Lucas only heard the sound of the bell and the crowd cheering while preparing in the trial room.
All other members of his group were also in the same room. All of them were warming up and stretching their muscles. No one cared about him. Even the ones who had fought him and lost acted as if they could take him down at any time. Lucas wasn't the one who wanted people to know him everywhere and acknowledge him. He never cared about whether people took him seriously; his training was about becoming capable enough to protect his loved ones from anyone. That has been his reason for relentless training for the past year training. He didn't care about the mocking gazes of people around him. What he didn't know was that they were not mocking him but Elara. Most of the hunters don't like Elara for supposedly killing her brother. They have imparted the same to the young ones under them who came to participate in this competition—adding this to the fact that Lucas was two years younger than the youngest ever participant who got selected. They were mocking her for thinking that Lucas would get selected. Some believed that Elara wanted to get some attention from them, so she deliberately let Lucas participate.
Lucas, who was stretching his muscles and throwing his fists in the corner, was unaware of these thoughts. He wouldn't say much even if he knew what they were thinking. Instead, he would silence them in the arena. Elara had strictly warned him not to fall for provocations of any kind. For Lucas, her words were a line he wouldn't cross. Unaware of others' thoughts, he kept his mind calm and mentally prepared for the upcoming fight.
After waiting, they heard a loud cheer from outside and a bell was rung. This marked the end of group one. Next came a whistle, and the gate in front of them opened to the arena filled with audiences. Stepping into this arena was a new experience for Lucas and many more competitors. Lucas felt nervous upon seeing the large audience; even the merchants, shop owners, innkeepers and others were also part of the audience. Lucas found Elara, Dashiell and Ivy sitting on the left side of the Judges stage. When they saw him looking at them, they started cheering and best wishes gestures. Ivy jumped and clapped her hands, hugging Elara as she spotted Lucas among the participants.
The arena buzzed with anticipation as a hundred teenagers, each brimming with determination, prepared for the chaotic fight ahead. As one of the judges started explaining the rules, and after finishing, he took a brief pause and rang the bell beside him. The crowd roared as the signal was given, and the arena erupted into action.
Fists flew, bodies collided, and the ground shook with the intensity of the battle. Amidst the chaos, Lucas moved with a focused determination, his eyes scanning for threats and opportunities alike. He dodged, parried, and struck with precision, his training evident in every move. The ones who had paid no attention to Lucas except his age were now in awe. If they were to be in the audience, they would be shocked by his movement and precision of parrying and hitting his opponents.
Slowly, the number of participants started subsiding. The initial chaotic fight began turning into a more challenging struggle. Weaker ones started forming small groups to fend off more vigorous opponents, while strong ones still fought solo. Lucas may have been young, but he was no fool; Elara had explained everything about these things. Also, he was among the strong ones; after all, his practice had been with Dashiell, and he always maintained his level a little more than Lucas. So, even though Lucas was fighting with a group or opponents stronger than him, he fought back calmly and strongly without any nervousness.
As the fight went on, number of people were getting less and less at a steady pace. When the number of people reduced to ten, the bell rang again, and people started cheering and applauding for those still in the arena. Lucas was exhausted by this fight and had to fight more than the other qualified members. The participants thought he would be an easy target, so many had targeted him. Lucas, breathing heavily, looked at Ivy and smiled. All three of them were laughing and clapping loudly.
After the Judges confirmed their names and age, they asked them to leave the arena. Earlier, Judges had been very opinionated towards Lucas because of his age. However, when they announced his name and age, they changed their views about him but were still not optimistic about him getting into the top twenty. They left, returned to the trial room, and later returned to the audience. He sat with Ivy and others. Elara examined his hands and legs for injuries. He only had superficial bruises, and there wasn't any serious injury. They watched the rest of the matches.
By the time the rest of the matches concluded, the sun was on the horizon, and the sky had darkened. After concluding the last one, the judges announced that the trial would continue in the coming days, and they would fight in one-on-one fights starting tomorrow. They would put the fixtures on the notice board by the following day. Lucas and others left the arena quietly, trying not to attract much attention. Walking through the streets towards their inn, they heard whispers coming from sides and behind. The vendors from the streets had also been in the audience. They knew about Lucas and his performance in the trial. However, due to Elara's reputation, they never tried to say anything aloud. They reached their rooms at the inn, and Dashiell brought the dinner to the room. Elara applied some medicines to Lucas's bruises. Seeing Lucas's fewer injuries, she knew how well he had defended himself in the previous battle. They let him rest for the next day's matches.
