Delighting in the hopeless atmosphere she caused both in the compet.i.tor and spectator areas alike, Elizabeth waited patiently for the interviewer to see her for the fifth time. When he finally made it over to her block in the compet.i.tor"s area, the interviewer asked, "Ms. Ultimatia… Are you a Martial Saint?"Not at all hesitating, Elizabeth said, "Nope. I"m a Peak Phase Warrior."
"I see… So, how would you, as a pract.i.tioner in the Warrior Stage, go about subjugating King Stage Beasts… and above?" At this point, the interviewer was just asking what everyone else wanted to know. He wasn"t even thinking about making the topics having any relation to Beast Taming or the Event.
"Oh, that? Since I was allowed to use any and all methods, I just forced them all to submit after thoroughly overpowering them in the field~" Finding the whole exchange hilarious, Elizabeth spoke candidly as she sought to antagonize everyone that kept annoying her.
With questions being thrown and answer in rapid-fire succession, the interviewer had time for one more question. So, without thinking, he asked, "You overpowered Beasts one to two Stages more advanced than you?" The skepticism in his voice was impossible for even Elizabeth to ignore.
"Yeah, you know, using various uh… martial abilities and my weapons and armor. Oh, and the contracting abilities of a Beast Tamer of course..." While she technically wasn"t lying, it was a stretch to designate her various spells as "martial abilities."
"Ok then… that"s all the time we have for this interview. But, just by looking at your current party strength, it"s hard to imagine you losing first place. So… I guess I"ll be talking to you soon again..." As the interviewer left the arena stage, he waved Elizabeth a helpless goodbye.
Then, the announcer came back to address the arena, saying, "Moving on to the third and Final Stage, the Battle Stage, compet.i.tors have already been grouped up by the power of their Tamed Beasts. Those who"s rankings are too close to call, can ask for a battle, and if a compet.i.tor feels they might have a shot at beating compet.i.tors above their grouping, they can request for an additional battle."
On the large TV screen, after the interview concluded, a large chart which a.s.sessed the combined power of a compet.i.tor"s Tamed Beast party started scrolling up from the lowest 100th place to where Elizabeth stood in first place.
From the 100th to 75th place, the first group of compet.i.tors was made of only single p.a.w.n Stage parties. 74th to 53rd was made up of single Beginners to Mid Phase Soldier Stage parties. 52nd to 33rd place was made up of Late and Peak Phase Soldier Stage parties. 32nd to 20th place was made up of mostly single Beginner Pase Warrior Stage parties, but at this point, some of the compet.i.tor parties possessed two Tamed Beasts. 19th to 12th place was made up of Early and Mid Phase Warrior Stage Tamed Beasts. 11th to 3rd place saw a spectrum of up to the Beginner Phase of the King Stage. And last but not least, the runner up and Elizabeth as current first place holder each had groups made up of only one person; their parties strength utterly outcla.s.sing all those below them.
This last Stage truly became a sad sight for Elizabeth as absolutely no one dared to challenge her. Even the runner up had his ego under wraps at the thought of having his two Late Phase King Stage Highsnow Leopards coming into contact with Elizabeth"s Saint Stage Frigid Beastly Tiger. Not to mention, her Peak Phase King Stage Bear Beast which could probably stand its ground against his entire party, the Saint Stage Beast would end it all before it even began…
As was the case, Elizabeth could only concentrate on cultivating her hidden potential off the arena grounds as the various other compet.i.tors who felt they had a shot at transcending their initial rank held a series of battles on the stage. Off to the side of the action, Elizabeth only kept her Clearlight Sparrow snugly fitted between her crossed legs as she cultivated, as she didn"t have any thoughts on developing the other beasts she had tamed.
The other beasts, not knowing the miraculous benefits her supplementary Grandmist Magic, only did as they were told and lazily guarded Elizabeth in wait for what their overlord might ask of them in the future. The Clearlight Sparrow, however, didn"t nonchalantly disregard this golden opportunity as it greedily absorbed as much of Elizabeth"s grandmist energy as its frail body could handle without imploding.
