Chapter 122 - Battle Royale (2)

Hernani and Julieth were on one of the arena edges, while Roman and her companion were on the other. A talented adept in her own right, she was also a member of a noble family, named Cindy Dai Pelosi. These four were members of the top-ranked class among the third years, a clear testament to the superiority of this group over the medium and lower-ranked ones.

The rest of the students were quite talented as well, just a notch inferior to the pairs of Hernani and Julieth, and Roman and Cindy.

Hernani, being aware of Roman's power, didn't want to mess with him too soon and ruin their chances to pass the first part of the test. Therefore he assumed a defensive stance, meanwhile, Julieth stood behind him, with a Magick spell ready in case they were attacked.

The other four students, although enemies at first were now gathered together. They could be considered a third group of sorts. However, the stalemate didn't last long, as Roman, who was watching them coldly said: "Cindy and I won't move. Hernani and Julieth won't either. Between the 4 of you decide who'll be fifth. You have 10 seconds. Otherwise, we'll make our move."

Having said this, Roman simply stood there with his hands behind his back. His voice sounded authoritative and called for obedience. Hernani and Julieth neither denied nor agreed to his statement. which made the other 4 students indecisive and couldn't make an appropriate decision.

Actually, had they decided to fight tooth and nail against either Roman or Hernani's group, the other group would have probably helped them get rid of the attacked group, after all, those were the most powerful, and thus the most troublesome to deal with later. But with Hernani's words and the silent consent from Hernani and Julieth, they didn't know what to do and found themselves in a conundrum. It could be said that Roman had tied their arms and feet with words alone, something that the people observing the match appreciated.

One of the students finally said: "Don't listen to him. We need to stay together. That way there is a chance that more of us may pass. But if we do as he says, only one of us will be able to go to the next test."

When the student said this, Roman simply looked at him coldly and said: "5 seconds left."

The moment he pronounced these words, two of the remaining students attacked the one who had tried to rally them in the back. He didn't manage to defend himself in time, and could only get knocked out of the competition. Afterwards, they started fighting among each other with all their might, while Roman kept with his countdown. As the seconds kept going down, the fight grew even more frenetic. In those few seconds, they exchanged tens of attacks. Finally and when Roman said "0", one of the students emerged victorious, although he was wounded and exhausted.

"FINISHED," said Anastasia. "The winners of the Battle Royale and those advancing to the round-robin portion of the test are Roman Dai Alaria, Cindy Dai Pelosi, Julieth Dai Corena, Hernani Dai Baruna and Mathew Santoro. Please wait in the special stands next to the arena while the second and first-year fights take place. In the meantime, rest and replenish your energy. There will be special replenishment water and food available to help you regain your strength and be ready for your next battle."

And so, the battle royale between the third-year group ended. The audience was exhilarated and quite happy with the results. Most were of the mind that it was par for the course that the three students that were members of the Ansem's Great Families were obvious candidates to pass to the round-robin part of the competition.

After everything was over, the 24 students that had lost returned to their seats with clear disappointment on their faces. The student who Roman had badly injured was in the infirmary recovering, and would probably not return until the other two battle royales were over.

The second-year students stood up and then they headed towards the central arena, which had already been cleaned and re-established by Professor Anastasia.

Among the second-year students, a short and stout-looking young man was noteworthy, since his momentum was higher than his companions'. This young man was called Albert Dai Renata and was the nephew of Sebastian Dai Renata, the former commander of the Frontier Army that had once received Elijah, and that was a close consultant to Elizabeth, and now was considered quite close to Elijah. After the skirmish with Sagat's forces in the frontier, and with Elizabeth's help, Sebastian managed to finally become a Qi Saint, and become one of the Royal Army Generals. He was one of Elijah's supporters in the Council of Generals.

After all the students were in the Arena, Anastasia once more gave the order to begin the match.

The match was also exciting, albeit a bit less than the fight from the third year's battle. It was clear, that these students were somewhat weaker than their seniors. There were three adepts among the 30 second-year students of the Inner Class. However, two of these adepts were quickly defeated by alliances made by their rivals. Only a male adept, named Marcos Oblak who was good friends with Albert managed to stay until the final 5.

This time around the 5 remaining students were all from the top-ranked class, a fact that made everyone think that the difference among the different groups from each seemed to be carved in stone.

Finally, it was the turn for the first years. However, this fight was more perfunctory than anything else, since no one expected much from it. Not because these students weren't important or their parents didn't support them, but because they were much too young, and so the expectations for them were lesser. No one thought that any of the students in the First Year would be able to enter the Special Course. Maybe Gonzo Dai Morena, but even then, this was only a possibility. And even if he entered the course, it was close to impossible to be chosen as one of the candidates for the Grand Tournament.

So, most of the people in the audience were talking merrily with each other and discussing the previous battles, about the dominance of Roman among the Third Years, and what were the chances for the school to do well in the coming Tournament.

