"Winner: Hayden Stromberg!"
The referee's announcement wasn't particularly loud, but it sounded deafening to Isaac. Even the loud cheers and shouts of the crowd couldn't drown it out.
However, what kind of person was Isaac? Could he not endure a loss?
Disappointment clouded his eyes for a moment, but it was quickly blown away by gusts of determination. He had plans, he had strength, and most importantly, he had a hidden hand. These were great assets in the tournament, and Isaac was confident despite his loss.
In fact, you could even say this loss made him more confident.
He gazed up at the smirking Hayden. His eyes were calm but hard, staring directly at the man who had bested him. Every detail was captured by Isaac's gaze; nothing could escape his attentive inspection. He committed Hayden's appearance to memory: it was the appearance of a foe who would not be allowed to beat him a second time.
Hayden felt Isaac's gaze. It felt unnatural. In fact, this whole fight felt slightly unusual, like something about it was... off.
However, he shrugged off his suspicions – he'd already won, so it was pointless to doubt anything else. He issued a mocking chuckle in Isaac's direction but didn't say anything. Then he turned on his heel, the in his hands melting as he walked towards the stands.
Meanwhile, Isaac turned his gaze towards the other rings. Daniel Falkanger hadn't turned up, so there was only one other fight. Élea was in ring 2 against Vera Andersson, the only person Isaac hadn't fought yet.
The fact that the fight had continued until now showed that it was close, but Isaac saw that Élea was slightly on top. After several more exchanges, she finally forced an opening. She had worked hard to create this chance, so she wouldn't miss it.
Just as Vera tried to retreat from Élea's poison mist and take a breath, Élea hit her in the side. Vera gasped, inhaling a mouthful of poison. From that moment onwards, the fight was decided.
After watching Élea eventually emerge victorious, Isaac went back to the stands.
He sat down and stared into the sky, looking at the table for his own group.
1 Hayden Stromberg 8 points
2 Isaac Dahl 6 points
3 Élea Järvinen 6 points
4 Vera Andersson 4 points
=5 Olivia Berg 0 points
=5 Daniel Falkanger 0 points
He was ahead of Élea since he'd beat her in their fight. However, she could very well overtake him if he didn't win his next fight.
Fortunately, he was fighting Vera Andersson while she had to fight Hayden. In fact, Isaac would go through so long as he beat Vera, regardless of the other fights' results – unless, perhaps, Élea beat Hayden. That would result in a 3-way tie for 1st place, and Isaac didn't know how that would be settled.
However, that was just a hypothetical scenario. He put it to the back of his mind and focused on noting down all 8 group tables. After that, he went home.
When he was back home, Isaac analysed the tables and the tournament tree later. It was important to predict who was most likely to go through and adjust his plans accordingly. He inspected the tournament tree: it had 8 branches – or 4 brackets – on the left, and the same number on the right. Each branch had a title such as 'group A victor' or 'group B runner-up', and each bracket had two branches. One branch would be a 'victor' and the other would be a 'runner-up'.
He read the top left bracket of the tree, 'Group C victor vs group H runner-up'.
Then his eyes flitted to the bracket second from bottom on the right, 'Group H victor vs group A runner-up'.
If Isaac came second in group H, he would probably have to fight Erling Thorgard. Erling had won all his fights in group C and seemed to be a powerful warrior.
On the other hand, if he won his group, Isaac might come up against Johan in the first round of the knockout stages. Of course, he might end up fighting somebody different, but Isaac didn't view anyone in group A as a threat, let alone their second place.
However, Isaac's gaze was inescapably drawn downwards. The tournament tree's bottom right bracket said, 'Group F victor vs Group B runner-up'. If Isaac won his group and his first knockout match, he would probably have to fight Erik in the quarter finals. On the other hand, he wouldn't meet Erik until the finals if he came 2nd in his group.
Isaac's loss to Hayden worked threefold: first, it would cause his future opponents to underestimate him; second, it allowed him to keep some hidden cards such as his upper stage cultivation and Nihility Intent Anima; third, it would stop him running into Erik (who was almost certainly his toughest opponent) until the finals.
Isaac didn't fear Erik, but avoiding him was an intelligent decision. If they fought earlier, Isaac could get injured or expose some hidden cards early in the tournament, causing him to be eliminated in the next fights. Worse still, he could even be eliminated in the quarter finals.
That was why Isaac chose to aim for the runner-up position rather than the spot of group victor. Now, however, he had to pay close attention to Erling Thorgard and the other fighters he could face after that.
*************************
Today was the 6th day of the newcomers' tournament and the last round of the group battles. Isaac watched the fights more intensely than ever, selecting a few people to pay close attention to.
