Competition (VII): Eliminated

[HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN TROUBLE, LIKE IN A SERIOUS LIVE OR DIE KIND OF TROUBLE(WHY AM I ASKING MYSELF THIS QUESTIONS.). TROUBLE FOR A CULTIVATOR COULD BE A PLETHORA OF THINGS, BUT ONE THING THAT YOU CAN BE SURE OF IS THAT ONCE A CULTIVATOR IS IN TROUBLE, THEN SOMEBODY USUALLY ENDS UP DEAD.

BUT TROUBLE CAN BE A GOOD THING FOR A CULTIVATOR, IT HELPS A CULTIVATOR TO UTILIZE THOSE RARE MOMENTS AND WORK WITH THEIR MIND RATHER THAN THEIR FIST. OF COURSE IT'S BEEN PROVEN MORE TIMES THAN I CAN POSSIBLY COUNT THAT CULTIVATORS UTILIZE TEN PERCENT MORE OF THEIR BRAIN THAN NORMAL HUMANS. BUT WE GET SO STUPID AT TIMES THAT THE ANSWER WE HAVE TO EVERY PROBLEM THAT COMES OUR WAY, IS A PUNCH. PUNCHING IS GOOD, PUNCHING IS AWSOME, BUT PUNCHING IS ALSO STUPID.]

BARTHOLOMEW ALE

So right now Alex wondered if it would be preferable to die from embarrassment, or from being pummeled by the half brother of his best friend. Anya was a handful, and her very existence was made to make his life miserable. Anya did not know how to think like a normal human being, she was strong, she was beautiful, but she was not smart(most of the time anyway).

She's ruled by her emotions and blunt with her feelings, most would say she was honest, and that was a good trait. But in a world like this, its bound to get her killed, or in a situation where she gets taken advantage off. Her brother did not say anything more as he shot forward with his hand cocked back for a punch, it was bound to be a very terrible punch..... If it connected that is.

He jumped up for leverage, and then Anya kicked him off the stage like he was nothing more than a buzzing fly. Somehow Alex felt that her brother was nothing more than a cannon fodder who would not appear again unless it was to make the protagonist look good, typical plot armor material.

Her brother glared at both of them with a look that promised more pain than they can ever imagine. And then Anya sent him off with a cheerful smile. Alex could not say anything about the injustice at all, he was just an innocent man caught in a slew of unfortunate events. It was terrible.

A kick heading for the back of his head, alerted him to the fact that he was in the middle of a fight. He ducked down, but the kick went straight for the unguarded face of Anya and threw her off the platform. For a moment the entire arena was silent, this was a fluke, and they all knew that if she so wished, Anya would win the whole damn thing.

"Eliminated at no 70. Anyaja Omapke. She qualifies for the next round!"

Alex could not help but give a sigh of relief. The battle royale was only supposed to continue until there were only seventy fighters left. Those seventy fighters would move on to the next round with the top 35 challenging the bottom 35. Then after that, one competitor will be randomly chosen to advance to the next round, and the remaining 34 will fight until there are seventeen fighters left. After which the eighteen fighters would face each other to see who the top nine will be.

After the top nine are chosen, the final spot was supposed to be given to an already predetermined fighter. And from there the ten were all expected to head to the state capital where they will fight for their local government. Seeing as he would be advancing to the next round regardless, Alex walked off the platform to stand beside Anya.

"Eliminated at no 69 Alexander Feng Mathews. He qualifies for the next round!"

Ultimately there would have to be a hundred fighters chosen from the inter village competition. So the others who had been eliminated from 71 to 10p would head to the state capital for the inter local government competition.

The remaining 70 now had to fight for the glory of being number 2,since number 1 has already been chosen by the top brass around. Either way what the battle royale wanted to achieve has already been met, and that was to get a hundred fighters for the inter local government competition at the state capital. The only thing left now would be to properly allocate rankings for the inter village competition.

Alex made his way towards Anya and held her hand as he made his way to the stands set aside for fighters to rest. He kept his head down as much as possible completely embarrassed by the strings of unfortunate events he had been forced to experience. Anya did not say anything, and that was probably because she was upset, Alex knew she had wanted to be the last person standing in the battle royale, but she had lost her chance.

"Don't worry Queen of Hell, there's still a chance for you to be number one in the whole competition." Alex comforted her.

Anya nodded her head, as they turned their attention back to the fight still gong on. Her brother had disappeared immediately after he was eliminated, he was probably too angry about being eliminated by his sister. Alex also suspected that he was going to get his father to come and put an end to Anya's momentum. However Alex was not too worried about that either, by the time that man got here, Anya would have already cemented her place as one of the top talents of this competition, his hands would be completely tied.