The following day, the first round of knockout matches was fixed randomly with anyone from the other eighty-nine participants. Lucas's match was the fifteenth and second match on the arena stage, numbered fifth. After the first round was finished, there would be forty-five participants. Judges had decided to give one person free-pass randomly. Later, they would assign twenty positions among the twenty-three competitors, and the three who would be left out could challenge any of them to take his place. They can only challenge once. These rules were announced at the beginning of the first round of the matches.
When the fight began, everyone was focused on the battle going on. Lucas was sitting with Elara and others when he felt someone gazing at him from the other side of the arena. He didn't know the one who was staring at him. His gaze was filled with slight hostility towards him. Lucas didn't know why and couldn't care less about it. He was more focused on watching the matches going on. He was keenly watching how they were dodging and attacking each other. He found it more interesting than finding the reason for hostility. He was busy watching the matches when one of the players on number five was knocked out of the arena. After the declared victory of one participant, Arena was cleared, and Lucas's name was announced along with his opponent. His name was Jack, and he was the one looking at him earlier. They jumped from their seats and walked to arena number five.
"Ready?" the referee asked and looked at both of them; they nodded.
After seeing them nodding, he whistled, marking the start of their match.
Jack was the first to make a move, quickly closing the distance between them and launching an attack at Lucas. But Lucas was ready; he shifted slightly to the left, easily dodging Jack's straightforward strikes.
Noticing Jack's predictable pattern, Lucas saw his chance. With a quick sidestep, he landed a well-timed punch to Jack's side, causing him to stagger back. Jack struggled to regain footing and tried to counterattack, but Lucas was one step ahead. He ducked under Jack's swinging arm and delivered a sharp kick to his knee, making Jack buckle under the impact.
As Jack's movements began to slow, Lucas pressed the advantage. With a final, powerful strike to Jack's chest, he sent him crashing to the ground. Jack lay there, defeated, while Lucas stood victorious. It was a straightforward victory for him.
After the referee announced his victory, Lucas went to sit with his hunter family (
After the first round ended, they did the lucky draw to give the free pass. Luckily, Lucas got this free pass. Many boos were heard from the audience and fellow participants. But trials have always been fair, so no one can change the name on the free pass. Judges announced that the next round would begin the following day. They all returned to their rooms and had their dinner in the room again. Elara instructed him not to be confident after this victory, and she explained many other things to Lucas. She was extremely satisfied by his calm and composed stature during the matches, but now people will be stronger than before, so she was worried. They had dinner and went to sleep.
In the morning, they went to the arena. The second stage of the tournament was completed by the afternoon. Later, they started the lot to find who would be the top twenty. One by one, they started taking out chits from the box. The chits came out in the following order:
2. Blake Smith - Boy
3. Caden Brown - Boy
4. Delilah Davis - Girl
5. Ethan Wilson - Boy
6. Freya Taylor - Girl
7. Gabriel Anderson - Boy
8. Harper Thomas - Girl
9. Isaac Jackson - Boy
10. Jaxon White - Boy
11. Kaia Harris - Girl
12. Liam Martin - Boy
13. Maya Thompson - Girl
14. Nolan Garcia - Boy
15. Olivia Martinez - Girl
16. Lucas Stone - Boy
17. Rowan Lewis - Boy
18. Sienna Walker - Girl
19. Tristan Hall - Boy
20. Uriel Allen - Boy
The three people who were going to challenge were:
1. Wyatt King - Boy
2. Violet Young - Girl
3. Xaviers Brook - Boy
When the judges asked who would challenge whom, Wyatt, without hesitation, chose Lucas. Xaviers looked at others and chose Jaxon, a fourteen-year-old boy with a lean body and average height. Violet chose a boy named Gabriel. Gabriel was almost sixteen, and his build was burly. Many laughed at her decision to choose Gabriel. They thought it was suicidal because she was slim and short in height.
All three fights were to start simultaneously at the corner arena, but before that, they were given an hour to rest.
After one hour, the bell rang, and the six stood on the edges of their respective arenas.