Living Life As A Game: Through And Through

"Usually," the standard procedure was to have the compet.i.tor"s priority be decided by their initial rankings. In a situation where everyone in the top ten wanted to take first place, the person ranked second would get priority and if he succeeded then the person ranked third could challenge him and so on. It was a practical way to decide who was the strongest of all. But somehow, Elizabeth, who was supposed to be of the lowest priority being ranked 1200 in the King Stage, managed to get priority over everyone else…

Of course, the supervising judge already had his reasoning behind her taking the priority ready, as he had been contacted by the higher-ups who unanimously agreed on giving her first pick at the current first ranked King. Clearing his throat with a couple coughs, after successfully gathering everyone"s attention, leaving the arena drop-dead silent, the judge said, "This year, after encountering a… special situation as a result of Ms. Ultimatia, an amendment to the rules has been added to the guidelines for the Martial Event. From today onward, taking place effective immediately, priority will not be decided by ranking. Rather, priority will be decided by one"s score in the First Stage..."

In general, to the crowd and compet.i.tors still out of the loop with regards to Elizabeth"s score, they couldn"t exactly pinpoint what exactly changed in the rules as everyone and their mothers understood that the higher your score in the First Stage, the higher your initial ranking in the Second Stage. Of course, the more astute and intelligent people quickly drew a connection to Elizabeth"s absurd strength which let her breeze through the 7 fights in the King Stage Division. The fact that she was still a Warrior, and the "choice words" the judge gave them in his announcement, enabled them to figure out an accurate representation of what was going on.

"That demon… She must have had score in the Testing Formation greater than the current second-ranked King and maybe even the current first-ranked King..."

Just when it seemed like the end of the day was upon them and that they were spared from anymore shock the bundle of talent that named Elizabeth could bring them, a slap from reality woke them from their naive thoughts.

…

On the stage, before the judge even called for Elizabeth and Tristan to bow to each other as a gesture to respect martial tradition, Elizabeth was grinning from ear to ear as she stared down Tristan, delighting at just the thought of knocking the idiot before her out of his narcissistic bubble. She hadn"t forgotten the rude words he had unpromptedly thrown at her outside of the Tournament Square and though she wasn"t at the point of considering crippling him, the current look of hate and malice he was returning upon her, drained on her sentiment.

[Status

Name: Tristan Fanford

Level: 25

Rank: Peak Phase Martial King

Affection Rating: Hateful

Current State: Utterly Jealous]

Looking over his Status, Elizabeth"s grin somehow deepened as the eccentric Tristan had gone from Jealous to UTTERLY Jealous. She was given the signal to bow from the judge. As she completed the gesture, a taunt couldn"t be kept restrained as she said, "My, my~ You really are something else."

Pausing in response to Tristan scoffing, Elizabeth asked, "You still haven"t clarified why you"re so mad. Word is you don"t like pretty girls. Girls that are, and I quote, "Prettier than you." Now, for a normal person like me, could you explain what the f.u.c.k that means?"

"Normal?" At this seemingly arbitrary moment, P was ready to question Elizabeth choice of words. She found it hilarious that Elizabeth was calling herself normal given the circ.u.mstances surrounding her situation.

Ignoring P, Elizabeth was eager to know what Tristan"s deal was more so than what had spurred his sudden breakthrough to the Peak Phase of the King Stage. Alas, Tristan had changed from the chatty mood he displayed in the morning and had hidden a deeper hatred in his silence. Behind that quiet persona, there lay a tempering insanity that boiled as he thought of the ever-increasing achievements Elizabeth had displayed.

"Fairer than me? More talented than me? Death… Death! Death!!! A TRILLION DEATHS, AND IT STILL WOULDN"T BE ENOUGH!!!" Tristan thought as his soul itself was burning in wait for the judge to give him the chance to lay his hands on Elizabeth. However, hiding beneath the hatred that filled his soul, in an infinitesimally small piece of the gaseous and invisible flame that made up his soul, there lay a dissenting voice that called for the agitated majority to calm down.

This tiny, tiny, …, tiny piece of Tristan"s soul was like an ant trying to split Planet Earth itself in the level of futility its actions held, as the seething ball of hatred that made up the rest of his soul at the moment couldn"t be less affected by its attempts of persuasion at the moment.

The moment that the judge gave the go-ahead for the match to begin, the insanity that was consuming Tristan let its fury be known to the world as he went directly into using up the most dangerous cards in his hand. With only the intention to see Elizabeth disfigured and preferably dead, eight talismans appeared in the cracks of his fingers.

