After the fight between Tanner and Nathan, the group had sent off for the biggest city in The Empire. This city was called "Utopia". They had no major disturbances on the way there, so they arrived at about 5:00 p.m. and were standing at the front gate.

"Halt, what business do you have here?"

"I, Niki, princess of the Ethyrian Kingdom, have come here as a representative for talk of peace."

All the guards that were present for The Empire bowed on one knee after she said and led the party to the castle. The castle was about the same size as the one in The Citadel so the group of Tanner, Nathan, Joey, and Bree were not that impressed when they saw it. Catia, on the other hand, was wide-eyed and awing at the castle, she had been into the castle at The Citadel but she was still impressed.

Once inside, the guards were to be sent to the barracks to rest and Niki and her Elite Guard, as well as Catia, were sent to the throne room. Everything was laced in gold as like before and Tanner thought that was still stupid and impractical. The Emperor was sitting on his throne as well as his daughter to his right and his wife to his left. They were staring at Niki and her Elite Guard intensely. As they saw Catia, they became disgusted.

"Why is there a slave inside my castle?"

Nathan goes to say something, but Niki holds her hand out to quiet him. She thinks that Nathan's disgusting mouth would surely cause war. 

"She is not a slave, she is a member of the guild, so please show her some respect."

The Emperor did a snobby laugh and looked at Nathan. His eyes narrowed as he started to stare into Nathan's one eye. He wondered why it was red, but he decided to not question it, his aura was that of a human so Nathan could be respected as well of the rest of her guard. They have an aura though, one that looks like his newest Commanders. Maybe they were "Legendary" classes as well. "Oh this could be fun," he thought in his mind.

"I will agree to this peace treaty your father has sent me under one condition, and that is if your Elite Guard enters a tournament that is scheduled to start today."

"Is that really all it will take?"

"Yes, but if you lose then I am forced to see that you are weak and capitalize on seizing your land and country."

Niki looks at the group of adventures she had been forced to bring with, and then she looked at Tanner. She didn't think that they were capable of defeating The Empire's best fighters, but they would have to try.

"We accept."

Joey had accepted the offer before Niki even got the chance to say anything.

"Hoo? It seems that we got a confident one here, show them to the arena and start up the tournament!"

***************************************************

The rules were explained to the group, and they are as follows. They will be put into a 32 team bracket and will be in teams of 2. The teams were decided as Nathan and Tanner as team "Turncoat" and Joey with Bree as the team "Joey and Bree". This was decided because each team could have a healer. Tanner and Nathan went with a team name that was an inside joke whereas Joey and Bree went simple with their names. The only rule for the tournament was no surrender. Apparently, The Empire was a militaristic country and believed fighting was the answer and the strongest were the ones that deserved to rule the world.

It is a very barbaric way to live, but even with that said The Empire was considered one of the strongest countries on the planet and one of the oldest, so they were doing something right. When it came to the brackets, they were 16 on 2 different sides which were the Red and Blue division. Nathan and Tanner were put on the Red division and Joey and Bree on the other. There would be a winner from each division and those winners would be made into The Emperor's commanders for a year and then the tournament would repeat itself unless a state of war was enacted during the tournament period. The commanders from the last year would also be in the tournament to defend their positions.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. the tournament will begin and if you are not here then it is an automatic disqualification.  You are now released."

The group had decided to go shopping around the district and then meet back at their rooms when they were done. They went in the duos that they would be in the tournament. Niki was of course following Tanner and Nathan.

"Are you sure can trust a demon to guard your back? What if he turns on you and kills you?! What if he is actually is a pervert and stares at your butt the whole time?! You don't know what demons are like!"

Tanner just laughs at Niki's remark and Nathan just completely ignores her. "Man, what a messed up head for a 17-year-old princess" is what Nathan thought. Soon they ended up at an armory with a bookstore beside it. Nathan decided to go to the armory to see if he could find an eye patch and Tanner went to the bookstore to see if he could find any interesting books.

Nathan found an eye patch that was enchanted with "Pressure" which Nathan already had, but apparently, it made his "Pressure" more effective than before. Tanner was able to find a book that was called "Enchanting for the Advanced", but it was too much money for how much he had. Niki had seen this and decided to buy the book for Tanner without him knowing and gave it to him outside. He gladly accepted and patted Niki slightly on the head as she was squealing in joy.

Nathan and Tanner decided that they were kinda hungry and they would go to a restaurant and eat lunch together. Niki was able to recognize a fancy restaurant which was back home and was her favorite so they went there. It mainly served high-class items such as steaks and lobster and it was fairly expensive. Niki said she would pay for them since they were protecting her.

Nathan ended up getting a steak and Tanner ended up getting a Shrimp Alfredo. Niki got the salad and they were currently waiting for their food. Tanner was reading his book while Nathan was just staring out the window beside him. Niki became excited as she noticed their food was coming out but as soon as the waitress reached the table next to them, she was tripped by someone. 

Once she was tripped, she ended up spilling all of the food all over Niki. Nathan, who was across from her on the table immediately stood up and had his hand on the sword on his back. He spots the person who trips the waitress and they begin to laugh. They are wearing an Imperial uniform and looked like just a common soldier. 

Niki began to cry from the fact her white clothes wear completely soiled and the waitress was still apologizing and bowing deeply. Tanner looked up from his book and just shook his head. If it turned into a fight then he would get involved because he knew Nathan would handle it for now. 

"Fuck was that for?"

The soldier was accompanied by 3 others and two of them were laughing hysterically, the other one had a pale face. He knew who that woman was and who the other two with her were. He decided to slink back into his chair and not say anything.

The soldier who had tripped the waitress stood up and went face to face with Nathan. He was a Captain and had fought his way up there with pure strength so he wasn't scared.

"Because I felt like it, got a problem boy?"

Nathan began to laugh as soon as he heard the man call him boy. Nathan's one eye began to shine slightly as he was beginning to feel angry and was ready to fight. Right before he went to pull back for a punch, the voice of a little girl could be heard behind the soldier.

"Stop it before you get killed Ramsy."

The soldier turned around quickly and saw one of the four commanders behind him. He went straight into a salute and so did the other soldiers.

"May I ask what you mean Commander Lila?"

"This man could cut you down with one swipe and not feel a single tinge of remorse so I suggest you apologize."

The soldier gritted his teeth as he just heard someone could easily cut him down but Lila was the strategist out of the Commanders and had the All-Seeing Eye. He apologized to the group in a stern voice and sat back down and so did the others. Lila walked up to Nathan and he finally got a good look at her.

She was about 4'5 and looked like she was 11 years old but something was off about her. The scars that were on her cheeks showed she was experienced in fighting and her purple hair shone brightly in the light of the sun. Her eyes were a deep shade of blue. 

Nathan had to stop himself from laughing at how short he was but he could definitely sense a faint amount of power in her. She was looking up at Nathan with judging eyes and finally, she said what she had on her mind.

"Filthy demon."

"I know right."

The once crying Niki had regained her composure and agreed with the small girl. Nathan just shook his head and sat back down. Apparently, they were bringing out new food for them soon and Tanner was still reading his new book. Lila ended up taking the seat next to Nathan and began to stare at Tanner. She stared for a while and finally gave her thoughts on Tanner.

"Beautiful."

"I know right!"

Once again Niki had agreed with Lila and Nathan just sat there and shook his head as he continued waiting for his food.