Chapter 170: The Second Mock Battle Tournament

The day of the mock battle tournament.

This time too, a large crowd of participants had gathered, and from the sheer number of people, I could tell the scale was far bigger than the first tournament.

Since we hadn’t put any particular restrictions on participants, a number of people who weren’t originally invited had shown up as well.

We’d start with preliminaries, then move on to the main tournament.

After some brief opening words, I quickly switched over to my role as part of the organizing side.

For this year only, invited players were guaranteed a spot in the main tournament.

The preliminaries would be for the walk-ins.

While leaving carriage traffic management to Sid-san and his group, I began running the preliminaries at the venue we had prepared.

It was a round-robin system, four people per group, with only the top finisher advancing.

We ended up forming five groups in total, which meant forty people had come after hearing the rumors about the tournament and joined as walk-ins.

Of course, I was happy, but even more than that, I was relieved we had made the preparations in advance.

Anyway, the preliminaries were run quickly with speed in mind, and five players advanced to the main tournament.

“Now then, the main tournament will begin. Even if you’ve lost, if you can correctly predict the winner, you’ll still receive a prize, so please enjoy yourselves.”

I’d thought most people would leave once they were eliminated, but only a few went home—nearly everyone else stayed.

The venue was a little far from the capital, so most probably thought, since we came all the way here, might as well stay.

Still, I was glad—they’d be able to enjoy themselves to the end.

So, under the supervision of referees from Donnie’s unit, the first round of the main tournament began.

Up through the semifinals, matches would be run simultaneously. From the semifinals onward, each match would be held one by one.

As the first-round matches unfolded across the different fields, the first victor emerged sooner than expected.

The honor went to none other than the leading championship candidate: Mr. Donnie.

His opponent was an adventurer who had survived the preliminaries, but Donnie settled the match in an instant.

The adventurer should have been quite strong—he had cleared the preliminaries, after all—but to be beaten so quickly…

It reaffirmed without a doubt that Donnie was the top favorite to win.

Winners were decided one after another, and the results of the first round went more or less as expected.

From among last year’s participants, only one—the previous semifinalist, Mash—was knocked out in his very first match.

His opponent was also a preliminary winner, a striking white-haired old man with good looks.

He had been cutting through his opponents like nothing since the preliminaries, so he was probably a master swordsman.

With attention drawn to this mysterious old man, the second round began without delay.

Thanks to thorough preparation, the tournament advanced smoothly up through the quarterfinals.

The final eight were: Sheila, Donnie, Mika, Helena, Ashros, Drake, Lime, and the white-haired old man—whose name turned out to be Silva.

Last year’s champion, Ren, suffered a narrow defeat at the hands of Mika, and disappeared from the bracket in the round of sixteen.

Plenty of other strong fighters had also been knocked out, but up through the quarterfinals, the strength of the two Dragonkin stood out most.

…Still, the biggest dark horse was surely Silva.

He had beaten Mash in round one, Thread in round two, and even Shoji in round three to reach the semifinals.

His match against Shoji in particular had been a high-level back-and-forth duel, proving without question that his victories were no fluke.

By the way, Yato—who I had secretly hoped for—was eliminated in the first round.

You could say she deliberately avoided using her dragon powers, but either way, she didn’t get to shine at this event.

I do want to work on a “Yato Training Plan,” but with how busy things are, I haven’t been able to devote much time to her—and I feel bad about that.

Still, even though she lost early, she threw her full support behind her pick to win, Ashros, and seemed to enjoy herself. So in the end, there’s no real problem.

While I was mulling over such things, the quarterfinals began.

They would be held two matches at a time.

The pairings were: Ashros vs. Drake—a Dragonkin showdown—and Lime vs. Donnie—a grudge match.

Of course, the Dragonkin duel promised to be exciting, but Lime vs. Donnie had its history too.

The first time they fought, Donnie was thoroughly defeated.

This time, with “cheap tricks” not working and his eyesight improved thanks to contact lenses, Donnie had the advantage.

Still, Lime was a bundle of unpredictability.

He had made it this far without a hitch, proof of his solid ability, and thanks to all the silver he’d eaten from Ren’s group’s souvenirs, he had evolved into a Silver Slime.

If he still hadn’t shown the full extent of his powers, I thought he might have a real chance of winning.

Both matches had everyone’s attention, and I expected them to run long.

But as soon as the Dragonkin duel began, things took a turn.

Drake lunged forward with an aggressive opening, but Ashros immediately activated Dragon transformation.

It was the Dragonkin’s trump card—a unique skill that released their inner dragon power.

Unlike Yato, it didn’t mean turning into a dragon, but her skin was covered in scales and her physical abilities were dramatically enhanced.

No one had expected her to use her ultimate move right from the start.

The result: Drake, who had tried to seize the initiative, was caught completely off guard. Without time to respond or use Dragon transformation himself, he was overwhelmed in an instant.

Ashros emerged victorious in the Dragonkin duel, and the venue erupted in cheers.

And as the crowd’s excitement peaked, in the other arena—Lime had vanished.

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