After Krune's battle was over, the contestants started to pay attention to him. The guilds higher-ups of the other continents also noticed his presence, especially Yulie Forgon, the Guild Head of the Sky Fall Continent Mercenary Guild. As one can already guess, Shad Forgon is his relative, a grandnephew to be more exactly, noticing Krune's strength made him apprehensive. He was pretty sure that his nephew would get a slot for the Martial Gathering. But now, with Krune there, even if he wins his bracket, Shad will be in poor condition to fight the last seven battles.
He then took a look at Guild Head Bary. He could see he was very calm as if this was totally inside of his expectations. He received the reports the Yule Continent had spread the news about finding a genius, but he totally disregarded such information. Yule Continent geniuses usually wouldn't make much of a difference when compared to theirs. But it seems like that time they really hit the jackpot.
The battles of the first round continued. Seed player after seed player entered the stage, and soon it was Shad Forgon's time in the Sixth arena.
As a place where it rains a lot, more than half of the cultivators of the Sky Fall Continent specialized in the water element. Shad Forgon wasn't different. At the same time, he could control two elements at the moment, Water and Lightning, a pretty standard combination in that place. He was obviously not a common user you could find anywhere since he was put as a seeded Mercenary.
His opponent was an Armored Bull Demon Beast called Houl from the Borle Continent, just like the Thunder Hawk.
The Borler Continent was basically a gigantic forest. At least half of its cultivators were demon beasts, so the Mercenary Headquarters had a lot of them every time a Mercenary Selection happened.
Houl charged at Shad as soon as the battle started. Through his control of earth and wood element, he usually tried to stop his opponent from getting away. His fort was close combat. After all, Shad noticed what he wanted to try but didn't try to flee. He took out his saber and engaged the bull head-on. At first, it looked like an even battle; but those with good perception could see that Shad was only playing around with the bull. He released some water and lightning every time their attacks encountered each other. It didn't seem like much, but that lightning slowly entered the bull's body and was destroying him from inside out.
The bull noticed that the situation wasn't good and tried to increase his defense power with the earth element. But it was of no use, because of the water element that was merged with the lightning; it found its way through the flaws on the defense of the bull. After some time, the bull's combat power started to deteriorate. In fact, if things continued like this, Houl would damage his foundation. So, in the end, he decided to admit defeat.
Shad didn't do anything else after that. Although his battle could be said to be the longest between the seeded players so far, the fact was that he used the smallest amount of spiritual energy between them. One could see that he was magnificent in the arena, only proving that a seeded contestant has a reason to be that.
---
It was finally time for the fifth round where Yusa would take part. She was the one that made a lot of people puzzled. After all, the Yule Continent could only select one-seeded Mercenary. It was basically due to the lesser number of Mercenaries participating in this Selection compared to the other Continents.
Her opponent was another woman from the Ice Continent called Mia Gessa, peak 9th-stage of Foundation Establishment, also a dual-element user. She specialized in Ice and Wind, quite an uncommon combination of elements.
Yusa, of course, didn't know that. Only after the battle started did she find out how unusual such combination was. Mia used the wind element in her movements to keep her distance while shooting several ice icicles and spears from all sides. It was a very annoying combination that trapped the opponent's movements. While doing a considerable amount of damage, her tactic was guerrilla warfare, a very strong combination at the end of the day.
Unfortunately for her, she encountered Yusa. None of her attacks could get even close. The water dragons defense that Yusa kept around her worked as an impregnable fortress. The impressive thing was that the exterior of the water dragons was made of segments of ice; the ice made their armors while the water controlled their segments and heads' movements, Yusa's ice element control was much higher than Mia. So, while Mia's attacks shattered against the water ice dragons, the dragons themselves suffered almost no damage what so ever.
Mia saw her tactics wouldn't work. And she was only wasting her energy. She switched from several small random attacks to more powerful ice attacks. She saw that Yusa basically wasn't moving away from her place, and she wanted to break through the dragon's defense using brute force. But, in the end, it was useless. The difference between the control of their ice elements was just too big. Yusa's water ice dragons sturdiness was simply much better than any of Mia's attacks. After a few minutes of tries, Mia finally gave up and waited to see what Yusa would do.
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Yusa looked at Mia and smiled.
"That was a fascinating use of wind and ice. I've never seen that before! If it weren't me, I believe you would have a good chance of getting a good position in this Selection."
Mia heard that and frowned.
"You can't beat me if you don't attack either. Can you even hit me at all?"
Yusa just kept smiling. She felt a little sad she had to eliminate one of the few women in this Selection, but there was no other choice. So she sighed and pointed her hand forward.
