Seeing Reile’s sorry figure, the crowd was stunned silent however, after but a moment they were back to their usual ways.
“Despicable! If you have so much strength why the hell didn’t you use it from the beginning?” Shouted a confused spectator.
“It’s like I said, he’s purposely disgracing our traditions.” Answered an enraged Beast.
“That shameless bastard! He doesn’t deserve to be ranked first.”
“Yea, beat him up and throw him off.”
A part of the audience was clearly biased against him but amongst those watching the proceedings, there were many who acknowledged Zilan’s strength. Within this group there existed a smaller collection of Beasts who had managed to realise just how terrifying his strength actually was.
“Just now, did you sense any Beast Force?” Watching from afar were two people whose status within the Association was nothing short of shocking.
“Hehehe, if you didn’t how could I?”
“You flatter me with those words.” Said the Fourth Elder.
“Tch, you take everything too seriously, you should live life with more freedom. Who knows? That personality of yours may just be what’s been holding you back old friend.”
“That is a possibility however, my way of life is not something I chose. You, Wazimu, of all people should know that.”
“Hmm, that’s true. So what do you think about that Half Breed boy?” asked Wazimu, wanting to change the subject.
“I greatly desire to meet his Master. Amongst us brothers, it is doubtful whether any one of us would have been able to bring up such a monster.”
“Well my speciality has never lied with teaching. You of all people should know that.”
……………………………..
Zilan calmly walked back to his seat. Except for Yasen, all of the other competitors were shooting him looks either discreetly or openly.
He obviously noticed Yasen’s disregard but did not take it to heart. If he was in the soul-compression stage, he too would think himself matchless in the same generation.
“Domin Erten. Step forward and state your challenge.” Said Judge.
“Zilan Malaika.” Domin’s piercing gaze fell upon the currently first ranked Half Breed yet the other party weirdly, smiled at him.
‘He could be slightly troublesome’ thought Domin. Even after observing him destroy Reile he was still neither convinced nor felt particularly threatened by the performance. He believed that punch that hit Reile to be Zilan’s strongest attack which to him meant that the Half Breed was not as troublesome to deal with as say, a Fujo or Yasen. Two people he would like to battle against however, as the rules only awarded him two chances to challenge someone, using them both to fight Fujo and Yasen would mean forfeiting the right to be ranked first. Therefore, his first thought was to take the first chair before awaiting their eventual challenges.
Seeing the smile currently plastered on Zilan’s face though, Domin instinctually started paying closer attention to his opponent.
The two stepped onto the platform at almost the same time.
“Begin!” Declared Judge.
As if not hearing what Judge had just said, Domin simply stared at Zilan. For the first time since the beginning of the tournament he had gotten a shock that he didn’t quite comprehend.
“What worked against others will not necessarily work on me. Get serious or forfeit.” Said Zilan, smiling all the while.
“So you’re actually this troublesome.” Whispered Domin, forcefully calming himself.
Judge was quite puzzled by the two’s conversation as were many in the audience but unlike others he was able to see things much clearer from his position.
‘Young Master is not manipulating the platform. Is it the Half Breed’s doing? This can’t…..”
Judge guessed right, Zilan had indeed done something to make it so that Domin would not be able to manipulate the Earth element within the platform. How exactly did he do this, you ask?
The reasoning and theory behind it was actually not at all difficult to understand. Take two people participating in a tug of war for example. Both people hold one end of the rope and harbour the same goal of pulling as much rope to their side as possible with the eventual outcome being one person pulled across the line in the middle that divides them, thereby losing. Now, let’s say one person is way stronger than the other person participating in the tug of war. Would it not be possible for that person to dictate exactly how much rope is pulled to his side as well as how much rope the other party can pull?
It would even be possible to make it so that the rope does not move at all. By regulating his strength, the far stronger person could easily cause the rope to not move an inch.
Now put this reasoning in relation to Zilan and Domin’s current circumstances. Zilan is on one end and Domin is on the other. They both possess great affinity for their respective elements however, because of his perverse bloodline Zilan’s connection to water runs far deeper than Domin could ever hope for with his Earth. Therefore, just like in the tug of war scenario, Zilan as the far stronger person in the area of Elemental affinity is able to make it so that the ‘rope’ i.e. the platform is not swayed by Domin’s influence.
Domin eyes suddenly begun to glow with an unusual brown lustre. His body, this time did not enlarge but above his head something much more terrifying without warning began to take form.
“Good! Take out everything you have.” Laughed Zilan.
*Weng*
A gigantic mud brown saber was quickly morphing. From an indistinct manifestation of aura to a tangible, real blade.
Domin roared out, causing shockwaves to appear in the sky. He then reached out and grabbed the hilt of the gigantic yet ordinary looking saber. Almost instantly, runes of earthen origin began lighting up across the surface of the now not-so-ordinary-looking blade.
A brownish-yellowish light shot up into the sky as if signalling the Emperor’s charge into battle.
In Zilan’s mind, despite seeing the magnificent blade, he remained fairly composed. One reason for this may be that he had already predicted and expected that something like this would happen.
‘What were the bloodline rankings for this world again? Ancient Child, Ancient Lord, Ancient King and Ancient Emperor. For this Domin, considering that a normal Dragon is an Ancient Emperor bloodline, his own blood must at least be of that class. If I’m not wrong a fraction of the Wolf of Horidin’s blood flows within his veins. It is impossible for the Wolf herself to have come to such a small plane which means one of her descendants travelled here and left behind a child. He is but a lower mixed blood however, it looks like the defining trait of the Wolf of Horidin lives on him.’ Thought Zilan.
The Wolf of Horidin was an extremely old creature known throughout the Universe for being one of the few existences capable of avoiding the Heaven’s all-encompassing watchful eye. The credit for this lied mostly with her constitution which was beyond special, its secrets many, some of which Zaum for some reason did not mention. What he did say though was that within the Wolf resides an important life companion, a gift from the Universe, something that grows along with her as she grows more powerful.
In Domin’s case, although his blood was extremely thin bordering on almost having no relation to the Horidin, it appeared that big sword was his life companion.
‘If the circumstances were any different I would have taken my time to learn more about your constitution but unfortunately I have no choice but to dominate this tournament otherwise the people I need to know me will never hear of me.’
Having thought up to that point an even stranger scene started playing out above Zilan’s head. A scene that caused even Wazimu to shut his mouth and stare in wonder.
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