Chapter 216 (2/2)

Using all of her mana in a single go, the ground exploded with roots, thousands of the small, pale green things stretching forward, aiming for the spear user opposite her.

In slow motion, Kishta watched the man she faced shake his head.

”Fool.”

The next moment, Kishta felt her body pierced by several strong forces in quick succession, and she lowered her gaze to find that she had been riddled with sharp roots, her mobility completely destroyed. Then blood began to gush from the huge wounds inflicted on her, and swiftly her consciousness departed.

”This.. this wasn't how.... it was... supposed to...”

Then the darkness claimed her.

****

”After the first round,” The head referee began, as he spoke right before the second round of fights were announced. ”13 individuals voluntarily withdrew from the tournament, due to unrelated reasons.”

Randidly grimaced, and a lot of the preliminary participants had similar expressions on their faces. Most of those withdrawals were due to injuries that couldn't be recovered from within the requisite amount of time between rounds. In a way, it was more honorable to just surrender, without wasting the audience's time with matches that were meaningless.

But Randidly felt some cold gazes on his back, and squared his shoulders.

It seemed that one of those withdrawals was from the individual he had fought against, but he couldn't really bother to care. Before he had been even able to work off the nerves of fighting in front of the huge crowd and find a rhythm with their spear fight, she had challenged him with roots. It was one of the most silly things that had happened to him in recent memory.

Randidly had even sensed that if he had wanted, he could seize control of her roots with his superior grade skill, Root Control. But what would have been the point? So Randidly crushed her mercilessly, ending the fight as quickly as possible. Randidly did not believe that her injuries had been so serious they couldn't be recovered in the interim, so the mental blow he had given her by destroying her roots must have crushed her will to fight.

Based on his performance, Randidly had earned the dubious nickname as the ”1st Prince” among the preliminary participants. There were 5 Princes in total, for the 5 preliminary spear users who defeated individuals from the larger Styles. Randidly had faced a relatively weak one, but still, those numbers were discouraging. That meant that 71 out of 76 victories had gone to the larger Styles.

And based on the excitement generated by Randidly and the other 4, this was the highest amount of victories that preliminary entrants had managed in decades.

These thoughts faded away as Randidly began to meditate focusing on the issue at hand. Slowly, the second round began, and more names were called and summoned to the stage.

Relatively quickly, Randidly's name was called. ”Azriel Blanche. Randidly Ghosthound.”

There was a tremor in the crowd as the two contestants headed to the stage, the first stage. After ascending the stairs from the underground waiting area, Randidly turned and found himself facing a slim girl. She had white hair hanging to her waist, and her eyes were a bloody red. In her hands she held a strange, slender spear, that was pointed on both ends. It seemed more like a needle than a spear. She wore an ensemble of black leather that left her shoulders bare, and seemed eminently capable in it.

Her gaze was frigid and remorseless, but seemed to be calculating something as she examined him in turn. She was, Randidly admitted to himself, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

”They won't have told you,” The girl, Azriel, began, ”But I am one of the two most likely to win this Regional Tournament. Your matching with me... was not an accident, Mr. First Prince, Ghosthound.”

Randidly remained silent, sizing her up. But she kept talking.

”But in fact... I care very little for the honor of the Styles that hold sway in the North. I would like to thank you, on their behalf, for ridding us of someone weak. She was judged fairly, and failed. To purge the Northern Region of that weakness… it truly is a beautiful thing, isn’t it?”