Chapter 57: Mortal-Cup part 2: From dirt to fame.

Chapter 57: Mortal-Cup part 2: From dirt to fame.

Robin (Star Elf) - Peretasha Xitolrta (Dragon Matriarch):

The announcer shouts from their booth, "The second half of the mortal-cup’s stage 1 has begun! The first two who will fight are Robin from Aquila Guild and Peretasha from the dragon tribe and its matriarch!

Now some of you may argue that our dragon matriarch should be in the immortal-cup, but according to Mercy of Absolution, our dear host of the banquet week, she qualifies more to this side of the tournament in terms of power.

Personally, I’d say she goes more for the immortal-cup since, you know, she has been around like forever. But what do I know, right?"

Robin is in her prep room, sharpening her knives. Altair isn’t going to see her off as Altair holds that much trust on her most trusted subordinate.

Peretasha on the other hand is being hounded by Trix.

Trix is in the prep room with Pere and she says "You sure you got this?" in an annoying tone.

Trix even says "You were sent to the mortal-cup cause they think you fit here more. Doesn’t that annoy you?"

Pere stays barely calm as she says "Great Trixtitkitus. I am WELL aware of my abilities and while it DOES annoy me that I’m on this side of the tournament, I HAVE to let it go for the sake of the people."

Then Pere rises up from her bench, grabs Trix by the shoulders with quite a bit of force and says "So please. You don’t need to remind me. I’m not going to disappoint you, great Trixtitkitus. I will most certainly win this side, so you do your best to win your side of the tournament."

Trix just gives a thumbs up and says "Got it" while having a cheeky smile on her face.

Pere has never felt so strong of an urge to punch her patron god to the face, but when the call to the arena was made, she somehow manages to hold on another day for committing blasphemy.

Robin and Pere were now in the arena. Mercy asks them if they are ready, they are. And so they were sent to a field with lots of big and very tall rock foundations.

Robin attacked first by throwing magic infused daggers at Pere, who in turn makes the air pressure itself reflect them.

Robin circles around Pere as Pere just watches Robin do her thing. Pere has yet to open her arms from the crossed state like Re’ût did earlier.

When all the daggers that Robin threw were deflected one after another by Pere, Robin jumped on to the sky and made the daggers cast some sort of tornado between them.

Eventually the daggers started to fly around in a violent manner as the wind itself started to shred the towering stone structures quite a bit.

Pere just says "It does look impressive and you might be able to make a scratch on me if I’m not careful. But I am a mighty dragon matriarch that has lived many of your master’s lifetimes many times over. You never had the chance, so I’ll show you sincerity by doing this."

Then the world crackles started to make their sounds and the tornado began to lose its form. And after the world crackles started to destroy the stones far beyond the previously raging tornado, the world crackles themselves manage to rip Robin to pieces in quite a gruesome manner.

When the world crackles grew silent, the match was over as the area of the pocket realm was now in tatters.

When the two returned to the arena, the cheers were loud and Trix even showed a thumbs up once more when Pere glanced at her.

Robin made a curtsy as she said "It was an honour to have this duel with you, lady Peretasha. Thank you for sending me off in such a grand way."

Pere says, still holding her arms crossed, "Your technique wasn’t bad, you just had a bad first opponent. I’m sure you could have beaten most of this cup’s contestants with that technique. Be proud young star elf."

Robin made a curtsy once more and then left the arena. Pere left soon after.

Robin was then greeted by Altair, who said to her most trusted guild member "You did good kid. Even got an approval from the dragon matriarch. You sure have grown from that little birdie I once saw bumbling around breaking dishes."

Robin chuckless and says "Please don’t remind me of those times, my lady. Do you want something to eat soon?"

Altair says "I’m going to see how old Imus can fare and then we can go."

Robin asks "Do you wish for me to cook, or do you wish for local dishes?"

Altair answers "Whatever you feel is best."

.

Magnus (Magical Construct) - Pinja Lowletr (Human):

The announcer says "Now then ladies, gentleman and gentlefolk. Next match is between a magical construct named Magnus that hails from Elysium and the headmaster of Ronliet Academy Pinja Lowletr. Battle between two mages. Can’t wait!"

Magnus is being met in his prep room by Lud, who asks him "How are you holding up?"

Magnus answers with a proud "I’m in perfect condition, your highness. Do not worry about the results of the match, since I will undoubtedly bring you a shining victory."

Elisia has come to see Magnus off as she says "Now don’t be too hasty. We have yet to see how the human mage fares in battle."

Magnus makes a "humph" sound and says "You are overestimating that human. I have done my calculations beforehand and as long as she isn’t half as good as that empress, then I’m good as gold."

Elisia says "Well, if that is what our future six battalion commander thinks, then who am I to argue. Isn’t that right, my lord?"

