(Author: Hello all! Quick reminder, soul bound mythic beasts and their masters communicate to each other mentally. Mythic beasts can also talk mentally to other mythic beasts but only the human who soul binds a mythic beast is able to mentally communicate to that mythic beast only. (Similar to telepathy). For all those concerned with the constant growth, it stops here. Now that the qi meat is all gone (save for the imoogi meat hidden in Liao's space ring), the qi cultivation will increase as fast (or slow) as it was meant to based on the practitioner's latent talent and hard work. Mythic beasts growth in qi cultivation is unknown and that is why Marcus said to let them train on their own. After all the qi meat: Liao is at fifth stage Spirit Knight(accidentally put it at Spirit Sage and made the correction), Ling and Sakura are at first stage Spirit Sage, and Richard and Cao are at the second stage of Spirit Sage qi cultivation. So far people like my long posts, a good thing as I don't have to limit my writing as breaking up a chapter requires some words to ease the transition. As far as talismans are concerned, sealing talismans work if the mythic beast is in a weakened state and is different from regular talismans which will be explained later in the story. In this chapter, the first year tournament between the five parties undergoes "minor" changes in the line up. Hope you enjoy the chapter.)

Chapter 10: Unexpected Contestants

"I got some bad news," Marcus groaned as Liao and the others were eating "the last" of the meat Liao had collected for breakfast. Some pancakes, eggs, dumplings, bacon, and a variety of drinks were also available for them to eat as a large mat was placed on the clearing for breakfast. The mythic beasts were also with their masters, enjoying the meat raw and tried not spraying the blood by the order of their masters. If it wasn't for the raw meat being eaten and a small pile of corpses present in the clearing, a passerby might have thought the Knight Destroyers were enjoying an early picnic.

"Whaf iz it?" Cao said, his mouth full of the qi meat and drank a glass of orange juice to force it down. "Is it about the tournament?"

"I might have done something," Marcus groaned as he sat down and grabbed a plate of pancakes, his qi stage too high to absorb the qi from the monster meat. "We had guests from other schools last night after you guys ate dinner. The meeting was at midnight to convene in secrecy and all the teachers of the five tiers were in attendance. I might have been bragging to the other four about how great you were and went a little too far."

"You told them our weapons and strategy?" Liao asked, knowing that information about tournament contestants' qi cultivation levels, roles, and attributes were public knowledge.

"You offended the guests from the other schools," Richard guessed, Sakura nodding as she was about to say the same thing.

"Yeah, that might have happened," Marcus laughed weakly. "I might have claimed that the Knight Destroyers were the best first year party in Roshalt."

"And the guests didn't take kindly to those words," Ling finished.

"Yeah so the tournament will take place tomorrow instead of today as first year parties from other schools are coming," Marcus continued, his face slightly turning red. "The Twin Star Academy's annual newcomer tournament has become the Roshalt Battle Extravaganza and will now take place in the academy's coliseum instead of one of the training grounds. There will be nobles and important people from Roshalt and some other countries and they will watch you all fight."

"WHAT!" Liao and the others shouted, clearly did not expecting the news to be that bad.

"Relax," Marcus said and motioned them to sit down. "Only the top two teams from each academy will be participating. As most of you reached Spirit Sage, you are automatically in. There's also the fact that I'm responsible for all this. The other team is known as the Blazing Tigers. They have two third stage Spirit Sages. One of them is the leader, Bull Warner, who uses fire, wind, and earth qi. The other is their strategist, Guan Xu, who uses steel and fire qi."

Hearing about steel qi intrigued the others, but they were all shocked that Bull was as strong as he had the power to back it up. The others were wondering what mythic beast Bull soul bound to have three qi elements while Liao's mood soured on hearing Guan Xu's name and the new participants. His target was a third stage Spirit Sage so he had hoped to not reveal his blade techniques as there were originally only five parties in the tournament and fewer rounds.

"There are a total of thirty two teams from sixteen different schools, including us, in this tournament," Marcus continued. "That means five rounds to declare a winner. Your first opponent is a party called the Black Terror Eagles. Each of the party members are at first stage Spirit Sage, their leader being one qi cultivation higher at the second stage and one of their main attackers. They run a basic three offense and two defense party formation. Simple, yet very effective. They all have qi affinities for darkness and wind. I leave it to you to figure out the rest. You don't need to know their names or where they come from. Just beat them up and don't reveal your true strength. They know what roles you play and what qi you use, but you don't need to keep to those roles or use all your different types of qi. Keep your future competition guessing. They are all the top two teams across all of Roshalt's top academies. Our school is ranked fourth in the nation. There is no other option than complete victory as our academy is the host!"

