Getting Bored
Hiro’s POV:
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“The members of the seventy-eighth group, please come to the stage” Shouted the referee, who appeared after the director was done with her talking. We got up from the ground and jumped on the ten meters high stage in one swift move, followed by many other participants, then the referee gave the sign. “Prepare for battle, three, two, one… Fight!”
As she finished her sentence, six hundred cultivators at the seventh stage exploded out with great power. While the others were struggling against each other, we activated our battle forms and sat down on the side of the stage. Alice sat on my lap and I started caressing her nice, blonde hair. Of course, this caught many participants attention, and I’m sure that many spectators also noticed us, but I don’t care. Seeing us so calm and unbothered, annoyed many participants so they quickly came to ‘take care of us’.
“Seems like you don’t know your places, I shall be the one to teach you!” Shouted a random guy, who jumped before us. [Do it, Hiro, ~ It’s no fun to play around with them in such a huge group. I want to play when there are less of them. I simply can’t bother to care about him.] Alice sent her thoughts to me about the matter at hand, which clearly indicated that she didn’t care about this guy. He charged towards us, but after a quick swipe of my tail, he stumbled and fell off the stage, head first.
“Hahaha~ Such a loser.” Alice loudly laughed at his misfortune. Seeing how we cleared him out in such an easy way, discouraged most of them, but there are always people, who can’t learn from their own mistakes. The next one was an elf woman, who swung her sword towards our shoulders since our bodies overlapped. She could have easily cut both of us in half if not for her sword, breaking upon contact. Our scales were no joke~
“Hahaha~ Another loser! Look at her face!” Alice once again ridiculed these poor people, without hiding her real emotions. The elf, on the other hand, had a terrified face on. She was really screwed without a sword. A guy came charging behind her, charging at her, but Alice swiped with her tail and cut off the guy’s legs. “T- Thanks…” The elf said with a scared face. Seeing how easily we cut off his legs, she didn’t dare to fight with us. “Hiii~” Alice said as she waved at her. The woman quickly turned around, picked up the now footless guy’s weapon and charged back into the battleground.
The guy jumped down from the stage himself because he didn’t want to lose his life because of blood loss or because of others killing him. In about two minutes, the numbers have decreased to thirty-four from six hundred. “Hey! We should group up against them. You’ve seen how powerful they are!” Said a guy. The woman whom we ‘saved’ was also among those thirty unexpectedly.
Only thirty-two people can advance to the second qualifier, so they wanted to take care of those, whom they can’t beat alone. This was nothing out of the norm, and we have expected it long before. There were a few guys who were stronger than some of these thirty-four, but they were taken care of in a group. Now it was our turns or so they thought. I gave a kiss on the back of Alice’s head then I quickly asked what she wants to do. “Dear, do you want to do it alone or do you want to play with me?”
“Hahaha! Look at them, they are still thinking that they can win. Are they stupid? You are two against thirty-two!” Shouted a random guy towards us, while ridiculing us. The spectators were also laughing at us, upon hearing me. But the woman we had saved before, thought differently… She put her weapon behind her back, indicating that she isn’t going to fight. How clever! She is quite powerful, but she surely wouldn’t be able to get third place. But knowing how to choose your enemies is also an ability, though this wasn’t true about her… She would have died if not for us ‘being generous’, which means having plans with her…
We stood up, and Alice said to the woman: “One-third of what you get is going to be ours if it can be shared!” Her eyes opened widely, but she didn’t have the time to agree. We quickly got to work. Since they were grouped up so nicely, they made it easier for us. I dashed towards them and quickly kicked or punched them off the stage. Alice didn’t use her bow either since it would kill these people. They didn’t do anything against us, which would make them deserve death.
A few moves later, only the three of us were on the stage. The other stages had thirty-two people, while ours had three… Ooops? “Do you agree? Promise me, pretty please?” Alice asked the elf, with a smiling face, but that smile was threatening. The elf’s face turned fearful once again, and she quickly nodded, then made a promise. I looked around our surroundings, only to see a mass of silent and dumbfounded spectators. I saw wonder, envy and numerous feelings on their faces.
The referee flew over our stage and spoke. “U- Uhm… nothing like this has ever happened so, to be honest, I don’t know the procedure… I’d like to ask the directors about the results…” I guess she doesn’t know if she should declare us as the winners. We were supposed to have three, one on one battles before finally reaching the match for the first place. The director of Cold Maple (beastmen school) stood up to speak.
“They shall become the top three, but naturally, they will have to fight for the first and second place.” The elf quickly yelled - “I surrender!” - “.... Ehm, then you two have to fight for the first place.”
