Alastor watched as the students assigned to his group groaned in frustration, already resigned to their loss.
'Disappointing.'
As expected, they surrendered before Alastor even attacked them, leading to him already passing the first round.
A, Axel, Amber, Karna and Alicia all won their respective battle royale's as well.
Alastor couldn't help but sigh, as the matchup were revealed after that.
'Me and A.'
'Karna and someone called Nerissa? Isn't she the one with puppets?'
'Amber and Tori Kento.'
'And...Alicia against Axel.'
Axel looked scared but determined at the same time.
Alastor entered the arena as did A, both of them facing off against each other as they had multiple times up till now.
A exclaimed loudly, "We haven't sparred since we returned from the village! Come, we shall decide who is stronger!"
Alastor felt the connection within him and his spear deepen, as he overlaid the rusted spear within his soul onto the Bone of Anhur.
Alastor knew his pure spear skills had become equivalent to that of a Knight, but his Weapon Aura hadn't manifested.
However, in this boosted state, he could manifest something similar.
"How long are you going to keep chatting away?"
A laughed and apologized, "I see! That was my fault!"
As soon as the signal was made, they both charged at each other. As Alastor landed the first blow, he felt it clearly.
'It landed well.'
A paused and looked at the large bleeding wound on his chest, as he muttered to himself, "The spear didn't touch me?"
A soon realized, and laughed out loud.
"SO you have already become a Knight! You are truly my rival!"
A declared loudly, "Then, I can't hold back either!"
A's fingers pierced his skin, as his muscles began bulging, clothes strained, and fur sprouted from his skin.
"I apologize, but this is as far as I can go right now! Partial Great Stone Ape will have to suffice!"
A giant monkey human hybrid stood before Alastor, his claws ready to punch forward.
'He's really leaning into the beastly stereotype.'
Alastor smiled as they began anew.
........................................
As the audience watched, a hint of fear and awe could be felt among the students.
"Are these monsters really first years?" said one bewildered spectator, as he watched the monstrous beast human hybrid's punches destroying the arena without even touching it.
Even more monstrous was the being who was effortlessly dodging these blows and countering, even landing blows against it.
Alastor dodged another shockwave inducing punch, before slicing across A's torso at extreme speeds and retreated just before A could catch him in a bear hug.
A simply ignored the wounds, the damage not being enough to slow him down as he simply kept laughing and attacking.
Alastor knew he needed a bigger move to end this.
'Thankfully, that's exactly what I have.'
Alastor felt the thrill within his being, as he felt the qualitative change within his spear.
Weapon Aura.
Beyond the upgrade provided by the Rusted Spear within his soul.
'What a blissful feeling~'
Alastor felt the spear melding within him, his connection to the spear growing beyond what the Adept level brought.
As Alastor stood in a trance, A slammed his fists down in a double handed blow, aiming to end the fight quickly, the Great Ape state beginning to wear off.
A felt the blow connect, but had a strange feeling of familiarity as the dust cleared.
A's hand's had holes pierced within them, with Alastor's mana seeping out from the wounds into A's body.
As A expelled the mana quickly, he felt the wind behind him move.
Just as he turned, he felt his knee be pierced from behind, making him collapse.
Small and large wounds were appearing on A's body at rapid speeds, as Alastor was still nowhere to be seen.
A's Great Ape state ended, as Alastor's figure finally became visible, sending A's huge body flying up with a kick.
A seemed to see a black tree extending it's roots towards him, as he quickly lost consciousness.
Alastor pierced through A's defense once more, as his spear glowed visibly.
The spear instructor responsible for Alastor's class was more excited than Alastor himself, as he hooted and screamed in the stands.
"A Spear Knight this young? Has there ever been such a case before?"
"No, the last record was set by the Sword Hero, at 20 years of age."
"That means, he too has the potential to become a Great Hero of the Alliance."
The Professor's discussed amongst themselves about this development.
As Alastor returned from the arena victorious, the spear instructor approached him while clapping for his victory.
Even then, he gave Alastor some advice.
"Your style makes you seem invincible. Untouchable in battle. But you know as well, it's only real weakness."
Alastor nodded and continued to head towards the comptetitors area.
He felt admiring gazes, envious gazes, and fearful gazes, but a surprisingly little amount of hateful gazes from the crowd as he returned.
Karna passed by him on his way to his own battle.
They high fived each other as they walked past, as Karna takes the arena.
........................................
Karna looked at his opponent....or rather, opponents.
He was facing a whole group of thirty people, each equipped with different weapons and the same mana running through them all.
'Puppets. Ew.'
Perhaps it was because these shells reminded Karna of himself, but he really disliked puppets.
The arena was quite small, a disadvantage for an archer like Karna who excelled at long distance sniping, but he did not really care.
Nerissa's distorted voice rang from multiple puppets at once, "What's wrong? Scared?"
Karna answered calmly, "Why should I be? There's only thirty of you empty shells here. You'll need more than that."
Nerissa, angered by his dismissal of her, controlled the puppets to attack Karna.
All thirty of them swarmed towards the archer, intent on not giving him time to load his bow, not that he ever did.
As the first puppet approached, swinging it's blade, Karna's fist slammed into it's face, cracking it and sending it hurtling back into the other advancing puppets.
He pulled his bow around one's neck and pulled, decapitating the puppet with ease as the string did not bend at all with that much force.
Nerissa visibly slowed her advance, but it was too late as three arrows appeared in Karna's hands, and he shot them at the archer puppets in the back, piercing their heads perfectly.
Karna grabbed one puppet by it's head, and flames burst out from within it, engulfing the puppet and turning it into molten slag.
He carefully observed the surroundings, as he dodged the blows.
He spoke up, "I thought at first that you would be inside one of these puppets. But then I destroyed a few and the none of the other's displayed any sign of hesitation or even delay in rushing to be the next sacrifice. I further confirmed it by changing where I was looking."
Karna manifested an arrow and pointed it downwards, at the ground of the arena.
"You're in the ground, aren't you?"
As the puppets struggled to stall, Karna unleashed the arrow.
The puppets froze, mere inches away from connecting with the archer, as he simply walked away.
He told the stunned referee, "You'll find her about 30 feet underground, her foot's been pierced by an arrow and she passed out."
As the originally one armed and one legged puppeteer was removed from the ground, Karna also came back up to the comptetitor's area nonchalantly.
Alastor didn't say anything about Karna's small outburst of rage in the arena, when he demolished the puppets instead of finding the puppeteer, knowing his situation.
Alastor simply said, "It'll work. The plan, that is. Trust in me."
Karna nodded and kept quiet, unlike Axel, who was worried for his girlfriend.
Alastor teased him, "Shouldn't you be more worried about your safety than Amber's? Considering she's Rank 5 and you're Rank 34."
Axel smiled sheepishly, "Well, I doubt I can win against Alicia, but I won't go down without a fight. I won't disappoint you, I swear!"
Alastor smiled, not expecting much out of the young man. He was convenient, but not powerful or talented. However Alastor wasn't using him for his strength anyway.
Amber faced off against the previously Rank 4 swordsman, Tori Kento, who kept his single sided blade tightly wrapped in bandages.
He held the blade without removing the bandages, causing Amber to frown and say, "Are you underestimating me?"
Tori shook his head and replied, "I'm perfectly serious."
And so, the fight began as Amber disappeared from the eyes of the crowd.