Bai Jingshen stood up and walked towards the main room. He realized he hadn't watched a single one of Ra's matches so far. He was happy for his friend making it this far.
As he reached the main hall, Bai Jingshen already heard the loud laughter of the instructor. He went up to his team members with a smile.
"I'm glad you're fine old man."
"Haha, kid I could say the same about you. I didn't think Spike would lose his mind like this."
"Yes, I have no idea what got into him. He behaves as if I killed his son or something, but his son will be fine after a few days."
Bennet theatrically looked left and right and lowered his voice a little:
"I think I have a clue. It is an open secret, but Spike somehow changed as he visited the ruins where he found his poison, which he loved to use ever since then. After his return, he behaved strange from time to time and became easily angered. As these incidents increased, he was forced to accept checkups every so often, but at least with our tech we couldn't find anything. The higher ups had a close eye on him for a while, but this time he's probably in serious trouble."
"So that's how it is… Well, we can't do anything about it. Let's watch Ra's fight."
With those words form Bai Jingshen, the RSS team happily gathered around the screen. Not all of them were willingly cheering for a Dragon's Tail member, but at least Bai Jingshen finally watched a fight together with them. Ryan had already thought about how he could get Bai Jingshen to integrate into the team more. Although the former emperor was very strong individually, but in the New World organizations would send teams in most situations.
Bai Jingshen relaxedly talked with Sam, before turning his attention to the screen as the fight stated.
Ra knew this would be his hardest fight yet. Originally, he wasn't even hopeful of making it this far, but he profited him a lot from training with Bai Jingshen. Those days he felt like facing a seasoned veteran of a thousand battles. Even the private tutors his father arranged for him didn't feel this dangerous to him. Ra grew curious about what his friend had to go through, but sadly he was tight lipped, and it wasn't Ra's style to interrogate others.
Ra didn't want to disappoint Bai Jingshen's efforts, motivated by his friend's success in the competition. Unfortunately, he had to fight one of the candidates he was already fearful of before the tournament. After barely losing to Lehno however, he realized that the difference between them wasn't actually insurmountable.
As their families' strength was worlds apart, Ra always felt inferior. Suddenly though he felt like he could overcome those children born with a golden spoon through his own hard work. With this change in mindset, Ra luckily made a breakthrough and managed to bring his movement technique to transcendence-stage. This technique wasn't a Borde martial art, but one his family bought with a lot of money because it suited him so well.
Unfortunately, Ra only made his breakthrough after his fight against Lehno, otherwise he might have had a chance. But Ra knew he couldn't change the past, so he resolutely looked forward. He managed to defeat multiple opponents and finally reached the losers-bracket finale, were he faced another one of the top favorites in Julia Ceres.
Ra once again prepared his favorite great sword. He slightly sung it, feeling its weight, and took a deep breath before the countdown reached zero. The door towards the preparation room opened as Ra confidently entered the fighting stage.
He was surprised to see a large jungle with towering trees in front of him. He quickly realized he had to be careful of all kinds of roots on the ground, which could hinder his movement. Ra began to move forward, his body always hiding slightly behind a tree to prepare against sneak attacks.
The audience watched as Ra and Julia moved towards each other at a similar pace. The dense foliage made it hard for them to see each other. Suddenly Ra seemed to have spotted Julia first. Bai Jingshen wasn't surprised as he knew Ra trained in a certain eye technique as well.
Ra didn't delay for even a second as soon as he saw Julia. He raised his great sword and used his movement technique to shoot through the jungle towards Julia. It almost seemed like flying, as Ra gracefully but swiftly maneuvered around the trees. His movements resembled a bird of prey diving in to catch a mouse, and Bai Jingshen knew this was actually what inspired Ra's technique.
As his friend explained to him for the first time, Bai Jingshen was surprised about the ingenuity of this movement art's creator. Apparently, his family only bought this technique up to the Mana Core Realm for now, but still paid a hefty price. Bai Jingshen however was certain that they made the right bet as he never heard of a technique which was inspired by a different bird of prey for each major realm, leading to this technique being something of a package deal.
