"What is he asking me?" Saphandra quietly asked.
"Your age," Ning told her.
"Oh, uh… 21," Saphandra said to the person in the registration room. "Did I say that right?"
Ning nodded.
The man asked a bunch of more questions that ended up with her double-checking with Ning to make sure she was saying it all correctly.
"Alright, I will need to check if your hair really is Orange or not," the man said.
"What is he saying?" Saphandra asked again.
"He's… oh to hell with it." Ning grabbed the man's head and used Supreme Domination. "You don't need any more information."
"No, I don't, master," the man said.
"Alright, let's go in," Ning said.
"What did you do?" Saphandra asked with a surprised expression.
"Just a little persuasion, nothing else," Ning said and pushed her along.
"Alright, you go that way. I need to go this way," Ning said.
"Okay, see you later tonight," Saphandra said and went to the waiting room for newbies that were fighting without beasts.
Ning watched the orange-haired Saphandra walk towards that room. He couldn't help but agree that it wasn't a very good look on her, but that was what they needed at the moment.
He was just happy that she didn't stubbornly stick with her violet hair and bring attention to herself.
Ning quickly forgot about everything and went to his own room to wait for his turn.
* * * * *
Saphandra reached the waiting area and just as Ning had told her, she took her waiting number and sat down by the table.
She looked at the number on the paper and then tried to remember what it was. 'That's a 7 and that's a… 3?' she thought. She quietly pulled her sleeve back to reveal an arm full of words and numbers that were there to help her with quick translation if she needed it.
'Yes, 73. So I'm the 73rd,' she thought.
"Number 17 and 18," the person by the door at the other end of the hall called out.
It took more than a second for Saphandra to understand what the two numbers were, but she got there. 'So I have about 5 more collective rounds to go through before it's my turn,' she thought.
As she waited, she looked around and could see a few guards standing all around her, continuously checking to see if any of them were using their powers in the room.
'They sure are careful,' she thought. As she waited, more and more people joined the room and soon there were nearly a hundred people in there.
'What the hell? Didn't Ning say he only had 50 people in his? Is it because I'm too early perhaps? Or are these people so conscious about the spiritual energy that they don't want to summon the entire beast?' she wondered. 'Goddammit people, there is an ocean near you. Just go take a bloody dunk if you're that worried about spiritual energy.'
As she thought that, Saphandra remembered what would likely happen to her if she went to the ocean and quickly got rid of all thought.
'Deep breaths. Nothing will happen to you. You don't have to go back to that place,' She calmed herself. She imagined something moving on her back, but of course, there was nothing there anymore.
"I'm fine," she said to herself. "Everything is fine."
Not long after, she was called as her turn came up. So, she stood up from her bench and walked confidently to the door.
Her opponent turned out to be a boy that wasn't even 18 years old yet.
'How the hell are your parents letting you do this?' she thought for a second before remembering that anyone above 16 was considered an adult in this world.
She shook her head and walked over to the stage. The referee said things that she didn't understand at all, but she did know the word 'fight', so when she heard it, she got ready.
The young man in front of her jumped at her from a very far distance and punched her in the face. Except, Saphandra was too quick about it and simply moved her head to the side and the young man completely missed it.
She punched back to hit him, but the man was physically strong and so she missed him as well. She didn't really care about not hitting him however as she barely had any physical strength herself.
She was just doing whatever she could to drag on the battle for more people to vote on her opponent.
The young man came back flying again and kicked her in the head. Saphandra ducked and proceeded to punch, but she had to stop in the middle as she realized she was this close to hitting the man's… jewels.
'That's most likely out of rule,' she thought. That was the only reason she stopped at all.
The young man stepped on the ground and using the same foot sent himself rotating at Saphandra while trying to kick her hard.
Saphandra brought up her palm and released a bit of pushing force through it the moment the young man's legs landed on her.
She made sure to have the strength be weak, but even then the man was stopped.
She heard the crowd cheer and kept the fight going for a while. After nearly 5 minutes of fighting, she realized that it was time to end it.
So she decided to attack him with a bit more force. However, just as she thought so, the young man did something she couldn't have believed.
He suddenly sent out a fireball from his hand. Saphandra was surprised to see the fireball and realized that she hadn't examined the young man correctly as he definitely was not Rank 2.
Instead of dodging the fireball, however, she used her powers and pushed it back directly onto the young man.
She pushed it back so fast that the young man didn't even have time to dodge. The young man was then sent flying out of the stage.
She dumbly looked at the referee and waited for him to speak. She heard him say something and the crowd cheered.
She had won.
