Lucien had long noticed that Vlad is practicing the Darkness Path, while training him, which mean he was probably Agility and Soul based.
But it was only now that he realized another thing.
'So, this elder brother of mine, is much deeper than I had imagined, he is practicing the Water Path as well, and it's obvious he didn't get it from the emperor, he wouldn't be thinking he was a useless son if he knew.'
'So what is it, Agility, Vitality and Soul build?'
It was obvious they were not battle hardened fighters who immediately dived into battle, without giving a second for the opponent to breath, they started talking.
"Hello there big brother, how about we don't try to kill each other, just fight normally and see who wins?"
The girl smiled like the most innocent flower that exists.
"Sure, little sister, we can do that."
Vlad also smiled back, he was like the prince charming every girl dreamed about.
The started casually exchanging punches, and nobody felt anything wrong with it, it was one way for a fight to go this way, nobody forced them to fight to the death.
The girl had picked the Agility and Soul, so she was keeping up with Vlad who had the same build, she also had some fighting experience so they were quite evenly matched.
Vlad would defend sometime, while attacking in the next moment, it didn't seem like that bloody elimination round everybody was expecting.
They were both at the mid Rank 1 on the Agility aspect.
All of a sudden the girl, let out a cute scream and Light shot towards the head of Vlad, it was a Soul Attack, but not the interruption type Lucien was using, it was a real attack, it could damage the Soul of Vlad, which would mean he would lose any precision in his body control, he would be like a puppet for a second or two.
As she had expected, Vlad suddenly paused and remained standing in one spot like a puppet.
There was a flash of viciousness in the eyes of the girl as she pounced with the intention to kill her opponent.
She was already within a meter of Vlad, when she pulled out a dagger and pierced toward his throat.
"We were not going to kill each other, no?"
Just one centimeter from Vlad, the dagger completely froze, and the viciousness was replaced with pure terror.
"I guess you broke the promise, so you can't blame me now."
"Corrode."
The body of the girl stated slowly falling apart, she was screaming in pain, but nobody dared to go on the stage to help, not even a sound was heard from the side of the Holy Empire.
First were the arms that fell of her body, then her legs, she died when the corrosion reached her organs. In just under a minute, there was only a puddle of mushy matter left from the girl.
"I was really going to spare you, but you had to go ahead and do that."
'So that is how it went. He is already in the High Rank 1 with his Soul, that attack was not effective at all, he was just playing with her, or giving her a chance, either way he had combined Water and Darkness to do that.'
'I felt he was pushing an almost unnoticeable amount of Particles in every exchange, a mix of the two Paths. It was probably some form of self made poison.'
'So this is what he was hiding, pretty vicious of you Vlad.'
"Winner Vlad BloodMoon."
"Get off the stage now."
Vlad didn't say anything he just walked off the stage.
Waving a hand, the stage was cleaned by the Rank 5.
"Next, Maria vs Bur RedWind."
The ice cube of a woman walked on the stage, followed by that Earth Path Barbarian.
'All the weak ones went on stage, at least that woman is also gone now.'
The Scarlet Ancestor went through the motions of asking if they are ready again, to which they both nodded.
"Begin."
"Elder sister, how about we don't kill each other, I promise I won't try."
"I don't make promises, that heretic killed my sister, I have to send someone to serve her in the domain of God. Since you are also a heretic, me killing you won't be wrong."
There was a look of despair on the face of the Earth Practitioner, he was not much of a genius, and he was one of the youngest here. His confidence in beating anyone was pretty low. But the moment he heard what she said, his inherent anger started burning.
"Hahah, so you think killing me is going to be easy, come then wench, I'll show you why our family name is RedWind."
He charged towards her with just special gloves covering his arms, it was obvious he was a Strength oriented Earth Practitioner, but unfortunately for him, she was Strength oriented Light Practitioner and Agility oriented Lightning Practitioner, she didn't even use Soul Attacks, she just charged toward him with a sword in hand.
They clashed and sparks flew around. The expression of Bur changed, she was matching him in Strength, which was his strongest stat, but he didn't give up, he continued with his tries to get closer to her.
Just after a dozen of clashes, Maria got bored.
"So this is all you amount to."
She started using the Lightning Path in the mix, her sword was suddenly charged with Lightning sparks, it was not true manifestation of Lightning as a Rank 2 would be able to do, since she was using the sword as a medium, but it was clear she was on the peak of Rank 1 in her Soul.
The moment they clashed, the Lightning spread through the gloves and moved inside the body of Bur, there was a smell of burned meat spreading from inside the Arena, and Bur screamed on top of his lungs, it was as if he got hit by a real Lightning.
Before he could recover, he heard a voice from right beside him.
"Judgement Strike."
Light shined as if judging the person before it, and the Lightning followed, as if the Light had judged him to be guilty.
This time it was stronger and all that was left after the strike was a charred body in the middle of the Arena, Maria didn't wait for the announcement and started walking back to stands.
"Winner Maria."
The Rank 5 was starting to seem a bit bored, he just waved his hand and the corpse turned into ash and dispersed.
"Next."
"Sigurd RedWind vs Lucien BloodMoon."