This could be easily read from their faces as they couldn"t keep it in, both barged in at the same time as they told me they wished to stand head to head against me in the tournament.

We then proceeded to connect our fists in a symbolic triangular shape vowing to meet each other in the finals. They left eagerly preparing for the compet.i.tion to come.

As the days of rest had pa.s.sed, we all got a message telling us to gather in the Colosseum of Victory.

There we got greeted once more by Helena, this time in a majestic golden dress that matched her hair and eye color. The dress looked like it shined like the sun as if wings covered her body.

The commotion quickly quieted down as she raised her hands and welcomed all of us.

"Welcome my contestants, as you can see today is a day for celebration, prosperity, and victory...

Today, we have finished the preparations needed for every last one of you to give it your all in the last round before the finals.

Because today is a special day, I Helena the G.o.ddess of Trading, Prosperity u0026 Victory will explain the rules as each and everyone one of you all will be guided towards the stages of today"s event."

Helena said welcoming everyone with open arms.

She even pointed towards the ones who had lost during the previous rounds in honor of their partic.i.p.ation.

"In honor of all partic.i.p.ants, I have given them the best places to witness the events. What better way to both enjoy the event and scoop out the compet.i.tion for next year? Am I right?"

While Helena gave all contestants an honorable mention she looked around to see everyone was paying attention. Eventually, her eyes met with mine as an intense warmth came over me, she looked playfully at me and continued as if nothing ever happened. It felt like my heart was going to burst out of my chest... unknown to this feeling I tightened the grip on my chest with my hand.

"Today, you stand before me proud warriors of Sharoo. As each of you will be split into groups of eight drawing lots from my children, each fighting One vs. One battle, until we have a winner of their represented groups.

There will be a total of 8 groups consisting of 32 contestants as this will help us create the bracket for the finals... Each lot will mention a Letter, as well as a number giving each of you a place inside your represented groups.

Only 8 will remain for tomorrow"s final event.

I hope everyone came prepared to give it their all?

Now... if everyone please will grab a lot out of the boxes provided by my children, the matches will begin shortly after everyone has drawn their lots.

As a final notice, I will wish all of you luck in the coming matches as victory will smile upon you."

The tension heated the place as everyone got excited about the upcoming matches. One after another the contestants grabbed a number as their place in the bracket during today"s event became registered.

Each remaining member of the summoned ones had drawn a lot, Elena, Raven, Raiden, Alessia, Ethan, Aqua and Geo. Even Akano Neshõ had drawn his lot when it finally became time for Yami to draw her a lot.

She reached in the box prevented in front of her, nervous about the oncoming matches and who she was going to fight she pulled out a piece of paper with the following combination on it. D-7.

Her name was out on a huge board like all the others finally registering her place in this event. Her name got announced as well as her combination making her placement final.

"Yami Shadowfang, D-7."

She looked up to see only one of the summoned ones to be present in the same group as her. It was Ethan Glaze!

Excited for what to come she let me pa.s.s as it was time to draw the light of my own. Reaching out I took grabbed a piece of paper, mine had the combination E-5 on them. As my name and placement got announced I too looked up, to find Elena to be part of my group! Knowing we had to face each other eventually I couldn"t help but get excited about it.

Before everyone had drawn their lots we met up with Geo, as we wanted to wish him luck, hoping we could meet in the finals. It appeared he had drawn the combination 13 which meant he was the first of us summoned one who needed to battle.

As the tension rose everyone got their representative places in line. During which everyone had drawn their lots it was now time to begin... The announcer took the stage signaling the beginning of the first match.

"If contestants 1 and 2 can please enter the Stage."

The first two contestants stepped up on stage as the rest took in whatever they could, hoping to get a compet.i.tive edge over them.

A tall dark-skinned man with curls stood on the left, his arms and legs were wrapped in bandages, other than that he only had white boxers on, allowing his body to move without restraint.

On the other side a small and chubby mouse man stepped on stage, grey fur covered his body as he had leather armor covering his legs, body, and shoulders.

