Two weeks passed since the Tournament of Champions started in the capital city of the Kraetor Empire, Azmar.
Out of the thousands that joined the event, only thirty one remained. Prince Maximilian and Prince Jason were the only representatives of the Kraetor Empire that had lasted until this point.
As for the Elves and the Demon Race, three remained on each side.
Kenneth was one of the three Elves that managed to get far in the tournament. Princess Sidonie, Ashe, and Morgana, weren’t able to identify how the Elf had been able to deal with his opponents.
All of Kenneth’s battles ended the same way, which made the three girls helpless. They thought that the silver-haired pretty boy wouldn’t be able to survive until the end, but they had greatly underestimated Kenneth’s ability.
Princess Sidonie and Ashe had approached several times during the tournament, but they were unable to get any more information from him. William’s Ex-Roommate was tight-lipped, and was adamant that he would only pass his message to William.
< No matter what happens, he mustn’t win! >
Morgana glared at the pretty boy from within Princess Sidonie’s mindscape. Kenneth had said on more than one occasion that he would break William’s engagement with the Princess of Freesia, which infuriated the two beautiful ladies.
Princess Sidonie nodded her head in agreement. She had promised William that she wouldn’t do anything to harm the young man, so she was putting her hopes on the other contestants.
“After today’s battle, the seventeen participants will be placed in different brackets until one of them remains,” Ashe commented from the side. “The crowd favorites are of course, Prince Maximilian and Prince Jason. However, their opponents are not pushovers. I think both of them will have a hard time advancing to the finals.”
Princess Sidonie once again nodded her head in agreement. All of the fighters that had reached this stage were the strongest fighters in the young generation that hailed from all over the continent.
Any one of them could become the victor in the tournament, but she didn’t wish for Kenneth, or Prince Jason to be the last man standing. Both of them had the intention to break her engagement with William.
Naturally, Princess Sidonie wouldn’t budge even if the Emperor of the Kraetor Empire really fulfilled their wish. She would rather return to the Southern Continent than break up with the Half-Elf that she had chosen as her future husband.
Thirty-One players arrived in their designated arenas. Since it was an odd number, they were asked to draw ballots because one of them would get a free pass and directly proceed to the next stage of the tournament.
Kenneth took out a golden ball from the ballot box, which made Princess Sidonie and Morgana clench their fist in frustration.
As if feeling their stare, Kenneth looked in their direction and waved the golden ball at them with a smile on his face.
< What a hateful bastard! Why is he this lucky?! Did he cheat? >
‘No.’ Princess Sidonie firmly shook her head. ‘The ballot boxes have special runes embedded in them that prevent anyone from cheating. There’s no way that he can bypass this rule.’
Morgana clicked her tongue in annoyance and stared daggers at the Elf whom she had marked as her mortal enemy.
After all the players had received their ballots, the matches began.
Less than an hour later, Seventeen contestants remained.
Prince Maximilian – Kraetor Empire
Prince Jason – Kraetor Empire
Kenneth Xin Ashleigh – Silvermoon Continent
Pearl McLean – Silvermoon Continent
Zach Knowles – Silvermoon Continent
Xanhast Valatieri – Demonic Continent
Alinska Lafitte – Demonic Continent
Eleazar Blackthorn – Demonic Continent
Ephemera Fortuna – Gunnar Federation (Edelweiss)
Luther Luna – Gunnar Federation (Quince)
Frederick Maslin – Zaleska Empire (Beastkin)
Jared Toussaint – Zaleska Empire (Beastkin)
Lilith Lynn – Ares Empire (Amazon)
Tasha Hayes – Ares Empire (Amazon)
Ged Walker – Tenser Empire
Allanon Mosley – Rincewind Empire
Silvanus Rahl – Halle Empire (Dwarf)
——-
After the final match ended, Emperor Leonidas stood up and congratulated the contestants.
“It has been a while since I’ve seen how outstanding the young generation is,” Emperor Leonidas said. His voice spread across the entire arena using a magical artifact. “The final phase of the tournament is upon us, and I wish all of you the best of luck. I look forward to your future battles!”
The audience cheered in unison because they, too, had been impressed on how amazing the final contestants were. The next battles would be held after a day, but before that, each of the contestants were once again asked to draw ballots so that they would be placed in one of the four team brackets, from which only one would emerge victorious.
The Elite Four would then fight in the semifinals. Even if they lost the match, they would still receive amazing rewards from the sponsors of the event.
After picking their numbers, a giant projection appeared at the center of the arena, showing the names of the contestants, and their respective divisions.
