Chapter 70: Testing The Waters.

Jay was enjoying the delicacies served at the gala, with Fen by his side wolfing down the food. He looked around the room, trying to see if there was anyone that he needed to be weary of. But since Malum had already roughly gauged most of the contestants, he wasn't really worried. Sipping on a sweet drink, he was watching Myra down several cups of wine.

Jay's pupils shrank as his locked his eyes onto a figure. It was teenager wearing a fur coat, with his muscular chest exposed. Walking up to Fen, he released his aura, staring right into his eyes. His aura was powerful, at least Colonel-graded, but Fen only looked at him blankly, with a confused expression. Normally, a Colonel-graded aura was more than enough to intimidate a small child, but after hunting dozens of powerful beasts, the aura was nothing to Fen. The teenager looked at Fen with slight amusement. "Why become a slave to a human?" asked the teenager. "Us werepeople are far more superior than those weaklings, they should become slaves," he said. Fen looked at the teen with confused eyes, "Slave?" he asked.

Pointing at Jay, the teen said, "Aren't you a slave to that guy?" "Nope," replied Fen, shifting his attention back onto his plate. "Leon, prince of the Grassland Faction. We'll always welcome you with open arms," the teen said with a sense of pride. Some attention was drawn to this exchange, including people from several different factions. There was some whispering in the background, either discussing the prowess of the prince or the identity of the child who manage to catch the prince's eyes.

The gala continued, a few small verbal conflicts occurred between some rivaling factions. Jay was approached by several different factions, who all tried to inquire about Fen's identity. Myra was also hit on by several different teenage boys, who were all declined swiftly by the alcoholic warg who was almost drowning herself with premium spirits.

Midnight struck, which marked the end of the gala. Jay supported a heavily drunk Myra back to their designated room with a little werewolf slowly following behind. Placing Myra on the bed, Jay let out a sigh of relief. Everything was happening a little too fast for him. He was still not used to this world, and he suddenly had so much responsibility put on his shoulders. Looking at Myra and the small Fen who also climbed into bed, he knew that he couldn't escape from this responsibility. "We will forfeit the battle right away," Jay said to Malum, planning about tomorrow's fight. Killing was allowed in the competition, so Jay didn't want to take any risks. He only promised Merlin to come along. If the academy wanted to win, they were on their own. Myra was probably above the age limit, but Fen would be forced to join the battle. Jay didn't think that he can protect Fen in time. Deciding not to stress about the topic, Jay headed to bed.

Louis was not doing any better. Although he was already fast asleep, the vivid scenery that he was seeing was a clear sign that he was having another prophetic dream. A mummy-like humanoid that was wrapped tightly with dirty bandages was slowly walking towards a blurry figure that was clearly heavily injured. Louis squinted his eyes hard, trying to identify the blurry figure. But all that he could make out was that the man was wearing clothes that were clearly Corinthian. The mummy casually reached for the man's head, grabbing his face. Lifting the wounded man of the ground, malevolent mana began to conjure around the mummy's hands. The already pale man became white as paper, and began to dry up. His skin began to flake, he was blown away in the wind as he disintegrated into nothingness.

Drenched in cold sweat, Louis was shaken. Something was clearly going to happen, the prophecies from the gods were extremely accurate. He began to meditate, circulating his mana as he calmed down. After what felt like an hour, Louis eventually went back to bed.

After a restless night, it was finally time for the competition. They were led to a large stadium, which reminded Jay of the baseball stadiums back on Earth. The stands were full of different people, and judging from their finery, they were from several different factions. When they entered the field, the cheering of the crowd struck them like thunder rumbling in the sky. Standing next to Louis, Jay noticed that he had dark circles beneath bloodshot eyes, his hair was also messy. "What happened?" Jay asked. Louis was always a neat and tidy person who cared about his appearance, but today he looked like his was hungover. "I had a nightmare," replied Louis, rubbing his eyes. "We'll be fine," Jay replied. Looking at Jay's clothes that clearly resembled the blurry figure, Louis sincerely hoped that what Jay said would be true.