The little mouse looked anxious, worried even...

Did the little one have stage fright? Was he worried because the sheer pressure of the first match got to him?

"Before we start let me explain a few more rules, as they are different than the last few rounds, you see...

As this is a One Vs One, we still go by knock out, giving up or falling off the stage of the opponent to win the match. Only now we will allow the complete use of elemental magic and prowess. As these two had mentioned they didn"t possess such prowess I thought it would be a great opportunity to explain.

Now Gentlemen, Are you ready to Rumble?!!"

The Announcer slammed the gong signaling the beginning of the match.

Quickly after the mouse curled up into a ball,

too afraid to move. The tall dark man laughed at the sight, moving in as he prepared to strike.

"Pathetic... aren"t you? We should be clashing fists,

It"s the first match d.a.m.nit!!"

Seeing as the little creature was too scared to move, frozen in place, he deep down wished the match would fly over without much happening.

The man jumped wanting to kick down, quickly ending the match with one strike. Just before he struck down, noticing something different to the mouse. Looking at him he became certain of it.

The little guy wasn"t afraid of the fight, but rather of what he might do to others. Slamming down his foot next to the creature, the man was certain of it.

The mouse looked straight at him throughout the entire attack, never averting his eyes. He wasn"t afraid, he just didn"t want to fight. Out of respect the men gently lifted the little creature from the ground, lowering him off stage and winning the match.

As the next few matches were fought, the pa.s.sion of the contestants reached new heights quickly finishing match after match, as Geo"s turn had finally arrived.

His opponent was a c.o.c.ky tomboyish woman with short blond hair hitting her shoulders. Geo noticed that she was quite slender and flat as a plank and he quickly lost interest in her. Before the gong rang, their eyes met showing just how determined both of them were.

As the announcer signaled for the match to start the woman moved similar to slitting someone"s throat, unfazed by this Geo made a statement to all women in the Colleseum.

"So... you"re here to stick it to the men as you feel you don"t belong with the normal woman or man? I hate to break it to you... but that"s just your brain being in denial of wanting an a.s.s-whooping so bad you found ways to creature opportunities for us men... You know... every one of you is the same,

Women only have one right, and that"s "birthright"!"

The female opponent, as well as most other women in the area, got riled up by emotion, they couldn"t handle the sheer savagery of his words. In a blind rage, the woman stormed towards him br.i.m.m.i.n.g with emotion. He easily dodges this straight forward attack and decided to teas his opponent just a bit more.

"Better yet, women should revert to their old ways, gathering and making food, guiding "our" children the "next generation". As well as taking care of our loved ones.

Make no mistake, all of these functions are crucial to the survival of our people, so please don"t feel offended by it, it"s just the stone-cold facts that I share here with you today. And to make my point clear."

Geo moved in on the girl who supposedly lost herself in primal rage, her ego wouldn"t allow for her to accept the way Geo talked about women in general, while at the same time she found it arousing as he mindlessly bossed around every single woman present with his remarks. Clueless as he was,

without a care in the world.

The woman tried to strike at his chest with a powerful kick, Geo, duck down, making the woman lose her footing as he slit down her ankles making her stumble off stage, losing the match. A few minutes had past giving Geo some time to breathe and relax.

While the matches of Group A continued his eye caught a peculiar contestant. It was a short young man that depicted odd behavior. It almost felt like the particular person tried to hide something when he got summoned on stage.

"Contestants 31 and 32 your match is starting please take your place."

The shady person was now standing on stage as his opponent greeted him with a respectful bowing gesture. The young man smiled and bowed down in the same manner out of respect.

When the gong ran the both jumped to the edge of the stage, awaiting one another, antic.i.p.ating their attacks. But before his opponent could react it seemed as if he lost his footing as he fell off the stage ending the match in an instant.

With this weird abrupt ending the announcer quickly moved on to group B as the first rounds if group A were finished.

