Chapter 510: Blitzing through all of the matches before Joshua and Shawn

After finding out that he was going to be up against Shawn for his first match Joshua took some time to really look at the man standing across from him. Shawn wasn't short, but at the same time he wasn't tall either standing around five foot eight inches tall. He wore thick robes like most mages would but underneath the robes he had on a hooded thick shirt that clearly had some enchantments on it for protection. The hood made it impossible for Joshua to get a good look at Shawn and only allowed him to see his mouth and nose. It hid the upper half of Shawn's face from view.

The only weapon Joshua had seen Shawn use up to this point was a dagger that was more designed for stabbing than slashing. It was meant to take people out with one strike which seemed to be Shawn's strategy from the start of the tournament. Even if Shawn preferred to use a dagger it was clear by the amount of mana Joshua could sense coming off of him that he was a mage of some kind since a healer wouldn't have been able to make it so far in the tournament. While Joshua was observing Shawn and Shawn was doing the same to him the rest of the participants were matched up and the first match of the day was about to start. Sarah did her part as the announcer to try to hype things up even more as all of the fighters outside of the two who had number one and number two were teleported to their waiting rooms where they could watch the match in full.

By the way things were set up Joshua and Shawn were going to be the fifth match of the day so they had a few matches before them that they were going to have to watch. The way the tournament was set up it was impossible to know how long the last part of the tournament was going to take. It all depended on how long each individual match was going to be. The first match ended up being between Amy and the heavily armored female mercenary that currently had a bit of an annoyed look on her face before she pulled her helmet down in preparation for the fight. Before the match even started Joshua knew that Amy had a huge advantage going into it. Amy thrived on taking down armored opponents with her soul beast abilities. She hadn't used them up to this point in the tournament, but she wasn't going to be holding back against an opponent that was as highly leveled as her.

Already knowing that Amy was going to have a huge advantage in this fight Joshua decided to spend a little more time inspecting her opponent to see if there was a chance for a surprise, but outside of the fact the mercenary had some interesting weapons and gear put together in her armor Joshua didn't see anything that would give her an advantage in a fight against someone like Amy. The moment the fight started both sides started rushing each other and Joshua was a bit surprised by the Mercenaries speed, but even with the enchantments she had placed on her gear that were increasing her speed Amy was clearly the faster of the two and the one with more dexterity.

The mercenary tried to hit Amy from range with her large sword but it was easily avoided as Amy danced around preparing to get in close, but the mercenary placed her shield in front of her to block the incoming blow. Joshua could already tell that Amy was taking the match seriously as her fist glowed as she slammed it into the shield showing the signs of aura usage. The blow pierced through the shield and hit the shoulder that the mercenary was bracing the shield with causing her to grunt in pain as she stumbled backwards. Amy gave chase but was surprised as two guns popped out of the shield that she had punched earlier and started firing in her direction.

Amy avoided the surprise attacks, but the mercenary was able to use the time she had bought herself to gain space and connect her sword and shield together. Spikes came out of one side of the shield making a rather interesting looking make shift axe that was able to keep firing shots in Amy's direction as long as the mercenary kept pointing the odd weapon contraption in Amy's direction. From this sudden surprise alone Joshua could see why the mercenary was able to make it so far into the tournament. She was someone that had the armor to keep herself from being able to be taken down in one blow by most opponents while also having several tricks to use against her opponents that could come in handy.

Amy was busy dodging around the bullets while the mercenary tried to close the distance and swung her make shift weapon directly at Amy. The combination of weird attacks had Amy on her back foot for a moment and even after she dodged the swing the bullets would keep coming as the small guns on the shield could turn without the rest of the exterior of the shield turning at the same time. This situation made it hard for Amy to get in close without taking a few hits on the way in. Even with all of the tricks up the mercenaries sleeve Amy had a large smile on her face before she dashed forward directly towards the shield and all of the bullet fire.

The mercenary seemed surprised by this and tried to cut Amy down once more, but she suddenly picked up speed and kicked the ground hard causing it to shake and crack. The powerful kick allowed Amy to stabilize herself as she caught the makeshift weapon while having the guns pointed away from her into the air. Her hands were glowing as she pulled with all of her strength and ripped the shield off of the sword surprising the mercenary. Amy slammed the shield into the ground destroying the two guns on the front of it before tossing it away and charging the mercenary once more. This time around two guns popped out of the mercenaries shoulder pads, but Amy was having none of it as she flashed directly in front of the shorter woman and punched directly into the center of her chest.

