Author's Note: End of mass update part 1! This is a long chapter too, 3.7k words! I hope you all enjoyed this update ^_^.

Unlike the other participants that had a loose footing on the ground, Cecil had more balance. She managed to regain her balance on the ground, unfortunately, she landed harshly on the ground. 

Xue was near enough to notice Cecil, and to hear her scream. Moreover, he himself experienced the same sudden gust of wind. He spun around in a panic, ignoring his opponent that almost slashed him with his weapon. He saw her landing on the ground, almost kissing it and to his relief, she stood up just fine. 

He softened his look slightly as he stared at her for a second longer, before he glanced away, ducking an attack from his opponent. Narrowing his eyes, he scanned the area with a hint of anger in his eyes. 

Which bastard is it? 

Which bastard was it that dared hurt Cecil? 

All of a sudden, everyone felt the ground tremble once again and the remaining participants lifted their head up. 

“What the--” 

“Ahhh!” 

There were surprised yelps all around, and the culprit that was creating the gusts of wind turned out to be an earth golem. The earth golem had a height of almost four men combined, and seated on top of its shoulders was a man dressed in a traditional chinese costume. 

The arena was humongous enough for the golem to go by unnoticed by half of the participants. 

The man on top of the golem was waving about his weapon, which was a fan, synchronising his movements with golem. Just as the golem made another swing, there was a ball of air gathered under its palm and a strong gust of wind swept by as the swing reached its peak. 

Anyone could see the man on top of the golem was an air element, adding on to the force of the golem as it made a sweeping motion. Meanwhile, the owner of the earth golem was standing at the edge of the water, protected by another person. 

The person protecting him wielded a pair of boxing gloves, due to the abundance of water around him, he used the water to form icicles in the air. He shot the icicles at anyone who came near, and if one even touched him, he proved to be a formidable fighter with his gloves on. Moreover, to make his attacks more deadly, he created ice spikes on his boxing gloves. 

“A four-man team.” 

“What the--aren’t they just cheating like that?” 

The announcer hyped up the match by pushing this same team of four-man to the top, praising their battling strategy high and low. 

Xue eyed the earth golem viciously, marching towards it as he swung his spear around expertly. 

On the other hand, Ryo was having the time of his life fighting an opponent using a halberd just like him. In addition to that, their elements were completely opposite, ice and fire. 

...one could imagine his sadness when he saw his opponent losing his balance and getting blown away by the sudden wind. 

He shielded himself from the wind, and he looked up to see his opponent flying away. 

“Wha--” Ryo gasped out. “My friend!” 

If the opponent knew Ryo had considered him as a friend, he would have given him a weird look. He was coming at Ryo with killing intent, and no one in their right mind would consider a person like that as a friend. 

“Damnit, who is it?!” Ryo clicked his tongue, glaring at the participants. “Who is the bastard that blew my friend away!” 

The surviving participants who heard Ryo, pointed to the earth golem stomping and spinning around a part of the arena, like a tyrannical ruler. 

“I’m getting my revenge for my friend, you bastard! You just wait, even if you are pretty far, I’ll be there in an instant!” 

Ryo charged in with his halberd. 

Meanwhile, the raven-haired woman stood up slowly, looking down at her yukata and she pouted slightly, sighing. 

“What a shame that it became dirty so quickly, and I was trying to be careful not to stain it.” Cecil mumbled to herself. 

Cecil checked her entire body, smiling to herself when she realised there were no tears in her clothes. 

She looked up, glancing about and seeing the golem. 

Hm.

So that’s what knocked me off. 

Cecil stared at it, contemplating before she huffed. 

The next time it swings, I’ll maintain my balance. 

The next second, Cecil found another opponent who rushed at her with a sword. She countered the person’s attack swiftly. 

***

The person seated on top of the golem guffawed proudly. 

“This is the perfect plan, no one can bring us down now!” 

His team members looked at him from afar, shaking their head but they were equally confident like him. The earth golem was marching its way through the arena, scaring away the participants who were afraid of being crushed. 

Of course, the earth golem could not stray too far from its user and thus, they only kept to a single part of the arena. The gust of wind was to extend its attack range, pushing the participants out of range.