The competition was divided into two parts, the first being solo battles and the second one being a group battle. The points were then added to determine the winner. During the solo battle, they were allowed to forfeit at any given time, but during the group battle, only the leader was allowed to forfeit. If the leader dies, it will be considered as losing. "Forfeit right away," Jay said telepathically. Although Fen looked at Jay with puzzled eyes, he still nodded. He never doubted anything that Jay said.

The first battle began shortly after, the first two contestants to step up on the stage were from the Qin Empire and the Amazons. The amazonian looked fierce and violent, while the teen from Qin Empire looked calm and collected. Jay watched carefully, intrigued. He was only familiar with battles with monsters and beasts, the only humans he really fought were weak bandits and other students, so watching two powerful people fight was definitely attracted him. After a small explanation of the rules, the battle began.

The amazonian immediately lowered her stance, circling her opponent. The teen looked at the animal like girl, studying her moves. He appeared to make up his mind, and with a swift wave of his fluttering sleeves, two metalic balls shot out of his hand. The amazonian instantly dodged, thinking that the balls were the infamous gunpowder, but once the balls hit the ground, nothing happened. The teen pointed his hands at the balls, then came the sounds of gears clanking. The small balls unfolded, turning into two metalic humanoids that were six feet tall. "Golems?" asked Jay.

"Nope, more like puppets," said Malum, observing the automatons. "There are small strings attached to the boy's fingers, pulling the constructs," he explained. The two bronze puppets rushed foward, charging at the amazonian. The girl easily leaped over the clumsy puppets, charging at the boy. "Smart, aiming for the puppeteer is always a good option," Arthur said, observing the fight. "Not really," said Cerci, shaking her head. Arthur was going to refute, but looking at Cerci's stern expression, he shut his mouth.

The girl closed in on the boy, leaping towards his throat. The boy looked at the girl blankly, void of any emotions. Although the amazonian felt like that something was wrong, she still went in for the kill. Spear in her hand, she stabbed the boy. The spear easily went through the boy, penertrating his body. "It's over," thought Jay, but once he saw the expression on the faces of the people from the Qin Dynasty, he felt like something was wrong. They were all smirking or smiling slightly.

The amazonian looked at the "corpse" on the tip of her spear. Something was terribly wrong, there was no blood flowing out of the body, only viscous oily paste oozed out. There was a clink, followed by a little spark. The oily paste instantly caught fire, igniting the corpse. The whole body exploded, sending the amazonian tumbling back. Her skin was charred, clothes were partially burned, revealing a tan skin. She was still standing, but anyone can see that she was just holding on with sheer will power. "The famous Great Teleportation Hexagram," Cerci said. Hexagrams are special arrays that are mastered by the Qin people. They are much more unique than normal arrays and are much harder to detect, but they needed to be carved on magical materials in order to work and required more mana to activate. "The fake body was hidden inside one of the puppets, he swapped places with one of the puppets," she said, pointing at one of the bronze humanoids.

As she said those words, one of the puppets opened up, revealing a hidden figure inside the puppet. It was the boy, completely unscathed, with a slightly pale face probably because of mana expenditure. "Surrender, you are in no condition to continue," the boy said. "Oh, really?" said the amazonian, smiling. A wooden tailsman on her neck glowed, enveloping her in a gold glow. "Totem magic," said Cerci. A vague figure of a toucan appeared behind the girl, instantly granting her strength and stamina.

The werebeasts growled in protest, believing that the projections were the entrapped spirits of their ancestors. The amazonian gained the speed of a bird, as if she was flying at the boy. The two puppets tried to intercept her, but were easily shattered into different parts, revealing the complex hexagrams carved in the insides. Seeing that it was all over for him, he forfeited immediately, ending the battle.