Liam once again entered his temporary room and renewed his clothes, before healing his wounds and replenishing his ‘Ora’ reserves.
The Oni mask he wore was now completely charred – turning black and even more intimidating – but thankfully, the wooden material held on.
Before long, the giant ‘TV’ turned on, displaying the remaining brackets with the contenders hidden by a question mark.
From 12 players, only 6 remained.
Liam would need to fight twice more to seize victory… but he couldn’t hide his true prowess for much longer.
Among the participants he saw fight, there were a few that could really force him to go all out – mainly the ‘Ogre’, the ‘Ace’, and ‘Bullet’.
The rapidly changing brackets started to interchange with a sharp sound effect, gradually settling in one place.
After a dramatic, tense pause, the question marks were unveiled, revealing who would fight each other in the semi-finals.
Liam grinned ear-to-ear.
William [Blood Demon] vs Elsa Royce [Golden Empress].
///
“You can’t let her fight that… devil child!” Elsa’s mother, Nicky, desperately begged Adrian.
Adrian grimaced, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead.
Even he knew the limits of his arrogance and pride. Elsa was not powerful… compared to Liam, that is.
His grimace grew deeper, mind throbbing for anything he could use.
Lisa and Richard shot him a piercing glare, like two lions intimidating a housecat.
The tournament was equally organized by the major cities – any decision that regarded it, big or small, had to be approved by a council consisting of a noble from the ruling clan.
That being said, the matchups were fully random – an inscribed item was used to shuffle and connect them. Asking the council to change it could cause the Royce family to lose face and look weak to the other rulers.
“Letting him participate was a mistake,” said Richard, rubbing his stern face.
“It’s all your fault,” Lisa narrowed her eyes at Adrian, causing him to shrivel and sweat coldly.
Unlike him, Lisa had a Rank 4 body and a powerful mental sphere.
“If you cleaned up the mess you made, we wouldn’t have to suffer this much humiliation. We can’t even kill the damn kid since he’s caught our father’s eye!”
An anxious silence followed, the atmosphere so tense, one could cut it with a knife.
“Perhaps… there’s a way to salvage this,” Lisa uttered under her breath, a dangerous gleam in her cold eyes. Those present shuddered. “…Let’s wait and see.”
///
Liam stilled any sadistic emotion from appearing on his face… even though his expression was obscured by the mask.
Elsa stood opposite to him, pale and sweaty. Although her robe covered her entirely, she felt naked under Liam’s sinister gaze.
‘Damn it, stop shaking! He’s just a bastard! A peasant! You’re better than him in every way,’ she thought, biting her lip in frustration.
The crowd’s chanting, cheering and booing slowed, stretched and grew deeper in her ears, accompanied by the muffled thumping of her heart – which she mistook for the war drums.
Her eyes were glued to Liam’s charred mask, but something desperately begged her to look away – the longer she looked, the more the surroundings darkened.
Somehow, in her trance, Elsa hadn’t realized that Whyte had already started the match… and that there was no cheering noise. Just darkness.
She watched with tense eyes as Liam took slow steps towards her, his blades casually lowered to his sides, his eye locked with her own.
Under her unbelieving gaze, the charred Oni mask contorted unnaturally, as though it came to life.
It continued to struggle, eventually taking on a new expression… a devilish, sadistic one – the mask’s lips started to curve upwards to form an end-to-end grin, sending a bone-chilling shiver down her spine.
Elsa’s heart sounded like a woodpecker’s rapid tapping against a tree. Her consciousness was on the brink of collapse, like a demolished temple awaiting a gentle wind to tip over.
Elsa always knew it was strange her half-blooded brother had a golden iris, which ominously turned radiant at times she tortured him.
Between the murky dark colors encompassing Elsa’s sight, Liam’s eye shone brighter, and brighter, and brighter… before turning crimson.
With the Oni’s grin growing wider, a guttural and demonic voice growled:
“Where’s your father?”
Elsa’s mind snapped.
A foul, warm liquid gathered under her feet, tears forming in her winced eyes as her face repeated a glitched, terrified.
Liam was taken aback. He hadn’t even raised his blades, yet the noble had already soiled herself from fear.
The Yin & Yang Sisters looked shocked as they assessed Elsa’s body. There were no damages to her mental sphere, nor body.
“Did you use any mental attacks?” they asked Liam with a synchronized frown, to which he responded with the shake of his head.
All the while, the crowd was dead silent. Not a single peep as Elsa was carried out in a stretcher, bowels emptying.
Ian watched in shock from the contender’s room, alongside everyone else who lost their bouts – thankful they didn’t suffer humiliation like that.
Whyte scratched the side of his head. In fairness, he’d never been in a situation so daunting… how can he make a joke to lighten the tension? He wasn’t touching it with a ten foot pole.
“The finals, folks!” were the words he finally said, his voice devoid of enthusiasm. “Stay tuned for the finals, starting in five hours.”
///
“So much for face! We’ll be a laughing stock for the next decade!” Lisa hissed, her otherwise beautiful face tainted by a venomous scowl. ．
Adrian looked aghast. His daughter pissed herself in front of hundreds of thousands. his mind drifted to disowning her, but she was directly from his blood.
Richard looked at Liam exiting the stage and narrowed his eyes.
“We need to do something. Fast.”
The surrounding servants and maids started to cower from the pressure released by the three.
Lisa slowly regained her composure, heaving a long sigh to calm herself.
Her eyes grew cold.
“The boy’s mother,” she uttered under her breath. “Where is she?”