Onto the Individuals

While he regained his mana, the next three matches between high-ranking guilds came and went:

After the final match, an hour’s break was called so teams could be healed with potions and magic. Once everyone was fit to fight, the semi-finals began.

Since Joseph had already defeated what was arguably the top high-ranking guild, the next round against Cold Fall wasn’t too difficult.

In the final, it was Fallenshade vs. White Thorn—who had surprisingly beaten Sovereign Order, the other arguable favourite. Like Fallenshade, they had a small team of elites, less than them even at only 4 members.

The four looked motivated, but from what Joseph had seen they weren’t especially unique—just lucky. In their previous two matches they’d been perfect counters to their opponents.

White Thorn sent out two mages on the first round—a plant-based mage, and an ice magic mage. Against Drum Roses, whose roster leaned nature-oriented with mostly magic and a few druidic types, plant vs plant drew the fights to a halt, while ice took care of the rest very effectively.

Against Sovereign Order, who had swordsmen with a single offensive mage and support type mage, the remaining two on White Thorn’s team wore heavy armour and played the endurance game to wear them out.

Most of the crowd understood they wouldn’t usually make it this far; but luck is part of talent—at least to anyone not short-sighted.

In the finals, that luck ran out. The pair of tanks were slowed drastically by the sticky tar and finished off with dehydration dust. As for the two mages: both were weak to fire, so a few high strength walls and fireballs smothered their spells, forcing a forfeit.

The guild tournament ended anti-climactically; many wondered what a fight between Joseph and Sovereign Order would’ve looked like, since Sovereign Order’s support mage showed spectacular results, not dissimilar to Joseph.

While Joseph himself was also interested, a support mage was only a support, and their roster of magic was limited to crowd control similar to his concrete, and then enhancing spells for strength, speed, mist, illusions, etc. As such it’s unlikely they would make it far in the individual competition.

From atop the stadium, the king stood and clapped. Clap clap clap. “Well done! Congratulations to Fallenshade and their spectacular members for an outstanding performance. Congratulations as well to all the other guilds and their young talents.

Since Fallenshade has won the guild competition, the right to tax free dungeons will be granted to its members, along with the corresponding first place budget, granted by the state. To White Thorn, who spectacularly placed second…” He went on to announce the tiered rewards before turning to the solo competition.

“Now, for the individual competition… it shall start tomorrow. As usual, the first round will be timed survival against a creature in the pit. Due to the number of submissions and time constraints, there shall be 5 per group, unlike the normal single or paired formats.

To keep it fair, attacking your fellow group members is forbidden. The focus is survival—or, for those with ambitions, hunting the creature. The guards have already prepared the beasts, and since we have so many strong candidates, they will be stronger than usual and may be swapped out as needed.

Also, it has been decided due to how spectacular the guild versus guild tournament went, the rewards this year for the individual rounds will be increased as well!” A murmur quickly spread around, after all the rewards were already very generous, but an increase would only make those top spots even more tantalizing.

The King, smiling at the whispers being spread turned his attention to the participants. “Rest up for tomorrow. Those who’ve yet to show their talents—tomorrow is your chance. Do not waste it!”

With the speech done, everyone filtered out. Compared to the last few days, where the matches lasted until nightfall, they still had a few hours of light left. Like yesterday, Joseph loaded multiple plates.

Heavy on the meats and the strange desserts, he was pleasantly surprised with how tasty they were, despite the relatively simple complexity compared to earth.

…

The next day they were led back to the arena—and it had changed. The raised central platform was gone; the field was now sharply angled down, creating a fairly deep pit, cluttered with trees, undergrowth, and obstacles. The arena had also been extended, giving a bit more room to run around.

Since this was the individual event, the grouping wasn’t by guild. They each ended up in different batches. After the king’s remarks, the first set of groups, totalling 25 people, split into 5 groups headed down to the gates.

Cedrid and six knights ringed the perimeter while three more led in a chained beast: a dark-purple, panther-like creature with four forelegs and four hind legs. Its ears were floppy and oversized; its fur shone like oil.

Han quickly whispered about it to the group. ‘A Quadrafelis Purpura. Deadly mobility, extremely fast, and very good at blending in to its surroundings.

The oily substance on its fur contained anti-magical properties, meaning magic is a lot less effective. Be wary of its four forelegs, it can easily support its body with just the hind 4.

Its jaw as well, is easily able to pierce thin metal armour. We seem to have gotten lucky and this one isn’t that old. The older they are the stronger, and eventually they learn a special type of shadow magic.’

They all nodded, taking on the information just in case they needed to fight it. Han couldn’t help but glance at the king momentarily. ‘Why is he putting out such a creature so soon… there are very few people here that could even stand a chance against something like this.

Maybe…’ Han’s gaze moved to Joseph momentarily before shaking his head and focusing on the 5 people hesitantly entering the arena.

The first five groups, containing mostly weaker members from low to medium ranked guilds were quickly taken out and saved right at the last moment by the knights.

With the creature hiding in the dense vegetation, not a single person had managed to deal meaningful damage, let alone survive for the required 10 minutes.

That changed with the sixth group, which included Joseph and 4 other randoms. From the moment he stepped down, as a part of the second set of 5 groups, the guards entered the vegetation and chained the beast up once again, but this time dragged it off the field.

Not long later, Cedrid entered, this time with nine extra knights, all gripping chains looped around a new monster. With heavy thuds a colossal beast emerged from the shadowy gate.

It announced itself with a deafening bellow and opened its single, giant eye—a cyclops, red in color and scarred to all hell. Anyone who knew their bestiary knew the variant: rare, very high magic resistance, especially to fire.