In group A, Alf Pinson won again. He topped the group with 9 points: 4 wins and a draw. Johan also won, putting him on 7 points. He was tied second with Gerd Waaler – they'd drawn against each other earlier, so even the head-to-head couldn't separate them.
Erling Thorgard steamrolled today's opponent as well, giving him a perfect 10 points to win group C.
Meanwhile, Erik won and Eva drew in group F. Erik achieved a perfect 10 points, while Eva finished 2nd with 7. However, she was still badly injured. She was against quite an easy opponent today, but she'd only drawn by dodging around the ring and playing for time, which wasn't like Eva at all. She was quite lucky her opponent didn't possess a movement Anima.
Back in group H, Isaac dispatched Vera with just a slight difficulty. Then he turned to watch the raging battle between Hayden and Élea.
Actually, the fight was rather disadvantageous to Élea. Hayden managed to stay around the edges of her poisonous mist and jab at her with his permafrost pike. Since the fog was her only method of attack, she could only passively take his hits with the Aqua Circlet Anima.
However, things got even worse here. After a while, the pike had managed to freeze a small portion of Élea's water armour. The armour would usually dissipate the force of strikes by spreading them out as ripples, distributing the force across the entire armour. However, it couldn't do this after being frozen. In fact, it was brittle and weak.
Élea desperately tried to avoid getting hit in the frozen area, but that just led to her being struck more in other places. Eventually, the water armour froze in multiple spots and Élea couldn't protect all of them.
Hayden hit one of the frozen patches, shattering it and breaking her armour. The Aqua Circlet Anima had taken too much damage; it completely dissipated, returning to its form as a golden circlet around Élea's head. Its gold colour was much duller than before and lacked its previous lustre.
Élea was helpless with no defences. She managed to dodge one strike, but the next would've reaped her life. The referee had to save her.
When the referee announced that she'd lost, Élea breathed a deep sigh. Her shoulders sagged, as if she was carrying her own heavy disappointment upon her back. Like this, she returned to the stands.
Isaac also walked back. Even though the fights had ended, today's proceedings were not over.
He sat down and looked at the tables in mid-air. However, they suddenly vanished! Instead, he caught a glimpse of a figure floating down from the top of the colosseum. It could only be the elder.
The elder did not land; she remained about a house's height above the stage. While she floated, she announced,
"The group stages are over, and I would like to begin by congratulating Alf Pinson," she listed the 8 group winners, "... and Hayden Stromberg. All of you have performed excellently. To those of you who placed second, congratulations are still in order. However, you won't make it far in the next stage if you keep performing like this. I advise all of you to push your very limits in the next round of competition.
"That does bring me on to the knockout stages. I'm sure you all know they begin tomorrow, so rest well and prepare. This year's knockouts will be fought in the form of duels. In each round you will fight three 1-minute-long duels; winning 2 will of course mean you win the matchup. If a duel lasts the whole minute, the referee will judge who won it, but if the referee has to block a potentially fatal strike for a participant... that participant will lose the entire round, regardless of whether they're 2 – 0 up, or whether it's the very first duel. It's a reminder that, even in a losing position, there's always the possibility of reversing the situation.
"That will be all. I look forwards to seeing you all tomorrow."
The elder floated back up towards her private box. Meanwhile, the official at the announcer's table had something else to say,
"Those of you who are tied for 1st or 2nd place, please come down to the stage. You will now fight each other to determine who takes the spot."
Several participants – including Johan – had been waiting for this. They all walked down to the stage and took their places in the rings. Johan was facing Gerd Waaler, a stocky 5'9 woman with bulging muscles and a harsh, rugged face.
After Gerd's tactics had been exposed in her first win, fights had become significantly more difficult for her. She'd managed to draw with Johan before by blocking or dodging his icicles until time ran out, but she couldn't get anywhere near enough for the steam from her ice armour to intoxicate him. All in all, she had no method of hurting Johan – who attacked from range and possessed a movement Anima.
This fight began in a similar manner. In fact, it started in almost exactly the same way. Gerd chased Johan around the ring, but he easily avoided her with his movement Anima. He would stop, fire several icicles, then continue moving again.
After 5 minutes, Gerd's ice armour was noticeably damaged. This was the same as their last fight, but their last fight had been declared a draw at this point. Unfortunately for Gerd, today's tiebreaker fight didn't have a time limit. The fight continued until somebody won.
Johan continued to pepper Gerd with icicles. Both began to run out of Qi, but Gerd's situation was far worse than Johan's. Maintaining and fixing a set of armour required much more Qi than firing icicles. After all, the Ice Fragment Anima didn't consume much Qi to begin with.
After 10 minutes of fighting, Gerd's Qi was finished. The fight was over.
Meanwhile, the other tiebreaker fights had already ended. Johan's victory could be considered as the group stages' true conclusion.