The second day of the Big-Three tournament was nothing special for Jason, who was rather dissatisfied about the tournament's difficulty.
Only a few were strong enough to fight him head-on and even some that seemed to be stronger than him according to their mana core size, which he found exciting, while the rewards one could obtain from the Big-Three tournament was another factor that motivated Jason to give his best.
As such, he also wanted to receive a reward which led him to defeat all his 10 opponents on the second day without too much effort.
At the same time, he tried to improve his combat style with his daggers and affinities in accordance.
Other than practicing the Heaven's Hell technique in the morning before he and the Fler's entered Cyro-City's arena, Jason began to actively absorb mana more often than before, as his soul energy was high enough at the moment.
During his short break between each fight, he continued to practice multitasking his affinities and circulating mana within his body, which was seen by the two youths from the Miral academy who eyed him the day before.
Meanwhile, Jason also figured out their names, which were York and Lore.
Apparently, both were from the Miral main school and within the Top-10 in the first year which caused him to become even more expectant than he already was.
Their fight would only start the next day and it felt like the second tournament day didn't end at all.
When it was finally the third day, Jason also noticed that Greg and Malia were also much stronger than their peers than he initially expected because they won all matches on the second day, which he could only praise.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})However the most difficult would be the last day, because everyone who fought was desperate to win, which would inevidently lead to injuries, due to student's greed and determination to enter the next round in order to obtain rewards as long as they're able to enter the Top-25.
This was easier said than done, as Jason knew that the average students' combat prowess was between the 1st and 2nd Expert rank, which could already be labeled as powerful if one considered that the first-year students were around 14 years old.
But what astonished him more was that Seron stepped back from the tournament on the third day, which caused a small commotion in his group, as his opponents won their matches without doing anything.
If that was everything, Jason wouldn't give Seron's decision too much attention, but even Till decided to let someone else replace him as the first-year tournament representative, which told him that something happened.
'Is the Earth Dragon finally laying its egg?' Jason began to wonder, as he asked himself how long a Dragon would need to lay and the time for it to hatch under normal circumstances.
In the end, there was no other solution for their sudden disappearance, if one were to disregard the worst-case scenarios that something might have happened with their family or something similar.
However, this caused Jason to feel somehow disappointed because he thought that the two wanted to take him with them in order to choose a better soulbond for Seron if there were multiple eggs at once.
Other than that, he also began to ask himself how many Earth-Dragon lived on Astrix and where the hell they were, because he never heard from any dragons on the island at all.
Instead of complaining, Jason could only accept Till and Seron's decision to not take him with them, and maybe they would still ask him for their help, but there was nothing he could do about it.
After defeating his first five opponents on the third day of the first round, Jason entered the arena for the sixth time, when he saw York, who was the first-year student from the Miral academy, he was expecting to fight, entering the arena.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})He was smaller than his friend Lore, while his amplification was also slightly lower in comparison, which only allowed him to reach the 3rd Expert rank in his mana core size.
With a wind affinity, that was either at the peak evolved or low unblemished rank, York was probably the strongest opponent he fought until now when both gazed at each other seriously.
His opponent used two shortswords that were barely longer than his daggers and instead of using the pseudo mana grade-1 daggers he forged by himself, Jason decided to replace them with his Viridi-Starstream dagger, with which he was more proficient in, as they laid perfectly in his hand.
The Virid-Starstream daggers felt like extensions of his arm and this feature was extremely beneficial to use with his martial art techniques in accordance.
Smiling at his opponent, York could sense the faint mana fluctuations from Jason shining daggers, as he gulped down his saliva, thinking
'He is going all out huh?'
Yet, rather than becoming nervous, York smiled brightly, as his erupting mana intensified with his mana circulation accelerating, as the AI initiated the start of their battle.
Enveloping himself in a thick wind mana membrane, he pushed himself from the ground, while exerting his movement technique, as a strong draft from behind accelerated his speed further.
York's eyes turned green and Jason was taken aback for a short second, as he involuntarily thought 'Is that an ability or already a fortified soul conjunction?!'
However, not being able to think further about his opponent's weird appearance, which was comparable to that of a human tempest, Jason exerted the weightless steps technique to his highest capabilities, as he retreated while testing the waters with several dozen small icicles which he threw towards York.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Using different icicles of size and velocity, they crashed into the thick green mana membrane that was additionally enveloped in a gust, only to shatter into smitherness, with a bare minimum of impact remaining.
Seeing this, Jason was immediately reminded of the water affinity user that used his affinity to construct unstable armor, which was a joke against what he saw in front of him because he couldn't see a single flaw in the wind armor's mana.
The only apparent thing he noticed was that the armor was not thick enough to take on an onslaught of several hundred icicles, which was hardly required as York stood already in front of him, radiating with fighting spirit as he smiled brightly.
'Not bad!' Jason thought and he had to acknowledge that he underestimated his opponent because he didn't expect such a weird ability or soul conjunction which allowed his opponent to reach a higher velocity than he had, while his armor nullified his high-quantity low mana consumption tactic completely.
Jason had to recalculate everything as his whole mindset was wrong from the beginning because he underestimated his opponents too much, while arrogantly thinking that he could easily destroy everyone.
Looking straight into his opponent's emerald-colored eyes that had not a tiny trace of white left, Jason couldn't help but feel excited, as he erupted with his mana, without holding back anymore.
Utilizing his black origin flame, Jason turned into a black burning torch without wasting a single moment on creating a complex armor like his opponent, as his Viridi-Starstream daggers began to shine in its lush green-silvery color, that was enveloped in thick black glowing flames.
Seeing the sudden change in Jason's appearance and even demeanor that happened in a single moment, York was taken aback for a moment, as he felt as if he was attacked by a foreign race, due to the overbearing mana fluctuations coming from the black origin flame which seemingly wanted to devour his whole existence.
Jason's bright, golden eyes were the only things York could see right now, as he perceived his opponent's fighting spirit overshadowing his.
'F*ck!'
