Chapter 337 337. COUNTDOWN

The hours quickly passed and then turned into days. Noah had spent most of that time simply cultivating while returning to his cultivation room to practice a bit.

Elder Von had arrived the next day but didn't speak of the incident he had taken care of only about a day prior.

Their relief had inevitably taken a step forward because of his presence, but nervousness couldn't help but ruin it.

As the hours till the beginning of the tournament drew near, so their nervousness rose. Not even Noah could escape that feeling. Of course, he had a vague idea of his power and capabilities, and they would put him at the best of the bests; but so as not to get conceited he assumed there were many stronger than him.

At some point, a male voice rang out in his room, commanding him and the others to step out of their rooms, the games were about to begin.

Noah prepared all he thought he would need, and stepped outside of his room. Then did he lay eyes on the multitude of humans within the many rooms.

His eyes fell on Illiana, Williams, and Liam, all four of them exchanging nods. They had their guilds crest on their chests and back, so the others inspecting with curious eyes couldn't miss that detail.

Noah wore a cold face while his mask covered a significant portion of his face. All most could see were the upper part of his nose bridge and his eyes. Which wasn't much.

About a minute later, the sounds of doors closing had stopped ringing in the hallway, and Noah immediately assumed that was all.

As if listening to his thoughts, the key in his and the hands of all the others suddenly began to glow a sliver light, then magical circles appeared beneath every individual figure, and before Noah knew it; his environment changed and he opened his eyes in an auditorium.

His eyes scanned the room as people continued to appear inside it. The place had huge pillars, nine in total, and they stood at grand heights displaying their magnificence.

The pillars were lined up circularly, as the room was circular.

From his position, Noah could spot two doors far apart from each other and soon he found that there was a line, one that demarcated the room in two, and individuals continued to appear on either side. It seemed random, at least to him.

Two guards stood before the opened doors, unfortunately, Noah couldn't see past the bright light coming from a place he now deemed outside.

The armored knights held power at the peak of tier 3, meaning no one in the room could virtually defeat them in a fight, even Noah thought twice about such a clash.

The strongest among the participants of the tournaments were middle-stage cultivators, the gap was too wide. And besides, no one would dare act out of line, after all, tier 4 existences were probably outside.

Murmurs from curious chats filled the room, but Noah had no one he could talk to and wasn't ready to search for his guild-mates.

Something eventually happened after a few minutes, a large illusory screen suddenly appeared high above the contestants, then a female voice rang out from its blank whiteness.

"Good day contestants, welcome to the tournaments of champions, a martial arts-based event. We the council of the guilds greet you a great day." The person started.

"We'll move to the main deal of today, as many of you have heard, this will be an elimination game where you'll battle each other in pairs of two until your numbers have been reduced to half of what it was before."

"You'll be paired randomly against each other and the winners of the battle will move on to tomorrow's match. You'll have a period of ten minutes to defeat your opponent, and if that doesn't happen an even harsher elimination game will commence deciding the winner," she explained.

"There are two ways to win a battle, one of which is to beat your opponent till they can't stand, or have them tap out, in short quit, by way of oral confirmation."

"When you see your name on the screen you are to walk out of the passage before you. That is all you need to know. The matches will begin in two minutes. Good luck," she ended and silence fell on the entire auditorium.

The rules were pretty simple; maybe too simple, so no had any issues with it, apart from the random pairing part.

'I could be paired with a peak middle-stage expert or a lower-stage expert,' Noah thought with a light smile, one that couldn't be seen due to his mask. He already knew of that reality and hoped the latter of the scenarios wouldn't occur.

The two minutes felt like hours before the tense minds of many of the contestants, but like Noah, they all had confidence in their strengths. Every one of them would fight with their all in play.

The matching began immediately after the timer on the screen ended, and two names and guild crests appeared on two sides of the screen demarcated like the room.

The two individuals quickly began their walk to the exit, Noah laid eyes on the individual from his side of the room.

A young-looking woman with power past the halfway point of the middle stage.

She had the crest of a guild he didn't know, so he simply gave her a simple inspection.

She wore a perfectly cold expression while she left the room. She would either win or lose, but he didn't care much, only that he felt he could win in a battle with her.

During that moment, however, Noah realized something. There was a chance he would wait hours before his turn, and that thought put a frown on his face.

Immediately the two vanished from the sight of the remaining contestants, the screen changed scenery to display the stage wherein the battle would take place, before enlarging until it became a massive screen displaying the outside in such clarity and quality, Noah felt he stood right in front of them.

"Do not forget no mana is allowed. No sort of empowerment, nothing. Failure to comply will result in immediate disqualification," the female's voice rang out again, but everyone's eyes was already focused on the two while the ten seconds countdown began then ended.