Immediately as Asten activated his skill, the light Nico’s skill emitted gained a devastating damaging, armor-piercing, magical quality. The rays of the sun were enough to deal crippling damage to most foes on its own, and Nico’s light was all the deadlier. The only reason we could stand against it without dying was that Nico was a fire elemental, Asten held resistance skills to his own abilities, and I had my draconic scales and a large mana pool to rely on as an elemental. The Hoplites, however, weren’t so fortunate.
“Stand up and cover us in earth walls!” Nisos ordered the earth mage on his team, who was writhing on the ground like most of his team.
“Kiara.” Asten said.
“On it!”
I finally stopped feeding magma into the magma sphere, which had already grown large enough to dwarf the three of us beneath it; how big it actually was wasn’t easy to tell because of Nico’s burning light. Regardless, it was enough to do the job and prevent them from hiding beneath the earth.
With a swing of my arm, the magma ball descended from the sky like the fall of an angry titan. It slammed into the ground, throwing up large piles of melting sand and crystallizing glass; instead of instantly spilling over into the surrounding sands, the magma ball maintained most of its shape as its viscosity fought to delay the magma’s spread.
My mana vision detected six small mana explosions at the heart of the magma, and the world rapidly dissolved as we returned to the coliseum grounds.
***
The entire coliseum was quiet, with no hint of the loud cheers that occupied it mere minutes before. No one, not the crowd, the commentator, the referee, or even the Hoplites themselves made a move to say anything as they stared at us in pure, unadulterated shock.
Asten, however, had no issues being the first to break the silence.
“Honorable referee, I believe you ought to announce the results.” He said nonchalantly.
The referee blinked in surprise before raising his arm.
“T-The Tameryian Suns have won the match!”
At that moment, the crowd’s cheers erupted so loudly it nearly shook the skies above and the earth beneath.
“UNBELIEVABLE! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE JUST WITNESSED THE GREATEST DISPLAY OF RAW POWER BEFORE OUR VERY EYES!” the commentator yelled, his voice cracking as he leaned over his table.
“THE SUNS HAVE COME OUT TO PROVE TO ANY DOUBTERS THAT TAMERY IS STILL MIGHTY AS EVER, AND THAT THEIR NAME WAS NO MERE METAPHOR! WITH THE WHOLE WORLD STANDING WITNESS, THE MESSAGE THEY SENT HAS SURELY BEEN ENGRAVED INTO ALL OF OUR HEARTS!”
Asten stepped forward to meet with Nisos at the center of the stage and shake his hand while the rest of the crowd was going wild.
“We never had a chance.” Nisos laughed and rubbed the back of his head.
“I’d thought our best chance at a tie, or even a win, was to prevent you from getting your one-on-one matches. What a blunder.”
“For what it’s worth, you’ve made the correct decision with the information you had. I would have done the same in your place. I look forward to seeing your team in the knock-out stage, should you ultimately qualify for it.”
The two shook hands and parted, and we headed to the exit to report to the major.
***
As the rest of the round’s matches concluded, quite a few surprises emerged for us. The shield-brothers chose to forfeit their match against the Warforged, and the Knights and the Lances managed to mutually annihilate each other in the team battle, resulting in a draw.
The real upset, however, was the Tyrian Torrents crushing the Kengir Bulls after winning the coin toss and choosing the open sea again, giving the Ionian Hoplites the seat to the next stage of the tournament.
Group 1
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Gallic Shield-Brothers
4
Romellus Legionnaires
6
Tameryian Suns
6
Kengir Unbroken
5
Castillian Matadors
2
Frankish Lances
1
Tyrian Torrents
2
Aragonese Roses
2
Ionian Warforged
6
Brittania Knights
1
Ionian Hoplites
3
Tyrian Patrons
0
Sicilian Stars
0
Tameryian Gale
4
Kengir Bulls
1
Germanic Titans
5
With that, the group stage was finally over, and the captains of the eight winning teams led their teams to the coliseum once more in a repeat of the opening ceremony. Consul Yulius Ceazar stood before us with another box in front of him, with a tournament graph being projected throughout the coliseum overhead. After a short speech congratulating all qualifying teams and thanking the rest for their efforts, he called up the captain of the Shield-Brothers to the stage. One by one, the captains drew lots once more, and the tournament brackets slowly but surely filled out.
