Truthful Transmigration

Each battle in the Ascending Soul Phase division took the entire arena for the duration. Nobody would want to miss a single battle, and the arena’s defensive formations couldn’t stand up to more than one pair at a time.

After Renato fought against Noemi came a battle between Steve and Deirdre. Some allowances could be made to avoid those of the same sect or clan fighting in the first round, but it was pretty much inevitable some from their alliance would battle.

Based on prior experience, John was certain Steve would come out ahead. He had not only advanced before Deirdre, but was a natural combatant.

The battlefield was earth dominant, with few obstructions. The fire cultivator opened by creating a huge pillar of blue flames that rose out of the ground. Deirdre dodged, of course, but it followed her around as a spinning whirlwind.

It never managed to catch her. The most obvious improvement in Deirdre’s abilities after advancing to the Ascending Soul Phase was her speed. John had managed to spar with her after her advancement, and somehow she’d improved even further in the short time in between then and the tournament.

Instead of keeping her distance, she pressed closer to Steve. John thought that was a terrible idea, since Steve was actually specialized in close combat. But somehow, she managed to keep him on the defensive, her glaive-staff twirling constantly. Every targeted attack she dodged, wings of light appearing behind her for an instant in some cases. When Steve simply created superheated flames all around himself, Deirdre cut her way through a small portion around her.

She wouldn’t last long in such a position, but she merely had to outlast her opponent. When Steve let up for a single moment as he began to overheat, Deirdre shoved forward with her staff parallel to the ground, an attack Steve had little way to dodge but one that wasn’t particularly dangerous either. It simply knocked him back through his own fire tornado.

In an instant, he dispersed the energy… but that was one more moment where he wasn’t cooling down, and Deirdre fired a beam of light from her staff as he was distracted. It struck him directly in the head, with enough power for the formations to activate. He just stood there breathing heavily for a few moments.

“Nice,” he said finally. “You win.”

-----

Yustina battled against Presha in a field favoring the latter. It was one of the few arrangements they had that used the Sky Island’s setup, vaguely. John had snagged a couple crystals from the Crystal Sea for this very purpose, though they didn’t create platforms that floated quite so gracefully. There was probably some technique they had, but at the moment the arena was supplementing it with more power.

The air cultivator was a terrifying sight in battle, able to make use of wind, lightning, and the power of vacuum. With her sling, she could chase Yustina all around the arena without taking a step away from her own platform. For the majority of the battle it appeared as if she were going to win, with Yustina only managing to launch a small number of flaming attacks that were brushed away by the wind.

That was probably what Yustina intended Presha to believe, but John saw something different. The fire cultivator was constantly using her energy, but produced no fire that he could see. When Presha suddenly collapsed, a good portion of the audience was surprised. Even some of the other Ascending Soul Phase cultivators, though Presha was in the most difficult position as she couldn’t watch the battlefield from afar.

Yustina had, instead of creating fire, mainly ratcheted up the temperature. Presha would have noticed that, of course, but she kept most of that away from Presha. Her various flame attacks were mostly a distraction, forcing Presha to keep up her defenses. That was the ultimate weakness, as she focused too much on absolute defense and forgot she needed to breathe. Meanwhile, Yustina’s heat infiltrated through the platform she was standing on, slowly affecting the air around her.

Yustina had shown great ability in manipulating flames like water, due to her previous life, but John was quite pleased to see she managed a small manipulation of air as well. He thought she might have used her fire element to use up the oxygen without any visible combustion, though from a distance he wasn’t entirely certain. Either way, Presha didn’t realize she was low on breathable air until it was too late, since she should have had plenty.

John doubted the air cultivator would ever suffer a similar loss again, but for this one battle she was out.

-----

Ursel was placed against Yonit. As earth and water cultivators, the darkness element battlefield they met in was theoretically neutral. It was a design that had been used before in previous tournaments, a maze that significantly dulled all senses- focusing on spiritual energy senses. Obviously the specific layout was different for every match it appeared in.

Yonit still had the obvious advantage in cultivation, with Ursel having moved up from the Consolidated Soul Phase tournament. However, he still took the battle entirely seriously.

That was for the best, as it saved him from an embarrassing defeat. John watched as the two cultivators turned a corner at the same time, with Ursel already swinging her weapon. How she had picked him out wasn’t entirely clear, but perhaps her senses were simply strong enough to pierce the darkness.

A bubble of water cushioned the blow, but Yonit still flew backwards into one of the walls, the second impact negated by the same bubble wrapping behind him. He immediately responded to Ursel’s following charge with a surge of water, a wave that froze around her as it passed, creating ice several centimeters thick.

He dissolved a portion of the ice around Ursel’s shoulder as he stabbed where she was relatively less armored. The thinner ice allowed Ursel to snap her arm down and prevent the blow from driving deeper, and the spear merely grazed her skin- which wouldn’t cause damage of any significant note.

Ursel then used her freed arm to smash against her chest, shattering the ice there. A few moments later she was moving, but Yonit had retreated into the maze. She followed a trail of water he left behind, but was unable to spot him propped between the walls of the maze above her.

