The Final Round!

The start of a new day dawns the commencement of the final round of the Great Battle Tournament. Each corner of the city is bustling with noise and excitement, if not, more than the opening day.

In the Golden Inn, Asif was awake whereas the others were dead asleep despite the loud commotion resounding throughout the city.

*Knock Knock*

"Ugh, who is it…" Ash drowsily muttered.

Asif being the only one awake, opened the door and saw Lobian standing on the opposite side of the entrance.

"Oh Asif, good morning!" Lobian smiled.

"Good morning." Asif greeted back.

"I reckon the others are asleep?" Lobian asked.

"Come in and see for yourself." Asif let Lobian into the room.

"Despite the elemental energy being enough to keep you awake and refreshed, how are they dead asleep?" Lobian shook his head.

"If it weren't for my discipline, I'd join them." Asif honestly said. Lobian was caught off guard from Asif's response and wondered why Asif was so strict with himself.

"Anyways, they need to wake up. It's the final round after all…" Lobian said.

"Mhm." Asif agreed and went towards a small drawer with a small gong on top of it. He opened the drawer and picked up an appropriately sized mallet.

*GONG*

Asif hit the gong with enough force and a resounding sound echoed throughout the room. Lobian slightly winced as he didn't expect Asif's method of waking them up to be that. The echoing sound woke the others up albeit excruciatingly.

"FUCK!" Ray held his ears in immense irritation.

"…And once again…" Ash annoyingly muttered.

*Sigh*

"…he strikes!" Algo continued whereas Bryan just sighed.

"Oh shit, Lobian is here!" Bryan spoke loudly.

"What are you doing here?" Algo quizzically asked.

Ash and Ray stared at Lobian deeply, ""Were you watching us…sleep?""

*Cough Cough*

"For your information, I just came and even if I arrived earlier, I wouldn't be wasting my time watching you guys sleep." Lobian explained himself.

"You just came…?" Ash snickered.

""HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"" Bryan, Ash and Ray laughed out loud.

Lobian was confused and Asif simply shook his head, "Actual dumbasses."

"Why are they laughing?" Lobian asked in irritation.

"I will tell you later." Asif kept it short.

"Stop laughing! Today's the final round. Let's not dilly-dally and hurry up to the arena!" Algo spoke up.

-At the arena-

There was no shortage of people at the arena and it was lively as ever. Today, they would finally witness the champion's rise in the tournament. Whoever it may be, he or she will have a great future ahead of themselves.

Inside the arena, the audience were surprised to see some changes made to the platforms. Previously, there were numerous small platforms and one large centre platform. Now, only four large-sized platforms were seen erected in the arena ground.

"Hey, I heard there is something wrong with the participants."

"What do you mean?"

"I heard that two of them have met with mishap and now only 98 participants are competing."

"Pfft! All lies…"

"I'm being serious. Maybe they'll bring in new participants or do something different!"

"Stop fantasizing over your fake news."

"What did you say?!"

The crowd were rowdy and chattering endlessly. They were in high anticipation and duly waiting for the participants to arrive. They couldn't wait for the final round to begin.

"Who do you think is going to win?"

"Obviously, the man, the myth, the legend, Urza Kallux, our saviour and Lord."

"…"

"Don't listen to him, he's crazy. I have a feeling it'll be one of the others who topped the second round."

"That's a good call. We can't look down on their obvious potential."

"But potential is potential. What matters right now is strength and combat ability."

"Who knows, they'll maybe give us a surprise."

"Come to think of it, even the Battle King's children are there. We can't look down on them too."

"If we observe closely, the level and quality of participants this time around are beyond ahead of the previous Great Battle Tournament."

"It looks like we have a show in our hands."

"Speak of the devil, here they come!"

While the audience were gossiping, the final round participants slowly started to enter the arena and gathered on one side. The audience recognized a few familiar strong ones but they still haven't see the main elites yet.

*Thud*

Suddenly the noise from the audience quietened down quite a bit when they saw who entered the arena. Donning a full black outfit, giving off a serene contrast to his golden pupils and hair, Urza Kallux entered the arena.

Gone was his carefree demeanor and in came a determined and combat ready temperament. He had the face of someone who's ready to give his all in-combat. Taking the second round as a lesson in life, Urza finally experienced that there is always someone in the universe who is either equal or stronger than oneself. So, he tempered his state of mind and treated the others as an important challenge.

"No more looking down on anyone. I will give it my all regardless of the case." Urza uttered with strong determination. His ears suddenly twitched as he heard the crowd become restless and boisterous.

Urza narrowed his eyes and looked towards the entrance meant for the participants and saw six merry-go participants enter the arena.

"Is it me or did the audience suddenly became excited because of us?" Bryan asked smilingly.

"Maybe, maybe not but all I know is that you're enjoying it." Algo said.

"Bryan and fame? Who would've thought…" Ash mocked.

"Please let me match against him! Please!" Bryan muttered.

"What was that?" Ash inquired.

"Oh nothing. I just said you're a dumbass" Bryan whistled.

'Please RNG, I want nothing except for you to match him against me. Please do that for me so I can whoop his dumbass.' Ash silently prayed inside.

"Well, he arrived before us." Ray pointed at Urza. They both stared at each other and Ray was surprised to see a lack of arrogance or any sort of pretentious behaviour from him. He could see pure determination wafting out from his face alone.

