The open field was divided into eight large circles, enough to house a hundred people. The last person standing on each of them would advance and participate in the duel on the second day of the festival.
The participants were placed depending on their numbers, but the representatives were free to choose the group that they wanted to fight.
Cinn was in the first circle along with the Pelleles Kingdom's representative, while Lux was in the last circle with the man from the Sandbeige Kingdom.
"My place for the duel competition is already secured," the man wearing a brown cape said.
Though he was the weakest of the knights that were in direct command of the king, he was certain that he could win his group's battle royale.
After all, there was no worthy opponent that caught his attention. The moment that he heard the go signal. He charged with his short sword.
His weapons were two blades with a brown crest that had three piles of sand. They were shorter than swords but too long to call them daggers. With every slash of his hand, participants cried in pain; they were no match against him. He swept the battlefield and continued to advance.
However, he soon realized that there was something wrong in the field. With every step, he felt tired, and it was even difficult to stand.
"Am I already on my limit?" He asked himself.
Only several minutes had passed after the battle royale started, but his knees were already shaking. He looked at the other participants in his group and was surprised that almost all of them were lying on the ground.
'What is this sorcery?' He thought.
Then, at the edges of the line, he saw a man standing while looking at the battle that was happening inside the first circle. He was surprised to see him not care about his surroundings. So he gathered his strength and dashed toward the man.
From the looks of it alone, he understood that he was the source of the strange phenomenon happening in their circle. However, the closer he got to the man, the more he felt his body getting heavier, and then he saw the other people lying beside him. Their bodies were getting crushed to the point that they lost consciousness.
"How?" He said this before falling to his knees.
His spirit was destroyed, but he remembered his pledge to his king that he would bring him good news. So he struck his blade on the ground and used it to get up.
But then, the more he tried to resist the force, the heavier his body became. He activated his Legacy and tried once again; his hair grew longer, and strange stripe markings appeared on his face.
He still felt his body heavy, but he managed to stand as soon as his transformation began.
His Legacy allowed him to triple his strength while depleting his energy every second. He didn't expect that he would use it at the beginning of the battle.
However, together with his hope and morale, his body fell and got stuck to the ground the moment he leaped towards the black-haired man.
"You see, I don't want to miss any scene from my mistress' battle, so can you please stay there and admit defeat?" The man asked, but he didn't bother to look back; his eyes were entirely focused on the fight happening in the first circle.
. . . . .
Wave after wave of different energies rose from the battlefield, while sparks from weapons colliding with each other lit up the surroundings.
Cinn was evading every attack aimed at her with the minimum movement possible. She dodged a dagger going straight to her chest and smacked the head of the owner of it, rendering him unconscious. Then again, a blade passed through her left cheek and almost grazed her skin.
She pulled the hand and slammed the large man on the ground. Her fighting style was so elegant that it was like dancing while evading the weapons.
Her opponents were being reduced one after the other and all of the mercenaries that were grabbed by Cinn were lying on the ground.
'As I thought, this is boring,' she conveyed inside her mind.
She was not really participating in the event, but she didn't want to be a spectator as Lux dominated the entire battle. So she decided to join, hoping that there would be someone who could satisfy her thirst when it came to fighting.
Then, the representative from Pelleles Kingdom dashed at her with his gauntlets, which had blades protruding from their knuckles.
"A worthy opponent," the man said, then giggled while doing a straight punch towards Cinn's face.
Cinn put her left foot behind the right and turned sideways to evade the man's attack before she gave him a tap on the chest. A ripple of sound was produced at the tip of her palm, which sent the man flying away.
Several meters away from the woman, people attacked him while he was lying on the ground, but he waved his hand, and a shield made of hardened soil covered and protected him from the assault.
Cinn was starting to get irritated because of the number of people charging at her. The mercenaries colluded with each other to eliminate her first before they fought to determine the winner.
Five people darted to Cinn's position; they were raising their weapons in hope of landing an attack on their target. Arrows accompanied them from the archers, who were aiming while keeping their distance from the fight. However, the woman snapped her fingers, and a massive shockwave was produced as she was in the center, which caused the mercenaries along with the arrows to fly away outside the circle.
