Now...
The sounds of footsteps queued behind the demigods as Shade and Lance returned to the Arena of Valor. After Shade had stated what had happened to him, both fighters were transported to the medical facility before returning a few minutes later.
"Welcome back," Rose said with a smile to both fighters.
"Thank you," Shade replied with his own smile.
"That fight was possibly the best one yet," Ace continued from the sides. "You both went crazy."
Lance let out a brief smile in response to the positive comments from the other demigods before returning to his seat, beside Arthur.
"That was closer than expected," Arthur softly worded to his brother in concern.
"Indeed," Lance replied to Arthur after a sigh. "It seems I took his dedication for power lightly."
Although Lance was content with the battle, Arthur was still surprised that someone could push his brother to such an extreme. But he decided to ignore his concerns since he knew the truth that Lance was hiding.
"I didn't forfeit so you could lose immediately after, y'know," a voice seemingly belonging to Quinn told Shade.
"Well, it's not like I planned to lose," Shade replied.
The few demigods talked for a brief moment about his sudden power spike before a question that got Shade's attention eventually came up.
"How was he?"
Shade turned to notice Mia as she stared at him hopefully, awaiting a response.
"You mean Flage?" Shade asked before Mia nodded in response.
He then took a second to think about what to say before proceeding to describe the God.
"Well... at first when I got there, he was very hostile. Though I wouldn't blame him since I was technically invading his domain. Even though he barely said a few words to me during my stay, he still played a major role in my progress and I respect him wholeheartedly."
Mia smiled upon hearing the brief assessment of her father. She had never seen him nor known what he looked like, but hearing what Shade had said made her feel slight peace for some reason.
"Did he look like the other Gods?" Rose asked Shade in curiosity.
"Yeah," Shade replied before taking a brief pause and continuing. "Though I noticed that his left eye was completely red and had a scar across it."
"A scar?" Quinn asked in awe. "But how is that possible?"
"Same thing I wondered," Shade replied.
"Are you certain?" Klaus asked before Shade nodded his head.
Before the conversation could go any further, XVII got up from his position and walked ahead of the demigods to announce.
"Hello again, demigods," XVII started. "With the conclusion of the previous battle, the second round of the Divine Tournament has now officially concluded. We will now begin the next round which will be the semi-finals."
At this point, twelve of the demigods had been eliminated so most of them were only spectators. But that did not hide the pure excitement that they all had as they cheered after XVII's announcement.
But before XVII could continue his announcement, he took a brief pause in silence before continuing to relay more information.
"Apologies for the delay, demigods," XVII continued after his pause. "But it seems your attention is needed."
And as XVII completed his statement, a certain force began to envelop the entire arena. Before the demigods could react, a beam of light spawned from above the center of the arena before a certain being dropped from its source.
Unlike ever witnessed before, immediately the specific God dropped, the entire arena instantly turned pitch black for a brief moment. The demigods were unable to see even a few meters ahead of them for a time before the sudden state change reverted. But this situation was more than enough to tell the demigods which God was present.
As the darkness subsided, underneath the now vanished beam of light was Abyss, the God of Darkness as he gradually got up from his crouched state and turned to the demigods at the spectator's area.
"Greetings, demigods" Abyss began. "I hope you are all well."
The demigods turned to one another before nodding to the God in response. Abyss then let out a smile before continuing.
"I would like to start by congratulating you all for nothing short of a stellar performance in this tournament. It was generally agreed on by all the Gods that you all were individually remarkable and far exceeded any expectation that was set."
This statement made the demigods happy before Abyss proceeded.
"I understand that twelve of you are currently out of the tournament, but I want those of you to focus more on the impressive performance you showed instead of your absence in the upcoming matches. And for those who did make it, I want to also congratulate you and wish you the best in your coming battles."
Despite mostly being eliminated, the response from the demigods showed that they were all excited to see the upcoming matches that were planned. A lot of them were very content with the performance they had during the event, and even though a few still felt dissatisfied, they were still curious about what the rest of the Divine Tournament would offer.
After a brief moment of silence eventually occurred, Abyss suddenly turned his attention to Shade in the spectator's area with a dimmer expression on his face.
