After twenty-four hours had passed, a white round portal appeared in front of every beast and nymph.Their hearts were filled with palpitations as well as excitement and fear.
Those who were excited were naturally the strong ones who wanted to prove themselves. As for the ones who were afraid, they were the weak ones who did not want anything to do with the power struggle.
“Let’s enter it.”
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to establish my dominance.”
“I wonder what is beyond the white portal.”
Many words were heard by Dian and the others who were supervising the entire event.
Then, as expected, the strong ones entered the portal while the weak remained in their current position. The weak could feel the presence of the strong through the portal, so they did not even dare to enter it.
Then, after some time, the portal disappeared and that also meant the first qualification for participating in the tournament of power. Only those who were confident in their power or those truly strong were present in the tournament space.
-
Inside the tournament space. Around the rectangular arena.
Several strong beasts and nymphs were standing on the outer edge of the arena. It was because entering the arena meant being the first one to be registered and they did not know exactly who they were going to be matched with.
But then a brave nymph went to the arena and stood there.
“I am known as the Adamant Nymph because I gain sentience as an Adamant Ore. Oh, esteemed spirit and Father God, how are things going to be decided?”
Then the Cerulean Planet Spirit appeared right in the air above the arena. Along with her, Dian and the others also appeared in their manifestation form.
“Well, since you are the first one to climb up, you will be battling against that beast over there.” Dian said while his voice boomed out in the tournament space.
Dian pointed out one of the beasts under Tyrannosaurus Sovereign Beast.
“And this is the list of the contestants. Your foe has been decided through some means, and so, prepare yourself.” Leif said while willed for the arena to be separated into nine smaller arenas.
Then a large screen appeared on one side of the tournament space. There, even the beasts and nymphs could read and understand that their names were being written there as well as their foe.
Not only that but the nine smaller arenas were actually numbered so they could know where they should fight.
The space that separated the nine arenas was filled with spatial layers folded in a way that would not let things inside go out so easily.
Then the participants became restless since they found out that there was a barrier separating them and their foes. It was a similar mechanism from the Individual Duel Dian had seen so he just needed to incorporate it into this tournament.
“There will be a countdown before the fight begins. After the countdown reaches zero, the barrier separating the arena will disappear, and you who are in the arena can fight freely. No holds barred.” Dian said.
Hearing that, the beasts and nymphs were excited. Some sea beasts were enveloped by the seawater bubbles whenever they moved. This was considered to be an inclusive event for them too so that there would not be complaints about excluding them in this tournament of power.
As for the rest, they were under their usual circumstances during their lives.
“The qualification round will begin. Please be prepared to fight.”
“If you shout ‘I surrender!’ you will be considered forfeiting the match. If you are too late to announce these words, well, sorry to say but these are the rules. Furthermore, the fight will be going until a certain number of beasts and nymphs remain. If there is no further question, we can begin the fight.
“Fight in three, two, one…”
“Fight!” The Cerulean Planet Spirit became the judge as well as the one who ensured the participants' safety.
The aura of the beasts and nymphs was unleashed in full but the space separating them made sure that it would not affect the other part of the arena.
Then the first clash happened and some of the foe was defeated instantly. This was a one-sided massacre in which the beasts and the nymphs were trying to get the title of the strongest one in the wilderness.
For the beasts, the moment of their defeat was when their bodies turned into corpses from which the blood flowed, filling the arena ground. For the nymphs, their defeat was the moment when their cores were destroyed, and they lost their spirituality. They became a dead carcass of their former glorious selves.
Life lost in the tournament space was quite a lot but it only fueled the savagery and the intense desire to reach the top for them.
Then, after more than half were eliminated, whether by forfeiting or being killed, there were thousands remaining.
These were the top beasts and nymphs. Some of them were even the noted Sovereign Beasts and Thearch Nymphs.
Time passed, and more than a day had passed inside the tournament space.
From the thousands of participants, most forfeited for fear of being killed or because they were too lucky for their own good.
“The remaining are the ones who can be called strong in their own league.” Dian commented.
“I’d like to see what makes them so special myself.” Leif added.
“Do you hear that? The Father God and the Artisan God have spoken. So let us see whether you are truly strong or just below others.”
“Waah!”
“For honor and glory!”
The beasts and the nymphs knew this concept due to sometimes watching the humans and the other races interacting from afar.
“Then let’s battle things out to prove to the others and yourself who is superior.” The Cerulean Planet Spirit said while nodding her head in agreement.
Then the battle between the strong truly began. This time, it was not a one-sided battle but a battle to truly reach the peak, and every participant who remained gave their all.
The Adamant Thearch Nymph was one such participant, facing the Acidic Slime, which could melt even mineral ore. The battle could be summed up in one word: brutal.
