As Cerion and I slowly got closer and closer to the center, we came across more and more teams. Some of them we defeated, while others managed to get away before we could knock them out of the tournament.

Truthfully speaking, the area was busier than we had expected. Any sensible team that didn’t have the confidence to fight the best would just stay on the outskirts and wait, right?

At least, that made the most sense to me.

Instead, they were all heading in the same direction as us. Right to the middle of the forest.

“Why are they taking such a big risk?” I muttered to myself.

“Probably because they suspect something. Think about it. Until now, the different phases have been straightforward as far as gaining points goes. Now though, we’ve just received vague instructions to avoid the outskirts. Keep in mind that 90% of the teams don’t have enough points to qualify as one of the top 16. People are taking risks because they don’t have any other choice.” Cerion replied from behind me.

That did make sense. Teams strong enough to get into the top 16 wouldn’t be scared of the busier areas anyway, so if any team wanted to get out ahead and still qualify, they would have to get lucky and come across a weakened team to steal points from. Then, they would have to hide until the end of the tournament.

I broke off that thought and became alert as I heard something nearby. A rustle within the leaves of a nearby tree had been enough to draw my sword, though I couldn’t actually see anyone.

Cerion had apparently noticed something too, because he stood at attention as well.

For a few moments, we scanned our surroundings, looking for any possible opponents, but when, after five minutes, nothing had attacked us yet, we lowered our guards a little and went on our way. It might have been an animal, after all.

Half an hour later, we had arrived at a small clearing, which had a small grassy mound in the middle. On our way here, we had defeated another three unlucky teams that we had come across. By this point, not many would be left.

As we entered the clearing, a large oak tree on top of the mound came into view, which acted as the center of the forest. From our map, we could tell that the barrier had closed in by now, and there were only 15 minutes left in the tournament before we qualified.

The clearing was empty, unfortunately. At least, it seemed that way, until I noticed a hunched over figure laying down on the mound, sleeping. From his gold and white attire, I could tell it was Arcellus, leisurely resting.

“That’s him. The sun guy. Did you want to fight him two on one?” I asked Cerion.

“I definitely want to fight him, but I would rather do so in the tournament than here. Why don’t you fight him alone? I’ll intervene when he starts kicking the shit out of you.”

I grinned and smacked his shoulder.

“Fuck you too, Cerion.”

I jumped up using aura step, launching myself into the sky and landing with a loud bang in front of the mound, sending dirt flying.

Arcellus woke up and lifted himself groggily.

“Huh? Oh, it’s the darkness guy. Didn’t you run away last time?”

I winced, his description of my actions not exactly flattering.

“I wouldn’t put it like that, necessarily.” I denied.

“Then how would you put it?” he asked skeptically.

“I made a tactical retreat for the sake of gathering more points! Now, are you ready for round two, dumbass?”

Hearing that, a wide grin appeared on his face. He smacked a fist against his palm and laughed.

“Always.”

We both drew our swords and gathered mana, readying our attacks.

I knew from our previous encounter that in a straightforward clash, Arcellus would come out ahead. Then again, I wasn’t willing to use my trump card and apparate behind him, because I had to keep in mind that I might face him in the singles tournament.

Which is why, instead, I gathered another overloaded orb, throwing it at him before I even finished charging it.

Its purpose wasn’t to knock him out, but to distract him from using his own ranged skills. As the orb exploded, the shockwave sent us both back a few steps, breaking his concentration and dispelling his mana. I followed up my initiative with several sword arcs, but Arcellus barely managed to block each one with his sword skills and hastily gathered sun mana.

Again, we were in a stalemate.

Before we could continue our fight, a sickening voice came from the forest, interrupting us.

“I see that two seeded participants are fighting already. Care to let us join, too?”

The man that emerged from the treeline was in his twenties, it looked like. He was accompanied by the middle aged participant that had drawn my attention before the round started. Something about the way he spoke ticked me off.

Cerion walked up next to me, drawing his sword.

“That’s Karon, the oil guy. He’s an arrogant sod, but he’s powerful enough to be arrogant. I don’t know who that other guys is, though. His teammate?”

Before I could reply, Karon turned to Arcellus and made a proposal.

“You must be Peter Arcellus, the second son of count Arcellus. I see that you have been fighting this idiot from the witch hunters’ guild. Why don’t we work together? Us three against their two, they won’t stand a chance. We’ll split the points by each knocking out one of the two. Deal?”

He cackled like a maniac and was soon joined by Arcellus’s own laughter.

Taking his laughter as agreement, Karon became even more gleeful.

“I knew you would accept. I could tell you were a smart man, mr. Arcellus.”

Arcellus just laughed louder in response, before surprising us all with his actions. He created a large fireball above his palm and threw it at Karon’s team, instead of us.

Despite his surprise, apparent from the ghastly look on his face, Karon moved quickly and erected a barrier of oil around himself. His companion disappeared entirely, as if he became invisible.

It was too late, however. They hadn’t been on their guard, and paid the price. Arcellus’ sun hit their location and erupted into a massive, round ball of flame. It didn’t create a shockwave like most explosive skills did, but its heat was so immense that the nearby flora erupted into flames just from being nearby.

Even Cerion and I had to back up a bit.

After the flame abated, a torched Karon emerged from the dust, with multiple burn scars along his body, his armor torn apart.

“You fucking traitor! If I wasn’t resistant to heat, I would be dead right now!” he protested angrily, pointing at Arcellus.

