Chapter 8

Moira watched as Alerius slowly climbed the platform as his turn to pick marbles from the boxes had arrived. The guy had brought more problems for her House than he had solved. Her father had wanted to hide the fact that she had reached the Underlord Realm especially from House Kapulya so when he had learned that The Patriarch for House Kapulya wanted Moira to marry his son, her father had come up with a plan to fake her betrothal to this nobody.

Their betrothal had made it possible for her to avoid marring Marcus Kapulya but it had also led to House Ururu to being in a passive position as her House now had to wait for a reaction from House Kapulya. It was closer to a year now since that incident but House Kapulya had remained silent.

Neither House would benefit if they fought this close to the Ascensions Gates appearance. That was why her father had chosen to fake the betrothal instead of just saying no. Saying no would have brought the two Houses into open conflict and the betrothal was supposed to stop that from occurring because Alerius was supposed to serve as a focus for House Kapulya's wrath. That way House Kapulya would have publicly saved face but their silence had disrupted her fathers plan to avoid conflict.

She thought Alerius was very lucky. Because of House kapulya's silence, other Houses had forbidden their people from interacting or harassing Alerius during his stay at the Academy thus the guy had spent his year at the academy in peace.

Moira stopped looking at Alerius, she searched the students until she located the 3 students who were members of her House and her mouth curled down with contempt.

Each House in Zophia could send 9 members of their House to attend the academy every year except for House Kapulya which could send 10 but earlier this year, her father had given five spots to other Houses in exchange for refusing to accept Alerius into their Houses. This had angered the Elders and the Elders those 3 were related to were the most vocal about it.

Fools! she thought, the Elders shall be put in there place soon enough.

She tore her gaze away from the 3 students and focused back on Alerius when she heard the sound of the bell that signified that the tournament was about to start.

She had come to the stadium to observe how Alerius would perform. She had veiled her Power and woven a powerful illusion on her face that even an Underlord would have a hard time seeing through it from a distance. People only saw Paste Phase cultivator in her thirties when they looked at her and since those were not rare, no one paid her much attention.

Alerius's number must have been called for she saw him climb a platform which was near the end.

She identified Alerius's opponent as a core member of House Mati from the City Soln from the colors on his badge. House Mati was not a very powerful House so she was hopeful that Alerius's defeat would not be humiliating fast. Moira didn't think someone with Alerius's background and Talent could win a House Core Member because Core members were exposed to cultivational elements from a young age while Alerius joined a house in less than Year.

Unless he is hiding something.

Alerius had appeared exactly at a time when her House needed someone not connected to other houses, coupled with House Kapulya's silence. Moira suspected that he might be connected to that house in some way.

When the fight began, Alerius's opponent conjured 3 balls of fire which started circulating around his body. One circulated his legs, the second his torso and the last one his face.

The fire balls would discourage Alerius from getting closer while leaving him free to attack Alerius from a distance. This type of defense was favored by many cultivators who liked attacking from a distance instead of an Aura Shield because an Aura Shield stopped both an opponents attack as well as your own.

The guy from House Mati then conjured another fireball which then flew towards Alerius. Alerius appeared dazed and only dodged at the last minute. Another fired went Alerius's way as Alerius tried to get closer to his opponent and he managed to dodge again. This continued for a while and from Alerius's actions it looked like he didn't have any long ranged magical skills.

Alerius got as close as he could without getting burned by the rotating fire balls and then started going around his opponent while dodging fire balls. Moira could see that Alerius was tired and his speed started reducing and from the smirk on his opponents face, it was evident that the guy also came to the same conclusion and he increased the rate at which he was throwing the fire balls.

This continued until one fire ball went directly at Alerius chest and it appeared that he would not be able to dodge it and in desperation alerius dived to the ground where he lied flat on the floor while the fire ball passed over him.

Moira was puzzled by Alerius's behavior, the guy had not displayed any magical skills from the beginning. From the report she got, Moira knew that Alerius had bought the Hope portion when he had reached the Paste Phase and shortly after that all his attributes had increased.

Had he used up all the Life Energy he got from the Hope Portion on attributes alone without leaving some for skills?

If that was true then Alerius would lose all his matches because it was impossible to win against a cultivator without magic of your own. It was also very difficult to be skilled at Aura manipulations without using Aura Blue prints and very few people could get very skilled at it in less than a year without memory crystals.

Moira knew that Alerius would find it difficult to continue dodging from the ground. His opponent made a gesture and all the fireballs circulating flew towards Alerius at the same time.

Alerius made no effort of moving and remained flat on the ground. Seeing this odd reaction, Moira activated her innate ability; True Sight, which allowed her to see all forms of energy.

She had to restrain her self from laughing out loud after what she saw.

Alerius's opponent's face lit up with glee when fire balls hit Alerius. His eyes then widened with confusion when the fire balls passed harmlessly through Alerius leaving him intact. He must have realized that the Alerius on the ground was an illusion and when he tried to conjure an Aura Shield, Alerius with his body clothed in lightening suddenly appeared in front of him and then punched him in the stomach. The lightening must have paralyzed him because he didn't get up after that.

Alerius picked up his opponent and then walked to the edge of the platform and dropped him outside.

Moira smiled when she remembered how Alerius had tricked his opponent in order to win. Alerius had been pretending that he wasn't skilled from the beginning. Her innate ability had allowed her to see when he had created the illusion of himself at the time he had fallen. He had turned invisible and moved to the side of the illusion afterwards. And once the fireballs had passed, he had used the Lightning Shroud to move very fast towards his opponent who he then punched and electrocuted at the same time.

