The 2nd day of the tournament soon come, as the arena was filled with spectators eager to see the battle for the succession. While the crowds chatter among themselves, discussing what would happen and gambling on the result, the participants talked among themselves, specifically among their faction members.
"Now I will tell you the schedule of the day," Lariz said, after greeting his subordinates and ally.
"There will be the continuation of the first four tournament. In fact, there had been some discussion of having the rest of the tournament began today but most decided against it.
So, it will be the same participants, except the order of the battle. First, would be the dual combatant battle, followed by team battle, and lastly, the individual team battle will be the last one, before the individual battle.
So, Ryker, today your battle will be the last one for the day," after which, the Crown Prince began to tell the plan he had concocted as well as giving them some weapon, nothing to special, just Grade 9 weapon he collected in his lifetime.
After he finished his briefing, he spot Ryker giving him a look. Understanding what his ally meant by that, the eldest son of the King quickly said, "Alright, that is all for now. You should get ready for your match, and make sure to prepare for everything,"
The others nodded as they began to leave the room, the sole exception being Ryker.
"What do you want to talk about?" Lariz asked.
"I just want to point out all of this seem suspicious," he replied, earning a chuckle out of the prince.
"Do tell why?" considering how Lariz did not deny it make it easier for him.
"The arrangement. Why don't it keep the same schedule? Then, why did the other tournaments not done during the 2nd day? It would be much cheaper and did not waste as much time," he pointed out. He had some more but he like to see how the prince reacted.
"The schedule is done with one purpose, to have the main tournament, the individual one, be the first to finish. This is done so there would be some suspense on the would be victor.
After all, when you win, the others would work harder to win the other tournament. After all, with such rules, they would have better chance if they send the weakling to be fed to the monster, namely you, while their elites would handle the other tournament," Lariz answered.
"So, the schedule is on the whim of the King, with the plan is for my tournament to finish first so it would give some form of suspense on who would be the final winner of the Tournament of Succession.
After all, even if I win, but you lost the rest of the matches, then it would still be your loses," he pointed out.
"Yes," Lariz confirmed, "That is the plan, but still," the prince tried to find the right word, "Be prepared, while they will not be much of a threat, they might try to do something to win the main tournament.
After all, if I lose the main tournament, I would lose the entire first part of the competition," Ryker nodded, understanding what he meant. In the end though, he prepared himself, though he knew the likelihood of them pulling such thing would be hard.
-x-
And so, the rest of the tournament went on without a hitch, though the finalist of the tournaments is part of the Crown Prince's faction, to the other prince's surprise.
"They think you will only have one trump card or so," Ryker said in amusement, the eldest brother could guess what was in their head.
"They are fool to think so. As the Crown Prince, I will inherit the kingdom along with the officials that run it, but in the end, they will retire, especially the weaker one who did not have that long of a lifespan.
So, I will need to find their replacement, searching for capable subordinates for the future. Of course I would have the most talented personal for the different part of the competition. They just don't think like that," Lariz replied, though he did sound aggrieved by his male relatives low opinion on him.
"Their loss, but for now, I will have to deal with my own match," Ryker said before heading to the arena.
"Good luck, but I don't think you need it," Lariz exclaimed before sitting, wanting to see how much of a challenge his ally's foe for the day would be.
-x-
"So, you are my opponent," the other man said with wariness, clearly intimidated by his performance.
"Yes, and if you surrender it would not hurt," Ryker said in a mocking tone. The man growled before pulling out his weapon, "You the one that should surrender!"
Ryker looked at the weapon, an artifact of the Spirit Grade, low Noble Grade artifact. While he would be intimidated by intermediate Noble Grade Artifact, against low-leveled one, it did not bring that much of a dread.
"Let's begin then," he said before dashing towards the other man. Surprised by his action, his foe tried to hit him, but Ryker easily dodge. While he can usually beat the other party with ease, the artifact in question seem to have some ability to form a barrier, stopping his attack while allowing the other party to unleash their own.
"Difficult, but not impossible," while such thing would be hard for others to handle, for Ryker, it is not much of a challenge.
He evade the attack while unleashing his own, though only weaker one as he knew even some of his stronger attack would also unable to do much against the barrier. So, he plan to turn the match into a battle of attrition, as he knew the other party would not be able to handle the qi consumption of their weapon.
Sure enough, he was right, as the other side began to slow down, trying to recover before unleashing another attack, even if doing so will not do much except making him tire out even faster.
Soon, his foe let out a ragged breath as his qi reserve went dry from all of his consumption. Something Ryker took advantage off, finishing his foe with a single strike, the defensive ability of the Artifact no longer working with no qi to power it.
Ryker brushed off his hand, though he could see some people began to have doubt of his ability. Ryker scoffed. He had been holding back this entire time. If the other part manage to push him to his limit, well, he hope the arena could handle so much destruction.