The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

Isaac was quite surprised. He thought this was going to be a competitive group, but all 3 fights ended quickly.

Eva dispatched her opponent without much suspense, rushing in from the start and putting them on the back foot until they could no longer endure her pressure.

Erik won with even less room for doubt. His opponent was crushed beneath his fists before 30 seconds could even elapse.

Until now, Isaac had fought in a conservative manner and keep some cards hidden. It seemed that Erik was taking the opposite approach: he was going all-out and eliminating his opponents in a flash. That way, people didn't have much time or data to analyse his fighting technique.

Erik and Eva's violent, entertaining styles made them instant crowd favourites. Both received loud cheers, whistles and shouts upon winning. Eva ignored the cheers with a cold expression, but Erik looked into the crowds and sneered. He even mouthed something rude at the fans, inciting several jeers and immediately reversing their opinion of him.

Having reversed the atmosphere, Erik smiled. He fed off their negative energy; it energised him.

However, other than various curses, Isaac also overheard people muttering.

"I hear that Erik Baldur is a pretty big deal. Apparently, the Aalto faction has already recruited him."

"What?! That's unheard of! One of the 4 great factions recruited a no-name Rank 1?"

"No-name? You must be living under a rock. Erik's made quite the name for himself in this very Ring of Life and Death. He's repeatedly fought above his cultivation stage and already become one of the ring's highest rated Rank 1 gladiators. I was here when he slew a Rank 2 wild beast! Granted, it was an Infantile Frost Sprite and there were some restrictions on it, but it was impressive nonetheless. He's easily the favourite for this year's tournament!"

The man's conversation partner whistled, then spoke lightly,

"You're right, that is impressive."

*************************

It didn't take long for group G to fight, and soon it was group H's turn.

Isaac was pitted against Élea Järvinen, a woman with an athletic build and a sharp, stern face. Her nose was thin and pointed, sticking out from her face quite conspicuously. It made Isaac recall the information Abbie had given him yesterday.

He held that information in his mind as he faced off against Élea in the ring. Before they began, the referee had a word,

"This bout will last until one of you is pushed out of the ring or your life is in danger, at which point I will save you and stop the fight. If the fight does not end within 5 minutes, I will stop it and it will end as a draw."

Few fights had gone the full 5 minute distance, and Isaac didn't plan on letting this drag so long either. He readied himself...

"On your marks. Begin!"

… and sprang forwards. Most of the snow had been kicked out of the ring during previous fights, so he ran towards Élea. The 2 met in the middle of the ring, and Isaac began with a ruthless swipe of his sword, immediately targeting the neck.

However, a watery blue helmet immediately appeared around Élea's head. She ducked slightly, allowing the sword to hit her helm rather than her unprotected neck. The surface of the water rippled violently, but it did not break. In fact, Isaac could see the water beginning to extend downwards, starting to cover Élea's neck as well.

He was familiar with this Anima: it was the Aqua Circlet Anima. However, he'd never expected Élea to possess it, since you could always see the Anima present as a circlet around the user's head, even when it wasn't in use. Élea had hidden it well using her long brown hair.

The watery layer of protection continued to expand, and Isaac knew it would eventually cover her entire torso. He wanted to strike right away, but he couldn't.

He backed off a bit and exhaled sharply. He'd been holding his breath when he approached Élea, so he took 2 deep breaths now and then ran towards her again.

The Aqua Circlet's protection already covered Élea's shoulders, so Isaac slashed towards her midriff. Élea leapt backwards to avoid it, but she was playing right into Isaac's hands.

He had already anticipated the direction she would dodge, so he continued his forwards momentum and struck with his the hilt of his sword. He targeted Élea's eye, which was not protected by the water helmet.

Élea reacted quickly, tilting her head so Isaac's strike bounced off helmet. However, Isaac's arm was now angled across her face, blocking her line of sight. She tried to back away, but she didn't see Isaac flick his wrist and spin his blade towards her stomach.

The tip was inches away from her when she saw it and threw herself backwards in desperation. She rolled to the floor, and Isaac wanted to pounce to finish her off, but he couldn't. A very very thin mist was beginning to hang in the air. In fact, Isaac wouldn't have noticed it if he didn't already suspect its existence.

Instead of pursuing Élea, Isaac had to back away again.

He got out of the mist's range, then took several gasping breaths. Abbie's information truly was crucial. She hadn't said anything about the Aqua Circlet Anima, but she had informed Isaac about Élea's Fatal Fog Anima, which allowed her to breath thin, poisonous gas out of her nose. This gas was high in water content, and hung like mist or fog wherever it was released.

Isaac had suspected Élea would have a healing Anima to prevent herself being poisoned, but the Aqua Circlet Anima did the job just as well. The part of its helmet which covered the mouth would only let gas through. It wouldn't let moisture through, and that protected Élea from her own Fatal Fog Anima, since it was actually the moisture in the fog which was poisonous.

After Isaac took some more breaths, he held his breath and rushed in again. Élea was already back on her feet and prepared to meet him. He feinted one way and struck the other, but Élea read him. She blocked the strike with her upper arm, which was now covered in water armour.

However, she didn't realise what was under her feet. Isaac had pushed her back towards one of the last patches of snow remaining on the ring. He quickly activated the Snowshoe Anima, and Élea had no time to react as he darted to her side.

