After the first day of the Great Spring Tournament, time continued to pass while, in the darkness, various forces moved in coordination.
Several kilometers from the city, Karlos and his group had settled in a remote village. The atmosphere there was deceptively peaceful.
The farmers worked diligently under the warm sun. Some herded the few cows toward makeshift stables, locking them behind patched fences. Others threw handfuls of feed to the pigs while repairing the nets on the fish ponds, reinforcing them against nocturnal predators.
Their faces showed satisfaction, not because of hope, but because of habit. It was the expression of those who had learned to smile.
Karlos continued until he came to a rather isolated house that was about to collapse. There, in an old apple tree, on one of its branches.
A decomposing corpse swung gently, hanging by the neck. The torso was bloated, covered in burst sores and greenish flesh, while swarms of flies buzzed like a living cloud around it.
High in the sky, a group of red-winged vultures circled patiently, waiting for the intruders to leave the scene so they could descend and feast.
Karlos frowned slightly and brought his sleeve up to his face. The stench was thick, as if death had rotted in layers.
The information was correct. He thought coldly.
According to what the young man with the coin mask had revealed, a wild beast of Viscount rank was lurking nearby.
So they continued after verifying the information given by the young man.
As you entered the forest, the dampness of the ground absorbed the rustling of the leaves, and the wind barely stirred the branches. With each step, the signs became more evident: hoofprints pressed deep into the ground, broken branches, traces of mud. It wasn’t one or two. It was a herd.
The further they went, the clearer the signs became. Until they saw them.
Dozens of wild boars gathered in the bushes, rolling in the mud, grunting under their curved tusks. Aggressive, unpredictable beasts.
A slight, almost imperceptible smile appeared on Karlos’ lips. Not out of excitement, but out of confirmation. Everything fit together.
He raised two fingers.
His companions understood immediately.
Like well-trained shadows, they dispersed without a word.
The sun rose once again over the eastern slope of Kiran Mountain, bathing the sky in a pale glow.
It was the second day of the Grand Spring Tournament.
With dawn came the news: several villages had been destroyed during the night, victims of the erratic migrations of wild beasts. Crops destroyed. Houses reduced to rubble. Corpses were scattered among the mud and ash.
But those words were easily forgotten.
The news was quickly overshadowed by the excitement of the tournament, which was in full swing.
On the second day, the coliseum was filled once again, as the days went by and fewer participants remained, each one stronger than the last.
In his waiting room, Kael read the news with brief interest about the villages destroyed the night before. Several disappearances were also mentioned.
So they’ve started to move... they’re very effective. I wonder how the clan’s high command is doing right now?
His gaze returned to the foggy screen showing the fighting. Today, he wasn’t going to fight last like he did on the first day; today, he was fighting twentieth, so there would be no delay in entering the arena for his fight.
"Son, your opponent seems to be quite strong. Do you have a strategy?" commented Alessia, who was also in the waiting room, reading information about Kael’s opponent.
Looking away from the screen, Kael glanced at his mother, who was very excited to see him fight, as she had been unable to attend yesterday due to business matters.
"Don’t worry, Mother. I won’t lose." His voice sounded calm, as always. He looked at the board displaying the fights.
There, if he won this fight, the next one would be against his older sister, Jenna. In addition, he was already at the peak of rank 9. He planned to spend a large amount of mana stones tonight to reach rank 8 that very day.
He couldn’t stay in rank 9 when things were about to get dangerous, with everything he had planned.
Time continued to pass. While he was chatting with his mother, it was time for his battle.
The presenter wasted no time and began to cheer on the audience.
[Ladies and gentlemen, get ready to scream! Because what we witnessed yesterday wasn’t just a fight... it was a DEMOLITION! In a matter of minutes, with chilling coldness and lethal precision... KAEL MEDICI NOT ONLY WON, BUT LEFT EVERYONE SPEECHLESS!]
Kael, standing on the combat platform, looked at his opponent. All the noise around him didn’t affect him in the slightest.
But his opponent looked around in surprise at all the attention this fight was receiving.
Jonas looked at Kael without saying a word, and cold sweat began to run down his forehead. But he hadn’t come to lose; he was rank 9, Peak Level, and had obtained an aura cultivation technique from his father.
Jonas inhaled deeply, his chest expanding as he circulated his mana essence toward his dantian. In an instant, his energy burst forth like a tidal wave: a navy blue aura enveloped him, flowing intensely. Around him, the ground vibrated slightly.
With explosive momentum, his feet struck the platform, and in just five strides, he closed the distance. His sword was covered in an aura that took the form of a serpentine dragon writhing in the air around the blade, made of ethereal liquid, with eyes that glowed like burning sapphires.
The thrust was like a wave crashing onto the shore.
But Kael didn’t flinch.
His gaze remained calm, unchanging.
At the last moment, his body was enveloped in a scarlet aura. Around him, the air became thick, and cherry blossom petals began to fall silently, floating without wind.
With a single movement of his elegant sword, slow, almost lazy, Kael traced a downward arc. The blade left a trail of petals in its wake, and in the next instant, the dragon was split cleanly in half, as if it had been made of glass.
The image of the sea beast dissolved, and in its place, a giant cherry blossom, as if made of blood, appeared in the air, open, with its center right in the path of the cut.
The flower remained suspended for a second, then slowly split in half... as if it too had been cut by the blade.
For a moment, not even the audience shouted. Only when the petals vanished, like scarlet dust floating in the air, did the roar of the coliseum return.
The audience erupted in a roar of amazement. The first exchange had been devastating, but everyone knew this was only the prelude.
Jonas landed on his feet, panting slightly, but his eyes burned with determination.
The blue aura covered his sword again, but this time with a fluid movement. It was no longer a fixed dragon, but a stream that swirled and danced like living water. His body moved without pause, spinning, twirling, sliding across the platform like a whirlwind.
Each turn, a current was dragged.
Kael took a step back. Then another. His movements were minimal, as if his body knew exactly how much energy to use. With precision, he blocked each attack with the edge of his sword, his footsteps floating between the cracks in the ground, his aura expanding in fine lines.
The platform began to crack under the intensity of the collisions. Blue aura against scarlet red.
Movement against control.
The spectators held their breath. They didn’t know who was winning.