The Villain's Sword Is Sharp

There were 7 fights after Isaac's, beginning with Tore vs Eva.

Tore wasn't an outstanding contestant, but anybody who made it this far was very strong. Eva simply couldn't compete with her broken wrist and other injuries: she lost 3 – 0.

Of course she was disappointed, but it wasn't that bad. The sect gave medium-sized prizes to those who reached the group stages, but the real prizes started when one entered the knockouts. Eva had already profited significantly just by reaching this point.

Isaac had also achieved his main goal. Everyone who reached the knockout stages was rewarded some time in the sect's 1 star locations. After the tournament, Isaac could visit the 1 star library to look for clues about improving his talent. However, that didn't mean Isaac would just give up on the tournament – there were too many other gains to be had. The prizes increased exponentially with each stage you progressed to, and this was a huge chance for Isaac to earn cultivation resources.

Isaac had just broken into Rank 1 upper stage, but he'd already set his eyes on Rank 2. A good performance was crucial since it would earn him a great deal of resources, providing him a springboard to push towards Rank 2.

Similarly, an early loss would be fatal. A shortage of resources would significantly delay his cultivation and put him in a precarious position: more talented disciples such as Johan would leave him behind. If that happened, Isaac's team would crumble. He would also lose his value to Lara and she would throw him away. She might even try to dispose of him to conceal her actions against Johan.

Thus it was imperative that Isaac continued to win.

With this in mind, he watched the following fights with rapt attention. It was crucial to identify threats and devise strategies to deal with them.

Fight 3: Alf Pinson was fighting Liam Berg, the runner-up from group B. It was a close fight and nobody could deal a fatal blow, but Liam eventually won 2 – 1.

Fight 4: Johan was defeated still carrying the injury Isaac had dealt him in training. He'd taken out a loan and paid for a healer, but he hadn't been healed completely and the damaged ribs still hampered him. Victory or loss was decided by fine margins at this level. Johan simply couldn't overcome his injury and was hit by a fatal blow in duel 2.

Fight 5: Nora Hoen won. The crowd disliked this fight since Nora used a will-style Anima. That meant the fight was more of a mental battle than a spectacular clash.

Fight 6: this ended in a 3 – 0 victory for Alma Nelsen. It wasn't that she was strong, just that her opponent was unusually weak – perhaps they already had some hidden injuries.

Fight 7: Hayden won the first duel by referee's decision. In the second duel he used the Ice Shield Anima to block his opponent's ranged attacks, then backed them into a corner and dealt a fatal blow with his pike.

Fight 8: the fight was stopped after about 30 seconds. Erik's opponent was tough and had a very thick defence, but it wasn't enough. Erik's purple gauntlets – powered by his upper stage Qi – shattered those defences without too much suspense. He broke his opponent's ribs and very nearly collapsed one of their lungs.

After everybody had fought once, the elder descended from above. She gave them their obligatory congratulations, said some words to encourage those that had won, then left.

When she was gone, the remaining contestants went home too.

*************************

There were only 8 contestants left now. They all sat in the same row of seats right next to the stage, and there was an air of nervousness as Isaac sat down. However, that nervousness was only felt by the participants. The rest of the crowd was buzzing.

The stands were packed out but it was actually quieter than yesterday. 'Buzzing' was actually the perfect word to describe: people were chatting to their friends or reading matchday programs, eagerly anticipating the first fight.

They wouldn't have to wait long.

The elder floated down to announce the start of the quarter finals. After she left, the official called out,

"Isaac Dahl and Tore Kolden, please take the stage."

Of course the 2 complied. They came down to the stage and faced off with one another.

Isaac had actually tried to buy information about Tore, but Abbie didn't have any. This wasn't unusual, since Abbie wasn't omniscient. Just to be sure, Isaac visited an information dealer's and tried to strike a deal with them. However... they didn't have any information on Tore either!

They did know his name, appearance and first Anima, but this was common knowledge, not information worth paying for! In fact, the lacking information from the information broker made Isaac slightly apprehensive.

However, apprehension wasn't useful in battle so he cast it aside.

"On your marks. Begin!"

Isaac shot forwards, but Tore didn't wait for him to get close. 3 arm-thick jets of water appeared in the air. In one quick motion, they all intertwined with each other, then compressed like a spring which had been squashed.

It hung there for half a moment. Then the triple jets shot forwards at incredible speed!

Isaac dodged. He'd already predicted the projectile's direction during the brief time it took to interweave and compress.

'This Tri-Jet Anima is the only one Tore's used in the tournament so far. Its high attack power has let him win fights to this point, but I'm more agile than anybody he's faced so far. Let's see if this is all he's got.'

Isaac kept moving forwards after dodging, but he saw the ground next to Tore glow bright white. While his attention was diverted, 3 more jets appeared. They twisted together, compressed, and then fired with great force and speed.

However, the firing process just took too long. Isaac barely managed to dodge.

Once he was out of danger, his gaze was drawn back to the glowing patch of earth. Except, it wasn't glowing anymore. A strange creature had appeared in its place.

It had the body of a young seal, but the rubbery tail of a fish. It also had huge, bulbous eyes which were nearly half the size of its head. The eyes had no pupils and very little white around the edges – they were filled by the creature's large brown irises.

Those saucer-like brown eyes stared at Isaac inquisitively, but then it suddenly snapped to look up at Tore. Tore pointed a meaty finger at Isaac, then thrust his fist forwards, motioning for the creature to attack. The creature... mewled softly and did nothing.

Isaac saw that it didn't pose a threat, so he darted forwards again. Tore sighed and more jets of water appeared in front of him. Twist, compress, fire; it followed the same pattern. Isaac dodged easily, but then the strange creature gave a lazy flap of its flipper, like it was slapping some imaginary enemy.

The triple jet suddenly curved and headed right at Isaac!

He barely had any time to react. The Snowshoe Anima carried him back and to the right, but it wasn't enough. The jets caught his left arm as he retreated. The powerful torrents of water buffeting his arm, pushing it back and twisting it sharply. There was a barely audible *pop* as Isaac's shoulder was dislocated.

He tried to push it back in, but Tore didn't give him an opportunity to. More water jets were fired, bending in from all kinds of unpredictable angles. Isaac couldn't pop his shoulder back in and he couldn't approach Tore. His shoulder throbbed painfully as he danced, finding the eye of the veritable storm and escaping Tore's onslaught.

Isaac quickly gave up on popping his arm back in. He needed to retake the initiative, so a plan rapidly took shape in his mind.

He glided back to avoid 2 attacks which crossed in front of him, then he began to charge forwards into the gap they left–

*Phweep*

The referee whistled sharply, then announced,

"One minute is up. I judge Tore Kolden to have won the first duel!"