"You said you saw him?" Abyss began to ask. "Flage?"
"Yes, Father," Shade replied after noticing that he was the one being addressed.
Abyss' expression remained the same in the few seconds of silence before he finally continued.
"Is he well?"
Shade, alongside a few of the other demigods, was a bit startled by this question. It was common knowledge that the Gods were omniscient, meaning they were all-seeing and all-knowing. But it felt strange to Shade that his father was unaware if Flage was doing well. But Shade just felt maybe he was looking too much into it and that Abyss just wanted clarification from a closer perspective.
"I cannot confidently confirm if he was doing well or not since he barely spoke or responded. However, if I can assume by his actions, I would say he is."
Hearing these words returned a smile to Abyss' face before he nodded in understanding. He then took a second before continuing his announcement and finalizing the purpose of his appearance.
"For the demigods that remain in the tournament, this information is directed to you," Abyss began. "From here onward, your eligibility to forfeit will be null. This means that the rest of the battles that are to come will only conclude when one of the fighters has perished."
This felt ruthless that the demigods could no longer forfeit, however, it did not seem to be a problem since the rest of the demigods in the tournament would rather fight till they were fallen.
After relaying the information he had, Abyss finally said his goodbyes before returning to the domain of the Gods.
XVII then took a brief moment before continuing with his announcement.
"The rest of the demigods that made it to the semi-finals will now be announced for clarity," XVII said before announcing the names. "Klaus Walker, Arthur Knight, X, and Lance Knight."
Rose turned her attention to Klaus who was directly beside her as she noticed not a single change in his expression after the announcement. Her worry for him was evident as she asked if he was okay with the rules that were just placed on them. Klaus still had his attention on XVII before he responded to her by saying he was fine. Despite still having her worries lingering in her mind, Rose decided to believe Klaus with his claims before returning her attention to XVII who was about to announce the commencement of the semi-finals.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
"The semi-finals of the Divine Tournament have now commenced and I will now announce the first fighters," XVII announced with all the attention of the demigods on him. "The first battle is... Klaus Walker vs X."
And as this statement was made, all the demigods turned to Klaus. Klaus' expression upon hearing the announcement did not change at all and this felt strange to the other demigods who stared at him with worry.
Noticing the glances, Klaus closed his eyes and let out a soft sigh before he opened them and got up from his seat, walking to the entrance of the battlefield. His eyes displayed a strange presence of rage as he walked into the battlefield behind X.
The two fighters took their position and stared in silence, awaiting the alarm. The silence in the air was painful for the demigods to watch. It felt like both X and Klaus had a silent grudge against each other and both felt like this was where they could put the other in his place. But for the demigods watching, despite the concerns, the current battle would be marked by every single one of them as the most anticipated battle between the demigods.
It was no surprise that Klaus did not like X. He hated his morals, and he also lost devastatingly against him during the Cosmic League, so it felt right for Klaus to have taken the battle seriously. But the expression X had against Klaus felt strange, almost different from what he usually had against the rest of the demigods. He still had rage in his eyes against his opponent, but it did not feel like X was looking down on Klaus the way he usually did before the Divine Tournament's commencement. These were the thoughts that went through Quinn's head before the alarm echoed and the battle between the two fighters commenced.
Immediately, Klaus and X rushed at each other before clashing in hand-to-hand combat. The two fighters swung attacks at each other mercilessly as the rest of the demigods continued to spectate.
The clash continued for a while, which made the spectators wonder how this was the case. Klaus was able to keep up with X. His performance was surprisingly good, rivaling his opponent almost perfectly.
The spectators could not tell what was going through both fighters' heads since X and Klaus clashed in silent rage, but the force both fighters used in their punches was certainly there.
Eventually, X was able to create enough space between his opponent with which he reached for his side arm. Noticing this, Klaus instantly reacted before rushing at his opponent. As X returned his full attention to Klaus, he noticed that as Klaus was moving towards him, a small ball of light began to float behind his opponent. Suddenly, before anybody could react, the ball of light instantly detonated, enveloping the entire battlefield with light.
