When they finally arrived, they were told to enter the preliminary area at different places. Ambrose and his team would enter near the farms to the south-west, Maiara entered from the south-east, and Itzal entered from the north-west. When they split off from the others, Ambrose started to feel nervous. He'd been through a lot so far, so for a moment he hoped he'd gotten somewhat used to these kinds of things, but that wasn't the case. Deep inside, he was still a simple medicine man, not a hero.

Olve noticed it. "Don't worry kid, I'm sure we're gonna show the world something great."

Ambrose nodded. "Thanks." The man looked completely different now that he was wearing his fully plated set of armour. Although he was on older side, he didn't look like he had left the prime of his life just yet. His black hair was only starting to get a little bit grey, after all. His armour had to be quite heavy, but he was surprisingly quick and agile in it, showing he'd been training his strength a lot. The fact that he was bringing along a large two-handed battle-axe as well as a sword and shield also added a lot to the weight he was carrying, but he didn't seem to mind it. Ambrose himself was wearing leather armour, like most of the others. It wasn't as strong as the plated armour, but it was a lot lighter and less restrictive, so it was the go-to for those that wanted to have at least some protection, without having the strength to fight in anything heavier. As for weapons, he had brought along two daggers and a short-sword. He hoped he'd never need to use the things he'd learned from Itzal and Qadir, but he'd do so if needed.

"Hey, for as long as we don't die or utterly embarrass ourselves, we should be good~" Isra said with a smile. She was clad in leather armour like Ambrose, and had settled on wielding a dagger, a short-sword and a short-bow with arrows. She had also brought along some of her thievery tools, although Ambrose wasn't sure if she'd need them in the ruined city. She was fairly short, even for a Forest Elf, with brown hair tied back in a pony-tail. Her green eyes and slightly tanned skin made her blend in fairly well with most of the Forest Elves living in one of the cities, which was probably exactly what she wanted.

Ambrose wasn't sure what to reply to her, but he gave it his best shot. "Technically, you're right, but I'd rather try to do more than the minimum. With the large amount of things that can go wrong, it's better to be safe than sorry..."

"I'm just teasing you~ Don't worry, I'll try to do just a little bit more than the minimum."

Ambrose didn't reply, sighing instead. Was this kind of attitude normal among the more sneaky type of people? If that was the case, he wondered how long it would take for Luna to be affected by it. In either case, their attention was drawn by a group of soldiers. They were wearing

bright blue clothes, which identified them as the monitors of the tournament. The combination of their choice of attire and the name of the general they worked for had quickly earned them the nickname 'Blue Guards' among the tournament participants.

The moment the three were close enough, on of the Blue Guards walked up to confirm their identities and to explain the situation. "To avoid sending in a large amount of teams at a single point, I'll sent someone to escort you towards your exact area of entrance. The moment your escort leaves, you'll be officially taking part in the tournament. All the mentioned risks and rules start to apply from then on out."

Ambrose nodded. He was well aware of it. When they reached the indicated area, they realized they weren't in a great spot. There were two farms in sight, but both were pretty far off. It was highly likely that another team would also considering going to them. During their earlier discussion at Maiara's mansion, they concluded that there would likely be four types of teams. Considering this was a race to see the last team standing, there were going to be teams that'd focus solely on hiding and waiting it out. They'd try to find a good hiding spot to stay there until the other teams would have taken care of each-other. The second type of team they expected was the type of team that was here to prove their strength, who would barge around openly and yell for anyone to attack them. They were the type of people that were active hoping to keep getting into fights. The third type would be one that'd play it strategically, who would carefully pick their fights, and would only do so when this would benefit them. The fourth type of team was the most diverse, as this included all the teams that were motivated to join for reasons other than simply winning the tournament. Their own teams were of such a type, as winning wasn't their primary objective. They also expected there to be teams that were only entering to take them out, and there might be teams that joined for reasons that were still completely unknown to them. All in all, they'd have to deal with quite a diversity of troublesome opponents.