Lud laughs a little and says "Be gentle Elisia. We do know that Magnus is a capable mage, but you making those comments makes him act hastily."

Magnus gasps and says "I’d never do such a thing, your highness! I’ll prove to you that sending me to represent the magic division will result in my absolute victory over the so-called ’mortal-cup’!"

Elisia giggles a bit and says "Oh my. We have gotten little Mag all fired up now. We better be careful, my lord."

Lud responds to Elisia with "Right" then turns and looks at Magnus as he says "Just do your best."

Magnus says "You’ve got it, your highness! If I could salute, I’d do that just now to show you my readiness!"

Then the call to the arena is made and Magnus says "Wish me no luck, your highness, for I need none!"

Lud shouts "Go get them!" And then asks Elisia "Do you think he’ll be okay?"

Elisia giggles and says "I think he’ll do fine in this match. As for the others... we will have to wait and see."

Meanwhile Pinja is in her prep room with Zaron. Zaron says to his wife "So... You are up against a magical entity that comes from what we understand as advanced civilization. How do you feel this time, dear?"

Pinja says "Unlike you, I’m eager to prove my magical capabilities to the wider public. I don’t suspect that the power balance between me and my opponent isn’t as big as what you had with your opponent."

Zaron says reassuringly "As long as you don’t lose as fast as I did, then I think you’ll be fine, dear."

The call to the arena was made and Pinja rose up from the bench. As she was leaving, she said to her husband "Mark my words, I’ll make sure not to disappoint people who call Ronliet Academy one of the top institutions in Lutah."

Zaron gives a warm smile as he says "Go get them."

And with that, the two magic invested contestants were standing at the arena. Magnus said to Pinja "Be sure to witness my superiority, human!" To which Pinja responded with "We’ll see about that."

And with the confirmation of their readiness, the two were sent to the pocket dimension that would serve as their battleground.

This time, the battleground looked like a swamp with barely any footholds to stand on. But since both contestants could fly in a way, this wasn’t an issue.

Magnus first tried to freeze the wet ground Pinja was standing on and trapping her, but Pinja managed to jump away and started floating in the air.

Pinja summoned a parrage of fireballs at Magnus, who in turn blocked them with precise barriers that were very cost efficient.

Before Magnus could make another attack, the water around him started to encircle him and soon, the water began to spark with volts of electricity.

Magnus decided to simply teleport behind Pinja, who in turn had planned for that, and placed air mines to where she predicted Magnus would teleport.

Magnus did take some damage to his core, but it wasn’t anything that he could brush off and shift focus to counterattacking instead.

Magnus’ attack was to shoot ice spikes from the rapidly freezing bog.

This attack was a bit of a shock for Pinja and she just barely managed to block the incoming ice spikes.

But just as Pinja was about to make another counter attack, Magnus used telekinesis to catch the broken shards from the ice spikes Pinja blocked and broke those that simply missed her, causing a barrage of small ice fragments to spiral and continually damage Pinja’s magic shield.

Pinja didn’t see an opening for a while and the constant need to keep the magic shield up was draining abnormally much of her mana reserves. This abnormal speed of mana loss came as a surprise for Pinja, since keeping the barrier up normally wouldn’t cost that much.

Then Pinja realized that those small shards of ice that were circling around her had some sort of draining spells impeded on them, which made the situation much more dire for Pinja.

In a last ditch effort to break free from the ice spiral, Pinja stopped pouring mana to her mana shield and once the shield broke, Pinja timed a burst of mana that would push the ice shards far away from her.

At this moment, Pinja summoned a huge stone ball on top of Magnus and sent it falling towards him, which in turn made Magnus laugh a little for something that was made in dire situation but had a simple solution for avoiding it.

But when Magnus tried to teleport away, he somehow couldn’t. In that moment he realized Pinja had casted some sort of jamming spell that made it hard for Magnus to teleport away.

But in that moment, Magnus casted a lightning spell that came falling from the sky at speed which Pinja couldn’t react to, making it a victory that could have easily turn out to his own loss.

When the two were sent back to the arena, the crowd cheered for them as they had been for the whole match.

Pinja just said "I guess I should have casted a spell jamming field on you instead of the teleportation jamming one. A simple mistake."

As Pinja was leaving the arena, Magnus called for her with the words "Hey human! A spell jamming field that would have actually worked on me would have taken much too long for you to make in that situation. The teleportation jamming was the right call. Be proud! For you almost bested the mighty Magnus! The future 6th battalion commander!"

Pinja couldn’t help but smile after that comment and she could leave the arena with dignity.

After both contestants left the arena, the announcer shouted from his booth "Well that was some magic! Not saying that the Empress of Nous empire didn’t show interesting stuff, but this one felt more balanced!

But without further ado, let’s introduce our two next contestants!"

.

