Chapter 67 So This Is How It Begins
"Let's start today's event by introducing the top 3 academies of the kingdom," Zilan smiled while directly looking at the glass box. "I welcome, Angelica Medron, principal of the PearlSea academy,
Kulan Kikiko, principal of the Wisteria academy, and at last, Albus Jokovic, the principal of the Vancouver academy!"
Jason noticed three people standing up inside the glass box. A golden halo appeared over their heads as they were suddenly summoned outside the box.
The three principals flew right beside the prime minister and waved at the crowd below before reappearing inside the box.
After that, Zilan did countless introductions to make sure all of the important figures, all the noble families as well as the principals of the various sects and academies were made known to the crowd.
He then went ahead to explain how the children between ten to fifteen years of age could choose to join any of the academies.
"If anyone above that age isn't able to enter any of these, they will have to either enter the army or get admission into the Public Academy of Vancouver and start studying to get a job in the administration section." Zilan reminded.
He then clapped his hands once as the few whispers that had started below quietened down. Zilan looked at the glass box once again before turning his head towards the noble families below.
"I am sure that after that lengthy journey as well as the boring introductions, all of you are bored out of your mind. However, its now time for the yearly event to begin." Zilan spoke as Jason suddenly felt Risa's place her hand on his right shoulder.
"Good luck." She squeezed his shoulder a bit before stepping back and looking at Nora.
The demi-human was sitting between his parents calmly as though mentally preparing himself for the upcoming event.
All of a sudden, a golden halo appeared on top of is head and his body started flickering a bit.
[ Host, look above your head. ]
Jason did as told and was surprised to see that a golden halo had appeared above his head as well. He soon realized that a golden halo had appeared above all the children that had come to the box together with their families.
All of their bodies were slightly flickering due to the effects of the halo as Jason could almost see through his arms at certain moments.
"There will be two sets of battles between two different groups of children. The first will be between the nobles who are ten or eleven years old and haven't fought here before." Zilan announced, snapping his fingers simultaneously.
Around fifty children suddenly appeared on the arena floor, including Jason and Nora. The halos above their heads vanished and their bodies returned back to their opaque form.
Zilan slowly descended down towards the arena floor such that he could get a better look at the children and look for the potential prodigies up close.
'Damn…' Jason felt his heartbeat increasing by the passing seconds. Hundreds of thousands of eyes were currently staring at the arena floor, making his nervous and twitchy.
However, he wasn't the only child feeling that way. The others around him were also avoiding looking at the crowd while a few were biting their nails.
It was obvious that none of them had faced such a huge crowd before.
"We have two children from each house here, the total number being sixty four. All battles will happen simultaneously between two randomly shuffled children.
No magical equipment or weapons can be used and any such objects on your body will be teleported back to your family members.
A battle will end if anyone quits or is too close to getting severely injured. In the case of the latter, I will personally make sure that none of you are hurt. You children are the future of the kingdom after all." Zilan smiled reassuringly.
He snapped his fingers for the second time and the children were automatically shuffled into pairs of two.
Jason found himself staring at a noble boy with algae colored hair and a face permanently set into a sneer. Upon seeing Jason's clothes, algae boy's expression, as he had been temporarily named by Jason, went alert and serious.
"You will have a fifty meter area to move around and there is a forcefield separating all of you. If you touch the forcefield, you will be disqualified." Zilan reminded. "Begin!"
'Huh, just like that?' Jason felt weird to see a competition being started without a countdown though he didn't have much time to ponder about it.
Algae boy immediately rushed towards Jason after hearing the starting words. He had a feeling that if he managed to defeat the noble boy in front of him, his family would be extremely proud of him.
Jason on the other hand didn't want to use magic so early in the fight. He decided to test his physical prowess for the time being by dodging the attacks coming his way.
Algae boy punched forward with his right hand, aiming to hit Jason in the face. He felt that his blow would connect with his target yet Jason managed to dodge him fairly easily.
'His speed can't be compared to that of the goats.' He amused while remembering how quick the goats back at the shelter had been.
Algae boy couldn't even come close in comparison to that speed though he had one advantage that the goats didn't have. He could use magic.
"Flaming Water Fist!" Algae boy shouted as water suddenly appeared around his fists.
The water seemed normal at first but when steam started to rise from it, Jason decided to not get fried in the first battle.
Instead, he smiled, making algae boy feel extremely uneasy and unsettled. He paused whatever his next move was about to be and tried to dash back to a safe distance.
