Chapter 38: Battle Royale, and Idonea

After his announcement, the audience began shouting in excitement, and while that was going on, I took that time to regain my composure from sensing that man's power.

"Illumia, what is that man's cultivation base?" Asked Elif, curious how long it would take him to the same level as that man.

"His cultivation base is a late Half-step Celestial." Replied Illumia blandly like usual.

It was my first time hearing the term Half-step Celestial, but even so, I could tell it would take me a while to reach that level, as I'll still need to advance past the Half-step Divine.

'I'm the Crown Prince, yet I don't even know all of the cultivation realms; mother was definitely right.' Thought Elif mockingly to himself.

Once the audience started calming down, the announcer began speaking as he faced directly toward my booth.

"I can tell everyone is excited about the upcoming tournament and getting to witness the power of the younger generation that'll lead our Empire in the far future; however, before we can start the tournament, we have an incredibly important guest and participant. That's right, I'm sure everyone here knows about it, and we're all excited to witness him in action, ladies and gentlemen, the Crown Prince of the Immortal Elven Empire, PRINCE ELIF!!"

I didn't think they would announce my presence, but I honestly should have expected that; however, instead of the audience screaming and shouting in delight, everyone stood up quietly before bowing to me, this time it wasn't just the Elves that bowed; every other species bowed as well.

"Continue with the tournament." Replied Elif as he caused his voice to travel throughout the entire coliseum since he was much more interested in the tournament than a bunch of people bowing to him.

When I spoke, everyone stopped bowing and sat back down quietly while the announcer began doing his job.

"Now then, since the Prince wishes for the tournament to start quickly, I shall skip all the useless talking and get right into it. Because of the increase in contestants, there will be six battle royale tournaments to narrow down the number of participants to a more reasonable number; then, after that, the tournament will return back to normal with a double-elimination style tournament. Now, let us start the first phase, contestants in tournament one. Will you please step out onto the arena?"

Lucky for me, the announcer skipped useless talking and only informed everyone of basic information before immediately asking all of the contestants scheduled for the first battle royale tournament to gather in the arena while flying into the sky above.

Instantly after I saw several people fly out from different locations in the coliseum before landing on the arena, some of the children looked confident as they scanned their opponents while others seemed quite nervous about their situation; however, by the time I had scanned all of the contestants, I was disappointed.

"Ugh, boring, the highest cultivation base is only a Late Saint Lord, this fight is a waste of time, my time." Complained Elif in annoyance as he continued eating some lighting cherries.

"While it may be true everyone one of them is considerably weaker than you, your highness, it is still a good opportunity to watch other battles and learn from their mistakes or their feats." Advised Illumia, trying to get Elif to pay attention.

As much as I didn't want to watch the battle, what Illumia said was correct, and besides, gaining more fighting experience was the whole reason why I even bothered to participate in this tournament.

'Still, I would prefer to watch some of the more powerful nobles fight.' Pondered Elif as he sighed to himself before once again paying attention to the arena below.

"Now, with all of the participants ready, I would like to let you know the three rules the nobles agreed upon. Rule one, to eliminate your opponent, you must knock them unconscious, rule two, treasures, artifacts, pills, and talismans above Heaven's grade are strictly forbidden, and you will be promptly disqualified if you are to use one. Lastly, rule three, as long as rules one and two aren't broken, anything else is allowed; the battle will only stop when only ten contestants remain. Now, the tournament shall officially BEGIN!"

Immediately when he finished talking, the nobles down below started attacking while using various types of techniques, sometimes I would see something similar to a sword slash, and other times a giant skeleton would emerge from the ground and slap people into the ground; I also witnessed a large tree sprout out from the ground before violently attacking with its branches, managing to knock out a couple of people.

However, while all those attacks were quite fancy, flamboyant, and powerful, I noticed that while the nobles who used them were the more powerful ones, it seemed as if it was their first time ever experiencing a fight. I was no fighting expert, but they looked just like a group of fools who didn't know what they were doing.

'Hehe, if they look stupid to me, I wonder how they look in Illumia's eyes.' Thought Elif with a chuckle before focusing back on the fight.

While the battle was underway, I started paying more attention to the weaker nobles, as even though they weren't as powerful, they seemed to know what actually to do in a fight, and although since they were weaker, they were slowly getting eliminated.

