The rules of the combat competitions were both simple and complicated at the same time.
Each of the 10 schools registered a set number of students that would take part in the competitions. In this instance, there were 5 from each school.
When the competition starts, one of the schools that were predetermined to start would send out a fighter for the competition. The school that sat to their right would then send out a fighter of their own.
Whoever of the two won would stay on the stage and wait for the next school to send their students to participate.
The participants would go up in a counter-clockwise rotation and the competition would go on until there was but just a single person remaining.
Points were handed in the order of when you lost. If you were the first one to lose, you got 1 point, and if you were the last one to stand, you got more than 45 points, depending on how many of your team had lost.
5 additional points were given to the winning team for each participant that still didn't lose by the end of the competition.
There were additional rules as well.
Since a person would have to fight one opponent after another, after 5 continuous victories, the person was allowed to swap with another member of his own team.
If he lasted until it was time for his own team to send someone, then they could leave the stage without having to send anyone up. The next two schools in the rotation would then have to fight.
The competition was not one that required just combat prowess and luck. It also required magnificent management skills on the part of the school.
The people that were in charge of choosing who went when had to make decisions based on not just the present but also the future.
Should they send their worst student first and hope they did well, but risk getting a very low point? Or should they send their best student first and hope they didn't immediately fail, and maybe have them go on for 5 more rounds?
Or should they just pick a middle-of-the-pack student and risk less but also not get as many points?
The decision had to be made by the people in charge every time it was their team's turn to choose.
Ning saw the order in which they were sitting. Blackhawk was in between Light Dance to the left and Crimson Wings to the right. Essence Heart was to the left of Light Dance, so it wouldn't be long before the two would have to fight.
The first person that would start was already determined based on a draw before anyone even walked out. The Grand Will academy sent out a male fighter to the stage, and the Frolane Academy to their right followed it up by sending a girl to the stage.
The stage was very wide and the barrier around the stage was already set up. With multiple referees inside, all was ready for these two to fight.
The boy had two swords, one that was a Fire conduit and another that was an Earth conduit. He himself was a Water Essence user, giving him 3 different types of attacks to do.
The girl seemed to be a Wind Essence user while she used an Explosion spear to fight.
The battle began and immediately the two of them started fighting. The girl used some sort of wind technique to create a chaotic storm in the arena. Any fire attack the young boy used was swept up by the storm, completely misdirecting his attack.
Even water attacks couldn't do anything to the young girl in the storm.
The young boy's only choice in this situation was to use his Earth sword to attack. His sword had been made using a massive boulder that was near his hometown.
The converter that had worked on it had needed 5 whole hours to turn the rock into Essence. With his powers, he could create the entirety of the massive boulder, which he tried to do.
The girl saw the opportunity and dashed forward. The chaotic winds suddenly stopped, and instead, she used a wind movement skill that helped her forward. With her physical strength being quite strong, she closed the gap between the two in the blink of an eye.
The amount of Essence the young boy had to put into his sword to create the boulder was not something he could do so quickly. So, when the girl arrived in front of him, he was unable to do anything but take the spear stab to the chest.
The girl's spear stopped just a few inches away from the young man's heart as a giant fiery arm had appeared out of nowhere and grabbed onto the spear.
The crowd went silent for a moment and then immediately cheered as the young girl had won the fight easily.
"Looks like Frolane wants to start with a bang," Kaleb who was next to him spoke.
"That girl didn't even use many skills. She simply forced the young man into a losing position and used his desperation to have him make a mistake. Not bad," one of the teachers said.
Everyone went around praising the young girl for what she had just done, but no one seemed to be surprised at the giant fiery arm that had just appeared.
Ning sighed. 'So everyone here but me has seen that before, huh?' he thought. He wondered if he had seen that before too, in some other world.
He couldn't be sure as everything about Essence was kept hidden by the system.
"Well, at least I got to see the Essence soul for the first time," he thought to himself. "I wonder what my Essence souls would look like when I break through to the Essence Soul realm as well."
The next contestant from the Ash Wind academy was sent to the stage, and the battle fight began.