He dropped down and froze her again, except for her head. He gripped her helmet, yanking it off. Of course, her head was probably nearly as durable as Mountain Steel still, but that was better for him than her actual helmet.

Yonit continued with his skirmisher tactics, never facing Ursel directly. It was almost enough.

John figured out how Ursel had sensed Yonit the first time when she began stomping around the maze. She would reveal her own presence like that but… he imagined she could make out something from the vibrations in the earth.

Yet Yonit still got the drop on her, freezing her in place and launching an attack at the back of her neck. At which point Ursel spun around and hit him directly in the side, demonstrating that the thick ice had never actually stopped her to begin with. Ursel’s blow followed through, slamming Yonit into the wall and triggering the arena to protect him from the blow.

And thus it was that Ursel got her first victory.

-----

The tournament didn’t have a perfect match in the number of participants, and with Sitora and Abritt not taking part in the first round due to their greater cultivations Charlotte managed to pass onto the second round without a battle. John knew the fire cultivator wasn’t weak, but neither were any of the other opponents. She’d have to prove herself in the second round. The final individual advancing to the second round was Mandlen of the Indestructible Kapok Grove, having defeated Venera of the Third Peak. He at least showed the name of his sect wasn’t just for show.

The second round took place the following day, and Ursel ended up in the first match against Deirdre. John knew that it would be difficult for her to land a blow on the light cultivator… but he honestly had trouble predicting the outcome of the match. Her armor would make Deirdre’s life much more difficult.

The two of them had little advantage or disadvantage from the windy arena though it slightly affected Deirdre’s flow, slowing her sometimes and speeding her along others.

Deirdre flashed around Ursel, her blades spinning but never causing real damage. Ursel never left any of her joints open long enough, and her body beneath was durable on its own. The difference in cultivation was a single rank. An important one, certainly, but Ursel’s armor was very good and she had more power than her cultivation displayed.

It all came down to one important move. Ursel was never able to strike Deirdre, her opponent moving faster than her stone club could catch up. Even ricocheting it off the ground with greater speed never caught her. But Ursel made a particularly reckless swipe, forcing Deirdre to dodge to one side. She’d simply missed that Ursel was wielding the heavy club in a single hand. Even with spiritual energy supporting her, one would have expected it to require her full strength.

Ursel’s arm snapped out, catching only the slightest fold of Deirdre’s sleeve. Deirdre instantly recognized the issue, and attempted to sever the cloth protecting her own arm. However, Ursel’s energy pushed in and solidified it. She yanked Deirdre towards her as she dropped her stone club, and once she got an arm wrapped around Deirdre the match was effectively over.

Unable to use her weapon, Deirdre had to resort to direct attacks on Ursel’s eyes through the small gaps in her helmet- she had the luxury to target that because her body was effectively no longer in her control and nothing she could do would change that. The earth cultivator’s eyelids plus her own energy held her long enough to turn Deirdre into a pretzel and place her hands on either side of Deirdre’s head.

“I surrender,” Deirdre said clearly.

Ursel pulled away, rubbing her eyes. “You know, I might not have been able to snap your neck before you drilled into my brain.”

Deirdre shrugged. “I don’t think that chance was good enough. And your ability to fight with such confidence is worthy of the victory.”

Two victories for Ursel. That was the sort of thing that might go down in history.

-----

Since the tournament brackets were only partially curated, what was potentially the most exciting match came rather suddenly. Optimally it would have been the final match of the tournament, but Renato versus Abritt came suddenly in the second round.

The battlefield even favored Renato. That was slightly unfortunate because Abritt could use it as an excuse if she lost. Then again, she was also partially an earth cultivator so the great stone pillars weren’t entirely to her disadvantage either.

Abritt immediately flew to the top of one. Renato then immediately shattered its base. As it fell apart, the old woman remained in flight, a great cyclone appearing around her and driving chunks of broken rock into Renato.

A moment later, Renato wrapped chains of earth element around Abritt, pulling her to the ground. But instead of trying to resist, she simply let herself drop. In a sudden flash, a trickle of blood went down Renato’s forehead.

At least he had forced Abritt to reveal her weapons. Though perhaps not her only weapons. Either way, the claws she held on her hands had briefly appeared from under her sleeves.

Being still four ranks above Renato, it was the late Ascending Soul Phase versus the early Ascending Soul Phase. She fought without fear, even in what should have been a disadvantageous position.

She didn’t even dodge Renato’s attacks, letting his club strike her. The sounds of the impact rang throughout the arena, as he clearly struck energy that was of similar or greater hardness to his own.

Her own attacks were razor focused to cut through Renato’s defenses, and though it took several minutes of constant battle, he was worn down and eventually had to accept his loss as blades poked through his visor to stop just before his eye- though not because of mercy, but instead the formations stopping the attack from going any further.

John furrowed his brow. He’d hoped for Renato to win. Obviously he’d trained for the same battle himself, but watching her fight he couldn’t say that he could win, even with more of her abilities revealed. He wondered what she still had in reserve.