"It looks like he has levelled up." Algo observed.

"He will be a hard matchup." Asif said.

"Interesting! For the great Godsun to change his temperament means he is taking this seriously." Lobian spoke.

After seeing their arrival, Urza simply closed his eyes and waited for the rest of the participants to arrive.

"Now where is Khai and Ray's sweet girlfriend?" Ash teased.

"At least Ray has a sweet girlfriend, what about you?" A sweet voice echoed from behind them. The group turned around and saw Khai and Kaya at the entrance. Ray waved at them enthusiastically and beckoned them to come over.

"Ash, my brother. You just got told." Bryan mocked.

"Tsk! I'll let it slide since she's Ray girlfriend and what the fuck. You can't mock me since we're in the same situation." Ash grumbled.

"You didn't have to remind me." Bryan annoyingly said.

"You reminded yourself, dickhead." Ash chuckled.

"Ugh…"

Kaya left Khai on his own and immediately bolted over to where Ray was. She scrutinizingly checked him and patted here and there.

"I heard what happened yesterday. Are you alright?" Kaya asked worryingly.

"Haha, I was wondering what made you so worried. I'm glad you asked but I'm in tip-top shape meaning I'm in the best of my state." Ray assured her.

"He's cheapening it. Our team leader had to fetch him and he came back bruised and bloody and his clothes were in tatters. Pretty sure he was feeling weak inside but he didn't want to show us so he kept quiet about it until we gave him a medicinal pill to completely heal." Algo revealed what happened after.

"What the fuck?! You guys knew I was acting?" Ray was shocked and blushed in embarrassment.

"Of course, who do you think we are?" Bryan smiled.

"You think too little of us." Asif shook his head.

"Someone dare touch the person I like…" Kaya was furious. Ray simply stared at her with glowing eyes.

"Kaya, relax. He's all fine now." Khai tried to calm her down.

"I'm feeling fucking fantastic, Kaya. So, ignore what happened yesterday and let's focus on the final round." Ray patted her back, reassuring her.

"You're right." Kaya took ahold of Ray's hand and grasped it tightly. Ray was feeling over the moon, although he tried to not show it on the outside.

"He's definitely feeling it." Ash nonchalantly said.

"He is…" Bryan smiled.

As always, Kaya brought Ray to the edge of the group. The group then took a spot and waited for the final round to start.

"Well, a lot happened yesterday." Ray spoke up.

"For you, yes." Kaya harrumphed.

"But I can say it with guarantee that the time we spent under the tree will be my favourite." Ray cheekily said.

Kaya slightly blushed and muttered, "Me too."

Kaya then asked, "Do you think there's a possibility we might face each other?"

"Probably. Do you want to fight me?" Ray asked.

"Of course." Kaya smiled sweetly.

-After some time-

*Twing*

The middle-aged elvish man appeared once again, floating in the air above the arena ground. The crowd instantly quietened down and they all looked up to him including the participants.

"WELCOME, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN TO THE FINAL ROUND OF PHASE 1 OF THE GREAT BATTLE TOURNAMENT!"

*WOOOOOOOO*

Instantly, the crowd erupted with noise and cheers. Bright sparkles flared up amongst the crowd creating a beautiful scene of absolute vigor and passion.

"I congratulate the participants that have gathered here today for making it into the final round."

"Now before I proceed to explain the rules, there has been some minor changes to the number of participants here today. Due to unforeseen circumstances, two participants will unfortunately not make it for the final round. So, the organizers and I have decided to continue the tournament with just 98 participants."

This caused a small uproar in the crowd as they didn't expect them to not make any changes. At most, they expected to bring in someone new to replace the two empty spots.

"With that unfortunate news being dealt with, I will proceed with the rules of final round."

"There are two stages in the final round. The first stage is a battle royale situation. Participants will be randomly divided into four groups. There will be two groups of 24 participants and two groups of 25 participants. Each group will fight in accordance to their allotted platform. Participants will be eliminated if they're either unconscious or knocked out of the platform. Only the top four in each group will qualify to the next and final stage." The elvish man explained.

"A battle royale fight?" Ash uttered.

"So I can finally whoop your ass?" Bryan was excited.

"It's all random allotment, so we either may be in the same group or in different groups." Lobian said.

"Shhh! Pay attention!" Asif shushed them.

The elvish man whisked a pot from nowhere and continued, "The final stage is a round of 16 stage. The top four from each group will be allotted a random number. Whereas I will be drawing random numbered tokens from the pot in my hand which will determine your matches. It's a single elimination stage so fight with everything you got. There will be another match to determine the third place later on."

"Other standard rules are the same as the previous rounds. Remember, there are no losers here, only winners. So, give it your all."

"I HEREBY ANNOUNCE THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE FINAL ROUND!"

The crowd roared in frenzy and gossiped as if there was no tomorrow. There were bets being placed here and there. All in all, the situation was chaotic but weirdly orderly.

Each platform was labelled with a tag indicating which group it was from Group A to Group D. The platforms were modified in such a way that it could easily accommodate more than 30 participants much less 24 or 25 participants.

"All the participants, check your wristbands. The wristband will display which group you will be assigned to." The elvish man instructed.