[Say a number Hiro, will you be one or zero?] Alice asked me such a question, and naturally, I knew what she meant. [I’ll be zero, you can be one.] I answered. We looked at the elf and told her. “Hey, please say a number, zero or one?” She made a surprised face upon hearing our sentence. After some thinking, she said: “Then let’s say zero.” I quickly raised my hands and shouted: “I surrender.”
After seeing such a scene, the two-star Phoenix couldn’t help but slap on his face. “What’s your names?” He asked with a tired face. “I’m Hiro, and she is my wife, Alice.” I answered, and the elf followed after us by saying her name. “I’m called Elvor Filia.” - [Fufu~ You couldn’t help but add my title as your wife, right? Right?! I’m loved so much~] Alice started making fun of my statement, but she was happy about it.
“*sigh* Then Alice takes the first place, Hiro takes the second place and Elvor Filia takes the third place.” Cold Maple’s director stated the results in a clearly bored way. I guess he was expecting a good fight but all he has got was this. Maybe when we start challenging those who are at higher stages than us, he can see something good. He looked at us, then said. “Your rewards are going to be declared together with everyone else’s. For now, you can wait.”
We expected that much, so we jumped off the stage and sat down at our initial position, at a corner of the arena. Alice sat on my lap once again, and those who were close to us slowly and inconspicuously started slipping farther away from us. What?! We aren’t smelly, are we? It’s not like we would attack them randomly… The competition has gone back to its usual procedure. Soon all one hundred groups were done with fighting and the first round of qualifiers has ended.
Wilhelm, Adeline, Fu Xiao, Radcliff, and his enemy whose name we didn’t know all has got into the top thirty-two in their groups respectively. I’m quite sure that Wilhelm is going to win the championship among the cultivators at the second stage. The referee started speaking after everyone left the stage. “Now that we are done with the one versus one qualifier, it’s time for the team qualifiers to begin! Please, those who are in a team, come forward!” She shouted.
We and about a quarter of the cultivators have gone up to the huge stage once again. Most of the teams had five members, but there were also quite a lot of team with three members, just like Pat’s. We were the only team with two members… What? That’s quite fucked up. There were about two thousand and five hundred teams in total, but only sixteen can get through at each stage. Another eight stages raised out of the ground. There were about two hundred and seventy teams at each stage which meant a lot of people…
No one wanted to sit here all day and look at the boring stuff. A few hours later, the whole qualifier was finished. It was time for the second qualifier and the main dish! Of course, we have passed with flying colors this time as well. The referee used earth magic to make seven, two meters high walls to separate the arena into nine sections. Everyone would be able to see the battles from the spectators' height but it would also serve as a means to divide up the participants.
Those who have lost, and aren’t in a team, had to leave the arena so the number of people inside has lowered considerably. The second qualifier has soon come to an end. This was so terrible… We have to wait for such a long time before we can do something. Wilhelm has beaten up his enemy easily. Radcliff didn’t have the luck to get up against his enemy, so he had to wait. Now it was once again time for the team battles and at least we had the possibility to fight!
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“The next battle is going to be between the Hollow team and the Volatile!” Shouted the referee. Our enemies were at the seventh stage so we had nothing to fear, even though it was a team of five.
It was a waste of time to come here… [Let’s make it a bit more interesting. It would be way too boring if we were to beat them every time with a single move…] Alice thought. [I know, Alice, but I don’t want to shame cultivators who don’t deserve it. If they aren’t assholes, then I’m not going to play around with them. I respect hard work you know.] I said to her, through our bond, and she quickly answered positively. [Of course, I know. I’m the same~ But look at them. I can see it on their faces. They are going to be fun!]
Hearing her say that, I looked at them, and what she said was indeed true. They arrived on the stage with smug faces, and they even checked out my love. Ehm… yes. It’s definitely time to play! They couldn’t hold their mouths and started verbally abusing us. “Hey, hey, you should surrender till you can! We aren’t going to go easy on you, you know?” - “Yeah, but that chick is really hot! Hand her over and you can get away without any pain or else, after the championship you are going to suffer!”
I simply put my hands on my temples, after hearing such lame lines. Where the hell did these people come from, and how did they pass the first qualifier!? We were in our human forms at the moment, so they weren’t able to see our scaly body. Maybe they wouldn’t think that Alice is so ‘hot chick’ in that case, though to me, she is beautiful even in her scales. [Why are you doing this every time when we are about to fight? Now I want to love you!] Alice whined through our bond, which only made me smile.