Lockman (Human) - Archinsecutor (Angel):

"An explorer from Northolth named Lockman and the Archinsecutor of the holy church! Who are you betting folks?! Archinsecutor might seem like a safe bet, but explorers from Northolth are much more than they sound!"

In the prep room, Arthur and Ernest are talking to Lockman. A man who has a snow white coat that covers his mouth. A man with hair as white as snow and a face that has some weird tattoo-like symbols on it.

Arthur asks Lockman "How are you holding up?"

Lockman whines and says "Too warm. When can we go back?"

Ernest reassures Lockman by saying "You’ll only need to go through the matches and after that, you can go back to Northolth."

Lockman says in full seriousness "So if I lose, I can go home early. Got it."

Ernest stammers a bit and says "That’s not what I..."

Arthur then takes over and says "While I’d prefer to be home also, we must not make our ages long effort go to waste."

Lockman says "Got it. Make the loss look believable."

Arthur says "You will get a bonus if you win the mortal-cup and month long paid vacation."

Lockman says "While the vacation doesn’t suit my taste, a bonus this month sounds enticing."

Arthur asks "So we got ourselves a deal?"

Lockman rises up from the bench, opens up his pure white eyes and says "I will not disappoint the lads and ladies back home."

In Archinsecutor’s prep room, the pope visits her and says "You are up against a troublesome opponent this time Archinsecutor. Do you think you can take him on?"

Archinsecutor says "This matter, while not relating to heresy or evil doers, I’ll make sure it doesn’t taint our image as I’ll come back victorious and show the might of the holy church."

The pope says "Good. But you aren’t permitted to use the last resort."

Archinsecutor responds with "That goes without saying."

With the call to go to the arena, both contestants move and face each other as the audience is watching.

Archinsecutor says to Lockman "Be sure to not use any evil methods in this match, or I’ll come for you for real after the banquet is over."

Lockman responds with "Define the word ’evil’ in this context."

Archinsecutor is a bit taken aback by this, but says nonetheless "Evil is everything that goes against gods."

Lockman opens his eyes for a moment to look, closes them shortly and says "Even the word ’god’ can be used against gods. The definition you brought up applies to anything and everything."

Archinsecutor gets annoyed and spouts "You..."

And then Mercy asks them if they are ready, both say yes, and soon the two contestants find themselves in a city built on a mountainside. The buildings are made with some sort of white stone.

Archinsecutor says "Such a beautiful place. Shame it will be soiled with your blo..."

And before Archinsecutor could finish, Lockman is just about to jab Archinsecutor’s throat with his fingers.

Archinsecutor manages to dodge just in time and shouts "You dare attack in such an evil manner?! My patience is running thin with you!"

With those words, Archinsecutor summons her holy blade and swings an upward attack that slices buildings behind Lockman and even makes some buildings fall to the ocean below.

Archinsecutor then started to attack Lockman repeatedly, but this time, Lockman simply dodged and watched with his eyes.

Archinsecutor noticed that some sort of magic circles were manifesting on the Lockman’s white eyes, both different from each other.

The eyes seemed to change their nature each passing moment, making Archinsecutor uneasy.

Archinsecutor did not know what Lockman was doing with those spells, but she didn’t let it bother her as she continued to attack relentlessly. The town on a cliff began to have much fewer intact houses or streets to stand in.

As the Archinsecutor was about to make another massive attack, suddenly she began unable to move. She could not even speak or breathe, making her panic as Lockman simply stared at her with those white eyes that held two non changing magic circles on them.

Archinsecutor eventually lost by not having the ability to even breathe. And so, Lockman won.

As the contestants were brought back to the arena while the audience cheered, Archinsecutor was gasping for air since she died from the lack of air.

When Lockman began to leave, the Archinsecutor shouted "Wait!" to which Lockman didn’t pay any mind.

Archinsecutor still shouted "What did you do?! What evil spell did you cast on me?! I swear, the hammer will fall upon you if you don’t answer!"

Lockman simply said with telepathy "It was a simple spell."

Archinsecutor could not believe what she heard and in that moment she swore to get to the bottom of this.

.

Marora Riitti (Human) - Imushphen Esshankemer (Transcended Phoenix):

Next match was Marora Riitti and a new face known as Imushphen Esshankemer.

Marora was being pep talked by her husband and fellow wives, while Imus was aurafarming in his prep room while waiting for the call to the arena.

When the two contestants were in the arena, Marora looked like her usual self. But Imus.

Imus had fluffy red hair with yellow hairlines. His hair held some feathers with some of them burning constantly. His eyes had a golden circle around his pupil that looked like suns and the rest of his iris was red as setting dawn.

Imus had armour that only covered his heart and he had a cape that would wave even without the wind present. He barely had pants on, say for cloth and some amour around his crotch. The lack of clothing was clearly meant to show off his amazing physique, that wasn’t as far as a bodybuilder, but it was definitely buff.