That said, there was one thing that all of these teams would need to deal with, and that was time. With over a hundred teams entering the tournament, and the area covering an entire city, this fight wasn't going to end in a single day. In fact, most teams had brought supplies for over a week. This meant that they'd also need a relatively safe spot to spent the nights and to eat and rest. For the teams starting in a relatively open area, such as Ambrose's team, the few remaining semi-intact farm buildings were the only places that could serve as such a shelter. Ambrose wasn't sure how to proceed. "Should we risk fighting over a shelter, or should we avoid the buildings and try to travel further towards the centre of the city?"

Isra considered their options for a moment, then she spoke up. "I'm the only one with a bow in our team, so we'd be in trouble if we got fired at while in the open. I'm saying we shouldn't even attempt to cross all the fields, and instead just take over one of the farms."

Olve nodded. "She's right. Besides, if we really want to prioritize preventing deaths over wining, we'll need to be wherever deaths are most likely to occur."

Ambrose smiled a bit, relieved to hear the words of his companions. "You're right. Let's go to the building on our far right. It's closest to one of the main roads into the city, and it seems like it is in the most habitable state."

Isra interrupted. "Sure, but let's go around that way." She pointed to a mostly dried-up riverbed. "It'll allow us to lay low and out of sight, but more importantly, it'll make sure we won't get ambushed by any other group that might've thought about travelling through there."

With a plan in mind, they were on their way. Olve had some trouble, as his heavy armour made him sink down into the mud at some spots, but he managed to pull himself free fast enough for them to continue onwards. They could hear the first sounds of struggle as soon as they reached the farm. It was accompanied by the smell of blood.

"I'll go take a peak." Said Isra, sneaking off before they could stop her. All Ambrose and Olve could do was wait, as they listened to the sounds of battle and some people yelling. After what felt like hours, despite being only a matter of minutes, Isra returned. "It seems like two teams were fighting over control of the farmhouse when a third team arrived to start the chaos. I'm pretty sure I saw one guy bleeding to death in the field over there, and the ones defending the farm seemed like they were planning to sent the rest of the other teams to their death as well.

Ambrose gritted his teeth. They knew bloodshed would be inevitable, but to run into it mere moments after joining was rather discouraging. After breathing in deeply, he confirmed the meaning of their presence here. "Let's sneak around and take out the defending team, then we can negotiate with the remaining teams and offer to heal them."

Isra nodded. "Follow me."

She led them a bit further through the riverbed, until they were as close to the farmhouse as they were going to get. They quickly covered the remainder of the distance, hiding behind the walls on the outside. The sounds of battle were now clearly audible, as well as the voice of one of the guys defending the farmhouse. "So that's all you've got?!? Two teams against one, and we're still wiping the floor with you!" The man's comments were followed by the laughing of him and two others, after which one of the other two added his own remark. "Hey, how about you beg for your life, and maybe we'll let you surrender?"

Ambrose gritted his teeth. These were exactly the type of people of which they were the polar opposite. Either this was some sort of fated meeting, or there were a lot more rotten bastards in this tournament than even their worst predictions had made them expect there to be. Ambrose feared the latter was a likely option.

Olve wasn't planning to wonder about such things, however, as he signalled he was going in. Isra was close behind him, leaving Ambrose to be the last to follow. The door had rotted out of its frame, so they were able to sneak into the place silently, as the defending team was still focused on the other two groups. It's why they didn't see it coming when Olve suddenly rushed around the corner and bashed in the skull of the nearest opponent with the back-end of his sword. Isra followed up by using her short-bow to sent an arrow through the kneecap of a second opponent. Ambrose would've liked to follow up by taking out the third, but such a thing was beyond what he was capable off, so he checked the situation instead. There were four people laying on the ground, covered in blood. A fifth was standing in a corner, bleeding pretty badly. With Olve and Isra having taken out two others, and now teaming up on the third, there was only one person unaccounted for. The remaining guy from the defending team realized he wouldn't win, so he tried talking them out of it instead. "Woah, woah, easy there. How about we do what these others bastards did and team up? I swear we're good at fighting, but we didn't bloody think that there'd be five teams in this small of an area, but..."