Most of them were caught by Cinn's attack, but there were those lucky ones who managed to strike their weapons on the ground, keeping them at bay.
"Finally, a room to breathe," Cinn said before she sighed.
Several sonic spheres appeared around her as soon as she raised her hand, and they zapped into the remaining participants. Each of them hit them in the chest, and they tumbled to the ground. Their clothes and armor were damaged to the point that they all groaned in pain after receiving the attack.
Those who had sturdy bodies survived, but they still coughed up blood due to the impact.
'If not for the rules, I would send those spheres into their heads and burst their skulls,' Cinn thought before she stepped forward and dashed to the remaining participants inside her circle.
. . . . .
Meanwhile, in the third circle, where Kreigster was standing, the participants were surrounding him and attacking him without pause. The prince gave them several minutes to strike him with their best attack.
They slashed him with their swords coated with their energy, and those who had a Skill-type Legacy that could produce high burst damage already used it to harm Kreigster. But still, he remained standing at his place.
All of their attacks were useless against him. They tried their best to stab him with their weapons, but the blades just passed through his body.
They felt like they were playing with fire that they couldn't touch, even though they were making the most of their abilities.
'Monster,' they thought.
Then, the empire's prince looked at them and spoke.
"Are you guys done? If yes, then here I come," he said. "Brace yourselves; I won't hold back."
The next moment, he turned into a ball of fire before charging into the mercenaries. He gave each of them a punch with his fists enveloped in purple flames. They were all sent flying upward after Kreigster struck them at the chin and abdomen. Their pieces of equipment were burned, and even their weapons broke as soon as they tried to block the attack from the prince.
"Controlling my flames to prevent you from burning is mind-blowing," he said while extinguishing the fire on his body.
"Those who wanted to surrender, please step out of the line while I'm still being nice," he added.
Some of the participants decided to heed Kreigster's suggestion. They walked out of the circle on their own accord and left the battlefield to watch from the sidelines.
But those who were brave enough to face an overwhelming existence stayed, raised their weapons, and prepared for what was to come.
"I praise your determination, but your efforts are pointless," Kreigster said upon seeing that there were still people left inside the circle.
Then the flames on his body erupted once again, and the temperature in the area rose so much that it affected even the other circles.
. . . . .
A few moments earlier, the first to have a winner was the sixth circle, where the princess from the Frostbloom Kingdom participated. Her personality was so cold that she turned her whole circle into ice in a matter of seconds.
Mercenaries were turned into ice sculptures the moment the battle started.
"Hey! What are you waiting for? Declare me the winner, and I'll let them go, or do you want them to freeze to death?" The princess asked after she called out to the host.
The audience stood up and applauded her. Turning more than a hundred mercenaries into ice statues was a remarkable feat worthy of attention.
"The winner for the sixth circle is from the land filled with ice, Princess Arctic Jean Frostbloom." Grazielle announced the first of the eight participants who would advance to the duels.
After Arctic heard the host, she closed her eyes and entered a deep state of concentration. She let out several deep breaths, and then the ice melted as she started to open her eyes.
The participants collapsed on the ground the moment they were released. Their bodies were shaking, and their complexions were pale. The healers on standby ran into them and provided healing spells as soon as they saw the people's condition.
"They are still freezing," one of the healers stated.
Then, Arctic walked back into the direction of her seat. Her body was swaying, and when she was about to fall on the ground, an old lady managed to catch her.
"Princess!" the woman shouted, and then a knight came to check her.
"Energy burnout!" He exclaimed, and he carried her back into the castle.
. . . . .
Zeno watched the fights in every circle without missing a thing and he was impressed by the Frostbloom's princess.
"A noteworthy Legacy, though how depressing! Her energy capacity is not enough to support her incredible power," he commented after seeing the woman collapse after her battle.
Then he stared at the white-haired vampire, who was engaged in a close combat fight with the remaining participants in her group. He observed her every move, and his expression turned serious, but not a single word came out of him.
. . . . .