Chapter 678 (2/2)
The lovely woman bowed. If Silo recalled correctly, her name was Helen and she traveled here with this group. It was… incredibly impressive that she had accomplished this much.
After a few more teams went up and revealed scores between six and seven thousand, it was finally their turn.
Silo stretched his hand out to his teammates, stopping them. “Please, let me go first. You will understand why afterward.”
Unlike the rest of the team, his team shrugged and let him go up alone. His gait was calm and his breathing was even, but the wild and dark side of him was practically giggling with glee. Although he didn’t know how much energy he had gathered, Silo had no doubt the amount was jaw-dropping.
An acidic smile curled up the edges of his mouth. It was time to give them the first sign that they were not as in control of this tournament as they thought.
Silo pressed his Soulstone against the larger Soulstone labeled with sixteen. Energy rushed out of it and began to pool in the bottom. More and more flowed out, very quickly passing the point totals of most of their competition.
But ultimately, Silo had a bitter expression on his face as he noticed that his total was barely short of Team Two.
“Team Sixteen… 14,578…!” Now the shock in Raption Veir’s face gave way to barely concealed fury. It was clear that the man was grinding his teeth as he regarded Silo. It did a lot to alleviate the frustration that Silo was feeling. “How… surprising. Well, if that’s all, I’ll announce-”
“Ah, wait, I haven’t had a turn yet.”
Everyone turned as Skarch, the Spear School Style woman walked calmly forward. She removed a Soulstone and tapped it against the larger Soulstone. Then she turned and walked away.
Everyone stood stock still as they checked the new amount of the Soulstone.
“Team Sixteen… 42,394 points…” Raption mumbled. Then he turned around and gave Randidly and Azriel, who were standing some distance away, a hard look. When they didn’t move, it seemed something inside of him relaxed.
Silo experienced a similar reaction. Forty-two thousand meant that the other three had gathered twenty-eight thousand together. That evened out to a little over nine thousand a piece. It wasn’t as big as he had gathered, which was reassuring. There had a been a moment when Silo had felt a strange surety that they had each gathered that much energy.
...and something told Silo that of the three of them, Skarch wouldn’t have the most. Her attacks were too direct. Meanwhile, Randidly’s Spellspear Skills…
“Ah, Well then. Ahem. Our final five teams are… Team One, Team Two, Team Four, Team Eleven, and Team Sixteen. The- errr…” Here Veir paused briefly before continuing. “The board of elders had decided to do away with the seeding element, and randomly distribute the byes for the first round of the tournament, which will be determined on an individual basis.
“The drawing will… well, occur presently. Ah, to make the numbers work… there will be 8 individuals who will need to fight in a preliminary round, and then those four will join the remaining twelve in a typical single elimination style. I will write down the names, and select them presently.”
Sneering at Veir while he hastily scribbled down on scrap paper brought to him by an aide, Silo knew that the plan had likely to give the winners a bye, and perhaps force the final two teams to fight themselves. It was quite satisfying to see him thrown by the outcome, but it was still frustrating that they couldn’t admit Team Sixteen was superior.
In fact, they could have just accepted the seeded method and forced Teams Two and Four to fight each other and Given the other three the bye into the final top 16 portion of the tournament. But that was likely politically untenable. Although not as important as those in the first Squad, Squad Two had a lot of the pampered elites of the Central Domain.
And to protect their fragile feelings, Raption Veir would do anything.
“Oh, also,” Veir added before the drawing began. “Even should you fail in the tournament before the end, worry not. For the remainder of the tournament, you will stay in housing provided by the Hall of Stances. During that time, you may peruse the outer area of the Hall. But only the final two shall be allowed into the Inner Sanctum. So, without further ado…”
As expected, none of Squad One and only one from Two was selected. That individual was from the Death School, which was largely independent and cared not about such things. But two people from Squad Four was selected. Two people from Squad Eleven as well. And finally, three people from Squad Sixteen.
Everyone but him would be fighting in the first, preliminary, round.