The women that won their battles were now given a short break to get to peak condition before continuing with the rest of the tournament. Round 1 only took around 3 hours to finish since everybody was participating in it. Even though 50 duels happened in Round 1, it was actually more like 25 since they went at the same time. The audience also seemed to enjoy the separate battles as well because a lot of them were very similar or weren't very interesting to watch, but having 2 battles go at the same time gave them something else to watch if they got bored with one of them. The audience was always engaged and cheering on someone or just cheering because they get to see the new disciples fight.
Mira wasn't that interested in the tournament anymore since most of these women had around the same amount of skill with the sword, which seemed to be the most popular weapons. This wasn't surprising though. Swords are very versatile and everybody makes them so they are cheaper and more common than other weapons. Mira saw a few people using a spear and one person who used something like butterfly knives, but they were not at the level of experience that their opponent had and lost. Those weapons are harder to learn so it's not that surprising that they couldn't handle their weapons better than their opponents if they don't have the experience required to efficiently use them.
Mira just sat in the same spot as she waited for it to be her turn to fight. She sat with both her legs and arms crossed. This mixed in with her black mask, silver hair, and chilling aura gave her a rather imposing look. Some of the women who won wanted to go up to her and say hi or something, but they all got scared and backed away. A lot of people in the audience also noticed her during the break and wondered who she was. They started to whisper about her as they asked their friends, family, and nearby people if they have ever seen her before. Mira was able to hear some of this and started to glance around the audience causing some of them to freeze when they made eye contact with her.
While Mira was alone due to her subconscious behavior, Maria was enjoying talking to a lot of the women in Group 2. One of the girls that lost in the first round asked Maria a question.
"Are you really that strong like how the announcer described? I don't mean to disrespect you or anything, but you don't seem that strong." One of the girls asked curiously. Maria smiled happily and patted her chest.
"I'd like to say that I'm strong since I should be able to fight someone in the early Foundation Realm. But this is mostly because Mira has been training me to fight for the last 5 or 6 years now. I guess you will just have to wait until I fight with the winner of Group 2. I'm fairly confident I should be able to win!" Maria said with a large smile on her face. While the girl just nodded her head and was about to ask another question before she got interrupted.
"Huh? You're fairly confident you should be able to win? You better fucking win! Or else these last years would've been a complete waste of my time. Even though you still suck with the sword, you have more than enough experience from sparring with me to win!" A voice came from behind and Maria immediately tensed up.
"M-M-Mira! Ahaha. You're right, I will definitely win that match! I have to fight with you for the finale so we can have an official battle!" Maria said awkwardly.
"Fight? We spar every day for hours and I beat your ass every day for hours. Why would today be any different? I'm here to inform you that you should watch these matches. It might help to improve your sword skills or give you some inspiration. I will be testing to see if you gained anything after we officially join the Battle Maiden Sect! See you in the last battle." Mira said coldly and walked away. Maria released a heavy sigh and knew that she should pay attention to these battles.
"So that's Mira huh? She's a lot scarier meeting with her face to face. She's even so mean and cold even to her own friend. Why are you friends with her, Maria?" Another girl asked Maria.
"I enjoy being around her. She's always looking for new opportunities, working hard, making sure that I'm safe, and training me to fight. She's cold, brutal, ruthless, and sometimes extremely terrifying, but she puts everything into making me stronger and increasing my battle prowess while also doing her own stuff. She's also extremely sincere and I've never heard her tell a lie. Out of all of the people I've met in my life so far, she is by far the most reliable and trustworthy. If I don't betray her then I know that she will never betray me. But she might also just be the most terrifying enemy if you make her mad. If there is one person in the world that you should befriend then it should be Mira, but she will probably only accept people that are sincere and are willing to follow her throughout their entire lives. I will follow her anywhere and do whatever she says because I trust her 100%. So far, I've only gotten stronger and learned more about the world. Don't just judge her because of her character. Just because she is like that, she's still human." Maria explained to them with a bit of a solemn expression. She's decided to follow Mira until the end, whether it be good or bad.
The women around Maria were surprised by this answer as they only felt Mira being extremely cold and mean towards everyone, but apparently, there is more to her than that. They might have to re-evaluate Mira.
Around 30 minutes passed by and the middle-aged lady walked up to the middle stage to announce the beginning of the second round.
"We will now begin Round 2! Will the winner from the first bracket in each group please come up?!" The lady announced as the audience cheered loudly.
