Isaac watched the ring nearest to him.
4 of the participants were startled by the official's shout and they hesitated slightly. The other 2 were ready, and they sprung towards one of the people near to them. Two 1 vs 1 fights started on opposite sides of the ring, while the last pair of participants looked for opportunities to ambush those who were already fighting.
Isaac watched closely, trying to determine the level of the fighters. He observed as the two ambushers both failed their missions, were counterattacked, and quickly got eliminated. Both were weak. Then the 1 vs 1 on the left ended, with a woman with long, plaited hair coming out on top. She successfully ambushed one of the people in the other 1 vs 1 and eliminated them. This left her and one last person together in the ring.
They fought, and the woman managed to push the last person out of the ring, securing victory. Isaac analysed that she was just below the level of Sanna – the leader of one of the gangs that had attacked him in the past. Most of the others were around the level of Sanna's least skilled gang member.
Isaac watched a couple more fights and determined that this was usually the case. Most winners were at or above the level of the woman with plaited hair. However, Isaac still hadn't identified anybody that might be a threat to him later on.
After about an hour or so of watching, Isaac heard the official call his number. He headed down to ring 4 with a group of other fighters. As they were walking together, some of the others recognised Isaac and started whispering to each other. Isaac overheard one of them,
"That's Isaac Dahl! None of us stand a chance of defeating him one on one, so why don't we team up?"
Isaac pretended that he hadn't heard and continued walking up to the ring. Everybody stepped inside and spread out around the edge of the ring.
"Begin."
The referee called before anybody was ready. Anybody other than Isaac, that was. Thankfully only the seating areas were heated, so there was still a patchy layer of snow on the stage itself. Isaac activated his Snowshoe Anima and glided over it towards the contestant on his right.
A sword appeared in his right hand and cut down ruthlessly towards the surprised contestant's head.
*CLANG*
The sword bounced right off the contestant, but Isaac knew he'd been saved by the referee's Rank 3 defensive Anima. While the contestant stayed standing, there, wondering why he hadn't died, Isaac sped past.
He heard the referee shouting at the contestant, "You've been eliminated. Leave the stage!" as he careened towards the next victim in his path. She had a little more time to prepare, but her defences were far to lacklustre to stop Isaac.
A thin curtain of light appeared in front of him, but a single sword swipe was all it took to shatter it. Although Isaac had restricted his sword's power to try and hide his upper stage Qi, it was still too strong for a lower stage cultivator to block.
He swung his sword again, and it clanged off the frightened girl, who'd frozen like a rabbit in the headlights after her defence was demolished.
The referee had stepped in again to save her life, but she had been eliminated from the fight. Now Isaac was left in a 1 vs 2 situation, where his opponents had grouped up together to face him. However, they had no semblance of teamwork and both of them used ranged attacking Anima.
They both fired their projectiles directly towards Isaac. Since both were firing at the same spots, it was almost like Isaac only had to dodge one attack instead of two. He used his Snowshoe Anima to agilely avoid their shots and close the distance on them.
When he got close enough, he efficiently dispatched them with 2 swings of his sword. The fight was over.
A cheer rose up from the stands. Isaac heard a wave of clapping and some shouting from the thousand or so people that had been watching his fight.
Over the noise, he could hear the referee congratulate him on his victory, then ask him to step out of the ring. The referee signalled to the official that the fight had ended, then asked Isaac for his contestant number. Meanwhile, the official called another set of fighters over to the ring.
After the referee had written down Isaac's number, Isaac left. He walked down from the stage and returned to his seat in the stands.
He already knew the structure of the tournament. This was the 1st stage, the mass battles, and it was split into 3 parts. The first part was a 5-person free-for-all. The last man standing would progress to the second part: a 4-person free-for-all on the next day. Then, the last man standing in those fights would reach the 3rd and final part of the mass battles, which was a 6-person free-for-all. However, the last 2 standing would go through.
These were essentially preliminary rounds organised to weed out those who weren't elites. After all, this single stage of the tournament eliminated 98% of the participants. Only 48 of the initial 2500 would be left.
Isaac didn't dare think lightly of a stage with such a ruthless rate of eliminations. Instead of going home like some other participants, he stayed in the stands to watch the rest of the day's matches. It was important to watch for any stand-out contestants who might become his opponents later on.
Isaac continued to watch until around 10 pm, at which point he left. He headed back home for a good night's sleep.
*************************
The next day, Isaac was back at the colosseum bright and early. The colosseum was actually called 'The Ring of Life and Death', though, ironically, the disciples weren't allowed to kill each other during the newcomers' tournament. It had earnt its name from the bloody events often shown there for the pleasure of the Rank 2 and 3 audience.
There weren't many forms of entertainment in the bleak Northern Tundra, so the sect had built this ring where beasts and cultivators fought. Sometimes wild beasts were pitted against each other, sometimes sect cultivators earnt money by duelling to the death, sometimes the sect's prisoners fought for their freedom against wild beasts or other cultivators. Whatever the event was, anybody with a ticket was granted entry into the Rank 3 district to come and watch. And they usually thoroughly enjoyed it.
Today was different. Instead of random Rank 1s and 2s fighting to the death, it was the sect's newcomers duking it out. These fights possessed a different appeal, and many came to watch. Isaac noticed there were significantly more people in the stands than yesterday; the tournament was often marketed as 'showcasing the future of the clan', and Isaac reckoned most people were here to see if these newcomers truly were worth their salt.
He settled down in the participants section of the stands – which had shrunk dramatically after 80% of the competitors had been eliminated – and watched as names were drawn. This time only 4 names were drawn instead of 5 and only 5 of the 10 rings were being used.
The fights seemed to go a lot slower, and Isaac was forced to wait hours before his turn finally came.
As he walked down to the stage, he heard a familiar whispering,
"Isn't that Isaac Dahl?"
'It seems these people have noticed as well... haaah. A 3 vs 1 doesn't scare me, but I need to keep my trump cards carefully hidden. I can't waste them here.'
Everyone arranged themselves around the ring and the referee gave the mark to start. These participants were noticeably better than yesterday's, so they were all ready for the referee's mark. They grouped up together and faced off against Isaac.