In the end, Red was the unlucky one. He received lot number seven. This meant that of the first set of four fights, he would be in the last one.
Eveline was not much better off. She had lot number twelve. She would end up fighting in the second batch.
Tom was much better off by comparison. He had twenty six. It wouldn't be until the fourth batch that he would need to fight.
Alex was not sure if he had been lucky or unlucky. His lot was number forty two. He had to wait until nearly three quarters of the first round was over, before he would fight.
Between excitement and nerves, we would have rather had Red's lot. Unfortunately, they were not allowed to switch lots.
Alex and the others were trying to help keep Red from becoming too nervous, when professor Sendra arrived at the field.
"Attention all students!" Sendra's voice cracked like a whip through the murmuring of the crowd. "We are already behind schedule, so I will make this quick."
As soon as everyone heard Sendra's voice, all talking stopped. This was partly out of respect, but mostly it was due to fear. Everyone had seen her barbecue a potential student on the day of examinations.
"Your original referee was supposed to be professor Jarilo. Due to recent events, he has been made to oversee the second years." As she said this, Alex was sure professor Sendra had glanced in his direction. Unfortunately, he had no idea why.
This bit of information sent ripples of conversation through the crowd. Though, even with this sensational news, no student dared to speak louder than a whisper.
"As such I will be the referee. Lots one through eight, proceed to the arenas." The students did as they were told. Within moments there were eight students, waiting in pairs of two, in front of their respective arenas.
"I will only say this once. So listen carefully. All of you!" As she said this, Sendra looked to the far end of the crowd. She was looking directly at Kevin as she continued. "This fight is not to the death. If any of you grievously harm your opponent through any means, outside of an obvious accident, I will personally kill your spirit animal!"
A loud gasp came from the crowd. Then it quickly erupted in chatter.
"She can't be serious!" Eveline was horror struck at the idea.
"I would never bet Eluril's life on that." Alex, was absolutely sure she meant it. He knew first hand how dangerous she could be.
"That is insane..." Tom couldn't help but shiver at the thought.
The death of a spirit animal was permanent. Not only would you lose a person that was near and dear to you, but you would never have a chance to progress in rank any longer. In fact you might even regress.
Worst of all, this meant that a piece of your soul would be destroyed. Most would rather die themselves, than go through that pain.
"Quiet!" Sendra's powerful voice once again silenced the crowd. "I am not joking. Do not think, for even a second that you can make use of this tournament to harm your enemies." Oddly, she was still staring at Kevin.
None of the group could see his face from where they were, but they knew it was him. They could see his large magma rat and slicked back hair.
Sendra then went on to explain the rules. Simply put, going outside the ring for any reason, being knocked unconscious, being too injured to continue, or giving up all resulted in your loss. Losing a single fight meant you were out of the tournament. Other than the threat of spirit animal companion death, it was all very straight forward.
Immediately after finishing her explanation of the rules, she called the students into the rings and to take their starting positions.
The group wished Red luck as he set off.
Red was very nervous as he stepped into the ring. Not because he was worried he would lose. On the contrary, he was afraid he would hurt his opponent too much and wind up being punished.
Red and the others had cultivated as much as possible over the last week. They were each able to step into the qi production realm very quickly. But that was where their similarities ended.
Once a cultivator reached the qi production realm, they would no longer need to absorb mana and turn it into qi. Now they would have a qi nebula within their heart. This was a roiling mass of gaseous qi.
The qi nebula would be constantly producing qi within the body. Meditation, was now used to learn how to stimulate the nebula into making more of it.
While the qi nebula appeared in the heart, they found it could be moved right after its creation, but not for long.
Unfortunately, Alex had missed this window, due to being unsure of how to progress.
Depending on where it was housed in the body, the qi nebula would change. Completely altering the persons path of cultivation.
Red had always been quick. His reflexes were also his highest ranked attribute. So, when he realized he could move his qi nebula, Red wanted to capitalize on his most powerful attributes. There was also one other fact that had been enticing him ever since he heard about it.
It was the new ability that Alex had found. The ability to perceive their surroundings in their entirety. In a seemingly omniscient way. Alex had told them that it occurred when he had pushed qi into his eyes.
Red found that moving the qi and qi nebula within his body was extremely easy for him. The others ran into some problems, but he felt as though it would follow his every command.
Red decided to try something risky. Slowly, he moved his qi nebula into his spinal column. Once it was there it began to slowly flow up and down his spine. Slowly producing qi.
He could feel each and every nerve as the qi flowed over them. He began to map out his nervous system in this way.
He sat still for hours. Beads of sweat pooling on his brow, as he pulled and stretched his qi nebula into the shape of his nervous system, even going so far as to have it flow along the large nerves leading into his eyes. Luckily, once he pulled enough qi into a nerve, the qi would rush to fill it on its own.
