After losing her battle Yun went back to her quarters and rested. She knew there was nothing she could do to win that battle, but it was still frustrating her that she was dominated so badly.
The other four matches that day were all unexciting, and held no interest to her yet. Tomorrow would be six battles as well, but all six of them would be the remaining rounds of the Losers bracket. The first two would be Tao Ru and Cui Yazhu, neither of whom had much hope of winning the bracket, and Long Wuying versus Bai Xieren. Long Wuying, being a fist fighter, was at a great disadvantage when facing Bai Xieren, who used a chain spike and Poison laws to drain your endurance. Bai Xieren, however, unexpectedly lost this match.
Long Wuying revealed some of his Darkness laws and drove Bai Xieren to the edge while destroying the Poison laws on the chain spike. Bai Xieren was brutally beaten back to the edge of the arena and thrown in the water bodily by Long Wuying, ending their match in an extremely short time.
The next round of battles was another two battles, featuring first Fang Niu versus Cui Yazhu. Fang Niu was much stronger than Cui Yazhu and trampled her opponent in short order, conserving a great deal of energy for her next battles. The other battle in this round was Long Wuying facing Zheng Xinya. This time Long Wuying was put at a major disadvantage by Zheng Xinya's whip and Water laws. After a major pitched battle Long Wuying was finally defeated without being driven off the stage.
Finally the battle that would determine Yun's next opponent arrived. Fang Niu versus Zheng Xinya. Both of them were cultivators of Water laws using flexible weapons. The battle was certainly one of great endurance, and their weapons clashed over and over. Fang Niu was unable to use her technique of deflecting impact energy with her soft sword against Zheng Xinya's whip, and thus had to fight hard to learn how to not rely on this trick.
After a long battle of endurance Fang Niu began to push Zheng Xinya back with her superior battle skills, including the Hydra technique she had attempted against Xing Zhenya that was instantly destroyed. This technique created numerous serpentine shadows made of Water laws around her, which all struck out from different angles at the opponent simultaneously.
In response, Zheng Xinya used a powerful defensive technique with the whip, twirling it into a spiral that surrounded, the Water laws rolled off the whip and created a bubble that was flexible but also firm. When the Hyra shadows collided with the bubble they continued to drive it backwards towards the edge of the arena before finally driving Zheng Xinya over the edge.
Finally, the last match of the day would be held. Yun versus Fang Niu. The Elders gave Fang Niu a few hours rest to recuperate before the battle, giving as fair a battle as possible. Whoever won this battle would face Xing Zhenya in two days to determine the number one slot in the tournament.
"Huli Yunlong versus Fang Niu. The rest period has ended, please mount the stage and prepare for the final battle of the Losers bracket of this tournament. The loser will take Third place, the winner will advance and fight Xing Zhenya for First and Second."
Both competitors felt a great deal of pressure. Regardless of who won this round, it would be an extremely pitched battle against Xing Zhenya. Being undefeated, Xing Zhenya would have to lose to them twice to be designated second place, and nobody in this tournament had the confidence they could do such a thing.
Facing each other again after such a short time, Yun and Fang Niu both prepared for a difficult battle. Yun was sure that Fang Niu had worked on methods to fight her specifically in these past battles, not relying on her soft sword's ability to completely mitigate the opponent's weapon force.
As the battle began they both started with their own specialties. Yun activated Dragon Aura and began using the Static Arc concept to absorb energy as she moved forward, while Fang Niu began the battle with her Hydra battle skill.
Seeing the large Water elemental shadows behind Fang Niu, Yun retrieved her spear and prepared to fight back against them. The Water element was directly connected to Fang Niu, so there was a chance she could use it as a conductor to draw energy directly from her body with the Static Arc concept!
Fang Niu, her face grim, charged forward and struck from all sides with her Hydra ability. Yun didn't dare underestimate this, after having seen it push Zheng Xinya directly off the stage just a few hours ago. Soon enough the Hydra heads began to impact the zone of her Dragon Aura and quickly created huge amounts of steam from the high temperatures. Taking advantage of this moment of low visibility, Yun stabbed her spear into the middle of one of the heads and poured all of the Static Arc charge she'd built up so far into it. The electric charge traveled along the Hydra body in an instant and impacted Fang Niu directly!
Fang Niu fell to her knees, her Hydras fading away into nothing almost instantly. She now finally understood the reality of what had happened in their previous match.
Lightning laws!
She was facing a dual-element fighter!
After pushing the disruptive energy from her body forcibly, Fang Niu stood up. Yun was preparing to attack her with the butt of her spear in a sweeping strike, but she managed to stop it at the last moment with a return strike, causing her to slide back by a few meters and creating space.
Having finally learned her lesson, Fang Niu once again called up the Hydra ability, but this time she summoned them in front of herself, attached to her blade, and as she swung her blade they charged once again into Yun's Dragon Aura!
Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle! Pop!
The Hydras continuously devoured the heat energy in the Dragon aura and turned to steam, which carried that energy away into the air before dissipating into a fog. Fang Niu poured her strength into this technique, keeping the Hydras close to the ground where they could release the steam upwards and force Yun back by making a scalding cascade that would severely burn her if she tried to pass through it. This technique was extremely power-hungry, but it also devoured Yun's power as she had to pour more and more energy into the Dragon Aura to keep the steam clouds from being able to reach her body!
One Step!
Yun's foot moved back of its own accord. Her body chose to step back in order to protect itself from the dense steam clouds billowing on three sides of her! After that first step, she took a few more steps back before trying to dash around the steam cloud to attack Fang Niu again.
Slash!
Fang Niu sent another batch of Hydra heads out to block off Yun's path. She was driving her further and further towards the edge! Yun knew that this was a terrible situation, but she also knew that right now she had no other method to deal with these Hydra heads. She couldn't destroy them like Xing Zhenya could, nor could she attack Fang Niu through them anymore, thus she could only resist them and retreat! Hoping that eventually she would consume Fang Niu's energy and outlast her, they reached a stalemate near the edge of the arena.
One minute passed at a time. Both of them sweating as they fully exerted themselves in this incredible tug-of-war match.
Yun would use more energy, directing her Aura to the front, and push back the roiling clouds of steam by obliterating the Hydra heads close to her.
Fang Niu would pour her energy into the Hydras to push them deeper in and remove any chance of escape for Yun.
Minute by minute they reached an hour of this incredible endurance match. Soon it became obvious that Yun was beginning to lose out in energy density. The audience and Fang Niu could see the sphere of influence of Yun's Dragon Aura begin to shrink bit by bit, while Fang Niu was able to then begin saving some energy due to the smaller area she had to penetrate.
The disparity only grew! Soon Yun was only able to maintain control over a two meter space in front of her. At this time, Fang Niu knew she could strike and push her off the stage, but that brought risks as well. Better to just continue draining her of all energy before pushing her over the edge, thus ensuring victory.
With Yun's defeat Fang Niu advanced to the final round against Xing Zhenya. She fought valiantly in that battle as well, but Xing Zhenya's strength was just too overwhelming. He defeated her in ten minutes and ended the tournament.
First Place: Xing Zhenya; Prize: three 2-star God Stones.
Second Place: Fang Niu; Prize: twelve 1-star God Stones.
Third Place: Huli Yunlong; Prize: six 1-star God stones.
Fourth Place: Zheng Xinya; Prize: thirty 9-star Heavenly Stones.
Fifth Place: Long Wuying; Prize: ten 9-star Heavenly Stones.
As the tournament finally ended, and the prizes were distributed, the cultivators began to return to their sects. The top five of the tournament were specifically kept behind by the Elders.