He couldn't finish his sentence, as he was surprised when Olve lunged forward and knocked him out with the back of sword in a similar fashion as his companion had been taken out. With that done, Ambrose sprung to action. He immediately checked up on the most severely wounded person. A sword had gone straight through his torso and had pierced the man's lungs. Luckily enough, Ambrose knew how to heal such a wound. Thanks to his large amount of practice, he was now able to do so with ease, and with little drainage on his mana. However, he did make sure of one thing. He wasn't going to heal anyone enough for them to continue the battle. After all, that would be pretty counterproductive. Instead, he healed them enough to survive this tournament after dropping out. Sadly enough, one of the fallen man had already bled to death. Ambrose gave a heavy sigh, as he spoke up to the man that was bleeding in the corner. "I've healed everyone still alive. It's just enough for them to survive. Considering we're not far from the border of the combat area, we'll help you all get there to drop out."

Isra spoke up. "Wait, do you now what happened to the ninth guy? We're one short of three full teams." Although it wasn't clear whether she intended to or not, she sounded a fair bit more threateningly than a normal 'saviour' would sound.

Her attitude made the man reply instantly. "He ran off after they killed Stevenson."

Ambrose nodded. "That means your team has already lost. Here's the deal, I'll fully heal you if you help us drag these others to the border. I'd rather not have them regain their conscious and start up a brawl with us. If we call out for a Blue Guard and hand them over, they'll officially be out of the game."

"S-sure..." The guy was eager to work along with them, although he was still too busy processing what had just happened to really think things through. For as far as Ambrose was concerned, the guy was far too young to be in this altogether. Ambrose wasn't all that old himself, but this kid was barely an adult. If anything, he was glad at least this kid hadn't lost his life to some stupid tournament. It's why he was able to do the heavy lifting of dragging their defeated opponents over the border with a feeling of satisfaction. The only thing that ruined it was the fact that he hadn't been able to save them all, or the fact that there were countless others being killed through-out this ruined city at this very moment. If the entrance into the city in the other places was as violent as it was here, the first few hours of this tournament would be the bloodiest by far.

They were able to reach the border without incident, and immediately spotted some Blue Guards in the distance. Although the men were rather surprised, they eventually agreed to take the brought-down teams to a hospital where they could further recover, and they would scrap their names from the list of active contestants. Once that was done with, Isra smiled. "That's seven out of nine saved, one unaccounted for, and only one lost. I'd say we're off to a good start~"

Olve berated her. "Any life lost is one too many. Especially when they were as young as these kids were." He closed his eyes for a moment and inhaled deeply. "Yet every life saved is therefore all the more valuable. I think we've already managed to do some great work here on our first day, despite not being perfect."

Ambrose nodded. "I couldn't have done it without you guys. Let's try to find a place to spent the night and continue our work tomorrow." They settled on using the farmhouse as their place to spent the night. It wouldn't be all that nice of a place considering the blood, and they'd first need to drag out the remaining corpse for the Blue Guard to collect in the morning, but it was still their best option for having some form of shelter, and it was the only way to stay out of sight and out of arrow range. After deciding the order in which they'd keep watch, Ambrose fell asleep with surprising ease. He had been training the usage of mana for quite a while, but his healing today still exhausted him enough to drift off into slumber even with today's images still raging through his head.

On the south-eastern side of the ruined city, Maiara and company had entered the city around the same time as Ambrose. There were some odd resemblances between the former Human noble's district and the Elven noble's district she grew up in. Well, for as far as she could tell, considering half of these houses had crumbled entirely and the other half looked like they would follow suit soon enough. A few of the sturdier looking buildings were heavily overgrown with all sorts of flora, giving them an odd kind of charm. Sadly enough, they weren't here for sightseeing.