Number 2 from Group 1, Ava walked up along with the winner after her, which was Number 3, June. A similar duo walked up on the Group 2 arena and readied their weapons.
"Fight!" Both judges said.
***
"It seems that Nisha also respects Mira's opinion even though they barely spoke and only fought together a few times. This is very interesting! Maybe she will be more useful to the sect than we previously thought." One of the Elders said when they noticed that Nisha also thought highly of Mira's opinion. The other Elders also agreed with her.
"I agree! Things just keep getting more and more interesting! I hope that Mira doesn't disappoint!."
"I think as long as we offer the right benefits to her then she will be able to do this for the Sect. The only thing I'm worried about is how hard she will be on the girls she's training. Some of the weaker-willed girls might not be able to handle that kind of constant abuse."
"This is a good chance for them to toughen up! The cultivation world is dangerous and if they want to reach higher realms then you can't have a weak will! But this is not something that we can do ourselves. The disciples look up to us as role models and protectors, ruining this image will only hurt the Sect. I think that this might spark a bit more competition between the disciples."
"I agree! These girls haven't experience the truth of the cultivation world yet. Mira is like the cultivation world personified! You either adapt or die, that seems to be her philosophy. We will just have to make sure she doesn't actually kill someone. Or all of the progress could be lost."
The Elders started to discuss future events that would create a terrifying force within the Battle Maiden Sect in the future.
***
Mira stopped watching paying attention to the fights as she gained just about as much as she could from watching these battles. These women were just too inexperienced to help Mira. But an interesting match finally appeared as Mira saw Celaine walk back up to the stage. Mira noticed that her opponent was now a Stage 4 Qi Condensation Cultivator, 1 stage higher than her previous opponent.
Mira was very interested to see how things play out here and was already watching both of them intently. Celaine felt the same stare as before and turned only to see Mira more focused on her than before. Her hands started to get a little sweaty as she pulled out her saber and her back was also sweating.
'It seems Mira is very interested in this fight. I bet she thinks that I'm going to lose because making up for the difference in cultivation isn't an easy thing to do. Ahhhh! Dang, it! Please stop watching me! You're making me too nervous!' Celaine screamed in her head as she waited for the judge to start the fight.
"Fight!"
Celaine weaved towards her opponent and waited for her to swing first. Her opponent swung her sword down diagonally, but Celaine was able to parry the slash and proceed to step to the side and stab towards her opponent in one fluid motion. Her opponent tried to block the attack, but Celaine's stab was only a feint as she rotated her hip, grabbed her saber with both hands, and swung towards her opponent's neck. She didn't even have time to think about blocking this attack and before she knew it, Celaine's saber was already pressed up against her neck.
"Group 2, Number 31, Celaine, Winner!" The Judge called the battle that ended in just a few breaths of time.
Mira was happily surprised by this result and now had a faint smile on her face as she slightly nodded a few times towards Celaine. Celaine just released another deep breath because Mira is starting to stress her out more than the actual tournament.
After another couple of battles, Nisha finally walked up onto the stage. This is the other match that Mira was looking forward to. Nisha looked over towards Mira and saw that she was watching her even more intently than before. She gulped a bit as she made it on stage and readied her weapons. Her opponent did the same thing.
"Fight!"
Nisha did the same thing as the previous battle, but this time she wanted her opponent to make the first move. Her opponent readied her sword and slashed horizontally. Nisha used one dagger to block the attack and already had the other one stabbing towards her opponent's neck. It all happened too swiftly and Nisha won in this single attack.
"Group 2, Number 42, Nisha, Winner!"
The audience was a bit shocked that the battle only lasted one move before Nisha won. They then started to think of what kind of monsters would be stronger than her.
There was only 1 more battle after her which only took around ten minutes. They had to wait for 2 more battles to finish in Group 1 before Round 2 ended.
"This brings an end to Round 2! We will take a short break and allow everyone to recover then resume the battles!" The announcer repeated.
After another 30 minutes or so, the battles for Round 3 started. There will only be 6 battles happening for each group, or 12 battles total.
"We will now begin Round 3! Will the winner from the first bracket in each group please come up?!"
***
The battles went on like normal. Nisha and Celaine also kept dominating their matches. They both won their matches in Round 3 and Round 4. It was now Round 5 as they were both in the Top 4 now. If Nisha and Celaine both win their matches then they will face off in Round 6 to determine the winner of the group. Audra also gets to participate in this round as well. Three of the four battles in Round 5 are matches that Mira is looking forward to watching.