The light was so bright that the demigods were unable to see what was happening anymore. They squinted their eyes before waiting for the light to subside, which it did after a few seconds.
As the demigods returned their attention to the ongoing battle, they noticed that both fighters were still swinging physical attacks at each other, almost as if the blinding light had not even occurred.
"They're still even?" Quinn asked. "How the heck was X not affected?"
Quinn turned her focus to the other demigods who all looked at her, making her realize that she was usually the one to answer and not question.
"Of course," Quinn commented upon noticing this.
The two fighters continued to brawl as Quinn's surprise at Klaus' growth became even stronger.
"It's strange," Quinn commented, attracting some of the demigods' attention. "How is it that Klaus has closed the significantly clear gap between him and X?"
"You really need to stop asking questions, dude," Ace immediately commented to Quinn. "It just makes us look bad."
"I mean, he did take his training very seriously," Trent mentioned to Quinn.
"Yeah, but so did everyone else," Quinn replied before sighing and whispering to herself in wonder. "These Walkers really are something else."
As this statement was made, the attention of the spectators immediately returned to the fight when the demigods noticed what appeared to be the first attack that had connected. Unsurprisingly, the demigods noticed that X had launched a punch directly at Klaus' face which connected, moving his opponent's face to the left.
However, instead of falling to the ground or reacting to the attack, Klaus remained on his feet, stopping X's fist with his cheek. He then returned his head gradually to his opponent before staring at X with a rage-filled expression. This action surprised X for what seemed to be the first time as he moved back in confusion.
"What?" Ace asked in shock. "Why's it X that retreated?"
X wondered why he had instinctively retreated for a second before he sighed and relaxed his mind. Klaus still had his attention on his opponent as he walked closer in silence. X wondered why Klaus was so passionate in the fight, or at least more passionate than he usually ever was, which made him question what Klaus' objective was.
"Tell me..." X then said for the first time since the battle began. "What makes you fight?"
The silence continued as the demigods watched Klaus continue his approach in silence. It was clear that Klaus did not want to answer the question that was asked, and this made X feel irritated. With this action, X then rushed at his opponent once again, continuing the clash between both fighters.
The fight continued briefly, but unlike before, it seemed like X was having the edge in the battle. Eventually, X was able to outmaneuver Klaus as he evaded an attack sent to him before reaching into one of the pockets of his body armor and pulling out a small dagger. He then turned his body before lunging the dagger directly at the left side of Klaus' face to deal massive damage to his opponent.
In the situation he was in, Klaus knew he was unable to evade the dagger that was swung at him. However, as the blade got closer to his face, Klaus was able to do something that caught everyone off-guard.
As the blade got to Klaus, he gradually tilted his head left from the blade. Doing this, the blade's trajectory changed immediately to his left cheek. Once the blade got to Klaus, it instantly pierced through Klaus' cheek. But this appeared to be Klaus' idea as the blade continued to drive into his mouth which appeared to be wide open. And before the blade could go any deeper, Klaus instantly clenched his teeth shut, biting the blade and stopping it.
X's eyes widened upon realizing what Klaus had done but in his state of shock, Klaus was able to get an opening against his opponent as he pulled X closer before tripping his opponent and grounding him.
X was on the ground.
The shock echoed through every demigod as they stared at the situation. This was the first time X was caught off-guard since any of them knew him. It had already been presumed that it was impossible among them, but seeing it come to fruition brought chills down their spine. But Klaus did not just catch his opponent off-guard, he grounded him. The silent confusion spread among the spectators as they turned to each other in utter surprise.
"What the..." Quinn commented in shock as she witnessed Klaus pull the danger out of his cheek and walk closer to his opponent.
The demigods were surprised, but what X felt was beyond that. He was in complete shock at what had happened to him and his eyes remained widened as he noticed himself on the ground. He returned his attention to his opponent, noticing Klaus standing in front of him and towering over him.
And with the state of confusion that spread, Klaus stood ahead of X with a piercing stare at his opponent before saying two words that elevated the surprise that covered the Arena of Valor tenfold.
"Get up."