After a while, the eleventh contestant was finally knocked unconscious, leaving just ten contestants.

"Congratulations to you ten for surviving the battle royale; you have successfully moved onto phase two. Now that the battle is over, there will be a five-minute intermission to clean up the arena and give the next contestants some time to prepare." Said the announcer to the ten injured nobles before speaking to the audience, which resulted in cheering and screaming.

"How was it, your highness?" Asked Illumia curiously.

"Hmm, it wasn't the best of fights, but I did manage to learn a few things; now all I have to do is participate in a fight to put them into practice." Answered Elif as he put the bowl of lightning cherries away before mediating to pass the five minutes quickly.

Once the five minutes had passed, I stopped meditating and focused my attention back on the arena that was already occupied with various nobles, some of whom I'd interacted with.

'Maga and Alf are in the same group; this could be somewhat interesting, as both of them are quite powerful, and as much as I hate to say it, even I don't know who would win if I had to fight one of them.' Thought Elif, slightly annoyed and intrigued in learning more about his possible opponents in the future.

"Alright, I'm sure everyone already knows the rules, so I'll skip that and start the battle. . . BEGIN!" Shouted the announcer in excitement.

Just like the previous one, the moment the battle began, various attacks were getting sent everywhere, with some people already getting eliminated. However, I did notice that the current contestants seemed much more competent than the previous batch. Anyways, I mostly paid attention to Maga and Alf during the battle, but only a few people tried attacking them. Though when they easily dispatched them, it seemed to have scared off everyone else, and no one bothered fighting them again.

Sighing in disappointment, I ignored Maga and Alf and observed the rest of the contestants, surprisingly there were some decently powerful nobles, not as strong as Maga, Alf, or me, but decently talented, though comparing them to the previous batch, they might as well as been geniuses.

This time the battle took significantly longer than the previous one, though that is only natural when the contestants aren't just relentlessly attacking with their strongest techniques and exhausting their Qi reserve.

Among the final ten, most of them had suffered a few injuries varying from light to severe, except for Maga, and Alf, which is expected when they practically didn't even do anything; however, there was actually another noble who didn't suffer any damage whatsoever. A young Elven girl with pale white skin, blue hair, and a few deep scars across her face as if an animal clawed her, her cultivation base is at the Late Saint Emperor, higher than mine but lower than Maga or Alf's who both are at the Late Half-step Divine, though the most striking thing about her is her aura, it's hard to explain, however, her aura alone makes me take her somewhat seriously.

"Illumia, who is that young girl with all the scars?" Asked Elif, eyeing the girl as she and the nine others flew off the arena, heading back to their VIP sections.

"Hmm, her name is Idonea Voyāge, the noble daughter of a Baron named Galen, who was previously an Earl, but when he tried killing commoner families and taking the women to sell to slave traders outside of the Empire, he was severely punished and only managed to stay a noble because of the contributions he made to the Empire previously." Answered Illumia as she read off a book containing information about every noble participating.

"I don't care about some Baron; I'm more interested in Idonea; she seems very experienced for someone only four years older than me." Replied Elif as he took out Hokori in preparation for his time to fight.

"She indeed is; if you were to lower your power to be equal to Idonea's, then I'm quite confident that you would lose, your highness." Said Illumia, though a smirk formed on her face when she saw how Elif looked at her.

(Note: The term "Power" doesn't mean cultivation base, those two are different.)

"Tch, say whatever you want, but since I'm more powerful than her, it doesn't matter that she's more experienced than me; I'll just defeat her with raw strength." Declared Elif while being quite annoyed that Illumia said that; as with Elif's pride, he loathes the idea that someone among the younger generation who is less talented than him is better than him at something, and that is why he spends most of his time training and cultivating.

While still annoyed at Illumia, I arrived near the window and looked down upon the arena filled with contestants for the third battle; once everyone had arrived, I decided to do something that I usually wouldn't do, making my entrance extravagant.

Walking through the glass, which caused ripples to form, I used my Qi to make a beautiful scenery around me while floating down to the arena; by the time I had gracefully landed, I could tell everyone was in awe from my entrance.

"T-The Crown Prince has ARRIVED!!" Shouted the announcer, which caused the audience to explode in cheers, yelling, and other stuff.

With all of the praises I heard coming from the crowd, I could feel my mood slightly improve, and a slight smirk formed on my face as I looked up toward Illumia.