Imus had a constant smile on his face and he often was seen holding his arms crossed as he was a competitive aura farmer.

And on a side note. Imus is aspec.

Marora and Imus were sent to a pocket dimension that looked something that is best described as slums.

Marora took up her sword and Imus said to her in a loud voice "Attack me. If you dare."

Marora responded with "Okay then" and attacked.

But as soon as the sword got close to Imus’ skin, it smelted before it could make contact with Imus’ skin. Even the drops of molten metal were turned into gas in that short instance and Marora couldn’t make heads or tails about the situation.

One would question "If the heat was so great, why didn’t Marora feel it much earlier?" To which the answer is simple. Imus simply contains his heat in a thin layer around him. The heat doesn’t spread anywhere else and is thus always a surprise to Imus’ opponents.

Marora stares at her sword, then Imus, then her sword, then Imus again.

Imus says loudly "Well adversary? Not going to attack again?"

Marora just says "I... don’t know how to proceed from here. I’ll just quit."

Imus smirks and chuckless a bit. "It is a wise choice. For someone who relies on one weapon alone cannot proceed after their weapon of choice isn’t efficient enough."

And thus ended the match between Marora and Imus. The audience was as confused as Marora. But those who knew Imus beforehand, expected this sort of outcome.

.

Impendus (Dragon) - Brutus Lidweg (Ancient Dragon):

The announcer says to bring out the hype again "W-well... The next match will be a match between two dragons! One reclusive master who has lived in the lower realm for 4000 years, and one from Elysium who is their strongest dragon yet! Impendus and Brutus!"

Impendus was in the prep room where Pere came to visit. Impendus, a red haired and red coloured leather suit, asked Pere "Well well well... To what do I owe this pleasure? Matriarch Peretasha."

Pere says "I’m honestly surprised that you can have a straight face when talking to me after all this time. What is with the name ’Impendus’? Didn’t the name your father gave you satisfy you, Loproyun Tektmokt?"

Impendus says "I think my current name suits me better than what those losers gave me."

Pere just says "You seriously haven’t gotten over Yuyuiliyp, have you."

Impendus makes a "humph" sound and says "That person has nothing to do with why I’m going with the name Impendus. But since you brought it up, is she also in the audience watching my upcoming triumph?"

Pere facepalms and says "Look. You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone. Just be yourself for once."

Impendus brushes his hair a bit and says "I am being me. Can’t you see?"

Then the call to the arena comes and Impendus says "It appears it is time to show the world what I’m made of."

Pere says as Impendus leaves "Just don’t embarrass yourself any further."

Brutus meanwhile is being hounded by Angie. A woman who has antler-like horns, white hair and an eastern style dress that isn’t too hard to move in. Brutus’ wife.

Angie says "You go there and beat that motherfucker’s ass, or there won’t be dinner later."

Brutus counters with "But I can just go buy some street food then, so that wouldn’t be an issue."

Angie grabs Brutus by the ear and says "You talking back to me again? You ready to dishonour Elysium by losing to some recluse dragon with no life?"

Brutus says "I was going to go all out anyways, but why do you diss a fellow dragon like that?"

Angie lets go of Brutus’ ear, crosses her arms and says "Heard some rumours about him. He is a showoff nobody who lives in a place as so called *guardian dragon’ when all there is in the area is some bears and flying monkeys."

Brutus asks "Seriously?"

Angie then continues "Also heard from his ex-girlfriend that he couldn’t last that long while mating."

Brutus feels bad for the guy and says "Damn."

Then the call for the arena came and Brutus didn’t have it in him to decimate the guy.

Both dragons entered the arena, they were sent to a place filled with floating islands and the battle was going to be done in their dragon forms while in flight.

To say the battle was legendary would be calling fireworks a nuke. It was fierce, but you could feel the difference in power even for the audience.

Needless to say, the match ended in Brutus’ victory.

.

Melek (Abyssan) - Brinnie La Ilinos (Elf):

The announcer shouts "Well then... Now it is time for our next match. Melek, an abyssan mage vs. Brinnie La Ilinos, who is one of the many guild masters of the middle realms!

Do note that we had planned to have the so-called ’actual guild master of the middle realm’ named Lotus Bloom be the contestant in today’s event, but we haven’t been able to come in contact with said individual. And hence, little elf Brinnie will be her substitute! Let’s see if the guild master has the guts to face a renowned mage from the abyss!"

Meanwhile Brinnie is in the prep room tapping her foot on the ground in frustration. She talks to herself ""Why did you leave Lotus? Why did you bring me here and face an actual abyssan? Did you plan for this? If I find out that you just chickened out after finding out who would have been your opponent, I’m going to submit my resignation letter that I have been holding onto for a while."

