"The participants for the next fight are.... Alina and Arthur!".
The crowds enthusiasm soared as two of the seeded fighters for the Tournament stood up slowly and walked towards the main stage. While Arthur approached the platform silently, his eyes half-closed and his expression nonchalant, Alina clenched her fists tightly as she steadied her breathing.
Other than Randolf, who was already a Rank 2 Fae Master, one with three Rank 2 Fae, Arthur was the one other person she was most afraid of fighting.
Her combat style was based around using her own body to augment her Fae's abilities, so she could exert an extremely high level of movement, techniques and agility.
Her shadow armour fae were supposed to enhance all three of those, in addition to her weak defences. She had the Rank 2 Shadow Tentacle Fae in reserve but Arthur also had his pseudo Attribute Control Skill.
His combat style was most similar to her own, and Arthur's technique and control was vastly better than her own.
Not to mention his physical strength, which was probably slightly higher than her own.
She knew that Arthur used a Rank 2 Moon Piercer Fae, in conjunction with a halberd fae and woodpecker fae, which allowed him to use his "Silver Waning Moon", but other than that, the rest of Arthur's fae was a complete and utter mystery.
'There is no way that Arthur would use the same strategy as last year. And even back then he used more fae than anyone else in the Tournament. Like Ratimir and I, he specializes in weapon type fae, but is much more flexible when it comes to switching between weapons.....'.
Alina knew that his origin essence sea was only 201%, which was almost 90% lower then her own.
She didn't want to waste too much origin essence in this fight, lest she goes into a battle with Randolf with less origin essence than necessary.
The girl bit her bottom lip.
'But I just can't think of a way to defeat Arthur without having to use a lot of origin essence....'.
Alina's mind was constantly churning out ideas, as she gazed towards Arthur with a blank expression. She almost didn't hear the voice of the Clan Leader boom over the rest of the audience, and felt the hair on the back of her neck raise slightly as she activated all of her fae.
Alina felt a couple strands of hair brush past her neck as Arthur's halberd pierced through the spot where her neck used to be.
The young man's eyes turned towards his own, as he muttered a few words towards the unfocused girl.
"If you don't want to die, then don't lose focus".
The girl barely had any time to respond, before Arthur's figure spun around, and his leg impacted the side of her abdomen.
The force behind such a kick was extraordinarily powerful, enhanced with the power of several Strength Blood Fruits. Alina's eyes widened immensely, as she felt herself get pushed to the side as he figure skidded along the ground.
To her own credit, the girl, only bounced of the ground once, before she flipped into the air and landed back on her own feet.
However-.
Alina had barely any time to activate her own shadowstream and shadowsword fae before Arthur arrived in front of her, swinging his massive halberd around, thrusting the polearm towards her.
The girl has seen Arthur use this halberd fae quite a lot over the past few months, and even saw Arthur use it briefly during the beast tide.
Ever movement of his halberd ended with the death of another venom spider. The young sixteen year old spun the polearm between his fingers, using the speed from the rotation to slice through the thick carapace of Lord Ranked spirit beasts.
She had even seen Arthur spin the halberd and slam it on the ground, using the cobbled earth beneath him as some sort of trampoline to bounce the polearm right back towards him before piercing through the head of another venom spider.
He was relentless, and his technique was astounding.
This was the same Arthur that she was currently facing.
Even thought Alina could block and deflect bows from Arthur's halberd, the speed at which he constantly attacked kept rising uncontrollably. The moment that Aline thought that she could get an attack in, Arthur's halberd prevented her from even attempting to raise her arms.
Every thrust was aimed at a weak point.
Every slice was targeting her vitals.
Every spin and every slam was purposefully done to prevent her from doing anything.
A seed of fear grew within Alina's heart.
She knew that Arthur's martial arts were extraordinary, but were they so overpowered that she couldn't even resist!?
Even the audience members were entranced with Arthur's Spearmanship.
He hadn't used any Fae other than the halberd fae, and yet he was completely suppressing Alina, whose cultivation was both higher than him, who, in addition was also using a near complete set of armour type fae.
There was no fancy explosions, or huge spears of ice being thrown around.
Just pure technique and physical strength.
Leon, Dominic, Chensa, and even some of the Elders up on the stage were fully mesmerized by Arthur's technique. It was so perfect.... so refined.... so precise.... it was almost like watching magic.
These people from Parachenko Village had no idea of the powers of the outside world. They were so isolated from everything, that they didn't even know what Arthur was currently doing.
If someone, even from the smallest of Sects within Azure Envy Continent saw Arthur right now, they would go wide eyed from shock.
There existed countless powers and abilities within the Thirty Three Heavens, along with Fae to compliment those said powers and abilities.
There was the Blacksmithing Attributed Fae and the Alchemy Attributed Fae, which most people didn't know existed until the previous Era.
There was the Origin Essence Sea Fae, which could enhance the attributes of an Origin Essence Sea.
There were Laws, Bloodlines, Physiques, Sovereign Boundary Physiques and many heavenly treasures that existed besides just foreigner treasures.
There were many things within the Thirty Three Heavens, that could enhance strength, even without the use of Fae.
Sovereign Boundary Physiques and Laws were just two of the most commonly known ways of doing such a thing.
Another such way, was through the use of Intent.
An Intent.... was different from a Law.
This type of comprehension was different from Laws, however it was created by the Myriad Races in order to bridge the gap between the innate talents of Humans, and themselves.
The members of the Myriad Races were born with Laws within them, and could only use Fae from those specific Laws. However, if one of them could form an Intent, then the range of Fae that they could use would be expanded.
And Intent was.... simply put, it was a type of wish.
It was born from the collective power of Wills, Emotions and Desires.
A very complicated notion in the minds of Fae Masters, but those Fae Immortals who have become enlightening the Laws of the World can form Intent much easier than Fae Masters.
.... Although it'll be much weaker than a Fae Master who forms Intent, who then later becomes Fae Immortal.
Laws were an understanding of the heavenly mandates and divine orders that existed throughout the Thirty Three Heavens. At their pinnacle, theoretically all Laws were the same, they were all born from the Dao, and to the Dao they would all return.
But Intent.... that was a gift exclusive to the living.
An Intent didn't need Fae to be used, nor did it need some sort of Sovereign Boundary Physique to be activated.
It was a type of wish, after all.
Arthur's eyes glowed for a moment, before he backed up towards the other side of the platform. The origin essence within him churned and boiled, as if being swept along by a massive gust of intensely hot air.
Only the faint, yet discernible image of the Attraction Tree Fae could be seen, completely unmoved by this wind of change.
Alina, and most of the other Fae Masters in the audience noticed the change in Arthur's origin essence sea, and could see a faint amount of steam being released from his body.
He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath.
A small seed of Intent was planted deep within him, somewhere between the Mind, Body and Soul. It was almost like a bridge.... but also a pathway of sorts....