"The first round concludes with 1024 participants left standing! Join us again tomorrow morning for the next thrilling round!"!" Steve announced and everyone applauded, satisfied by the bloodbath presented in the first round.
"You may stay and enjoy the scenes our runologists chose to highlight, they include the best moments of the first round!" Steve reminded them of the available attraction. On the sky were scenes of colorful techniques, swift kills, and flamboyant attacks.
"This round, 4111 were killed, surpassing even the record set earlier by Ken and Kara!" Steve exclaimed while the statistics were shown in the sky. "It seems like Ken Sue's presence doubles the number of casualties!"
The Serene Lotus Sect were prepared better for the combined assault after watching it happen many times in the previous rounds, and they could take better advantage of Ken's group's attacks that created large holes in their enemy's lines.
The statistics showed that the Serene Lotus Sect lost only 78 members this time, a huge improvement compared to the previous rounds where the number was even above 200.
"Let's get some rest and come back tomorrow," Ken said, climbing the mountain back to their tents area.
"I'll remain behind to study some potential future adversaries," Alaric declined. Unlike Ken who was still growing up, Alaric and Henry were adults and did not need much sleep anymore. With their enhanced bodies, they could easily stay up a few days in a row without affecting their well-being or fighting prowess.
They did not meet Tiara. A frosty aura came from her tent despite the runes carved on it for isolation, making the three men wonder what the enchantress was doing there. However, none of them thought to disrupt her training just to ask.
The next day, while they stood on the outskirts of the platform, they weren't teleported right away.
.cοm "The second round for the 1v1 bracket is here! The rules are simple – one disciple from each sect will be teleported to the arena until there are no more disciples left! Disciples from the same sect will not fight each other in this round, so those who won't get a match from the sect with the most representatives will pass by default!"
Steve explained the rules shortly and 25 squares were projected on the sky, one for each sect participating. The pictures of the different cultivators passed at high speed before stopping, revealing the cultivator who will fight next. As the first ranked sect, Serene Lotus Sect's participant was chosen last.
"In this round, the disqualifications seem random, entirely contingent on the count from the second-ranked sect," Alaric remarked to his companions. Unlike the previous bracket Ken fought at, here the number wouldn't be 256 or 128.
Among the three of them, Alaric's turn arrived first. "Good luck," Ken wished him when his face was projected in the sky. The fights took place in a different terrain every time, and Alaric was teleported to the ice plains. There were 16 other cultivators around him, signifying nine sects were already out of representatives.
Looking around him, Alaric found out that four of the unranked sects were still there. Overall, he had eleven enemies who aimed to kill him. He noticed that the unranked sects were not any less bloodthirsty than anybody else, but they were not aiming to kill anyone in particular. If he had to choose, he'd say they disliked the monks of the Peaceful Demon Sect.
"Start!"
Other than a few icebergs there was nothing to hide behind. Alaric's guqin came out of his ring, floating in front of him. Eleven disciples, men and women alike, launched themselves at him with a burning killing intent.
'Repulse,' Alaric thought, and his nails moved swiftly in a long motion on his instrument. The sound created a shockwave that sent him backward and blocked his enemies for a short while, but they easily resisted it with their own techniques.
The disciples of the unranked sects charged at the monk who remained behind, leaving Alaric to deal with the other eleven by himself. He sighed, this format was bad for his sect; it made sure they were always outnumbered, and there were even some intermediate Nascent Soul cultivators among his opponents.
Lightning covered his feet as he slid on the ice, leaving a trail of purple electricity behind. His hands almost moved instinctively to the form of holding a spear.
'No, I need to get used to fighting with the guqin. The potential is higher with my inheritance,' Alaric thought and denied his automatic response. Instead, he continued to remain away from his opponents while concentrating on his music.
