The next day, the four of them woke up, packed up their belongings and bid each other good luck after a delicious breakfast.
Clarence went up the stairs of his disc and sat down at the edge. More people kept arriving on the disc as time went by and finally, when the number reached thirty-two, Marvin appeared high up in the air.
He looked around for a bit, then waved his hand without saying anything. Clarence and many others sensed a wave of mana rush beside the leaderboard, which had been hanging there in the air all the time.
Another big blue screen materialized in the air beside the leaderboard and a tournament map was drawn onto it. This tournament was, like before, a one-loss elimination type, which meant the final winner would be decided in five rounds.
Clarence studied the tournament board and found out that Everett and Bernard were both in the opposite corner of where his name lay. Which meant that assuming the three of them won every battle, Everett and Bernard would have a fight in the semifinals. Out of which, the winner would fight Clarence in the finals.
He decided to think about such things later and focused on his current opponent.
*****
A boy was lying down on the edge of a disc while panting heavily. His white hair was randomly strewn across the surface with some of its strands fluttering in the blowing wind.
The boy was Clarence, who had just finished his battle. He won't lie. Even for him, the opponents were getting tougher to handle, and it was just the quarter finals. There were still semifinals and finals left.
Even though all of them were rank two, he had awakened way later than everyone, which meant the rest of them had more time to learn skills and techniques, which was causing him difficulties now in the tournament.
He spread medicinal paste on his injuries to help himself heal faster so he doesn't fall into a disadvantageous position in the next battle.
He then lifted his head a little and looked at the leaderboard. Upon seeing that his next opponent was Maxillan, he let his head fall back and started thinking about how he could defeat him.
He initiated the simulation feature of his system again and began replaying Maxillan's previous battles. He tried gaining as much info as he could, but it was turning out very difficult to even know where he should start with.
Maxillan had a strong regenerative prowess. He didn't know if he was using a technique or something else. He had a sneaky suspicion about a thing, but it could only be confirmed in the match.
He continued replaying his fights over and over again to gain every little information he could. The earlier suspicion just pushed him to give his best in this battle.
While he was going through the battle plans, he suddenly heard an announcement to get ready for his next battle, the semifinals, against Maxillan, who similarly stood up and began stretching.
During the thirty-two people battle tournament, every matchup was getting an entire disc as the stadium to fight in, along with the millions of audiences who were watching the battle with increasing fervor as the climax came closer.
The betting booths had already been opened in several places. Each place had their own stakes, with some people betting on instincts while some doing their own calculations.
Clarence moved to Maxillan's disc, where the fight was scheduled to be on while going through the plans in his head. When he reached there, the two stood on ends and took their stance while waiting for the translucent blue barrier in the middle to break.
Before the barrier broke, both the opponents weren't allowed to execute any technique or cast any spell. They weren't even allowed to mobilize the mana, so the only thing they could do was take the most optimal stance for them to start the fight with.
He put strength in his legs, held his daggers sideways and leaned his body forward just at the tipping point. Any more forward and he might fall.
Just as the barrier broke, he moved almost half his mana towards his legs, executed the technique with the highest effort and let loose towards Maxillan.
Maxillan had taken a defensive stance with his hands, on which he wore spiked gloves. Just as Clarence was nearing Maxillan, he sensed mana fluctuations down below. Knowing what was going to happen, he put strength downwards through his leg and leaped up high in the air.
Just a moment after Clarence jumped did metal spikes emerge out of the ground at deadly speed, unfortunately their height just barely fell short of the height Clarence had jumped at. No one knew if it was a coincidence or not.
Without losing sight of Maxillan, Clarence shot out three darts, which he took out from his hidden pocket towards Maxillan as spatial equipment wasn't allowed in a battle.
He had shot two darts at the left and right side of Maxillan to prevent him from moving about and third at him to keep him occupied at least for a moment so that he could land.
Unfortunately, Maxillan just took the dart head on and shot a fireball where Clarence was about to land.
Having already thought about Plan B, Clarence executed his second new technique he learned in the mountains, momentary push. Using it on any part of the body would accelerate the part at tremendous speed and power for a moment.
He folded his legs and used momentary push with the greatest effort he could muster. The pair of legs accelerated in downward position, straightening in the process, and pushed down the air below the soles of his feet.
The entire process of using the momentum of falling down, strengthening legs with mana and executing the technique kind of acted like a vortex cannon, which pushed out an air vortex of force enough to at least disrupt the fireball.
When Clarence landed on the ground, only a few embers landed on his leg, which didn't affect him that much. But he felt like the aftereffects of using the momentary push in air at full speed might be bad.
He closed in on Maxillan and threw out a cut, which he blocked with his spiked gloves. Clarence's eyes widened for a second and quickly jumped backwards to put up distance between them. He then softly whispered,
"Rank three, and a lord rank bloodline?"