Chapter 148 - The Opening Match

Back at the Arks Academy on the Urrugdrasil Continent, the Little Kings were waiting for their matches.

A couple of days had past and now all the tournament matches were being held in the main stadium. The bracket matches have all finished with the top 3 from each 5 brackets selected to participate in the main stage tournament.

Yuna was first placed in her division. She had swept through the competition with ease, making her a favored dark horse. The faction leaders and Kings had also turned their attention to her, but when they saw her with the Little Kings, they immediately knew that the girl was likely a new member.

This was all but confirmed when they saw her hanging out with Lucia and Eli on her breaks between matches. They could only ruefully sigh since another talent had been taken away from them. The Kings however were more than happy to see that another person may potentially join their ranks soon.

In the waiting room 01, all the Kings of the Academy were gathered together, with Yuna being the only non-King present. There were other waiting rooms in the stadium, but they had all been divvied up by the Academy's factions.

There weren't any lucky individuals who weren't a member of the factions or Kings that had qualified for the Main Stage Matches, naturally with the exception of Yuna. Many have already dubbed her as a King-candidate, so technically she was still affiliated with one of the powers in the Academy.

As they were waiting, the formalities and ceremonies in the stadium had finally finished. They had announced the start of the Main Stage tournament and the winners of the qualifiers. Yuna was naturally up on the stage with the other 14 qualifying students.

Once the ceremony was over Yuna quickly made her way to the King's waiting room. The people inside quickly greeted her as she came in, but they soon turned their attention back to the stadium's stage.

The Headmaster and the Anglaria Kingdom's King were now on the stage announcing the beginning of the tournament. Once they had officially declared the start of the tournament, the entire avenue erupted in thunderous cheers.

"Heh, everyone's so hyped up." Ainz said with a smirk.

Eli turned a side long glance at him and huffed.

"W-what?!"

"...nothing."

He always had to say the most obvious things at the most stupidest times. While everyone was concentrating and focusing their minds for their upcoming matches, here he was leisurely being an idiot.

Eli let out another exasperated sigh before turning her focus to the Anglaria Kingdom's King who was walking down the stage alongside the Headmaster.

"..."

Fina and Velicia turned an eye to the girl, but they couldn't figure out what she was thinking.

CLAP

The noise startled everyone in the room and they quickly turned towards the source of the sound. Seated on a sofa at the back of the room, Cecil was grinning playfully as he took in the surprised looks of his friends. The boy had clapped his hands to get his tensed party's attention.

"Hey guys~ relax~ why so tense? Look, even Ainz has the right mindset." Cecil leisurely said.

"Pfft, more like he's too nervous to the point he's spewing nonsense out of his mouth," Lucia teased playfully.

Yuna was silent throughout the entire time. She had lived for a fairly long time so she didn't really feel any tension, but the atmosphere in the room had affected everyone's mood. She was just about to tell Lucia who was leisurely eating some snacks beside Cecil, but the boy had already made his move.

"Just relax guys. Being too focused and tense won't help you win. Do that when you're in the ring."

"..."

"Okay."

"Mhm."

"Y-yeah."

The other Kings were smiling at their interaction. They had no reason to be tense like them since they have already participated in the Dueling tournament in their previous years. The only ones that were mildly tense were the twins, the Nature King and Queen. The two elves were only in their 2nd year so it was understandable.

"Guys~ no need to be so tense! You'll only ruin your focus later during the match~" Disaster Queen Audrey said in support of Cecil.

"Mhm. Focus later, relax and calm your minds now." Sword King Robert added.

"Mnyah...better...if you went...to sleep..." Ghost Queen Alice said as she clung to Robert and snoozed away. This caused Robert's ears to twitch in response.

Since their seniors and party leader had given them advice, it was only natural that the Little Kings had to comply. They were right, a tensed mind before a match would mostly likely lead to a screw up later.

It might not happen in the first match, but then what about the subsequent matches? It was just as Sword King Robert said, relax and calm your minds.

Very soon the first match up for the tournament was called. To everyone's surprise it was someone from their room.

"Cecil vs.–"

"What?! It's Cel?!" Lucia exclaimed in surprise.

"Woah...the opening act being a main dish right away," Anixio said in amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Not main dish~ Cecil isn't a food, brother." Anixia giggled in response.

"Hmhm~ looks like I'm up. Let's get this over with." Cecil said as he stood up and stretched his body a little.

"Hey, Cel. Don't do anything to flashy."

"Ah, don't worry. I won't even use mana or a weapon, how's that?"

"...fine."

Before, Lucia would have most likely said to beat the crap out of his opponent, but now she had knowledge of some distasteful things, she didn't want Cecil to expose too much anymore.

What happens if someone tries to take him away from her? That'd be pretty devastating. Though, it wasn't like they could actually do anything to forcibly take him away. But what about things like...arranged marriages or something like that?