There Alessia made herself ready as she had to fight a bald and irritated man, he had a large and broad figure almost as if he was a giant.

"The first match of Group B will begin shortly, please get ready on stage as we like to get this show on the road!"

Shortly after signaling the start of the match the man rushed towards Alessia with big steps, easily covering twice as much distance as others the man instantly blocked off Alessia"s path. Now unable to move away from him she had nowhere to go.

As the man had cornered her, he tried to grab her.

Seeing as he was so big, he had to stoop down.

By doing this carelessly he was unaware of the chance he presented her with.

Alessia, as cunning as she was instantly grabbed her chance sliding underneath the gigantic man ending up behind him. She then jumped up and kicked his a.s.s trying to make him fall off the stage.

But she didn"t have a big enough impact as the man kept standing in place, hurt by her kick he turned around. It seemed she had to come up with another plan.

Annoyed by his hurting b.u.t.t the man rampaged towards Alessia Damaging the stage as he walked.

Crushing the tiles under his sheer weight.

Seeing as he broke the tiles by sheer force Alessia thought of a plan, a plan where she didn"t have to do much, as she didn"t like putting in too much effort for unattractive people. The man was blindly chasing her around the stage when it dawned on him.

"d.a.m.n you, woman!!! No one takes Bruce serious... this frustrates me..."

Alessia was putting small fire on the stage, wherever the man trampled the stage, there were flames.

As the man knew he couldn"t do much against the flames he still refused to give up, jumping towards Alessia in a final attempt to know her off stage.

But... as luck would have it, Alessia slipped, spinning around the gigantic man, without anything to stop his jump the man landed outside the ring and losing the match.

When it was finally time for group C to start Raiden couldn"t contain his excitement, jumping up and down getting all hyped up, he just couldn"t stay calm anymore.

Quickly ending the match before he could even enjoy it, he did win, because his opponent underestimated him as he was hyped and unfocused, but at soon as the gong rang something clicked, making him extremely driven and focused ending the match with you one blow.

As the end of Group C"s final first match, I got shivers down my spine. As the pure disgust and terror seeped in from places I didn"t know I had we looked in horror as one of the contestants had broken the skull of her opponent like a walnut. The true horror that finally snapped me out of it was the fact that she was licking the blood off her hand.

Realizing I had encountered her before, it was June...

June Serpentine!!

"You"re unworthy of living... be glad I ended it quickly, hahaha!!"

June walked off stage waving and licking the blood of her hands as most people got terrified at the sight of her. As killing wasn"t part of the rules she didn"t get disqualified, but shortly after Helena added the rule that prohibited killing during the rest of the event, resulting in disqualification from here on out.

As everyone calmed down from the horror it was finally Yami"s turn in group D, lucky for her she didn"t have to face June, yet the smell of blood didn"t have her terrified, on the contrary, it made her more alert!

She almost seemed like a different person, more focused as she moved silent, yet fast easily closing in on her opponent, the elderly man tried his best but didn"t oppose an immediate threat. She used her swift movements to quickly dodge and counter any incoming attacks

As the man steadily got hit towards the edge of the ring he suddenly changed his stance to a more defensive one, now whenever Yami threw a punch or kick the man easily averted it. As the man learned her attacking pattern he could now counter her movements pushing her back with punch she had thrown at him. Now back at the center, the man readied a stance as he gathered all his energy for this last attack. As Yami could hear the heartbeat of the man accelerating she knew something was up.

"It is now or never!!"

Yami yelled at the man, opening her arms wide as if she told him she could take it.

The man waved his arms around until a small sphere of air appeared in front of the man. The sphere became larger and larger when finally the man pushed it towards Yami.

Yami summoned lighting to her feet trying to escape from the impact, in the nick of time she dodged the sphere. Thinking this would have ended it the man let his guard down. As he quickly wanted to end the match.

With only seconds on the clock Yami, moved towards the man at the speed of thunder, grabbing him by his robe and instantly throwing him to the wall outside the ring. By the time the man realized what was happening it was already too late, as Yami had won the match.