He, for one, just shrugged.

“Did you think I needed to use such cowardly tactics to win? You insult my strength, commoner.” he growled, clearly unhappy with Karon’s proposal.

As he spoke, Karon’s teammate reappeared, virtually unharmed, in the same place he had disappeared.

We didn’t have time to ruminate on this, however, because a moment later, a cacophony of footsteps came from the forest.

Karon’s teammate leaned into the conversation and spoke.

“Sir, we’ve been surrounded.”

He turned around angrily, a vein popping out from his face.

“Surrounded by who? This is a doubles tournament! How stupid do you have to be to realise that we can’t be surrounded!”

“Multiple teams have decided to work together to take points from us, since the top three teams are here. This spontaneous alliance came into being not long ago. It consists of upwards of 15 teams.”

Hearing this, Karon only started to panic even more.

“And you’re telling me this now?!”

Cerion, ever the diplomat, stepped forward and shared a plan with us all.

“Listen, everybody. I would love nothing more than to fight you all and test my strength against you, but I would rather do so in the final round. Why don’t we organize a temporary cease-fire and compete to see which team can defeat the most contestants from this ‘alliance’? We can then settle our grudges in the arena, for all to see.”

Surprisingly, even Arcellus seemed to seriously consider accepting this proposal, possibly because Cerion worded it well and turned it into a competition for him.

After a while, he nodded.

“I accept, but only until these weaklings have been defeated.”

“Count us in, as well. If only because your proposal is well thought-out.”

Karon’s teammate and I nodded as well, showing our approval. Like that, our own temporary alliance had been created.

Not a moment too soon, either, because the next thing I saw was dozens of people pouring out of the forest, weapons drawn, greedy smirks on their faces.

As the wave of people closed in, I created my maelstrom and acted as defense, while Cerion had started to charge up his water cyclone skill. At this point, we had worked together enough to not need to discuss every strategy. We were going for eliminations. That meant big AOE skills.

Outside of the whirling barrier, I saw multiple small suns ignite, torching contestants that came too close, as well as flaming waves of oil, grasping onto people and trapping them.

Curiously, others started to randomly receive cuts to the nape, leading to instant elimination from the tournament. It was probably the invisible guy, showing frightening speed and dexterity.

Not to be outdone, Cerion waved at me to drop the barrier and sent a massive cyclone of water into a group of people, before redirecting it to catch more.

I launched myself into the thick of it and slashed at every contestant that approached me, careful to avoid ranged skills.

My sword arcs cut into groups of people sending them flying or just straight up eliminating them.

Despite all this carnage, it couldn’t be said that this would be an easy fight.

At least a third of our opponents transcended ‘strong’ tier 2’s and were tough enough to fight us directly.

Half a minute into my slaughter, one such contestant, a giant brute wielding a battle axe, covered in thick armor, approached me.

Instantly, I realized that he wouldn’t be so easy to defeat. With our first clash, I was pushed back, his superior physical strength overpowering my well-rounded stats.

He, too, was surprised by my strength. He had probably expected to send me flying, but he hadn’t considered that my class wasn’t just a jack of all trades. It gave excellent stats to each physical category.

A few of my sword arcs broke past his armor and left trails of blood running down his body, but the brute just became even stronger.

From the corner of my eye, I saw that Cerion was having trouble with his opponent, too. A witch casting strange spells that changed direction randomly and came from every angle.

“Cerion! I’m dealing with a berserker! Switch targets?” I called out, while sending more horizontal sword arcs at my opponents, wounding the weaker contestants.

A moment later, Cerion had agreed and I was facing the witch.

“Think you’ll have more luck than your partner, boy?” the witch asked in jest.

“I don’t need luck.” I replied, activating my [Dark blade maelstrom] and advancing towards her position.

She huffed at my display and sent a barrage of spells my way, but none were effective. Before they managed to breach my barrier, my overloaded mana would tear the spells apart; showcasing its unique property. Truly, I was a spellcaster’s worst nightmare.

Not two minutes later, the witch got overwhelmed and was defeated by a stray sword arc I sent her way. Her body was teleported out of the arena, allowing me to focus on gathering more points from the remaining opponents that were still standing.

At least, that’s what I wanted to do, before all of the fighting seemed to halt. People slowly dropped our sheathed their weapons with a sigh. Had they surrendered?

I looked around and saw Cerion stand over the limp body of the berserker. Both Karon, X and Arcellus were still standing, along with another five contestants that hadn’t been defeated yet.

Finally, I noticed a system notification that I had missed, which explained why everyone had stopped fighting.

Event notification: The final phase is over! Any further fighting will lead to a demerit in points.

The qualifying teams are: A3, A2, A9, B5, B2, C9, C6, A1, D5, D1, T6, F4, G9, H6, K5, A10

Top 16 leaderboard:

Team A3: 13750 points.

Team A2: 11100 points.

Team A9: 9850 points.

Team B5: 7950 points.

Team B2: 6450 points.

Team C9: 5100 points.

Team C6: 4700 points.

Team A1: 4150 points.

Team D5: 3150 points.

Team D1: 2850 points.

Team T6: 2700 points.

Team F4: 2650 points.

Team G9: 2550 points.

Team H6: 2550 points.

Team K5: 2300 points.

Team A10: 2150 points.

Event notification: You will be teleported to the arena shortly.

Then, everything went black, and I barely felt myself move, as if squeezed through a tight gap.

Before I knew it, I was standing back in the changing room of the arena.