“What are you smiling at?” - “I guess he knows his fate, hahaha!” Random talks, random talks, and random talks! They simply couldn’t shut their fucking mouths! We coiled our tails together and waited for the countdown. Since our bodies were close by, they didn’t even notice our tails or that we aren’t humans like them. They were a full human team, with the School of Eternalists’ emblem on their chests. No wonder they are such assholes. “Fight!” Shouted the referee and three of them quickly ran towards us, while two were already preparing their energy attacks at the back.
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We didn’t even move and waited for them to finally reach us… they were so slow compared to our perception speed, that we felt as if we would be looking at a slow motion. One of the three had two daggers in his hands and ‘ran past us with his lightning-like speed’... or more like a turtle like speed and he tried to pierce my back. His friends have also arrived and one of them had a spear in his hands, while the other one had a shield and a short sword.
[Which one do you want Alice?] - [Hmmm- I think that I’ll get that guy behind you with the dagger, you can get the other two.] We were chatting calmly since we had enough time anyway… Alice moved with a speed, they couldn’t perceive and hit the wrists of the guy behind me. I grabbed onto the charging guy’s spear and gripped onto it tightly. I activated my battle form on my right hand, which made the strength in my right-hand increase.
The charging guy suddenly stopped and was stuck in place, while the guy behind me screamed out loudly as his daggers flew out of his hands. “You are so slow… Why are you using daggers if you are slow? This is how you use them!” Alice ridiculed them as she quickly picked up the guys’ daggers and pierced them into his two shoulders. He screamed out in pain, while the guy before me was still trying to free his spear from my grip, with a stupid and unbelieving face on.
Alice turned towards me and laughed upon seeing the guys struggling face. “Hahaha! What is he doing?” - I answered her question: “I don’t know. Look, maybe he is about to shit himself? His head is also really red!” Although his head was red from the struggling, but it was irrelevant because we wanted to ridicule them. Saying this out loud, in front of so many people, naturally caused a lot of laughter. The guy with the shield stopped his charge upon seeing his friend being ‘stuck’, but he too couldn’t help but giggle upon hearing my comment.
Of course, he wasn’t such an idiot who would look around all day. He quickly swung his short sword in an arc, wanting to behead me, but I put out my finger, which was covered in my scales and stopped his blade. The force behind his swing pushed my finger back slightly, but after a few centimeters, it was completely stopped. Accelerating from a standing position is harder, so now he too was trying to move his sword and cut off my finger. Seeing that I didn’t budge, he didn’t want to share his friend’s fate.
He quickly pulled back his sword and bashed his shield towards me, but before it could reach me, Alice kicked into his shield at its center and made him fly through the air, breaking his shield in the process. Now that we became visible targets for the two at the back, they quickly shoot their attacks towards us. The remaining guy released his spear and jumped to the side. While I’m at it… I might as well use it. Since his spear was in my hand anyway, I quickly threw it towards the two incoming sword-shaped energy attacks. Its power was quite good.
For normal people, that is. My spear which contained a bit of my Hydra Qi quickly crushed their attacks and pierced the one on the right through his stomach. He spat out a mouthful of blood, as he fell on his knees. My Hydra Qi ravaged his insides, which was by no means painless and ‘healthy’... [This ‘dagger guy’ is annoying me. I’m gonna finish him quickly.] Alice notified me about her decision. [That’s alright, but in what way is he annoying you?] I asked, then she answered with a shrug and: [I don’t know… I just don’t like his head. You know, I have the feeling when you see someone, and you simply get that feeling, that you don’t like him!]
I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Her whole explanation was really ridiculous… She moved swiftly and kicked off his head. As his head separated from the rest of his body, his blood sprayed out of his neck and splashed on his friends. We quickly moved away from the shower to stay clean, so we weren’t affected. Seeing one of their friends die, made them realize, that they aren’t playing a game. We treated them way too playfully, which made the forgot reality.
The guy who was pierced by my spear throw raised his body and pulled himself off of the spear. I saw that he wanted to raise his hands to surrender, so I quickly used Ethereal Delusion on him. He stopped in place for a moment, which was enough for Alice to release a Dragon’s Paws and crush his body instantly. While we were at it, we quickly used Dragon’s Wings and Hydra’s Wings to cut all of them in two halves. Their lifeless bodies fell to the ground in a pool of blood.
