Chapter 371 (1/2)

Luckily, most of the participants didn't need much sleep, so everyone was present at dawn, when the fighting began. It was single elimination to stay in the winners bracket, but the top two individual from the losers, who would be put in battle royal after battle royal until the winners reached the top 6, would finish out the top 8.

Even then, after the top 8 were determined, fights would continue, because they wanted to determine not only finish in the tournament, but also, the percentile they finished in. It wasn't explicitly stated in the Ghosthound's presentation, but they would be dividing the participants into percentiles, and awarding them ”Contribution” points. For example, a person who was in the 64% percentile would get 6 points. And this was from the combat portion alone. You would be able to display your individual combat contribution, of course, as a show of strength, but you might also be able to combine it with your participation in the Tactics section, to have a higher contribution amount.

There would be badges available, already forged by Sam and his workers, which would provide various benefits. In fact, upon the return of the Ghosthound, Sam had exploded with ways to improve the contribution pins, giving them a much more appealing amount of stat bonuses. Already, Sam had requested that Mrs. Hamilton provide him with a talented NCC-er with a high Mana pool. It hadn’t been feasible previously to have a few Classers dedicated to Mana Engraving, but now with the library of runes that Randidly brought...

Donny and Mrs. Hamilton were working through the specifics of what benefits you would receive from having a higher contribution, but it would be noticable. And it would be pushed up or down depending on how you interacted with people who weren't familiar with Donnyton, incentivizing helping the tourists. Donny planned on being able to give away a few more points. This, of course, necessitated a census, and something like a Social Security Number in order to keep everyone straight, but Mrs. Hamilton turned out to already have such a compilation. Slightly disturbing, but useful.

The second reason that Donny didn't know whether to laugh or cry was that he couldn't help but feel that the movers and shakers of Donnyton were overrepresented in the Final 8 of the Combat tournament: the 6 that came from the winners bracket were Alana, Tykes, Decklan, Kayle, Paolo, and a fire-mage named Tina. From the loser's bracket, an absolute beast of a man, who rivaled Dozer in size, who called himself Thor emerged, as well as Jaylen, whose Class was Magician.

...shouldn't we have let some of the working Class in Donnyton work up to this point, and taste their share of glory...?

But Donny supposed this was for the best. The Ghosthound needed to have a look at their best, and this was their best, aside from both Dozer and Annie, who hadn't participated in the tournament to watch the baby.

The matches for the top 8 were selected by random drawing. Decklan would face Kayle, Alana would face Jaylen, Thor would go up against Paolo, and Tykes would face Tina.

These matches were a level higher than those they had seen in the past, because now everyone was forced to bring out their hidden Skills. All the participants here had levels in the 40s, and the difference in stats wasn't so sizable that one could easily handle the other. And to Donny's surprise, the first match was Decklan losing to Kayle.

As it turned out, Kayle was the ultimate opponent of Decklan. There were very few exemplary things about Kayle, aside from his leadership and Skill in tactics. But his Perception and Reaction stat were unusually high, and his mastery with his duel knives was such that very few attacks could get through his defense. Although Decklan was powerful in assassination attempts, and in burst power he was probably the highest in Donnyton, he wasn't able to use that to its full effect in a 1v1 situation. He could only become frustrated, and then succumb to the small wounds that Kayle inflicted upon him.

Aside from the first match, Alana was able to trounce the misleading and beguiling Jaylen and Paolo demonstrated to Thor how size wasn't everything to power. The fourth match was also interesting, because Tykes was in a bad predicament.

After a bit of inquiring, it came out that Tina was not affiliated with any Squad, so it was no surprise that she wasn't on anyone's radar. But she did have purely fire focused magics, and the ability to shoot Flamethrowers, Fire Grenades, and also Flame Slashes, which possessed very different areas of effect. Reading the report that was hurriedly brought to him, Donny wasn't surprised that they hadn't been aware of her until now. She had mostly participated in the clearings of the nearby Turtletown, going into the dungeon with some friends, avoiding the sanctioned trips. But she was sharp, and she was methodical.

It was clear to Donny that Tina was not aiming for a win early, as Tykes stumbled multiple times, rushing for her. Instead, she focused on pushing him back, and working on slowly burning through his Stamina.

Tykes realized her strategy 30 seconds too late, and with a roar, he charged at her directly. But she just Flame Slashed towards his legs, and tossed a Fire Grenade to keep him from closing the last dozen or so feet between them. Again he was forced back, and now, without anymore strength, he was forced to concede in the face her Flamethrower.

Donny's brow wrinkled as he watched Tykes spike his large iron ball into the arena, leaving a huge hole, and then stomp off. That kid...