"We've come to enter the competition. Adam," she gestured to the knight, "will take on the dueling competition. Trevor," she gestured to the crossbow guy, "will be entering that as well. I'll be entering the magic competition and we're all entering the pet competition. Is that a problem?"
"No ma'am," Jay stammered out. "We have quite a few people entering multiple competitions. But, uh, what's your name? You know, for the bracket."
She breathed a single word and strode away. The power of it stuck in Jay's mind. Wendy. If he were Peter Pan, he could fly right now. Actually, maybe he could fly—he'd never actually tried. Still, you get the point.
For the three of them to be as high-leveled as they were, they must have been seriously powerful. Jay wasn't even level 9 and he'd gotten insanely lucky pretty much since the start of the apocalypse.
Moreover, these 3 seemed to know their stuff. You could see it in the way they rode their mounts and the way they handled their weapons. Jay might not know what class they were, but he was sure they knew how to use them.
There were a few other notable arrivals over the course of the next few days. A talented air mage literally flew over. Another beast king literally rolled in before stepping out of the grasp of a deadly-looking armadillo, a poisonous-looking snake on his shoulder. Several impressive fighters using varied manners of weaponry came together, calling themselves the Martial Squad.
And each day, Jay was busy revising the brackets, adding in newcomers and moving people around so the strongest would fight in later matches. He wrote the bracket in stone, using the chance to practice his magic. Each one looked rather impressive by the time the competition was due to start and Jay was rather proud of his accomplishment.
The biggest competition was the melee competition. People could fight using whatever weapons they wanted—they just had to be blunted with water magic. Some of the more interesting bouts would be between ranged and close-range fighters. How they kept the distance or closed it would ultimately determine the winner. Close to 150 people had signed up for that one.
The magic competition was smaller. It was comprised of several smaller competitions with the duel being worth the most. Most of Jay's guild had signed up at his encouragement, but the main competitors would likely be Kyle, Jay, the air mage, and Wendy. They'd been given the four top seeds, though he wasn't sure who would truly win.
The pet competition was the smallest of the three. The rarity of pets (especially for those who didn't sign up for pre-release) made it difficult to enter. Some classes made it more likely, like the two beast kings that were seeded first and second respectively. It was a team fight, consisting of any entered pets. The owners couldn't fight, but instead had to be protected by their pets. Whichever team landed a "deadly" hit first would win.
It was a bit complicated, but it was necessary. If they limited it to one pet, then it would limit those that specialized in using several weaker pets. With a team fight, both talent trees could effectively utilize their full strength. Jay got a lot of help on the idea from Andrew, who told him about different class skills he'd seen.
The duels started fairly simply. The top seeds easily defeated their opponents, with Pete chasing his enemy straight out of the arena. There were a few minor upsets, but that was more likely due to Jay's not knowing their strength, rather than an actual upset. In most cases of evenly skilled opponents, the ranged fighters beat the close-range fighters. There were a few exceptions, but it remained this way for the most part.
Still, it was fun to watch. Even the clumsier fighters put on a good show and people cheered and ate and drank (Jay had no idea how they got alcohol). By the third round, some of the stronger fighters had started to face against each other.
Watching a great-sword literally shatter a pair of dangerous-looking daggers was mesmerizing. Watching the broken daggers deal the winning blow was even more incredibly. Of course, the local metal mages fixed all weapons and armor immediately after a fight.
It was in the third round that Jay finally lost out. He'd gotten lucky with his earlier opponents (he'd had Kyle and Pete seed him for fairness) but his lack of experience with a sword showed here. When his opponent struck his neck, Jay conceded with great enthusiasm, praising the strength of the fighter.
He took to watching the remainder of the matches while winding a snake of water between his fingers. Any practice could make a difference and he thought the little guy was kind of cute. With his other hand, he'd either eat Sarah's great cooking or pet Silver. The little guy loved attention.
As guild leader, he got one of the best seats in the house. This also meant he was in the perfect place to keep an eye out for cheaters. This was meant to be a battle of pure skill with weapons and they needed someone to make sure nobody used magic to enhance their skills.
This job was mostly left to Kyle, who was best able to sense when magic was being used instead of a skill, but Jay joined in just to be safe. With the two of them, a cheater would be hard-pressed to get away with anything. Fortunately, nobody had tried that yet and hopefully nobody would. This was all in good fun, after all.
In the fourth round, there were only about 20 fighters left. Pete, Sarah, Adam and Trevor were all among them, as were a few lucky fighters. Only Pete and two of their guild members were left, which just went to show how good some of the competitors were.
One of their guild members went up against Adam. His skills were good, but the knight's skills were far better. With a beautiful flourish, Adam's blade appeared just under his opponent's throat. It was so quick and flawless that you would miss it if you even blinked.
He had quickly become a crowd favorite and the onlookers burst into cheers. In an arena immediately next to them, Pete was facing off against Trevor. The silver-plated ranger was quick and his second shot always seemed to cover his opponent's attempts to dodge the first. If it were anyone else, the shear ferocity of his attacks would likely be enough to defeat them. But he was fighting Pete.
Trevor launched his first shot, waiting for Pete to dodge before firing his second. And he waited. And waited. And then Pete clobbered the arrow out of the air. Caught by surprise, Trevor's second shot went wide, giving Pete a chance to get close. Trevor was forced to use his crossbows to block. They didn't seem to get too damaged, but he couldn't get a shot off like this.
As their fight went on, both fighters suffered minor scratches, but neither could land a finishing blow. So long as they stayed close, Pete had the upper hand, but even still he had difficulty. Swing after swing got blocked and they continued for nearly half an hour. Finally, Pete got a good hit in to the head and Trevor fell down, too exhausted to get up.
By this point, nearly every other match had been decided and Pete had little rest. Ten competitors remained. Among them, Pete and Adam were the favorites, but they weren't scheduled to fight until the grand finals.
Pete's next opponent was the other guild member and he conceded immediately so Pete could rest for the finals. It wasn't the most honorable win, but it meant he had a shot. Sarah hadn't gotten quite as lucky. She was up against a longbowman.
Each arrow her opponent loosed had devastating power. They could probably break bones, even with the water magic dulling them. But the arrows could only break bones if they hit, and Sarah disappeared the instant the match started. Since she was using her cloak, it wasn't counted as magic and this gave her a great advantage.
Arrows flew out from all angles, yet no one could tell where they'd come from. Without the ability to detect their opponent, the bowman was only able to shoot wildly. It seemed that Sarah would inevitably lose, but suddenly one of the arrows hit an invisible body. Sarah was thrown back, already unconscious by the time she hit the ground. Healers surrounded her and the bowman was deemed the victor.
Pete's semifinal match was against the same bowman and he quickly powered through the pain to give a swift end to the bowman's run. Adam finished off his match just as quickly and the finals were set. The barbarian was facing off against the paladin. Even Jay couldn't tell who would win. Ecstatic over the end of the day's festivities, Jay announced that the final match would take place tomorrow morning. Instead of retiring to bed, he found his friends and went to enjoy the feast and music they had prepared. Bon appétit!