Immediately, an enormous water prison that covered almost one-fourth of the arena appeared. The area it covered was so big that even with her wind element movement, Mia didn't have time to escape before being trapped inside. But if she was fast enough, it would be useless, because Yusa could that moment move the water prison around as she liked. Mia then tried to use her Ice element to create a barrier around her body. She didn't expect to receive an electric shock even before she could concentrate. Yusa might best at support, but it doesn't mean that her attacks were weak at all!
It took only a few seconds for Mia finally lost consciousness inside the gigantic water prison. All of that happened while she was still controlling the Water Ice Dragons around her. It finally downed to everyone that the Yule Continent Seeded contestant wasn't weak at all. Yusa could also control three elements simultaneously, and she was obviously extremely proficient at that.
The referee had no need to take action. He could see that Yusa wasn't planning to really hurt the other girl after Mia passed out. The water prison was released, and the person taking care of the cultivators' injuries entered the arena. They soon noticed that Mia was excellent and just needed some rest. Then, they took her out, and the referee announced Yusa's victory.
Yusa was the only seeded mercenary fighting in this round. Thus, the other seed mercenaries paid a lot of attention to her. Some of them were relieved she was selected as a seed contestant. They definitely wouldn't want to battle someone like that before the eight winners were decided. Krune and Ao watched everything and just smiled. No one knew Yusa's power better than them! Her victory was assured the moment they noticed Mia's combat power.
Yusa came down from the arena, sighing.
'If it were Krune, he would simply use my water prison to take a bath. Because of his practice with the Tribulation Lightning, normal lightning attacks could barely do anything to him at that moment. That was considering I could catch him inside my prison at all. that dammed lightning movement fused with some tribulation lightning was just too fast!'
'As for Ao, I reckon that he would slice my prison in half with brute force. Well, at least he can't break my defense easily, so it's always hard to say which of the two of us would win in the end.'
She found Mia's attacks interesting. That combination of ice and wind wasn't something you saw every day, but that was all. She hadn't felt the least bit of danger from start to finish.
---
The battle continued. No seeded players had lost in the end. But Krune wasn't the only dark horse so far; there were another two who stood out. A cultivator, called Deno Baril from the Sky Fall continent, was in the Third Arena, much for Tasier's dissatisfaction. The other was a Water Dragon called Drorne, from the Ice Continent, who was in the First Arena. Just like the Earth Dragon Krune fought in the past, that Water Dragon also wasn't a real dragon but had a good concentration of dragon blood in its body.
After the first round was over, the Mercenaries got two hours to rest. The second round would continue after that. Krune noticed he had quite some time free, so he called the others over.
"It's almost lunchtime anyway, so I'm going to make some food, you guys want some?"
They immediately nodded. Except for watching the seed mercenaries' battles, they were pretty much bored. So, eating and drinking something would help improve their moods.
Another wave of fragrant food appeared somewhere close to the arenas. The Yule Continent people didn't even think twice and asked if they could join as well. They were willing to pay for the ingredients used. Krune just shook his head and told them to help organize the tables instead. Surprisingly, Bary Casfiu came over to join the fun. He simply didn't care about his status anymore. Making sure to have a good relationship with Krune and the others was his number-one priority after what he saw in the first round.
While a lot of cultivators spent their time concentrated for the next round, the Yule Continents contestants and even those who lost already chatted and ate happily. It could also be said to be a way of releasing their stress as well, or maybe an attack at their opponents. They could feel quite a few jealous eyes fixed on them, but those outside didn't dare to ask for food anymore. Otherwise, their guild higher-ups would rebuke them once again.
Almost two hours had passed. Krune and everyone else was back to the side of their arenas. Except for Krune's group, which hasn't felt any tension so far, the rest of them felt a lot more relaxed. It was also shown during their own battles; surprisingly, even Turi Belane had joined the feast before. After noticing that neither Krune nor Ao seemed to take his previous actions to heart, his worries disappeared, and he performed much better. He could even defeat his opponent whose people thought to be stronger than him, and like that, advancing to the third round.
The battle in the second arena finally started again, and that time, Ao would be fighting. He got the first battle of the second arena; on top of that, his opponent was a cultivator from the Makui Continent. His name was Pesque Kaen, specialized in Fire and Earth elements.
Pesque was feeling very lucky. Yule Continent is known for most of the times to have the weakest cultivators in the Mercenary Selection. Since two dark horses have already appeared in the sixth and eighth arenas, how could there be another one here in the second? He thought only Ao was present in the second round due to his luck to be exempt from the first-round battles.
Unfortunately for him, he just had to encounter Ao Sulian at that time.