In the end he succeeded in merging his nervous system and eyes with his qi nebula. Unfortunately, because his qi nebula was so spread out his qi production was the worst in the group.
Red didn't care though. The benefits were worth it.
He did not gain the omniscient vision, but his vision was now qualitatively different, and so was his reaction speed. He now saw the world moving in near slow motion, and his improved reaction speed meant his body could keep pace with his vision. For short bursts anyway.
Red and Penny walked onto their starting point.
"Don't make us look bad okay." Penny chided.
"Yeah. Lets just hope I don't hurt him too bad, for both our sake." Red replied as he continuously flipped the daggers in his hands.
Their opponents were from the group of lackeys that followed Charles Pheonix. He was a large boy, nearly two hundred pounds, not including the heavy plate mail he wore. He carried a large shield and a long chained flail. The chain was so long, the weapon nearly dragged on the floor. His companion was, what appeared to be a corgi in battle armor.
Red nearly laughed at the absurdity. This little corgi wore full chain mail along with a blue and gold colored surcoat. On the corgi's chest and back there were small shields with a crest of some sort emblazoned on it.
The only reason Red didn't laugh, was because he, like everyone else, knew that no spirit animal should be taken lightly.
"Begin." Sendra's solemn tone rang out over the field.
Red slightly crouched and slowly began walking toward their enemies. He took a circular path forward.
The opponent raised his large shield and stepped forward, as he began to twirl the flail's long chain.
Red stopped just outside his opponents reach. He watched the flail spin in slow motion. He chose the worst possible timing for his opponent, then simultaneously sent a command to Penny and dove in to strike.
Penny responded by launching a barrage of quills. Each one striking the opponents shield and exploding into a shower of flames and shrapnel.
The opponent quickly raised his shield and hid from all of the incoming quills. Each one made him grimace slightly, but that was all.
The large boy looked back at where Red had been. But Red was no longer there.
Red was now behind the boy. Before the enemy could locate him again. Red attacked. His daggers struck over and over at the joints in the armor. After five consecutive attacks, Red jumped back and out of reach. Not even a second later, a flail whizzed past where he was just standing.
This game of cat and mouse continued for a few minutes.
Red would wait just outside range, then coordinate with Penny to make an opening to strike a few useless blows. Before diving back out of range.
The entire time, his enemy could only feebly try to chase after Red's shadow with his attacks. Even the corgi had not tried to attack Red.
"Damn it!" The large boy yelled, in frustration. "I will get you one way or another!" He growled through clenched teeth. He was tired of being used as a pin cushion.
Right after red had, once again, jumped out of range in the nick of time, the boy and corgi both rushed toward Penny.
A chill ran up Red's spine as he saw them turn toward Penny. The large shield rendering her attacks useless. He could see the opponents arm begin to reach back in preparation to bash Penny with the flail.
Red immediately pushed his cultivation to rotate at its maximum, while also enabling the enchantments on his armor.
Suddenly, a large orb of impenetrable darkness radiated from where Red had been standing. The orb was approximately ten feet in diameter. It's smooth dark surface gave no hint to what was going on in the interior.
The large orb quickly shot over in front of the enemies. Engulfing them and Penny in the darkness.
A loud clink and bang were heard. Followed by a loud thud.
Everything happened inside the darkness, so no one knew what had happened.
A moment later Red deactivated the enchantment.
There laying on the ground was his opponent. The large flail was still embedded in his helm.
Red was terrified that he had killed his opponent.
What would he do?
Would professor Sendra kill Penny?
Before he could worry too much, a golden glow began to radiate from the ground near the fallen enemy.
It was the corgi. He was glowing.
After a moment, the glow began to encompass the fallen boy. The boy began to stir slowly.
It seemed that this corgi had access to a healing ability.
Red breathed a breath of relief, then looked toward professor Sendra for confirmation of his win. With her nod, and a look of stern warning, Red left the arena to join the others.
He had not intended to harm his opponent so badly. But he really didn't have much of a choice.
Red saw the enemy running toward Penny, and he didn't know what to do. He only thought that maybe the shadow enchantment would make the opponent miss his attack.
After Red had activated the enchantment on his armor, he panicked and ran to jump between the enemy and Penny.
There was an interesting aspect of the shadow enchantment. It only stopped light from radiating out of the area, light would still fall into the area as normal. This meant that anyone at the center, could see out as if nothing were happening. But this was only true if you were at the center.
That was why Red could still see what was going on, and move appropriately. By the time he was able to come between the enemy and Penny, the flail was already on its way toward her.
Without thinking, Red pushed the dagger in his right hand against the chain attached to the flail. This forced the flail to pivot in his direction, rather than continue toward Penny.
Unfortunately, now the flail was headed toward Red. Red knew that he would soon run out of qi to burst with. All he could do was duck, and hope it would miss him.
Luckily, it did. It sailed right over his head.
Right into the head of his opponent.