The moment they arrived at the top of the slope, Orion and Aurora noticed a steep decline. Aurora adjusted her speed again while Orion guided her subtly and together, they glided down the slope.
Now, they were moving in a fluid and controlled speed, then they noticed a series of banked turns.
Aurora tilted her body and she tried her best to adapt to the angled surface. Orion also maintained his balance while also ensuring they remain centered.
Meanwhile, the crowds in the arena were still watching the scene from their seats, including the twenty female elves who had become Dahlia's closest friends, thanks to Orion.
All twenty ladies currently had their eyes glued to the screen and they were silently praying in their minds for Orion to make it to the next round.
So far, a couple of students had made it to the next round, mainly because they had tamed a beast in the mortal rank and not one in the transcendent rank.
However, their performance in this particular section wasn't really good and so far, only the Succubus princess and Lion prince had successfully completed the challenge for the second section.
But while the girls were completely focused on what they were watching on the screen, A beautiful nature elf joined everyone in the arena and she sat beside a gorgeous dark elf.
"How many rounds are there?" She asked the dark elf.
While she was heading over to the arena, the nature elf had been hearing everyone talking about the first and second round of the tournament, so she decided to ask this particular question.
Since, she had just arrived, she missed when Ganesha addressed Orion and the rest of the contestants before they left the arena.
"There are three rounds but the first round is divided into five sections," The dark elf explained. "So far, Prince Galdur has completed the first section and right now he's about to complete the second section as well,"
The dark elf continued to explain further but she became silent the moment she noticed Orion and Aurora approaching a near-vertical incline. This would be the last challenge for them in this section and they were able to complete it with ease, and the moment they completed the second section, they moved on to the third section and the girls noticed a series of towering hurdles in front of Orion and Aurora.
"This task looks like it will be difficult to complete,"
"You've got this, Aurora."
It was strange to hear this from Orion, but Aurora was really glad he tried to encourage her.
A few minutes ago, they were enemies but now, Orion was seeing her as his most trusted allie and Aurora didn't want to disappoint him, and so with a mighty leap, Aurora cleared the final barrier, landing smoothly on the other side and Orion patted her neck with a smile on his face.
"Amazing, Aurora. You're unstoppable!"
Aurora smiles and leaned a bit more to him for Orion to give her a good pat on her neck.
Of course, she knew she was amazing but it felt even better to hear someone say it and praise her as well.
'Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have a master,' The phoenix thought to herself.
After what she had seen so far, the elf prince definitely looked like someone worthy to become her master.
He had all the right qualities she would want in a master but aside from that, he also had lots of delicious snacks for her to eat as well, and who wouldn't want to have a good supplier of food by their side.
'No, no, Aurora, focus,'
'Freedom is more important,'
'Freedom is all I need,' The phoenix shook her head and tried to focus on what's more important right now.
Food can always wait but the most important thing right now was her freedom and that was all she wanted.
And so, with that out of the way, Orion and Aurora moved towards their next challenge.