She tried to spin, but Isaac's blade was already at the small of her back.

The only thing stopping the blade severing her spine was a thin layer of light – obviously the work of the referee.

"Winner: Isaac Dahl!"

As soon as Isaac heard this, he darted backwards and let out a gasp. He sucked in mouthfuls of crisp spring air, gazing calmly at Élea. She returned his gaze with a disappointed glance, then deactivated both her Anima with a sigh.

She walked over and held out a hand,

"Well fought."

Isaac shook it firmly,

"You too."

Then the pair stood ringside to watch the other fights. Well, the other fight – Hayden had already won his contest, surprisingly beating Dan Falkanger.

Isaac just turned in time to see the final fight end.

Eliott Gunn, a wiry man in a thick white top, raised his right arm confidently. His palm spewed out a powerful blast of wind and knocked his helpless opponent out of the ring.

After seeing that the fight was over, Isaac walked back to his seat along with Élea.

Just as they did so, the official spoke up. The participants, all thought he was going to announce the end of today's fighting, but this was not the case,

"We will now begin the second round of group battles! Those from group A, please come forwards..."

The official called out the group A matchups, and each contestant found their places in one of the rings. The crowd cheered raucously at the official's announcement, and many people started cheering the name of their favourite group A contestant.

Many people cheered for Camilla, and a few shouted Gerd's name. However, Isaac did not hear anybody supporting Johan.

That was quite ironic, as Isaac's vice-captain defeated the fan-favourite Camilla with relative ease. The crowd hissed and booed as the beautiful Camilla hobbled off the stage with an injured leg.

Meanwhile, Johan's face flushed with anger.

I've just put on a great performance for you, but you don't appreciate it! You even hiss and boo at me! He was infuriated and swore wildly at the crowd. This caused the hissing and jeering to grow dramatically louder.

Johan even got locked in an argument with a group of front row supporters. After an exchange of bickering and swearing, a referee had to pull him away and shout at him to go back to his seat. Johan reluctantly listened.

After that, nothing interesting happened until group F fought again. Of course, Isaac observed all the contestants and wrote about each of them in his notepad, but group F was the only one which truly interested him.

This time Erik was fighting Mari Møller, who'd won her first fight. Meanwhile, Eva was fighting the man who'd lost to Erik and the 2 other losers were also fighting each other.

Isaac paid little mind to the last fight and alternated his focus between the other 2. Once again, Erik won his fight very quickly. However, at least Mari put up a better fight than his last opponent. In order to eliminate her quickly, Erik had to stop suppressing the quality of his Qi. After he revealed his upper stage cultivation, he quickly crushed Mari's defences and injured her with a crushing blow to the stomach.

Isaac was surprised but not shocked. Even with a significant amount of resources – probably more than any other newcomer – he had barely reached upper stage. The fact that Erik could match his cultivation was mildly surprising, even though Erik had higher talent than him.

Oh well, everybody had their own methods of obtaining resources; it seemed that Erik's was risking his life in the Ring of Life and Death. At the end of the day what mattered was who fought better, not who had higher cultivation.

While Isaac was lost in thought, he nearly missed the conclusion of Eva's fight. Eva had managed to trick her opponent and, instead of trading blows like usual, had used her movement Anima to dodge a blow at the last moment. Then she'd delivered a potentially fatal blow in the opening left by her opponent, and the referee had to save him.

As for the fight between the 2 losers... it was extremely boring and conservative. The match dragged the whole 5 minutes and ended in a draw.

After 3 more fights, it was Isaac's turn to take the stage again. This time he was up against Daniel (or Dan) Falkanger, who'd been defeated by Hayden. He obviously didn't take the loss very well, and flames of fury were streaming from his round, bird-like eyes.

This showed his determination, but it also represented a weakness. Dan was desperate to win the fight, since it seemed unlikely somebody could lose twice and still reach the next stage.

He pressed Isaac hard right from the start of the fight, and Isaac was nearly forced to use his upper stage cultivation to beat him. However, he steeled his determination and preserved. He only used middle-level Qi to block the man's furious barrage of attacks.

After 2 minutes of precariously defending, Isaac managed to memorise some of Dan's attack patterns. Dan had the terrible habit of repeating certain patterns during his reckless onslaught. However, the next time he used this one, Isaac picked out an opening and decisively ended the fight with his very first attack.

Afterwards, Daniel was furious. He punched the ground hard, then shouted at the referee to say he hadn't been defeated and could continue to fight. He even rushed at Isaac to try and continue their battle, but something whizzed in front of him and embedded itself in the ground centimetres from his toes. This was the referee's way of warning Daniel not to take another step.

Isaac's strike would've certainly been a fatal one had the referee not blocked it. There was no doubt as to who had won the fight, and Dan knew this as well. He was just clutching at straws.

The Full Moon Sect was a prideful place, so the crowd disliked his shameful display. They began booing violently. After being stopped by the referee, Dan calmed down slightly and realised what a fool he was making of himself.

He sighed dispiritedly, knowing that he wouldn't make it out of the group after losing his first 2 matches. His head drooped and his eyes went slightly red – he'd harboured such high hopes for this tournament.

Now he cut a very forlorn figure as he walked back to the stands.

Meanwhile, Isaac glanced over at the other 2 rings. They were empty. Hayden and Élea had already won their fights. Seeing that, Isaac returned to the stands as well.