"Well, It looks like it's a given that Roman will be chosen for the Special Course. Even though Hernani, Julieth and Cindy are quite powerful in their own right, they are still a notch inferior. Even my little brother, I want him to enter the Special Course, but unfortunately, he was born too early. Otherwise, he might have had a part in the Tournament. His talent is only somewhat lesser than Reno's and even managed to become a Praetorian right before the Ranking. He is the first Praetorian to appear among the first years. In the end, the first years are just here to fill the numbers" said Cynthia talking spiritedly with Vega, ingratiating herself with him. She never turned to look at Elijah. Even though she had seen Nerun's previous report, she was still in disbelief at something so preposterous.

"Your brother Reno is 15 as well is he not? I heard he is doing great as the Seed of the Super Soldier, along with young master Karel here present. He is likely to attend the Tournament and is one of the favourites among the Kingdom's candidates," answered Vega back.

Karel was about to answer cursorily when he noticed the first-year students going towards the arena and then saw Nerun who looked a bit distraught. After remembering the feeling he got the first time he met Nerun, he suddenly changed his mind and answered in a cryptic manner: "Reno is indeed very talented. I'm sure he'll do just fine in the coming tournament. However, I am also interested in the coming battle of the first years. I'm intrigued to find an answer..."

"Lord Dragon General, your brother is about to take part in the battle is he not?" asked Prince Philip. "What do you think are his chances?".

The 2nd Prince only asked this in a superficial manner. He had also heard the rumours about Nerun's misdeeds in the Royal Military School, and not being privy to the intelligence report received by His Majesty, he simply believed that Elijah had wanted his brother to enter the Lyceum on a whim. Philip was interested in making friends with Elijah, but he didn't really care about Nerun.

"My brother... Well, it all depends," said Elijah with a faint smile on his face.

"Depends on what?" asked Philip while most of the people in the box turned to look at Elijah, waiting for his answer.

By that point, all the first-year students were already in the arena. Several students were around Gonzo Dai Morena. While the latter was a bit taciturn, he was nonetheless considered to be the cream of the crop among the third-year students. There were three adepts in the top-ranked class and one of them, a lady named Marcia Halloran was paired with Gonzo, and they were considered the favourite couple to win the battle royale. The other two mana users were associated with other two Grandmaster warriors, the third and fourth-ranked students after Gonzo. These two were the ones that would supposedly dispute the other three positions to enter the round-robin competition.

Nerun, Karles and Reina were also there, but hardly anyone paid any attention to them. Only some of Solda's cronies were looking at Nerun with some malice and had already talked with several of their friends to hold back Reina and Karles while they got rid of Nerun right after the battle started.

The half-filled stadium and the feeling of being watched by so many people were a bit daunting for Nerun at first. With the golden rim that surrounded his ochre-coloured eyes, he noticed that most people weren't paying any attention to them whatsoever. Then he looked up to the main box, where his brother and so many other illustrious figures from the kingdom and the Lyceum were present. He noted the disdain with which some looked at him, the indifference of others, and the unconditional support of his older brother. He then remembered the statue he had seen prior to his entry to the arena and it made his resolve stronger. Nerun took a deep breath and, focusing his full attention, said to himself: "This is the first step. Let my name be known in the kingdom and the continent. Father, mother, look at me."

Before Elijah could answer his interlocutor, Anastasia had yelled once again: "BEGIN!".

At least two students from the middle-ranked group went straight for Karles and Reina and impeded them from coming to Nerun's aid. Meanwhile, three other students used their movement to attack Nerun with their full might while leaving no chance for the latter to dodge them. Having seen how Nerun managed to defeat Solda and Julian by a "fluke", they had chosen to not underestimate him and attack him at full power, while being careful of Nerun's agility which they had surmised as being his only noteworthy quality so far.

All of these attacks were clear in Nerun's eyes as if they were happening in slow-motion. Not even one second had passed since Professor Anastasia had yelled for the fight to start, when Nerun while hopping lightly on his two feet, moved quickly as the wind towards the three students that had just begun to approach him.

"<Ethereal Walk>"

This was the name of the movement technique that Nerun had developed during the tests at the Royal Military School. He moved like a phantom and appeared right before his attackers were even close to starting their attacks. Nerun then put his hand behind the head of a tall and skinny opponent who had been caught by surprise and with his full strength, breaking his balance, slammed his head into to ground.

- BAM

His two companions noticed what had happened and got really angry. One of them kicked towards Nerun, while the other accumulated Qi in his hand to throw a powerful technique. However, Nerun then raised his fallen classmate with his two hands and used him as a shield to ram towards the kicking student, while using the rebound to approach the other attacker and attacked the weak point of the technique about to appear, defusing the attack and with a strong palm he pushed against the chest of his enemy, leaving him completely out of breath and pushing him out of the arena.

This whole series of attacks happened in the blink of an eye. In fact, not many other battles had started yet, even the four students that were running towards Reina and Karles had not even got to them when Nerun had single-handedly defeated three students with ease and comfort. Their skin suddenly crawled all over, because Nerun had suddenly disappeared in front of their eyes. The battle had just begun.