Egil found himself back in the arena a few minutes after his last battle, his opponent this time being a young blonde girl his age holding a spear. Similar to his last battle, 'Mr. Voice' started the fight with a countdown. One thing Egil did notice however was that he felt refreshed even though he had just exerted himself heavily in the last battle to finish it quickly.
Before Egil could question his apparent godlike recovery the battle started and his opponent rushed at him like an arrow. As his opponent closed in, Egil cleared his mind and focused on her, deciding to go forwards himself, though with a much slower speed. As the girl and Egil were 2-3 meters from clashing Egil suddenly shifted from his Jog to a brace position, raising his shield just before the girl, who was still charging at him like a bull, could react, using the unique second technique of [Axe and Shield Mastery], [Full Guard], which as the name suggested was a technique used to block attacks from different directions with great efficiency.
As the girl's eyes widened and she realized the massive mistake she had made it was far too late as her spear collided with Egil's shield, which, when combined with Egil slightly tilting his shield, sent her to Egil's side, creating a massive opening which Egil took advantage of to strike her neck with his axe, knowing that he would forcibly be stopped before he could kill her.
As Egil predicted, he and the girl suddenly stopped moving as his axe was a centimeter from her neck. Once again, Egil found himself back in the black room, Mr. Voice declaring "Participant #1591 has beat Participant #2001"
Egil couldn't help but find something suspicious, both his opponents didn't plan any attack and just charged at him, and neither of them appeared to have received any substantial training. Egil's suspicions would further multiply as his next 5 fights proved to be barely any harder than the first fight, with his opponent's skill level not close to reaching his level, and he knew he wasn't the best among his peers, no matter how hard saying it was.
Finally, The collector himself, or the recording of him confirmed Egil's suspicions, appearing in Egil's black room like a ghost.
"Congratulations, to the 16 remaining seeded candidates. If you weren't as suspicious as a few of your peers then have no clue how you became seeded candidates. Anyways, to answer your questions, yes you were intentionally given the weakest opponents, which of course ends now, as the 16 of you remaining are the cream of the crop. All 16 of you are the best among your peers in terms of intelligence, bloodlines, elements, aptitude, and a variety of other statistics. Of course, there are a few dark horses but no matter, the real tournament begins now!"
As the collector finished his words Egil was Brought away from the dark room and into a much larger arena than before, this time facing a boy with long platinum hair, wielding a bow and arrow. The boy appeared to be the same age as him, and the bow on his back was massive, almost as big as the boy, who was pretty tall.
This time there was no countdown as the battle began immediately with Egil rushing forwards using all his strength to close the large gap between the 2 of them. In Egil's mind this battle was very 1 dimensional, If he got to his opponent he won, and if his opponent could stop him before that, he lost.
His opponent came to the same conclusion, loading an arrow onto his bow and drawing it back. As Egil closed about 1/10th of the distance between the two the boy released his first arrow before loading and aiming a second. Egil thought this useless, after all, he could easily dodge a single arrow.
Unfortunately, Egil was wrong, because as he dodged the first arrow a second one appeared in his face like a ghost, followed by a 3rd and 4th arrow. Egil panicked and just barely managed to duck under the first arrow, raising his shield to block the 3rd and 4th ones. What he didn't expect was the immense power behind each arrow, which threw the unprepared Egil back more than a few feet.
Thankfully, Egil was able to brace himself before the next arrows came, or didn't come… mores accurately his opponent had collapsed on the floor in a quickly forming pool of his sweat as he breathed heavily, Evidently whatever technique his opponent used was beyond his level, although the strength of the technique was incredible.
Before Egil could even react he was back in the dark room with his bruises from the arrows completely healed and the voice of Mr.Voice rang out in the dark room.
"Participant #17 determined to be unable to continue, victory by default is allotted to participant #1591, congratulations"
Egil collapsed in the black room, the stress from his last battle racked his mind. The idea that an arrow could have such power frightened him, especially when an archer could attack from far away. Egil had to wait, according to his internal clock, another hour before his next fight began, which would put him in the top 4 if he won.
With his determination to become stronger pushing him forwards Egil's next match began, against an… unorthodox opponent, a sword wielder. Egil's opponent was clad in silver robes and held a gleaming longsword in his hands. Egil carefully inspected his opponent for a hidden weapon or a shield to complement his weapon choice, believing the sword to be a secondary weapon at best.
Egil's mentality wasn't unwarranted, swords were widely considered to be a secondary weapon, and with only a few crazies Egil distinctly remembered his father warning him not to get close to using the weapon as a primary. To be more accurate, Egil's father warned him of most sword wielders, as weapons like katanas and rapiers could be used as primary weapons.
Unfortunately for Egil, his opponent happened to be one of such crazies, more accurately a member of the Divine Sword Supremacy Sect, which was filled with such crazies. Egil was snapped out of his thoughts when his opponent charged at him with a yell, raising his sword above his head.
As the sword wielder closed in on Egil he took a fairly standard guard stance, deciding to defend against his opponent as despite his… reservations, against sword wielders he knew that their dexterity was no joke. Egil and his opponent clashed with a loud bang, his opponent's sword rebounding back a bit as it hit the metal boss in the center of his round shield.
Egil took advantage of the recoil his opponent suffered to launch a quick counter-attack, stabbing at his opponent's stomach with the spike of his axe, which his opponent quickly dodged with a shout, as if every move he made had an accompanying noise. Although Egil missed his attack he was able to transform his forward's thrust into a shield bash by spinning his body on his heel towards his opponent.
Unfortunately for Egil, his opponent recovered quickly from his shield bash, preparing a downwards slash with his sword. Egil quickly dodged to the side, raising his shield in anticipation of a feint from his opponent. Awkwardly for Egil, his opponent didn't faint, heavily slamming his sword into the floor of the arena.
Egil and the sword wielder continued this back and forth for almost 10 minutes, as both boys were drenched in sweat, particularly his opponent, who was panting heavily. As the fight wore on Egil noticed a difference between him and his opponent, His opponent was better trained than him, using a variety of techniques to attack, while he proved to be quite good at predicting his opponent's attacks. Although it wasn't hard, his opponent made no intention to hide his, well, intentions.
As the fight slowly got slower Egil began to pull ahead, wounds piling on his opponent 3fold his own. As blood poured out his opponent's body Egil saw victory, noticing his opponent becoming paler and paler. As Egil predicted his victory soon came when his opponent collapsed to the ground, his and Egil's wounds quickly healing as darkness surrounded them, sending them back to the dark rooms.
Egil watched in wonder as his wounds healed, the muscles reconnecting and the skin closing. Egil desired to have power like this, the power to decide someone's fate. Although Egil's wounds closed, he noticed that his clothes didn't, a small detail he had failed to notice up until this point. Thankful that nothing private was exposed Egil stood up and lightly stretched, preparing himself for the next battle to come his way, and hoping he could win and get into the finals.
As Egil stretched his match soon began, with him standing in a similarly large arena across from a familiar blonde figure, with soft features and a feisty air, Elyse, his only friend. As he observed Elyse, he felt a pit in his stomach, he had to decide between friendship and power… As this debate raged in his mind Egil failed to notice one very, very important detail, Her clothes were in pristine condition.