Chapter 342 342. ALMOST

The night quickly passed and the others returned to their rooms, the next day might not be that hard, but it wasn't going to be easy either.

Noah awoke from his one-hour nap when an announcement reached his ears. He had stared at his soul cultivation manual for most of the night. He quickly took a few minutes to tidy himself and exited his room.

His eyes fell on the other 49 individuals and couldn't help but admire their reduced numbers. Only half of them would be returning to their rooms later that day.

Like the other day, magical circles lit up beneath their feet and soon they found themselves in a room, but one different from the one of the other day.

The hall looked a bit smaller than the other one, but the details that stood out were the completely silver pillars that were seemingly made from metal, at least due to the way they reflected light.

Everyone's focus, however, switched to the illusory screen that appeared in the room and displayed a blank blue screen, from which a familiar feminine voice rang out.

"Good morning young men and women. Welcome to today's edition of the tournament of champions, just like yesterday you will fight in pairs of two, but rather than the pairs being random, we over here; after careful consideration have paired all of you for today's match. These are how the matches will happen, any number on the list you find yourself, is when your turn will commence." After her words, the blue screen expanded before displaying a list of names and their guild crests.

Noah saw the name of his opponent and managed to recall the person's face. His eyes searched the crowd until he found the expert. Both individuals locked gazes and he couldn't help but furrow his brows afterward.

He had done so for two reasons. One because their names appeared on the 25th position of the list. He couldn't help but feel the elder had done that on purpose, after all his opponent was also one of the more spectacular persons and had been overwhelming in their battle.

And two; because of what the expert could do.

"You will be given ten minutes to defeat your opponent, and if a clear winner doesn't appear during that period an elimination game will commence and one person will scale through, victorious." The lady continued after giving them about a minute to find themselves.

"The first battle will begin after the two-minute countdown ends," she ended and the list was replaced by a countdown.

Murmurs immediately began to fill the room at that point. Unlike the first day, there was only one door, but two individuals with higher stage power stood before it.

'I'm going to be waiting for four hours till my match,' Noah sighed in defeat. Unfortunately, he could only accept his fate as being in the last match.

However, rather than continuing to whine and complain inwardly about the annoying treatment, he tuned in to his memories to recall the performance of his opponent.

Derek according to his name on the screen looked a bit older than his mid-thirties, he stood at a height of about 5'8. Had long azure hair and a pair of deep yellow eyes. In terms of looks, he was about average, but his power was incredible.

Having a cultivation base at the peak of the middle stage, he was one of the strongest experts there, but his martial arts made him even more annoying to Noah.

He could, however, determine all this simply because of one thing; Derek had taken his seat beside Noah.

"How may I help you?" Noah asked after about two minutes of annoying silence had passed.

"Who do you think will win between those pairs?" Derek's surprisingly deep voice reached Noah's ears while his eyes remained on the screen now displaying the events of the two individuals on the stage.

His question forced Noah into focusing his gaze on the screen, while he recalled the performance of both individuals.

"Both are pretty strong but one has the advantage, at least should have the advantage," Derek added shortly focusing on Noah's masked face.

"Well the green-haired dude has the advantage of his two-bladed staff, but the brown-haired man practices a martial art that focuses on dodging and grappling. In normal terms, the guy with the staff should win. But we're not normal." Noah paused locking gazes with the expert before returning his focus to the screen, they had started.

"If I were the brown-haired guy I'd get rid of the staff and I'll win easy peasy," Noah ended shrugging.

"Great answer. The issue is how would he get rid of the staff?" Derek asked.

"Long-ranged weapons have a limit whereby they are unable to function properly. Simply getting close will be enough to disable our green-haired man, but that wouldn't be easy too. I believe the green-haired dude won't let that happen easily, so I guess only skill and luck can make the brown-haired guy win. Notwithstanding, it's hard to keep someone away when they are determined to close the space between you." Noah explained. "The battle should be almost equally matched, at least for most parts."

"In short we can only wait and see who luck favors," Derek asked and burst into laughter when he saw Noah nod with another shrug. "Brilliant!" He exclaimed while still in his laughter.

Limiting himself to remain silent, Noah focused on the battle and it looked as though the duo had heard him. Nevertheless, he could see that it would drag on for a while.

"It was nice talking to you. As you already know, I'm Derek, from the Frozen prism guild." He introduced focusing fully on Noah's reaction.

"Well, I am Aiden from the Divine Lightning guild," Noah stated never removing his gaze from the screen.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Aiden," Derek commented standing to leave. "Let the best of us emerge victorious in our battle," he added returning to his former position in the room.

Noah took a second to gaze at his leaving figure before falling into thought. He immediately began to recall all of the expert's martial art and it seemed to be focused on defending and launching surprisingly precise attacks when he saw fit, but also with a deep mastery level of trickery.

His style almost completely matched Noah's speed and power-based form.

Almost.

Noah had no doubt that he had enough power to win, after all, it didn't matter how cunning a person was, overwhelming power would always win, and even Derek knew it.