The referee looked at us weirdly. “What? They didn’t surrender.” I said, and my love naturally followed after me: “They clearly didn’t surrender. We didn’t break any rules!” The referee made a forced smile and declared us as winners. “T- The winner is the Hollow team…”
“Yaay~ We are still in!” Alice shouted as we clapped our hands together. We embraced each other and then quickly flew back to the waiting room.
We started meditating because we didn’t intend to waste our time once again. After about an hour later, it was our time to battle, once again. Our enemy was a team of three, and they were called The Fearless. Its members were at the peak of the seventh stage so they would have had a good chance to win if not for them getting matched up against us. They saw our performance from before, but they didn’t seem to be afraid of us.
On the other hand, they weren’t the arrogant type. - “We might not be your opponents, but we are hoping for a good battle!” The guy in the middle said with a puffed out chest. He was a good warrior. We didn’t want to shame such people so after a few moves, we hit the back of their heads, and they fell unconscious. After we were done with them, we once again went back to our waiting room.
The rest of the championship has gone by like that. Pat’s team has won the three on three battles easily. We were matched up against teams with more members, only because there weren’t any teams with two members, and handing out rewards freely was against the director’s beliefs. I wouldn’t do so either in their places. Unexpectedly, the last match was between Radcliff and his enemy, who as it turned out, was called Zhong Xiwen.
We knew about it because we heard every time a name was shouted, just like now: “Radcliff with the number 17203 and Zhong Xiwen with the number 32877! Please come to the stage to fight for the first place! Radcliff has quite easily won every match before, and Zhong Xiwen was the same! Let’s see who is going to be the strongest among the strongest!”
We left the waiting room to watch his battle. Radcliff had a murderous look on his face, while Zhong Xiwen was taunting him with his smirking face. I have never met this Xiwen before, but I’m already disliking him… “Haha, it seems like you want to share your brother’s fate! Thanks to him, I’ve gained a good treasure, which is going to help me in killing you, and then take your weapons and armor! I don’t know where you have got it, but thanks for delivering it to me!” Xiwen taunted Radcliff.
“We will see about that you bastard!” Radcliff shouted back, and at this time the referee couldn’t help but fire up the things. “Can you hear that?! It seems like there is an enmity between these two! I’m sure that we are going to see a great battle!” The crowd shouted in happiness as they were cheering loudly. “FIGHT!” Shouted the referee and both of them jumped at each other’s neck.
Radcliff pulled out his greatsword and swung it towards Xiwen, who had a hammer as his weapon. Xiwen had blonde hair, with brown eyes and he had a muscular body. I guess he could be called a lady killer. [What… That? That thing, you call a lady killer? It’s better if you stay at your moral, that there is no handsome male for you because you are a boy…. Jesus!] Alice sent her thoughts, but… [You have never seen Jesus. Why are you mentioning him?] I questioned her.
[Of course, it’s from your memories, and you haven’t seen him either, so you have no reason to refute me, fufu~] She answered me with a small laugh as she poked my left side with her elbow. [Okay, you won.] I surrendered with a helpless face, and the focused on the battle in front of us once again. Radcliff swung his greatsword in an arc, and Xiwen put up the handle of his hammer to protect his life. We saw our enchantments and runes flare up on his greatsword. As it struck, Xiwen was pushed back slightly, and we saw a very, very, very tiny crack appearing on his weapon.
He didn’t notice it, but his eyes were still wide opened. He surely didn’t expect something like this. “H- How can this be? Argh! Die you shitty bastard!” Xiwen shouted as he swung his hammer from above. Radcliff used the Toughness rune on his greatsword and held it above his head to defend. The hammer struck his greatsword, but he didn’t budge. Of course, his knees bent slightly under the sudden force, but he was able to stop it.
Xiwen’s defense was wide opened, so Radcliff quickly kicked him in the stomach. Xiwen flew backward through the air, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. Radcliff released his bloodlust completely, making Xiwen spit out another mouthful of blood. He stood up with a pale complexion, then he wiped the sides of his mouth, and took out a little bracelet and put it on his wrist. We felt his strength rise by a notch, going over Radcliff’s.
He quickly charged at Radcliff with a quicker speed than before and swung his hammer in an arc. Radcliff put his greatsword to his side and once again used toughness, but this time it wasn’t enough to stop the swing. The hammer struck his weapon and made it move backward. Although with much less strength, but the hammer was able to strike his body. Except that Radcliff had our armors on… He used Harden, Toughness, and Parry on his armor, and the hammer simply slipped down on its form.