“With this golem, no one can take us down--!” 

A handsome ash-blonde haired man stood in the way, causing the man’s words to be cut off. He leaned forward, squinting his eyes and laughed at the man standing in his way. 

“Brother! You want to get squashed?!” 

Xue gave his spear a few trial swings, as if preparing himself. He disregarded the man in the traditional chinese costume shouting from the top of the golem.

“I see, you have given up! I’ll spare you the suffering!”

The same man gestured behind him, signalling to his teammates to slap Xue away like an annoying fly. 

The earth golem moved, smacking at Xue with its right arm. Right before it touched Xue, the man disappeared from his spot. The earth user suddenly felt his arm going slack, and he gasped looking up. 

My golem! 

Half of its right arm was completely gone, collapsing and causing the entire arena to tremble. 

Xue gripped at his spear, its spearhead was covered entirely in magma. It turned out that Xue had ducked from the arm before it made contact with him, and he made a twirling motion with his spear, slicing through the rock like butter. 

“It’s fine if you hurt the others,” Xue spoke darkly, his face impassive. “It’s not fine if it was Cecil.” 

The man seated atop the golem felt a nervous sweatdrop roll down his face, his lips twitching. 

Who the fuck is Cecil?! 

It’s not like we are targeting who we want to push off the arena! 

The man gestured hurriedly at his teammates to smack at Xue with the other arm. At the same time, the man gathered the ball of air on the golem’s palm and Xue widened his eyes, not taking a moment to rest. 

If he starts it again, Cecil will get blown away! 

She’ll be hurt! 

Xue gathered the water in his hands, conjuring some icicles and aiming it at the man seated on top the golem. The man let out a startled yelp, his eyes widening in shock and losing his concentration, causing his attack to fail. 

Did he just use two elements?!

Who the heck is this bastard?!

I never heard of anyone being able to use two elements!

At the same time, the golem had swung with its other arm. Xue hopped onto the arm when it touched its lowest point, and ran up its arm, slicing it with his spear coated in magma into half.

The impact of the entire arm collapsing onto the arena caused the floor to tremble horribly, and unfortunately, creating another series of participants getting blown away or falling from the loss of balance. 

Among those included Cecil. 

Cecil let out another panicked scream, falling on the ground yet again and almost kissing it again. 

Yet again, that earned another panicked look from Xue. 

She pushed herself up quickly enough, dusting at her clothes with an unhappy look.

The ash blonde-haired man then turned to look at the earth user being protected by his comrade, and the earth user felt a chill down his spine. He had witnessed Xue clearly using two elements, and a part of him wanted to cry without tears. 

Can I...surrender now? 

I do not want to suffer under this person’s wrath…

Cecil gradually noticed the small tear in her yukata, making her huff in annoyance. 

“Kiyae and Hana just gave this to me too!” Cecil sighed in frustration, smoothing and dusting her clothes as she flipped her hair away. “How am I supposed to face them now? It must have been expensive...” 

Cecil swivelled her head, looking at the golem missing two arms now and looking completely lost. She silently cursed at it, for ruining the beautiful outfit that was given to her by her friends. 

It was then she noticed Xue standing in front of the golem, blinking rapidly. 

“Xue is stepping in to fight that thing?” Cecil mused to herself. “He is the one I least expected to step in to fight that.” 

If Cecil knew that Xue was fighting the golem, due to the golem accidentally pushing her to ground...Cecil would be speechless. 

The owner of the earth golem was commanded by his friend to throw everything at Xue, his friend wore a rare panicked look on his face that did not suit his arrogant personality. 

With no other choice, the earth golem was forced to use its legs to attack and the air had been gathered under its legs. At that moment, a shadow flashed beside Xue, stepping in between its leg and Xue. 

The leg of the golem froze in mid-air.

“Hey, you bastards!” Ryo barked out, his hand gripping onto the golem leg, his veins bulging out. “You interrupted my fight, I’ll interrupt yours!” 

It turns out, Ryo had completely froze the leg of the earth golem, the ice spreading outwards from where his hand was, the ice encasing the entire leg of the golem. He stood in front of Xue, and Xue raised an eyebrow at Ryo shielding him from the leg. 

