The competition moved on to the next match. Connie arrived at the last moment with swelled eyes. It would have been funny if the cruelty we all had witnessed did not precede it. Sam was screaming in pain a minute back, with his clean fractured hand and Elaine was trying to heal him faster with everything she had.

She confirmed of Sam not carrying any serious injuries despite him being drenched in blood. Hailey had already warned me about what was coming next, more like a glimpse of what I might be facing.

But looking at Sam, it made my blood boil. How can she do this to someone who did not even want to fight her? Just to show me what she is capable of?

I could tolerate many things, but someone else getting hurt because of me is the last thing I would want. My eyes flared at Hailey and she saw my jaw clench. A satisfied smile spread across her face as if this was exactly what she wanted, for me to be serious. I did not care anymore if I had to use my special abilities; she was going to suffering.

If she wants a fight, I will give her a proper fight!

I took my attention back to the ongoing match between Connie and Diana, waiting for it to end faster. They were pretty much on par with each other. Connie had an advantage over her his ability to induce dreams, while Diana had years of experience on her shoulder.

Whichever of them wins will be the finalist and directly be promoted to the next stage of this competition. Diana was fighting completely fine, which meant Connie hadn't used his abilities on her. He was putting up a good fight, but Diana stole the entire show.

"Does Connie also need to touch his opponent to put them in a dream?" I asked Arina, who had left Sam's injured self alone, as Channing had dismissed everyone.

"No, he needs his opponent to be still or look into his eyes. That is why it works best with his twin brother Donnie alongside," said Arina, and it reminded me of the First stage where Connie had put me in the nightmare. "Diana is not giving any opening!" Arina was better now and somewhere her tone said that the winner is obvious.

With the limitation of activating Connie's special abilities, the match was sure to be won by Diana. Unless Connie really finds an opening to put her into his nightmare, he had very little chance against someone experienced.

Connie was giving his best, trying to make Diana look into his eyes, but she was fighting robotically, without getting tired or the strength of her attacks reducing.

Her gaze shifted subtly to me and that cold she had against me was still there. She still did not want me winning. But at this moment, there was no way she would intimidate me. I had to fight Hailey, and when I win that fight, it would be against Diana and she was going to lose as well against me. My rage had already reached a limit.

It was a matter of time when Connie was out of breath with too many injuries. He turned more black and blue than with any open wounds.

Diana raised her fist again to attack and Connie surrendered raising his hands, "wait wait! I admit defeat" He probably was worried since the time he saw Sam and with Diana not holding back, must have pushed him near the cliff.

I smiled, expecting something like this to happen. Connie wasn't really a guy of firm resolve except for when it came to his sleep.

"You seem to be happy, Selene," the seductive voice which I didn't want to hear was right spoke next to me. Hailey stood there with her hands folded, totally ready for our match. My smile was directed towards Connie, but she twisted it for herself. My eyes glared at her smiling face. The deceiving smile.

"And Diana is our first finalist for Stage 2, securing herself a place in the next round of the competition", Channing passionately cheered on Diana as all the members standing in the crowd followed up cheering her name.

They certainly had a good time, but soon Hailey would be back on the floor and their voices would die down.

"Okay, with no breaks let's move on to our semifinals for selection of the other finalist!" announced Channing as he pointed towards the stall where we sat, "Selene and Hailey come inside the fighting zone"

There was an unexpected commotion in the crowd when I had supposed dead silence like last time. I expected them to at least cheer for Hailey against me as she was in the pack since before I joined. But the cheers were all coming for me!

"Get her, Selene!", said someone.

"Yes, don't let her crush you, you better win, Selene!" another voice came from the crowd.

"Go home, Hailey! No one wants you as our beta!"

This came out unpredicted. My eyes went around to see the pack members cheering for me. Maybe their respect for me increased when Channing had made them guilty. After all, I had diverted Channing when he had attacked them with his words for following John and not save him, and the court had legally dismissed me from the case.

I turned around and saw Diana spouting venom from her eyes. She clearly envied the attention I was getting, the support that she wanted.

"They really hate you, don't they," I asked Hailey, who was not bothered by the sudden change. She simply shrugged, with a rather prideful expression about having chosen her target right. Of course, a person like her would love to clobber the people's new hope. I wasn't letting that happen today!

"I wouldn't worry about them if I were you," she said with her two fingers pointing towards my eyes and then hers, "let your eyes be here Selene! Watch carefully, every second of this fight, because you won't really get the time to do that while I enjoy licking your blood off my fist."

I would need to complete my mission here, to bring peace between the two villages on the left of the castle. Becoming the Beta of the pack was like a golden chance. But right now, Hailey was going to get it for what she did to Sam. If she wanted to rile me up by that, then she had successfully done it as I hated it the most when other people suffer because of me.