Alex closed his eyes to meditate, he was not worried about his realm increasing because to cross over from the ninth level to the body refining realm to the first level of the open meridian realm was a whole lot more complicated than taking in qi to nourish your body. Also Alex was just at the early stage of the ninth level, he was in no danger of having a breakthrough. But his meditation right now, would help him analyze his fights, and calm his heavily beating heart.

Too many things seem to be happening today, Lu Yen seems to be pulling strings to make things a little difficult for him and Anya, but hopefully he wouldn't take it too far. The battle royale continued for another one hour, before the last man standing was decided.

He was a fifteen year old at the peak stage of the second level of the open meridian realm, he was probably as talented as Anya since she was at the peak stage of the third level at sixteen. After the royale ended, the top seventy fighters were given two hours to rest before the singles battle to determine the inter village rankings for the Dekina local government will begin.

The rankings was just for show though, even though some awards would be given out, in the end this did not matter. There were almost a hundred and twenty villages under the Dekina local government, and there were at least 30 if not more local government in Kogi state.

And each of those local governments had as much villages, and they were also going to be sending their best hundred for the inter local government competition at the capital of the state Lokoja. And after that, the top hundred from that competition would represent Kogi state in the national competition between all thirty six states of the Nigeria colony. And it's in that competition that the top 10 would be chosen to join the Wudang sect as outer disciples.

The competition was fierce, so the only ranking that would probably matter should be the state and national rankings. After the hour was up, the first person to be called on the stage for the 35 vs 35 second round elimination round for the rankings was Anya. This only seemed to prove Alex's theory that someone was trying to put them in the spotlight. Alex might not have been exposed to the Wulin for long, but he knew that lot's of people wanted to snuff out the light of a star that shone too bright.

Anya made her way to the stage with an ugly look on her face. It was obvious she had come to the same conclusion as Alex about why they were chosen first and last in the previous round, and now she was picked first in the second round. She didn't like people playing with her life, she's had enough experience of that from her father, and even though she couldn't do anything to him because they share the same bloodline, she couldn't say the same for any other fool who thinks it's wise to mess with her.

Her opponent was a young man who used a staff, however the staff in his hand seemed to be casted from metal and had ridge like bumps at both ends. This was a weapon made specifically for torture, and he was also in the second level of the open meridian realm, though Alex could not tell which stage he was at. The ability of cultivators in the open meridian realm could not be really measured based on their stage, but by how proficient they were with using qi in their attacks.

As soon as the boy got on top of the stage Anya moved her neck left and right, letting out crackling sounds as she focused her gaze on her opponent with an intensity that sent shivers through the spines of many within the crowd. Alex knew with that look she had decided to take this fight and the rest of the competition seriously. A hazy film of silver light began to shimmer on her skin as she drew in qi in preparation for her fight.

Her opponent seeing that, did the same as he spread his qi over the surface of his scary looking staff. Then they ran towards each other, her opponent swung his staff horizontally at her waist, but Anya jumped over it, barely dodging it as it scraped over the top of her white battle robe.

Anya landed with a roll, and turned with such speed to deliver her counter attack at the back of her opponent who had moved past her after his attack had failed. However this guy was quite aware as he used the momentum from his previous swing to bring his staff swinging around to impact directly on Anya's clenched fist. There was ding sound as they were both pushed back from the other by the force of the blow.

But Anya was not done as she pushed her advantage and ran straight for her opponent and threw a punch straight to his face, but it was only a feint as she pulled her hand back, narrowly avoiding having his staff collide with her fist again. She moved forward and head butted her opponent, pushing him back enough for her to deliver a spinning back kick to his chest that threw him on his back. As soon as he fell on his back, the crowd roared, as whispers about her capabilities began to float around the on lookers. But the fight was not over as the staff wielder picked himself up and started running towards Anya.

He was four feet away when he pushed his staff forward like a spear attempting to poke a hole in Anya's face or at the very least crush her bones. But Anya moved her head to the side dodging the attack, but this attack was also a feint as her opponent whipped his staff left and it's qi covered frame smacked into Anya's forehead, busting it open as blood gushed out.

Anya was disoriented from the hit, and he took advantage to raise his staff and bring it crashing down on her back with a very nasty thud. Qi was a very powerful force, and due to it, Anya's body bounced on the platform as she spat out a little bit of blood from the intensity of the hit.

Her opponent moved back a few steps to reorient himself for another attack and give her breathing space to get back up. Anya shook her head vigorously and wiped away the blood that was now dripping down the side of her head, down her neck and into her body. With the blood on her face and the fierce look in her eyes it gave her a manic and ferocious look. Then she spoke to her opponent.

"Your first and only mistake in this fight, was stopping when you did, now I'm going to make you regret ever waving that stick at me."

And with that she shot towards her opponent, fingers out stretched and gleaming with qi.