But in this group, there was one more, one of the summoned ones... Ethan Glaze...

Finally getting the chance to fight Ethan moved on stage, to be greeted by a c.o.c.ky bald young man.

As the gong rang Ethan turned his back to the man, instantly freezing him and winning the match.

Turning which he adjusted his gla.s.ses to try and look cool.

As the first round of group D came to an end, it was my turn. Unknown of who I had to fight I became a bit nervous... nervous because it could be anyone and nervous because of uncertainty, as I made my way up the stage I tried summoning my flame or lighting magic but couldn"t for some reason.

I had rested enough these couple of days, so if it"s not because I was tired, then why can"t I summon you at will? All the others could... but after I did it once, I can"t anymore? "BULLs.h.i.t!!!"

Frustrated by my failure and weakness I stood there blacking out in front of my opponent.

Who instantly seized the opportunity to attack.

As my opponent"s fist struck my head and landed on the edge of the stage I finally came back to the land of the living. I stood up and started to mumble about the fundamentals of the tournament.

"This was a Martial Arts Tournament at its core, so why should I depend on magic in the first place?"

My opponent struck down as hard as he could, connecting his kick with its target, me...

A soft thud could be heard.

*thud*

Trying to pull back his leg as he readied his fist to strike at me he realized the kick hadn"t connected at all. At that moment realization struck us both as I unconsciously threw my opponent in the air.

When the man came down I quickly jumped up kicking him outside of the ring and winning the match.

The blond man who had suggested the battle royal system of last round appeared to be in the same group as me, he greeted me as we crossed paths with each other on stage.

"You better watch your back, everyone here has it out for you summoned ones. It is said that whoever defeats one gains unimaginable fame and wealth, sometimes even gaining their abilities."

The blond-haired man grinned as ending our short encounter with a tap on the shoulder. Anxious because a stranger just touched me I quickly made my way to the waiting area.

There the other contestants of my group who had made it through the first round all casually sat as they only had eyes for the match in front of them.

When the gong rang, the blond man took a big step forward lowering his stance as his opponent tried to kick in his face. The moment he dodged, he twisted his upper body. Rising from below this resulted in a devastating blow to the chin, making his opponent fly off stage in mere seconds. Knocked out he couldn"t care less about the state his opponent was in, all that mattered was the fact that he made it through the first round.

As our eyes met he winked at me raising his fist in the air, claiming victory for his own.

In group F something weird was happening, a young man defenseless and weak as he was cornered his opponent with never before seen Magic abilities.

As his opponent was strong and swift the young man seemed to do nothing but defend. After a while, it even looked like he was losing, yet eyes can be easily fooled. The opponent closed in on the young one, striking straight at his gut, but at the moment of impact, the young man supposedly turned into smoke.

Now standing at the other side he lowered his hands to the ground as the stage began to crack open. The cracks closed in on his opponent. Trying to dodge his opponent jumped in the air using air magic to keep floating for a short while. Observing his opponent from above it became clear that what the young one was doing wasn"t targeted on his opponent just yet.

The cracks slowly widened as skeletal hands and arms tried to reach for the surface. Now having the advantage in numbers the young man ordered the skeletons to attack. His opponent still hovering in the air did everything he could to battle against these monstrosities as he tried slicing their bodies with air.

This, however, caused him to lower himself as he couldn"t keep floating while attacking at the same time. Now becoming a sitting duck he quickly needed to think of something as the skeletons closed in on him. Now surrounded by the skeletons who tried grabbing him all at the same time.

Mad about the fact that he was being treated so disrespectful, disappointed his opponent.

"You disappoint me young one." his opponent said.

Instantly creating a slicing wind around himself breaking all the bones of the skeletons that surrounded him making them fall to the ground as the lifeless bones that they originally were.

The young man laughed.

*hahaha*

"You think... you think this would be enough to get rid of my loyal servants?!"

The young one said mockingly.

"Think again!!"