Moreover, Xue noticed how capable Ryo was. Just like Cecil, Ryo had unlocked the capabilities to develop his water element further. Without the assistance of water, he could conjure ice at will, he did not even need to transmogrify water into ice. 

The team of four men gasped, and Ryo wielded his halberd in his other free hand. In an instant, his halberd started to change its shape with the help of his elemental powers, and the blue-white ice crystals glinted under the sunlight, his halberd now appeared to be a pristine and beautiful trident made of ice. 

Without pausing, he hurled down his halberd--now a trident, onto the leg of the golem. He did not hold back his strength in the slightest, and the leg of the earth golem shattered into pieces due to how brittle it became. The other leg moved, and Ryo predicted it, he slid past Xue and Xue only watched Ryo silently, not moving. 

Ryo switched the trident to his other hand, and smashed it down on the other leg. This time, the ice spread out even more rapidly and the leg had been shattered into pieces. With no apparent balance, and the golem started to collapse. 

The air user had tried to balance himself on the golem breaking into pieces as much as he could, but it was too much for him to handle. He did a flip in the air, gathering air in the palms of his hands again, and shooting it towards the golem, wanting nothing more than to amplify the shockwave the golem would create. 

“Ah! Not again!” Ryo exclaimed, narrowing his eyes, his earrings jigging to his movements. “You are going to blow more interesting opponents away!” 

Ryo threw his ice trident at the earth golem, the trident stabbing right into its chest and the ice burst out from his trident almost immediately. Alas, it didn’t look like it would have enough time to permeate throughout the golem, and if it landed on the ground, it would still create a shockwave to throw some participants off. 

“Ah,” Ryo scratched his head. “It didn’t work--” 

Xue dashed forward at that time, and Ryo had momentarily forgotten about him. 

Unfortunately, Xue had not obtained his water elemental powers back fully, hence, he could only cover the parts of the golem that hadn’t been frozen haphazardly. After which, he gave Ryo a look and he dashed off to another spot, gathering a ball of foxfire in his hands.

“Ah.” 

Ryo nodded in understanding, immediately following up on Xue’s actions. He aimed his hands at his trident stuck in the chest of the golem, making an exploding gesture. 

The ice on his trident exploded, revealing the original form of his weapon, his handy halberd. Ryo grinned, surging forward as he let out a cheer, leaping into the air and his earrings jiggled in the light. 

He landed on the golem and his halberd, adding more pressure onto it and the golem broke apart. 

Meanwhile, Xue surrounded a small area with foxfire and the air user found himself trapped in the same area as he landed on the ground. 

“Wha--?!”

It seemed that Xue had predicted where the air user would land, and the air user tried to blow the flames away only for it to roar back at him. He let out an alarmed yelp, looking at Xue through the flames with frightened and angry eyes. 

Though, he was even more frightened, due the fact that he had never seen flames of this colour from any fire elemental user. 

“Wh-who the hell are you?” The air user stuttered out, the fear apparent in his voice. “You can use two different elements, and your flames are--they are no ordinary flames.” 

Xue did not respond, only glancing coldly at the air user and spinning around. 

“He-hey, wait! At least let me out of here!” 

“Try getting out of it yourself,” Xue finally responded, lowering his voice. “You are lucky I have no interest in killing anymore.” 

Xue walked away, looking at his other comrades and they only flinched when they noticed Xue’s gaze on them. They had seen Xue’s powers firsthand as well, not wanting to anger him, raising their arms up in surrender. 

...to make things worse, Ryo stepped in beside Xue. 

They were frightened by the fighting capabilities of the silver-eyed man as well. 

“The mighty earth golem has collapsed! And what’s this?! The opponents themselves are forfeiting from the tournament on their own free will! It seems they were too overwhelmed. Looks like we have ourselves some dark horses in this tournament, it would be wise to keep your eyes on these two men!” 

“Nice teamwork,” Ryo threw his arms over Xue’s shoulders, before he blinked in puzzlement. “Ah, was that even teamwork? Whenever I am with the captain, he ends up burning everything and I have to put out the fire for him…and he says nice teamwork to me with a thumbs-up.”