However, Ra told him that the real genius of this technique only shows after surpassing the Mana Core Realm. At that point, you are able to take the best out of all those techniques after training each one to transcendence-stage, fusing them into one. But even in the whole Republic it might be hard to find someone with the influence an money to buy the Nascent Soul Realm version. It was one of Ra's dreams to continue training this movement.
Bai Jingshen watched Ra and saw his friend using transcendence-stage movement for the first time after hearing about it from his team members. It almost seemed looked aery as Ra swiftly closed the gap with Julia despite holding a great sword. This was only possible with the support of his genius movement technique.
The young woman was still moving through the jungle when one of the brooches one her clothes suddenly made her skin tingle. In an environment like this she already knew the possibility of seeing her enemy too late was high. Therefore, the young woman was prepared, activating a brooch which reacted to irregularities in the environmental Mana.
As Ra was only inches away from Julia, the young woman suddenly used her Jade Movement Technique to dodge Ra's attack. As she was only at the perfect-stage however, Ra still managed to hit her shoulder with his a heavy blow. As a seasoned fighter this wasn't enough to make Julia uneasy, so she swiftly counterattacked with the fan in her left. Ra managed to block, leading to the two fighters quickly trading blows in close combat, before Ra disengaged in order to make full use of his movement.
From this short exchange, Ra realized he was slightly weaker than Julia in close combat. As his Borde Great Sword Technique was still stuck at the perfect-stage. Therefore, he had to defeat Julia with his strongest technique.
He slowly began circling her like a predator, searching for any weak spot in defense. Julia didn't react, calmly beathing in and out while suppressing the pain from her shoulder wound. Anyone would feel pity upon seeing her torn uniform and the almost dislocated shoulder.
Julia however also managed to grow through the tournament. Since a young age she was praised for her beauty. Growing up in the capitol of the Golden Hope Alliance, a strong state of merchants, she was trained by her parents at a young age to take advantage of her appearance. Her parents never treated her wrongly, but they were under a lot of pressure as some of the lower members in Celestial Jade's headquarters. Therefore, they put a lot of hope in their talented daughter.
Julia didn't disappoint them, but the young girl nevertheless grew to dislike the culture of the Golden Hope Alliance, where profit mattered over everything. Fortunately she met her master, the first person, who saw more in her than others. Her master was rather influential compared to her parents, so she was able to introduce Julia to the core fighting arts of Celestial Jade.
Julia quickly grew close to her master, as they began to share their interests in not only martial arts but also calligraphy, painting and most important dancing. Her master was known for her martial arts which resembled a beautiful dance, even gaining the nickname 'Graceful Butterfly'. Eventually to her surprise her master brought her to New Haven City. However, Julia was over the moon as she understood her master wanted to teach her the Dancing Butterfly Arts in secret before they traveled to the New World.
During her fight against Bai Jingshen, Julia still didn't feel fully confident with going down the path of a fighter, which would contradict her parent's wishes. Therefore she didn't use the Dancing Butterfly Arts in her indecisiveness, leading to her being reprimanded by her master. However, Bai Jingshen's eyes of respect when looking at her after their fight were branded into her mind.
It was the first time receiving such a look from a peer she respected as well. Julia realized that she craved for the feeling of acknowledgement from others, not for her beauty but her own talent and hard work. Her master observed in happiness how her mindset stabilized after a round of meditation. She already looked forward to her disciple showing her brilliance in the New World.
Ra was still analyzing Julia. The more he looked at her, the more he got the feeling her weakness seemed to be her slight timidness. Suddenly the young woman's stance changed. Her arms raised slightly, her legs putting more weight on her toes. Even her hair seemed to flutter lightly as her beautiful watery eyes looked clearer than ever before. A light smile formed on her lips, for the shortest moment giving Ra a feeling as if it charmed even nature itself. He was astonished by the changes his opponent suddenly went through, as he realized his fight just became a hundred times harder.