The third day of the tournament arrived. Today, only Dawn had come to watch, as her parents had little interest in watching Koren fight, and they had other things to do. Dawn had little else to do, though, since both her school and the brothel were closed for tournament week.
The first round of the day would be different from before. First, all sixteen remaining contestants would battle each other as usual to determine the final eight. Then, the eight who lost would fight each other in two rounds until two remained so that the ninth and tenth rankings could be determined. The top ten rankings were very important in the sect, and the top ten spots also got energy pills, so they had to be determined.
The first battle of the day began. Koren fought against another man for once, but it ended up being an easier fight than against the last woman. This man was at the fourth level of the Condensing stage, but he was a skilled spearman.
Koren traded blows with his opponent for several minutes, landing many blows on him, but also receiving several. The long range of the spear made it challenging to fight, but the difference in skill allowed Koren to take the upper hand.
It was a good thing, too, as every blow from the spear hit much harder than Koren could. If Koren wasn't so skilled that he could deflect most of the power from the strikes, he'd lose.
Each time the spear came thrusting towards him, Koren would step back just in time for the head to merely follow him instead of clashing right into him. Every attack from Koren, on the other hand, was taken head-on. Since his opponent was physically stronger, it took more to damage him, but each strike would keep adding on.
Eventually, the fourth-level Condensing cultivator couldn't take anymore. With a final sword strike from Koren, he was knocked down on his knees. Just before another attack could arrive, the disciple raised his hand.
"I surrender!" The disciple shouted, stopping Koren right in his tracks. Just as Koren relaxed, the disciple stood back up, approached him, and grabbed his hand.
"I will see you again in the sect core. To have been defeated by an Energy Storage cultivator, I simply cannot fathom it. I believe that one day you will take the number one spot among us disciples," he said.
"What, you don't think I can do it now?" Koren asked.
"As you are now? No. The top four are in a league of their own. Sure, you gained a top-four spot today, but that's only because two of them are fighting each other right now. Look."
The man pointed towards one of the four occupied arenas, where two women battled in a frenzy. Koren got cold feet just from looking at them. They moved so fast that you could hardly follow them with your eyes, and their weapons destroyed everything around them.
Their techniques all used energy to its fullest extent, destroying the arena.
"It's something. What's your name, disciple brother?" Koren asked. Names were displayed on the phone before you went to fight, but Koren had forgotten already.
"I'm Kerash. You?"
"Koren. Nice name, by the way."
Koren and Kerash, soon-to-be disciple brothers of the same rank, stayed on their arena, watching the fight between the two disciple sisters who had ranked in the top four last time. Top-four rankers also fought on the other two arenas, but not against disciples of equal strength, so the fight between the two women was much more exciting.
Not long after Koren and Kerash were finished, the two other arenas wrapped things up. But the two beautiful women kept fighting for more than twenty minutes before one was finally defeated. Koren and Kerash had already gone their own ways a while ago to wait for the next round. Roughly half an hour later, it came.
It was the semifinals and the first battle where Koren felt worried. In front of him stood a woman, one who had defeated her opponent without much effort earlier. She held two swords, while Koren had just the one. There was complete silence in the arena, not a single soul uttering a word. Then, the sound of a bell.
At the same instant that the sound resounded through the vast arena, Koren's sword slammed into Mora's two swords like a bolt of lightning! His shoulder muscles burned as he strained to force her back. She was stronger than she looked! The two swords followed through in an attack, seeking to split him in twain as they came down to his head. But with a single step back, Koren leaped out of the way in a flash.
The two swords spun around him like razor-sharp satellites, cutting at fresh air, yet he was already a step ahead. In a blaze of speed, Koren's sword crashed into her defense, and she blocked it effortlessly. When she attempted to strike back, all that greeted her was an afterimage of him. Mora roared and lunged forward with her swords in hand, trying to cut him to pieces. However, he was too fast and the metal too short to reach him; each attempt missed as he weaved away from the blows!
Mora spun around, meeting Koren's eyes. Then, out of nowhere, a white sword flew at her as Koren thrust his blade! He was standing eight meters away from her, but despite that, a sword as white as snow appeared out of nowhere when he attacked.
Mora swung her sword at the strange flying weapon, and as she hit it to deflect it away, the sword exploded! Mora took several steps back, eyes wide, but the attack had done nearly no damage. It had only burned her like a few drops of boiling water sputtering on her.
Mora recognized the attack as a strange, perhaps even profound, energy technique and returned with one of her own. Her sword came swinging down, and with it appeared a tin sheet of white energy expanding toward Koren. Koren stepped to the side, and with three thrusts, three more white swords shot toward Mora. The swords were fast, even more so than Mora's technique.
