I woke up at the same time as usual. Seeing the note I placed on the table, I realized that what happened last night wasn’t a dream. Still, right now isn’t the time to think about that. After waking up Ember, we did a quick exercise before heading toward the stadium.

As usual, it was crowded in front of the entrance.

When I reached the East side waiting room, I sat on the chair and waited for the next match. Honestly, after looking at my brackets and listening to the battles of my next opponent, I realized that he was average at most. The two guys in the next bracket, whom either of two would be my next opponent for this afternoon, were also average at best. It seems that other than the two dragons, the hardest competition was pushed to the 33rd – 64th brackets.

After a few minutes of waiting, I was guided by a new employee to the gate. On the other side of the stage, the opponent was a small snake, about a meter-and-a-half in length. This was the first time that our opponent was actually smaller (volume-wise) than Ember.

The snake’s weapon was its poison and its speed. Its standard strategy was to quickly poison the enemy and use its speed advantage to wait for the poison to spread. However, too bad for him, Ember was a level faster.

As soon as the battle started, Ember quickly threw her clone that morphed into a net. Then, the snake that got captured in the net unable to move was quickly beaten to submission. The battle ended as fast as the fight with Guren, it was almost anticlimactic.

After returning to the waiting room, I listened to the announcer as she narrated the following battles. Wan Er won against her enemy. Wan Li, too, won while keeping her record of not giving her opponents a chance to even strike. Aster, the psycho bastard, also won his fight. His opponent was badly injured however it wasn’t to the point that he’d get ejected from the competition. Since God Zeshion quickly healed the poor beast, apart from a new warning, there were no further problems.

After a quick run outside to buy food to eat for lunch, we waited for the afternoon matches to start. My second battle for the day was just as easy as the first. I don’t know if they were just weak or we were just too strong for them, but the battle ended in a few seconds too just like before.

The opponent’s tamed beast, a two-headed dog, was turned into a punching bag by Ember and her clone. After getting hit in the groin before hitting its jaw, the poor dog wasn’t able to even raise a howl as it fainted.

After I returned to the waiting room, the announcer quickly introduced the next battle. It was the fight between Wan Er and her Yellow Phoenix Xiao Huo against Aster and his Shadow Wolf Fang.

—

“Without further delay, let’s proceed to the second match for this afternoon!”

The announcer excitedly announced.

“From the East Gate, once again, let’s welcome Wan Er and her Yellow Phoenix Xiao Huo!”

The crowd went wild with their cheers. Wan Er was extremely popular, especially with the male audience. Her energetic beauty was enough to charm them into being avid fans, not to mention her strength to be able to achieve the top eight of the tournament.

From the East Gate, Wan Er appeared walking gallantly with a confident expression. Xiao Huo was flying around her, ready to fight at any moment. As if she was used to it, she even waved at the audience as if to show them her appreciation.

“Now for the West Gate! The one and only merciless and ruthless bastard of the competition, the number one hated candidate, Aster, and his Shadow Wolf, Fang!”

From the announcer’s introduction, it wasn’t hard to guess how much she hated the man. The audience, too, didn’t like him one bit. Booing started even before he appeared from the west gate.

“Haha! Shut up, you damned, foolish peasants! I’ll win in the end anyways!”

Aster taunted everyone around. His arrogance was over the roof, enough to even make some of the audience shut their mouth out of exasperation.

After the wave of booing faded in intensity, the two sides quickly let their respective tamed beasts on the stage.

“The hope of the tournament, tamer Wan Er, against the bastard of the tournament, Aster. Let the match begin!”

As soon as the battle began, Wan Er quickly ordered Xiao Huo to fly quickly and low, launching a swift attack on Fang.

“Hah, another idiot. Fang, dive into the shadows.”

After he ordered, the Shadow Wolf Fang quickly blended with the shadows. Now that he’s hiding in the shadow dimension, there’s no way for Xiao Huo to attack the wolf. Despite that, the phoenix still came toward the spot where Fang was earlier.

“How boring. End it, Fang.”

Thinking that his opponent was just wasting time, Aster quickly ordered Fang to attack. The Shadow Wolf quickly moved through the shadows and quickly came into contact with the Phoenix’s shadow. Then, after swimming in its shadow, Fang quickly reappeared from right underneath and was about to use a claw attack on the phoenix’s head, the same thing it did with the Valley Falcon.

“Now!”

However, as if waiting for this moment, Wan Er raised her voice in excitement. At the same moment, Xiao Huo quickly burned brightly, eliminating all shadows around it in a single instant.

*Whimper*

The shadow wolf, who was hiding inside the now vanquished shadow, was forced outside. Due to the forceful cancellation of the skill, Fang earned quite a significant level of internal injuries due to the backlash.

“Yes! It worked!”

She cheered excitedly as she ordered Xiao Huo to continue attacking.

The [Blaze] skill was an inherent skill of the phoenix race where it raises the intensity of the flames covering its body. Wan Er devised the plan using this skill to eliminate all shadows near Xiao Huo, giving Fang nowhere to hide.

The Shadow Wolf, still feeling the backlash of its skill, wasn’t able to evade and was hit by the Yellow Phoenix’s [Wing Attack].

“Amazing, tamer Wan Er! She’s managed to injure the almost untouchable Shadow Wolf! Is this the end of Aster’s arrogance?!”

The audience cheered louder after seeing how the Shadow Wolf got beaten. On the other hand, Aster only frowned a little before showing an evil grin.