"Lightning bolt." Jason noticed algae boy's retreat and summoned a lightning bolt. Algae boy's expression turned a bit grim as lightning was the natural enemy to his water magic.
But he wasn't in the mood of surrendering this easily.
"Water bomb!" A sphere of water appeared in the algae boy's right hand. He threw it towards Jason with deadly accuracy who in turned threw his lightning bolt towards it.
The two attacks clashed mid air and created a small explosion, thus resulting in a thin cloud of smoke. Algae boy could see small spots on the other side of the smoke cloud but his vision was mostly blind.
Jason on the other hand had made use of his natural superior eyesight as well as vision control ability to locate algae boy.
He wasted no time in summoning another lightning bolt, this time a bit bigger, and chucking it towards the algae's boy's heart.
The lightning bolt tore through the thin cloud of smoke and made its way straight towards algae's boy's chest.
"Ahh!" He shrieked loudly, forgetting everything about defending himself or fighting.
Algae boy felt as though he would die in a matter of seconds but when the lightning bolt was inches away from passing through his chest, an invisible fore field appeared in front of him and destroyed the lightning bolt.
Algae boy was left blinking in confusion but in the next instance, he was teleported away to his noble family.
'Wow…' Jason's eyes had caught the appearance of a huge screen overhead during the battle. He could finally look at in detail and was surprised to see its quality.
The screen's height reached near the glass box, starting from the base of the stands. All the matches were displayed in his high quality on the screen across sixty four separate blocks.
Jason saw his image being displayed in one of the squares alongside the word 'winner' being displayed on the lower portion of the specific screen.
He also saw Amber's face being displayed on the screen in a similar manner indicating that she had won as well.
'I never knew formations could be used in such a manner…' Jason thought in wonder as it was clear that the screen was created with the help of formations. Its appearance had been rather sudden as well.
[ Since it's here, why don't we use it to see a few interesting battles? ] The system suggested.
'Good idea.' Jason praised the system as his eyes moved from one screen to another in search of a familiar face.
Unknown to him, many people were observing him silently. Some of them being those who Jason knew well.
'Looks like all those lessons helped the kid a lot.' A bald man sitting on top of the right wall of the arena thought with a smile. 'I wonder how Issac would react if he saw me here instead of guarding Duphia.'
The bald man was none other than Karna who had left Duphia to come to the capital. Though he had left Amon in charge, he knew that Issac was going to be pissed to see him there.
'Well, good thing I am here to tell him of the news.' Karna gaze moved from Jason to Nora who had just won his battle against another fire user.
His gaze then moved towards the glass box as he stared from one Syrward family member to another.
'Syrwards and their problems.' Karna sighed as stood on top of the wall while shifting his gaze away from the arena floor.
"So they finally arrive…" He muttered before jumping on the wall. To anyone else, it would have looked like suicide yet Karna steadily flew through the air and landed on the ground right beside the arena.
His appearance suddenly changed as white hair appeared on his head and his body turned twenty years younger.
Karna moved his arms a bit more freely before he casually walked through the streets knowing well that most of the capital would be at the arena.
Though there would be guards placed all around the city, he wasn't too worried about them.
"If the demi-humans sent an envoy, the demons would've sent one too. The question is, who will they send?" while muttering to himself, Karna reached the Phoenix statue.
Around a dozen guards were placed all around the statue and all of them turned to stare at Karna at once.
Yet he didn't pay them any attention and continued making his way towards the entrance of the city.
"Captain, did you see something?" One of the guards asked his head while rubbing his eyes.
"I thought I did… Must have been a trick of light." The captain replied as all of them got back in their positions.
They had seen a man walk past them for just a second yet the next second, the man had vanished and all that remained was the bright sunlight poking their eyes.
Karna passed through several places where guards were posted and the same thing repeated itself until he reached the city's entrance.
Karna jumped straight in the air and came to rest on top of the walls that surrounded the city. From there, he could get a clear look of the city yet he was more focused on something in the distance.
'They came prepared…'
A carriage pulled by majestic flying beasts was making its way towards the capital. Even though the carriage was still kilometers away, Karna could easily see the symbol etched on top of the carriage.
It was the symbol of the royal family of the demi-human kingdom.
"So this is how it begins…" Karna muttered, sensing the arrival of trouble and chaos. He didn't know why but he felt that the Syrward family was going to be in the middle of the upcoming chaos.
That meant that he would be pulled in the chaos too but that was something Karna had accepted long ago.
"Syrwards…" He sighed one last time before making his way back to the arena to warn Issac and the rest of the Syrward family about the incoming chaos.