For a grand total of thirty minutes, Elizabeth stood in perpetual meditation as the matches on the arena stage raged on. In that time, she cultivated her hidden potential to 5% overall completion and the Clearlight Sparrow had its many golden feathers develop in saturation as its bloodline further purified. Alas, now that it was hatched and tainted by the foul air of the mortal world, Grandmist"s effects would be dampened to the point where it would take double the energy to see half the results it would have achieved had it not hatched prematurely.
Still, as Elizabeth could see the little bird she had nurtured in such a short time grow so quickly, she thought it to be the only Beast she would keep alongside her the moose that had been left over with Yrre and the yet to be born Demonic Beast Egg. With the moose on the ground and the bird in the air Elizabeth was set for two of the three main environments for battle; only a position for an aquatic Tamed Beast was missing.
Eventually, all the final rankings were established within no one in the top three moving from their spots. The announcer once again came back after the Stage concluded and explained what the rewards were for the final rankings. From 100th to 50th place, the only thing awarded was the prestige of making it this far into the Event. 49th to 11th place were given a voucher they could use to heal up their Tamed Beasts for free if they had been harmed whilst fighting in the Battle Stage.
10th to 6th place were given a chance to pick up precious coaxing materials that could improve the success rate of taming techniques that didn"t rely on force or submission. Similar to the Forging Stage, those ranking in the top five were given double the aforementioned rewards, each higher-ranking compet.i.tor receiving rewards one factor greater than the person ranked lower than them. Since the Taming Princess and Felix Lindberg — along with everyone else in the top 25, aside from Elizabeth — were of the Taming Frontier Faction, the rewards for third place and runner up were essentially worthless to those ending up in that position.
However, to Elizabeth, who was still relatively inexperienced in the ways of the advanced Beast Taming, she received the opportunity to learn any of the methods offered within the Martial Society — the same reward offered to the Taming Princes who took third place. Additionally, with another Demon t.i.tle for becoming Taming Beast Champion, Elizabeth also matched the runner up"s reward of receiving her very own Beginner Phase Saint Stage Beast Guardian. Though, if it were up to her, she could do without another Saint Stage Beast; especially since she was trying to get rid of her own, even more powerful, Early Phase Saint Stage Tiger Beast…
Savoring the helpless dejection of the crowd around her, Elizabeth smiled as she awaited the interviewer. Seconds after the rewards for the Beast Taming Event were disclosed, the announcer appeared once more before her, this time asking, "Haha… I-it"s not very often that you see a pract.i.tioner take two different champion positions within the same tournament year. Anyway, what do you plan to do now?" He literally couldn"t come up with anything else to ask.
Yet, this question was the ultimate self-destruct b.u.t.ton none of the people listening in expected to set off… In a manner so nonchalant it couldn"t be interpreted as anything but supreme arrogance, Elizabeth said, "Well, after I finish here, I still have a couple more events to attend before the final Martial Tournament takes place at night~"
By now, the interviewer was over Elizabeth"s perpetual cycle of shock. He only required a second to breathe before he asked, "I guess my last question would then be: What other events do you plan to attend..."
"Let"s see… After this, it"s the Medical Event, then there"s a short break as I don"t practice Alchemy. But after that, I"ll attend the Cooking and Enchanting Events before my next break comes when the Formations Event arrives. Naturally, I"ll also fight in the Martial Tournament at the end of the day~"
"G-good luck, then..." The interviewer ended the interview on a mellow note, as he couldn"t think of anything other than how long of a day it would be if Elizabeth"s performance stayed at its current level through each of the Events she was due to partake in.
Waving the interviewer away for what felt like the millionth time today, after the Beast Taming Event came to a close, Elizabeth followed her peers in the compet.i.tion to redeem her rewards. As Champion, it didn"t come as a surprise that she was given the honor of redeeming her rewards first as the compet.i.tors, like it or not, had to respect her abilities.