—–
Bracket A
— Prince Maximilian
— Prince Jason
— Pearl McLean
— Alinska Lafitte
Bracket B
— Kenneth Xin Ashleigh
— Jared Toussant
— Tasha Hayes
— Xanhast Valatieri
— Eleazar Blackthorn (Seed Player)
Bracket C
— Ephemera Fortuna
— Zach Knowles
— Frederick Maslin
— Silvanus Rahl
Bracket D
— Lilith Lynn
— Allanon Mosley
— Ged Walker
— Luther Luna
——
The Kraetorians groaned when they saw that their two princes were in the same Division. It meant that only one of them would be able to advance to the next round, to fight in the Semifinals.
The members of the Kraetor Royal Family also felt the same when they saw the final placement of the contestants in the last elimination round.
Majority of the audience was quite surprised because among those who had joined the tournament, the Elven Race had only sent four representatives. Three out of four managed to survive the competition, which proved that the Silvermoon Continent was still a force to reckon with.
The leader of the Elves, Zach Knowles was quite disappointed. He had heard the story of the Half-Elf that had fought in the war of the Southern Continent and wished to fight him in battle.
Although William’s name brought fear to the Anti-Human Faction, those who idolized the Human Hero, Maxwell, thought highly of him. It could even be said that Zach’s reason for traveling to the Kraetor Empire was to meet the Legendary Shepherd.
He wanted to meet his idol, who stood against the Guardians of the Silvermoon Continent, and ask if he could become his Sworn Brother for life.
Lilith Lynn, the Amazon Princess, scanned the other contestants with a greedy look. She had come with the Amazon Empress to the Kraetor Empire to find powerful men that they could bring back to their Empire.
The Amazons were a race composed purely of women. Due to the blessing of their Goddess, they could only give birth to girls. Because of this, they were on the constant lookout for strong men, whom they would invite respectfully, or by force, to become their partners to give birth to strong individuals who would raise the prestige of their empire.
For them, the Tournament of Champions was the perfect place to find strong men. They didn’t care what race they were. They could be humans, elves, demons, dwarves, beastkin, or any other races.
In the end, their offspring would always be human girls, so they weren’t too picky with the race. All they cared about was strength. The stronger the men, the more they wanted him to become their stud.
The Amazon Empress looked down from her VIP seat with a smile. She had already chosen a few individuals among the finalists. Even if they lost, she would still give them an invitation to return to the Amazon Empire with them.
‘Kenneth Xin Ashleigh,’ Empress Andraste, the Sovereign of the Amazons mused. ‘He will definitely be one of the Seeds that I will bring back to Ares after this tournament is over.’
Empress Andraste had noticed the irregularity of Kenneth and thought of him as someone who carried a very rare bloodline. The Amazons had the unique ability to be able to awaken the unique powers of their Father’s bloodline.
Because of this, they prized those who came from Influential Families that have unique abilities exclusive to their bloodline.
For the Empress, Kenneth was like an apple that she wanted to take a bite of no matter what.
‘Patience,’ Empress Andraste thought. ‘At most the tournament will be finished in two weeks. I need to make the necessary preparations beforehand to ensure that the Seeds we take back will not be able to escape our grasp. Too bad, that William boy is not here. I heard great things about him.’
Empress Andraste sighed. Due to her vast information network, she had already known William’s name and the achievements that he had made back in the Southern Continent. If she were to choose between William and Kenneth, she would definitely choose the red-headed teenager as the ideal choice.
The Amazon Empress leaned back on the couch, as her gaze landed on her daughter, Lilith. Empress Andraste had no doubt in her mind that her daughter would become the champion of the tournament.
Her only concern was whether her darling daughter would become too greedy, and create a ruckus before the Semifinal Matches began.
As Lilith, who was standing in the arena, continued to scan the faces of the finalists, she was like a connoisseur that was looking for the perfect dish to eat. A frown appeared on her face when her gaze landed on Kenneth.
Kenneth had long noticed Lilith’s uniqueness. He sighed in relief that the Amazon Warrior wasn’t in the bracket where he belonged. The silver-haired teenager had his guard up, just in case the young lady staring at him tried to do something funny.
Lilith snorted, and ignored Kenneth. Although he was quite good looking, she was not a fan of delicate looking boys. For her, the ideal man should be imposing and carry himself with arrogance.
She was a girl that preferred badboys over gentlemen.
After taking a good look at the people around her, Lilith grinned because there were a few individuals that caught her interest. She knew that after beating them up into submission, they would gladly follow her to the Amazon Empire, where they would become her toy, until she found someone better.