Melek, an abyssan mage who has a fly face and four fly-like arms that do have "fingers" of some sort. He is sitting tightly on the bench, salivating for the opponent he’ll be having to face soon.

Re’ût is there with him, who says to Melek with his middle dragon face "I hope that you understand our position here, sir Melek. We are not to cause unnecessary harm to our already fragile reputation."

Melek wipes the saliva from his mouth and says "Relax sir Re’ût. A little taste for the aether filled life wouldn’t hurt anybody."

Re’ût stays firm and says "Listen sir Melek and listen well. If you harass any of the people here, I’ll make sure duke Pûrkäts will have you reinstated elsewhere."

The call to the arena was sent and Melek raises from the bench and begins to leave without a word.

Re’ût takes a hold of Melek’s shoulder before Melek leaves and says "If duke Pûrkäts puts a bounty on your head once more, I’ll make sure to bring out my sword next time I catch you."

Melek just brushes off Re’ût’s hand, grabs his staff that was leaning on the wall and says before he leaves "I’ll do what we abyssans were born to do. If that conflicts with duke Pûrkäts interests, then our facade of unity had no reason to form in the first place."

As Melek leaves the room, Re’ût just mutters with his left dragon head "I hope that it won’t come to that."

Soon, Melek and Brinnie were in the arena and they soon found themselves in some castle grounds of some sorts.

Melek then said "Hope you won’t be a bore" as he summoned pure white fireballs that had black core flames in them at Brinnie.

Brinnie dodged and started to shoot Melek with arrows that had lots of force behind them. Even the winds shifted as they collided with Melek’s magic barrier.

Brinnie noticed that the flames that were left behind Melek’s fireballs were still burning on many surfaces where the flames spread.

In fact, the flames grew and grew even though there wasn’t seemingly anything to fuel them.

Brinnie thought that it must be magic that Melek was giving to the flames that made the flames grow and spread continually.

Brinnie didn’t have much other choice but to use her most powerful arrow to push through Melek’s barrier.

So Brinnie took a proper stand on top of the castle walls and prepared her shot. The flames that burned grew bigger and bigger and Brinnie didn’t know if she was going to make it in time.

The flames reached her and the agony they brought was excruciating, but Brinnie was just about to shoot her shot, so she had to endure.

As the flame burned her skin and the wind bellowing around her swirled, Brinnie was finally ready to shoot her most powerful arrow.

And so, Brinnie shot the arrow that shredded the whole castle ground to bits and pieces. Even the stone walls didn’t manage to stand after Brinnie’s powerful shot.

But the flames didn’t stop. Barely being able to hear, Brinnie managed to hear Melek laugh as he walked towards her as if the flames weren’t there.

Melek said "You were close, little missy. But too bad."

When Brinnie got another look just before her eye burned away, she saw that only Melek’s right side was missing and his clothes tattered.

Brinnie thought in her mind "Well. It was worth a shot."

And then the flames stopped with the snap of Melek’s "fingers". The battle wasn’t over yet.

Melek fell to his knees and began to spout vomit of some kind on top of Brinnie. If Brinnie could still feel, she would feel like acid was poured on top of her.

Melek began to feed.

The audience was disgusted by Melek’s actions and demanded the end of the match as Brinnie wasn’t able to continue anyways.

The crew let Melek do his thing for a while longer before ending the match and bringing them back to the arena.

The audience booed at Melek, who had a smirk on his face as stuff was thrown at him. Melek then shouted as he was leaving "They don’t call me Melek the Foul for nothing!"

And so, the match ended in Melek’s victory. Tarnishing the fragile reputation that abyssan already had in the realms.

Lud asked Mätuk who was on his shoulder to watch both Re’ût’s and Melek’s matches "Are all abyssan’s like that?"

Mätuk answered "Hardly. Though some may argue that that is the way an abyssan should act, as you saw in Valth’zar, there are modest abyssan as well."

Lud asks "Like Ult?"

Mätuk answers "Mä’ytor. She was an interesting person to talk to as a familiar of Maumar."

.

Mercury (Star Elf) - Jamos Las Metiko (Beast Folk):

The announcer shouts "Listen here dear audience! Next up is a battle between the Shepherd of Worlds Mercury and the 2nd Sword-Saint of Rucksta Jamos Las Metiko! One travels far and wide to mend relationships, the other is a mentor to many of the swordsmen of Rucksta! How will it fair out?! Which one kicks the other one’s ass?! Let’s find out!"

Mercury, a blond haired star elf woman who has eight pointed star eyes, says to Algol who is visiting her "So you come to talk to me again huh. Asking me to find another colony of abyssal monsters perhaps?"

Algol says bluntly "Oh please. I’m here to tell you not to embarrass our race in the battle against some sword saint from a backwater kingdom."

Mercury says "I will not tolerate you mocking them. As racist as they may be, they still are a fellow race under the umbrella of stars."