For every hit to the Acidic Slime, the Adamant Thearch Nymph had to experience part of his body melting to the point of damaging some of his core fighting strength. But the result was the Acidic Slime's death when its core was thoroughly destroyed.
“Hm…” the Adamant Thearch Nymph hummed but still paid respect to his opponent for trying their hardest. That was life, and he had accepted that part of the life cycle.
But the flashiest battle was between a Sea Sovereign Beast and the Hundred-year-old willow tree.
The Sea Sovereign Beast used the bubble of seawater as its method of attacking, causing the willow tree to struggle with it. But it did not mean the willow tree just took a beating without countering.
It covered the sky with its canopy, while the ground was covered with its roots. The willow tree also launched its counterattack against the Sea Sovereign Beast. The Sea Sovereign Beast, which was a mutated Kleos, caused a whirlpool of seawater around itself.
Then a hum could be heard from the Kleos, causing the seawater to compress the trunk of the willow tree. At the same time, the roots and the branches of the willow tree moved to the body of Kleos.
Both wanted to finish the battle as fast as possible but at the same time did not understand the difference between land and sea creatures.
The roots and branches hit the sturdy, armored parts of Kleos while the seawater was partially absorbed by the trunk. Both were astounded but quickly formed a new understanding of each other.
Then the fight turned brutal before the willow tree said in a hasty tone, “I surrender!”
Then the Cerulean Planet Spirit used the barrier for separating the two contestants to separate the attack that came from the Kleos.
The Sea Sovereign Beast then let out something akin to a scream since its mouth was opened wide. Then the seawater surrounding the willow tree receded and returned to the Kleos.
Then the Cerulean Planet Spirit forced the Hundred-year-old willow tree to return to the Cerulean Planet. That was a better choice than death, so it considered itself lucky.
Next, the second most brutal battle was between the Tyrannosaurus Rex Sovereign Beast and the giant Anaconda Sovereign Beast. They were both unfortunate to be met in this qualification round but soon turned into a ferocious fight.
Blood and internal organs were splattered as the two strangled and bit each other. Blood flowed down from their bodies to the arena floor.
But it made them more violent and brutal in their undertaking, so with a bite, the Tyrannosaurus Rex ended the Anaconda by biting its head and crushing it in its jaw.
Then the Tyrannosaurus Rex roared, its head turned up and the entire space quaked. Fortunately, the space separating each arena was reinforced so the voice did not reach the other participant.
After that, the fierce battle between beasts and nymphs continued. The elimination rate decreased due to the fierce fight that only ended in the victory of one side.
As for the losers, most of them died, while the minority decided to surrender. The casualties were enormous but the surviving beasts and nymphs were all fierce characters.
They were then sent outside the arena and realized that their numbers had dwindled. It also meant that the remaining ones were truly powerful and fierce.
From thousands to hundreds.
From hundreds to just 108.
“Now that only a few of you remain, this tournament of power can be said to be entering the last part. There are 108 of you remaining, as you can see.” The Cerulean Planet Spirit said, and the beasts and nymphs remaining were made aware of the mostly empty spectators.
Previously, thousands of them were watching. Now that the numbers had been reduced further, the remaining participants were eager to prove themselves further.
But it did not mean that the non-participating beasts and nymphs were unable to see them after that. No, Dian and the others projected the image of the tournament of power in front of the cognition of the beasts and nymphs alike so that they could keep on watching despite not participating.
As for the reason, it was to make all of them know who the strongest beasts and nymphs were.
Currently, all of the even the forfeited ones could watch what was going on inside the tournament space.
“So strong, when will I be able to become like that?”
“I need to increase my effort and play smart too to be like that.”
Self-comment came from the deepest of their being after watching the fight of the beasts and nymphs.
But now, the tournament had reached the later part of the game where only the strongest and the ruthless ones remained.
There were several renowned figures still in the tournament space. The space let the participant see the starry skies, which, although beautiful, reminded them of how small they were in the face of the skies unknown.
The Sea Sovereign Beast.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex Sovereign Beast.
Adamant Thearch Nymph.
Even the Blue Silver Thearch Nymph, Centipede Sovereign Beast, and the others remained and were ready to battle.
All of them waited for the inevitability of fighting until they forfeited or died. Whatever the case, now the selection and criterion for each remaining participant would be decided slowly at random and then would be matched with the other participant.
The format would be dividing the remaining participants into three divisions. Each division was filled with 36 participants, which meant eighteen pairs.
Then the selected pairs will fight in the arena. There were nine arenas, so there would be twelve sessions where the overall participants had to fight once to screen the numbers.
After each fight, the Cerulean Planet Spirit cleaned the arena from gore and blood. This was so that there would be a clean fight and sterile situation so that each participant could do their best or worst in the arena.
