Kaden soon fell into a sort of routine.
Everyday he would sit down and spend some time meditating, not getting anywhere. It was always a waste of time, he wasn't getting anywhere but he also knew that he had to keep at it.
In the evening he watched the tournament fight, and at night, he went to the dreamscape where he trained. That was his favorite time of all, he had begun to feel at home in the dreamscape. His mind and body was just at ease there, like the black haze was soothing his very soul.
He had also made a fair bit of progress with the sword form. After spending a long time working on it, he was finally at the stage where he could put it into use in the real world.
In regards to the tournament, there was no good news. It had just been loss after loss for the human race. After nine days of fights, the casualty count was up to four, with five injured.
Billy's father was among them, but had been one of the ones that were lucky enough to survive. His survival didn't come without heavy injuries though, he was in for a long term stay at the hospital. What Kaden had heard from the news was that it would be at least two months, possibly more.
Whether Li Jie's training camp had helped or not was hard to gauge. Maybe more people had survived? Maybe some had gotten lesser injuries? Nobody knew.
Most had lost hope in the final fight, but there were some that held out. Kaden was one of them. He may not have held much faith in the other fighters, but there was one person left, and it was the one everyone looked up to.
Ever since his discovery of Aether, Li Jie had been elevated to a sort of legendary status among humanity. His dojos were everywhere, if you cared about fighting and could afford it, you naturally went to one of his dojos to train.
And that was why there was one final lingering hope left for humanity. Nine of their fighters had fought and lost, but one was left, and some people still thought that he could make a difference.
It was with bated breath that families all across the world had gathered in front of their televisions. Everyone wanted to watch this final fight, they had to.
Even if you hadn't cared about the earlier fights, this one was just too important. For the last few days there had been an endless stream of end of the world predictions. A big percentage of the population believed that Earth would be eradicated by the aliens if they lost all ten fights.
Kaden was among that percentage, and that was why he was once again gathered in front of the television. He sat on the couch with the old man as had become their routine, waiting for the same thing as always.
But in what was a surprising turn of events, their television was hijacked before time. The alien had always been exactly on time, but here he was appearing at least a minute prior. Something was different.
Beetleface, as the alien had been accurately dubbed by the media, appeared on the screen to speak to them all.
How the aliens managed to simultaneously broadcast Beetleface's voice to everyone on Earth and in every language, Kaden still didn't know.
He wanted to speculate, but knew that it was just one of those things he wouldn't be able to find out about.
"Greetings citizens of Earth," Beetleface's announcement started out the same as it always did, "I welcome you all to what will be the final fight of the 14th New Race Tournament. It has been a short eleven days I've had with you all. But we may yet have a little more time together, as of now that still remains to be decided," The alien's mandibles clicked and Kaden felt that the wording was a little ominous.
"So far, your race has managed to lose every single fight in this tournament. Your ranking is still rock bottom, you're behind all 99 other races. To put it into simple terms, there is no other race with a pitiful 0-9 record like yours. I, High Praetor Taqu, mourn the fact that I was assigned to this desolate planet," The creature now known as Taqu, spoke in a prideful tone. It was as if it was looking down on the earthlings.
Something which Kaden was sure that it was, and it angered him. He clenched his fist, it was frustrating to listen to this abomination of a creature insult them.
"Are you all offended? Good, that was my intention. Nonetheless, despite my lackluster opinion of your race, we still have one more fight left. I pray that for the sake of your race, you win it." The feed cut and turned to the gray arena.
Kaden was feeling pissed off, but he had to shake it off to watch the fight. This demanded his whole attention. With the way that Taqu had phrased his announcement, Kaden was now sure that humanity's survival depended on this one fight.
In the arena, Li Jie was present.
He was just an average height, middle aged Chinese man. He didn't look particularly strong, nor particularly fast. Not exactly the kind that inspired confidence, but Kaden continued to believe. He had looked up to this man for a long time now.
Li Jie was a sword fighter, and had brought a short one handed sword. It was almost short enough to be considered a dagger.
Across from him stood his opponent, a big mammoth of a being with a gigantic belly. It was almost human like, but hairy and with tusks going from it's ears to in front of it's mouth.
Just like had happened with Edward, this creature towered over Li Jie, easily double his height and size.
Kaden read the white text beneath the mammoth creature, and saw that it's name was Oku, from the Tuskgan race.
Watching them like this, Kaden wasn't sure if this was a good matchup for Li Jie or not. In fact, Li Jie hadn't fought publicly since he opened his dojos. Kaden didn't know what level he was at, but the other selected fighters respected Li Jie, so he was sure that he had to be strong.
It was all a matter of how much. Even with Li Jie, would it be enough for the human race to win?
As the countdown grew ever close to zero, Kaden found himself getting more and more nervous.
He was almost on the edge of his seat, just waiting for the seconds to pass by.
And they did, the timer reached zero and both fighters moved at the same time.
In a quick spring, Li Jie leaped backwards.
Kaden was puzzled for a brief moment, but it was soon made clear why Li Jie had done so.
Right when the fight began, Oku had been making his own movements to rush forward where he raised both of his fists, slamming them down on the ground where Li Jie had been.
But Oku wasn't nearly fast enough, and had missed Li Jie by a fair margin.
Kaden immediately felt his respect for Li Jie soar. The man was good at reading the battle, predicting his opponents next move and reacting accordingly.
Oku looked up, clearly puzzled that he hadn't managed to catch his opponent.
Li Jie had used the time that it was distracted, as an opportunity to circle it and target it from the back.
His shortsword danced nimbly in his grip, slicing across the thick thigh of the monstrous beast.
Oku clumsily turned around and tried to grab him, but it's hands only caught air. Lie Jie had already jumped out of reach long ago. He knew when to advance and when to retreat, he grasped the opportunity for a quick attack and got out of there immediately.
He didn't get greedy and try to go for more. It was a good thing, despite the fact that Li Jie was faster, Oku was clearly very powerful. If it managed to get it's hands on him, it could crush him to a pulp in seconds.
Kaden felt excited and focused his eyes on where Li Jie had struck, trying to ascertain the damages.
But what he found shocked him, or rather, it was what he didn't find.
There was nothing.
No mark, no cut, no blood, no nothing. The creature had only barely been scratched by the attack.
Inside of the arena, it was clear that Li Jie was just as puzzled. This sword had never failed him, and he knew it was just as sharp as ever. But somehow it couldn't even leave a mark on this creature's thick skin.
This wouldn't do, if he continued to attack like this, he would need to slice at least five times on the same spot just to draw blood.
It was already hard enough to target the exact same spot twice, but five times? Impossible.
This called for a change of approach.