14 A Good Plan

Thorn gently punches her stomach, sending with his fist a strong wind blast.

But, surprisingly, she is moved only slightly by the attack and does not fly away like is supposed to happen.

(Eh! Her weight shouldn't be that much!) Thorn opens his mouth slightly in surprise, then looks at her body to try to figure out why she did not fly away. (What!? Those shadow hands weren't there a second ago!)

At some point, six hands of shadow have come out of the ground and began to hold the legs of the girl with sexy thick lips.

He looks at her eyes again and this time he notices a clear trace of ferocity in them. (She... definitely isn't a weakling...)

Soon, more shadow hands begin to come out of the ground and they surround Thorn. He quickly slices two of those hands using wind blades creating in this way an opening which he uses to escape in the next instant.

After having increased the distance between him and her by about ten meters, he stops. (I can't slice all the hands that hold her, not at the same time, not without severing her legs in the process... and I don't know if that's allowed... mmm... maybe I can scare her a little...)

He, again, uses his control over the wind to move.

Appearing only a few steps in front of her, he crouches down and uses his index finger to draw a small horizontal arch that creates a wind blade more than capable of cutting her legs and those shadow hands together.

But, of course, such a signal and obvious movement are not so difficult to dodge. Thorn is just making this attack to scare her and disturb her concentration.

Unexpectedly, and contrary to Thorn's expectations, she just smiles softly. (Are you trying to scare me? The fact that you underestimate me so much makes me really angry, it seems I have to show you who should be scared.)

Just at the moment when Thorn's wind blade is about to cut the first shadow hand.

*Boom!*

That shadow hand explodes releasing abundant white flames!

This causes Thorn to hold his breath. (Stupid! The flames can consume some part of the wind and weaken it but that will not be enough to stop my wind blade from cutting your legs! You were supposed to dodge that atta- Eh!? It disappeared!?)

In a blink of an eye, Thorn's expression went from worry to complete shock as he saw how his wind blade was completely devoured by those white flames.

Seeing his expression, the girl with sexy thick lips slightly raises her head and smiles smugly.

Thorn, who was squatting, slowly gets up while trying to calm himself down. (Can my luck get any worse!? Special Fire Type Awakened Skill, fire that can consume air wholly. And what is even more frightening, is that she just used her Awakened Skill through its shadows that are a product of her Racial Skill, Arghh... I feel like I'm having a headache right now...)

The ten shadows that used to have different weapons not too long ago, at this moment, all of them are holding crossbows. They point to Thorn and shoot shadow arrows which in the midst of the air turn into arrows of white fire.

Thorn doesn't delay in using the wind to move, avoiding those arrows just in time.

When he stops, Thorn feels some pain coming from the soles of his feet, he looks down and notices that the soles of his shoes had disappeared and that his feet are bleeding.

According to the rules of this phase of the tournament, if he stops touching the arena, he will lose. Because of this, when he used the wind to move, he had to drag his feet. And actually, the shoes he is wearing are of low quality, so they have ended up broken pretty fast.

Thorn puts on a frustrated face as he watches his blood. (Another annoyance... Oh… wait... perhaps...)

As if he had just realized something, Thorn laughs and says: "Hahahaha...! You know what? I just come up with a good plan!" Then he waves his hand towards her and disappears in a gust of wind.

While searching for Thorn's aura, the girl with sexy thick lips is shocked by Thorn's strange behavior. After a few moments, she finds his aura and realizes that he is far away from her. Facing this fact, she laughs with arrogance and murmurs: "I see, your plan is running away. I guess if I am your opponent, running away is the best plan that could be found. Hehehe..."

She then undoes the shadow hands that were grabbing her legs and begins to stroll around the battlefield casually once again.

But, before she could take the sixth step, she feels an aura suddenly appear behind her along with a kick in her butt. Kick that makes her fly.

While in the air, she turns her head with an expression of complete anger and meets a smiling Thorn.

"A good plan, right?" Thorn says happily.

"That was dir--!" Before she could finish her sentence, she is hit by a gust of wind and carried off the arena.

"Of course, that was dirty, it was on my mind a second ago after all." Spreading his arms, Thorn explains seriously to nobody.

In the meantime.

"What's up with that expression? Didn't you imagine that this guy you boasted about was of her same caliber would end up beating her? I understand that it is impressive, but, I do not believe that someone of your status should make such an indecorous face in public just for that." Delia Adver comments expressionless, looking at the face full of astonishment of Arger Dal, in truth a face that seemed to have just seen the ghost of his beloved ancestor in broad daylight. Of course, almost everyone else who managed to observe Thorn's fight has the same expression.

"Ah, ahh... No, uh... He's not the guy I was talking about." Arger Dal says flustered.

Delia Adver raises her eyebrow slightly. "Oh, seriously? But that does not explain why you're so surprised. "

"A better question is: why are not you surprised? Your disciple surpasses him by a complete cultivation stage but even so, he could defeat her. The strength that he has is not at the same level as his cultivation. Since when is that ordinary!?" Arger Dal asks in distress.

