The crowd already knew of Blaze's achievements, but for him to pair up with another fantastical fighter was completely unexpected, and seeing their almost flawless form, technique, and fighting style, they were left completely and utterly speechless.
The two boys made their way back to their original waiting place, but this time there were over a dozen pairs of eyes staring at them as if they were the last source of water in the entire desert. These eyes were all from the different fighters who had just barely been able to win their match and were now envious of the strength and skill that these two possessed.
There were of course other outstanding fighters who had also taken down their opponents in under five minutes, but what separated them from Mako and Bill was that they were already known by the people currently present in the warehouse, but they didn't know much about Blaze or his accomplice, so there was a level of mystery behind them that got the weaker fighters hooked.
The stronger fighters just scoffed at their praise and resumed doing their own thing whether it was meditation, recovering energy, or spectating other matches.
Bill had not used much of his energy as he basically only fought with his club which was a one-time use ability so he decided to watch some of the other fights instead. Mako however quickly went back to his meditative pose as he was using any opportunity he could get to try and resonate his two abilities together even though it hadn't bore fruit, Mako was still hopeful.
The fourth phase of the first round began soon after as the stronger fighters were easily cleaning off their matches with a few notable being a pair who used all of the basic elemental abilities except for water and the aura that they were giving off led Bill to believe that they each had one level 4 and one level 3 Ability.
The levels of abilities did not fully determine the strength of a person as a person could hold a level 10 ability, which would give him enormous strength, perfect versatility regarding the ability, and very powerful moves, but if the person holding such an ability is still a newbie who doesn't even know the basics of fighting, his strong body would be able to bear blows from weaker opponents but in the end, he will fall.
Judging the fact that both fighters on this particular team called team 26 were using the same abilities as Mako and Bill combined, plus the fact that they had higher-level abilities and decent fighting capabilities, it would be a tough fight win if he and Mako didn't decide to go all out.
There were several enhancement ability users as well but there were only three worth mentioning as they gave Bill a genuine shock. Two of them were on the same team and both had Level 3 Speed and Strength abilities as they were absolutely wrecking their opponents while the other person was paired with a random Earth ability user who seemed to be quite weak similar to how Bill was when he first learned his ability.
This person had a level 4 Ability of strength which gave him a great strong body that greatly improved his defensive and offensive capabilities. Having no regard for his teammate, he would rush his opponents on his own and tank any move that they throw at him while he would just have to punch them once and it would be game over.
It would be beneficial to note that not all of the people participating in the tournament were wearing the dark raven uniform and this was because there were two different reasons why the people were participating in this event. The people who were already a part of the Dark Raven were participating so that they could elevate their rank in their gang which would give them even more resources and better opportunities.
An example of this was Rhino. Rhino had also taken part in the tournament most likely to regain the reputation he lost when he fought against Mako. However, the Rhino of today was much different than the Rhino of before.
During his fight against another team, Rhino's teammate who was also a Dark Raven stood still and did nothing while Rhino himself took out two Level 3 ability users, without using any kind of ability. This was a shocker for many as without activating his aura, how could he have defeated two Level 3 ability users? Without even activating the aura of one's ability, the user still has the physical boosts that the ability provides, but that can't be enough to deal with two ability users in under three minutes.
This question would go unanswered for now, and all Bill could do was pray that they didn't get paired up to fight because he didn't want to look like or feel what Mako had to go through when he fought against him and barely made it through.
The second type of people were those that were just introduced to gang life as it was pretty obvious by their flawed fighting styles and weak bodies. Only a few from this category stood somewhat on the same level as him and Mako. In general, it was pretty unfair as the people who were already part of the gang had a few resources and were able to obtain level 4 abilities or power items and armor which gave them an edge against the regular participants who were still skilled but outmatched in terms of firepower since it is not easy to procure such things without alerting the authorities.
The phases continued to end quickly one after another and Mako was still sitting in his corner meditating, but having no luck making any kind of progress.
The first round was coming to a close but even now outstanding abilities and skills were being shown, and Bill was taking note of all of them. How they fought, what were their habits during fighting if they had any, and whether or not there was a major flaw in their team that he could use to his advantage.
There were a couple of unique ability users mixed in, similar to Rhino, but only two were worth mentioning. The rest were just too under-leveled for the event and this was a major flaw with these types of abilities, they are stronger than the common ones but also take twice as long to learn, utilize, and efficiently use making them less favorable.
The two who did stand out were both separate teams with random partners. The first one also possessed a transformation ability and he could transform into some kind of dog-cheetah hybrid which was extremely agile and dangerous with his partner having two abilities, that being Water and Earth.
The second however had the Sound ability which was very rare to see since it had little offensive capabilities and was often viewed as a support ability, but in this case, the person made a great dynamic with his partner who had a level 4 Wind ability which amplified his sound waves to create eardrum shattering attacks that couldn't be countered easily and their fight was also one of the fastest ones to be won.
With that, all the phases of the first round had been completed and barely 45 minutes had gone by. The butler announced the results and after a 15-minute break, the second round was underway.
It was the same format as before, but this time the number of strong opponents had been condensed greatly and the fights would become harder as time went on.
Mako and Bill were greatly eyed before when they had won their match but after seeing the display of some of the other fighters, Mako and Bill's fight could not compare, and the spotlight quickly shifted away. This was; however, a great thing since Mako had instructed Bill to not even think about using the Wind or Sand ability so that everyone would assume that it was just a Fire and Earth ability user who got lucky like a few more teams that had made it to the second round.
Mako wanted his opponents to underestimate him like always as this was the easiest way to catch them off-guard and spell their defeat.
During all of this, a certain person was watching the entire event from a special room in the upper parts of the warehouse, veins popping on his forehead as he saw the same smile on Mako's face that he had seen when he had used that Flame Pillar move on him and defeated him in the battle royal tournament and trashed his reputation as the Dark Assassin.
Leon wanted Mako to go through the same humiliation he faced on that day, and to do that he picked up a device that was on the table beside him and proceeded to give orders to the butler.
A small earpiece inside the butler's ear rang up as Leon's voice started speaking in his ear.
"Pair up team 9's fight with Rhino's team in the second match," Leon commanded to which the butler did a slight nod and continued with the announcement of the teams that will be facing off in the second round.
"...and for the fourth fight of the second round..." The butler announced while acting to get two team names from the hat. He picked out two teams on purpose and showed them to the crowd.
"Team 9 VS Team 47!" The butler announced with no emotion and continued announcing the participants for the fifth fight.
A huge grin appeared on Rhino's face as he stared in the direction of his next opponents, only to see them talking with each other as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. This angered Rhino as well as Leon and they both couldn't wait for the second round to begin so that they could have their revenge once and for all.