Kill The Old Ones!

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There was a 2nd part to the 2nd round of the tournament, a way to give those who fell short of the top 20 another chance to prove their prowess.

As expansive and comprehensive as the seven hall trials were, the organizers knew that not everybody would be convinced of the end result. Everybody had strengths and weaknesses, but in a tournament like this, what the participants and the audience themselves value more was combat prowess.

So, to mitigate the potential backlash and lessen the dissatisfaction, they came up with this idea: to give others a second chance to prove their worth.

This is how it works:

The 2nd part of the 2nd round will only involve individuals ranked 11th to the 60th. The top 10 were untouchable; they’ve more than proved their worth and combat prowess.

Ranks 21st to 60th will be given the right to challenge ranks 11th to 20th in attempts to replace them. Meaning that the 11th to 20th seats of the rankings suddenly turned into a hot potato.

The challengers could freely choose to make an attempt or just accept the original outcome. However, they must be cautious because they could only issue a challenge once. Whatever the outcome will be of that challenge, it will be the final one this time. The challenged cannot refuse a challenge. They must prove that they are deserving of their spot because only the top 20 will move on to the next round.

This event will last as long as needed until the final top 20 participants are determined.

Amongst the Central City representatives, only Adrian Arclight and Lucian Skyrend ended up on top 10, and thus, their positions were secured. Elena Frostmere and Seraphina Whitelock ranked lower and must fight for their place.

Aria Carmichael and Lily Anne Heartveil were also in the top ten. Sieghart Fletcher was at the 15th rank, so he will fight for his place too. Only the three of them are left for D-City representatives.

Surprisingly, only a single representative from the reigning champions was left. From R-City, Lionel Voran. He’s in the top 10 rankings and was safe from the challenges, yes, but he does not look happy at all. If anything, he looked downright murderous, and it’s because of a certain group of people.

From P-City, Fabian, Axel, Tyrone, Jon, and Chris occupied the rest of the top 10 rankings. The losers clawed their way up the ranks by going absolutely feral in the previous rounds.

They were specifically cruel against R-City representatives, though.

During the 1st round, the ones that slashed the R-City representatives in half were from the L-City using a, frankly, simple trick. It was humiliating for the R-city reps but also respectable. The R-City team recognized their arrogance and paid dearly for it, so they knew they deserved that.

But the P-City reps? Oh, it’s personal between them.

You see, the reason why P-City dropped to the bottom rank during the previous tournament was because of R-City.

Their teams originally had an alliance, but the R-City reps betrayed them at the most crucial time, leaving only a single person alive in their team to move on.

That last man was also the weakest in the team, and he struggled so badly in his attempts to not fail the city behind him, but it was futile.

While P-City itself didn’t blame that guy, the individual himself couldn’t stomach the humiliation and his failure. He ended up killing himself because of it.

The most humiliating part is that the R-City just laughed at what he did when they heard about it. They also laughed at P-City while they endured all the punishment given to them for not performing well.

During the past decade, P-City brewed in their resentment; they raised monsters—feral ones—people that are ready to rip R-City representatives apart by whatever means necessary during this tournament.

P-City wasn’t even thinking of winning. They didn’t care whether they rank at the bottom again. They just want the R-City representatives to suffer and drag them to hell as revenge.

The P-City reps were happy that the L-City helped them indirectly in doing so. They learned what happened through rumors and interrogation during the 1st round. P-City reps originally planned on eliminating them, but when they heard of what they did, they let them go.

Through the entirety of the 1st round, P-City reps did nothing but hunt for the R-City reps. They chased them, hunted them, and absolutely terrorized them.

They had lost half of the team doing so, but it’s all worth it. And just like what R-City did in the past, they left just a single person from the team.

Lionel Voran wasn’t the weakest in the team, not by a long shot. But that doesn’t matter.

What matters is that in the next round, there are five P-City representatives waiting to tear him apart on the grand stage, and he’s completely by himself.

At this point, P-City could say that they’ve earned their revenge. R-City was in despair right now, and rightfully so since they now realized that this was karma at work.

If they ranked at the absolute bottom, which is very likely considering their performance had been incredibly disappointing and completely the opposite of what’s expected of them, their punishment will be crueler because they were the previous champions.

And since they are forbidden from leaving their city or changing their identities, they will surely suffer for the next decade because of this.

It didn’t help that they could see how Lionel sweated coldly while trying his best to ignore the cold and hate-filled gazes of the five P-City reps near him.

**

As such, the 2nd part of the 2nd round lasted for about three days.

Ranks 11th and below experienced a major re-shuffling because of it.

Except a few people, everybody else had their chance to improve their end results. Some people issued a challenge and failed. Some succeeded but couldn’t hold on to the seat. Others didn’t bother since they knew they were going to lose anyway. And a very few remained unmoved.

Elena Frostmere managed to retain her rank. She’s moving on to the next round. She was challenged a lot by men, mostly, who were just trying to flirt with her. They all ended up in the same way when she was done with them, entombed in ice.

Seraphina Whitelock sadly couldn’t hold on. She had been targetted by a dark horse and was soundly defeated. Although she was able to issue another challenge, she failed that, too, so she was eliminated.

The real highlight of this round was Sieghart Fletcher. From Rank 15, he rose to Rank 11, displaying a surprising level of combat prowess.

There were many times when the audience thought he’d be defeated, but in the end, he persevered and won. His action-filled fights made him a crowd favorite, and this became his road to fame.

Sieg was basking in the attention and recognition he was getting. He originally felt that it was a shame he couldn’t enter the top 10 rankings, but in the end, this worked out for him because his recent battles made him very famous.

This was the point in the story where he completely shed his ’trash’ and ’garbage’ titles. He had proved his worth and prowess to the entire kingdom. People are now aware of his name, and they’re cheering him on.

To him, this was the highlight of his life. This was how it should’ve been since the beginning—he sincerely believes it had taken a while and took a lot of hard work to get here, but at the very least, he got here.

He feels unstoppable.

Ren, who had been watching all of this somewhere private, momentarily felt dazed.

If the original timeline of the story were followed, he would’ve been down there, too.

Lily would’ve ranked lower and would be challenged by him, not because he was trying to win, but because he fancied her. Lily will then defeat him soundly, and then Sieg will do the same.

Then, his name will never appear again for the rest of the story.

He was a stepping stone, a comic relief, a side character with an AI-generated name, nothing more. He had nothing to do with whatever that would happen next, nor would the world care whether he lives or not.

That’s how it originally goes. But now, it’s different, obviously.

He was more than just a side character. He hasn’t made a public appearance yet in the tournament, but he will soon, and he will shock them all.

Soon, he’d be stepping in that same arena, not as an extra, but as an insurmountable wall. A true giant that nobody could ignore.

People will know his name; most of them will scream it in admiration, but not all of his deeds will be known to them.

They won’t know that it’s because of him that humanity’s lifestyle is a bit better now. They have no idea how bad the cult could’ve been if it weren’t for his actions behind the scenes.

But that’s fine. He didn’t do it to gain recognition anyway.

And soon, he will stand face to face against the chosen protagonist of this world.

Honestly, Ren was kind of looking forward to it.

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