The powerful blow completely ignored all of her opponent's armor as the aura pierced straight through to her heart. Before the mercenary could even react she vanished from the arena without being able to use the rest of the tricks she had been holding back. The match was short, but it was extremely tense with none stop movement that had the crowd excited. It was a good way to kick off the tournament. The next match after that wasn't nearly as exciting as the first one as it was between two of the people that had made it to the final portion of the tournament that Joshua wasn't all that interested in. They were both mages with one specializing in fire while the other specialized in wind. Neither was all that powerful in Joshua's opinion, but they most likely both got lucky with who they were matched up against up to this point in the tournament or else they wouldn't have been able to get so far. The match was drawn out like Joshua expected between two extremely cautious mages and it ended when the fire mage finally lucked out and knocked the wind mage into one of his traps with an explosion.

The crowd hadn't been as excited about that match, but the one afterwards had grabbed everyone's attention once more. This match was between Lily and one of the members of the World Government Guild that had made it to the final day of the tournament. It wasn't Charles or Rex so it wasn't a person that Joshua had paid all that much attention to, but based off of his gear he was obviously a gun user similar to Aito. It didn't surprise Joshua that such people with obvious military backgrounds would join the World Government Guild. Joshua could tell the man was on the older side by the way he carried himself and the look in his eyes even though he looked like he had just turned thirty.

Before the match started the man said a few pleasantries to Lilly before moving further back on his side of the arena as he started to set up a few turrets and sent out two smaller robot creatures from his inventory. One of the creatures held an orb while the other held a staff. Joshua wasn't actually sure what exactly they were supposed to do but they seemed to be little minions of some kind that Joshua had never seen before. All though they were unique and might be able to help the man who stood at the other side of the arena with his assault rifle at the ready, they weren't going to mean much against someone who could summon several partners of her own.

Just as Joshua thought Lily brought out her beast companions for the fight right away and he was a bit surprised when he saw Cinder make an appearance. The massive spider wasn't in her full sized form as she towered over the arena and let out a loud screech that rang through the entire crowd. Joshua could see that a lot of them were surprised by the massive creature for a moment before they started cheering once again. Cinder glared down in the direction of Lily's opponent while Lily climbed up onto her back before the match started. Once Lily was in a safe position Cinder's body started to get covered in ice as the arena around her froze over.

Lily's opponent was wide eyed after seeing what he was up against, but he kept his calm as he had his gun aimed in the direction of Cinder. There was no way he could get a shot at Lily with her being hidden on the back of the giant spider. The moment the match started he fired off several explosive rounds that blew up all over Cinder's body, but half of them froze on the way there as Cinder let out her ice mist into the area. The rest barely cracked the ice that had formed around Cinder's body. When the ice mist was about to freeze over the man one of his little minions held up its orb creating a large barrier around him. The barrier didn't let the mist through as it froze the area around him, but that was it.

The other minion started creating a massive fireball that was sent directly towards Cinder. It was clear that the man thought that Cinder was some sort of ice creature which was a grave mistake as she opened her mouth and sucked in the fireball instead of letting it explode. The ice on her body fell off of her as heat waves started pouring off of her instead as she shifted to her flame form while creating a fireball several times the size of the one the minion had created and sent it directly at the barrier. The man wasn't stupid as he rushed out of the way as the barrier was destroyed. Outside of the barrier the mixture of extreme cold around him along with the sudden blast of heat had him off balance as he fired a charged shot directly toward Cinder's head.

Cider didn't even bother avoiding it as a shield appeared around her blocking the attack. In that moment Joshua knew that Lily had also brought out Light to empower Cinder and protect her. After seeing one of his strongest attacks do nothing the man sighed and pulled out a stronger gun, but it was pointless without the barrier to protect him. Cinder shifted back to her ice form freezing everything around her as a powerful blizzard seemed to sweep over the arena. Light's shield blocked a few more charged shots that the man fired off but eventually the man was taken out of the arena as the cold became too much for him to handle. With that Lily was on to the next round.