Chapter 462: The quarter finals  

The next day of the All kingdom tournament had started, and seven contestants were remaining. The old man Jones, Savana with the two daggers, the young blonde boy warrior, another ranged female contestant who used a crossbow, Roki from the empire, Sera from the empire and lastly, Ray from the Redwing kingdom.

Because of the odd amount of people, it meant one of them would be lucky enough to not have to fight today and would be able to move onto the next round. The seven of them were waiting in the trench patiently, while those who had lost the fight were able to head to the arena's VIP section to watch the match.

Harry was now up above, looking with Kyle and the rest.

"So Ray is going to go through this whole thing and win it right, the Empire can't just suddenly say no to the prizes they promised if we do?" Kyle asked, feeling confident about their chances.

"Yeah, as long as you don't bet on anyone we'll be fine," Martha said.

Suddenly, Kyle could feel this strange heat coming off from his right side, he didn't want to turn around for he feared it was a fire he wasn't going to be able to extinguish.

"You betted on me!" Harry shouted. "Why…why would you put your damn curse on me."

"Hey, don't tell me you're superstitious now, you don't actually believe in that stuff, right? Kyle asked.

Originally Harry would have said no, but with all the things happening to Avrion, the Redwings and Ray. It really did seem like the prophecy laid it out for him. If he didn't believe in superstitions, he had to claim not to believe in prophecies.

"Are you feeling okay?" Roy asked Sylvia, who was by his side. The whole time she hadn't said a word. Usually, she would have butted in with a line or two, interred, she was constantly looking around the arena as if she was trying to find someone.

"It's nothing, i'm just wondering if we have spent too much time here," Sylvia replied. "We've already really completed our goal. I think when Ray wins his next match, we should probably just pack up our things and go."

This was the first time Slyvia had made such a suggestion which made Roy think she was lying, but he hadn't known Slyvia wrong, it wasn't his place to interfere. She had offered him a place to stay, and he would help her out for that,

"This first match of the day will be between…" There was a slight pause while selecting the two names. "Roki and Vinny."

Vinny was the name of the young blonde boy, who had come together with Jones, the old man. Although he looked the youngest, but actually wasn't since Ray and Harry were, they just looked old for their age.

The young blonde boy was still very skilled. When they got to the centre of the arena, both Roki and Vinny pulled out their long swords.

"Are you not going to be using the blade you used yesterday?" Vinny asked, seeing it wasn't the one that beat Harry.

"The man last time was skilled enough to force me to use it. I believe you are not." Roki replied. Maybe to some it would seem like quite the rude comment, but Roki was just a blunt honest person.

"I'll make you eat your words," Vinny said.

The fight started with Vinny charging forward. He had a determined look on his face as if he wanted to prove something to the world, to everyone. During his time here, he could see it in all of their eyes.

They had judged him before even seeing his skills, but he was changing their opinions after his first fight. Unfortunately, the next three fights after him, had overshadowed his and completely forgotten about.

However, now he was fighting against Roki, he would definitely be remembered if he could beat him. When he reached a good distance, there was a strike downward from Vinny, but at the same time, Roki had done a perfect parry.

He deflected the sword with his and then swirled it around in a circle. The motion was so forceful, and the force was far stronger than Vinney imagined.

'What's happening?" Vinny thought as he felt a strange energy enter his wrist, Roki's Ki was entering his body and disrupting his own. Roki was not only skilful with the sword but had great control of Ki as well.

However, Harry in the last fight had never given him the chance to use such a thing.

The ki control Roki had done, caused Vinny to feel weak in his wrist, then with the swirling parry, he had flung his sword to the side and now there was a sword directly at his throat.

"Roki is the winner!"

The match was over, and it felt like it had only lasted five seconds. Vinny was disappointed, but there wasn't much he could do.

'That person is a strong one.' Ray thought. 'It would be good if there was some way we could take him back to the Redwings for the war against the shadow. Without angering the empire.'

This seemed hard, Roki was clearly quite important to the empire. Important enough to be elected as one of their candidates, but Ray just wanted Roy for himself.

"The next fight will be, Sera against Jones."

It was the old man who had punctured Ray several times. Against Sera the god of war, Jones being more skilful, Ray was expecting he could see more of Sera's skills.

When the two entered the stage, and the match had started, Jones put his spear down on the floor immaturity.

"I forfeit from the match," Jones said. Like that Sera was through to the semi-finals.

Jones was no fool, and none of the other contestants could blame him for quitting. All of them had respect for human life. They would try to knock out or get the other person to give up before resorting to killing them. But Sera was different, he would look for the kill immediately.

Although Jones was old, he wanted to live the rest of his years happily.

'I'm not a worthy opponent for you anyway' Jones thought as he looked at Ray.

These two monsters were the ones who should be fighting.

The announcer over onto the next fight calling out the next two names.

"A fight between Savana and Ray."

The two entered the stage, and just like with the last game, Savana didn't draw her daggers and lifted her hand. Declaring she would forfeit for the day.

Because this had happened twice in a row now, people from the crowd started to boo. They came here wanting to see a fight and the only thing they had seen was a five second match, and two people forfeit, and that was the end of the day.

There were no more matches, the rest were scheduled for tomorrow.

A brief pause was made, the day for the arena had ended far earlier than they had anticipated and people had paid money to watch the event. The organisers felt like they needed to do something to fill up at least sometime, so a suggestion was made and they were waiting to see if the last person who had yet to fight was willing to participate in their plan.

Fourtnutley, the participant had said yes. Onto the field the last person, the female crossbow user had entered waving her hand. This meant that she would be fighting today, but there was no opponent standing opposite her.

"Everyone please give this warrior your cheers for she has agreed to fight a king tier beast for your entertainment!" The announcer said.

The crowd cheered and were delighted about this.

She placed her bolt in her crossbow and was ready. The gate built into the side of the arena wall was opened, along with the lure to allow the beats to come onto the stage. She waited patiently for what was to come out of that large tunnel.

A minute had passed, and it seemed like the beast had yet to meet the arena, everyone was waiting in anticipation.

"Aww. Grgg." Slyvia started to moan out. She placed her hand on her eye patch and went on her knees.

"Slyvia, what's wrong, is it the shadow?" Martha asked.

"He's coming, someone is coming…" Slyvia said.

Finally, it looked like a figure could be seen walking out from the tunnel, but it was a human shape of all things. Humanoid beasts existed, but at the king tier level, they were very rare. When it finally stepped out into the light, its full body could be seen.

It looked like that of an ant but was standing on two human-like feet, while its many limbs were at the side of its body. And worse of all, a strange shadow was surrounding it.

"Isn't that what we saw at the research facility!" Roy shouted.

The beast that was beyond a king tier, infected by the shadow., An infected emperor tier, which would bring it up to the next level.

Ray seeing the beast, didn't know what to do, was this planned by the Emperor, were they in control of it?

"What is that?" Alexander asked, not recognising it as the beast that was planned for the event.

"We aren't sure, sir." Another one replied.

A blink, a single blink was all it took, for them to miss what had happened, but a human had been left rolling on the floor. One of the contestants for the all kingdom tournament was dead.

******

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