Algol says "You say that as if you don’t have any words to throw at them as well."

Mercury says "I do have some choice words I have for them, yes. That much is true. But I don’t think I need to repeat anything that the lesson gods gave them should have encompassed."

Algol scoffs and says "Just go and do your thing, little mender of worlds."

Mercury jabs at Algol by saying "Got it. As your only childhood friend, I’ll do just that, oh great mother complex supreme."

Algol makes a humph sound as Mercury is leaving just as the call to the arena is made.

Meanwhile Jamos is sharpening his blade in contemplation. He has ears of a hound and he has fur all over his body.

When Jamos was watching the match between Etiri and Yi, he saw what true swordsmen can be made of once more in his old age. And it wasn’t only that, when he watched Yi leave the arena, he got to glance at someone much younger than himself but still much more skilled in the art of the sword.

Lamba, a young arrogant sword saint who has wool as hair and chesthair, asks Jamos "What’s the matter, old man? Getting cold feet?"

Jamos doesn’t stop sharpening his blade as he says "It is not the feet that are cold in me. It is the hands that feel so out of place for me after all these years of failing to achieve the level I wanted to reach."

Lamba sighs and says "I keep telling you. If the 2nd place doesn’t feel right for you, just accept the vacant 1st place already. The only reason I don’t take it is because I don’t give a rat’s ass about these numbers. Heck, I’m 10th place only because it is the bare minimum you wanted me to reach."

Jamos says, still sharpening his blade "Your skill far surpasses mine, and you know it. Yet you don’t pull yourself to reach those heights that might even surpass Weiss herself."

Lamba says "What is so cool about that bitch anyways. She defected to the human side anyways, so there is no way she is that special."

This makes Jamos stop sharpening his blade, but before he can scold his star pupil, the call to the arena is made and he leaves the scolding for later.

As Jamos is leaving, he says to his star pupil "Don’t let allegiances cloud the respect you should have for others."

And so, Mercury and Jamos are at the arena and are then sent to a snow field.

Jamos raises his sword respectfully and says "Angard"

Mercury jumps to the air and begins to fly. While she is flying, she attacks with her feet that have been armoured for these types of attacks.

As Jamos’ blade and Mercury’s legs collide, sparks begin to fly all around the snowfield.

As the two fight, the snowfield begins to form an artpiece that could capture a very essence of respect in some sense.

Of course, those brushes in the snow are all done by Jamos, who is the one who has no flight abilities.

As Jamos’ blade swings and Mercury’s kicks hit him, the battle is soon won by a knockout.

Mercury wins.

.

Noir Lumière (Caith-sith) - Lamba (Beast Folk):

Lamba watched the battle from his own prep room, and when he saw that the old hound lost, he sighed and muttered "How foolish of that old hound. There clearly were openings in that elf’s kicks if he would have just played a little dirty. What a disappointment."

Noir is being spoken to by her colleagues from the P.S.E. like Tania and Sishisi.

Sishisi says to Noir with enthusiasm "Just blow that bastard’s head off with your magic like usual!"

Tania says to Sishisi "Now now. We both know that Noir specializes in analysis more than actual combat."

Sishisi then says quite loudly "Then why the heck was she put in this tournament in the first place? Who could attack such a cute cat like her?"

Tania facepalms a little and then says "You do know she has a lycanthrope type form right?"

Sishisi is astonished as she says "She has? Well why haven’t I seen it yet?"

Noir says to Sishisi "Oh you have seen it. You just didn’t recognize me back then."

Sishisi says "Then show me and so I can tell."

Noir transforms into a short woman with short black hair and a witch’s hat. She also has whiskers.

Sishisi points at Noir and shouts "So it was YOU!"

Noir then summons her staff that she uses in her lycanthrope form and says "Now now. No need to be so surprised. I have my whiskers in this form, so you should have been able to tell, no?"

Sishisi says "But no one ever told me that you had that kind of form. How was I supposed to know?"

Noir bonks Sishisi with her staff lightly and says "We did tell you once in passing, but you were face deep in pudding."

Sishisi "Oh. Oh! Well that explains it. Honestly, you could have repeated it later. You know how much I focus on pudding."

Noir says "Your response back then was ’oh wow. didn’t know that’ and then you continued eating. So yeah, we should have seen this coming Tania."

Tania responds "Yeah."

Then the call to the arena is made and Noir waves at Tania and Sishisi as she leaves. She also says "Wish me luck."

The two contestants in the arena were soon sent to a pocket dimension that looked like an abandoned arena.

Lamba said to Noir "Let’s get this over with, kid."

Noir responds "I’m pretty confident I’m older than you."

And so the dance of sword and magic commenced.

Noir sent out a barrage of spells meant to destroy her opponent, but Lamba was too quick for the spells to land properly.

