The elimination battles continued for another fifteen minutes until all that was left on the battling platform where ten fighters, six of which where girls and the rest boys with Alex being one of them.
Eventually everyone had started avoiding Alex, so all he could do was sit down and relax his strained meridians. But now that there were ten left, the fight to decided the ranking for the top ten would commence.
It was still the same elimination format, and just like before they all wanted to ignore Alex, he was definitely the undisputed number one, and since all of the prizes were the same, there was no need to stress that much about his position.
But they were quite a few of them who were unwilling to hand over that position to Alex, heck none of them were happy about it. And since at this point the prize is received would be the same, except of course for the dire fact that the ranks would be different. With just a look they all unanimously decided that the person they would be going after was Alex. Alex was not worried, this group of people were not the strongest of the entire ninth stage open meridian cultivators, they were just the lucky ones that didn't get eliminated.
Alex got back up to his feet, having rested for quite a while he was almost back at a hundred percent. His meridians hurt a bit due to the pressure he has put on them, but he could still go on for quite a while. He looked at them and flipped his white robes, the glint of metal on his back, showed that apart from his two swords, he also had a third weapon that he had not used yet.
"Please let's not waste time, I have things to do." He said to them as he took a stance, put one hands behind him and face his palm upwards towards his ten opponents. Then he flipped his palm as if telling them, to come on, and they happily did so.
None of this kids here were untalented or subpar, they had skills that the Alex of three months ago would not have been able to match, but now this kid was just wild and untapped potential. The first person to reach him threw a right hook, but it was just a feint that Alex was almost unable to see through. He grabbed the approaching left that was aiming for his midsection and kicked the shin of his opponent, bringing him down to one knee, and just in time too as Alex sent a kick to the jaw of a girl, knocking her our and cementing her position as tenth ranked open meridian cultivator.
Alex still held the hand of his first opponent, he raised his knee to deflect a strike from the guy, and then moved back a step pulling him back up to his fist and right into the trajectory of a metallic silver whip. His head tore open as a shower of blood spilled into the air, his opponent screeched in pain as he crouched down in pain whilst Alex turned and sent a kick to the chest of another girl.
Then he turned and sent his feet to the back of the neck of the boy crying in pain at the blood escaping from the side of his head. His face planted down onto the concrete platform and passed out immediately cementing his position at the ninth rank, seven more to go.
A sword came piercing at Alex's eye, a resplendent glow coming off it as it was strike empower by Qi. Alex dodged to the side, but t he Qi of the sword seemed to have been sharpened in some manner, Alex was unable to fully dodge as thin cut appeared at the side of his head. Alex was a little surprised by that, the sword was no where close to his face, yet he was still cut by it. Alex looked at the person wilding the sword and saw a young girl in a pink robe, who's hair was also a startling shade of pink and braided in a manner that was familiar to Alex.
Alex had to rethink his stance about the kids left on the platform, this girl was not average at all, she looked closer to Alex's age than the others, but she was just as talented as he was, or rather she's had more time to train and hone her craft. She pulled the sword back and swung it towards his neck, but at that moment whether by plan or just plain luck, someone sent a leg sweep to the back of Alex's legs, throwing him into the air with his back falling to the ground.
Alex to that opportunity to send a kick towards her sword, he jolted her, but her grip was still securely wound around the hilt of her sword. Never the less it gave Alex the time to hit the ground, and then roll to the left grabbing the leg of the person who just brought him down and also dragging the same person to the ground.
Alex was a village kid, before he learnt how to properly throw punches and kicks and use forms in martial arts, he had already been wrestling in the mud with bullies larger than him, and more often than not with Anya in tow. So fighting on the ground in a rough heap of bodies was something Alex was very familiar with.
Before the boy could make any other movements, Alex jumped on top of his body and sent an elbow slamming into his chest. With a dull thud the boy screamed out, but a head-butt to the temple knocked him out like a light. Every hit Alex delivered was brutal and precise, a complete far cry to his method of battling a month ago.
Alex rolled away and got some distance from the girl with the ridiculously sharp sword, it was almost as if he was running away from her, which he was, but he was not going to be making any moves without a proper plan in place. It took Alex all of 8 minutes of being chased by the girl with pink hair, for him to throw everyone else off the stage. There was just one more person, a girl that used an axe, and the moment she saw Alex heading for her, she flipped the axe and threw it straight at the Advancing Alex.
The Axe seemed to part the very air as it flew towards Alex. Normally the perfectly imagined counter would be for Alex to slid under the axe's trajectory, however the battling platform was so uneven that even a simple fall is bound to leave you with injuries. But Alex could not slow his momentum and it almost seemed as if he was really going to be in a collision with the Axe heading for his face.
But Alex twisted his body in an almost unnatural manner, it was like he was a snake in water. The Axe went past him towards the pink haired swordswoman, Alex ignored the outcome of that as he faced his front and kept on running towards the opponent in front of him. Once Alex got close enough to his opponent, a punch was thrown towards his face, but Alex ducked under the punch and he went around his opponent and wrapped his hands around her waist.
[SKY PYTHON SLAMS EARTH!]
Alex heaved and lifted the girl upwards, moving his strained muscles in a way that brought out the most maximum force he could muster. And then in a suplex move that was obviously powered by Qi, she went over his head and slammed her back and body on the uneven battling platform, she passed out immediately admits loud sounds of breaking bones and torn muscles, leaving Alex and the pink haired girl the only other opponents on the platform.
It was no time to determine who would be the number one cultivator amongst the Open Meridian realm cultivators. The first climax has been reached.