Not wanting to waste his time, Radcliff swung his weapon from above, and cut the still surprised Xiwen into two halves. His blood started flowing on the ground, while Radcliff stood there for a short time silently, then started laughing happily, and creepily. He has won the last match, which means that he is the winner among the cultivators at the ninth stage! Now that the stupid stuff was done, it was time for the rewarding ceremony, and then we can finally start challenging cultivators at higher stages!
The crowd cheered upon seeing Radcliff’s battle, and the referee was shouting the numbers of those, who were in the top twenty at each stage. “Number… Number… Number 20304, Number 20305, Number… Please come to the stage!” Those who weren’t able to take the top three places, but had a good position, would also get their rewards. Of course, this was irrelevant to us because we took first place everywhere. This place is giving us rewards freely! What was weird, though, was that the group of cultivators at the seventh stage, who participated in 1v1 battles had only three members… us and the elf, Elvor Filia. Our group was really… small.
The directors also flew to the stage and stood at their places. The referee declared the winners’ names one by one, and they had to step forward to receive their rewards from the directors. The cultivators at the lower stages only gained a lot of Energy Converting pills, which would be enough for them to advance three to four stages in a year, depending on their talent and hard work. It was more than enough for these people. Wilhelm also gained pills, a few claps on his shoulders and a cultivation book from our director! That was quite rare…
Since we were being called depending on our numbers, Pat was the next to be called from these many people. She has gained a few billions of pills, which would be enough for her to convert about another seven percent of her energy. Of course, it would still take at least a month for her to consume so many pills. Only True Divine Beasts had inherent memories about the right way of cultivation. The normal divine beasts had at most some direction to help them, and combat skills. She wouldn’t be able to consume the pills as quickly as us. Actually Pat was right before us as no one took a good place between 20105 and 20304. (AN:\ If you forgot 20105 is Pat’s number.)
“The cultivator with the number 20304, please step forward!” Shouted the referee, but I was startled. I realized that Alice had to leave me, and go farther from me than ten meters!!! Nooo! Come back! I shouted in my mind, but not through our bond. But Alice heard it even like that. [I know dear, it’s hard to me too, but we have to take our rewards! Why don’t you come with me? I don’t think that they would mind it…] Hearing her answer I quickly coiled my tail around her waist, and jumped after her.
Both of us appeared before the director of Silverleaf school. She looked at us weirdly, and with a frowning face. Ehm… Yeah, we used our battle forms numerous times, so I’m quite sure that she knows something about us not being humans… or maybe she knows our race? My thoughts were soon confirmed! “I congratulate both of you, I’d have never thought that I’ll have the luck to meet two True Divine Beasts, and with so much attachment to each other at that!” Of course, she used the space around her to cover her voice, so no one heard the other half of her sentence.
Seems like cultivators at the higher realms indeed know more. “It’s our pleasure!” Alice said politely. “I’m sorry that I also came, but we don’t like to separate…” I apologized to her. She started smiling upon hearing me saying that and she said with a small laugh: “Haha- don’t worry about it. Now let’s move on with this ceremony, I don’t want to stand here all day.” I quickly agreed with her on that. “We don’t want to either…”
What? I hate waiting. “Take this, and look into it after the championship. That’s all I’m going to give you even if you challenge others. Look at it as a favor… I hope that I can also count on you if fate were to play a prank on me.” She said as she put a ring into Alice’s hands. “And it is for the both of you.” She added quickly. “Can’t we gain something normal, which doesn’t come with a favor from someone?!” I questioned her with a frowning face. Everyone is trying to take advantage of our potentials!!! But she quickly refused me, fearing that she would lose her chance. “No! Now go.”
[Do you have anything to say, Alice?] I questioned her. [She is a bitch. Look at her humming happily! We aren’t a bank!!!] She shouted back through our bond, but we couldn’t help ourselves out of this… Whatever. If she ever dares to ask for something ridiculous, then we are simply going to ignore her. “Before leaving… What’s your name woman?” Alice questioned the director, with a not so happy face. “E- Eh? Oh, my name is Tanya Chong.” Hearing her impolite, and annoyed voice, she reacted weirdly. I’m sure that hearing a tone like Alice’s from someone who is so much weaker than herself, wasn’t a usual occurrence…
But now I’ve really started wondering about what’s inside this ring, though we can wait since we can look at it later too. Since Radcliff has killed his enemy, he took first place, which was quite rare considering that he is a human. Usually, beastmen or elves were the winners when it came to peak levels. Naturally, he has won thanks to our guiding and pieces of equipment! What was really surprising that we have seen Tanya, handing over an egg, similar to ours, except that it had a much weaker aura, and it had a red color. We should ask her about what this egg is… But now it was time to have fun!