The ground was stabbed as Salim tumbled forward dodging the attempt on his life. So she was invisible? Or she was using something to make herself unseeable to his eyes.

While she had all that she was still pretty damn loud on the stage. For a rogue with super invisibility powers, she is pretty shit at hiding.

Salim stood still and began listening for footsteps. He could hear her circling him the soft clicking of her shoes a dead give away.

He didn’t really have any range weapons to lash out at her with though which was the main issue. As long as she could attack with the dual daggers and retreat he didn’t have a proper way to get inside her guard without being mutilated or incredibly lucky.

Unless… Salim heard her begin to run towards him to attack his unprotected back.

At that moment Salim activated Impose Will spinning around and blasting her with a willpower attack. The will he was trying to impose really didn’t matter it was the other side effect he was hoping for.

So as the undefined will attack slammed into the unprepared woman she gasped and fell onto the floor of the stage.

She became visible at that moment as it was very clear she had passed out on the stage breathing heavily.

The judge removed her body and sent it off before Salim sat back down again awaiting the next fight. Salim saw how that man who he had spotted before with the longsword was already finished before his match, again, and Salim had no idea how the man had done it.

Salim had thought he finished his fight quickly but apparently not.

The other matches finished without much spectacle except for the wizard lady who seemed to have a difficult opponent only winning when she froze him and pushed his body off the stage. Would frozen body protect him from those skills? There really only was one way to find out…

With all the matches concluded a judge stepped forward and announced to the group. “Alright everyone since there is only a fourth of you left and we are kinda running out of time there is going to be a quick battle royal and due to the limited spots allowed only the last three qualify. Sorry guys.”

There was a groan that spread through the crowd as some realized how truly outmatched they were and unlikely to make the tournament opting out.

As the rest of the people opting out left the judges made everyone rest at least one body part on the wall kinda like dodgeball in P.E. class way back in middle school. Man, that game was the shit.

With a blaring horn that signified the beginning the match began. Everyone stared down each other until someone either lost their nerves or gathered up the courage to attack someone else.

Suddenly fights began erupting all over the arena some teaming up in groups of three trying to assure positions for themselves.

For the most part, Salim stayed back relaxing as he watched others fight. Occasionally someone would notice him and charge but with a quick dispatch of the one-two Impose Will and punch to the stomach was enough to take out any others at that point.

It had been at least a minute, already over half the people had been wiped out and the number was still counting down rapidly.

Salim spied at least half a dozen other people lying low waiting to strike. Some of the weak but most quite strong. There were some strong ones dueling out on the battlefield but that was just dumb due to the fact most teamed up on you and wore you down for your next fight.

Yea… better to sit back and- Woah.

Pushing off the wall and landing a couple of feet away Salim looked at his old position and saw the bigass ice spike which had impaled itself on the wall. It seemed as though the ice witch had decided to make a move on him.

Looking around him Salim spied her only a couple of yards away from a book in hand. She smiled deviously and Salim felt his passives begin to activate.

Salim sprinted towards the witch but as his increased his approach she seemed to not worry. Even as he dodged through her blasts of cold and ice spikes she seemed no worse for wear. Salim began to become concerned, what was she hiding?

Reaching her in a manner of seconds Salim slashed his blade down meeting cold… hard… ice? The body of the witch was replaced with a simple looking ice sculpture which began to sizzle.

Salim jumped back knowing what was coming next. The sculpture exploded into ice shards spraying over the arena and taking out some other fighting contestants. Salim was pretty much fine though being far enough back from the explosion that the shards only bruised him.

Still hurt like hell though. Really though?! Kamikaze clones? Be original...

Salim looking around rapidly spied the witch laughing with at him along with the swordsman he had seen earlier.

Getting kinda pissed Salim began to sprint over to them. On his way over the swordsman began to flicker almost as though he was on a bad tv screen. Disappearing from next to the witch the swordsman appeared next to Salim slamming his buckler down on him as Salim ran by.

The force that the swordsman was able to output from that simple strike was actually ridiculous and Salim fell floored into the ground. The swordsman put his foot on Salim’s back to keep him from getting up and waited for the witch to approach.

The witch finally getting over to them leaned down to look at Salim laughing. Salim used this time to quickly observe her.

Xia Zan Lv. 15

358/441 Hp

An ice elementalist from a far-off land who has traveled here for some unknown reason.

Oh, he could see her health… She had… He wasn’t going to do the math but it was less than half of his so she had a lot less vitality.

The man on the other hand… Salim craned his neck up to get a look.

Rolen Dorsanderal Lv. 15

724/735

A spellsword with a murky past…

Ah. That must be it. He was a spellsword so he used magic along with his sword probably illusion if that ice clone was to be believed and he was pretty damn good with it as well.

Now how could Salim escape...

Xia leaned down in front of his face and began to talk. “You have caused a lot of trouble for us yes you have~,” she said in a sing-song voice. “A person you fought was supposed to join us in the finals but you got them disqualified.”

With that, her voice turned into a snarl as she looked angry. Better not say anything stupid then. “It’s not my fault that she is bad at hiding,” Salim said pointedly. What had he been thinking? Oh well…

The ice bitch screamed in rage as she prepared to launch an ice spike into Salim’s head. Salim, however, had other ideas. Activating Cold Body and Touch of Frost for a minute second Salim shocked Rolen into letting go of the pressure he had on Salim’s body.

Pushing up and dispensing a pressure of willpower around him Salim nocked Rolen over and dived onto the witch preventing her from shooting the spell properly at him.

Seeming to have an incredibly weak strength stat she struggled trying to get away and with that Salim slammed her into a wall. Hearing the crunch and muffled scream Salim turned back to Rolen finding two of them. Both of them charged him speeding up too much faster than they should be able to.

A skill then Salim thought as he ran towards Rolen. He couldn’t win in a direct confrontation but he could try and cheese it a little.

Kicking dirt up into the two figures of Rolen Salim attempted to kick across both of them. Going straight through the first Rolen Salim collided with a powerful impact sending Rolen sprawling. Well… Maybe he could win in a direct confrontation…

He had underestimated himself only causing himself to get caught up and beat by the pair of witch and spellsword.

Rolen got up but right as Salim was ready to go back and kick his ass he bowed letting his sword rest on the ground. A symbol of surrender at his strength.

Salim kinda felt it was undeserved but nevertheless accepted it and walked away.

Resting on the side of the arena Salim waited for the competition to be over. Everyone had either surrendered or been knocked out by the time came around and they were left with Salim, Some person in a hood, and a rather strong barbarian.

Being given a ticket to perform in the tournament Salim walked out while contemplating what the witch bitch had said.

They had apparently been seeded to win the qualifiers which were not good and he had messed it all up. Now that he ruined whoever's plan they would either try to retaliate or entice them to their side.

Salim really hoped it was the later. He didn’t want to fight any more people today.

Looking for Vivyern in the spectator seats Salim spotted her sitting alone staring at an almost empty arena. Taking a seat beside her Salim looked at her.

Tears seemed to stream down her face as she turned to look at him. Salim didn’t feel anything through the bond except for a rather strange feeling of elation. He really did not know what to do in this scenario so he just put his arm over her shoulder as energy began to pass between them.

The energy shared at this point was so similar it was hard to tell which was his energy and which was hers. In this way, they experienced true empathy fully open to the others emotions, feelings, and meanings.

Salim didn’t really understand what was happening but just continued as it felt odd... but right.

Looking upwards evening was falling again and they were the only ones in the stands. But they stayed there staring at each other, the stars, and beyond.