the person in question asked from behind.

“A-Actually, I'm here for both of you and Lady Leana,” she answered after hesitating for a moment. “The agents that followed Dumm Ting have reported back,” she said, pushing forward a stack of papers.

“Hmm, i think it would be good for everyone to hear this,” Seth decided after skimming through the papers. It was a summary of the experiences of the two agents that followed Dumm Ting, while the crystal ball was a direct report, as well as footage from the sight itself.

“Sorry, no fresh air, instead some work,” Seth apologized to the others, but nobody complained. They finally had some substantial leads on the actual attack, everyone knew the weight of the matter and wanted to know more.

The first video was one of the assassins giving an initial report on the events that led to them finding the location and the location itself. According to the secretary, this report had been sent roughly one hour ago.

The second were clips from inside the hideout. The video showed a huge ice cavern, big enough to house a small town. People in robes were busily walking here and there on scaffolding and paths built into the icy walls. they only arrived a few minutes ago.

“What in the-?” “How?” both Leana and Evee exclaimed at the same time when the footage showed a huge magic circle laid out on the bottom of the cavern. Yu also furrowed his brows. Everyone looked at the two women with questioning gazes, waiting for them to explain.

“That's definitely large-scale system magic, “ Leana said.

“It's a massive teleportation anchor. They are trying to teleport something really big,” Evee, their residential expert in teleport technology, elaborated. Yu nodded.

“That explains why it looks so unfamiliar. This is not something from the voracious Cloud Continent,” Master Mountain added.

“So someone from the Pathworks is helping them?” Fin asked.

“Not just the Pathworks, it had to be a huge power from within the system worlds... someone at the level of Chrona or the Muir Empire,” the princess revealed that the cultivators had a huge backer!