Then the participants either forfeited or died. The tournament of power was proving to everyone that the death of those beasts or nymphs was because of their own inadequacy. They either overestimated themselves or underestimated their opponents, which caused them to be too late to forfeit.
Then the quarterfinal finally happened.
At this time, the match had reached a high fever and everyone watching became strangely excited in their heart.
For the first match, it was actually Adamant Thearch Nymph against the Therizinosaurus Beast. Adamant Thearch Nymph and the Therizinosaurus were both covered in the blood of their foes.
At this time, the arena was once again merged into one large arena like before the beasts and nymphs were taken into the tournament space.
Adamant Thearch Nymph was just like a giant bundle of adamant ore moving, just like a golem. Its body was full of sharp striations, and blood could be seen remaining on the sharp parts of its body.
The Therizinosaurus was covered in blood; from its claws to its body, no part was not covered in blood.
When they climbed the arena and saw each other, killing intent was unleashed from both of them. Clearly, they were ruthless and cunning figures.
“The first quarterfinal of the tournament of power, begin!” the Cerulean Planet Master said before letting the barrier separating the two disappear and both participants moved at the same time.
Terizinosaurus Beast used its tail to sweep away at the Adamant Thearch Nymph’s feet, trying to make it fall. But the Adamant Thearch Nymph was expecting this, so he let the adamant ore flow to its legs, strengthening it.
But the Therizinosaurus Beast then swept its claws at the head, where it was the farthest from the legs; the Adamant Thearch Nymph was caught off guard. The claws were the strongest part of the Therizinosaurus Beast so when it hit the weakest part of the Adamant Thearch Nymph, it managed to injure the Nymph.
Some of the nymph’s head was damaged greatly, letting a small part of its ore be separated from its body.
But at the same time, the Adamant Thearch Nymph used its legs to kick at the exposed Therizinosaurus Beast. The beast could not dodge it either, and it caused the bones of its torso to crack.
The beast and the nymph were screaming in pain. But they were ruthlessly pursuing the additional damage they could cause since this had become a battle of attrition.
But ultimately, after exchanging wounds and injuries, the Adamant Thearch Nymph was proven to be a tough one and managed to turn the beast into minced meat and a gory corpse.
That was one match. In the other match, it was between Tyrannosaurus Rex Sovereign Beast versus the Blue Silver Thearch Nymph.
Once again, the Tyrannosaurus Rex Sovereign Beast was as if plagued by an unlucky streak as he fought against strong foes one after another. But the eyes of the beast were filled with delight and satisfaction of fighting strong opponents.
‘How delightful it is to know so many strong individuals.’ The beast thought so and then praised the Father God for making this happen.
Then the match began, and the beast used its signature move, its jaw, to bite off part of the Blue Silver Thearch Nymph’s body. But the Blue Silver Thearch Nymph formed a moving defensive grass which was strong and resilient.
The beast bit of the grass, but more would obstruct the beast's advancement. Then the Blue Silver Thearch Nymph condensed a spear made of composite blue silver grass, its hardness was evident as it was the move that could kill the opponent.
The Tyrannosaurus Rex Sovereign Beast used its forelimbs to hold the spear’s tip and caused its hands to bleed while he bit off the spear’s tip. The spear’s tip was then crushed as the beast used transcendent energy in the fight.
The Blue Silver Thearch Nymph had already used transcendent energy to condense the spear but it was bitten off by the beast. Then it tried to restrain the beast by entangling the hindlimbs of the beast but found out that it was unable to do so.
Even so, the Tyrannosaurus Rex Sovereign Beast was injured in its jaw, as its teeth were slightly bleeding in its gum.
But the Blue Silver Thearch Nymph knew that the fight was already lost the moment it could not completely restrain the beast and even only inflicted minimal damage. It already looked into the immediate future and realized that the fight would still end up in the beast’s favor.
“I surrender.” The Blue Silver Thearch Nymph finally said with a resignation in its tone.
The Cerulean Planet Spirit nodded and formed a barrier around the Thearch Nymph. The Beast felt dissatisfied at the result, despite his teeth flowing with blood. But he realized that the Blue Silver Grass in front of it was actually smart enough to realize his true potential.
“Tch, a smart one and a ruthless fellow. I better stay away from it as much as possible.” The Tyrannosaurus Rex Sovereign Beast clicked his tongue but nodded with understanding.
But it did not mean he was careless of the Blue Silver Thearch Nymph. No, it made him more wary of it. Then the tournament of power continued further into the semifinals.
There were fights, there were fierce struggles. All in all, it was an entertainment for the beasts and the nymphs alike.
Dian and the others watched the tournament with delight. They could finally see for themselves just how powerful the figures that were developing on the Cerulean Planet were.
“It’s good, right? Seeing the strongest of both the beasts and the nymphs fight in this tournament to decide who is the strongest of them all.” Dian commented while the others involuntarily nodded.