NOVPUB"Greetings children…" A fairly tall man in long black robes spoke while looking down at the top twenty faceless mercenary recruits.
He carried an air of dignity and pride that could visibly be felt from the expression on his face, he didn’t even need a faceless mask. This man was the Great mage, Damien, a legendary talent of the century, and one of the few mages that had made it to level 4 in the faceless mercenary company’s history.
He was also known as the current leader of the faceless mercenary company.
"Leader!!" Everyone around took a knee when he spoke. A sign of respect and reverence.
"I’m thrilled to see talents are alive and well in our company. Well done Everyone" the great mage Damien encouraged. Without the Elders of the company constantly searching for talents, their organization might have faded into obscurity by now.
"Today isn’t meant for the praise of our elders. Its for all of you. The new generation, you have worked hard. Now you must show us the fruits of your hard work" the great mage continued. Actually, he was much younger than the Elders here, and he believed that even though most of them were very close to reaching level 4, it would be very hard for them to achieve it.
Their talent was already burnt out to him. The only hope was to groom a new talent, and to that effect he had ramped up the recruitment exercises for the company.
"One battle each, no particular ranking, as long as you win you’ll be in the top 10." The great mage announced. He wanted things to be quick, and wanted them to give their all, no second chances they would have to go all out.
"Hm!!!" The recruits nodded.
This made the Elders frown, this tournament style was very unfair, if one party that was extremely strong fought against someone equally as powerful and lost, he/she would get into the top ten.....it didn’t make sense. They didn’t understand it.
Naturally, the leader didn’t care. If it were up to him, this would have been a death match, he only needed those who could survive against all odds, talent was not all that mattered.
"Okay, step forward and pick your opponent" one of the twin elders stepped forward with a bowl filled with squeezed up paper balls. They would choose their opponents from inside here.
And soon. Every member of the top 20 stepped forward and picked their opponents. When they did so, their faces morphed into 1 of 2 expressions.
Delight and dread.
Most that made it to the top 20 were from prominent families or were well known from their escapades. So they knew who was powerful and who wasn’t.
"Oh it’s him?" Leon asked Ember. She was paired up against the blade Demon. This was not a good outcome.
"Yeah" Ember smiled softly. The blade Demon and her had beef, but she couldn’t lie, she knew he was powerful. That didn’t mean she would back down, though.
"Yeah…." Leon shook his head. He had seen the blade Demon move, he was definitely skilled In the art of killing. This might be dangerous. But then again... Embers status window still read that she would become a Saint or something, so Leon couldn’t rule out the possibility of her victory.
Then there was his opponent. Someone named ghost face, it was quite a strange name...if only Leon knew that this person was actually related to the great mage, he wouldn’t be so callous.
"Begin!!" The first match began. It was between a young man in white amour that shone like a bright star, and an ordinary youth with ragged robes and a cracked knife.
The first to move was the youth in shining amour as he dashed forward with a blinding light aiming for the neck with his sword. He didn’t care for the life of his opponent.
Naturally, anyone strong enough to get to this stage was no pushover. When the sword came rushing towards him, the kid in ragged cloths responded in the most absurd way. He raised his palm forward in an attempt to stop the sword.
"NO!!!" Seeing this move, the youth in shining amour twisted midair and pulling the sword from its current trajectory and aiming for the thigh.
He knew the person he was fighting against. Even though the kid was usually in ragged clothes, he was no begger. He was just a lazy and dirty individual. But he was dangerous, even more so than himself.
"Stop dancing around" the ragged kid said then.
—Boom!!!!
Out of nowhere, a metallic pole shot out from his knee and directly created a dent in the youth’s amour.
Steel work: iron manipulation
A very rare type of magic, very similar to Liana’s Blood manipulation magic spell. Naturally, not everyone could use manipulation magic.....it was only intoned to certain types of people.
"Hmp!!" The youth in shining amour touched his amour plate and frown. He had made a mistake and gotten too close to the bastard. It wouldn’t happen again.
"Light work: sky peirceing beam" 𝚗ov𝚙𝚞𝚋.c𝚘m
He stretched his and forward and started a long distant attack campaign.....
"Hehe, he’s going to exhaust himself with Rudolph" one of the Elders of the main platform shook his head. This was truly a bad match up. The bad thing about those that could use manipulation magic was that it was very hard for them to learn magic spells outside this region. But this was compensated for by their ability and comprehension of this magic.
For example, Rudolph had created a shield made from Steel and was constantly blocking each beam of light shut his way. This was quite easy for him, but for his opponent this was exhausting.
Constantly Conjuring magic was exhausting, especially with the fact that he didn’t have the opportunity to regain his mana. He was exhausted.
"Hahhhhh" breathing heavily, the youth in shining amour reached for a potion in his pocket. What mages lacked naturally, they were able to compensate, with their creations.
A stamina potion. With it, he would gain the strength to continue shooting the spell, of course, he needed to have the opportunity to use it first. As soon as he pulled it out, Rudolph flashed appeared right in front of him.
Steel work: iron manipulation.
Out of nowhere, Rudolph created a spear and threw it at his opponent.
—puuuu
It pierced directly through his shoulder, breaking apart his armor into pieces. This was the power of manipulation magic.
"Arggg" the youth in shining amour scrambled in pain as he held unto his wound.
"Winner" one of the twin elders announced. A member of the youth’s faction stepped out and took him off the main stage.
The first match was over.
"Good match" Beside Leon, the Demon blade praised. He, Leon and Ember were the only ones from the virtan faction that made it to this round, so he wanted to pair up.
At least that was what he said, but Leon and Ember knew, he but just trying to psych Ember out. He was going to be her opponent and felt clearly that he would win, so he wanted to rub it in.
Surprisingly, this didn’t seem to move Ember at all. She even laughed at the matches going on at several occasions.
Soon it was their turn to fight.
"Senior, I am the captain of our vartan faction, and she is like a sister to me. I request you let her forfeit the match, we do not want hate in our hearts as a faction" as soon as they stepped on the stage, the blade Demon stepped forward and requested of the twin elders.
He was the captain of the faction recruits. Naturally, he was much stronger than she was. A fight between them, knowing full well the difference in strength was unnecessary.
It was like a humiliation.
"Hmm? Do you want to forfeit, little lady?" one of the twin elders asked Ember. He wouldn’t take the blade Demon’s word for it. He had to ask Ember himself.
"Please forgive him, elder. He’s a retard" Ember simple bowed her head and said. What kind of logic was that? Because he was the captain meant he was stronger than her? She was joking if he thought that would work.
"You heard her? Now get into place young talent." This time, the person who spoke was the Great mage. This greatly shocked the blade Demon.
From the beginning of the fights until now the great mage had not even batted an eye in praise of anyone and now all of a sudden, he called him personally a young talent?
Had the great mage noticed him? The blade Demon was aesthetic. An opportunity of a lifetime, he needed to end this spectacularly, and maybe he might get a chance to be directly under the great mage.
"Thank you leader!!" The great demon bought his head in excitement before Turning to Ember. He was going to utterly destroy her.
If only he knew that the reason the Great mage had spoken was not because of him, but because of Ember.
She was his close friend Half-moon’s daughter