Qadir and Millicent were both wearing leather armour, something Maiara had planned on doing as well. However, she hadn't been able to get used to the more restrictive feeling, so in the end, she'd gone with a more practical version of her normal black attire. She experienced the same issues with weaponry. Despite spending some time training, she ended up deciding to only bring a dagger along, as her proficiency with most other weapons didn't give her much of an increased fighting chance. Qadir was a lot better armed, having brought along the typical curved sword, as well two daggers and a short-bow. He still didn't match up to Millicent though, who had brought a spear, a short-sword, a dagger and a longbow. She showed them surprising proficiency with the latter weapon, especially considering she was mostly known for her spear-fighting. Sadly enough, they weren't in a good environment for long-ranged weapons. Most of the enemy teams would likely hide in the buildings, using their bows at whomever was careless enough to openly roam the streets. To counter that, the other teams would likely end up trying to run from mansion to mansion using the back-alleys with their walls and plant-life as cover.

Maiara and Qadir were discussing their next move, whilst Millicent was keeping watch. They had only just entered, but they were already faced with quite a challenge. Their current area had the edge of the marked zone behind them, and two large estates in front of them. Both were walled off with walls intact enough to be a considerable obstacle to climb over. Doing so was possible, of course, but it'd likely attract some attention. The street passing between them was in the open, to the point where walking through it was like painting a target on your back and shouting for people to shoot at you. Thanks to her ability, Maiara could technically do so and survive, but she wasn't eager to start off with such a circus act. She pointed at the corner of the wall. "We should be able to reach that corner without leaving the zone, using the back-end of the wall as cover. Considering the distance we'll cross to do so, we might run into another team there, but we'd avoid using the main road."

Qadir shook his head. "We'd end up using a back-alley that most other teams will also considering using. We might get stuck in-between two teams there."

Maiara sighed. Qadir was right, so she tried coming up with something else. She couldn't. "Does this make climbing the walls of one of the estates the only remaining option?"

Qadir nodded. "I believe so."

Maiara carefully observed as much of the estates as she could see from their current position. She didn't spot a sign of life in either of the two estates, but that made them all the more dangerous. Suddenly, Qadir tapped her shoulder and pointed. It was difficult to make out, but the end of a crossbow was pointing out of a window on the first floor of the estate closest to them. The crossbow was aimed at the streets below it, away from where they were.

Maiara quickly drew a conclusion. "They might not know that our team started behind these walls, so they think they only need to watch the streets and back-alley. If that's true, we'd be able to sneak in and take them out."

Qadir nodded. "My thoughts exactly."

"Let's go then!" Millicent added, having listened in on the conversation.

Maiara could feel her heart beating more heavily in her chest when she climbed over the wall. After all, she was a scholar first and foremost, not a warrior. Whereas Qadir and Millicent were up and over in mere seconds, it took Maiara considerably more effort. That said, they somehow managed to climb over unnoticed, meaning their earlier bet had paid off. The team occupying the house was not aware of them.

They made it to house, which Qadir entered first. His weapon and skills were the best suited for the relatively cramped space inside. After sneaking through the house as stealthily as they could, they spotted two people standing guard near the front door. They were rather focussed on what was outside. Maiara feared they had spotted another team, which meant that picking a fight with them would attract more attention than they'd be happy to deal with. They wouldn't have a choice though, as one of them suddenly turned around. Maiara wasn't sure what alerted the guy, but it was clear he had somehow spotted them, as he immediately warned his friend. "Someone got in!"

The other guy also turned around, with both of them readying their weapons; short-swords and shields. Both Qadir and Millicent looked at her, probably wondering what the plan was... Luckily enough, Maiara came up with an idea just in time. She gestured for them to retreat to a room further to the back, near