Civilization Chronicles: Rise of the Divine Creator

With 64 participants in total, trying to have only one fight at once would have made the entire tournament far too long, so instead, 4 separate stages were set up. These ’stages’ were really just open spaces in the army’s training field.

No rules were set about being forced ’out-of-bounds’ because each field was a square roughly 100 metres in length. The idea that 2 Mortal Realm Practitioners of nearly equal strength would need more space than that to fight a duel was pretty much inconceivable.

In other words, if one party could really overwhelm their opponent to the point where they threw them out of the ring, it would already be obvious who the winner was.

First up were the Body Tempering and Vein Opening juniors, with 8 youths stepping into the dueling grounds, Eris included.

Eris’ opponent was a 15-year-old Fifth Step Vein Opening Realm boy named Brad.

The two combatants saluted one another before drawing their weapons and assuming a ready-stance.

Eris held a single short sabre in her left hand. It was a weapon she had been training with a lot recently under her grandfather and grandmother’s tutelage and was her current favourite as it was slightly lighter and easier to swing at high speeds.

Brad also used a sword, but his was a more standard double-edged longsword, a fairly common weapon among nobles in the Rockwell Kingdom.

The moment the start signal was given, Brad opened his mouth to speak, intending to offer Eris a handicap.

He was merely the grandson of a Count-rank family in the Southern Province, and although his talent for cultivation and the sword were very good, he understood that he would never be considered one of the true elites.

Showing magnanimity and making a good impression on the Disciple of the most powerful woman in the Rockwell Kingdom seemed like a better idea than simply beating Eris up, especially considering the latter was clearly missing her dominant arm.

Before Brad could get a word out, though, Eris had already closed the 10 metres gap between them and unleashed a rapid slash towards his neck, her expression no longer showing any of its usual playfulness, instead replaced by a sharp, nearly palpable fighting intent.

For a 13-year-old girl in the Eighth Step Body Tempering Realm, Eris was ridiculously fast, a clear sign she had trained extremely hard and tempered her body to its absolute limit.

Brad was caught completely by surprise and barely managed to raise his own sword in time to block the attack.

Knocked off-balance, the boy had to take 3 steps back to fully absorb the blow. It was a huge shock to the youth, but Brad was no pushover; he had also endured years of harsh training from his father and instructors, so he quickly recovered his stance and began taking the match seriously.

Or at least, he tried to.

Taking full advantage of her opponent’s initial mistake, Eris used her smaller, more agile weapon to rapidly thrust, slash, and cut towards the openings Brad’s carelessness had exposed, forcing him to react to her moves, gradually drawing him into her pace.

As her attacks seemed to reach a kind of peak in terms of speed and intensity, Eris delivered a series of 3 ascending thrusts, the last one aimed straight for Brad’s face, and fully drew his attention towards her sabre and his upper body before shifting her weight onto her right leg and delivering a sharp kick to his stomach.

Having failed to anticipate this blow, Brad had the wind knocked out of him and nearly doubled over.

Taking a wide step back to stop himself from falling, Brad attempted to re-position his sword to protect his torso, but he was a moment too slow, allowing Eris’s sabre to come to a rest on his exposed neck.

"Winner! Eris Newton!" The referee immediately announced, drawing gasps of surprise and a round of applause from the surrounding crowd.

Withdrawing her blade, Eris stepped back and her usual innocent smile returned to her face as she bowed, "Thank you for the match, it was fun!"

Only when Eris spoke did Brad’s brain finally re-engage, his face flushing bright red as he looked over at the younger, weaker, one-armed girl who had just thoroughly thrashed him and lowered his head as he muttered, "I lost."

Nodding, as if it was only natural, Eris sheathed her sabre and turned around, leaving the rings.

She was breathing a little hard, and her left arm was shaking a bit from the sudden and intense exertion, but Eris was still feeling great having just won her first official dual against another member of the younger generation who wasn’t Lucas or Christina.

As for Brad, he wasn’t certain how he got there, but when he arrived at the side of the stage, he was met with looks of disappointment and disapproval, the Great Elder of his family even going so far as to chastise him, "That is what you get for underestimating your opponent. Take this as a lesson; even a weaker, wounded opponent can take your life if you are careless on the battlefield."

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Brad lowered his head and nodded, knowing he had embarrassed both himself and his family today.

.....

There weren’t any big surprises in the next round, but when the third set of youths came up to fight, another upset occurred.

Audrey Carlson managed to defeat a Sixth Step Vein Opening girl despite only being in the First Step Vein Opening Realm.

It was a hard-fought battle, with the little princess of Iron Rock barely managing to triumph in the end, but a win was a win.

A big part of the reason Audrey managed to come out on top was the mismatch in weapons as she was wielding a spear while her opponent used a pair of daggers, giving her a huge advantage in terms of reach, but that didn’t make the young girl’s achievement any less impressive.

During the match, the experts who had been watching and were familiar with Celestina noticed traces of her combat style in Audrey’s movements. They also saw how close the girl was with the Marquess’ three Disciples, making them wonder if there was some kind of deeper connection there.

However, no one pondered the matter for long as Lucas, the mysterious young boy they had heard so much about, was about to fight.