The next few minutes were nothing like anyone had expected. Two berserkers began to punch each other relentlessly without blocking. They weren’t using mana either, so it was basically a dog fight. The only one who was enjoying the battle was Brett. He watched the whole thing with a big smile on his face. Ten minutes later, both Liam and Hugh were lying on the ground, breathing heavily.

“Hahahaha!”

Brett laughed and got up.

“Hey, kid! From now on, you are in my team!”

He pointed towards Hugh. He wanted both, but Liam was already in a team. Hugh smiled and raised his thumb. The battle ended with a draw.

‘What a weird fight.’

Elius thought to himself.

“According to a book I’ve analyzed, that is common between berserkers. In old times they had a festival held once a year. Everyone was gathering and fighting with brute force. It is not that common now, though.”

‘Hmm. Have you done analyzing all of the books?’

“Not yet. It’ll be over in an hour.”

While talking with Elly, Elius forgot to check his ID, but of course, it wasn’t glowing again.

“Good luck.”

Ian said to Neil.

“Yeah, you’re going to need it.”

Nora chuckled.

‘Ohh, it’s the first time I’m going to see the prince in action.’

Neil’s opponent was Allen. He was also smiling like Elius, which made Neil a little irritated.

“It’s an honor, prince.”

Allen said politely while taking out his sword. He had a long, dark red sword.

“Let’s end this quickly.”

Allen smiled after hearing that.

“As you wish.”

And he ran towards Neil. Neil quickly responded to that and closed the distance between them. He tightly held the hilt of his katana, which was still in its sheath, and drew it quickly, aiming at Allen. It was one of his fastest attacks, but Allen was also fast. He effortlessly countered the attack, and due to the collision of two swords, sparks scattered around. But they weren’t ordinary sparks. Before Neil could respond, they blew like a bomb. It was similar to what Elius did against Idarin, but they weren’t that powerful. The dust slowly dispersed. Allen knew it wouldn’t be that effective, but he at least expected to do some damage. Unlike his expectation, something glowed between the dust and flew towards Allen. He quickly stepped back but still got grazed at the chest. Even though it was a slight scratch, he felt like something was burning in his chest. Then he saw Neil and the glowing shield around him.

‘Oh ho, he has light magic.’

Allen said inwardly while Neil was preparing to strike again. Then, suddenly, with quick movements, Neil unleashed a series of attacks. He was almost twice as faster now, but Allen smiled instead of panicking.

‘Good, that’s how it should be. But… Even with the light magic, you are slow.’

Allen took another step back, and his dark red sword engulfed in flames. The heat that his sword radiated almost reached the others who were watching. He swung his sword without wasting time, and flames followed his will. Every time he swung, flames appeared around him and attacked Neil.

That caused cracks to appear on Neil’s shield, and with Allen’s next attack, it completely shattered, but Allen’s sword had no intention to stop there and kept going towards Neil’s body and stabbed him in the stomach. Or so he thought. Neil’s image melted like a mirage, and Allen felt something behind him. He was just about to get sliced, but another sword appeared on his empty hand and deflected Neil’s katana. Neil was taken aback by the sudden appearance of the other sword. It was identical to the first one. Before Neil could get his composure back, Allen began an onslaught on him. He was faster now, more precise, more serious. His attacks were heavier than before. Hence, all Neil could do was try to defend himself. After deflecting so many heavy blows, his hands began to shake, and finally, with another strike, his katana flew away. It was Neil’s defeat. He bit his lip, turned around, and left the arena without saying anything. His hands were covered with burns, but he didn’t care.

‘Nice, that Allen kid has good qualities. I can tell he was holding back.’

Leon inwardly smiled and set his eyes on Allen.

‘Why does he always have a dissatisfied expression?’

Elius was silently watching the frustrated Neil.

“Can’t you hear?”

‘Hear what?’

“People who are talking about him.”

‘No. How do you hear? What do they say?’

“If I scatter some mana around, I can hear them, can’t you?”

‘No, I can’t. What do they say?’

“You really can’t? It is weird. Hmm.”

‘What do they say?!’

Elius yelled inwardly.

“They are laughing. ‘Pfft, is this the prince?’ ‘Wow, being a prince but still being suck must be hurt.’ ‘Hahaha, nothing compared to her sister. Isn’t he ashamed of being here?’ They are whispering things like that.”

Elius frowned because he didn’t like what he had just heard from Elly.

‘Cowards, if you are going to say, at least say it out loud! Is it fun to make fun of someone behind his back?’

Elius shook his head and decided to focus on the tournament at the moment. They kept going, nothing unusual happened, but still, Elius’ ID didn’t glow. There were now only four more students left for the first round. They were Elius, Ian, Eldron, and Sean. Elius felt tired even though he didn’t fight yet. He didn’t even try to check his ID this time.

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‘Of course, it is not me again.’

He sighed. On the bright side, it was guaranteed that he was next since there were only him and Ian now.

“Look like we are opponents.”

Ian said calmly.

“Ah yes, it’s been a long time since we fought last time. I hope they finish quickly.”

He turned his attention back to the arena. Eldron and Sean were already there.

‘Hmm, that Sean kid, I have no information about his background even though I’ve searched. Let’s see what he got.’

Idarin said to himself.

“Ahh, finally. Hey, I’m giving you a chance to forfeit, just leave, and I won’t turn you into a disabled person.”

Sean said with an arrogant tone, but Eldron’s expression didn’t change, and he gave a deadly glare to Sean.

“Troublesome…”

Sean sighed and began to walk towards Eldron.

“Come on, come on, at least entertain me.”

