Chapter 61: Aim the Top

Once the bell rang, the whole dome went wild. All of the crowds cheered for their preferred contestants, while the people at the arena rushed to their respective saplings. The sabotaging already started right before the others could reach their plants, such as tripping them and dragging them away. Meanwhile, the others didn't experience any threat from the others, freely growing their beanstalk with their own abilities.

A skilled magic caster or a tendrin could easily win this with enough magic orbs, but brawns and combat were still important in this kind of game. If one wanted to protect their sapling, then they must be strong enough to stop others.

As soon as she absorbed what was happening around her, Dalary rushed to her own plant with great speed, but a well-built man blocked her. She may be inches taller than him, but one can see that the other had more power. It wasn't just about height.

It couldn't be helped. Tendrins had the ability to talk to life spirits, plants are some of them, which made the first stage easy on them. So most of the participants stopped them from doing a request, which some ended up started to get a beating.

The man grabbed his heavy sword, raised his hand, attempting an attack towards her. Thankfully, before the tournament started, all of the participants' weapons were enchanted with illusion magic, which made the attacks of their weapons look and feel real, but it actually wasn't.

Threatened, she grabbed her spear and blocked the blow. Both of them kept pushing each other's weapons, a smirk came out of his face. Unfortunately, the man was stronger than the ordinary tendrin. She was just a veggie seller who aimed to enter the business world, so she didn't expect a golem-strength coming from her.

So she stopped blocking his weapon and let it drop with the force he himself pushed into it, as she swiftly dodged it. After freeing from his trap, she fled towards her sapling and started growing it like the others. She closed her eyes and covered the plant using both of her palms, giving a request to the plants to grow taller. She reached 14 meters.

She had never done a request to plants before, but because of the two-day training, she was doing everything faster.

"You!"

But then, the man came back, now with furrowed brows and gritted teeth, sprinting towards her direction at great speed. He raised his sword once more and dropped it on her like an anvil. She sprinted back to dodge it, but right now, she was too far from the beanstalk, canceling the request for it to grow more.

The man kept tailing her with his sword, his face was stretched even more, and forming irks. He couldn't be able to take ridicule from a weak girl like her, and his pride pulled him away from being a decent fighter.

Meanwhile, Pholly had been taking an easy ride in the battle. Her years of training into enhancing her ability to talk to the life spirits, plants including, had made her reach up to 34 meters. Not just her power, but her combat skills had improved than before as well, which gave an easy finish to those who attempted to distract her task.

Usually, when she was a kid, she would show it off at her sister, but right now that it's been years since she left, she never cared to let her know about it.

And speaking of her, she noticed Dalary walking backward, away from her plant, as a man in front of her was ready for an attack towards her. She had no interest since she won't die, but looking at the scene made her wanted to make a move, to save her sister. Even though she was filled with hatred for her, she was not the kind of person to forget about gratitude.

She grabbed one of her small knives in her pocket, at the same time giving out a deep sigh. Then, she raised her hand and threw it towards their direction like attempting a bull's eye on a dartboard. And if it was a real sport, she would be the winner by now.

Just like she attempted to, the knife went straight to the man's head. Blood rushed from every hole of his body, resulting in him being dead in illusion. In real life, he was just unconscious. She sighed in relief as it landed on him. Although she didn't intend to save her sister, she was glad to do so.

Noticing what she had done, Dalary looked at her with her widened eyes. She didn't expect her to give help since she said that it will violate the rules, but here she was, doing the opposite of what she told her earlier.

"I thought no helping!" She yelled at her as loud as she can, since she was standing at a great distance away from her. The noises of screams and death almost covered her voice.

"You're welcome!" Pholly shouted back despite the distraction all around the place. But her response didn't make the other happy at all. All she did was to glare at her out of anger for her insulting reply, and finally, went back on growing her beanstalk.

So far, some of the contestants, most of them are tendrins, were finished at the first stage, resulting in them passing towards the second one. One of the humans who passed was the mysterious lady they encountered at the lounge. Not only she was giving that intense aura, but it also spoke for itself.

