With the completion of the C block preliminaries, the D block bracket could now commence. They put out the opponents immediately The trio studied the format and immediately noticed her luck, she was the very first fight in this bracket style tournament and would fight one-on-one until a winner was decided. She was also lucky enough to get seated, this meant that she only had to win three matches to become the champion of D block. Her first opponent was a man named Bristleback, a creature that looked to be a cross between a tortoise and a porcupine. Bristleback stood six foot two but weighed nearly three hundred pounds, his skin looked dry and course like treated leather the shell on his back was coated in long, hard, sharp bristles that extended nearly two feet in length.

'I imagine he may be able to use those things as projectiles,' thought Tempest who had already began analyzing her opponent. Bristleback, even with his tortoise like appearance, did not move slowly. As he walked around as if the shell on his back weighed nothing at all. The shell was clearly hard, and the shell wrapped around his chest and legs providing him some frontal armor albeit not as strong as the back of his shell. He wore leather pants that were lightly armored on the thighs and shins and his weapon of choice was a spiked ball flail. The armor plate embedded on his thigh bore a symbol of an hourglass etched in a silver tree, the Silverwood Paradox guild. The contestants had five minutes between the time their match was announced and when they were required to step onto the platform. The roar of the crowd portraying their excitement for the fight to come. "This fight won't be as easy as you think! I just recently joined the guild so this was the only block I could participate in," Bristleback taunted. He dashed towards Tempest and began to throw punches, kicks, and elbows while Tempest either dodged or blocked. Bristleback did not brag about his strength for no reason, the man was powerful, and because of that Tempest focused more on dodging rather than blocking. No only was the man powerful, but he was skilled and agile as well, whenever there was a gap in his attacks Tempest went to make an attack of her own but would have to stop it part way when he'd quickly spin on the spot exposing his incredibly sharp quills. [Predatory Gaze]

"HAHA what was that? You think your scary look is enough to frighten me!" Yelled Bristleback. Tempest retreated quickly and began to throw out severing claw attacks, Bristleback slid onto his stomach while spinning on his elbows and knees for the quills to shoot out of his shell at high velocities. Tempest was only able to dodge a bit of them and took some damage. Bristleback got to his feet looking smug while Tempest watched as the quills in his back quickly regrew and replaced themselves. Bristleback stopped his laughing as he watched Tempest take out each of his quills and saw her wounds were healing just as quickly as the quills in his back grew. [Telekinesis] an invisible energy grabbed Bristleback and started to force him off the platform, but to Tempest the energy looked like a green electric fence. Her victory was cut abruptly short when Bristleback forced himself out of her magic hold. "You're much more dangerous than you let on aren't you?" He questioned. He returned to attacking her mixing between attacking with his flail and shooting out quills, but Tempest was much quicker than she looked. 'This would be so much easier if I could transform,' she thought to herself as she invoked her invisibility skill. "I guess it can't be helped," Tempest sighed has her hand began to enlarge and razor sharp claws extended quickly from her fingertips. She quickly and quietly got the her opponents back and struck her claws through the quills and all as Bristleback cried out and fell forward. Tempest revealed herself from her invisibility, her hand had returned to normal. People in the stands, however, stood up. Some could see onto the platform while others had to view the viewing screen, a screen that played what a particular magic imbued crystal viewed. There were massive claw marks deep into Bristleback's shell, the quills there refused to grow back and would remain gone until he received some magical healing. 'What in the world happened,' he pondered, 'my shell is harder than most rock, capable of breaking great axes that come into contact with it but she tore right through it? What did she attack with she isn't holding any weapons.' He started to sweat as both fear and pain started to invade his body and mind.

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[Predatory Gaze]

'It wasn't a trick of the mind,' thought Bristleback who now broke out into a cold sweat as he began to hyperventilate as if he couldn't catch his breath, 'This is the second time I am seeing this, is this a skill? Why is it affecting me now? I made a mistake...my whole body is screaming at me I cannot compete with her.' Tempest smiled as she took a step forward, a very methodical step, Bristleback took a step back as if he wanted to turn and run but his body remain frozen in place. People often refer to being scared as fight or flight, the bodies survival mechanism to fight or run away to preserve one's life, however they forget about the third. When the fear is so great that the mind erases the options of retaliation or escape and becomes paralyzed. Being rooted in place Bristleback resorted to the only thing he felt would work for him, while raising his hand high into the air, "I surrender," he announced in a loud but unsteady voice. Tempest stopped her advance and retreated off the platform, the match had ended.

The next several matches were as interesting as the first; an elf and a bearfolk fought against each other with the bearfolk coming out on top due to his high defense, then it was a naga versus a dhampir which was a much closer match up as the both men were incredibly fast and powerful. The naga ended up pulling ahead due to his superior flexibility even though the naga had to get healing in order to take part in the next match. The next couple matches were all human contestants a ranger based versus a guardian based and a magic castor type versus a berserker type, the ranger won versus the guardian though it took quite a while due to the guardian's high defense but lack of offensive move set. The berserker won against the mage due to his high magic resistance and quick maneuverability, the magic user just did not have many spells to keep the distance between them advantageous, additionally, he did not posses the skills to cast in motion. He was only able to accomplish that with his most basic spells. The bearfolk then went against the berserker and came out on top moving him to the final round, meaning whoever won whether the bear of his opponent would then face Tempest. The naga fought the ranger and managed a victory in this fight as well but significantly better than his fight with the dhampir. The naga utilized water magic for long range keeping the ranger off balance while simultaneous closing the distance. He managed to trap a trident made out of water underneath the neck of the ranger forcing him to forfeit the match for a win. This left the semi finals of the bearfolk versus the naga and the crowd was wild with anticipation.

"This may be a stupid question, " Skadi asking those around her, "but what is the difference between a naga and a lamia?" A good majority of those around them did not have the answer to the question, they appeared very similar, but one man from the back had answered. He was an aquamancer dressed in blue robes, glasses and long black hair tied into a ponytail.

"I studied the Naga because they are masters of water magic and I wanted to improve my own magic; they are part of an overarching Meranths race but specifically Slithereens, which are mainly aquatic race that can breath both air and water. Lamia on the other hand are not aquatic and belong to the Serpentes race."

The bearfolk was black in color and stood roughly eight feet tall, while the naga who was not as tall still had a similar length to the height of the bear. It was going to be quite the match up. The naga began by taking out his pressurized water trident while the bear magically elongated his claws, the bear was able to extend his limbs as if made of rubber and attacked from a distance using his now two foot long razor sharp claws. It was a strange fight to watch, the bear was quite agile and his leg or arm would randomly extend during the fight making it hard for the naga to predict what was going to happen. The fight was so incredibly even that both contestants were wounded and out of breath and still no winner had been decided. The naga then did something no one expected and shot a water bullet out of his mouth. The bullet pierced the bear's shoulder and stopped him from using that arm, then immediately following the first one he shot out another one, however, this one was so large it covered his whole body and blasted him right out of the ring. The crowd was roaring when the announcer shouted in his best showman voice, "The final match up between Tempest and the naga Wave is about to begin!"