Waving right hand, two talismans shot towards Elizabeth like bullets as they cut through the air like a hot knife through b.u.t.ter. But to Elizabeth who saw the world moving several times slower than normal with her Timeworn Eyes, the inscription on the Enchantments were perfectly clear and she even had the time to a.s.sess the level of threat each flying talisman had.

"Mhmm… Blazebombs? But they"re weaker than the one I made for the Enchanting Event..." Elizabeth kept her smirk as she laughed at Tristan"s attempt at hitting her with talismans when she had already demonstrated a speed that could dodge spiritually enhanced bullets. Her blade had already materialized even before the fight began, thus with but a thought, she dodged the talisman and began making her way over to subdue the "naughty" Tristan.

However, a mere two steps after she began to move, Ominous Pa.s.sage activated and the smirk on her face changed into an annoyed frown. Activating her [Spatial Contraction] technique and copying Jane by covering herself in a thin sheet of Ice, courtesy of her Ice Magic, she felt the force of an explosion a moment later, as Tristan had somehow managed to activate the Blazebomb Enchanted Talismans without it coming into contact with anything.

Elizabeth lost a bit of speed as a result of bracing for the talismans unexpectedly activating, but that was the extent of the explosion"s effect. She quickly regained her footing and continued to make her way over to Tristan only to be met with the six remaining talisman being simultaneously thrown at her.

At such a short distance and with her speed already picking up, even with her speed being comparable to a Late Phase Saint, Elizabeth knew she wouldn"t be able to avoid a more direct hit should Tristan somehow activate the talismans as she attempted to maneuver around them. She didn"t want to brave six Blazebombs at once with her Muay Thai, nor was the outcome of using her Chaos Seals of Physical Augmentation favorable, even if it was tolerable with the recovery time she would have by winning this battle.

So, with a squint of ponderance, the decision to use her Chaos Seals of Pressure was made. Upon activating of her first three Chaos Seals, the talismans which were still 30 or so meters away instantly crashed down to the ground and blew up before Tristan. The sudden change of his talisman"s trajectory and their explosion taking place less than ten meters away certainly rattled him, but the Peak Phase King wasn"t too hurt as he was wearing armor and the damage only came from collateral damage.

Seeing his talismans fail, Tristan became all the more disturbed as the thought of failing so spectacularly against someone he hated so much irked him to no end. In a fraction of a second, the decision to raise the stakes was made as two more talismans appeared on his left hand as a handful of pills appeared in his right hand.

Without any reservations, the two talismans were tagged on his chest, where they phased through his armor and integrated with his body upon coming into contact with his Qi Connection, as the handful of pills were savagely consumed orally. Then, as a clear sign of how quickly the pills and talismans affected his body, he started to glow a dim red; as if he were made of metal.

Elizabeth watched with excitement as it looked like she would be in for a challenge before Saint Division. Medically speaking, she could tell that taking in so many buffs at once would leave him bedridden for at least a couple days after leaving his current state, but at the moment, since they weren"t anything but enemies, she could only see him as a nice little whetstone to sharpen her skills on, before the challenges that lay ahead.

Seeing no more talismans or pills materializing, Elizabeth was a.s.sured that no more nasty surprises would be thrown her way and ran over to Tristan"s side with her blade aimed at his heart. Naturally, a pill-active and talismans-enchanted Tristan wouldn"t so easily let himself get hurt as that wouldn"t do justice to the self-harm he had inflicted on himself. Using his own sword, he countered Elizabeth and shoved her just enough to get s.p.a.ce to build up attacking speed with his sword.

Feeling as if she were right back in her room training with Yrre, Elizabeth reacted as she had been trained, using the short length of her blade to her advantage and maneuvering with the intent to kill. Again she was blocked and seeing how easily his counterattack failed, Tristan scoffed once more as he back off to try and make use of the advantage of his longsword.

Of course, Elizabeth had been trained in how to deal with both long and short swords as Yrre was proficient with an endless variety of weapons, so she and Tristan engaged in the most physically impressive fight that had taken place thus far. With sparks flying every time they crossed blades and afterimages filling up the arena with all the quick exertions of movement to dodge or attack, even the Beginner and Early Phase Saints that had finished their runs through the Testing Formation had cold sweats as they watched on from the televisions in the waiting area of the arena.