Still in deep thoughts, Jake hears the referee's announcement, "Match 7, Brett Dotson vs. Isabella Hayden."
By now, due to the number of shocking battles, the title of the four stars had become irrelevant. However, some things still didn't change!
Isabella was one of them. As one of the Four Stars, she was the most promising of them due to her young Jake. Up till this point, she still managed to retain her position as one of the promising youngsters. Nevertheless, she wasn't at the top anymore due to youngsters like Jake, Nico, Lola, and Jaya, who were, in fact, the youngest among the competitors.
Such a situation wasn't exactly rare. Even Isabella had taken her position from someone before it got taken from her. To maintain one's status was extremely hard with the emergence of more talented individuals.
Yet, there was no doubt about her power. Isabella Hayden was one of the strongest there was. If Jake was to rate her, she would be just below the top participants, which was clearly saying something for someone her age.
Jake wondered how she would perform in her current match. When looking at things statistically, just like the previous match, Isabella was the most unlikely to lose.
It was safe to say that Jake would also bet his money on her if he had the chance, but the competition was more than just odds and statistics.
Take himself for example, before he showed his ability, no one would have ever thought that he would win against Ray.
So, Jake hoped something like this would happen in the following matches. That would spice things up a notch.
If everything went the ordained plan, then life would be too boring and a boring life is akin to a slow death.
Focusing back on the match, Jake heard the referee announce the start of the match, "Match 7, Start!"
'Hmmm, come to think of it, I wonder what the cultivation base of the referee is,' Jake's interest peaked.
The referee, Lucian, had shown some interesting feats.
He was capable of stopping the attacks of all of the competitors at point-blank range.
With his revealed ability, it was safe to say that he was above all the competitors. So, if Jake was to estimate widely, he would say that he was within the range of [Realm-2 Stage-5] to [Realm-3], as most [Ream-2] competitors were just at the first three(3) stages.
Jake's fingers incessantly softly tapped his seat and thought, 'I doubt he would be in [Realm-2]. He is rumored to be on equal strength with the king and the other top figures of Aztec...'
The referee was the teacher of the king and his brother. So, it would make sense that he was on equal strength with the latter.
However, Jake was sure he was not above the king...….
That was how cruel cultivation! While it was a progressive power system, it had its time limit!
Once one reaches their limits, they would have to wait and age as the younger generation caught up to them.
This could be seen from the pair of uncle and nephew, Gavin and Todd Elliot.
Todd Elliot was more than ten years older than Gavin Elliot, yet, he had reached his limit and Gavin had caught up to him.
This was also why the younger generation was the major priority in the Aztec army. However, this concept did not apply to all scenarios.
They were some extremely talented old men that could not be overtaken by youngsters. Most didn't even look old, but rather young, but some opted for an old appearance. It depended on their preferences.
Though, if Jake had a choice, he would choose to remain young forever.
*Woooo!*
Hearing the rain of cheers, Jake swept his eyes back at the stage.
He saw Isabella holding the throat of Brett with her delicate, yet insanely powerful, hands.
The moment she sensed that Brett was about to summon her strength, she punched her in the guts and threw her out of the stage, discarding her.
With that action, she was declared the winner of the match.
Jake had to say that the cheers of the audience weren't like that of the first few matches. The problem was that this, compared to the others, was boring.
"Match 7, End!"
In a rapid manner, the referee sent the two competitors and introduced the next ones, "Match 8, Melania Aztec vs. Lola."
Following the current trend, the two opponents were of equal cultivation base, [Realm-1 Hidden Stage].
It was interesting to know that ninety percent(90%) of the participants were already at the hidden stage, with five percent(5%) being above that and the remaining five percent(5%) being below that.
That goes to show how intense the current younger generation was.
'However, this is not a good match-up,' ruminated Jake.
It wasn't that Jake underestimated Lola, but that Melania Aztec was the worst opponent Lola could face against. In fact, all the royal children weren't a good opponent to Lola.
Lola used a bow and arrow and would find it hard to lock on the royal children, who were all extremely fast due to their technique.
"Match 8, Start!"
Exactly as Jake thought, Lola found herself on the defending end from the moment the match started.
Melania knew of her obvious weakness and worked on that. She activated her [Sky Mortal] technique early!
However, Lola wasn't a fish on a chopping board. Seeing as her open side was being preyed on, she switched her tactic, gave up her defense, and focused heavily on the attack.
It was a good choice and it made her press on Melania and give her no time to react.
Lola focused on every movement from Melania and blocked her from executing it. This was why archers were deadly, especially those with experiences like Lola, who had been wielding bows for as long as she could remember.
Lola tried to kill it with her special technique, and she did just that, but just as she was about to end it totally, she found out there were no more arrows in her quiver.
This was the disadvantage of all archers and it made Lola lose as Melania figured that out and used her newfound freedom to blast Lola out of the stage.
"Match 8, End!"