With the close of Duke Leanne"s welcoming address, she bowed deeply, an unprecedented show of sincerity, respect and gratefulness to the citizens of Gorun City.It was also an encouragement; one to say, "Keep on fighting!" and "Don"t give up!" to the men, women, youths, children and the elderly who had lived through the devil crisis and were still standing strong.
She was met with thunderous applause and appreciative shouts professing undying love and loyalty to her, which she nodded and smiled in response to, as if though accepting the people"s affections, hopes and dreams onto her slim and beautiful shoulders.
Then she about-turned and began to leave the stage, the nearly hysterical crowds still clamouring overseeing their beloved ruler and receiving her words of comfort!
Right then and right on cue, Mr White stepped forward and took the stage as Duke Leanne departed to the viewing stands. She was seated with the other Patriarchs of the Four Great Families, along with a seat of honour for Master Alucard and another seat slightly further to the side for General Weres.
As for Alayna de Caldis, she was nowhere to be seen; presumably off to continue her practice and training as she was on the brink of yet another breakthrough to the mid-Master level!
After all, the compet.i.tion was literally child"s play to her. She had already exceeded the common-sense limits of the entire Northpoint region and entered the ranks of the seniors as a beginning Master spear warrior.
Mr White cleared his throat and waited for the crowds to quieten down for a moment before he began his dry briefing on the rules. It was more for the benefit of the crowd as the partic.i.p.ating youths had already been informed of the mechanics, schedule and expectations.
The only thing remaining was for the drawing of lots to fix the match-ups.
In view that the entire event had been delayed by a full 2-3 days, the management had proposed for the schedule to be shortened from 3 days to be completed instead in a single day. This was met with concurrence from Duke Leanne herself; she was of the mind that keeping it short and sweet would enhance the experience as well as reducing the logistic, manpower and raw materials costs needed to fund the free food and run the event.
Also, this would allow the auction to be held before the peak exhibition match of the Grand Finals; thus giving the various buyers a good show immediately after the conclusion of the bi-annual Gorun City auction.
The updated schedule was supported also by the fact that there were only 1/4 as many contestants as before. As such, the organisers were able to pack all the matches into one day by adding an extra battle ring and running two fights concurrently at any one time - at least for the first two rounds of the compet.i.tion.
Mr White continued to explain the rules as the contestants tried to remain focused, but ended up ruminating over who their first opponent would be and how they would approach the fights.
For some, they had paid a precious penny to unearth any information. Problem was, not all the intel was reliable! As such, it was said that the fights were as much about intellect and wisdom as they were about strength - though with a great enough difference in power, all the tactics and scheming would still be rendered useless.
The Acting Head Administrator explained that each round would have a strict 15 minutes time limit. In the case that the result of the match was not clearly demonstrated either by knocking an opponent out of the ring or incapacitating them, the final and ultimate decision of who the winner would be was left solely to Duke Leanne"s discretion.
As Duke Leanne was someone of unquestionable integrity (despite her reputation for debauchery and perverted tastes) and also the strongest combatant of the city, there would be none who would dare to challenge her decision.
The aptly named white-haired man also stressed that there were to be no fatal injuries; every contestant was strictly warned to manage their attacks and to ensure there were no accidents. In the case that there were any unexpected mishaps though, the first aid team was on standby - as was the executioner"s team to punish any intentional flaunting of the rules.
All sorts of weapons, armours, devices, items and the sort were allowed, though there was a limit set on both the grade (up to the peak-Elite level only) as well as the estimated value (only up to 10,000 platinum coins value).
This was because the objective of the contest was to evaluate skill and strength, not reliance on external items. Nonetheless, it was also admittedly true that the subsequent stages at the national-level and onwards would not have such a rule; as the utilisation of high-powered items was also a form of skill and ability!
After the two concurrent matches were completed, there was allocated a 10-minute break both for the contestants to digest what they had just witnessed as well as for the workers to clear up the stage.
Once the first round of 16 had been completed, there would be one more 10-minute interlude before the second round began; and after the second round, there would be a rest time of 30 minutes instead to allow the contestants time to recuperate.
After the top 2 faced off against each other and the winner of the bracket stage was determined, the tournament would then take a longer break both for lunch as well as for the bi-annual auction to begin.
If the word on the streets were true, the visitors from the surrounding areas would be in for a great treat and surprise; it was said that the treasures on offer this year were exceptionally rare first-rate items... And it was also rumoured that there would be multiple Legendary-tier items as well as an actual Mythical-level natural treasure put up for auction!
After the auction was completed, only then would the grand finals begin, with Vignis Jamal awaiting the victor among the 16 contestants.
As the number 2 of last year, Vignis was deemed to be the true top seed, allowed a bye to proceed directly to the grand finals!
Initially it should have been both the third-placed Leocadius Trenel and second-placed Vignis Jamal awaiting the top 2 among the supposed 64 partic.i.p.ants; however, things did not always turn out the way they were expected to.
In addition, it was also an oddity that the first placed Alayna de Caldis from the last contest was not even required to partic.i.p.ate - however, once it was discovered by the audience that she had already exceeded the limits of the younger generation and become an expert of the Master-level, all complaints were immediately silenced!
For in the last tournament, despite only being barely past 15 years of age, Vignis Jamal along with Alayna de Caldis and Leocadius Trenel had taken the top 3 positions from their 17 and nearly 18-year old seniors. As a result, the three of that brilliant generation of geniuses came to be known as the Three Supernovas - though that was quickly forgotten as Alayna, the youngest among the three, soon leap-frogged their cultivation levels to enter the Master realm at the tender age of 17!
This placed her as a grade 3 talent, a continent-level genius on par with even King Vishnu"s record-setting cultivation speed nearly 80 years ago!
In spite of Alayna"s level-crossing battle power being slightly lower than Natalie Sarouneh"s (as the Duke"s daughter had only reached the beginning of Level 9 in the Illusion Array), with her unprecedented cultivation speed, she would still easily defeat any of her peers. This made her the undisputed number 1 of the younger generation in the city and someone who the countless citizens doted over and admired.
In comparison, both Leocadius and Vignis were currently only at the mid-Elite level, two entire small-realms behind their one time rival. At this point of time though, they had already both lost the rights to consider themselves as rivals to the only true rising star of the city.
Though there were talks of the emergence of a new star - Miller Knight Lars!
However, these talks were quickly downplayed; despite his immense level-crossing combat skills, his cultivation speed was just too b.l.o.o.d.y slow - only at the beginning Adept-level at the age of 15?!? Too slow, too f***ing slow!
As the tournament rules continued on, Lars made a mental note of general cultivation speeds according to what Seline had gleaned from her intel sources.
Despite not really paying attention to the comments all around, he realised that it WAS true - it was likely that his currently displayed cultivation of merely the beginning Adept-level would not be enough to match up to even the bronze-skinned giant"s descendant Reshmont or the taciturn and serious G.o.d-bloodline Darius.
Lars thought over the power levels as well as the historical records of advancement of the luminaries and talents of the city...