Everyone was initially unsure of what to do. They just stared at each other till the other person made the first move. Eventually, one girl decided to make the first move.
She moved toward her opponent and slashed her sword down. The boy she was facing parried the sword with his own. He moved back and waited for the next move. She kept pushing forward and slashed her sword again.
The boy quickly dodged it and started to push back. Instead of just swinging down, he used his aura technique. He imbibed his wooden sword with a flame aura and swung at the girl.
The girl also used her own aura technique and was able to defend it, but she was still knocked back by the explosion it created. The boy used this momentary shock to the girl and quickly swooped in to swing again.
The girl tried to block the sword with her own, but the second swing knocked her back. She was going to fall to the ground with great force, but a shadow swooped in at that point.
The shadow was Selena. She caught the girl and brought her back to her feet. Asher announced the first victor.
“Okay, one duel is done,” he said.
After they saw the first person rush in, the other people also started taking the initiative. They started using their own aura techniques. Some had bows and started shooting arrows, while others had maces and swung down at their opponents.
It was very tricky to fight the people with bows because they would have to dodge the arrows. One of the arrows almost hit a boy before it was knocked away by Asher with his aura. The fight stopped there after the arrow was deflected away.
After a couple of minutes, all the fights were completed. The remaining 10 were kept aside while the next color was picked out. This time, it was green. They all went onto the arenas based on what Asher said.
Leo looked at Marcus’ opponent and sighed. He knew that since it was seeded, he would get an easy opponent, but it felt incredibly pitiful. Marcus was facing an Apprentice Aura Knight while he was a Late-Stage 1st Circle Aura Knight.
When everyone got their weapons and the fight started, his fight was the first to finish. He released a punch the minute the fight started and his aura raced across the air and reached the boy who couldn’t even react.
Marcus came in and blocked the attack before it would hit the boy. He apologetically smiled at the boy before leaving the stage. Everyone was awestruck at how quickly the fight finished.
Even the people in the other arenas knew what happened because they were looking around. They all thanked Asher for not putting them against him.
After a couple of minutes, that set of fights ended as well. This group only had 16 people, so it ended with 8 people left.
The red group had a very similar ending with the girl finishing her fight as quickly as Marcus. She had an ever bigger advantage since she was a 2nd Circle Aura Knight.
After them, it was finally Leo’s turn. He stretched his muscles and got ready to be assigned an arena. He wanted to see if he would be paired with an unfortunate Apprentice Aura Knight like the others.
Asher pointed at the people in the group one by one until he got to Leo. He skipped over Leo and went to the next candidate. Leo was confused and looked around. When all the candidates got onto the stage, he was the only one left on the ground.
“Your group has an odd number of students, so you automatically move to the next round,” Asher said.
Leo blew a sigh of disappointment. Meanwhile, everyone else looked at him with jealousy. They felt that it was unfair that he was able to move on to the next round without fighting, but they didn’t complain. After all, their instructor was the one in control. They weren’t even students yet, so they weren’t going to anger the person in control.
Once the round finished, he called back the first group. They had almost twenty minutes of rest since their fight. It took this much time because everyone had to be handed weapons for their rounds.
It also took time to get the people on the stages to fight. People had to get off and then the new set of people had to get on. Since no one seemed to be in a hurry, they took their time.
Now that they were well rested, they were ready for their fight. Asher picked the new bracket out of the 10 people. Once the fights were over, he did the same with the next group. Marcus was matched with a 1st Circle Aura Knight this time.
“You won’t be defeating me that easy as you did with the Apprentice Aura Knight,” the girl he was matched up with said. “I practiced a long time for this.”
She got her sword ready and looked at him who didn’t have any weapon.
“You don’t have a weapon?” She asked.
He shook his head. “I fight with my fists.”
She smiled. “Then don’t blame me when you lose because of that.”
She immediately rushed forward and slashed at him with her sword. She sliced horizontally since he wouldn’t be able to dodge it. He shouldn’t be able to block it either, since he didn’t have a weapon.
Her approach completely underestimated exactly what he was capable of. He filled his fists with aura and caught the blade with his palm. Maria on the side was ready to move forward, but she seemed to know that he was going to be able to defend the attack.
Once Marcus safely caught the blade with his left hand, he punched the girl with his right hand. Before the punch landed, Maria stepped into the arena and stopped it with her own hand. The punch created an explosion, but Maria’s aura contained it and stopped it from harming the girl.
He came out as the victor in less than 15 seconds. The girl was shocked that her sword was blocked by his bare hands. She left the arena with a shocked face while Marcus had a smile on his.
After the green group finished their fights, the red group got on. The silver-haired girl had an easier time than Marcus. She just slashed her own sword at the boy facing her. The sword shattered the wooden sword but didn’t do anything to the boy. After destroying the sword, her sword stopped two inches away from his face.
Her control over the aura and her face was very evident based on the result. There wasn’t any loud explosion like any of the other aura techniques that the people generally used. The boy didn’t try to continue the fight after. He knew the gap between him and his opponent.
Other than her, another person also finished his fight quickly. He was a Late-Stage 1st Circle Aura Knight. After the red group was done with their fight, it was the blue group’s turn. Leo got up, excited to see who he was matched up against.