He quickly rushed towards Eldron. Sean was an assassin, so he was fast, almost too fast for Eldron to follow with his eyes. Eldron raised his glaive to protect himself, but he couldn’t react to Sean, and his arm was bleeding now. It wasn’t a deep cut, so it didn’t affect Eldron’s movements much. This time he tried to attack but suddenly lost sight of Sean and felt a pain in his other arm. Sean put some distance between them.

“Pfft. All that glare was for nothing?”

He arrogantly smiled and pointed to the other arena.

“You belong there.”

He began to attack again. As time passed, Eldron’s body was covered with more wounds. At the same time, Sean was constantly trash-talking him.

“How can he keep calm. I would be livid right now.”

Elius said.

“Yeah, ask me about it. Who does he think he is?”

Nora answered with an angry smile. Unlike how they see Eldron from outside, he was in turmoil inside but not because some guy was trash-talked.

‘Shit! I’ve been working my ass off. For what?’

Eldron was even using his fire magic, but it wasn’t helpful either.

‘Pfft. I just came here to observe their threat level, but I guess I just wasted a week of my life. So let’s finish this quickly.’

Sean thought to himself and attacked Eldron one last time. This time surprisingly, Eldron was able to block. Sean saw his frowning face.

“Oh! Oh, I just remembered. You are the guy that came with his parents on the first day, right?”

Sean began to laugh.

“Hahaha, a kid who comes here with his parents trying to be an adventurer. Ahh, how cute. Won’t you cry out in the world without your mama?”

That was a line Sean shouldn’t have crossed. Eldron loved his parents. They always supported him, and they always showed him love. Hence, hearing someone bad-mouthing about them made him angry. Sean made Eldron fall on his butt and leaned into his ear.

“It doesn’t matter anyway. They will be dead in a few weeks and if you want to follow them, just ask me. I’ll gladly send you next to them.”

He whispered to Eldron’s ear. As soon as Eldron heard that, he felt like he was suffocating and couldn’t think straight.

‘W-what?’

Sean turned towards where the adventurers were sitting and waved at them.

“I’m lucky to have you here, Mr. Emperor.”

Then he smiled again. Nobody understood what was going on at first. Then, Sean took out a little black stone, and his body began to cover with black mist, like clouds. That stone was something like a one-time teleportation device. Idarin’s eyes widened as soon as he understood what was going on.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t do anything to stop what’s about to come.”

Idarin tried to teleport to the arena quickly, but he couldn’t use his magic for some reason.

‘What the hell?’

Then he realized the black shadow around Sean also dispersed. It was usually impossible to stop teleportation in the process unless you were a strong mage. But currently, the strongest mage in presence was Idarin, and he wasn’t able to use magic. Not just him, also the other adventurers couldn’t do anything. Sean was panicking.

“W-what?”

“I recommend you to evacuate immediately!”

‘What? Why?’

Eldron got up, the flames around him slowly turned black, and his glaive began to cover with black lightning. Suddenly an immense pressure pressed everyone from above. He stomped on the ground, and the whole arena almost shattered into pieces. The shakings of the ground caused Sean to fall on his back.

“Why is everyone falling on their knee.”

For some reason, Elius wasn’t affected.

Then he shouted.

“Eldron, stop!”

“Elius, stay away!”

‘No.’

He was already moving towards the arena. Nobody saw at that time except Sean. Eldron’s eyes turned into something terrifying. It was like a reptile’s eyes. His pupil changed into a thin line, and he swung his glaive to the terrified Sean. Out of fear, he wasn’t able to move. Reflectively he raised his arms to protect himself, but Elius was already between them, and he tried to stop Eldron’s glaive with his staff. All Idarin and Aaron could do were watch what was happening. When Eldron’s glaive met with Elius’ staff, a strong shockwave pushed everyone back, and Elius felt the taste of blood in his mouth.

“You have internal bleeding.”

Elius slowly looked at his chest. There was a big cut, and blood was pouring. He tried to use his healing spell, but it didn’t do anything.

“Shit.”

He felt like he had lost all the power in his body and fell onto one knee. At the same time, Sean was also screaming in pain.

“AHHH!”

Even though Elius intervened, both of Sean’s hands were cut off. He desperately tried to pick up the black stone with his arms but failed. Finally, the pressure disappeared, and Eldron fell to the ground. He wasn’t moving. Idarin felt his powers coming back to him, so he quickly teleported to the arena and calmly took the black stone that Sean was trying to pick up.

“Let’s have a little chat, shall we?”

Idarin smiled and said to Sean. Meanwhile, adventurers were checking the students, and Sharon was healing Elius.

‘What kind of wound is this? It looks like a simple cut, but even I can’t heal it quickly.’

It took a few minutes for her to heal Elius completely, but she felt like she needed a rest after that. Aaron also approached Sean.

“Kid, what is the meaning of this?”

He asked in a deep voice. Sean had already lost so much blood, and his consciousness was slowly fading away.

“Oh, he fainted.”

Idarin said but flinched with the sudden change in the atmosphere. Sean’s body began to twitch, and his hands healed instantly. His complexion became pale, and red lines appeared throughout his body, starting from under his eyes.

“Interesting.”

Idarin calmly said and approached Sean. Before he could finish his transformation, Idarin snapped his fingers and made him faint again.

“That should do it.”

Then he turned towards Aaron.

“Hey, could you lock him underground? You know where it is.”

“What are you going to do?”

Aaron asked curiously. Idarin looked at the stone he was holding.

“Black moonstone. It can only take you to predetermined places. I’ll have a visit.”

He smiled like crazy.

“No, wait.”

Aaron tried to stop him, but it was too late. Black clouds enveloped Idarin, and he disappeared.