I hope you have more tricks prepared, she thought and smiled, your previous trick will not work a second time.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

*****

The first sixty students finished their fights and another set of sixty followed. This continued until all the students had fought and the second round began shortly afterward.

Alerius's turn came and this time his opponent was a female from House Ileya which was located in the City of Zhora.

The female must have known how Alerius defeated his previous opponent because immediately the starting bell rang, she stretched out her left hand and created an Aura Shied a meter from her body, then using her right hand as a focus, conjured fire bolts and aimed them at Alerius.

Fire bolts were more advanced than fire balls and had more speed. Moira approved of the Ileya female's strategy; the Ileya female would make a gesture with her left hand and the shield would move to the side while using her right hand, she aimed fire bolts at Alerius. Due to the speed of the fire bolts Alerius was forced to activate his lightning shroud in order to dodge them. Forcing Alerius to activate his lightning Shroud would drain his Spiritual Energy faster and every time Alerius wanted to get close to the female, he was stopped by the shield. This continued until Alerius stopped running and stood still.

Moira wandered what Alerius was thinking when she saw him stand still and close his eyes, she thought he was trying to create another illusion like he had done earlier but she dismissed this idea when she saw an Aura Shield form around Alerius in the form of a dome with a radius of two meters. Alerius with his eyes still closed and lightning shroud still active, stretched his hands to his sides and a few moments later, lances made of crystallized Aura started materializing on top of his head and on both of his sides one after the other until they reached seven, each one pointing at the Ileya female while forming a semi circle over Alerius's body at the same time.

Alerius's opponent was not idle during when all this was happening, she dismissed her shield and started firing fire bolts at Alerius using both her hands as focuses.

Moira could see that the shield around Alerius was starting to weaken as it became fainter.

Alerius's only response to this assault was expanding his lightning shroud until it covered all the lances. The lances became brighter and started crackling with lightning Just when the shield was about to be destroyed.

Alerius started sweating at this point, the strain of powering a lot of abilities at once was finally getting to him. Moira was impressed that he could this much after less than a year of study.

Alerius waved his left hand and the shield disappeared. He then quickly pointed at his opponent with his right and one of lances fired directly at her. Lightning was known for its speed so the lance's speed was very fast that it left after images behind.

The Ileya female managed to dodge the lance but another quickly arrived.

Left with no option she quickly created a shield in front of her.

The lance hit the shield and exploded into a shower of sparks and lightning and the shield became very faint afterwards. Before she could relax three more lances hit her shield at once causing the shield to disintegrate in the explosion that followed. The lightning from the explosion managed to hit her and she fell to the ground and started convulsing.

Another lance was about to hit her when a bright light suddenly appeared and covered both the Ileya female and the lance. when it disappeared, one of the Instructors was standing over the woman holding the lance in her hand. The lance had stopped crackling with electricity and after a few moments it disintegrated.

"Alerius has won this round," the Instructor said and left the platform whilst carrying the unconscious Ileya female.

Alerius dismissed the remaining lance and also left the platform slowly.

*****

The second round was carried out in sets of sixty just like the first round.

Among students from House Ururu, apart from Alerius, only one managed to win all both rounds while the rest had only won one round.

Alerius's opponent in the third round was a core member of House Arias from the city of Khathe. House Arias was famed for it's lightning abilities and it was the most powerful House in the all the six Cities that formed the Northern Alliance.

The bell rang and the final round began.

"I was impressed with your control over lightning and as a show of respect, I am going to show you the true might of lightning" the Arias descendant said. A very tall square shield formed around him, the shield covered all his sides but the top remained open. He then pointed to the sky with his right hand and released a bolt of lightning to the heavens. He continued releasing the lightning, not letting it disperse until a dark cloud started forming on top of the fighting platform.

Alerius's only response was to form a shield around himself in form of a dome.

The cloud became darker and then started raining down lightning bolts down onto the platform. One bolt of lightning managed to hit Alerius shield and the shield was destroyed. Before Alerius could react another bolt managed to hit him and he was thrown out of the platform.

Smoke was rising from Alerius's unconscious body as all his clothes were burnt.

The Arias descendant then stopped channeling the lightning into the cloud. This caused the cloud to disperse and the lightning storm stopped.

The Lightning storm ability was the reason House Arias was the strongest House. The lightning which came down from the clouds was made of pure elemental lightning and not from Aura; this made it very powerful and was why Alerius shield got destroyed on first hit.

Activation of the Lightning storm appeared simple, Cultivators had been trying to figure out how it is done for a long time but only blood descendants of Arias House could do it. Even Moira with her innate ability couldn't figure it out.

This ability was what kept the scions of Agashi Kingdom in check and for this reason, House Arias was allowed to lead the Northern Alliance.

*****

When the final round finished, Lord Elias came back onto the central platform and announced the results: 73 students won all 3 rounds. 179 won 2 rounds, 200 won 1 and lastly 150 lost all 3 rounds.

Those who qualified where those who won 2 or 3 rounds and these added up to 250. 50 spots were left inorder to fill the 300 spots required. Therefore, Lord Elias annouced that those who won one round whould undergo two elimination matches. The 200 students would again pick an opponent from marbles; the 100 who won the first match would then pick another opponent from amongest the themselves in form of marbles and the 50 who won would then be qualified to enter the ruin.

He also announced that the students would enter the ruin immediately after the remaining 50 students were decided.

Moira knew that this was to avoid assasinations. The armor from the ruins was the only known way for safely reaching the Underlord realm. In the past some students who had qualified had been found murdered so this rule was then put in place.

Moira left the stadium after that. She didn't wait to see the out come of the elimination matches as she had already seen what she had come to observe.