Xue wanted to shrug Ryo’s arm off him, but he could not be bothered anymore. 

“Ambidextrous fighters,” Xue stated nonchalantly. “We don’t see much of them around the three realms.” 

Whenever they trained, Xue came at Ryo in full force, not allowing the man to showcase his abilities. Hence, Xue had no idea how Ryo actually fought. 

“Three realms?” Ryo furrowed his eyebrows, confused. “Three realms…?” 

“Did you train yourself to do that?” Xue questioned, showing rare interest in someone else for once. 

“Ah, that I did,” Ryo grinned proudly, withdrawing from Xue as he played around with his halberd using both hands. “It was getting boring fighting with only one hand, I wanted to try the other hand too! Besides, it was fun experiencing how weak I was the moment I switched hands!” 

“Ah, but I can never beat K’xug,” Ryo added on, somewhat sad. “He uses twin swords and he is stronger than I am in both hands…” 

Xue glanced at Ryo, letting out an amused scoff. 

We had two hundred more years of training compared to all of you. 

All of a sudden, Xue and Ryo felt someone bumping into them on the back. 

It was a familiar raven-haired woman. 

Cecil fended off another opponent of her own, using her trademark spinning kick as a drop of sweat running down her face. The kick sent them flying into the water, joining the fate of the other participants trapped onto the wall. 

She wanted to join up with Xue and Ryo, when another participant jumped at her with their daggers, and she was lucky they weren’t using any huge weapons to block her kick. 

However, by being on her own for a while, she realised she had improvement immensely like she hoped she would. 

“Hey! Good job defeating that golem!” Cecil turned back, smiling brightly at the two of them. “My outfit that Kiyae and Hana picked out for me might have been ruined even further if that golem was still here.” 

Seeing that smile directed at him, Xue felt his whole world being blinded and he smiled back softly, the words almost slipping out of his mouth. 

Xue: “Anything for you, Cecil.”

Kai: “Yes, anything for you.” 

Zasiok: “Anything.” 

Leonaut: “Anything for her.”

Alric: “A-anything for Cecil.”

Sid: “Anything for my goddess!” 

Leonaut: “...when did you even wake up?” 

Sid closed his eyes right after, going back to sleep with an obnoxious snore. 

Leonaut decided to sneak into Alric’s room, searching for a feather with a playful smirk on his face.

Alric: “Wh-what are you doing in my room?” 

Leoanut: “Your room is too entertaining to be left alone.” 

Alric: “...why do I not get a good feeling ab-about those words?” 

Isleif: “Anything for you, Cecil Lan.” 

Kai: “Hey, gouging eyes guy! We finally agree for once!” 

Isleif: “...”

Xue was snapped out of his stupified state when he heard Ryo speaking.

“Nice kick, Cecil!”

It was then Xue noticed that that pretty smile was directed to Ryo too, and he grimaced, shoving Ryo away childishly. 

Ryo stumbled, looking back at Xue with wide, confused eyes. 

“An-anyway,” Cecil cleared up the awkward situation with a cough, looking back at Shin still up top, staring at them. “I wonder if we would make it to the finale match in time, and create an opportunity for them to save Shin.” 

“Trust the captain and the others,” Ryo grinned, waving at Shin before he turned around. “They are always reliable.” 

“For now,” Xue nudged his head towards the arena. “We have other things to worry about.” 

After that spectacle by Xue and Ryo, more eyes were now focused on them...and that included the participants. 

Cecil saw the numerous people advancing on them, sighing to herself and she looked down at the tear in her outfit, putting her hair behind her ears. Some participants secretly gawked at Cecil’s beautiful features. 

I hope it doesn’t get any bigger, I have to be careful. 

Xue inhaled deeply, closing his eyes as he tightened his grip on his spear and the wind swept past, blowing at his yukata. The striking scene of the handsome ash blonde-haired man standing there as the wind caressed his face, it made some women in the audience swoon. 

Ryo slammed his halberd onto the ground, smirking devilishly at his potential opponents and beckoning them, his earrings glinting. He was just too charming to ignore.

***

K’xug sat beside the bed, resting his chin on his hand and he observed Hana quietly, his eyes slowly tracing her