She managed to dodge one of them but had to block the other two, causing even more mild pain as they exploded on her.
"What is that technique?" Mora demanded while creating two more sheets of energy, one from each sword. Koren sidestepped both of them, his movement technique allowing him to flicker around.
"Doesn't matter," Koren responded. Mora growled and generated two more thin lines of energy by swinging her swords in a cross.
"Then it's time for you to lose! Prepare yourself!" Mora shouted. All of a sudden, her speed increased! Her arms moved like a whirlwind, energy attacks shooting out of her at a rapid pace! She neared Koren in an instant, and the man immediately had to take action to defend himself! Mora's swords both attacked in close range and cast energy attacks, forcing Koren to block with all his might and dodge with all his skill!
But it was no use! Koren could barely even follow Mora's movements, and more and more strikes got through and hit him! Koren had to continuously step back, moving his sword so fast that it became a blur. After a while, he managed to retreat a considerable distance with his movement technique. But Mora was so fast that she almost immediately appeared in front of him again.
She attacked so quickly and furiously that Koren was bleeding all over his body from small cuts, even though the blades were dull!
"Fuck! You forced me to do this!"
Koren suddenly roared and retreated as far away as he could. Mora turned to look at him, but Koren was already pointing his sword at her.
"I didn't want to do this until the final fight, if at all, but now you've forced me. You can feel proud. Just don't die," Koren said.
Mora looked at him, stunned. Her eyes were wide, and her mouth hung open as if a word was struggling to escape when she saw what transpired in front of her. Koren raised his sword. Tiny motes of light drifted off the blade and quickly gathered together until they formed a long, slender blade of pure white energy. And then another appeared. And another, and another, and another one! Blades kept appearing at an incredible pace until two dozen incandescent swords floated in the air, spinning around Koren.
Mora's eyes went wider as the floating swords streaked toward her. They moved so fast that it might as well have been instant, but despite that, Mora managed to block three of them! The other twenty-one swords struck her in any number of places on or around her body with incredible force and speed, showering her with a massive number of white explosions. Mora screamed as she burned all over, and in a matter of seconds, she was on the ground, howling.
"I surrender! I surrender!"
The woman screamed, and the swords stopped in mid-air, dissipating. Finally, Koren collapsed, falling to his knees. He was drenched in sweat, and his skin was pale. As Koren caught his breath, Mora slowly got back up and looked at Koren.
"Those swords. Can they do anything other than explode?" She asked, a slight tinge of dread in the back of her mind.
"If they don't explode," Koren took a deep breath, "they cut."
"Then you could have killed me like a, like an insect. Who are you? How did you get a technique like that?"
"It doesn't matter. You can't learn it. Good thing the final match is tomorrow. That drained me."
Koren got back up, and slowly, he walked away. Just like that, Koren, someone who hadn't even broken through to the Condensing stage, had reached the finals. But he was beat.
Just walking back to Aurora and the girls was a chore. When he got to them, though, he was met with the usual reactions. Everyone was shocked.
"That, how? How did you do that?" Aurora asked, battling her urge to grab the man and force it out of him.
"It was just a technique. One that takes a lot out of you. I need to rest," Koren said. Aurora nodded, wanting to ask more but refraining. Koren returned home, but the girls stayed to watch the other fight finish.
In another corner of the arena, Vara and Mura were still together, discussing the fights. Just now, Koren's display had done more than just draw their attention.
"What in the world was that? That technique, I haven't seen it before, but it's such a high-level technique. How did that kid manage to learn it?" Vara said.
"I believe we have stumbled on to a potential successor to the sect master. This young man, Koren, has stepped on the path of sword mastery, sword intent, and is but a step away from sword essence," Mura said. At the mention of the word 'sword essence,' Vara's head shot towards Mura.
"Truly? At his age? I'm almost ten years older but have just barely mastered sword intent. Sword essence, I don't even know how long it'll take until I get there. Decades, at least."
"Indeed. His talent for the sword might be unparalleled. Hence, why I think he might be the next successor. You should tell that girl Aurora to sink her nails into him. He'd make a good husband for her."
"Heh, I will. Aurora is talented, too, so they'd make a good pair."
"Yes, a fascinating group, that one. Aurora, the newly discovered genius with the abnormally powerful sexual constitution; Koren, the hidden, but shockingly talented genius, a pair of twin nobles, and that other girl with a talent for alchemy. Certainly a group with potential."