Jake was already seated in his seat when he heard the next announcement.
"The Final Round--" shouted the referee.
He was stopped by cheers from all over the stadium.
*Wooo!*
They couldn't help their loud voices as they expressed their feelings on the final round.
This round meant something, something very important.
In this round, the winners would finally be ranked.
Even before the final round, the ranks were already shaping themselves.
For instance, it was already known based on the points that Joshua Vargas would be the fifth.
Also, the first and the second would be between Cheyenne Aztec and Jake.
The third and fourth would be shared by Dean Forst or Jaya, in no particular order; it would all depend on their final round.
So far, Joshua Vargas was the only one that was already ascertained a rank.
After waiting for the noises to quell down, the referee repeated his words, "The Final Round. The first match, Jaya vs. Dean Forst."
He continued, "Next, Cheyenne Aztec vs. Jake. Last, Joshua Vargas, freeroll."
Jake cocked his head at the mention of his name.
Prior to the referee's announcement, he had already known his opponent for the final round.
It was easy to find out, as Cheyenne was the only one he had not fought with.
After knowing that his match was not first, Jake closed his eyes and waited for the first match to kick off.
His mind tried to exercise, simulating all sorts of scenarios the match would play out.
It was a match between Dean Forst and Jaya.
This could prove to be a very difficult one, as while Dean Forst was already fully healed up during his freeroll, he was not at his optimum form.
The same could be said for Jaya, who had received a rather jawbreaking injury and had no time to heal off. It was bound to distract her focus.
Jake, himself, knew of the pain of his heel trick. It was akin to an alarm that never shuts off.
"Match, start!"
....
Jaya cracked her head before the match started. She tried to silence the buzzing noise that wallowed in her head every second.
As she was not in the mood to converse, she focused on fully winning the match.
Her opponent was Dean Forst, a terrifying opponent, but due to the grievous injuries he had received from Jake, he had lost his efficiency.
This doomed him and now he was permanently blocked from the first and second position.
He was at one of the weakest points in his life. However, Jaya dared not underestimate him.
'When a lion is cornered, it goes rabid and destroys everything,' inwardly murmured Jaya.
This was the best way to describe Dean's position.
It was also why Dean was currently bulldozing his way towards her!
Instantly, he arrived next to her and swung his sword with his fast technique.
Jaya went into stance and blocked it with her left sword, which was mainly used for defensive purposes.
Trying to counter-attack, she deftly lifted Dean's sword with hers and used her leg to knee Dean in the same spot where he received his previous injury.
It was quite a cruel tactic, but Jaya needed everything she could use.
After stunning her opponent, it seemed she had already bagged a win.
However, strangely, she felt a sharp pulse on her spine and fell to her knees.
'What was that?' thought Jaya.
She had no chance to think further as Dean, in an act of karma, mercilessly kicked her upwards.
He kicked her at the spot where Jake's heel connected with her lower jaw. This attack awakened her hidden injury and made her fall flat on the floor, without the usual regaining of balance that cultivators do after being attacked.
Seeing the opportunity, Dean lifted his legs to stomp at her, but stopped mid-way and also fell down flat.
The two looked at each other and sighed.
They have inadvertently taken out each other. Now, they couldn't muster any strength to stand up, no matter how much [Spirit Essence] they had planned.
The referee also noticed this and followed the rules of the competition, "Match End. Result - Draw."
He proceeded, "Jaya - Seven Points(7). Dean Forst - Seven Points(7)."
He called a group of healers to come to take the two away. While they did that, he relayed to Jaya and Dean to focus on healing themselves, and he would get back to them later.
After the healer left, Jake was already at the side of the stage, the same as Cheyenne.
The referee nodded at the punctuality of the two and allowed them to come to upstage.
He gave them a few minutes to converse and decided to take a quick nap while standing.
The Ranked stage was different from the rest, in that, it didn't require him to intervene.
Most of the attacks were accurate and gave him to chance to block them for harming the crowd.
Though there were a few attacks that still influenced the cloud, like Jaya's [Moonlight Ray] and Joshua Vargas's [Red Sword].
All in all, he hoped he wouldn't have to intervene in this match.
...…..
Jake absorbed a lot of [Spirit Essence] into his [Spirit Droplets] in preparation.
He had no need to talk to Cheyenne, but apparently, the other didn't think so.
Cheyenne smiled at Jake, "I certainly didn't expect we would meet like this, Jake. Did you?"
"No," Jake gave a half-hearted reply.
"Same as always," mouthed the princess.
After their last meeting, she understood Jake. He would only talk when he needed something, or when he felt like it.
It was very clear that their current situation didn't need a conversation.
"Do you need a sword?" asked Cheyenne.
She was a troublemaker and didn't like quiet places.
So, when she noticed that Jake had not gotten his sword, she used that as an opportunity to chat with him.
However, Jake only said one word, "No."
He was being truthful.
While a sword would help channel his latent speed, he didn't--or rather couldn't use it against Cheyenne, who had proven herself to be capable of defeating speed-based opponents.
He had thought of various fighting styles and decided on something similar to Cheyenne's fighting style; dangerous, tricky yet loud.
Being extremely used to adapting different fighting styles, it was easy for him to mirror Cheyenne's.
He just had to concentrate and review Cheyenne's fighting style in his mind.
One of the reasons he kept quiet was to suppress his instincts which were basically shouting at him to murder his opponent.
He wondered why Cheyenne was not feeling the same, when she was, in their previous meeting.
Jake sighed as he heard the referee's next words, "Match, Start!"