Lamba even cut through some spells like they were made of butter, making Noir worried for a moment.

Noir then turned to earth type spells that come from the ground itself. She tried to trap Lamba and burn him to a crisp like he would have been on a furnace, but Lamba simply cut through the rock with his sword and mocked Noir by saying "Is that seriously all you’ve got? If you don’t have any more interesting tricks, then let’s end this already."

As Lamba charged at Noir, Noir did use her last resort spell that would blow the whole arena to smithereens. This required Noir to use all her mana and cancel out any spells she might have on her, so shielding herself wasn’t an option.

Nevertheless, Noir commenced her attack "Perishing flare" and soon the whole arena disappeared with her magic.

The audience looked intently at the screen that showed what was happening to see the results. Eventually it came clear that while Noir was no longer alive in the pocket dimension, Lamba was just heavily injured from the blast.

The match ended in Lamba’s victory.

After the two contestants were brought back to the real arena and received their cheers, Lamba said to Noir "You pretty crazy, you know that? You’re pretty lucky this wasn’t a real battle or you would have lost your life for nothing."

Noir simply smiled as she was walking away and said "If it was for the people of Elysium, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it for real."

Lamba looked at Noir’s back in annoyance, scoffed and left the arena while saying "Whatever, kid."

.

Ilkokli (qUp) - Macabra (Chimera):

The announcer then said to the audience "Well that was an interesting battle, but guess what, the next match is going to be pretty special! We have a rare race from the dream realm named Ilkokli and a strange humanoid chimera named Macabra! One looks like a prepubescent child who can float and the other undoubtedly looks like a mishmash of races!

According to the records I have on me right now, Ilkokli resembles an elf-like child. She has green eyes and silver hair. Pretty basic stuff.

Macabra on the other hand, oh boy does the description tell a story!

Macabra was originally a human who had multiple operations done to her in order to create the first ever hybrid creature, also known as chimera.

Macabra has a dwarven stomach and liver, horns of three different dragons, four ears, two of which are high elves and two moon elves. She also has eyes of a snow elf, mouth of a succubus and nose organs from a legendary beastfolk I’ve been told. She has a human nose, but the organs are... you get the picture.

And get this, on her forehead she has a coveted special organ from cryzalian. How crazy is that?!

She also has some strange obsidian like stones on her skin that poke out from here and there. Who knows what those are all about.

There is also a scorpion-like tail on her and she has some snake-like teeth that hold very potent poison, though she apparently can keep her snake fangs inside and protrude them pretty easily when she needs them. And yes, even though her mouth is that of a succubus, she has a long tongue that spits somewhere in the middle.

Apparently the operations that put those things on her have healed in a way that she looks like she was born with all of the said things.

I wonder if she has some other crazy things hidden on her!"

Meanwhile Macabra is sitting patiently on a bench in her prep room, waiting for the call to the arena to come. She has mostly dark violet hair on her, but some parts of her hair have blue, red and pink lines on it. They change as time goes on, though not visibly. Her hair is also pretty long.

Mercy comes and says to her "It really has been a while Maca. How have you been?"

Maca keeps her eyes closed and brushes the dark violet side of her hair from her face and says to Mercy "I’ve been better. I would be better if I didn’t have the need to come here."

Mercy says "But you came here anyway after the invitation."

Maca stays silent.

Mercy then says "I was really hoping you would have come to one of the parties that we held in the castle."

Maca says as she shakes her tail "You know I don’t like those kinds of things."

Mercy laughs a little and says "You are right. I do know that. But this time it would have meant more to me if you had come."

Maca says "I take it it has something to do with your rumored engagement."

Mercy answers "Pretty much. We have the same blood after all."

Maca says "So how strong is the urge to kill me now? Still having trouble?"

Mercy says "It is pretty tame. I barely even notice it anymore."

Maca says "Sounds great."

Then the call to the arena came and Maca rose from her bench.

Mercy says before Maca could leave "You know I’m sorry that I’m pushing you like this, right?"

Maca responds by saying "I know. We are one and the same, after all. Both victims of defilement."

Mercy has a weak smile and she mutters to herself "Yeah. Whereas I chose this, you didn’t."

Ilkokli had a slight talk with Samael before the call to the arena came.

Ilkokli said to her old friend "Sam-sam! You are here! It is good to see you again! Still holding on?"

Samael responds "Ye-yes... No... no?... Yes... Yes, I’m holding on. Hard it is, but used to it by now. You going to fight this time? That is why I’m here, am I not?"

Ilkokli says "Yeah. I’m about to head to fight some humanoid chimera type of creature. I wonder what she’ll look like."

Samael responds "Yes... yes, probably pretty, she’ll be. Like one of the badaddeeis in the dream world."

Ilkokli giggles and says "Yeah, those things are ~cute. I hope she’ll be one of the cute ones and not the baddie ones."