"Hahahaha...!" Cley Alch, the Lurep Village governor, laughs after listening to Arger Dal.

"Oh, I assure you that isn't normal. But it will happen when your understanding is one step away from reaching the level of Control of the Skill and your cultivation is very low." Cley Alch explains.

"What!? But that is too shameless! Such an expert getting into a novice tournament... *sigh*" Arger Dal shakes his head sighing. "This may be disrespectful to such an expert but, should we kick him off?"

"No, we shouldn't. After all, he is not breaking any rules." Delia Adver responds with a weak smile. "Also, I would like him to owe me a favor. It happens that, coincidentally, I need someone like him to solve a small affair." Even though she seems to treat this 'small affair' lightly, she is actually quite nervous and excited on the inside. (Can my luck get any better? To bump into such a rare cultivator just when I was looking for one.)

"Okay, if you're okay with that then… there's no problem." Arger Dal says, clearly showing some reluctance.

After a few minutes without any major incident.

"Stop!" Lenna Zelu orders loudly. "Congratulations! All fifty participants left in the arena have passed to the second phase of the tournament!"

*Clap!* *Clap!* *Clap!* *Clap!*...!!

The public and judges congratulate the participants who remain in the arena with a round of applause.

"Very well! You can go to your seats now, we will have a short break of thirty minutes before we start with the second phase. In the meantime, all those present can enjoy a small appetizer that we have prepared." Lenna Zelu says as she points out with her right hand a large door that begins to open.

From the door, several employees of The Zelu Mansion come out pushing wagons filled with drinks and food.

While the participants return to their seats, the employees of The Zelu Mansion distribute the appetizers.

As Thorn sits next to Rose, she says worriedly: "Do you think you'll be able to win? It was just the first phase and you've seen yourself in a great difficulty, thought your shamelessness has saved you this time, but if you face another opponent like that, maybe you will not be so lucky…"

"Hey! I don't want you to talk to me about shamelessness! But don't worry, I'll get the prize even if I have to use my 'second form'. Although that will attract unnecessary attention..." Thorn says seriously with his arms crossed and lowering his head slightly.

"Mmm? 'Second form'? What is that?" Rose asks with confusion written all over her face.

"Would you care for an appetizer?" A short gargoyle, an employee of The Zelu Mansion, offers drinks and food to Thorn and Rose.

"Oh, let's see, let's see." Thorn says smiling and rubbing his hands excitedly. "I want a little of this, of that, of that and also of this other. Oh! Of this one, I want two." He grabs food and drinks enough to fill seven bellies without a hint of embarrassment on his face.

A little scared, the short gargoyle says: "T-take care, don't choke yourself..." He then withdraws while pushing the wagon.

Thorn observes that Rose did not take anything and asks: "Mmm!? Why didn't you grab something to eat? Are you thinking I'm going to share my food with you? That is very naive! I was pretty sure you were smarter, Rose!"

Rose grumbles while hitting the back of Thorn's head. "Don't speak so much rubbish! To eat I would need to put aside my hairy mask! At this moment, for me, keeping my identity as a secret is more important than some snacks!"

Sometime later.

The short gargoyle appears again in front of Thorn and Rose, this time pushing a big trash can.

Thorn throws the disposable plates and cutlery into the trash can.

"D-do you really ate all that?" The short gargoyle asks with a trembling voice.

"Yeah, it hurts a lot but I don't have regrets." Thorn responds slapping gently his big belly.

The short gargoyle is about to walk away when suddenly he hears Thorn's voice. "Wait, I almost forgot these."

Thorn takes his broken shoes off of his feet and then he throws them into the trash can.

"It was a hard battle..." He explains.

The short gargoyle gives her a forced smile: "Hehehe... have a good day."

After the short gargoyle left, Rose says: "Later I'll get you another pair of shoes."

"Oh, there is no need. I feel more comfortable in this way, besides, it'll be easier to control the wind with my feet." Thorn says nonchalantly.

"O-okay." Rose nods.

A few minutes later.

Lenna Zelu descends on the center of the platform and starts with her speech: "I will explain the rules of the second phase."

"Listen." She holds up a finger and continues. "I will call by name two participants and they will go up to the arena and they will have to fight, the winner will stay in the arena and will fight with another participant I'll call, the winner of this second fight will stay in the arena and will fight with the next participant I'll call, and so on until forty-nine participants are defeated."

She then lowers her finger and continues explaining. "It looks like, in this way, there will be only one winner at the end, but in reality, it is not like that. There will be ten participants who will pass to the third phase and they will be selected by our secondary judges. So make sure to not hold anything back even if you suspect you'll definitely lose against a certain opponent!"

"Also, before fighting, each participant who climbs into the arena will have to announce their Awakened Skill. In this way, both opponents will know the skill of each other." Lenna Zelu laughs a little and ends her announcement of the rules with the following words: "And you'll have more freedom when fighting in this second phase, you will not only be able to use the arena as a battlefield but also the airspace above the arena! But be careful, if you touch the roof, you will lose, and of course, if a single centimeter of your body leaves the airspace of the arena, you will also lose!"