"Woah!!" Shocked by Kenny's sudden exposure, the spectators exclaimed out loud.

It turned out, Kenny's stealth deactivated automatically after he whispered, exposing him to everyone.

Amelia's teammates froze by the sight of him holding a dagger against her neck. They didn't dare to assault him as by the time they made a move, Amelia's corpse would have already turned cold.

Felix never threw his bombs in Amelia's direction because he already knew that Kenny could make a move on her in case Amelia showed signs of not surrendering after taking her teammates as hostages.

Since she was the captain, it meant that only she had the ability to accept surrendering. The others could only do so if she died or passed out first.

Felix wasn't feeling merciful or anything, he just didn't want anyone's blood in his hands without a reason or benefits.

"Say the words." Kenny pressed the dagger a bit harder on her neck, making her bleed a few drops.

"We surrender!" She said while gritting her teeth.

When her life was the one on the line Amelia didn't hesitate anymore to give up on the tournament.

Though she felt regretful about not making it to the national team, she knew that there were still many opportunities to do so in the future.

"Good fight." Kenny withdrew his dagger and nodded his head politely to her. He then walked right through her teammates, wanting to regroup with the rest.

Since he wasn't yet in greater purity, he only had one active ability, and that was stealth. This meant, he needed to carry a weapon, and a dagger was the perfect weapon for an assassin.

Johnson, who was in lesser purity too, was carrying one as well. The tournament forbade using, potions, substances, and modern weapons, as for bows, swords, shields, and others? One could carry whatever he wants.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Please give a round of applause to this battle winner, THE MAXWELLS!!!" 

Clap, clap...!

Heartful applause rained on the Maxwells before the host even finished his shout. This battle might have taken only a couple of minutes, but the sophistication and the teamplay shown by the Maxwells were beyond satisfactory.

Every member of the team had a part in taking down the Lauders. Even Sarah and Isabela, who didn't throw a single ability. The best part about all of this was the fact Felix wasn't required to show more than needed.

"Good work everyone." Felix clapped his hands slowly while smiling at the ecstatic girls near him.

"Thank you captain." Lexie said, smiling.

"You too captain." Isebella said shyly while burying her head in her chest, not daring to meet his violet serpent-like eyes.

"Alright, let's group up and bow to the audience." Uncaring by Isabella's reaction, Felix went to the middle of the arena where Noah, Kenny, and the rest were already lining up there, waiting for them.

The girls followed after him and soon lined up as well.

Belonging to a rich family or political family, showing the public a good image was always beneficial for the family. Thus, they were required to bow their heads respectfully before exiting the arena.

Even the losers had to do it.

After doing so, they went back to their resting area. They didn't have any more battles, as today was for the first round of the tournament only.

This meant, all the teams were going to fight once to decide who goes up to the next round, the semi-finals!

Though the four cursed brackets didn't have such a luxury, as they needed to fight an extra battle than others to reach the semi-finals.

The Waltons already moved out of those brackets, and now they were waiting for the winner of the other two cursed brackets, so they could compete against each other for a semi-final spot.

The organization made the placement as such, so it wouldn't get messy or confusing.

Right now, the two teams from those two cursed brackets were going up next after the usual ten minutes ads pass.

The teams were both from business families, who had only four bloodliners in their ranks. The Murdoch Family and The Tisch Family!

The spectators believed that this battle was going to be an intense one filled with blood, gore, and even death, unlike the battles before, which ended pretty quickly.

Their belief was based on the fact those two had an explosive word feud yesterday during picking the commoners.

Both of them were going at each other throats on a single buffer, who got insanely famous in the qualifiers with his healing abilities.

Too bad for them, Mr. Jones sent that buffer to the Hilton team after seeing the farce they created on national TV. Of course, he didn't forget to berate the elders for not managing their juniors properly.

This made it even worse, as for the elders to be reprimand on national TV was beyond humiliating.

Because of that, both teams were currently sitting in their resting area, giving off murderous gazes to each other.

...

After a couple of minutes...

"Mr. Felix, can we have a quick interview with you?" A well-dressed reporter followed by a cameraman asked Felix the moment they reached Maxwell's resting area.

"Go ask Noah." Without glancing at them, Felix pointed his finger at Noah and said, "He is the most talkative person on the team."