The young one slammed his hands to the ground and quickly raised them in a waving motion, the separate bones of the skeletons that his opponent had defeated began rattling clattering together becoming a bigger Skeletal warrior a.s.sembled by the three of them. And, that"s not all, the monster had equipment now too, apparently, a sword and shield were a.s.sembled from bone as well.

"Now... let"s see how good you are..."

The young one said hoping for good results as he ordered his undead minion to attack.

The skeletal warrior stomped towards his opponent, locked on he raised his sword, but instead of striking with the sword he bashed his opponent with the shield. Thrown back his opponent lost his footing as he landed on his back, it became difficult to stand up once more. Not caring for rest or anything else, the monster continued to march towards his opponent.

As he saw his opponent stand up the skeleton went into a state of rage, rushing toward his opponent.

Now prepared his opponent held his hands in front of him, preparing to catch the shield which he could bash with at any moment.

As the skeleton closed in, instead of bashing him, he quickly threw his shield towards the lower part of his legs making him fall face front to the ground.

The skeleton closed in as his opponent lay defenseless on the ground. Grabbing him by the head the skeletal warrior threw him off stage winning the match for his master as it vanished in thin air.

Soon after several matches had needed it finally became time for Draven to enter the stage.

His opponent was a bald young man who was eager to fight. They bowed down towards each other and took their stance as the gong signaled the beginning of the match.

With a flurry of punches and kicks, the bald man closed in on Draven. Not impressed in the slightest by it he raised his hand, instantly blocking the bald man"s flurry attack. Wanting to end this quickly Draven summoned something which looked eerily familiar to me.

"Flames!"

Not only that... they had the same dark contrast to them as mine had. As Draven punched towards the bald man, flames shot out of his fists towards his opponent. Dodging as fast as he could, the bald man tried is very best as a single of the fire blasts scorched past his back.

The burning pain was agonizing as the bald man fell to the ground, spasms rendered him unable to react,

allowing Draven to grab his bald head, annoyed by the time his opponent wasted he summoned another flame, this time scorching his crown. Knowing the pain would be too much for his opponent, Draven decided to scorch his head a bit longer, roasting his crown the man was now unconscious as the pain became unbearable.

"Winner by knock out is... Draven Darkfire!!!"

In group, G Akano dominated the ring, as multiple explosions launched his opponent out of the ring in no time. Cordelia Aqua was the last of the summoned ones who had to fight. She had drawn the lot of Group H. meaning she had to go last.

Nervous by all the fights she could witness with her own eyes, anxiety took over as she stepped on stage.

She looked around trying to take in what she could see, hoping to calm down. When she saw me standing in the crowd. I waved at her and raised my fist in the air.

"You got this Aqua! We made a promise to meet in the finals, let that desire guide you to victory as you alone can achieve the goals you had in mind. Now show me what you are capable of and fight for your ideas!"

The speech seemed to have worked as Aqua quickly got it together, a.s.suming her stance. His opponent stomped on stage with the delusional thought of crushing whoever stood in his way. Big and hairy he even smelled... not a nice match up to be in.

Finally realizing his opponent was a girl he began smiling in a lecherous manner even making groping gestures and kissing lips.

"If I beat you... Y-you"ll have to do what I-I say...

Can"t wait to p-play... with my new t-toy..."

Overcome by l.u.s.t her opponent couldn"t think straight anymore as her beauty was captivating in his eyes, blinding even.

As the two of them were now ready the gong quickly rang signaling for them to start the match.

The big, fat and hairy man stomped towards Aqua wanting to grab her. But wait... what was that?

Aqua gracefully dodges his grapple move by jumping and twirling in the air. While in mid-air, Aqua summoned ice freezing her opponents" feet.

After landing her opponent fell to the ground as he couldn"t keep balance breaking the ice that kept him from moving. Shortly after she summoned a huge wave of water sweeping her opponent off stage and ending the first round of this single-elimination tournament.

Proud as one of her friends I couldn"t wait for what round two had in store for us.