Mira and Maria woke up a little before dawn and went towards the area the middle-aged lady told them to go to. Luke also woke up with them, but he went towards the arena that the tournament will be held.
Mira and Maria soon found the area they were supposed to be at and waited for further instructions. Most of the women that passed the Entrance Exam yesterday were already there, but they only seemed to be waiting for a few that haven't made it yet. Right at dawn though, the rest of the people trickled and all 100 people were here. The middle-aged lady from before then appeared in front of them and started speaking.
"Follow me to the Arena! The tournament will begin soon!" She announced and led them to the arena.
The arena wasn't too far away from their current position, so it didn't take too long for them to be standing right outside of a large arena. The arena is huge! It seemed like it could fit thousands if not tens of thousands of people. The arena didn't seem very flashy or special, but it did seem to be made out of an extraordinarily strong rock. The middle-aged lady allowed them to take in the sight before leading them inside.
What they saw inside was quite the sight to behold. The main thing that caught the contestant's eyes were all of the people that were waiting in the stands to watch. Thousands and thousands of people were coming into the arena and finding a place to sit and watch. Mira guessed that this is quite normal for the people living near the sect. The middle-aged lady wanted to explain a few things to the contestants before announcing the start of the tournament.
"This tournament will be a bit different than normal. The tournament style itself will be the same as previous years, it will be based on the bracket system. The main difference is you all will be split into 2 groups of 50 and each group has a separate bracket. The 2 groups will fight at the same time and the winners of each group will fight for 1st place between both groups. This means there will be a total of 8 rounds in the tournament. There are a few reasons we've decided to do this. The first reason is that the tournament will proceed quicker. It makes for a much faster-paced tournament. We also believe it'll be more enjoyable to the audience as well. Another reason is there are 2 contestants that passed the exam that is much stronger than the rest of you. These two people are Mira and Maria, the one in the mask and the one with the golden blonde hair. The Elders have discussed this thoroughly and felt like it's for the best if they are separate. Though we still want to give you all the chance to defeat them. One group will have Mira in it and the other will have Maria. The winner of each group will face them for a chance to fight in the last battle. We will also reward whoever can beat them. The top 3 in each group will also be rewarded. Any questions before we head in there?" The middle-aged lady suddenly dropped something like this onto them. One girl raised her hand with a bit of disbelief.
"Why do they just get to skip to the end of the battle for each group? Wouldn't that automatically place them within the top 3?" She asked and the middle-aged lady shook her head.
"No. We have decided that since they are pretty much the unofficial winners of the tournament, they won't be counted in the top 3 unless they lose in the match between the group winners." The middle-aged lady said honestly, but none of them were that discouraged or upset about this. Actually, almost all of them were glad. They actually have a chance at winning without those 2 crazy people in the running. But Maria had a question regarding this.
"If that is the case then what's the point of Mira and Me fighting? It also seems like it's better for everyone else if we do win, but also better for us if we lose." Maria asked and it seemed a couple of other people were also interested.
"Whoever is the winner between both groups will also get an extra reward. The person who lost will also get something, but it won't be as good as the first place prize for the whole tournament. But that is the only thing you'll get. The top 3 from each group will also receive rewards and if the winner of a group beats one of you then they will also get something extra on top of what they already earned from making it into the top 3. The only thing your existence brings is the possibility of more rewards for other people." The middle-aged lady explained and Maria understood. Everybody else was also surprised to hear this. Any displeasure or hatred towards Mira and Maria quickly turned into happiness. So it didn't really matter if they couldn't beat them, but if they could then they would be rewarded greatly. They want to win started to sprout from the contestants as they wanted to be the ones to beat either Mira or Maria.
"We will split you into 2 groups when we get onto the stage along with drawing numbers to determine who you will be fighting against. Just a reminder, Mira and Maria are number 50 and if any one of you gets number 49 then you won't be fighting until the 5th round. We decided to set things up this way due to the odd number of people. Alright, are there any more questions?" She asked again, but everyone just shook their heads.
"Alright, let's go!"
They all followed her into the arena and onto the stage in the middle where they stood at the center of thousands of people. On either side of the middle stage, there were 2 arenas set up. These seemed to be the arenas the two groups will use to battle at the same time. The 2 arenas were anything but small as this place was huge.
"Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen and Welcome to the Battle Maiden Sect's Triennial Tournament! We are proud to present these 100 people as they have passed the Entrance Exam for the Sect! They have worked hard over the past week to pass the challenges that we have set up to test them and see if they are worthy of joining this wonderful Sect! These new Disciples will now be dueling in a tournament today for not only their placements into the Sect, but also for the rewards of winning." The middle-aged lady paused her speech to let the people cheer.
*CLAP**CLAP**CLAP**WOO*
The people started cheering loudly for the new disciples, but they stopped when the announcer raised her hand to quiet them down.
"This tournament will be a little bit different than previous years. We will be splitting these 100 people into 2 groups of 50 and each group will have its own tournament. These 2 groups will be battling at the same time as well. The reason for this is to make it more enjoyable for you to watch, but also because we have 2 incredibly strong new disciples this time around. They will be fighting the winner of each group and then the winners from those battles will fight in the final battle. We have already worked everything out with the new Disciples and they've agreed that this is the best solution for them. Whoever is able to defeat one of these two incredibly strong disciples will also be rewarded for it and their placement in the Sect will also increase. Now, let's get onto the drawing!" The middle-aged lady finished announcing and then held brought out two tables, each table has 49 small tiles turned upside down. The middle-aged lady signaled for the contestants to come up and start drawing their tiles. She also split up the people into groups as well as the women who were first, third, fifth, seventh, and so on, in line were put into Group 1 and the women who were second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and so on, in line were put into Group 2.
Mira and Maria didn't need to draw a tile so they just waited for everyone to finish. Even though they didn't need to draw they still needed to be put into the groups. Mira went ahead and took Group 1 and Maria went to Group 2.
It didn't take long for everybody to have their numbers assigned to them and they waited for further instructions from the middle-aged lady.
"Now that everyone has gotten their numbers, I will discuss the specifics and the rules of the tournament before we begin! No killing or causing any serious wounds on your opponent! This is a friendly tournament! If you kill or hurt someone too severely then you will have to face the consequences from the Sect. We will have judges in place to make sure you don't kill or severely injure anyone. You may incapacitate your opponent though. The judges will determine when a match is over and who won, but the match will generally continue until one side can't fight anymore or they surrender. You may use whatever weapon you want to fight with so no need to hold back. There is no time limit to the battles so use whatever strategy you want to win. Both groups won't have their fights start and stopped at the same time. If Group 1 fights longer than Group 2 then Group 2 will continue to fight until Group 1 is finished. Also, more about the bracket. There will be 8 total rounds. People with numbers between 1 and 32 will fight in a bracket and numbers between 33 and 49 will fight in another bracket. These two brackets will fight in Round 6. Number 49 in each group will also fight in Round 5. Round 7 will be between the winner of the group and Number 50. Round 8 is the Final Round and will be between the two winners from each group. We will also move in order so Numbers 1 and 2 will fight first and then Number 3 and 4 and so on. We will have short breaks in between rounds to make sure each contestant is at their peak condition to fight. Now that I have explained everything, get into your groups, and will Number 1 and 2 from each group please come up to the different arenas?" The middle-aged lady announced as everyone understood the rules and layout of the tournament.
After the groups separated and headed to their specific arenas, Numbers 1 and 2 from each group then went up on stage to get ready to fight. The 4 women took out their weapons and waited for the referees for each group to give them the signal to start.
"Ready! Set! Fight!"