Chapter 87 - Deal! (1/2)

This was the last fight that interested everyone before the final phase, Krune and Shad's fight, first because Krune was one of the dark horses, and second because of what happened last night, not to mention the fact that if Shad loses, the Sky Fall continent mercenary guild will be basically out of the Martial Gathering completely.

Yusa and Ao, as expected, passed their last opponents in their brackets without big troubles in the fifth round, and are now in the sixth and last round as well, between the three of them, it could be said that Ao's fight was the hardest so far, and considering their combat power, they don't think it will take long for them to finish it anyway.

But there was another thing, the participants might have not noticed, but Yusa, Ao, and Shinja have, Krune was in an extremely bad mood since last night, it's just that you need to know him well to perceive it, they looked at Shad's direction and couldn't help but feel pity for him.

Shad and Krune went up on the arena, Yulie Forgon watched them and was almost praying for Shad's fight to not be too hard, Shad was also a little unsettled, he is confident in his own ability, but with the prowess that Krune showed so far, he might need to pay some price to pass this last obstacle, so he decided to go all out from the very start, he noticed that Krune is a long-range focused cultivator, he plans on getting close to him and finish the fight as fast as possible.

The referee looked and both of them and raised his hand, then he dropped it down.

”Start!”

Shad immediately used his lightning movement to enclose Krune, his weapon was already out and the power of water and lightning could be seen on it, he enclosed on Krune and used one of his strongest skills.

”Saber Thunderstorm!”

Sparks flew everywhere from his saber, water fell without stop helping to carry the power of the lightning element, it was a very strong skill, but just as the attacked was about to hit Krune, the lightning element disappeared without trace, it was as if it had received a command to do that, Shad looked at that and couldn't believe in what just happened, he then focused on Krune once more but…

Krune had disappeared!

”Tribulation Lightning Instant Movement!”

This wasn't the real Tribulation Lightning Movement, it was the one that Krune used both Normal Lightning element and Tribulation Lightning at the same time, after several tests, Krune found out that the best balance without damaging his body was 30% Tribulation Lightning and 70% normal Lightning Element, of course, his speed was already far above what Shad could do with his own Lightning Movement.

Shad focused on his Divine Sense to find where Krune had gone, but as soon as he did that, a hand touched his back, at the same time, a Divine Sense message reached him.

”Playing with lightning in front of me? What a joke!”

Krune's hand was filled with some Tribulation Lightning, as soon as it touched Shad's back.

KaBoom!

Shad's body seemed like to have been hit by a real lightning bolt, his body shined blue and purple for a second, Krune hadn't used tribulation lightning alone, but 70% normal Lightning Element and only 30% Tribulation lightning just like his movement technique, but that was more than enough to completely fry Shad's body to the point where he looked like charcoal, Shad's body feel forward and the and hit the ground, the battle was over in a single move.

Arlan immediately looked over from his arena, it was the first time he felt amazed in this Selection, with the power that Krune just showed, he wasn't sure if even him could win against Krune or not.

The referee was taken aback, he saw Krune's move, but because of the distance, even as a Divine Soul cultivator, he wouldn't be able to stop Krune in time, he examined Shad's body and let out a sigh of relief, Krune only disabled him, although his appearance looked gruesome, he wasn't dead or crippled, of course, that degree of injuries will definitely take a few months to recover.

He then looked back at Krune and proclaimed.

”Krune Wins!”

Krune heard that and came down from the arena, he felt refreshed, everyone looked at him the same way they looked at Arlan every time he fought, the seeded contestants immediately made up their minds, in the final phase, they are absolutely giving up a fight against him, not only he beat Shad easily, it was obvious that it was far from his real power, he probably can even fight some new Core Formation Cultivators head-on!

Yulie Forgon was feeling terrible, none of his participants reached the final phase, he looked at Bary and noticed that he was looking at him too, the worst part was the smile on his face, it shined like the sun, Yulie had the urge to punch his face right there and then, but he controlled himself, he had already checked Shad's condition and knew that he wasn't in any danger, if Krune wanted Shad dead, he would be dead.

The sixth and last round continued, the seeded contestants and their adversaries, who had stopped for a second to see what happened in Shad's arena, resumed their battle, even Arlan didn't defeat anyone as fast as Krune did in this selection, one by one the victors appeared, except for Krune's sixth arena, the other arenas ended as predicted, and just like that, the final eight have been decided.

After the higher-ups announced the results, the day was over for the selection, the final part would only happen next day, so everyone was free to do whatever they wanted, the Sky Fall people wanted to go home already, but as part of the Mercenary Alliance, they couldn't simply leave midway, they had to watch it to the end, the Yule continent, on the other hand, was cheerful, usually, it would be themselves the ones who wanted to go home earlier, but not this time, they had three contestants going to the final, so no one wanted to leave at all.

After everyone went back to their residences, the elders, guild heads and mercenaries who passed the brackets fights gathered and started to discuss how to proceed tomorrow, surprisingly, everyone was discussing how to deal with the Yule Continent, so far, all their contestants in the final phase are extremely strong, the only one which they aren't sure about is Yusa, but that is because she didn't fight anyone strong enough to make she use her real abilities, chances are that she isn't any weaker than Ao.

On the Yule Continent side, the mercenaries that lost, the elders and Guild Head Bary were…

Eating Krune's food…

If the other participants of the other continents saw that, would they think that the Yule Continent was looking down on them?

In fact, be it Krune, Yusa, or Ao, they weren't too much afraid of the outcome of tomorrow's battles, other than Arlan, there wasn't anyone on the other sides that could pose too much of a threat to them, of course, they wouldn't lower their guards because of that, who knows what kind of trump card they have in their pockets?

Later that night, the Bary Casfiu received a visit from the Guild Heads of the Ice and Borle Continent, which puzzled him very much, but he called them in any way.

”What can I do for you?”

The two Guild Head looked at each other and seemed a little embarrassed, but they asked anyway.

”We would like to ask if Guild Head Bary can make one of your three contestants to give up the fights tomorrow.”

Bary heard that and his face darkened, during all the previous Selections, they had never gone to the other guilds to ask for something like that even though they are weakest one, Bary calmed down and looked at the Guild Head of the Ice Continent.

”Even if I agreed with this request, I can't understand why the Ice Continent would be asking for something like this, don't your guild have three contestants in the final phase just like us?”

The guild head heard that and felt even more embarrassed, the fact is that he noticed the power of the Three Yule Continent participants, and he thinks that none of his contestants is a match for any of them.

”Your kids this time are too strong, doesn't matter if I have three or if the Borle Continent have one, it would be hard for us to get a slot each with Arlan from the Makui Continent and your people, in the end, there would be only a single slot remaining, and we want to have at least one of our contestants to appear in the Martial Gathering.”

Guild Head Bary took a deep breath and said.