Dalary reached 30 meters, while her sister was near to finish. And because of that, some of the contestants attempted to distract them in order to keep them from passing the stage.

Unlike her sister, she was struggling against the enemies, pushing her in every direction with a force that was painful enough to irritate her, but even so, she still stood up and continued to make a request to the beanstalk. She wouldn't let their distraction destroy her focus, and she will stay in the tournament to investigate more.

It was only one minute and a half left and some are already finished in their beanstalk, including Pholly, which wouldn't let them distract others anymore. Dalary being the only tendrin that didn't complete the stage made her an easy target to others.

The other contestants didn't mind their work, as long as they could drag her down along with them. Their weapons wounded her in every part of her body, but she didn't care and continued to make a request.

But even with the painful torture, she was having, the crowd was still cheering for the competition. Meria couldn't be able to look at the situation of her friend, now desperate to help her, but Cainne stopped her from doing it since that would mean disqualification to them.

They couldn't do anything to poor Dalary that had been receiving attacks from different directions. Even Pholly wouldn't dare to watch her standing straight, only focusing on her request, while the others are playing with her like a scarecrow in sword training.

Until she finally felt the pain that they were giving her. Most of her body started to go numb and weak, and the warmth of her body started to decrease. She knew that she won't be dying, but the pain was too real that she thought it was almost her end.

But she knew that she couldn't do that. If she will fail in the first stage, then she will be a disgrace to her kind, to her family, and to her friends.

She remembered Meria running away from the capital and to Coira. She had a glance at her wet face, full of tears on her cheeks as more of them are flowing from her eyes. That scene had broken her heart. She had never seen her cry like that since her parents died, and she couldn't help but protect her correctly from now on.

She was the only human friend she had and the Arcsons are her only human family. Protecting their dearest daughter is the only thing she could do to repay them. She wanted to help her and make her kind accept her again, even though it will push her to the limits.

All of a sudden, the whole arena became silent. The distractions from the other contestants were stopped by their curiosity about what was really happening. The ground was shaking. It wasn't that violent, but it was strong enough for the people to feel the threat.

The barrels and tubs that were lying beside the streets of the capital near the arena, filled with nothing but water, started to overflow like there are invisible entities pouring at them. Soon, the water from them rose up to the clear sky and towards the only dome in the Astraen Kingdom, forming like serpents, leaving rainbows in every direction.

The people were fascinated at the same time confused about the unknown phenomenon in front of them. They had been using magic and tendrins sometimes perform exhibitions like this for a living, but they had never seen a performance so big.

The serpent waters started to pile up on top of Dalary, forming a giant water droplet in the shape of a perfect sphere. The people couldn't help but stare at it in awe, as it continued to grow larger than before. The contestants that kept stabbing her like a cushion looked at it out of fear.

Even though Pholly had seen it since the last few days, her eyes still widened and her sweat dropped through her cheeks. She promised to keep her from making requests that could drain her energy, but right now, she failed to do so. She didn't even know how to face the Elder and her kind once they knew her failure.

Then, the water serpents stopped showing up and the ball was complete and ready to drop. The other contestants started running away from the arena while the others couldn't even be able to move, shivering at their position.

Finally, the ball dropped on top of Dalary, but avoided her body and the beanstalk. The rest were being pushed away from her by the water's pressure like a tsunami, which continued to drown them until they were out of the tournament.

Half of the arena below turned into a pool of water, with only her left to be alive as she continued to request for her beanstalk to grow more. She was performing two requests at the same time, one was that of higher-level spirits, which will drag her down into unconsciousness.

The flood disappeared, leaving the drowned bodies on the ground. The whole tournament continued to be silent, no one attempted a cheer for the battle between a group of fighters against a mere tendrin. They didn't expect that someone that young could be able to make a request to elemental spirits.

Soon, the buzzer echoed at the dome. The five-minute limit was already over, and no one could ever pass a perfect 50-meter beanstalk at this point.

But before the buzzer called, one beanstalk stood among the other short ones. It reached the 50-meter distance and is now standing majestically at the arena. And below it was Dalary, staring at it with widened glowing eyes.