"When do we fight the Blazing Tigers?" Cao asked as their master was leaving.

"The third round if they make it," Marcus answered and disappeared from view.

"I can't wait to get my hands on that bastard," Cao snarled.

"We need to prioritize our real opponents first," Liao warned and the others gave him their attention.

"They run a three-two formation, focusing on offense and defense. They also have two of the most mobile and versatile elements: darkness and wind. Wind will make them agile while they can try to block our vision and use sneak attacks with darkness. I can honestly say this type of party is our weakness," Liao sighed.

"So Sakura and Ling are our best bets in this fight?" Richard asked as Sakura specialized with wind and healing with her water qi while Ling was their most agile fighter with light and water.

"Cao may be able to use the wind element, but he uses wind to protect himself while he overpowers his enemies with his fire qi," Liao nodded. "Wind qi is the exact opposite of your earth and wood. I may have as much qi as a Spirit Lord, but my power is still at the Spirit Knight stage. I could only do some minor damage if I try to catch up to them by focusing lightning qi on my feet. I developed a lightning qi technique known as Lightning Shadow Steps so I can move faster than them as lightning is faster than wind. Ling uses light qi so she is the fastest of us."

Ling nodded and said, "I am confident in my speed and proficiency with a rapier. So how will we fight in this battle?"

"Good point," Sakura said. "Our tank is too slow."

"Cao can still fight the two defensive party members," Richard interrupted. He is at the second stage Spirit Sage so he should be able to take care of them on his own as the only second stage is part of their three-man offensive position."

"Aw yeah," Cao said, punching the air. "Two people just for me! Leave them to me guys!"

"Then our main problem lies with the three members on offense," Liao said. "Ling, you will focus on attacking the leader with Richard. Richard might not be able to move very fast but he can alter the stage with his earth qi just like he made a gorge back at the mountain range. Richard, you will try to seal his movements as soon as Ling isolates him. As the leader is in the attack formation, he must be one of those types of people who leads the charge, a foolish move. The general should be at the back directing the troops to have them fight more efficiently as he has a clear view of the battlefield."

"Then you and I will deal with the other two?" Sakura asked.

"Yes," Liao nodded. "As soon as you defeat your opponent, help Richard and Ling defeat the leader. I'll be fine on my own. The other parties in this tournament do not know you can use healing techniques so don't use them. I won't be using my blade either as the swings are too slow. Instead I'll use my Frost Claw technique and create dragon claws of ice on my hands. Attacking with claws is easier to attack my opponents at higher speeds."

Liao also did not want to use his destruction type qi and reveal his baleful blade aura to the competition until he fought Guan Xu. He didn't know if he could beat him and needed every trump card he could get.

"Speaking of which, you never showed us what it looked like?" Cao grinned. Liao had always trained with his blade in secret while the others would spare and test each others stances and weaknesses."

Liao sighed and took out Violet Bone Claw. He did not want to startle them with his blade aura when he fought Guan Xu and decided to expose it. He would keep knowledge of the Sundered Heaven Force to himself and claim that he just developed an aura technique on his own.

Violet Bone Claw was made of a meteorite and the grip was made from a mythic tiger. The others also noticed the crescent shaped blade of the weapon had nine bones on the back of the blade. They were shocked at seeing spirit beasts bones but seeing the sword emit an aura of destruction qi made them shiver in fear.

"This is a blade aura technique I developed. Perfecting this technique allowed me to cultivate my destruction qi more effectively and finally break to the fifth stage of Spirit Knight qi cultivation," Liao said. "Those within five feet of the blade will feel fear. This particular effect assists me in striking at my foe as blade styles focus more on power than speed. I didn't want to startle you guys later in the tournament so I thought it was best to show it to you now."

"Dang bro," Cao shook his head in wonder. "No wonder it took you so long to break the bottleneck to the fifth stage. Destruction qi is way different than other qi. That and you have four types of qi so it's already hard enough to cultivate your qi. It's too bad the qi meat only increased the amount of qi you can use instead of helping you get more powerful."

The others agreed with Cao as Liao put Violet Bone Claw away. Liao was now the weakest of them, but he had the same amount of qi as a Spirit Lord. The longer a fight, the better the advantage for him if he wasn't beaten first.