"Nonono...I'll blast away any fool who tries to get close." Lucia dangerously mumbled. Fina who was next to her paled a little and began to reason with her.

It was too bad Lucia's head was a little muddled. She forgot that using no mana or weapons to take down someone was much flashier than using moves that deliberately added some flare to the match.

When she realized this point, it was already too late. Cecil was no longer in the room.

The boy had already made his way onto the stage. His opponent was waiting for him, but he had a grimace on his face.

The entire stadium was full of people, in the high up seating areas where the private rooms were located; the royal and noble families were seated in these rooms. This included the Golden Fox family.

Anna and Zaki were seated with the current Golden Fox Chieftain. When they heard their son being called to the stage, they smiled together and focused their attention on the boy.

Up on top of the stadium's monitor, Cecil had his usual leisurely smile pasted on his face. His opponent had an obvious grimace and everyone could tell that he wasn't confident at all, but he made no move to surrender.

The referee asked if the two were ready, Cecil responded with nod and his opponent, a large tigerkin from the Moonclaw clan, grunted before taking out two large war axes. He began swinging them around as a warm up. Cecil only stretched his neck and body a little.

Once he felt his muscles loosen a bit, he cupped his hand to his opponent in greeting then he quickly took his martial stance. Seeing the boy not taking out a weapon caused the audience to raise cries of surprise and jeers. He was fighting him barehanded, not even a glove or bracers were taken out to cover his hands.

Once the referee saw that the two were ready, he immediately began the match.

"FIGHT!"

The tigerkin roared at Cecil and activated a body strengthening combat skill. He reinforced his body with Iron Mountain, Herculean Strength and quickened his speed using the Fleet Foot combat skills. The multiple parallel-activated strengthening skills caused the crowd to roar and cheer.

High up in the royal families private room, the King let out an impressed hum. The Moon Claw clan were all smiling proudly, even if the opponent was an Academy King, there was no way their clan member would lose so easily.

But to everyone's surprise, Cecil only stayed still in his position, not bothering to activate any sort of skill or magic. He just waited. His opponent saw this and thought he was being looked down on. He roared angrily and charged, swinging his axes at Cecil.

Cecil still had that dull look in his eyes and just as the two axes was about to land on his head, Cecil's eyes sharpened immediately. He swiftly raised his hand and deflected one of the axes with a palm strike. He kicked off the ground and sent a kick to the other axe, smacking it away.

He spun his body in the air and delivered an upward kick to the tigerkin's chin. The kick flung his opponents head away, breaking his stance and nearly lifting him off his feet. Cecil smirked and continued sending kick after kick onto the tigerkin, slowly raising his body into the air with each successive attack.

The barrage of kicks disorientated his opponent rendering him helpless to even retaliate. Cecil finished it off by sending a roundhouse drop kick to the tigerkin's gut. It broke the protective enchantment and sent him flying off the stage. The entire series of attacks were executed swiftly and beautifully.

Once he confirmed that his opponent was properly off the stage, Cecil turned around and walked back to his waiting room. The entire fight had just begun and it had quickly ended. The audience was still cheering for the tigerkin who had coolly rushed up to confront Cecil, but the fight had already ended.

The audience lagged in their response, but when the monitor showed the beautiful execution of Cecil's moves and repeated it in a slower speed, they immediately erupted into excited cheers.

Cecil turned around and saw the monitor and thought, 'How cool...it's like watching an NBA match, except we're using magic and weapons.'

Cecil hummed and quickly arrived at the Kings' Waiting Room. Up in the private rooms, everyone, except for the Moonclaw clan, had amazed expressions and were discussing how great Cecil's combat prowess was.

The martial arts he used were very peculiar, and there was also the fact that he fought his opponent without any strengthening skills. He piqued everyone's interest and attention, but they could only lament the fact that they wouldn't be able to recruit such a talent.

News had spread that the boy was the foster son of the previous headmaster of Arks Royal Academy, Anna Yukihime. She had also finally reemerged with her husband and declared that they would be returning to the Golden Fox Clan.

The Golden Fox Clan was the most fortunate of the families right now since they had gained two unparalleled talents. Their rise in strength and prestige were all but confirmed and the other families could only look on in envy.

In the waiting room, Cecil was confronting the somewhat mad Lucia.

"Hey... you said you wouldn't do anything flashy..."

"But... I didn't?"

"That was overly flashy you idiot!! No strengthening skills? No mana-enhancements? What are you thinking?"

"Uhh..."

Now that he thought about it...going head to head against another person that was strengthened by multiple skills was indeed quite inconceivable. He quickly activated mana sense and found that the audience was indeed discussing that.

"Uuuh... sorry?"

"Tch... now more people will be paying attention to you..." Lucia said dejectedly.

"Ah...ahahaha?"

Cecil only responded with a strained laugh.

The next match soon begun and everyone turned their attentions to the proceedings. It was going to be a long day and from the matchups the Academy had finally shown, it was only until after another 10 matches was someone from their room going to be called up.