"I see! Thank you for your permission." Eager, the reporter went straight for Noah, who was staring at the sky in a peaceful manner as usual.

Too bad, his peacefulness was ruined the moment the reporter started barraging him with questions about the team, bloodlines, family treatment, goals, and more private matters.

Olivia giggled with her hands covering her mouth at the sight of Noah's expressionless face remaining totally unbroken even against this reporter. Not a single word or sound was extracted from Noah's sealed lips.

"Can you tell us about your bloodline?" The reporter asked.

"...." Noah.

"Why weren't you embarrassed about having a flower on top of your head?"

"...." Noah.

"How many jackets did you rip open?"

"..." Noah.

'Screw this shit!' The reporter could only cry in despair at meeting for the first time such a tough nut to crack.

Heck, forget about getting responses, he didn't get even a slight reaction after asking him so many messed up questions.

But still, he didn't give up, even though the mocking laughs of the Maxwells were enough to tell him that he was being played.

"Tell me do you have any close sibl..."

"Alright, that's enough, beat it!"

Flustered and quite scared, the reporter flinched at Felix's unquestionable cold tone. He didn't dare to continue asking his question, as he swiftly said his goodbye to Noah and left with hurried steps, followed by his partner.

Felix wasn't being mean or anything, he honestly just saved them from having their brains smashed into a paste, as their questions were heading deeper and deeper to Noah's uncharted territory.

His 15 years old sister!

The moment they ask any unrespectful question about his sister, they would have received the response they wanted, but not the one that would please them. Felix was too lazy to clean up after Noah's mess.

He was the captain after all.

After seeing that the reporters bounced away, Noah tilted his head slightly in confusion for a second before lifting it up and continuing to stare at the sky with an unfocused gaze.

....

30 minutes later...

The battle between The Murdoch team and The Tisch team was finally over!

The spectators still underestimated the intensity of it, as by the time it ended, three bloodliners were dead, four were heavily injured, and the rest had bodies filled with minor wounds!!!

A whopping twenty minutes of constant battling without a pause! Each injury and death fuelled the feud between those two even more, making them accept nothing but victory or total extermination.

Even the commoners on the teams had bloodshot eyes as they used whatever necessary to kill their enemies before they get killed by them.

No one asked for surrender or bothered to force one, as the previous battles went.

Every time a bloodliner gets caught in a difficult position or ambushed, he had only two options...Die or barely survive with heavy injuries!

This hate-filled way of fighting made some spectators leave the stadium mid-battle, not able to continue watching such inhuman bloodshed.

Meanwhile, the rest of the teams only felt entertained by their battle.

None of them cried out loud to stop the carnage. They were already used to such a sight, as in their instructors or elders UVR's rooms, those battles were happening on daily basis.

In those rooms, no one stops fighting until one of them drops dead! However, since they were in the UVR private rooms, deaths weren't punished by the UVR laws, which was waiting for 24h and paying a heavy fine.

They could die and revive instantly, then jump right back in the fight, without a single scratch on.

Since the UVR had 100% realism, this meant everything about death was real!

From the feeling of stabbing, cleaving, and burning someone to actually experiencing them as well.

Though some teams do not use 100% pain intensity, the majority keep everything exactly as reality.

This helped the juniors overcome the nauseating feeling of murdering others in cold blood.

How could they not, when every day they fight and kill each other at least a couple of times before ending their daily 'practice'?

The outcome of such realistic practice was the current result that was shown before the spectators and the bloodliners.

A barbaric fight not lacking a single hint of mercy or hesitation!

This was only due to a mild feud between them that made them a bit humiliated on National TV.

One could only wonder what those bloodliners would do to each other if they had a real enmity between them.

The UVR's 100% realism was certainly an astonishing and amazing invention by the Metal race.

However, it was created first for them, an intellectual race, who was void of any messy or negative emotions, not for the rest of the races in the universe.

This bid an important question.

Were humans, a species, who were controlled most of the time by their negative emotions, even ready to handle such an explicit sense of realism and freedom?

Based on the butchered, burnt, and cleaved corpses spread out on the floor, painting a bloody sight, the answer to that question wasn't pleasing to the ears in the slightest.

At least the earthlings clearly showed that they were still unready for it. Especially those hot-blooded juniors.