Samael responds "Yes... ye-yes... I think she is good... cute one. If she wasn’t, why would she be at this... party?"

ilkokli giggles once more and says "You dumdum. This is a tournament. We will fight each other, remember?"

Samael says "Ah... AH... Me too? I don’t remember... sorry, I forgot."

Ilkokli stammers "No no no! You won’t fight me. I’m going to fight the chimera girlie."

The call to the arena comes and Ilkokli says to Samael "Now you better not get lost this time. Watch me do some amazing things in this match! You hear me, Sam-sam?"

Samael responds "No... no... yes?... Yes... yes I’ll stay here and wait for you... Here, I’ll watch the... thingy and... you do... amazing things?"

Ilkokli facepalms and says "Oh boy what will I do with you. But I’ll be going now. Stay safe."

Samael shouts "G-go! Go get them... badaddeeis?"

Soon Ilkokli and Maca get to the arena and the audience is awestruck by Maca’s beauty. Even though she is a chimera and originally a human, not a single person can call her unattractive. The racists from the middle realm, even though knowing she was born a human, can’t help but feel a little attraction towards her.

Ilkokli also says before Mercy asks for their readiness "On my ~gosh! You look so pretty! I bet you make many women jealous!"

Maca responds with a bow and "Thank you for the compliment."

Mercy tries to ask for their readiness, but Ilkokli talks over her "What sort of beauty products do you use? I bet it is some expensive stuff. Oh! Or maybe you use some magic to keep yourself pretty! Which is an awesome use for it, I must say."

Maca responds with another bow and "Thank you for the compliment."

Mercy tries to ask for their readiness again, but Ilkokli says "Oh oh! You won’t mind if I make a dream connection with you, right?! I totally want to see all the things you..."

Mercy makes a loud "Ahem!" and Ilkokli realizes she has blabbered quite a bit. Ilkokli awkwardly says to Mercy "Go... go on ahead."

Mercy asks for the contestants’ readiness and when it has been confirmed that both are ready, they are sent to some ruined city buried by sand and time.

Ilkokli scouts a little and jammers "Wow wow! This place looks awesome! So much to see! A spooky vibe even though it’s sunny. Uuh! Oh what would I do to explore all of this!"

Maca says to Ilkokli "May we begin, lady Ilkokli?"

Ilkokli gets all embarrassed and says "Ah haa... Calling me a lady... You are making me blush... Ah! I almost forgot what we were here for. Sure, let’s start."

Maca then says "Then apologies for what I’m about to do."

Maca opens her eyes and they show a sky blue glow after the sun hits her eyes. Ilkokli can’t help but feel a bit mesmerized.

Then Maca says three words to activate her technique. "Upon Comes the Void"

And with those words, the area around Maca begins to vanish rapidly like they were turning invisible. But they undoubtedly were becoming "void".

Ilkokli stammers and wonders what she could do, so she shoots a few fireballs at Maca, which just gets swallowed by the "void field" as soon as they enter the range.

As the "void field" looms closer and closer, Ilkokli can’t help but shed a tear and asks "What am I supposed to do in this kind of situation?!"

And before you know it, Ilkokli becomes nothing and Maca wins the match.

When the two contestants returned to the arena, everyone was excited to know what sort of technique Maca used in that match, to which Maca simply responded by not giving an answer.

But before Maca could leave, she said to Ilkokli "Lady Ilkokli. I apologize but I would rather not have you see in my dreams." And with that Maca left the arena.

.

Ren Yiteck (Human) - Potik (Dwarf):

The Ren and Potik match was nothing special. A human knight who hid their face and a dwarf boasting the superiority of his race.

Potik used some sort of mechanical contraption that he piloted, whereas Ren used a simple sword.

While Ren didn’t have the strength to cut through the mech, it was easy to attack its weak points, which was its joints. And with the joints damaged, the mech fell.

Potik tried a last ditch effort to beat a human knight with his trusty hammer, but for Ren who had seen many battles, it was a similar experience she had with goblins.

.

And thus ends the Mortal-Cup 1st stage.

The contestants of the Mortal-Cup 2nd stage are as follows:

Faust Ilumnos (Demigod) - Tiara Culling (Transcended Human)

Synthia Altrenas (Deadman) - Algol (Transcended Star Elf)

Etiri Yuinli (God Chosen Human) - Re’ût Ekt Ömmash (Transcended Abyssan)

Peretasha Xitolrta (Dragon Matriarch) - Magnus (Magical Construct)

Lockman (Human) - Imushphen Esshankemer (Transcended Phoenix)

Brutus Lidweg (Ancient Dragon) - Melek (Abyssan)

Mercury (Star Elf) - Lamba (Beast Folk)

Macabra (Chimera) - Ren Yiteck (Human)