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The day of the tournament came around and I, along with every student from the academy was sitting with my class in the stands while the general populace was filing into The Arena, but when compared to the number of seats available in The Arena, it was but a small fraction.

The only other time I have seen this many people packed into one location was in my old world when one of my work colleagues had extra tickets and invited me to a football game, but The Arena was smaller than full-on football stadiums, so I was not as impressed when compared to a few students who were busy gawking at their surroundings.

As I looked around, studying the architecture, I noticed at the top of the terraced seating all around the arena, were viewing rooms that had huge panes of glass separating the viewing room from the outside.

I could only assume they were VIP viewing rooms from the fancily dressed people mingling with each other behind the glass.

The other thing that caught my eye was the balcony that was opposite me, sitting just above the wall where The Pit was, it looked like a chunk of the stands was cut out to accommodate the balcony, and on that balcony were Royal Guards in armor that was more decorated than what I usually see at the academy, some administrative types, and two ornate chairs… or were they fancy enough to be counted as thrones? I don't know.

As the people were still filing in to find a seat, a voice sounded over the whole arena like the modern equivalent of an announcement system, “May the participants of the Swordsmanship Duels, please make your way to the contestant hall, I repeat, may the participants of the Swordsmanship Duels, please make your way to the contestant hall. Thank you.”

And that was my queue, I reached down and picked up my cloth-wrapped custom spear after excusing some of my classmates beside me to shift their legs, made sure the sword at my side was properly secured, and made my way to an usher who was holding up signage of where I was supposed to go.

When I reached the contestant hall and the tournament official confirmed that all the Year 5 contestants for the Swordsmanship Duels were present, he got up on stage, “Good, all the contestants are here, we will now draw lots for your position. Form a line and prepare to present your student identification.”

After the line was formed, the first student was called up on stage. The student presented his student identification and the official touched a palm-sized orb to it, almost immodestly, the orb shined blue and the official presented the student with a box with a hole in the top.

“Reach in and pick one piece of paper.” the official said and the student complied, after showing the paper to the official, the official announced, “Roth Dukan, number 16.”.

Upon hearing this, two officials came out from the side of the stage, one of them was on a mobile ladder while the other pushed, and what they used that ladder for was to reach a huge empty tournament board hung above the stage. When they reached the 16th black slot, the official on the ladder filled in Roth Dukan’s name on the blank.

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From there, things went quickly and it was my turn, I got my student ID scanned, pulled a piece of paper out of the box, and handed it to the official, “Luke Ironcrest, number 4.”

At the mention of my name, there was a torrent of whispers as they looked between me and the tournament board, I looked up to the tournament board and saw that in blank slot number 3 was… nobody. Apparently, number 3 was not picked out yet.

After I got down from the stage, I was ushered to the side of the hall while the slot assignment continued.

Halfway down the line where I left off, it finally came, the guy who finally got slot number 3, “Donson Hazat, number 3.” the official announced.

Once again there was a slight commotion that ran through the contestants gathered, they were making sounds like, “Oof”, or the sound made when sucking in thru one’s teeth, mainly all the sounds associated with someone having bad news broken to them. Even Donson was looking crestfallen as he walked down the stage and people gave him reassuring pats on his shoulder as he passed. But seriously, what the hell, is it that bad to fight me?

Eventually, everyone got their number, and the official commenced the briefing of the rules. Essentially, all it boiled down to was that besides no aura and no magic, there were no rules.

Now, one might ask, how is this possible without someone ending up dead or maimed for life? The answer is enchanted bracelets, these enchanted bracelets are supposedly supposed to overlay a mana shield over the wearer’s body, and if the damage to the mana shield reaches a certain threshold, the real mana shield would be deployed to safeguard the wearer.

Naturally, that means the first one who pops their mana shield loses.

After the briefing, we were all chilling while double-checking our equipment, when the hall that was under the arena shook, and even thru the meters of rock, we could hear the roars of the crowds above.

That was when the official that did the drawing of lots was once again on stage, “Contestants number 1 to 8, please follow the ushers to the holding pen.”

On the way to the holding pen, the usher briefed us on what to do once we entered The Pit.

When we reached the holding pen, we could hear the announcer hyping the crowd up, and when the hype part of the announcer’s script was done, the usher got us up and standing single-file in front of the portcullis.

“And without further ado, Your Majesty, Nobles, Ladies, and Gentlemen, may I present the first round of Year 5 contestants!” The announcer drawled out as the crowd went wild.

The portcullis opened and when I stepped out of the protection of the tunnel, I was hit by the wall of sound generated by the cheering audience.

We followed the usher to the balcony where the king, King Argus IV, and beside him, Queen Evelina.

When the usher stopped, we followed suit, then turned to the royals and knelt.

“Your Majesty, may I present the first eight fighters, permission to proceed?” the usher said with a bow.

“Proceed.” the king said with a casual hand wave.

Soon, I was standing in one of four raised stone stages, facing Donson Hazat who was reading his arming sword and kite shield combo. As for me, I pulled the long sock covering my whole spear and unclasped the leather sheath protecting the blade of the spearhead.

I then took my stance and nodded to the referee to let him know I was ready and waited.