After such a climax, no one expected any further standout events in the preliminaries.
… But they were dead wrong.
"Round twenty-nine of the preliminaries… involving Nik'ida, S'ami, and Adrien..."
As the two Dragons and single human entered the stage, the noise generated by the audience slowly ca to a halt. Instead, low murmurs oozed out—enough so it made the entire atmosphere uneasy.
"Is that him? The human…"
"Why would they allow a human into the Academy? And he's up against his seniors too…"
"Tch! He's an eyesore."
"Shh! He has the backing of a Lord, rember? You better be careful about what you say about him."
"Yeah, yeah… I got it."
It was easy to see the lack of support Adrien had just in the first few seconds of his entry on stage. He didn't get the underdog that his classmates and juniors received. Instead, he was ostracized by the crowd and they even wanted him to lose.
Despite the negative reception, though, he remained perfectly calm.
A gentle smile played on his face as he placed both hands in his pockets and gently strode to his position. He didn't let the piercing glares and whispered jeers distract him.
The other two students on stage weren't particularly wary of him, though they seed to have every intention to go hard on him for the fact that he was a human. All of these were well within calculations, so he wasn't bothered by them.
'He's most likely not going to watch the Preliminaries… but I can't be too sure.' Adrien thought about his sponsor as he calmly assessed the situation.
He had watched Rey and his classmates fight, and he could clearly see so ingenuity in their attack patterns. He was impressed, and so was the audience.
If he wanted to stand out, per his agreent with the Storm Dragon Lord, he would have to do sothing as drastic.
Or… perhaps sothing entirely different.
A slightly twisted smile ford on his face as he heard the referee start the match.
"... BEGIN!"
The mont this sound echoed in the hall, another one followed—one that horrified everyone who watched the impending fight keenly.
It didn't end up as a fight, though.
~SQUELCH!~
It was a massacre.
Spikes of darkness rose from the ground itself, piercing the competing students in multiple locations as they were forcefully lifted from the ground by them.
These spikes were birthed from the shadow of a single person—Adrien Chase.
His hands were still in his pockets as he lifted his gaze to witness the bleeding students who were screaming in pain.
Every ti they tried to move, they would be assailed by piercing pain from various areas of their bodies. This was the consequence of the many holes that had been dug into by his shadowy spikes.
The blood that dripped from their flesh began to form a puddle beneath them, and their cries were slowly drowned by the gasps of the audience who watched in horror.
This… this was violence that hadn't been shown since the start of the preliminaries.
It was pure chaos.
"Don't be so dramatic…"
Adrien's voice softly echoed in the room, forcing everyone to fall silent. Even the students he was speaking broke into sobs rather than the loud cries that they previously resorted to.
"... You're not going to die from these re injuries. Dragons heal fast and have incredible vitality, right?"
As soon as he said this, Adrien retracted his shadows, forcing the two students to fall to the ground, where the puddle of their blood had ford. The dark red liquid splattered around as soon as their bodies fell upon the pool, causing the whole stage to be stained with it. Needless to say, the whole thing was repulsive to watch—both for the audience and the referee.
The latter looked at Adrien with a repressed livid expression, but he was only given a gentle smile as a response.
It didn't suit Adrien, though.
How could the boy smile so genuinely after inflicting such damage on his adversaries? Small droplets of blood had even stained his cheeks, yet he wouldn't stop his act.
"T-the winner is… A-Adrien Chase from Stage 2-A."
There was a deafening silence as Adrien left the stage and walked out on the audience. They were all quiet—completely bewildered by the audacity and cruelty they just witnessed from a single boy.
… A single human.
******************
"Well, that went well." O'jog was facing his students—two of whom were not present, due to their failure in the Preliminaries. Instead, only R'ai, Luc'ia, and Ad'oni were before him in their usual eting spot—the training hall.
"You three did great! You've made it to the Main Tournant… which is where things get exponentially more intense!"
After all, in Tournants, stuff like Enchanted Items were allowed to be used by students. While Equip Limit was still a thing for Dragons, those with better resources had more of an advantage than those with less.
"I would offer to help you with resources, but sothing tells you'll be fine without them." O'jog grinned even wider as he patted each student on their shoulder.
"The main event has a total of 32 participants. The First Stage will have 16 winners, and the next will have 8 winners, the quarter finals will have 4 winners, the semi-finals will have 2 winners, and the finals will have 1 winner. You know the drill…"
Indeed, they did.
All three students had confident expressions on their faces, and they seed raring to go.
"I already made a deal with my colleagues, so please don't disappoint , okay?"
"Understood!" All three responded at once.
Of course, they had no intentions of disappointing him. However, this wasn't because of who O'jog was, or his expectations of them.
They simply had their own motives for winning. 'Lucielle and I have to get that reward!' Rey told himself as he maintained his smile, thinking about the relative difficulty that would be awaiting them in the main events.
'We can't afford to slack off now.'
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