“Thank you for your patience, citizens, provinciales, and foreign guests. The next stage of the team tournament hereby begins; may the strongest team win!”
As the crowd cheered, I stared at the match ups awaiting us deep in thought.
https://i.imgur.com/w8WSBbF.png [https://i.imgur.com/w8WSBbF.png]
“Seems like we’re getting a tough fight every single match. And of course, our first match is against one of the strongest teams in the tournament.” Asty sighed.
“Can you name a single opponent on this list that would be an easy fight?” Durreg asked, much to Asty’s chagrin.
I, however, was incredibly excited. I couldn’t wait to take on Spartacus and see what he’s got. That said, I wasn’t too thrilled to see the Hoplites pitted against the Gale; one of them was getting knocked out of the tournament right at the start.
The event, meanwhile, didn’t wait for me to stew in my thoughts, as the Consul finished his concluding speech, and the flagbearers at the side began leading us their teams out of the grounds.
“By the way, when are the top 64 going to be selected for the individuals’ tournament? This one’s already halfway over, and that one’s yet to start.” I asked.
“They said, the end of the week, Kiara.” Nico answered.
“That means by tonight, we’ll have our qualified fighters.”
Huh.
***
“Good work, all of you. Well done qualifying for the knockout stage.” The Major said, with a rare smile on her face.
Standing behind her were a few of her aides, hurriedly laying down plate after plate on a large dining table that somehow made its way to the observation room.
“By making it this far, you have already done your duty and earned the right to celebrate.”
Asty gaped.
“Somebody pinch me. Is the Major being nice to us?!”
Major Amset expertly ignored Asty’s comment as she carried on with her announcement.
“It is also my pleasure to inform you that the Pharaoh herself has taken note of your accomplishments and is awaiting your return to personally reward you for your service to the Theocracy.”
The whole team, except for Asten and Aptera, stared at the Major.
“What are you waiting for?” she yelled.
“The break before the individuals’ tournament won’t last forever!”
That was all it took for the rest of us to descend on the table like a pack of starved hyenas. Delicious pizzas with stretchy cheese, plates of something called a ‘Cezar Salad,’ and a whole bunch of other exotic food and drink fell prey to the hungry teams.
Meanwhile, I caught the Major saying something to Asten in private. The two of them headed out of the room, leaving the rest of us to eat.
I am probably imagining it, but I had a feeling that both of them were slightly on-guard.
“Kiara, if you don’t want to eat, don’t worry. I’ll be happy to relieve you of all that pesky food!” Durreg said with a cheeky grin.
“Don’t you dare, you dirt-munching raccoon!”
***
The rest of the day went by as I fought in the individuals’ tournament. Most of my fights were spent beating lower-ranked fighters who threatened my position in the leaderboard, and the few times I faced a higher-ranked opponent ended with them forfeiting against me. When I asked why, one of them said there was no point revealing their abilities when both first place and 64th would qualify her all the same.
I also ended up being matched against Asten, where we decided to toss a coin for which of us ought to forfeit. Neither of us was eager to reveal each others’ abilities to the crowd. I lost the coin toss, so I gave up that match, and I dropped from fourth place to 47th.
I headed for my last match of the day, eager to get it over with and head back to bed.
At least I was, until I found out who my opponent would be.
“It’s you.” He said.
Alanus stood before me, having made his way to the 61st place on the leaderboard. My fist tightened as I felt my rage bubbling from within my chest.
“Alanus. What a pleasant surprise.” I spat.
While I wasn’t planning on taking my revenge just yet, beating the bastard up also wasn’t opportunity I’d pass up on.