Arthur continued to watch the various "fights" and "battles" between the new generation of Fae Masters, forcing a frown as if he was displeased with what he was currently watching.
Quite a number of the Elders showed expressions of.... displeasure at quite a number of the fights, and the large majority of Fae Masters watched the battles with a lazy look in their eyes.
The vast majority of these fights weren't interesting, and those who participants were strong had ended in a single hit. They knew that the mortal population of Parachenko Village hadn't received the same degree of education from their own parents or grandparents, but the absolutely disgraceful capabilities of some of these new Fae Masters, almost made them ashamed to call them Kovacs.
After a month of cultivation and martial arts practice, they should be able to at least throw a punch, and evade punches correctly. Whenever the boys fought the girls, they couldn't bring themselves to punch them, and whenever boys fought boys, they almost always ended in them grabbling each other on the ground.
Even if their Origin Fae wasn't offensive in nature, it should be able to push their opponent back if it was a defensive type Fae, or even control the area around them if it was a control type Fae.
Without a doubt.... the quality of Fae Masters this year was.... unbelievably low.
Elder Vova made a mental note to increase the severity of his punishments.
Even the betting got boring, seeing as though most of the battles were 90% grappling and the other 10% Fae.
If they wanted to see a fight between mortals, they would've organized a mortal martial arts competition. These were supposed to be Fae Masters, not children fighting amongst themselves.
However, even after all the muck and the trash, as Arthur put it, they had finally arrived at the-.
"Participants for the first battle of the semi-finals are..... Henrik and Nyssa!".
The once quiet and restrained audience sparked alight, as a wave of cheer and excitement crept through them all!
Even if every round before this one was shit, the final bouts would guaranteed to be at least a little bit exciting! They had whisked out the vast majority of trash and uselessness out of the Tournament and were now only left with the last few participants who could actually perform well.
.... Not to mention, that Nyssa was the fan favourite to win this year. The girl outshined everyone, in terms of talent, Fae knowledge, martial arts and even cultivation speed!
The current Nyssa, with the assistance from a Blood Essence Fae she had received silently from one of the Lecture Hall Elders, was already more than halfway towards liquid quartz origin essence!
Once she reached that stage, she could fight for longer, seeing as though the origin essence expenditure for her Fae would decrease as the quality of her own origin essence increased.
So long as she kept up that pace, Nyssa would probably be miles ahead in terms of cultivation when compared to everyone else.
The young man, and the young woman stepped up onto the stage, staring at each other silently.
Both of them, under Arthur's tutelage, had known about the others martial arts style, but neither knew about the Fae they each kept. It wasn't very common to let others know about each others Fae, even when they were apart of the same Clan, and studying under the same person.
Nyssa knew that Henrik specialised in both Earth and Metal Attributed Fae.
While Henrik knew from previous fights that Nyssa had numerous Fae that complimented her Origin Fae, White Devil Fae.
She was a ranged fighter, yet had immense physical strength. He had to be careful, and needed to close the distance between them without negatively impacting his own defences.
The referees glanced at both of these participants before turning towards the Clan Leader, giving him a slightly nod.
Niklos smiled, also eager to end his boredom, lifting both of his arms into the air, shouting out over the screams and cries of Nyssa's and Henrik's names.
"Let the first bout of the semi-finals.... commence!".
The fervour of the crowd was only matched by the intensity of Nyssa's and Henrik's origin essence seas. Their auras unhindered and visible for the entire world to see.
Their clothes fluttered as Nyssa once more felt the white coloured horns sprout out of her forehead, bright red coloured lines appearing all over her limbs and extremities. This time, instead of a bow forming in her hands, a long, white coloured spear appeared instead.
The red lines extended from her hands onto the Bone Spear Fae, causing it to glow an ominous bright red.
Arthur raised an eyebrow for a moment, sending a glance towards one of the Elders up on the platform. Elder Jakob was stroking his beard wonderfully as Elder Vova and Elder Karl both looked at him, shaking their heads slightly.
'Hmm, so he was Nyssa's sponsor in our previous life. Maybe I can use that....'.
Henrik on the other hand, narrowed his eyes and tapped his foot, causing the ground beneath his feet to shine with a brightly metallic look. Arthur once again raised his eyebrow, turning towards Elder Zarek on the main stage, who was also smiling gently while nodding his head.
'Good. Nothing has changed then'.
Elder Zarek was the type of person to treasure his blood related family the best, and the Clan second. His blatant favouritism made him slightly unpopular in the eyes of many of the other Elders, but due to the recent.... shortage of Elders, his political strength had increased over the past few weeks.
Even if it was just his illegitimate son, he would still take care of him as if Henrik was his legitimate son. It made his relationship with his wife and son slightly.... strange, but Elder Zarek believed that in the future, they would all get along.
Especially Alina and Henrik.
The stage beneath Nyssa's and Henrik's feet transformed from its normal, stone appearance into one of a thick, unbendable steel. The only use for the Steel Shift Fae was to transform the ground beneath someone into a particular element, just like the Sand Shift Fae that Parvan used before.
Only this one.... wasn't to be used to trap Nyssa.
Henrik activated another couple Fae, letting his arms and legs glisten with a strangely metal light. Unlike when Arthur had done a similar thing a year ago, Henrik's arms and legs glowed with a bright bronze colour.
Bronze Arms Fae! Bronze Legs Fae!
Henrik's eyes shone with a battle hungry light, as he shot forward from where he was standing towards Nyssa. He raised his bronze tinted arms up before his face and chest, looking between the gaps in his arms as he observed Nyssa's movements as he quickly approached.
The young fifteen year old male leaped up into the air, the metallic veins on his legs bursting with strength as he jumped, his arms raised high above his head, conjoined together as Henrik activated another Fae!
With this, both participants exceeded the average number of Fae of last years participants!
The average was only two, but both had used at least five, with an unknown amount still in reserve!
Henrik's conjoined hands melded together slightly, forming a large mallet, one that exceeded the size of a human head.
With all the force that a vapour quartz origin essence Fae Master could muster, Henrik swung down his enlarged hands, right down upon Nyssa's horned physique.