The five of them began practicing their formation for the fight the next day and did not bother to leave the training field to meet the parties of the other academies. To most people, this could be seen as arrogance, but Liao wanted them to perfect their teamwork and get used to their roles for the fight.

The next day, the coliseum was buzzing with excitement as this was the biggest tournament for first years and many important people and nobles from across Roshalt and a few nations would be attending. This was an opportunity to make some allies and discover potential recruits. As the sixty four teams arrived in the coliseum, Liao saw General Zhao grinning broadly. Each of the parties had to create their own uniforms and official banner and emblem. Since the beginning of the school year, masters of the first year parties had to create the uniforms and emblem of their party and submit them in time for the tournament. They would then be revealed on stage during the tournament.

The night before, Marcus had brought them the uniforms and banner he had planned to display at the tournament. Liao had hoped that Marcus would change the emblem upon the news of academies all over Roshalt participating, but he didn't. At least the color of the uniform was crimson and the uniforms weren't bad. He didn't like his uniform as it was less practical compared to the others.

As Cao was the tank and main striker of the group, he wore heavy cavalry armor as he had a muscular built and would be wielding a halberd into battle. Halberds were two handed weapons so Cao needed better armor to protect himself in case a faster opponent strikes between his swings. Both Ling and Sakura wore leather armor made from some of the skins of the mythic beasts Liao had killed. Their armor was both elegant, sturdy, and light. Richard mainly focused on defense and was given light armor made from rare metals and fur as Marcus wanted Richard to appear like a noble on the battlefield as Richard could defend himself with earth qi and heal himself with the rare wood qi.

Liao was kind of embarrassed with appearance as he lacked armor compared to the others. Marcus said that the leader had to be the most elegant and dominating of the party.

Thus Liao wore a simple crimson robe on his chest that revealed his left shoulder and left arm, revealing the bone imoogi tattoo on his body as the tattoo was wrapped around his shoulder and could be seen on the upper left part of his chest and behind the left shoulder plate on his back. He also wore the a slightly larger version of the gauntlets he wore as part of his military uniform as he had gotten more muscle. As for his lower body armor, it was made of split, crimson leather robes that covered the armor he wore on his legs which were made from rare metals and shoes that only a noble could afford to wear. In short, he looked like a rich monk that rebelled his faith.

Liao tried to avoid the audience's stares and reactions, but could hear General Zhao roar in approval. The others knew he didn't like his uniform revealing his tattoo and stared up at the banner. The banner was of a mythic lion turtle with its paws on top of an imoogi and a phoenix with its wings spread out behind the lion turtle. The emblem just had too much happening and would have been better if there were only two mythic beasts. Their master clearly wanted to boast that his students tamed those monsters and they all felt embarrassed as their mythic beasts accompanied their master in the benches near the stage where their masters would coach them and give them advice. Voices of surprise and envy resonated across the coliseum.

"Look at that flag! Did they really tame them?"

"Look over there! That's their master who started all this! You can see the mythic beasts with him."

"That boy over there, is he trying to show off his tattoo?"

"I think it looks awesome! I want a tattoo now."

"Those two girls in the party look cute. They are sure to turn into real beauties when they are older."

"I think the guy in the cavalry armor looks amazing."

"You think anyone in shiny armor is amazing."

"Attention please!" an official from Twin Star Academy shouted. "Today is the first round of the Roshalt Battle Extravaganza!. This tournament features the top two teams of each academy's first year students. Sixteen of the top academies as well as officials and nobles from across Roshalt and other nations are here with us today. No mythic beasts are allowed to participate but feel free to admire the mythic beasts of the students here at Twin Star Academy. Part of our admission process requires soul binding a mythic beast!"

Cries of admiration could be heard from the crowd. The other academies anticipated this as the official would be biased in promoting Twin Star Academy. However, they were assured that the fights were impartial and did not care. The bigger the praise, the bigger the losses should Twin Star Academy's students fail.

"Without further ado, let's begin the first fight of the tournament. The Knight Destroyers versus the Black Terror Eagles," the official shouted. "Those participating remain on the stage. The rest of the participants are to wait over by their respective coaches by their assigned benches."

"Good luck," Marcus said as he got up from the bench and retrieved their banner. "Show them that I didn't just boast about how strong you were."

"Yes master," the Knight Destroyers bowed and watched their master leave the stage before facing their opponents. They had made all the preparations they could. All that was left was to carry out their plan and win.

Chapter 9: Baleful Blade Aura MAIN PAGE Chapter 11: The Tournament's Start