*Ring* *Ring*
The melody started to fill the air, mixing high and low tones that evoked different emotions in the listeners. Some felt a rush of excitement, some a sense of bliss. They found themselves enjoying the chase for some reason, throwing their techniques at the air recklessly. The mess made it easier for Alaric to cope with so many enemies instead of fighting an organized unit.
Then, the music turned into a suspensive rhythm, one that made everyone's hearts race in their chests.
'Symphony of Madness', Alaric almost closed his eyes in his concentration before remembering he had to focus on dodging the incoming attacks.
As the beat continued to stir chaos in everyone's emotional state, their eyes turned bloodshot and their killing intent rose to the sky. Their attacking pattern turned more and more chaotic as they stopped caring about hitting each other, creating many openings for Alaric to use and slip away from their chase.
"AH!"
It was sudden. One of them apparently forgot about their target altogether and attacked the woman standing next to him directly, not just as collateral damage, but as his main target. She noticed it late, and her defense was not enough. Her technique broke and a deep cut appeared on her side.
Alaric did not let the opportunity slide, and he summoned his spear from his ring and kicked it while it was still in the air, imbuing it with his Spear Qi. It flew at high speed and pierced the woman's skull, killing her on the spot before she could surrender.
"Traitor!" Someone shouted, and everyone assaulted the attacker from earlier. However, it was not the normal way to handle a betrayal situation; they were crazed and disorganized, wounding some of each other in the process.
It continued to escalate as everyone blamed each other for trying to backstab them, leading them to change their targets to their former allies until everyone got killed but one. His eyes regained some clarity as he looked at Alaric approaching him, realizing it was the man's fault for the situation.
"Wait, please, have mercy and let me go! I will surrender! No, I can't help you fight the others and then surrender!" He yelled and banged his head against the floor in a kneeling position, making the elders of his sect clench their teeth in anger and their faces distorted in humiliation. Even if the disciple gets away with his life, he will not enjoy a warm welcome when he returns.
"You just betrayed your comrades. Treachery has its price," Alaric declared, his voice icy as he plucked the strings of his guqin, producing a shockwave that hit the man's chest and made his heart explode.
'The Symphony techniques are amazing, but they have the weakness of taking time to affect the target, forcing me to run or be protected by others,' Alaric reflected on his new fighting style. 'It's perfect, that's what friends are for, they will have my back.' In a sense, it fitted his ideology to cultivate in a way that relied on others.
'That was exhausting. I can only hope the rest of our sect fares well in this brutal setup,' Alaric reflected while he caught his breath from the constant dodging and tidied his robes.
He eventually turned around and returned to the place they had started, finding out the battle between the unranked cultivators and the monk was still ongoing.
He did not intervene, instead, he used the time to replenish his lost Qi. He had enough Qi reserves for the bracket, but knowing that he would have to fight sequentially later in the other brackets, so it'd be better not to drain himself.
The monk used his limbs to block and attack, creating an ethereal Buddha figure that enveloped him with light and blocked the weapons of his enemies. He purified his mind from any external influence, canceling the illusions and manipulation of two of his enemies.
'I guess they are not on the same level as a top-five sect,' Alaric mused to himself as he watched the monk cope with a 1v4 battle. However, the numerical advantage proved fatal.
The monk's face distorted in pain for a moment before he regained his calmness when a heavy blunt of a mace hit his side, sending him rolling away. He stood up shakingly, spitting some blood from his mouth as he took his fighting stance again.
The four engaged in battle again, and it ended once more with the monk taking a grave injury. They all noticed Alaric's silent presence by now, but since he was waiting patiently instead of taking advantage, they didn't switch targets.
"I guess I will play some music to pass the time," Alaric said with a sigh, making the five pause their battle in wariness. However, the monk acted first, trying to catch them off-guard, signaling the continuation of their fight.
This time, Alaric's fingers moved quickly from the very start, generating thick, melodious tones that seemed to bode ill news for the listeners. A rain of ethereal spears made of Spear Qi and Sound Qi took form above him and rained down on his opponents.
'Symphony of Arms.'
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