"You know how it goes with tourneys, no? So many people you'd just want to cheer on, yet in the end, there can only be one winner." - Niko Drovac, resident of Sabaya and loyal fan of the tournament.

The rest of Cal's students and nieces won their first duels without much fanfare. None of them ran into each other, or a crowd favorite for that matter, and they entered the second round without issue.

Said second round also proceeded smoothly, with none of her students or nieces running into noteworthy opponents. Out of the five hundred and twelve who made it into the main tournament, only one hundred and twenty eight were left now. That number would be cut further in half on the third round.

For the third round, where there used to be eight stages to fight on, there were now only four larger stages, with the healers and adjudicators still positioned in the middle.

Out of those Cal taught, Sidonie ended up being the first to be eliminated from the tournament.

She had drawn an early lot, and faced Vitali for her third round match. The two of them were of the lightning affinity, which meant they were both somewhat resistant to it. Even with her skill and training, however, Sidonie failed to keep up against the therian man's far superior physique, as he ran circles around her without allowing her to catch him.

Sidonie yielded dejectedly after it became clear to her that she was not going to win her match.

Fheeri was similarly eliminated in the third round, as she faced Ognar for that match. Rather than fight a hopeless battle against him, the therian girl just sighed and calmly forfeited before the fight started.

Both of them were seated near Cal the next day, as they were watching the remaining sixty-four contestants fight their fourth round matches. The four stages from yesterday were still present, though they heard that from the fifth round, it would be reduced to two stages, then to one for the top sixteen onwards.

"Talk about luck of the draw," commented Azturia from beside Cal. Both of them were munching on some crispy seeds, harvested from a local tree that were then dried, shelled, roasted in an oven until they popped, and lightly spiced. "At this rate, those kids of yours got a real good chance to just sweep the top spots."

Cal nodded as she grabbed some more seeds and munched on them. The way the tournament was set up meant that Giselle and Ognar would only encounter each other in the semi-finals at the earliest, while Willa would only meet them in the finals.

Now that there were only two fights going on at a time, Cal took her time to watch a few contestants that caught her interest more closely. One was a goblin man who showed some true mastery over the pair of whips he used. He had lashed and scoured his opponent's flesh with them and won his previous fights handily.

His run of good luck had ended, though, and he knew it too, as he groaned mightily when he heard Willa's name being called as his next opponent. By now everyone who paid attention to the tournament knew she was a blood mage, and a powerful one at that.

Predictably enough, his whips failed to do much. His lashes were unable to scour Willa's reinforced flesh, even if she just stood there and took it for a bit. Then her arms moved and grabbed the whips before they struck her, and before the poor goblin could let go, she yanked him over to her.

The goblin man yielded right after Willa caught him in her arms with an amused grin.

Another contestant Cal was curious about was a small therian who wore a hooded cloak, though they took no pains in hiding their tail or digitigrade legs. That person had been very efficient in their fights, often dispatching their opponents within seconds with the pair of double-bladed daggers they used.

They faced a tougher fight in this round, their opponent a slender elvish man who twirled gracefully with a pair of sabers held in reverse grip in his hands. Their weapons clashed for a good ten minutes without any winner in sight.

Over the course of the fight, one of the elf's slashes tore the hood off the therian's head, revealing their features to the audience for the first time, and Cal heard a very audible noise as many in the audience took a sharp intake of breath at that moment.

"What's the reaction about?" she asked Azturia beside her, confused as to why the audience would react that way. The small therian was of a breed she was unfamiliar with, somewhat similar to Azar'ēl's half-breed daughter, feline in nature, but with even softer features.

"She's from a very rare breed of therian," said Azturia as she explained. "One that was at times considered just old wives' tales. It's very rare to see one out and about, pretty much anywhere. They mostly stick to a few isolated villages, away from society at large."

"Aww," interjected a voice from someone seated in the row behind them. "You didn't mention a thing about the urges we get? That urge to kill things and play with our prey? Kinda the reason we mostly stayed away from others, y'know?"

Cal turned around and saw that the two people seated besides the one that spoke just now were quietly watching the fight, pretending they had not heard a thing. The one who spoke was a therian female - Cal noticed from her voice - who also wore a hooded cloak, though she had raised her hood a bit.

The face underneath the hood was very similar to the therian fighting in the arena, other than the different fur color. Where the one in the arena had mostly white fur with patches of black and brown, the one behind Cal had pure, jet black fur and piercing green feline eyes, though Cal noticed that her paws had white fur.

"Should've guessed you'd be around when one of yours is out and about," said Kino as she turned around and faced the stranger as well. From the smile on her face Cal guessed that Kino knew the woman. "So, how's the boys doing, Kyara?"

"Being boys as usual, what else? Nerun's got the hots for one of the girls in the hunting team and been out hunting with her. Koru's got his two-dozenth whelp just before we left," said the therian woman nonchalantly, talking to Kino like old friends. "I see you've been bringing Radosh's pick around."

"Yep! We just came from Lucea and Addy's place last month," replied Kino cheerfully. "Oh right, I guess I should introduce you two. Cal, this is Kyara Yasen-zol, chieftess of the hidden tribes. Kyara, Celeysria Ambervale, the Blood Demon of Al-Shan."

"Kyara is the champion of ash. She's also the most recent champion, not counting that bard-boy you ran into," whispered Kino into Cal's ear after the introduction.